Arabian Reseller - January 2020

JANUARY 2020

www.arabianreseller.com

Vol. 2. Issue 1.

OUTLOOK 2020

Industry experts weigh-in on what's in store for the industry this year!

Encourage, Attract and Inspire Women

Understanding Your Partners' Priorities is Key

Tech is Enabling Sustainable Development

CONTENTS ď…ƒ

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NEWS

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Intel Shows Off Intelligent Tech at CES 2020

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Mindware Unveils Expansion Plans for New Cloud Marketplace

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AMD Intros Laptop Processors, New Desktop and Mobile GPUs at CES

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Fawaz Alhokair Moves to AWS to Accelerate Digital Transformation Yahsat Gets New Chairman

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F E AT U R E S T H I S M O N T H

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Securing Digital Infrastructure Will Be Key

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Digital Transformation is High on the Agenda

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2020 is Set to be a Milestone Year for the Region

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Watch Out for AI and Machine Learning Cybercriminals Are Increasingly Targeting People Sustainability is a Growing Issue

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EDITORIAL

JANUARY 2020

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

SALES AND MARKETING Ranbir Sen CHRIS N. FERNANDO EDITOR IN CHIEF

Looking at 2020 and Beyond!

And just like that we are into the New Year and a new decade. In 2019, global growth weakened considerably as trade wars and weakening growth in many parts of the world, negatively impacted growth. Various industry sectors were either in recession or close to recession territory.

In response, many central banks began to loosen monetary policy – rather than tighten as had been expected a year ago – with some countries (notably China and the United States) providing additional stimulus as well.

However, the past month has seen some relief in the unrelentingly downbeat news on the global economy: an uneasy cessation of trade hostilities between China and the United States, the diminished risk of a no-deal Brexit, and an ease in financial conditions, as stimulus provided by central banks is beginning to filter through.

Even closer home, regional tensions have built up to threaten the balancing of the economy. However, industry

experts say that the bright spot in the global economy continues to be consumer spending, which is benefitting from decent income growth, along with low oil prices, inflation, and interest rates.

In addition, global financial conditions have improved across the world, although rising debt levels pose a future threat. According to researchers from IHS Markit, global growth is expected to stabilise at 2.5% in 2020, before edging up in 2021 and 2022.

This month, our Outlook 2020 series explores the risks and looks at opportunities that can be monetized. We speak to several industry experts in various domains including AI, Machine Learning, Cybersecurity, Storage, Data Centers, Software Services, Cloud, and lots more to gain more insights into where we are headed as an industry.

We hope you have a good read this month and here’s our best wishes for a healthy and prosperous New Year!

ranbir@ryshamedia.com

DEPUTY EDITOR Edward Frank edward@ryshamedia.com

SENIOR WRITER Priyan Sampath priyan@ryshamedia.com

GRAPHIC DESIGNER John Christy info@ryshamedia.com

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Prarthana Mary prarthana@ryshamedia.com

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

C O N TA C T I N F O R M AT I O N Rysha Media LLC, Sharjah Media City (Shams), Al Messaned, Al Bataeh, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Email: sales@ryshamedia.com Web: www.ryshamedia.com

ALL RIGHTS 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 @ 2020

NEWS

Capillary Technologies Achieves AWS Retail Competency Status Capillary Technologies, one of Asia’s leading consumer engagement and commerce product companies, announced today that it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Retail Competency status. AWS Retail Competency Partners have demonstrated success in offering end-to-end solutions across Customer Engagement, Supply Chain and Distribution, Physical, Digital, and Virtual Store, Advanced Retail Data Science, Core Retail Business Applications, and Consulting Practices for Retail on AWS. AWS Retail Competency Partners undergo rigorous validation by AWS to ensure alignment to AWS best practices for building secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient cloud infrastructure for industry applications – to give customers increased confidence when making decisions. Achieving the AWS Retail Competency differentiates Capillary Technologies as an AWS Partner Network (APN) member that delivers highly specialized technical proficiency for Retail.

To receive the AWS Competency designation, APN Partners must possess deep AWS expertise and deliver solutions seamlessly on AWS. Capillary Technologies has completed 10 years with AWS and has grown 50% year over year since then.

Talking about the AWS Retail Competency, Capillary Technologies’ Chief Technology Officer, Pravanjan Choudhury, said, “Capillary has driven growth through two primary strategies; continuous innovation and geographical expansion. AWS has been a pillar of support in achieving these results. Their constant updates and presence across the globe have helped our customers to implement our solutions globally easier and faster.

Today, Capillary Technologies can stand out as an innovative company and offer innovative solutions to our clients such as integration of behavioral events on CRM, Offline clickstreams with data from offline retail stores, and more, and we are happy to share this success with AWS.” “Many retailers are reinventing their operations and brand experience with new innovations in the cloud,” said Tom Litchford, Head of Retail Business Development, Amazon Web Services, Inc. “We are delighted to welcome Capillary Technologies to the AWS Retail Competency Program. Their solutions for retail operations, powered and vetted by AWS, can help our customers to accelerate their transformation, modernization, and customer engagement efforts.”

AMD Intros Laptop Processors, New Desktop and Mobile GPUs at CES AMD has announced the “world’s first” x86 8-core ultrathin laptop processors as part of the AMD Ryzen 4000 Series Mobile Processor family, built on the groundbreaking “Zen 2” core architecture with innovative 7nm process technology and optimized high-performance Radeon graphics in SOC design. As the third generation of AMD Ryzen Mobile processors, the new 4000 Series provides unprecedented performance levels, significant design enhancements, and incredible power efficiency for ultrathin and gaming laptops.

AMD also announced the AMD Athlon 3000 Series Mobile Processor family powered by “Zen” architecture, enabling modern computing experiences with the real performance for a wider range of laptop users. Consumers will be able to purchase the first AMD Ryzen 4000 Series and Athlon 3000 Series powered laptops from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and others starting in Q1 2020, with more systems expected to launch throughout 2020 with global OEM partners.

In addition, AMD announced the highly anticipated 64-core, 128-thread AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X will be available globally expected February 7, 2020.

Purpose-built to enable extreme performance for 3D, visual effects, and video professionals, the 3990X delivers up to 51% faster-rendering performance than the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X processor.

“We are kicking off 2020 with a

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bang, bringing unmatched performance, graphics, and longer battery life to ultrathin and gaming laptop users with the new AMD Ryzen 4000 Series Mobile Processors,” said Saeid Moshkelani, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Client Compute. “We saw historic portfolio growth for AMD Ryzen Mobile-powered systems in 2019, and we are already on track to bring wider system adoption of AMD Ryzen 4000 Series Mobile Processors in 2020 from major OEM partners, offering twice the power-efficiency from the previous generation.”

Featuring up to 8 cores and 16 threads, the AMD Ryzen 4000 U-Series Mobile Processors provide incredible responsiveness and portability, delivering disruptive performance for ultrathin laptops with a configurable 15W TDP. Additionally, with more than 90 million laptop gamers and creators, the AMD Ryzen 4000 H-Series Mobile Processors are the new standard for gaming and content creation in innovative, thin and light laptops with a configurable 45W TDP. AMD also detailed AMD SmartShift technology, allowing users to harness Ryzen 4000 Mobile Processors, Radeon Graphics, and the latest AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 edition, advancing computing experiences by efficiently optimizing performance as needed taking gaming experiences to unprecedented new levels.

NEWS

Sophos Launches Managed Threat Response Service

Intel Shows Off Intelligent Tech at CES 2020 Breakthroughs in artificial intelligence that pave the way for autonomous driving. A new era of mobile computing innovation. The future of immersive sports and entertainment. Intel demonstrated all of these and more today at CES 2020, showcasing how the company is infusing intelligence across the cloud, network, edge and PC and driving positive impact for people, business and society.

Intel CEO Bob Swan kicked off the company’s news conference by sharing updates from its Mobileye business, including a demonstration of its self-driving RoboCar navigating traffic in a natural manner. The drive demonstrated Mobileye’s unique and innovative approach to deliver safer mobility for all with a combination of artificial intelligence, computer vision, the regulatory science model of RSS and true redundancy through independent sensing systems.

Swan also highlighted Intel’s work with the American Red Cross and its Missing Maps project to improve disaster preparedness. Using integrated AI acceleration on 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Intel is helping the American Red Cross and its Missing Maps project build highly accurate maps with bridges and roads for remote regions of the world, which helps emergency responders in the event of a disaster.

“At Intel, our ambition is to help customers make the most of technology inflections like AI, 5G and the intelligent edge so that together, we can enrich lives and shape the world for decades to come. As we highlighted today, our drive to infuse intelligence into every aspect of computing can have a positive impact at unprecedented scale,” said Swan. Mobile computing was an area of emphasis, as Intel made announcements spanning new products, partnerships and exciting platform-level innovations that will transform the way people focus, create and engage.

The data center is the force that delivers intelligence to businesses around the world and Intel Xeon Scalable processors continue to be the foundation of the data center. Executive Vice President Navin Shenoy announced that 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, coming in the first half of 2020, will include new Intel DL Boost extensions for built-in AI training acceleration, providing up to a 60% increase in training performance over the previous family.

The event also showcased the first look of the newest Intel Core mobile processors, code named “Tiger Lake”: Tiger Lake is designed to bring Intel’s bold, people-led vision for mobile computing to life, with ground-breaking advances in every vector and experience that matters.

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Sophos has announced the availability of Sophos Managed Threat Response (MTR), a fully managed threat hunting, detection and response service. The re-sellable service provides organizations with a dedicated 24/7 security team to neutralize the most sophisticated and complex threats. These types of threats include active attackers leveraging fileless attacks and administrator tools such as PowerShell to escalate privileges, exfiltrate data and spread laterally, as explained in the SophosLabs Uncut article on Lemon_Duck PowerShell malware.

Attacks like these are difficult to detect since they involve an active adversary using legitimate tools for nefarious purposes, and Sophos MTR helps eliminate this threat. Built on Intercept X Advanced with endpoint detection and response (EDR), Sophos MTR fuses machine learning with expert analysis for improved threat hunting and detection, deeper investigation of alerts, and targeted actions to eliminate threats. These capabilities are based on Sophos’ acquisitions of Rook Security and DarkBytes technology, and include: Expert-led threat hunting: Sophos MTR anticipates attacker behavior and identifies new indicators of attack and compromise. Sophos threat hunters proactively hunt for and validate potential threats and incidents, and investigate casual and adjacent events to discover new threats that previously couldn’t be detected.

Advanced adversarial detection: Sophos MTR uses proven investigation techniques to differentiate legitimate behavior from the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) used by attackers. Coupled with enhanced telemetry from Sophos Central, which provides a detailed, full picture of adversary activities as part of the service, the scope and severity of threats can be determined for rapid response.

Machine-accelerated human response: A highly trained team of world-class experts generates and applies threat intelligence to confirm threats, and takes action to remotely disrupt, contain and neutralize threats with speed and precision.

Asset discovery and prescriptive security health guidance: Sophos MTR provides valuable insights into managed and unmanaged assets, vulnerabilities for better-informed impact assessments and threat hunts. Prescriptive and actionable guidance for addressing configuration and architecture weaknesses enables organizations to proactively improve their security posture with hardened defenses.

CHANNE L TALK

ASBIS Outs Loyalty Program for AMD Partners in the Region AMD has rolled out the Ryzen Loyalty Program (RLP) app for partners in the Middle East region.

The loyalty program offers cash rebates to partners buying from official distributors. Once registered on the app, the Ryzen Loyalty Program will help partners to collect points on AMD product purchases which they will then be able to redeem at their selected preferred distributor, to claim cash rebates.

The Ryzen Loyalty Program (RLP) app offers: • Sales Tracking: Partners will be empowered to track AMD sales per country and gain in-country customer visibility • Price Visibility: Partner will be able to close the gap on prices by gaining visibility of price wars in the ‘grey market’ and online market space • Rewards Offerings: Partners will be able to claim rewards by visiting:www.ryzenloyaltyprogram.com How does the app work?

• Download the RLP App via the Apple and Android platforms • Fill in details (contact name, company, etc.) and sign up • A notification will be sent to Admin to either approve or reject • Approved partners will receive a welcome message and program rebate letter for eligible products • Once signed in, partner can scan the serial number of every CPU/GPU purchased and checkpoints earned through the purchase The RLP app received 113 registrations, with 43 partners approved when it was initially introduced earlier this quarter in October in the Egypt and Lebanon markets. Currently, 157 partners have signed up for the program and cash rebates of USD 23,000 have been earned by partners in the Middle East. The app is being rolled out in the GCC and North Africa markets of UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, and Algeria.

“At AMD, we continue to bring the latest and most exciting products to the Middle East, through our vibrant channel network. Together with ASBIS, our regional distributor, we are excited to see that Ryzen Loyalty Program is receiving great interest from our partners in the Middle East. Our partners have been an integral part of our success in the region and this loyalty app is designed to help channel partners grow their business with us, and claim significant cash rebates on their sales,” said Christian Assaf, Sales Manager – MENA Component Channel at AMD.

Mindware Unveils Expansion Plans for New Cloud Marketplace Mindware has announced regional expansion plans for the company’s new Cloud Marketplace. The company has had a great deal of success on-boarding current channel partners and actively recruiting new partners to the platform.

It is also adding a number of new products on the marketplace, giving partners an opportunity to co-sell these solutions with the existing Microsoft products, thereby enhancing their revenues.

Mindware is currently seeing a lot of interest from the channel community in countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the Northern Gulf. It will also be launching the Marketplace in LEVANT where the company believes there is high potential with the growing interest in cloud services in these regions.

Vijayan K. Raman, Managing Director, ICT & Cloud Solutions at EMTECH said, “We are excited about the launch of the Mindware Cloud Marketplace and the various co-sell motions the company has put into place. Over the past couple of years, digital transformation has become a big priority for regional enterprises. A lot of our customers rely on our expertise as consultants to help them transition to the cloud which they see as a big enabler of their digital transformation. The Marketplace is a great platform for us to leverage and the various built-in features enable us to be more productive and profitable as we help customers on their cloud journey.”

Currently, the product catalogue available on the Marketplace is heavily skewed in favour of Microsoft cloud-related products and services. Realizing the need to diversify this portfolio in order to give partners the opportunity for

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increased revenue, Mindware is in the process of adding several new products on the platform that can be bundled with the existing Microsoft solutions. These new ‘co-sell’ products are in the areas of virtualization, backup and disaster recovery, security and performance management. In the background, Mindware is working closely with various vendors to get these ‘Cloud Solutions’ certified for interoperability.

Vijay Kumar, CTO and cloud Director at Mindware said, “A lot of products that we intend to bring onto the cloud platform have already been available on-prem as a bundle with Microsoft solutions. Partners using our cloud platform will find tremendous value in co-sell products since they will be able to offer an end-to-end solution to their customers, rather than a stand-alone product. This, in turn, optimizes the revenue and profitability opportunities for partners. We also offer partners the option of using Mindware’s professional services in case they don’t have their own capabilities. This is a big value add for those partners that are just beginning their cloud journey.”

Mindware is also looking to sign up Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to list their products on the Marketplace. “A lot of regional ISVs are already selling products in Microsoft Azure Marketplace that they have developed on Microsoft solutions. The biggest advantage of listing on Mindware’s Cloud Marketplace is the fact that our platform is targeted to the local region. We have a large number of managed service providers in our base and thus provide a fantastic reach and access to the market for ISVs.”

CHANNE L TALK

Nikai Electronics Opens New Flagship Store in Oud Metha, Dubai Nikai Electronics has opened its flagship store that offers a completely redefined retail experience to its shoppers. After bidding farewell to their first retail store in Lamcy Plaza, Nikai takes a new step towards an immersive retail outlet. To mark this official opening of the flagship showroom, the senior executives and the senior management were invited to visit the showroom and celebrate the occasion.

AOC Appoints Techxhub as its Retail Distributor for the Region AOC has appointed Techxhub as its retail distributor for the Middle Eastern markets. Techxhub will be responsible for distributing both AGON and G-Line series of AOC gaming monitors across the region.

The gaming market in the region is on the upswing for past years and is expected to follow the growth trajectory in the coming years also. Echoing the similar sentiments, the recent study by Newzoo, reveals that the Middle East and Africa games market will reach total revenues of $4.8 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $6 billion by 2021.

Commenting on the par tnership with Techxhub, Carol Anne Dias, Regional Sales Director – Middle East & Africa at AOC said, “We are glad to join hands with Techxhub, as they specialise in the gaming industry and our monitors comprehend their range of gaming accessories. The retail market is key to our growth strategy and with this par tnership, we intend to expand our footprint and maximize our market share in the retail segment across the region. We are looking forward to work closely with Techxhub to address the retail sector requirements as well as engage with the gaming community and suppor t local gaming tournaments in different par ts of the region.”

Techxhub is one of the leading distributors for Gaming peripherals and accessories in the region that delivers the best gaming experience by providing top-end gaming technology brands such as Steel Series, Playseat, Ver tagear, Respawn, among others. Techxhub focuses on ecosystem-based demand creation, channel-based customisation, and solution-based customer propositions.

Sachin Kapoor, Vice President – Middle East, Africa, and India at Techxhub said “AOC is one of the most respected gaming brands in the world and with AGON and G-Line series put together AOC offers the largest range of most technologically advanced gaming monitors in the world. This will help us and our retail par tners to offer the widest spread of choices to the gamers who are looking for the ultimate gaming experience.”

AOC gaming monitor powered by latest technology innovations, whether it’s NVIDIA G-Sync or AMD Freesync technology, these monitors built with the latest Motion Blur Reduction technology, Low Blue Light, Gaming-comfor t Flicker-free and highest refresh rates offers a truly immersive experience to the users. All the AOC monitors comply with international environmental standards such as ENERGY STAR, TCO and EPEAT.

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The inauguration ceremony saw an influx of shoppers who were keen to visit the new store and make the most of the value deals. Speared across 2000 sq.ft, the new showroom will take advantage of its strategic location to further enhance its brand awareness in the UAE. Housing the entire Nikai range of consumer appliances comprising of cooking, cleaning, cooling, and home entertainment systems, the spacious new showroom will greatly improve the living convenience of new and existing customers within Dubai and nearby emirates.

Speaking on the occasion, Paras Shahdadpuri, Chairman, Nikai Group of Companies said “We are happy and emotional at the same time. Lamcy Plaza was our home for over 15 years and now Al Nasar Palace will be associated with Nikai Electronics. The UAE is an important market for us and it has even greater potential for the future. With our new showroom, we’re looking forward to welcoming both our current and new customers in the region to the showroom.”

Karthik Moorthy, Vice President, Sales, and Strategy, Nikai Group of Companies said “Opening a new showroom is part of our strategy to meet customer demand. This new showroom will allow us to provide a more convenient service to our existing and new customers. The flagship store will give an opportunity to customers to experience our latest technologies in-person, and personalized care services.”

Driven by strong economic growth and increasing consumer demand, the business group earlier this year also announced its plans to expand its business in Egypt, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Congo, as part of their aggressive expansion strategy.

NEWS

Zoho Partners with Mashreq Zoho has announced its partnership with Mashreq to bring connected banking solutions in the region through Mashreq NeoBiz. With this solution, NeoBiz account holders will have access to Zoho Books, the most powerful VAT-compliant accounting software, to eliminate manual data entry and automate reconciliation.

NeoBiz is the first digital banking proposition in the UAE exclusively aimed at small and medium enterprises to empower them with a smart choice to initiate, transact and manage their banking requirements.

Prashant Ganti, Head of Product Management, Global Tax, Accounting, and Payroll solutions, Zoho Corp said, “Until now, corporate banking and ERP integration was a luxury that only larger businesses enjoyed. We are happy to join forces with Mashreq to equalize this for businesses of all sizes and make everyday banking and accounting easier.”

Rohit Garg, Head of NeoBiz and Business Banking at Mashreq said, “Mashreq continues to be at forefront of digital transformation and we believe that our partnership with Zoho will further enhance customer experience and make banking simple. The collaboration will enable SMEs in the UAE to streamline their business operations by combining seamless banking transactions through NeoBiz and leverage the accounting software of Zoho on a single platform thus increasing productivity and reducing manual errors.”

Benefits of the Zoho-Mashreq partnership: Single sign-on Business owners can seamlessly log in to both NeoBiz and Zoho Books with a single sign-on and securely access Zoho Books right from the NeoBiz portal without additional logins or authentications, making it more convenient for businesses to manage their banking and business finance.

Automatically fetch and reconcile bank statements All NeoBiz transactions are automatically fetched into Zoho Books from the NeoBiz account. Zoho Books’ powerful reconciliation engine automatically reconciles these transactions with the ones already recorded in Zoho Books and helps recreate missing transactions easily. This saves the time that businesses currently spend on manually entering and reconciling bank transactions.

Experience smart accounting with Zoho Books With NeoBiz, UAE businesses not only have a digitally advanced banking solution, but they can also streamline day-to-day financial operations like invoicing and collecting online payments, run advanced financial reports for deeper insights, and stay VAT compliant.

Mashreq’s NeoBiz account holders get six months of free subscription of Zoho Books. Businesses that don’t have a NeoBiz account can apply for one within 20 minutes. Once it is approved, they can instantly access Zoho Books right from the NeoBiz digital portal.

Kaspersky Finds Zero-Day Exploit in Windows OS Kaspersky automated detection technologies have found a Windows zero-day vulnerability. The exploit based on this vulnerability allowed attackers to gain higher privileges on the attacked machine and avoid protection mechanisms in the Google Chrome browser. The newly discovered exploit was used in the malicious WizardOpium operation.

Zero-day vulnerabilities are previously unknown bugs in the software, which, if found by criminals first, enable them to operate unnoticed for a long time, inflicting serious and unexpected damage.

Regular security solutions do not identify the system infection nor can they protect users from a yet-to-be-recognized threat.

The new Windows vulnerability was found by Kaspersky researchers thanks to yet another zero-day exploit. Back in November 2019, Kaspersky’s Exploit Prevention technology, which is embedded in most of the company’s products, was able to detect a zero-day exploit in Google Chrome. This exploit allowed attackers to execute arbitrary code on a victim’s machine. Upon further research of this operation, which the experts called ‘WizardOpium’, another vulnerability was discovered, this time in Windows OS. It emerged that the newly discovered Windows zero-day elevation of privileges (EoP) exploit (CVE-2019-1458) was embedded

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into a previously discovered Google Chrome exploit. It was used to gain higher privileges in the infected machine as well as to escape the Chrome process sandbox – a component built to protect the browser and the victim’s computer from malicious attacks.

Detailed analysis of the EoP exploit showed that the abused vulnerability belongs to the win32k. sys driver. The vulnerability could be abused on the latest patched versions of Windows 7 and even on a few builds of Windows 10 (new versions of Windows 10 have not been affected).

“This type of attack requires vast resources; however, it gives significant advantages to the attackers and as we can see, they are happy to exploit it. The number of zero-days in the wild continues to grow and this trend is unlikely to go away. Organizations need to rely on the latest threat intelligence available at hand and have protective technologies that can proactively find unknown threats such as zero-day exploits,” comments Anton Ivanov, security expert at Kaspersky.

Kaspersky products detect this exploit with next verdict PDM:Exploit.Win32.Generic. The vulnerability was reported to Microsoft and patched on December 10, 2019.

NEWS

ManageEngine Delivers On-Premises Solution to Offer Endpoint MFA for all Major OSs

Fawaz Alhokair Moves to AWS to Accelerate Digital Transformation Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair & Co., one of the largest franchise retailers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, MENA, Central Asia, and Caucasus regions, announced today that it is moving the vast majority of its technology infrastructure to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to empower the company with the most advanced cloud technologies to serve the customers better. This cloud transformation will observe the company moving its last on-premises data center to the AWS Cloud by the end of this year 2019 to accelerate its overall digital transformation strategy.

The company chose AWS as its preferred cloud provider because of its agility and breadth of services.

In its first phase of cloud adoption, Alhokair moved its core line-of-business applications to AWS, which have seen significant improvement in scalability, availability, and performance. As Alhokair continues its cloud adoption, the company will be building its ecommerce and Business Intelligence (BI) platforms on AWS as it develops its omnichannel strategy.

The ecommerce platforms will be supported by analytics, prediction and recommendation engines that leverage machine learning services such as Amazon Sagemaker and Amazon Forecast to provide a personalized shopping experience.

Alhokair is looking forward to taking advantage of its large retail data sets with data analytics services such as Amazon Redshift to acquire better business and customer insights. The adoption of AWS will also enable

the company to enhance warehouse management systems operations with the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions to reduce costs and bring greater efficiencies.

Commenting on the collaboration with AWS, Mohammed Alenazi, the CIO of Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair & Co., said: “Cloud adoption is a significant step in our digital transformation journey and we are excited by the innovation opportunities we are building on AWS. We have been able to make this incredible shift within a sixty-day timeframe only. In today’s fast-changing retail landscape, we recognize the importance of being agile, scalable, speed and availability, and the AWS Cloud is the perfect solution for us to do that. As a customer-centric company, we are now in a position to pilot and innovate rapidly in order to satisfy our customers and bring them the best shopping experiences.”

Vinod Krishnan, Head of Middle East, AWS, said: “The retail industry is going through significant changes with companies needing to adapt quickly to changing consumer behavior who are increasingly shopping online. We are excited to work with Alhokair’s forward-thinking approach to digital transformation with cloud adoption, driven by its focus on catering to customer needs. Building its infrastructure on AWS will enable the company to be innovative in ways never possible before, and we look forward to support in their continued growth.”

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ManageEngine has announced that ADSelfService Plus, its integrated Active Directory (AD) self-service password management and single sign-on solution, now offers Endpoint Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) for Linux logins. The new feature supplements Windows and macOS MFA support, making ADSelfService Plus the industry’s first on-premises solution to provide endpoint MFA for all three major operating systems so that IT admins can improve user account security and keep sophisticated cyber threats at bay.

According to the State of Linux report, 90 percent of the public cloud runs on Linux. With stolen credentials ranking among the top data breach vectors, it’s high time that every organization works on its strategy in securing access to endpoints running on Linux. After all, one set of credentials is all a hacker needs to get into an organization’s network and cause havoc. When MFA is implemented organization-wide, the traditional username and password login are supplemented by an additional security measure.

“Linux OS and its distributions don’t provide built-in mechanisms to enforce MFA for GUI logins,” said Parthiban Paramasivam, director of product management, ADSelfService Plus. “With ADSelfService Plus, users will have a seamless login experience irrespective of the platform they use. A Windows user who also has a Linux workstation or a macOS machine will have the same login experience across platforms.”

With ADSelfService Plus’ Endpoint MFA capability, user authentication goes beyond relying on traditional usernames and passwords and verifies identities through stringent authentication techniques. The more authentication techniques supported by the MFA solution, the more freedom admins have. With this in mind, ADSelfService Plus supports a variety of authentication techniques, including SMS-based one-time passwords (OTPs), email-based OTPs, Google Authenticator, DUO Security and RSA SecurID. With ADSelfService Plus, organizations can leverage 14 different authentication techniques to secure access to Linux, Windows and macOS clients in AD environments.

With ADSelfService Plus’ Endpoint MFA enabled, users will have to successfully authenticate themselves twice before they’re allowed to access their workstations or servers. They are authenticated first through their AD domain credentials and next through one of the supported authentication techniques before they can log in to their remote and local Linux, Windows or macOS machine. Admins can enforce MFA for specific users with access to business-critical data based on their domain, OU, or group membership.

MOVE RS AND SHAKE RS

Yahsat Gets New Chairman Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat) has announced the appointment of Khaled Al Qubaisi, CEO of Aerospace, Renewables & ICT at Mubadala Investment Company (Mubadala) as its new Chairman. The company also announced the appointment of Amal Al Ameri, Senior Vice President of Platform Finance in the Aerospace, Renewables & ICT Unit in Mubadala as a board member.

Speaking about his new assignment, Khaled Al Qubaisi said, “I’m pleased to lead Yahsat’s next phase of growth in the space and telecommunications sector.

We are committed to realising Yahsat’s vision of providing satellite connectivity to consumers, government and commercial clients globally, to contribute to the social and economic growth of our markets, in addition to achieving our commitments towards our clients all over the world. This is an exciting time for us at the forefront of the 4th Industrial Revolution as we create revolutionary technologies and solutions disrupting our industry.”

Through his role in Mubadala, Al Qubaisi oversees the company’s aerospace, information communications technology, renewables, and utilities portfolio, he is also a member of Mubadala’s Investment Committee. He brings a wealth of strategic and management experience having held multiple Board and C-suite roles.

Al Ameri also joins the Board, bringing extensive financial and operational expertise having served in several senior financial roles and multiple Boards at Mubadala and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, respectively.

Schneider Electric Gets New Executive VP for its Secure Power Division Schneider Electric has promoted Pankaj Sharma to succeed Dave Johnson as Executive Vice President of its Secure Power Division effective Jan. 1, 2020.

Sharma, who is currently Senior Vice President, Home & Business Networks, Schneider Electric, has held leadership roles in the company including commercial, strategy, marketing, mergers and acquisitions, and line of business.

In his current role, he’s led Schneider Electric’s strategy to help customers and partners address the disruptive trend of edge computing.

“Pankaj is well prepared to take this challenge as he has been working successfully in the Secure Power business for the last 19 years, living in various parts of the world,” said Philippe Delorme, Executive Vice President, Energy Management, Schneider Electric.

“I congratulate him, and I thank Dave Johnson for his outstanding legacy. For 27 years, Dave has been dedicated to the success of APC initially then Schneider Electric in the Secure Power space. A pillar in our company, Dave has pushed a customer-first approach and a dare-to-disrupt attitude to keep reinventing a business that has gone through many transformations.”

With his extensive expertise, Johnson will support the Secure Power leadership team transition in 2020, continuing as an employee of Schneider Electric, then as an independent consultant. “Resil-

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ient systems in the cloud and at the edge are a key enabler of the all-digital, all-electric world. It’s an honor to take over the helm for the Secure Power Division during this critical time,” Sharma said. “In my new role, I will continue to advance our mission to ensure life is on in the digital world and that we are helping to build a sustainable future for our planet.”

Under Johnson’s leadership, Secure Power has been a high-performing and industry-leading division, providing complete physical infrastructure solutions for data centers, distributed IT environments, and industrial applications.

Johnson has led global functions including strategy, commercial operations, marketing, R&D, supply chain, finance, and human resources. He managed teams across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas, driving overall growth and profitability.

“I want to thank Dave for his dedication to Schneider Electric and I know it is because of his leadership that Schneider Electric is well-positioned to lead the industry with disruptive innovation,” Sharma said. “My goal is to keep raising the bar in the Secure Power space by operating with the highest energy efficiency possible, nurturing a growth mindset, and continuing to embrace a global and diverse team approach.”

OUTLOOK 2020

The Challenges of Securing Digital Infrastructure Will Continue to Grow Alain Penel, the Regional Vice President for Middle East at Fortinet, speaks about how disruptive technologies will shape technology innovation this year What’s shaping the IT industry in the region?

Disruptive technologies like AI, machine learning, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and blockchain have played a key role in shaping technology innovation and adoption in the region in 2019. I believe it will continue to transform the way businesses operate in 2020 as well. As Government-backed projects like the Smart Cities initiatives is boosting IoT adoption while the formation of a ministry for AI is encouraging businesses to incorporate AI into their processes.

Above all this is Security that has made its way to boardroom discussions.

What will be the next big thing in technology in 2020?

AI will continue its popularity in 2020. From a network security vendor point of view, combining machine learning with statistical analysis to predict attacks by uncovering the underlying attack patterns of cybercriminals will enabling an AI system to predict an attacker's next move, forecast where the next attack is likely to occur, and even determine which threat actors are the most likely culprits. Additionally, I believe that the adoption of 5G, cloud deployments, and hyperscale are the next big trends for 2020.

How are you and your company gearing up to explore the opportunities in 2020?

The challenge of securing digital infrastructure will continue to grow in 2020. Fortinet’s portfolio of security, networking, and business

productivity solutions that are tightly integrated to ensure that today’s organizations can confidently build the digital business infrastructure they need without compromising on security.

The attack methods and strategies of cyber adversaries also will continue to expand. Organizations need to start using the same types of technologies to defend their networks that criminals are using to compromise them. That means adopting an intelligently integrated approach like the Fortinet Security Fabric which segments the entire network—from the Internet of Things (IoT) to the cloud—to provide superior protection against sophisticated threats.

What sort of challenges do you foresee for 2020?

Cyber criminals are continuing to focus on finding ways to stay a step ahead of cybersecurity professional. We have seen that swarm technology has shown new potential. Indeed, advances in swarm technology, have powerful implications in the fields of medicine, transportation, engineering, and automated problem solving. However, if used maliciously, it may also be a game changer for adversaries if organizations do not update their security strategies. When used by cybercriminals, bot swarms could be used to infiltrate a network, overwhelm internal defenses, and efficiently find and extract data.

In addition, the advent of 5G may end up being the perfect incubator for the development of functional

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swarm-based attacks. By weaponizing 5G, individually exploited devices could become a conduit for malicious code, and groups of compromised devices could work in concert to target victims. Given the speed, intelligence, and localized nature of such an attack, legacy security technologies could be challenged to effectively fight off such a strategy.

Which markets will be your main targets for business and regional growth in the upcoming year?

The UAE and Saudi Arabia will continue to be key target markets for Fortinet owing to a number of large landmark projects and the technology vision of the leadership. Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Pakistan are also growing markets where we have an established customer base with new opportunities in the pipeline.

What sort of technology trends can we look out for in 2020?

From a network security point of view, we can look forward to SD-WAN being a popular technology for organizations looking for business application steering, cost savings, and performance for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. In addition, with the volume, velocity, and sophistication of today’s global threat landscape, organizations must be able to respond in real time at machine speed to effectively counter aggressive attacks. We predict that advances in artificial intelligence and threat intelligence will be vital in this fight.

Digital Transformation is High on the Agenda

OUTLOOK 2020

Fabrice Toco and Laurent Lafaye, Dawex’s Co-Founders and Co-CEOs speak about the opportunities that exist with the adoption of digital transformation What will be the next big thing in technology in 2020?

Digital transformation is high on the agenda for the region. According to IDC, related spending are expected to double from $20 billion in 2018, to $40 billion by 2022. Of course, the region continues to expand in fields such as mobile, cloud and IoT, but the most recent developments have probably been with the use of AI and blockchain technology.

The common denominator for all these established or emerging technologies is data. The initiative launched by Smart Dubai for the implementation of new frameworks and technologies for developing ethical Artificial Intelligence, facilitating data initiatives, implementing blockchain technology, is a perfect example of exciting development in the Middle East’s tech landscape.

How are you and your company gearing up to explore the opportunities in 2020?

According to Boston-based research firm Eckerson Group, 2020 will be the year of the Data Exchange. One of the top data pain points for data analytics teams has been finding, evaluating, purchasing, and integrating external data, whether from commercial data sources or open data repositories. Additionally, IoT, AI, cloud and 5G technologies are fueling the data economy.

Data is a strategic asset that dramatically increases its value when it can be easily and secure-

ly exchanged between multiple business entities, internally and externally. Building trust between the stakeholders engaged in the transfers.

Organization’s ability to engage in data exchange unlocks the value of enriching internal data sources with external ones to create the insights their business needs, and to untap new revenue opportunities from their data. This is where Dawex technology comes into play. Dawex data exchange technology allows organizations to orchestrate data circulation by sourcing, exchanging and monetizing data securely and in full compliance with regulations.

What sort of challenges do you foresee for 2020?

The importance of the data economy is now increasingly well understood by key decision-makers, and the questions we get from them are now less about “why should we implement a data exchange or monetization strategy”, but rather about “how do we move forward?”

In addition to providing the most advanced data exchange technology, Dawex will spend more time in 2020 in helping client organizations organize their processes, address key questions such as identifying which data has the biggest valorization potential, who might be interested to access it, and why, implementing pilot projects and deploying successful data exchange businesses at scale.

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Which markets will be your main targets for business and regional growth in the upcoming year?

Data exchange is by definition a global matter and Dawex has been engaging with organizations around the globe. We are looking at establishing Dawex presence in the Middle East in 2020 in order to support our customers, accelerate our business growth in the region and the development of the data economy.

The region has demonstrated its understanding of the positive impact and benefits of building data strategies and has been welcoming the most advanced companies offering blockchain and artificial intelligence cutting-edge technologies. The Middle East is extremely mature when talking about data. Dawex expertise is to enable organizations and enterprises to orchestrate data circulation and our data exchange platform accelerates secure data trading in the Middle East region.

What sort of technology trends can we look out for in 2020?

Digital transformation brings a lot of potential benefits to the region, fueled by the mass adoption of connected digital technologies and applications by consumers, enterprises, and governments. It brings also security-related risks that could undermine – if not addressed properly - the confidence the government, the business sector, and civil society have in digitization, and jeopardize the attainment of its promised benefits.

OUTLOOK 2020

2020 is Set to be a Milestone Year for the Region Mena Migally, the Senior Director for MENA at Riverbed, speaks about scope for innovation in 2020

What’s shaping the IT industry in the region?

Over the last decade, the large majority of enterprises in the Middle East have gradually undergone digitization. With significant investments already in place, today, it isn’t just digital transformation that’s important anymore. Rather, businesses are looking at how they can rearchitect what they already have. Especially with initiatives such as Dubai Vision 2021, Saudi Vision 2030, and Egypt Vision 2030, businesses in the region are keen to put themselves on the digital transformation map.

They have shifted focus from just deploying the latest and best solutions, to instead revamping their operations and services across the board to deliver a truly exceptional digital experience. So, whereas previously, the trend was to deploy technology to support back-end processes, today, it is about optimizing front-end applications and services to enhance the experiences of end-users.

How are you and your company gearing up to explore the opportunities in 2020?

Through 2019, we have witnessed a turning of the tide for cloud as the technology has rapidly matured from a buzz word to being widely adopted.

The region’s appetite for cloud computing has even prompted some of the largest cloud providers globally to establish locally based data centres this year. However, the underlying networks that facilitate the consumption of cloud-based services are in desperate need of an overhaul as traditional WANs that are based on

conventional routers are simply not cloud-ready.

With businesses positioning themselves as cloud and mobile first, SDWAN is rapidly emerging as a must have technology - evident in IDC's prediction that the segment will mushroom to over USD8 billion by 2021. With our established Riverbed SteelConnect platform, and having this year extended our SD-WAN capabilities through our OEM partnership with Versa Networks, Riverbed is ideally positioned to capitalize on the opportunities in this rapidly growing market segment.

What sort of challenges do you foresee for 2020?

2020 is set to be a milestone year for the region with several global events – most prominently, Expo 2020 and the G20 summit – taking place in the region. Increased global attention and the influx of tourists are set to create a flood of new business opportunities. The challenge for governments and businesses will be to successfully convert the enthusiasm and emphasis on the region into long-term opportunities. With the focus of both events set firmly on positioning the UAE and Saudi Arabia as frontrunners in the global digital economy, IT innovation will be placed front and centre.

Which markets will be your main targets for business and regional growth in the upcoming year?

In terms of focus geographies, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt all remain high growth markets for Riverbed in the MENA region. Governments in each of these countries have placed

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large emphasis on digital transformation in both the public and private sectors. As a vendor whose solutions serve to enable successful digital transformation, Riverbed has a tremendous opportunity to widen its penetration in these markets while also building on engagements with existing customers.

Is there a scope for innovation in the upcoming year? If yes, in which areas of application?

There is no doubt that countries in the Middle East will aim to lead the 5G revolution. The arrival of 5G will act as a catalyst for more “data rich” applications to evolve, transforming the way humans and smart devices interact with each other and between themselves. We can also expect that user experience will be central to technology innovation through 2020 and beyond. From Riverbed’s perspective, this means ongoing innovation and enhancement of our Digital Networking portfolio which delivers superior digital experiences, new levels of operational efficiency, and accelerated business outcomes.

Will emerging technologies prompt the sales channels reinvention in 2020?

Emerging technologies such as augmented and virtual reality, as well as IoT, will drive the need for scaled and automated network management.

The ability to deploy these technologies effectively requires a solid foundation of enabling IT services – LAN, WAN, branch and DC computing.

Modernizing the network with next generation software defined network solutions and services will be key.

A Considerable Amount of CRM Growth is Expected This Year

OUTLOOK 2020

Ali Shabdar, the Regional Director for MEA at Zoho Corp, speaks about technologies that will become mainstream in 2020 What’s shaping the IT industry in the region?

The modernization of infrastructure and the fast adoption of leading-edge technologies, thanks to grand initiatives, such as Dubai Expo 2020, Saudi Vision 2030, and Bahrain Vision 2030 contribute to the explosion of the IT industry in the region.

Accoridng to IDC, IT spending in the EMEA region was projected to reach a staggering $973B in 2019, with a decent 3%-4% YoY growth projected for the next few years.

We can only expect the industry to flourish further as the market needs are growing at a healthy rate.

enterprises alike. Equipped with a robust line of market-leading software, our focus will be to serve our clients better and keep them delighted. More and more businesses rely on our software for their success and creating an all encompassing customer experience in line with our expansion in the region will be at the core of our efforts.

What sort of challenges do you foresee for 2020?

There is a worldwide push towards privacy. Simultaneously, given the market saturation, there is a rush to provide personalized services, which requires collection of data about customers from various touchpoints, some of which may be sensitive. Striking a balance between the two will be a key challenge that businesses will face in 2020.

other regions. This calls for a more hands-on approach across the board and ensuring that our customers and partners are delighted for the years to come.

Will emerging technologies prompt the sales channels reinvention in 2020?

Some of the technological advances that will affect sales channels reinvention are:

1. Hyperpersonalisation using AI: Data can be collected from various touchpoints to provide personalised service to the customer. Businesses giving better customer service will be able to distinguish themselves and gain market share.

What will be the next big thing 2. Use of AR and VR in the retail in technology in 2020? space: Augmented Reality and One technology that might finally Visrtual Reality are already become mainstream in 2020 is making their way into retail, Blockchain. Putting the rollercoster and this trend will grow in the of seemingly endless fluctuations Which markets will be your main coming year as more and more of the cryptocurrency market and targets for business and regionbusinesses adopt this technola barrage of bogus ICOs, Blockal growth in the upcoming year? ogy. chain still holds a strong promise We will continue our impressive for the business, especially in expansion into the MEA region, What will be the demand drivers smart contracts space. with the GCC and South Africa for vertical specialistion? leading our growth, and the rest A considerable amount of CRM Practical AI and ML will also of Africa showing tremendous growth is likely to come from become an integral part of all promise. vertical-specific offerings caterbusiness apps, and there will be a ing to prominent industries like demand for integrated software From all the business learnings healthcare, manufacturing, insursuited that work on a single platof 2019, what would you like to ance, field-services, and others. form, which will allow businesses do differently in the upcoming Each category has specific needs to use AI across applications. year? and challenges, which are better Continuing on our success in addressed by dedicated solutions How are you and your company 2019, we will be focusing more on rather than generic CRM software. gearing up to explore the opimproving customer experience As CRM systems become more portunities in 2020? for our clients in the MEA region. vertical-specific, their ability to Zoho offers a unique platform of This is a young and vibrant marblend with that area's core techworld-class that cater SMEs and ket growing at a pace faster than nology will be crucial 17

OUTLOOK 2020

AI and Machine Learning are Trends to Watch Out For Nicolai Solling, the CTO at Help AG, speaks about the role AI and ML will play this year What’s shaping the IT industry in the region?

Cyber-attacks are becoming more sophisticated, but at the same time, the security industry is getting better at dealing with threats. Take ransomware for example – compared to just three years ago, there has been a massive improvement – both from a technical as well as a behavioural standpoint. Today, few organizations agree to ransom payouts while digital analytics and forensics have made it possible to track Bitcoin transactions, thereby overcoming the benefits of anonymity that cybercriminals enjoyed.

At the same time, cybercriminals are changing their techniques and demonstrating a preference for targeted attacks. Across the globe, we’re seeing attacks that are fine tuned to exploit regional, linguistic, cultural and even organizational nuances. Instead of the broader target set, cybercriminals are opting for a focused approach in order to make their malicious activities more difficult to detect.

Very often the prevention mechanisms of Cybersecurity solutions are based on signatures and understanding of malicious behaviour, and while we have

become much better at this, attackers are still getting smarter at evading detection. It is an unfair battle as it is significantly more difficult to detect the undetectable then it is to create something which is undetectable by the detectors. For the same reason any technologies that are trying to prevent instead of detecting are infinitively more effective.

types of attacks. Countering this threat will be a driver for cybersecurity spending and investments that focus on establishing identify and controlling privilege will be highly effective.

Owing to exponentially growing numbers of network-connected devices in the modern enterprise, IoT security is also set to be a cybersecurity priority. Here, investments should focus on What will be the next big thing solutions that enable security in technology in 2020? teams to identify assets that are Artificial Intelligence and Maconnecting to the network and chine Learning will no doubt be uncover potential issues, vulnertrends to watch out for, with the abilities and behaviours associcaveat being that only ‘real AI’ ated with these devices. This is will deliver the positive impact where Artificial Intelligence and that organizations are hoping Machine Learning come into for. Unfortunately, the market is play as these technologies grant flooded with providers that tout the ability to rapidly sift through their AI capabilities without pro- and make sense of large volumes viding any concrete measure of of data. the effectiveness of their AI and ML solutions. This is where test- Finally, we see a lot of attening, analysis and integration will tion being given to application all play a major role in vetting development, particularly around truly effective AI solutions and DevOps. Business need to integrating them into a compre- understand however that just hensive security platform. adopting the DevOps model doesn’t mean they are secure by What sort of challenges do default. They must still invest in you foresee for 2020? application security, and furSocial engineering remains a low thermore, this focus on security effort, high reward approach for should be made a part of the cyber criminals. Therefore, we development cycle itself. can expect an increase in these

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Cybercriminals Are Increasingly Targeting People

OUTLOOK 2020

Emile Abou Saleh, the Regional Director for Middle East and Africa at Proofpoint, speaks about the implications cybersecurity can have on users and businesses What’s shaping the IT industry in the region?

We are witnessing advancements and investments in new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and automation, which will optimize IT operations. The rise of these new technologies is also supported by the increased adoption of 5G network, which is being deployed across some of the GCC countries.

While it is promising to see what business benefits these new technologies will bring, organizations must consider the potential security implications when deploying them as cybercriminals are increasingly targeting people rather than systems and infrastructure, to install malware, initiate fraudulent transactions, steal data, and more.

What will be the next big thing in technology in 2020?

2020 will continue to see several advancements and investment across new technologies that are already flourishing. AI will help in tackling and defending against potential threats and I believe many organizations will use this technology to detect and respond to incidents. Consequently, we will start to see more AI-based tools that provide threat-hunting, attack analysis and incident response to proactively search for potential issues.

Additionally, as predicted by Gartner, distributed cloud is one of the trends we can expect to take off in 2020. This technol-

ogy refers to the distribution of public cloud services to locations outside the cloud provider’s physical data centers, while still being controlled by the provider.

The shift from centralized public cloud to distributed public cloud echoes the new paradigm of cloud computing.

By having distributed cloud, this means that data centers can be located anywhere, which promises to solve both technical issues like latency and also regulatory challenges like data sovereignty.

However, as organizations continue to adopt cloud-based productivity and collaboration software, these platforms become increasingly attractive targets for threat actors. This means that we are all conditioned to click through links to view, share, and interact with a variety of content.

How are you and your company gearing up to explore the opportunities in 2020?

2020 will be a year filled with technological advancements and we are thrilled by all the opportunities that will arise from those.

Nonetheless, without neglecting the bright side of these technologies, we will also be wary about the risks they impose to businesses. With this in mind, we will continue to enhance our offer as a cloud-based platform to protect our customers against the number one threat vector - email - as well as emerging vectors such as social media and cloud apps.

What sort of challenges do you 19

foresee for 2020?

I believe we will continue to see the talent gap as one of the region’s biggest challenges.

Having said that, it is important that companies make the effort to re-assess the types of profiles they require, as personality traits and diversity of background play a large role when hiring in the cybersecurity industry.

Additionally, as technology advances and we increasingly rely on connected systems and devices, new and more sophisticated attacks will rise. The cyber attacks involving malware, phishing, machine learning and artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and more have placed the data and assets of corporations, governments and individuals at constant risk. Thus in 2020, organizations must tackle these challenges by taking into account elements such as security, compliance and fraud risk to ensure a successful path to digital transformation.

Which markets will be your main targets for business and regional growth in the upcoming year?

The demand for cybersecurity solutions has never been higher and we are constantly gaining market share. The Middle East is a key priority market for Proofpoint and we are committed to continue the expansion of our team and operations in the region while providing the bestin-class solutions and support to our partners and customers.

OUTLOOK 2020

Personalisation is Going to be the Dominant Trend Nirmal Kumar Manoharan, the Regional Sales Director for ManageEngine, speaks about transformative trends for the year ahead What is shaping the IT industry in the region?

Following a lot of hype, speculation, and some trepidation, we're seeing real deployments of artificial intelligence (AI), and related technologies such as machine learning (ML), deep learning, and natural language processing in the region.

This, we believe, will play a vital role in shaping the IT industry in the Middle East.

partnered with new resellers in Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, and Morocco. In the coming year, we'll continue to increase the scope and frequency of our partner training programs in the region. These programs help our partners, our "ground soldiers," address this dynamic market. We've received a positive response to all our branding and marketing initiatives in the region. We will continue these efforts in the coming year.

What will be the next big thing in technology in 2020?

In 2020, personalisation is going to be the dominant, transformative trend. We expect to see companies use their vast data sets to create clear, complete pictures of their customers and to deliver precisely tailored, individualized customer experiences—whether the experiences are entirely automated, or are handled "live" by company representatives. Personalization will help companies respond to each customer’s unique needs at each customer touch point, so that the right product, service, or support is offered, and the right people in the company are involved in each interaction.

What sort of challenges do you foresee for 2020?

With the current global economic uncertainty, a lot of pressure is expected, but we will overcome this and continue to connect with new customers, building a much stronger brand presence in the Middle East through our partners.

How are you and your company gearing up to explore the opportunities in 2020?

ManageEngine has seen 30 percent year-on-year growth in the region, and is constantly striving to build stronger partnerships. We have, over the last twelve months,

Which markets will be your main targets for business and regional growth in the upcoming year?

We believe the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia are rapidly progressing in terms of adopting newer technologies. That said, we are determined to boost our sales efforts in these regions, and also strengthen our efforts in markets like North Africa in 2020.

participate in some of the country's biggest technology events showcasing our end-to-end IT management solutions every year, and we look forward to newer and more targeted events in the coming year. In 2020, we also hope to educate and engage with more customers during our own seminars and conferences.

What sort of technology trends can we look out for in 2020?

Data security will be a top priority for companies in the region. The year 2020 will witness techniques such as data loss prevention (DLP), and endpoint detection and response (EDR) gain more prominence. DLP will help prevent users from leaking critical information, and EDR will help organisations constantly monitor events, detect threats, perform investigations, and initiate responses all within the endpoint.

Will emerging technologies prompt the sales channels reinvention in 2020?

Many new technologies have been introduced this year, and in 2020 we will see these implemented by organisations into their business processes. This invites a significant change in demand; customers will From all the business learning of now look out for brands that will 2019, what would you like to do help them leverage these technoldifferently in the upcoming year? ogies. Understanding customers' 2019 has been a good year for needs and what they expect from ManageEngine. We've seen sigtechnology will be a crucial factor nificant business growth and a in a modern sales and marketing wider presence in the region. We strategy.

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Sustainability is a Growing Issue

OUTLOOK 2020

Wael Mustafa, the Area Vice President (AVP) for MESAT at Commvault, speaks about the IT security landscape for the year What’s shaping the IT industry in the region?

There are several exciting trends taking shape in the Middle East.

Most notably is the continued adoption of cloud. This is largely driven by new data centers being deployed as part of larger infrastructure projects, such as Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Vision and Bahrain’s cloud-first policy. According to research house IDC, cloud computing is expected to grow on average by 24 percent each year and bring more than half a million jobs, between 2017 and 2022.

cloud provider, which would have a significant impact on the industry.

Determining how to bring data back in a rapid, but logical, way should be of paramount concern to enterprises in 2020. Data protection in the cloud will be a big topic over the coming 12 months.

IT teams will need to architect their infrastructures so they can recover their data in a modular way so that backed-up rapidly.

From all the business learnings of 2019, what would you like to do differently in the upcoming year?

Increasingly warm weather around What will be the next big thing the globe is leading to more in technology in 2020? intense natural disasters, such as A number of Middle East markets wildfires in California, flooding in were among the first to adopt 5G Venice, and droughts across the and this has opened an array of Middle East and in Africa. If we opportunities and challenges for can learn one thing from these businesses in the region. 5G and headlines, it’s that weather is advancements in infrastructure becoming more unpredictable and have led to dramatic data growth damaging – for communities and in the region which has placed enterprises alike. That means enenormous pressure on enterprises. terprises need to be ready – ready Furthermore, both large enterto recover from a weather event, prises and their smaller brethren ready to transfer backups of in the Middle East have begun mission critical applications over to turn their data into actionto another cloud region, ready for able information from big data unexpected power outages that and through connected devices. require them to put their disaster Resellers in the region will need recovery plans in motion to be prepared to help by offering data protection and disaster What sort of technology trends recovery solutions. can we look out for in 2020?

The advent of 5G is powering an What sort of challenges do you explosion of data and, in order foresee for 2020? for businesses across the region Over the past three years there to take commercial advantage of has been a surge in malware this fact, they will need the agility, attacks, and specifically ransomtools and internal structures first. ware. Unfortunately, the Middle It may come as good new to some East is no exception in this global that the roll-out of 5G has been trend. In 2020, we could see the delayed in certain markets, giving first zero-day exploit used by time for enterprises to define the malicious code on a large public changes that are required to their 21

data storage security and backup policies.

Will emerging technologies prompt the sales channels reinvention in 2020?

Cloud technologies are really taking off in the Middle East and the channel needs to remain acutely aware of organizations’ digital transformation requirements. The future of cloud in the region is expected to be a mixture hybrid and multi-cloud. New regulation and compliance will also serve to complicate things, and channel partners who can deliver valuable advice to help customers navigate this complexity will stand to gain trust and, ultimately, revenue.

Is there a scope for innovation in the upcoming year? If yes, in which areas of application?

Sustainability is a growing issue and not enough was done by the IT industry to reduce carbon emissions. Even in 2019, we have seen countless organizations struggle to manage their data, leading to data being duplicated or stored unnecessarily.

In 2020, we’re likely to see sustainability in networking and in the data center drive innovation.

ICT puts out as much carbon emissions as the airline industry.

Yet, the cloud is three times more efficient than on-premise storage, when it comes to sustainability.

Therefore, organizations in the Middle East will be under increasing pressure to manage their data effectively. This will entail managing what resides in the cloud, what remains on-premise and – importantly – what can be deleted permanently.

OUTLOOK 2020

Emergence of AI-Powered Autonomous Datacenters Written by Dheeraj Pandey, Co-Founder & CEO of Nutanix, and Rajiv Mirani, CTO of Nutanix At the start of 2020, two top executives from Nutanix share their vision of major technology trends that will shape the industry this year.

Dheeraj Pandey, Co-founder & CEO of Nutanix:

more businesses will embrace blockchain for digital transactions because of its ability to decrease errors and improve overall efficiency. By optimizing transactions, blockchain will help businesses become more efficient and increase value for customers

applications.

• One of the biggest challenges IT leaders will face in 2020 is data mobility. In light of compliance policies and data sovereignty laws, such as CCPA and GDPR, it is critical for companies to account for legal compliance in how their data is mobilized among clouds.

• Subscription models will become the norm for cloud ven- Rajiv Mirani, CTO of Nutanix: dors and the IT industry as a whole. In 2020, more busi• In 2020, we will increasingly nesses will continue to make see CIOs shift from a cloud• Speaking of mobility, anoththis long-term investment first strategy to a clouder key challenge impacting and transition to offering smart strategy. This trend will IT leaders in 2020 will be subscription plans in order to be driven by a combination of application mobility between offer customers the convenibusiness reasons (primarily clouds due to differences in ence and customizability they cost), and technical reasons, licensing and consumption require to grow. Not only will such as security and performodels between private and vendors embrace subscripmance. public clouds. To address this tion, but consumers will also challenge, enterprises will benefit from asset-lite busi• Enterprises will continue to look to vendors with uniform ness models. invest in hybrid cloud and licensing policies to optimize look for greater interoperapplication mobility.

• Beyond the IT industry, I ability between private and expect zero companies — public clouds for all work• The private cloud will continwith anything other than a loads, including legacy as well ue evolving to look more like subscription business model as cloud-native. Customers a public cloud with an in— will go public in 2020 and will begin to look to vendors creased focus on automation. beyond. who can offer software to run 2020 will mark the emerany workload on any locagence of AI-powered autono• Blockchain will transform tion without the burden of mous datacentres. digital transactions. In 2020, rearchitecting or refactoring ARABIAN RESELLER | January 2020

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OUTLOOK 2020

What Will Drive IT Purchasing Decisions in 2020?

Written by Atish Gude, the Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at NetApp 2019 was a year of rapid innovation—and disruption—for both the IT industry and the broader business community. With the widespread adoption of hybrid multi-cloud as the de facto architecture for enterprise customers, organizations everywhere are under tremendous pressure to modernize their infrastructure and to deliver tangible business value around data-intensive applications and workloads.

a reality, edge computing environments are primed to become even more disruptive than cloud was.

In preparation for the widespread emergence of 5G, lower-cost sensors and maturing AI applications will be used to build compute-intensive edge environments.

This effort will lay the groundwork for high-bandwidth, low-latency AI-driven IoT environments with the potential for huge innovation—and disruption.

As a result, organizations are shifting from on-premises environments to using public cloud services, building private clouds, and moving from disk to flash in data centers—sometimes concurrently.

These transformations open the door to enormous potential, but they also introduce the unintended consequence of increased IT complexity.

The advent of 5G is what AI-driven IoT has been waiting for. It will take a few more years for 5G data technology to spread across the entire United States. However, 2020 will see many players in the technology industry and business community invest in building edge computing environments to support the reality of AI-driven IoT. These environments will make possible new use cases that rely on intelligent, instantaneous, and autonomous decision-making, with low-latency, high-bandwidth capabilities. This evolution will bring us to a world where the internet will work on our behalf—without even having to ask.

We predict that demand for simplicity and customizability will be the number one factor that drives IT purchasing decisions in 2020. Vendors will need to offer modern, flexible technologies with the choice of how to use and to consume those technologies so that customers can keep pace with their evolving business models. As IT departments strive to deemphasize maintenance and hardware, to reduce overhead, and to adopt pay-as-you-go models, simplicity and choice will be crucial.

Achieving this simplicity will serve as the foundation for companies as they navigate the exciting technological trends that we identify in the following sections.

As the advent of 5G makes AI-driven Internet of Things (IoT)

This AI-driven IoT innovation, however, will depend on a massive prioritization of edge computing, further disrupting IT infrastructures and data management priorities. As edge devices move beyond home devices (such as connected thermostats and speakers) and become more far-reaching (such as connected solar farms), more data centers will be placed at the edge. Also, platforms such as artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps) will be necessary to help monitor complex environments across the edge, the core, and the 23

cloud.

The impact of blockchain will be undeniable as indelible ledgers rapidly enable game-changing use cases outside of cryptocurrency. The world is quickly moving beyond Bitcoin to adopt enterprise-distributed indelible ledgers, setting the stage for a transformation that’s exponentially bigger than the impact that cryptocurrency has had on blockchain in finance.

While the crypto frenzy continues to steal the limelight when it comes to blockchain, most players in the industry understand the bigger picture of the technology and its potential. Going into 2020, we will see a tipping point for larger implementations as enterprises go a step further to adopt indelible ledgers based on Hyperledger, which represents the maturation of blockchain for wider use cases.

Indeed, we will start to see blockchain go “mainstream” as it enables industries such as healthcare to create universal patient records, to improve chain-of-custody pharmaceutical processes, and more.

With such use cases validating blockchain and indelible ledgers, additional widespread adoption of the technology will drive transformation across society on a larger scale. This widespread adoption will build on the disruption that cryptocurrency has brought to finance to touch nearly every industry. As a result, new data management and compute capabilities will encourage companies to invest in indelible ledgers to build differentiated applications and to collaborate on critical, sensitive datasets.

OUTLOOK 2020

The Worst Passwords of 2019 Tomas Foltyn, the Security Writer at ESET, lists out the worst passwords of 2019

Year after year, analyses show that millions of people make, to put it mildly, questionable choices when it comes to the passwords they use to protect their accounts. And fresh statistics for the year that is drawing to a close confirm that bad habits do die hard and many people willingly put themselves in the firing line of account-takeover attacks.

The entire list of the 200 most popular passwords is available in NordPass’ blog post, but here’s at least the top 25. Let that sink in.

1. 12345 2. 123456 3. 123456789 4. test1 5. password 6. 12345678 Drawing on an analysis of a 7. zinch total of 500 million passwords 8. g_czechout that were leaked in various data 9. asdf breaches in 2019, NordPass found 10. qwerty that ‘12345’, ‘123456’ and 11. 1234567890 ‘123456789’ reigned supreme in 12. 1234567 order of frequency. Between them, 13. Aa123456. these numerical strings were used 14. iloveyou to ‘secure’ a total of 6.3 million ac- 15. 1234 counts. It doesn’t get much more 16. abc123 optimistic further down the list, 17. 111111 however, as these three choices 18. 123123 were followed by ‘test1’ and, the 19. dubsmash one and only, ‘password’.

20. test 21. princess Somewhat predictably, the chart 22. qwertyuiop is overall replete with many usual 23. sunshine suspects among the most com24. BvtTest123 mon passwords – think ‘asdf’, ‘qw- 25. 11111 erty’, ‘iloveyou’ and various other stalwart choices. Other supremely Eerily familiar? hackable passwords – including simple numerical strings, common If you recognize any of the above names, and rows of keys – also as your own, then fixing your abound. Much the same picture is passwords is almost certainly one painted annually by SplashData’s of the things that deserve a place lists of the most-used passwords, on your laundry list of New Year’s such as last year, the year before resolutions. For starters, fixing that, and so on. here means not having the exact ARABIAN RESELLER | January 2020

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same idea as millions of other people when you’re signing up to a service and are asked to create your password.

One way to go about this is opt for a passphrase, which, if done right, is generally a tougher nut to crack as well as easier to remember. The latter is especially useful if you don’t use password management software, which, somewhat unsurprisingly, has been shown to benefit both password strength and uniqueness.

Yes, that passphrase should, of course, be unique for each of your online accounts, as recycling your passwords across various services is tantamount to asking for trouble. You may also want to watch out for password leaks. There are a number of services these days where you can check if your login credentials may have been caught up in a known breach.

Some of them even offer you the option to sign up for alerts if your login information is compromised in a breach. In fact, as ours is an era where login data are compromised by the millions, why settle for one line of defense if you can have two? At the risk of repeating ourselves, two-factor authentication is a highly valuable way to add an additional layer of security to online accounts on top of your password.

OUTLOOK 2020

Airports of the Future: 10 Predictions for the Next Decade Passengers will be in control of their digital identity The adoption of digital self-sovereign identity and persistent travel tokens will put passengers back in control of what aspects of their identity should be revealed, for what purpose, as they travel. In future airports, risk will be constantly assessed by specialist artificial intelligence (AI), using the passenger’s digital identity.

The sensitive elements of this data will be used only by governments, which will use automated The next decade will witness collaborative systems to approve an exponentially accelerated – or, in some cases, not approve pace of change as digital native – the various steps of the jourpassengers and staff usher in ney. Airlines will no longer hold transformative technologies, from the responsibility for processing flying taxis to airports that think passenger data for border securifor themselves. Benoit Verbaere, ty purposes.

Business Development Director, SITA predicts major change for Travel steps will be decentralnearly all aspects of the airport ized experience.

Everything will have tags: people, bags and cargo. And they Verbaere said, “Passenger numwill be tracked throughout their bers are set to double in the entire journey, whatever mode next twenty years, according to of transport they are using. This the International Air Transport will mean travel authorization Association (IATA), but airport and customs checks can be made expansion won’t keep up. And in advance of the flight, saving passengers, quite rightly, want a time at the airport. And remote smooth and easy journey through bag drop-off and collection will the airport. The only way we can be offered wherever it is most make sure airports continue to convenient for the passenger, at work smoothly is by developing train stations for example. and implementing new technologies that make them more The airport will be highly conefficient while also enhancing the nected passenger experience.

Our new era of connected airports will be driven by increasingSecurity will be integrated into ly cheap sensors, less dedicated a frictionless journey hardware and new data lakes, fed Over the next decade, going by every device over 5G. The data through security will mean walk- will be captured through Softing along a corridor. No more ware Defined Networks, collated taking off your coat, shoes, and and analyzed to make the airport belt, or putting little bottles into highly efficient and to make it little bags. And no more queues. a much better experience for Passengers and their bags will be passengers. recognized automatically as they go through automated checkThe airport will think for itself points. Hard checkpoints will Artificial Intelligence (AI) algobe replaced by sensor corridors, rithms will be key to efficiency, making physical document checks with sophisticated AI becoming obsolete. the secret sauce for airports. Airports will use Digital Twin techSITA, the leading IT provider for the air transport industry, today unveils 10 bold predictions about the technology shaping how passengers will move through the airport of the future, based on unique insights, driving industry forces and emerging technologies. The airport experience has morphed dramatically in the past 10 years with the introduction of biometric security, mobile checkin, and baggage tracking. And there is much more to come.

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nology to bring real-time operations to life for all stakeholders, improving operational efficiency and enhancing the passenger experience. A Digital Twin is an advanced computer simulation that takes data from across the entire airport and airline operations to visualize, simulate and predict what will happen next.

That predictive data will then be used to streamline operational activities, automating them where possible. Automated messages such as: “Two A380s will land at the same time because one is delayed: ensure there are enough people on immigration desks.” or “The feedback from the restrooms on the second level is negative: send the cleaners.” The rapid exchange of information will mean proactive responses and therefore more responsive and accurately planned operations for airlines and airports.

Collaboration will be critical Across every single journey, there are 10 or more different entities that are responsible for making your trip a reality. The only way to collect all the data to make this journey seamless is through close collaboration between everyone working at an airport: the airport itself, airlines, government agencies, ground handlers, restaurants, and shops. We also need collaboration across the entire ecosystem of connected airports.

Throughout this wide network, operational data will be shared using trust frameworks and stakeholders will share single sources of truth for essential operations. This will make airports much more efficient, for example digitizing turnaround management, putting a sharp focus on getting aircraft back in the air as quickly as possible. Here technologies such as blockchain provide tremendous potential in facilitating the secure exchange of information.

WOME N IN TECH

ENCOURAGE, ATTRACT AND INSPIRE OTHER WOMEN Tell us about your philosophy, when it comes to your domain of expertise.

In my current role, I lead a very diverse team with strong experts in all countries that we operate, including in the Middle East, which is a key region for Ciena.

Managing so many cultural and social differences is not simple, especially when coordinating across language barriers, different management styles, locations and time zones.

To realize that, my philosophy is centered on adaptive leadership and trust to get the most out of people from all regions by adjusting my approach according to

each market and individual team.

This helps me ensure that I can leverage the different viewpoints of all of my leaders, so at the end of the day we can share our best practices and experiences, which creates a strong and diverse team. An interesting effect of not speaking the local languages is that one is better at active listening. I saw many managers trying to be perceived as “locals” and getting opposite results.

My mantra is a quote from Walter Wriston, who said: 'The person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of his or her organization is going to blow the competition away.’

ARABIAN RESELLER | January 2020

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Virginie Hollebecque, THE Managing Director for Western Europe and Middle East at Ciena.

Why did you choose telecom to advance your career?

I felt immediately connected to telecommunications, as it leverages human knowledge and technology to connect the world.

When I was finishing my Masters in electronics, I wanted to stay in technology, and I wanted to be involved in technology that had an impact on society. At Ciena, we are a technology and solutions enabler to connect people, and I love that about my job.

There can be no doubt that technology and IT is completely reshaping the world we live in – whether it’s bringing connectivity to remote parts of the developing

world, delivering online education to our children, fostering a wave of e-health solutions for patients or simply just helping us stay connected with friends and family.

There are many exciting developments always happening in the technology sector.

Have you witnessed any transformation in the technology industry?

At Ciena we are leading the technology industry in terms of pushing the limits of innovation and learning at the speed of light to develop new software and find new ways to be smarter, faster and more agile. We live in a world where the rate of change is accelerating, driven by cloud-based bandwidth hungry apps and the anticipated proliferation of IoT devices, and enabled by mobile evolution to 5G and ever increasing network bandwidth capabilities.

But to make this possible we need much slicker and faster operations. We want our networks and operations to become more ‘adaptive’, to thrive in an ever-changing competitive landscape and consumer demands, which requires a coherent combination of the 3 elements of human-controlled and supervised analytics-driven intelligence, software controlled and automated operational processes and an underlying programmable infrastructure. This open, adaptive network will be the foundation that will enable the next generation of access technologies like 5G and the associated apps and IoT devices.

Where, according to you, is the next technology transformation going to come from?

We are in the middle of a digital revolution that has yet a long way to go. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and network automation are just at the beginning of their lifecycle and will continue to evolve and impact our day to day lives. With AI, future networks will be more predictive and intelligent, programmed to automatically make recommenda-

tions, implement policies and respond to changing user demands instantly.

Both automation and adaptive networks, which harness the power and efficiency of data-driven AI combined with the invaluable experience of engineers, will allow service providers to add fast provisioning and self-healing features to their infrastructure. This is a key driver paving the way for the upcoming years.

At the same time, the implementation of 5G will provide huge speeds and support up to 100 times as many connected devices – meeting the growing number of consumer and industrial use case demands. It will enable communicate in near real-time, making many new applications and use cases a reality, such as autonomous self-driving cars, improved user mobility (high speed trains, for instance), broadcast communications services (e.g. mobile television), critical lifeline services and ultra-reliable communications (remote eHealth monitoring, for instance).

What is your advice to women looking to break into the field of technology?

The advice I would give women looking to work in this exciting field is to have the self confidence that they can be successful.

Confidence is the foundation and trigger that turns thoughts into action. Equally important, I would ask them to encourage, attract and inspire other women at the same time.

Especially as I think it makes perfect sense that more women need to be in the field of technology because they can act as real change-makers. I have found the female leaders in IT that have inspired me along the way have shared a common trait of caring, of wanting to make a difference and have strived to show the power of connectivity and technology in the world.

I have two daughters, and they 27

are able to see firsthand that being a woman in this industry and working in an ICT environment is possible, but some young women may not have that example to look up to and know that they too can do it. Women in ICT have a responsibility to offer help and guidance to other women who are just starting to build their careers.

It’s also important for women to make mentoring a priority, to meet as many leaders as they can. It is pivotal to find a mentor within the organization that they respect and admire and who can be a good sounding board for development. Having a mentor that can offer industry insight and share their knowledge and expertise will help women grow in their career and give them the confidence they can achieve success.

I am also a founding member of the Women@Ciena initiative, which aims to inspire, nurture and reward women in our industry. It provides a wonderful opportunity to “pay it forward” and help develop our future female talent, both at Ciena and with our customers and partners.

We focus on three key pillars – professional development, community outreach and networking.

In the past year we held two fantastic networking events with customers in London and Paris, delivered workshops on “The Confidence Code” and “Resilience” to our internal teams and to partners and worked with our Ciena Cares team to support women in refuge through the charity organization KidsOut. Are you involved in any sort of charity work?

Yes, I’m involved in Ciena Cares, our community engagement program, where I have been involved in volunteer programs that help children with disadvantages, as well as a program that helps to maintain a level of availability to education for children who are in hospital for extended periods of time.

CHANNE L INFLUE NCE RS

Understanding Your Channel Partners' Priorities is Key Amir Akhtar, the Manager of Channels for Middle East at Veeam, speaks about why channel influencers should maintain relationships with their partners ARABIAN RESELLER | January 2020

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What is your career history to date and key career achievements?

I started my career 14 years ago working in London (United Kingdom) for an industry leading Value-Added Reseller as a key account manager and then a UK and Pan-European distributor.

After 5 years, I was presented the opportunity to relocate to the UAE to spearhead a new business unit for a wellknown distributor before finally accepting an opportunity with Veeam Software in 2015 to build their North Gulf business unit - enterprise accounts.

I now manage the channel business unit for the entire Middle East. My key career achievements are taking three new Business Units within different companies from zero to multi-million dollar territories and high double digit growth within the first 24 months.

What are your roles and responsibilities in the company as a channel influencer?

My core objective is to put a strategic plan in place and ensure it is executed against by the team within each region to drive the overall business objectives. This can be challenging in places as I have to ensure that my strategy is relevant to each specific region to make it effective.

What qualities should a channel influencer possess to lead the channel?

I believe key qualities such as maintaining your relationships, forward thinking your business to drive new initiatives to support your future channel and leveraging past experiences to better future outcomes.

What is your advice on finding success in the channel?

I would suggest understanding your channel partner’s priorities to ensure your plans are aligned with their business models to maximise your relevance to them.

How would you assess the current state of channel?

I believe that with our recent year(s) of global and regional economic challenges, the IT channel has become more streamlined with the major players becoming even more prominent, as the new startup resellers did not have the capabilities to overcome these economic challenges.

On a positive note, the Tier 1 resellers have sharpened their abilities to offer better integrated solutions.

What is the biggest challenge facing the IT channel in the region?

Making themselves relevant to today’s business needs and differentiated from competition. People also often forget the Middle East is home to many countries, each with their own culture and business methods. Homogenizing value propositions given this diversity is a major challenge when rolling out channel enablement strategies.

Another key challenge is the lack of vision from the vendor and no clear objectives for the region they want to penetrate. This can cause issues as it provides the distributor no direction and understanding of the vendor’s expectations, resulting in no growth. This is why a clearly documented business plan is crucial to the success of the relationship. A lot of distributors offer emerging vendors shared resources 29

such as product and pre-sales managers.

However this does not add real value as the resources are normally managing far too many other vendors which in some cases can be competing technologies which can cause serious conflict and reduce focus on driving the business and doing justice to the technology.

It’s important to make relevant investments in funded dedicated resources which are then aligned to that vendor and can grow the business accordingly.

If you could improve one thing about the channel business what would it be?

Drive better collaboration between vendor alliances within the channel base to drive more value-added and complimentary solutions and ultimately generating healthy business for the channel.

How can partners work effectively to generate growth?

It is important for channel partners to streamline their go-to-market strategies ensuring they are simple yet effective, evaluate their client base and properly account plan/map their clients to understand their existing wallet share and then plan to grow this.

It is also important to ensure that their business plan is adaptable to the current market trends which are changing quarter by quarter. I have seen channel partners maintain a business model which served them well five years ago but they have not adapted to the current challenges/ opportunities..

SPECIAL FEATURE

Making Document Capture and Management Effortless Organisations face challenges today in reliably getting data into their business processes. The INfuse Solution blends Kodak Alaris expertise in capture with your specific application to create an automated solution ARABIAN RESELLER | January 2020

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Information capture/data collection has been an extremely valuable business process in the era of always-on internet, but with that growth also came some obvious pitfalls. The process between having someone fill out a form and getting those details into your information systems has always relied on a human component that manually entered the information.

Though it might have been working for the last few decades, the sheer amount of information to be captured combined with limitations on the output of an operator can create bottlenecks in the process, leading to slow turnaround times and inaccurate data. Enter the Alaris INFuse Smart Connected Scanning Solution from Kodak Alaris.

The Alaris INfuse Smart Connected Scanning Solution's Approach The Alaris INfuse Smart Connected Scanning Solution leads the charge with software-assisted information capture, connected to your organisation's network. The capture solution directly integrates into an Alaris partner's line-of-business-system, pushing any information from a form to where it has the most value.

Alaris applied their decades worth of document management, product design, and process automation experience into the most valuable solution package to enter the market.

It caters to common concerns with software solutions, with features like immediate exception notifications when problems are encountered - like missing information, signatures, document issues, etc. This saves money, slashes turnaround times, and improves the overall

customer experience.

The Value Proposition The Alaris INfuse Smart Connected Scanning Solution automates business processes by seamlessly connecting document capture to existing business systems and the cloud.

Benefits include fewer touchpoints and less human error, making the entire information capture process smarter and more efficient.

The Alaris INfuse Solution integrates directly with enterprise applications and enables customers to carry out tasks in hours which, in the past, may have taken days to complete.

INfuse also offers an unprecedented opportunity for channel partners to engage with customers to streamline expensive business processes and quickly grow new revenue streams.

The inspiration for INfuse comes directly from the channel partner and end-user feedback. Solution providers need cost-effective ways to install and manage a fleet of devices while helping enterprise customers efficiently and correctly onboard information into business processes. To address these needs, the Alaris INfuse Solution includes three key components.

• Partner Software Application – An Alaris channel partner or solution provider (typically an ISV or Integrator) provides a cloudbased enterprise solution such as invoice processing, medical records management, or customer account management. The partner’s software or line-of-business application integrates with Alaris APIs.

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• INfuse Management Software – INfuse Management Software provides easy end-user set-up, remote configuration, and fleet management through a bi-directional API provided

by Alaris. End-users simply scan a smart set-up sheet provided by the partner and they are up and running with no training required, which slashes upfront and ongoing management costs.

• INfuse AX Scanner – A smart network scanning device requiring no PC or software/drivers that accurately and securely transfers data, metadata and finished image files directly into a business process. INfuse offers enterprise-level security, including a separate data path and control path to isolate confidential content for secure transmission.

The INfuse AX Scanner can be configured to carry the partner’s branding on its display.

The INfuse Solution seamlessly connects to the Alaris partner’s business process and enables end-users to onboard content directly into that workflow.

When a scan is successfully transmitted and form fields are validated, the end-user receives the real-time acknowledgment and immediate exception notifications. This means missing forms, signatures, and other critical information can be detected and corrected instantly, saving money and improving employee productivity.

Check Out the Demo Video Below: http://bit.ly/AlarisINfuse

MARKET UPDATE

AR and VR Could Deliver a $4.1 Billion Boost to the UAE Economy by 2030 32

VR and AR are forecast to contribute $4.1 billion to the UAE economy, a 1% boost to GDP by 2030 according to a new report launched today by PwC Middle East. The majority of the contribution to the UAE economy will come from AR ($2.8 billion) with VR providing $1.3 billion. VR and AR will also have a significant impact on employment in the country, with PwC estimating that 0.6% of jobs (upward of 40,000 people) will be enhanced by 2030.

Ali Al Hosseini, Chief Digital Officer at PwC Middle East says, “The Middle East is at a crossroads today as it undergoes a once-in-a-lifetime transformation. Choosing the path of early technology adoption will have tremendous implications for business, society and the region’s economy as a whole.

No place exemplifies this drive for innovation and openness to change better than the UAE. As AR and VR technology finally comes of age, we expect both to help boost the UAE’s economy in a significant way -- the technologies will improve how organisations in the country operate, make for a seamless transition to more effective processes, and most important of all -- educate people more effectively and generate incredible user experiences.”

Richard Boxshall, Senior Economist at PwC Middle East says, “AR and VR are transforming the world we live in and we have only seen a fraction of what is possible. In the UAE alone, these technologies could contribute over $4 billion to the local economy by 2030, equivalent to 1% of GDP. These revolutionary technologies can deliver experiences unlike any other and will make businesses thrive with the right adoption.”

Globally, AR and VR are expected to contribute $1.5 trillion to the global economy by 2030

according to PwC research.

This would provide a significant increase on the current contribution to global GDP of $46.4 billion. Out of the two technologies, AR will continue to provide the biggest benefits to global GDP through to 2030, accounting for $1 trillion of the $1.5 trillion overall.

The European economies of Finland ($7.8 billion), Germany ($103.6 billion) and the UK ($69.3 billion) that are forecast to see the biggest increases in percentage terms of GDP by 2030 with contributions of 2.64%, 2.46%, and 2.44% respectively.

The UAE alone ($4.1 billion) will see a 0.95% increase. Globally, the impact of VR and AR on employment over the next decade will also be significant.

Currently, fewer than a million jobs are impacted by VR and AR and this will rise to 23 million jobs by 2030, with the biggest impact felt first in large economies like China, the US, the UK and Germany.

The healthcare sector will provide a boost of $350.9 billion to global GDP by 2030 through utilising the new technologies. Last year, the UAE's Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) announced plans to introduce VR rehabilitation in physiotherapy for stroke patients, patients suffering from balance disorder and children with development disorders, cerebral palsy and Parkinson's syndrome.

VR and AR are opening up new ways to improve the efficiency, productivity and accuracy of employees and processes, and will provide a $275.0 billion boost to global GDP by 2030.

Engineers and technicians can be fed information such as repair diagrams in real-time using an AR interface, enabling them to quickly identify prob-

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lems and conduct repairs and maintenance. In the logistics sector, smart glasses can display picking information for the worker, highlighting location and displaying product details and packing instructions.

The use of VR and AR in development and training will provide a $294.2 billion boost to global GDP by 2030. One way in which this will be possible is that it will provide a way to train employees where it is not always practical, or safe, to do so in the real world. It will also save businesses time and money by recreating physical environments and scenarios digitally which can then be accessed simultaneously anywhere in the world and on different scales.

The use of VR and AR in the retail and consumer sector will provide a $204 billion boost to global GDP by 2030. Adhering to its status as the ‘city of the future’, there are already a few examples of VR and AR applications in the UAE. We are already seeing the implementation of VR and AR in the UAE, with entities such as DEWA and Dubai Customs integrating these technologies to transform their customer and employee experiences.

Product and service development will provide a $359.4 billion boost to global GDP by 2030 through VR and AR. The application of VR and AR technologies is revolutionising the design and manufacturing process - increasing efficiency and productivity, and improving the quality of products. For example, an official announcement was made by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) MD & CEO, HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, stating that DEWA now uses smart helmets and goggles so that engineers and technicians remain in quick contact with one another to conduct repairs.

PRODUCT REVIEWS

4/5

AED 8999

Asus ROG Strix Scar III (G531) The Strix series of gaming laptops from Asus has gotten better year by year and the ROG Strix Scar III impresses with its performance. In terms of its profile, the G531 is quite thin for a gaming laptop.

surface of the keys was quite grippy, too.

The trackpad, meanwhile, works very well and is quite accurate.

Asus has also integrated a number pad into the trackpad, which can be accessed by long-pressing on the upper right-hand corner of the trackpad.

In terms of dimensions, the laptop measures 360 (W) x 275 (D) x 24.9 (H) mm and weighs around 2.57 kgs. Under the hood, the G531 is powered by a 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H CPU running at a clock speed of 2.6GHz, which can be overclocked.

In terms of I/O options, you get one Type C USB 3.2 (GEN2) port supporting DP function, three Type A USB 3.2 (GEN1) ports, one HDMI 2.0b port, one 3.5mm audio jack, one RJ45 LAN jack, and one Keystone. The Keystone is a physical NFC key to which you can save game-specific profiles and other settings that you can take with you.

Everything looks good on paper and at first look – but what about the performance? The G531 is powerful enough to play triple-A games smoothly at 1080p, thanks to its top-notch specs. You can even game in 4K on an external monitor or play in 1080p with DLSS and raytracing enabled.

You also get Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 with 6GB GDDR6 VRAM for all your graphics requirements. Asus also throws in 16GB of DDR4 2666MHz SDRAM, a 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIE 3.0, and a 2.5-inches 1TB SSHD for storage. The Asus ROG Strix Scar III is powered by Microsoft’s Windows 10 Pro operating system.

The G531 sports a sleek, gunmetal grey body, with RGB everywhere. You not only get RGB lights on the keyboard, but you also get a bright ROG logo on the back of the monitor. If that wasn’t enough, you also get an LED strip that wraps around the base.

The 15.6-inch laptop also offers a 240Hz/3 ms screen – so those looking to pump up their gaming experience with frame rates at or near 240 frames per second, can have fun with this one. The thin metal lid has a brushed aluminum texture and is quite cool to look at. The overall build quality is fantastic.

The keyboard features per-key RGB lighting that can be customised for individual games as per your requirement. The backlit chiclet keyboard comes with an N-key rollover, offering per-key RGB with a four-zone RGB, Aura Sync and a bunch of hotkeys such as volume down, volume up, mute, HyperFan, and Armoury Crate.

The keys on the G531 had a soft-touch finish and noticeable pressure points – this makes the laptop suitable for prolonged typing sessions and for working in noise-sensitive environments. The ARABIAN RESELLER | January 2020

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On our Cinebench R15 CPU Single 64Bit tests, we clocked 181 points, while on the CPU Multi 64Bit benchmarks, we clocked 1400 points.

In our PCMark 10 Digital Content Creation benchmarks, the G531 scored 7309 points, while in the PCMark 10 Productivity benchmarks, it scored 8010 points.

In terms of battery life, we got around 6 hours of battery backup on a normal day to day use, while during intense gaming sessions, we got a battery life of close to 3 hours. The scores show that the Asus ROG Strix Scar III G531 is a solid gaming laptop. It is also a relatively thin and light gaming laptop with a nice and solid design.

The new Asus ROG Strix Scar III (G531) gaming laptop gets lots of things right. From its 9th Gen Intel Core CPU, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX graphics, 240Hz/3ms laptop display, cool looks, and excellent build quality and powerhouse performance, this gaming laptop is for you if you are into esports.

4/5

AED 849

Huawei Watch GT 2 (46mm) Huawei’s new Watch GT 2 is the latest smartwatch from the company which boasts better battery life and a set of features, compared with the Watch GT. The new Watch GT 2 comes packed with Huawei’s Kirin A1 and a battery life that extends to up to 2 weeks, which sounds impressive on paper. The Watch GT 2, which was launched on the regional markets around October 2019, comes with a round stainless steel AMOLED touchscreen dial with colour options including Black Stainless Steel, Stainless Steel, and Titanium Grey Stainless Steel.

The new Watch GT 2 runs on Huawei’s Lite OS, which offers around 14 different watch face designs to choose from to personalise your device, ranging from the minimalist to those packed with features.

The interface of the OS is quite intuitive to navigate. However, if you’re looking for the full smartwatch experience, then it’s likely to come up short. You can receive phone call notifications from your phone, which is useful, and you’ll get a couple of fitness-related notifications through the day (for hitting your step count, or if you need to “get up and move”).

In terms of the strap, the colours options available include Titanium Grey Metal Strap, Orange Fluoroelastomer Strap, Brown Leather Strap, and Black Fluoroelastomer Strap. When it comes to the dimensions, the Watch GT 2 measures 45.9mm in width, 45.9mm in height, 10.7mm in thickness, and 41 grams in weight. You also get water resistance to up to a depth of 50 meters.

However, you can’t respond to messages via the watch. You can also use the 4GB capacity of the Watch GT 2 for storing music to get you through your workout, though. Since Huawei’s Lite OS doesn’t have an app store, you can’t download any new apps to the watch.

Having said all of that, though, the Huawei Watch GT 2 is a smartly designed watch with robust fitness features. If you are looking for a smartwatch that is gorgeous to look at and offers a boatload of fitness/sports-related features, you can’t go wrong with the Huawei Watch GT 2.

In terms of design and build quality, the Watch GT 2 looks gorgeous.

The Watch GT 2 also adds sound controls to the settings menu for controlling call and notification volume. In addition, raise-to-wake and heart-rate monitor sensitivity have also been optimised.

The Watch GT 2 uses a pin-based charging puck and does not support wireless charging, which was a bummer. However, since the charging puck uses a USB-C interface, the charging is at least faster than wireless. You also a speaker on the Watch GT 2, which is quite loud. You can use the speaker for taking calls on your phone, through the watch, as well as for listening to music.

The Watch GT 2 also tracks your workouts with precise positioning systems and monitors your heart rate with the TruSeen 3.5. After a hike or completing the marathon, you will know exactly where you are and your progress on the trail. Coupled with the intelligent AI heart rate algorithm, it monitors your heart rate throughout the entire day, even while you are sleeping.

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PRODUCT REVIEWS

4/5

AED 11000

Acer Predator Triton 500 (PT515-51) If you thought gaming laptops could only be bulky, you will be in for a surprise. Acer’s new Predator Triton 500 is a breath of fresh air among the gaming laptops segment. It features a thin profile and is quite lightweight to lug around for your gaming meetups.

The overall design does not compromise the performance at all.

The laptop is built around an “Abyssal Black” metal chassis, and the design is quite straightforward. Once you open the laptop’s lid, you come face to face with a 15.6-inch IPS 1080p 144Hz display that offers a 3ms response time. You also get a 81.3 percent screen to body ratio. The display offers 300 nits of brightness and 72 percent of NTSC colour gamut. The laptop also comes with ray-tracing capable GPU options, and 4th Gen AeroBlade 3D Technology.  Every gamer knows that the keyboard is one of the most important things when it comes to gaming and I am glad to say that the keyboard on the Triton 500 is a very comfortable keyboard.

The Triton 500 features a compact keyboard layout that comes with concave-shaped keycaps, highlighted WASD and directional keys, and three-zone RGB backlighting. This is a quiet and comfortable keyboard to use for standard typing – just as much as gaming. It performs well under pressure and reacts as it should.

In terms of connectivity options, you get the power port, one USB 3.1, one HDMI, one RJ45 LAN port, one microphone jack and one audio jack on the left edge. On the right edge, you get two USB 3.1 ports, one Thunderbolt Type-C port and one DisplayPort mini on the right edge of the device. You also get a 720p web camera on top of the display.

Under the hood, the Triton 500 comes packed with an Intel Core i7-9750-H processor running at a clock speed of 2.60GHz, 16GB of DDR4 SDRAM and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 GPU with Max-Q Design. You also get Killer DoubleShot Pro networking, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, BT 5.0, and 1TB of storage ARABIAN RESELLER | January 2020

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space. The laptop runs on Windows 10 operating system.  In order to gauge the performance of the Triton 500, we ran a bunch of benchmarks. On PCMark 10, we were able to clock 4,973 points, while on GeekBench 4 Multi-Core benchmarks, we were able to get 21,952 points. As you can see from the benchmark results, the Acer Predator Triton 50 is a very capable gaming laptop even though it features an overall slim profile.

The Triton 500 is an easy carry laptop. The performance of the laptop is very good – in fact, it did leave the competition behind a couple of times in a bunch of tasks we ran on it. If you are always on the run and require a laptop with a very good amount of performance for your gaming sessions, Photoshopping, Adobe Premiere, or using CAD software, the Acer Predator Triton 500 certainly fits the bill.

4/5

AED 857

Synology DiskStation DS218j Synology is known for quality NAS products, not just on the hardware side of things, but also the company’s excellent software ecosystem. I got to have a go at the DiskStation DS218j a couple of weeks ago and I am surprised by the overall functionality and utility of the device.

The DS218j is company’s entry-level 2-bay NAS for home and personal cloud storage. This one replaces the DS216j and you will see some familiar design cues if you have been using a DS216j. The DS218j takes in up to two drives with a storage capacity of 8TB each. When it comes to connectivity, you get one gigabit Ethernet port and two standard USB 3.0 ports at the rear of the device.

Under the hood, the Synology DiskStation DS218j is powered by a dual-core Marvell ARMADA 385 (88F6820) with a clock speed of 1.3GHz. You also get 512MB worth of DDR3 memory. Inside the device, you get enough space to fix up two 3.5-inch hard disks. You can also use 2.5-inch hard disks and SSDs through an adapter.

For this review, I used two 3.5-inch Seagate HDDs made for NAS drives and configured them to use the default Synology Hybrid Raid (SHR). What SHR does is, it allows the device to tolerate the failure of one hard disk without any data loss, but at the expense of one disk’s capacity.

Setting up the DS218j NAS is a breeze. Connect the NAS to your router and power it up. Then go to find.synology.com, which will locate the NAS on your network. If you’re using brand-new hard disks, you’ll just be able to click the big Download button to install the latest version of Synology’s DSM operating system.

However, if you’ve used your disks before in another NAS, you will need to plug them directly into your PC and use Disk Management to erase any partitions. This needs to be done in

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order to start using the hard disks with the new NAS drive. You can even connect to your NAS drive from anywhere in the world as long as the NAS is turned on and is connected to an internet connection.

This can be done using the QuickConnect ID, which can be created during setup. Just by typing quickconnect.to/ followed by your own QuickConnect ID into any web browser, you will be able to access your NAS’ interface. It’s as simple as that.

With the Synology software ecosystem, you also get the company’s brilliant Package Center that boasts of hundreds of add-on applications. In the Package Center there are many add-on packages available to expand the value and functionality of your Synology NAS. You will be able to download and install the packages designed specifically for your unique needs, whether it’s sharing files on the cloud, sharing photos on an online album, setting up a VPN environment or even an antivirus to protect your system.

Everything can be found and done in Package Center, with just a few clicks.

Software packages include Acronis True Image, Active Backup for Business, McAfee Antivirus, Apache HTTP Server, Audio Station, Synology Chat Server, LDAP Server, GitLab, Redmine, Spree, Drupal, File Station, Java8, Joomla, iTunes Server, OpenERP, WordPress, and lots more.

To check the overall performance of the Synology DiskStation DS218j, we used the CrystalDiskMark benchmark. In terms of reads, we achieved 123MB/s, while we clocked 127MB/s for writes. The Synology DiskStation DS218j is a very capable and affordable NAS drive intended for people who are just starting with setting up their own personal cloud.

PRODUCTS

Canon Launches the new EOS-1D X Mark III Canon Middle East has launched the new EOS1D X Mark III. The new DSLR comes packed with improved AF tracking performance, image quality, and communication capabilities. Canon’s new flagship camera features shooting speeds of up to 20fps with AF tracking, along with improved high ISO performance the camera achieves ‘the shot’, every time. The EOS-1D X Mark III’s AF sensor sports 28 times the centre resolution of its predecessor to address professional photographers’ need for greater accuracy and focusing on subjects in a wider range of scenarios.

What’s more, the camera offers 5.5K 12bit RAW video internal recording – the first non-cinema Canon EOS series camera to have such feature – allowing professionals to capture top-quality video as well as stills. Venkatasubramanian Hariharan, B2C Business Unit Director of Canon Middle East said, “We are proud to be announcing the launch of the EOS1D X Mark III, the masterpiece that we have been waiting for. DSLRs will continue being the pioneers of the professional photography industry especially when it comes to capturing stories that hold thrill, excitement, and the adrenaline rush of sports. Next-generation and high-quality imaging, as well as impressive focus at high speeds, will definitely unleash limitless creative opportunities and amplify storytelling.”

The EOS-1D X Mark III has been developed using feedback from the worldwide community of EOS-1D X and EOS-1D X Mark II photographers. Canon’s rich heritage in optical excellence shines through in professionals’ feedback during testing, praising the EOS-1D X Mark III’s step-change in autofocus, dramatically improved image and video quality and speedy communication abilities – all features which allow professionals to achieve breath-taking images and deliver them to clients – faster than ever before.

Acer Refreshes its Spin and Swift Series Acer debuted the new Spin 5 and Spin 3 in its popular convertible notebook as well as Swift 3 models in its ultra-portable notebook series. Professionals and students will appreciate the flexible design of the Spin series that allows them to effortlessly sketch, take notes, create content and give presentations throughout their day, all with one easy twist. The new Swift 3 series makes a perfect companion for people who work on the go, with sleek metal chassis, high screen-to-body ratio, and long-lasting batteries.

“The new Acer Spin 5 and Spin 3 are excellent choices for anyone looking for a single system that can handle work, school, entertainment and their hobbies,” said James Lin, General Manager, Commercial & Detachable Notebooks, IT Products Business, Acer Inc. “The combination of thinner and lighter form factors, thin-bezel touch displays and the latest in Active Stylus technology make the new Spin 5 and Spin 3 convertibles the ideal choices for anyone who wants to get a lot done in a variety

of modes.”

The new Spin 5 and Spin 3 feature slimmer designs that make their convertible form factors more enjoyable to use with four usage modes: tablet, notebook, display or tent. Durable 360-degree hinges allow smooth transitions between modes, so professionals and students can effortlessly change tasks.

An optional backlit keyboard extends productivity to low-light environments.

Measuring in at 0.63 inches (15.95 mm) thin and 2.62 pounds (1.19 kg), cased in an elegant metal chassis, the Swift 3 (SF313-52/G) is easy to slip in a bag and travel with. It features a narrow-bezel display that offers a high 83.65% screento-body ratio and the screen’s 3:2 aspect ratio gives 18% more room, in the form of vertical height, to read on. Further enhancing the display which supports 100% of the sRGB color space, Acer Color Intelligence and Acer ExaColor technology bring images and videos to life with eye-popping colors on the 13.5inch screen.

Nikon Launches its new FX-Format DSLR D780 Nikon Middle East has launched the new D780. This latest model, succeeding the Nikon D750, delivers amazing refinements in image quality, performance, and versatility. The new D780 sets the standard for next-generation cameras featuring an evolved autofocus (AF) system with an easy-to-view optical viewfinder and high AF precision in the low light situation.

As a result, shooting with higher accuracy is achieved with no time lag and better clarity. The D780 is further complemented by NIKKOR’s extensive selection of high-performance interchangeable F mount lenses along with improved battery life all condensed into a ARABIAN RESELLER | January 2020

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compact, high performing body.

“The D780 is a highly versatile and agile DSLR camera with significant upgrades from the well-loved D750 camera. We’ve refined the D780’s autofocus functions so that photographers can achieve higher focus accuracy when shooting both photos and videos, along with optimization in operation layout and ergonomics so that they can shoot in comfort when they are out and about. A combination of the latest technology from our newest products will also impress the owners of the D780,” said Narendra Menon, General Manager, Nikon Middle East FZE.

Insta360 Launches the ONE R Action Cam Insta360 has announced ONE R, an adaptive action cam whose unique interchangeable-lens design enables 360-degree capture, standard 4K wide-angle capture, and use of a groundbreaking 5.3K 1-inch sensor — all with a single device. The concept is simple — one battery, one processor and a selection of quick-swapping lens Mods.

In an instant, ONE R transforms from a dual-lens 360 shooter to a standard action cam. ONE R currently offers three ways to shoot with three available lens Mods — the Dual-Lens 360 Mod, the 4K Wide-Angle Mod and the 1-Inch Wide Angle Mod co-engineered with Leica.

Nokia Launches the new C1 Smartphone HMD Global has announced the Nokia C1, a smartphone designed to entertain – anytime, anywhere. Featuring an impressive 5.45-inch display, fans can watch their favourite videos and listen to music with ease.

With lighter apps and less bloatware, you are able to store up to 3,000 songs or 24 hours of videos for offline consumption, cutting down on data usage.

Combined with all-day battery life, you’ll have enough power to keep you watching, listening and talking from sunrise to sunset.

Sanmeet Kochhar, Regional Head, MENA and India at HMD Global, said, “We are absolutely delighted to launch another phone for our fans in the region

that will meet all their needs and keeps getting better with time."

The Nokia C1 is designed to deliver the brand’s hallmarks – it is durable and reliable – with outstanding battery life. Given that smartphones are an extension of their users, the Nokia C1 offers a seamless experience no matter where you may be. Fans will find it hard to put down their phones because of the stunning phone, picture quality, and intuitive functionality,” Kochhar added,

The 1-Inch Wide Angle Mod achieves the best performance ever in an action camera, combining a 1-inch sensor with the legendary optical expertise of Leica and 5.3K resolution — in a compact, rugged body backed by Insta360’s signature FlowState stabilization.

The ONE R is designed to give creators, athletes, and adventurers a single tool that can adapt to any shoot. In terms of creative freedom, nothing beats a dual-lens 360 camera. It unlocks the ability to reframe shots after the fact, ensures that users never miss the action, and enables unique techniques such as drone-like aerial angles. But for scenes in which action is concentrated in one direction, a reframed shot from a 360 camera still doesn’t achieve the same level of quality and resolution as a specialized single-lens shooter.

The Nokia C1 comes with 1GB RAM and 16 GB of internal storage and will be available in Black and Red at a retail price of AED 199.

Seagate Launches FireCuda Gaming SSD and BarraCuda Fast SSD Seagate Technology has added new high-performance external solutions to its line of storage for gamers.

The Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD and BarraCuda Fast SSD deliver elite performance and convenience for gamers and power users on the go.

Designed as the perfect companion to Seagate’s recently released FireCuda Gaming Dock, the portable FireCuda Gaming SSD delivers performance to help scorch the competition.

Purpose-built for gamers, it marries Seagate’s premium FireCuda NVMe

510 SSD and the latest cutting-edge SuperSpeed USB 20Gb/s (USB 3.2 Gen2×2) interface, delivering staggering read speeds of up to 2000MB/s.

Optimized for performance and high on style, the drive offers capacities of 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB and features a signature chisel metal enclosure with customizable RGB LED lighting.

Gamers can personalize the drive’s full-range RGB LED with the free Seagate Toolkit software and synchronize the LEDs with a FireCuda Gaming Dock, creating an immersive

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setup. Also new to the Seagate SSD line-up is the BarraCuda Fast SSD offering 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB of capacity.

Available in March 2020, the FireCuda Gaming SSD includes a five-year limited warranty and retails for $189.99 (500GB), $259.99 (1TB), and $499.99 (2TB). Seagate’s BarraCuda Fast SSD is available this February, offers a three-year limited warranty, and retails for $94.99 (500GB), $169.99 (1TB), and $299.99 (2TB).

PRODUCTS

Dell Technologies Launches New PCs and Displays Dell Technologies has unveiled new products and software across its premium Latitude, XPS and displays portfolios to help people innovate, collaborate and accomplish more in the next decade. Featuring artificial intelligence (AI), 5G and innovative design, the latest Dell Technologies’ PCs and displays make work and play more seamless, intelligent and enjoyable.

“The PC industry has never been more vibrant with built-in AI, 5G and the best design we’ve ever seen, all to help make our lives easier and more fulfilled,” said Sam Burd, president of Dell Client Solutions Group. “What’s exciting to me is that, with all of the cool news we’ll see come out of CES next week, the PC plays a central role in helping people innovate, influence and achieve more.”

“PC users have become increasingly savvy about the devices they choose for work and play, gravitating toward more premium products that emphasize good design, strong performance and intuitive technologies,” said Tom Mainelli, group vice president, Devices and Consumer, IDC. “Our research shows an increasing percentage of new employees are choosing jobs based on the devices employers offer, and both IT buyers and consumers are interested in PCs with next-generation display, connectivity, and battery technologies.”

Dell introduced the Latitude 9000 series, designed with the finest details in mind to be smaller and thinner than ever before, with a larger display and a superior experience.

The new Latitude 9510 delivers what business users seek: the longest battery life of any 15-inch business PC with a target of up to 30 hours, 5G-ready design powerful audio features and intelligent solutions that increase productivity.

OKI Outs Pro9541WT A3+ Digital Transfer Media Printer OKI Europe has announced the launch of its innovative new Pro9541WT 5-colour Digital Toner Transfer Media Printer, purpose-built to give commercial print businesses the flexibility to expand their print capabilities. Designed for the screen and textile printing industry, the versatile digital printer cost-effectively delivers brilliant colour, opaque white and true black on garments and hard surfaces using heat transfer media. With no setup time or costs, short print-runs with a minimum volume of just one, highly customised designs are now possible, making it ideal for commercial printers, merchandisers and newcomers to the market.

Generating flawless vibrant CMYK + white colour and sharp graphics on garments and textiles including cotton, canvas nylon, polyester, leather and felt, the Pro9541WT’s innovative transfer media technology makes it possible to produce high-quality designs on hard surfaces including ceramics, acrylic, glass, metal, enamel, and wood. This fuss-free flexibility makes it suitable for a

huge range of applications, from T-shirts and customised garments to mugs, hats, bags, coasters, wall art and much more.

OKI’s pioneering digital LED and white toner technologies deliver sharp 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution, creating precise, detailed graphics even on dark surfaces.

Easy to use with a large 13″ x 19″ A3+ print capability, the Pro9541WT cost-effectively produces extra-large graphics or a full sheet of logos with no daily maintenance requirement, saving time and cost on print jobs.

Tested and approved for use with the new Pro9541WT Toner Transfer Media Printer, EXOstencil Screen Prep Paper from heat transfer paper manufacturer Neenah Performance Materials offers a simple, eco-friendly two-step alternative to screen printing frames, eliminating chemicals and emulsions from the process along with hours of drying, significantly reducing production time and cost without compromising on performance.

Dynabook Launches the new Portégé X30L-G Dynabook Europe GmbH has announced the Portégé X30L-G, the “world’s lightest” 13.3-inch fully-featured business laptop with Intel 10th generation processors. Uniquely designed for portability – weighing just 870gms – yet packed with features to enhance connectivity, performance, security and user experience, the new device meets and exceeds Microsoft’s Modern Device standard, the benchmark for modern computing devices.

The Portégé X30L-G has been engineered to be the perfect companion for the modern-day professional, both in the office and on the move. Balancing mobility and durability, its magnesium chassis is incredibly light but also robust, having been carefully engineered for rigidity. Dynabook engineered the Portégé X30L-G to cover extreme environmen-

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tal variables with the MIL-STD-810G standards.

The laptop is put through the military-grade drop, temperature, humidity, and dustproof testing to demonstrate its overall robustness, ensuring it can withstand the challenging demands of today’s mobile workforce. Its Sharp-developed non-reflective 13” IGZO FHD LCD screen offers high brightness with 470NIT but with reduced power consumption compared to a standard LCD. The combination of its 14.5-hour battery life (with the IGZO screen) and a Quick Charge function which provides 4 hours’ battery on just 30 minutes charge, means that users don’t need to worry about conserving battery while on the move.