Arabian Reseller - July-August 2020

JULY-AUGUST 2020 Vol. 2. Issue 7.

www.arabianreseller.com

AN AGENDA FOR

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

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CONTENTS 

06 07 08 10 12 14 16 

18 22 24

NEWS

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Qualys Acquires Software Assets of Spell Security ROG Announces World’s First HDMI 2.1-Certified with 4K 120Hz Gaming Monitor AOC’s AGON AG493UCX Curved Monitor Offers an Immersive Gaming Experience

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Aster Selects Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Converged Infrastructure for New Hospital in UAE Frost & Sullivan Presents Top Sensor Technologies Impacting the Future of Smart Cities NetApp Updates its Unified Partner Program CyberKnight Partners with YL Cyber & Cloud Consulting to Expand into Sub-Saharan Africa

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F E AT U R E S T H I S M O N T H An Agenda for Digital Transformation

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Keeping Up With a Progressing Market is Key to Success

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SonicWall Helps MAGRABI Hospitals & Centers Match Up With Emerging Tech Trends

Enabling Your Remote Workforce Under Increased External Pressures The Rise of eSports Has Made Gaming Accessible and Attractive

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ARABIAN RESELLER | July - August 2020

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EDITORIAL

JULY - AUGUST 2020

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

SALES AND MARKETING Ranbir Sen ranbir@ryshamedia.com

CHRIS N. FERNANDO EDITOR IN CHIEF

Digital Transformation is the Need of the Hour

Digital transformation has become more urgent than ever. It is time for the government, enterprises and society to invest more intensively in digital technology. In response to travel bans, lockdowns, as well as containment measures and quarantines, people are turning to online shopping, e-learning and social media to maintain some semblance of normality.

At the same time, aggressive social distancing mandates means companies, educational institutions and other organisations are harnessing digital technology to collaborate and operate more effectively. Ultimately, those that aren’t on a digital transformation journey risk losing revenue, market share and the best employees.

However, before beginning digital transformation, organisations must identify their end goal. Beyond the clear need to remain competitive and improve market share, some companies may choose to digitally transform so they can serve their customers better, by introducing new products or services. Others may digitise to streamline internal processes or free up their employees’ time to do less mundane tasks.

Companies should take the time to outline these desired outcomes, as this will define the sort of digital strategy they should be creating. In

our cover story this month, industry experts speak about the scale of digital transformation underway in the region, the opportunities for both vendors and partners in this area, why partnerships are key to the success of digital transformation initiatives, and more.

Companies need to take a few factors into consideration, including understanding the pulse of the remote workforce, extending the reach of their supply chain, automating core tasks for business continuity, and more. There are also other areas where digital technologies can make a significant positive impact include Telehealth, Remote Learning, and Virtual Conferencing.

Even though the COVID-19 is first and foremost a public health emergency, it has become a significant labour market and economic threat. And, it is calling for urgent, large-scale and coordinated measures to protect workers in the workplace, stimulate the economy and employment, and support jobs and incomes.

Digitalisation is a critical enabler of agility, flexibility, and innovation. These in turn build resilience into individuals, businesses and economies. Technology is not a panacea in any situation.

But when applied strategically it can support, amplify, and catalyse human talent, dedication, and leadership.

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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

Qualys Acquires Software Assets of Spell Security

Cybercriminals Cashing-In On Users Adjusting to a Covidian World ESET has released its Q2 2020 Threat Report, summarizing key statistics from ESET detection systems and highlighting notable examples of ESET’s cybersecurity research, including exclusive, previously unpublished ESET research updates.

Threats related to the COVID-19 crisis defined the cybersecurity landscape in the second quarter of 2020, the Q2 2020 Threat Report shows.

Qualys has announced it acquired the software assets of Spell Security, an endpoint detection and response start-up. This acquisition further strengthens Qualys’ security and threat research, advances endpoint behavior detection capabilities, and brings rich telemetry to the Qualys Cloud Platform. In addition, Spell’s deep knowledge of threat hunting and adversary techniques provides unique defense capabilities and analysis addressing the multi-vector threats customers are now faced with.

“The entire Spell Security team and I are thrilled to be part of such a pioneering and innovative cybersecurity company. Qualys’ approach to delivering a unified cloud platform with all the information needed for protection, detection and response at your fingertips is well ahead of anything we’ve seen. This groundbreaking approach allows expert Threat Hunters, who are in great demand, to respond more effectively to the most sophisticated attacks. Thus, drastically reducing the time to respond,” said Rajesh Mony, founder and CTO of Spell Security. “We look forward to continuing to bring new technologies and capabilities to the Qualys Cloud Platform and its new integrated Multi-Vector EDR offering.”

As with all Qualys acquisitions, key Spell Security employees have joined Qualys, including founder Rajesh Mony as CTO, Malware Detection Solutions.

The Spell Security team has a very strong background in threat hunting and breach investigations, which enables them to incorporate this experience directly into a powerful EDR platform built from the threat hunter’s point of view. The Spell Security Platform will help Qualys Multi-Vector EDR customers

with: • Deep malware threat research and reverse engineering expertise • Additional niche agent data-collection techniques to detect malicious activities • Continuous collection of host telemetry as well as MITRE-based detections across the endpoints through powerful in-house security and threat research • Ability to automatically correlate telemetry with the context of historical threat events through a powerful anomaly detection and reporting engine • Incident investigation and response instrumentation based on threat models With native integration of Spell Security hunting and reporting capabilities on the Qualys platform, Qualys Multi-Vector EDR will enable security teams to detect and hunt for high fidelity threats, gain the full context of the attack path with powerful correlation of all security vectors for investigation and prioritization of security incidents, and respond appropriately to eliminate the root cause of the incident.

“Spell Security delivers outstanding malware and threat research capabilities, front line experience investigating security incidents and data breaches, and powerful triage-driven threat hunting capabilities,” said Philippe Courtot, chairman and CEO of Qualys.

“Adding their technology to the Qualys Cloud Platform enables us to further strengthen our security and threat research, advanced endpoint behavior detection and provide customers with enhanced telemetry for even greater visibility, which helps them respond to threats more quickly. We welcome Spell Security to the Qualys family.”

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“Our telemetry showed a continued influx of COVID-19 lures in web and email attacks, as well as an increase in attacks targeting Remote Desktop Protocol, with persistent attempts to establish RDP connections more than doubling since the beginning of the year,” comments Roman Kováč, ESET Chief Research Officer.

The ESET Q2 2020 Threat Report reviews the most important findings and achievements by ESET researchers. For example, they analyzed a ransomware operation targeting Android users in Canada under the guise of a COVID-19 tracing app. “We quickly put a halt to this operation and provided a decryptor for victims,” says Roman Kováč.

Among many other findings, ESET researchers uncovered Operation In(ter) ception, which targeted high-profile aerospace and military companies; revealed the modus operandi of the elusive InvisiMole group; and dissected Ramsay, a cyberespionage toolkit targeting air‑gapped networks.

Some exclusive research presented in the Q2 2020 Threat Report includes malicious Google Chrome extensions targeting hardware wallets for cryptocurrencies, a renewed targeted attack on a Hong Kong university by the Winnti Group, as well as further targeted attacks on high-profile defense- and military-focused companies in Brazil, Czech Republic, Qatar, Turkey, and Ukraine by the attackers behind Operation In(ter) ception.

Besides these findings, the ESET Q2 2020 Threat Report also provides an overview of ESET’s contributions to the MITRE ATT&CK knowledge base, as well as invitations to upcoming ESET conference talks and workshops.

NEWS

ROG Announces World’s First HDMI 2.1-Certified with 4K 120Hz Gaming Monitor

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) has announced that its upcoming 43-inch gaming monitor is the first monitor to receive HDMI 2.1 certification. The monitor has passed all compatibility and validation tests conducted by leading Allion Labs, Inc — an international company specialising in product testing.

leading test lab in the world, it’s our mission to assure products or services before they are launched. We are thrilled to be part of the success of ROG and this groundbreaking gaming monitor,” said Brian Shih, Vice President of Logo & HW Validation Consulting at Allion Labs.

The new ROG monitor is compatible with next-generation consoles, with HDMI 2.1 giving it a full bandwidth of up to 48 Gbps to support 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) visuals at variable refresh rates of up to 120 Hz. Auto Low Latency also enables the game console to control the processing mode of the display, prioritising low latency or processing quality depending on the content. Allion Labs subjected the monitor to stringent Fixed Rate Link (FRL) tests, including FRL Electrical, FRL Pixel Decoding, and FRL Protocol tests, to ensure full compatibility with upcoming HDMI 2.1 devices.

With the impending arrival of next-generation gaming consoles later this year, ROG has an entire series of HDMI 2.1 gaming monitors for the holiday season. These monitors are available in 27-, 32- and 43-inch models. As one of the world’s leading gaming monitor brands, ROG constantly pushes boundaries to provide gamers with the most advanced display technologies for breathtaking gaming visuals.

“ROG is the first partner to provide a HDMI 2.1 gaming monitor for certification. As a

ROG was the first in the world to offer gamers the ROG Swift PG258Q 240 Hz gaming monitor, ROG Swift PG43UQ 4K 144 Hz Digital Stream Compression (DSC) gaming monitor and ROG Swift 360 Hz gaming monitor.

Nutanix Named a Leader in Hyperconverged Infrastructure Nutanix, Inc. has announced it has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Hyperconverged Infrastructure, Q3 2020, published by Forrester Research, Inc. The report evaluated 11 HCI vendors on Current Offering, Market Presence, and Strategy, and Nutanix was positioned as a leader with among the highest scores across these three categories. Nutanix believes these results are consistent with additional independent market research from other firms, all of which conclude that Nutanix is an undisputed leader in the fast-growing HCI market and possesses an impressive strategy that is driving innovation in the datacenter and cloud markets.

“Our focus at Nutanix has always been to make computing invisible, starting with the datacenter and now expanding to clouds as we move to an increasingly hybrid and multicloud world,” said Dheeraj Pandey, Co-founder and CEO of Nutanix. “This unwavering focus has driven our position as a leader in the market, as we have enabled our customers to be resilient, prepared, and productive. This pandemic underscores the importance of technology companies that obsess over their customers and their needs, including real-time business continuity, handsfree IT, and lift-n-shift to either private or public clouds.”

The Forrester Wave report ranked Nutanix as a leader and recognized it for its vision to serve enterprise IT beyond HCI, with its position atop the HCI market maintained with its innovation, R&D investment, sales momentum, partnerships, and acquisition of new customers from all segments and geographies.

ASUS Middle East Announces Premium 5-Year Warranty for ProArt Z490-CREATOR 10G Motherboard ASUS has announced that every ASUS ProArt Z490-CREATOR 10G motherboard sold in Europe, Middle East, and Africa now come with an extended 5-year warranty. Every motherboard purchased on or after May 20 is eligible for the 5-year warranty. In addition, ASUS ProArt PA and PQ series displays that were purchased on or after January 1, 2020, are also eligible for the extended warranty program, upon registration.

For more information about the ProArt display extended warranty, please visit https://www.asus.com/events/infoM/

activity_proart5years.

Designed for round-the-clock operation, ASUS ProArt Z490Z-CREATOR 10G is put through a 168-hour stress test, during which it is subjected to temperatures of up to 45° C and up to 80% humidity to ensure 24/7 reliability, even in extreme environments. The new 5-year extended warranty provides consumers complete peace of mind when making their purchase.

ASUS ProArt Z490-CREATOR 10G packs

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everything a professional creator or software developer needs, with the added bonus of additional connectivity features. The I/O panel features two Thunderbolt 3 USB‑C ports that offer a total of up to 40 Gbps of aggregate interface bandwidth, four USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A connectors that support speeds of up to 10 Gbps, and two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports offering speeds of up to 5 Gbps. There’s also a 2.5 Gb Ethernet controller and a 10 Gb Ethernet card for superfast networking performance.

NEWS

AOC’s AGON AG493UCX Curved Monitor Offers an Immersive Gaming Experience

While there are lots of gaming monitors available in the market with a 21:9 aspect ratio, only a few offer wider monitors featuring a 32:9 or 32:10 ratio. AOC is one of the brand that offers 32:9 monitors, with its gamer-focused AGON AG493UCX. AGON – An Ancient Greek word for competition, struggle, and antagonism, also used to describe the Olympic Games, which featured the best athletes of their time. In 2016, in the very same spirit of competition, AOC launched AGON – the premium line of gaming monitors for the most demanding gamers.

The AGON AG493UCX is built using a 5120×1440 Dual QHD 5K panel that features 1800R curvature. This essentially means that the display offers the same number of pixels and screen real estate as two 27-inch QHD LCDs. Now, that’s excellent for an immersive gaming experience since you get a total screen real estate of 49-inches!

Other specifications of the monitor include a max luminance of 550 nits, a 3000:1 contrast ratio, 178º/178º vertical/ horizontal viewing angles, a 1 ms MPRT response time, and a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. The monitor can display 121% of the sRGB or 93% of the DCI-P3 color gamuts.

What’s more, the monitor also features an excellent 1ms response time and its bezel measures just 2.2mm.

Perfect for movies and gaming, the 5K display delivers immaculate clarity for

even the most pixel-packed visuals.

Images and videos look even more gorgeous with Picture-by-Picture (PBP), which technically splits the screen into two.

Since this monitor is aimed at gamers and entertainment enthusiasts, the AOC AGON AG493UCX supports VESA Adaptive-Sync variable refresh rate technology, It is also certified by AMD for its FreeSync Speaking of certifications, the display also carries VESA’s DisplayHDR 400 badge.

The AGON AG493UCX is a premium gaming monitor which comes with multiple display inputs, including two DisplayPort 1.4 inputs, two HDMI 2.0 ports, and one USB Type-C port with a 65-W Power Delivery. It also comes packed with a triple-port USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A hub.

In addition, it has built-in 5 W speakers and a headphone output. Another advantage of the AGON AG493UCX is its stand that can adjust its height, tilt, and swivel. This is a very rare feature on large displays. The monitor also comes with lots of gaming aimed features.

The Dial Point function is specially designed for first person shooting (FPS) gamers. Here, a fixed, custom crosshair is placed at the center of the screen to help with accuracy and focus. The Frame Counter meanwhile shows how many Frames Per Second (FPS) you are getting in a corner of the screen in your gameplay.

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You also get a Game Mode, which takes out all the hassles our of adjusting the monitor settings every time you load up a new game. The AOC Game Mode allows quick adjustment and pre-designed setups (tailored for different genres) to enhance the gaming experience.

With AOC Game Color, you can adjust color saturation and grey levels across 20 levels of detail for a better game experience. Delight in more vivid MMORPG scenes, more intense FPS action, and better MOBA character details.

The AOC Shadow Control enables fast contrast adjustment of the in-game image. It improves areas of the screen that are too dark or washed out without affecting the rest of the screen. The monitor’s Flicker Free technology uses a smooth backlight system to prevent monitor flickering. This reduces eye strain and other damaging effects to your eyes – an especially valuable feature when working overtime, gaming for long hours or watching movies.

NEWS

Mimecast Redefines Phish Testing and Training with SAFE Phish

Aster Selects Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Converged Infrastructure for New Hospital in UAE

Mimecast Limited has announced an industry changing capability that will allow customers to launch live phishing simulations. Known as SAFE Phish, it’s designed to let security teams create training exercises using real-life, de-weaponized campaigns that target their organizations and employees. Training results are engineered to be incorporated into the Mimecast SAFE Score dashboard, which is designed to aggregate data to gauge a company’s security posture. Organizations have an opportunity to re-define the way overall risk is measured as a result.

“Replicating genuine phishing attacks for training purposes has historically been challenging,” said Michael Madon, SVP and GM of Mimecast Security Awareness Products. “With SAFE Phish technology, end-users can safely be exposed to real-life, de-weaponized phishing attacks to make training more effective and provide a data-driven picture of which employees are most at risk. Our research has shown that end-users who have taken Mimecast Awareness Training are 5.2 times less likely to click on dangerous links. We’re very excited about how SAFE Phish simulations can further help increase the impact of our security awareness solution.”

Because SAFE Phish results act as a security feed, data from phish testing can be incorporated into the Mimecast SAFE Score dashboard, which is designed to calculate individual user risk using four factors – engagement, knowledge, sentiment, and bad URL clicks. Data is also aggregated to provide an overall organizational risk assessment.

“SAFE Phish and the SAFE Score dashboard are designed to work together to transform the way risk is measured,” said Mandy McKenzie, director of product management for Mimecast Awareness Training. “Security teams can get a more complete view of risk at both the individual and organizational level and also benchmark their performance against peers in their industries or geographical regions. Using that information, they can take a more proactive approach to addressing potential issues, from applying new security controls or assigning additional training to their riskiest users.”

“Mimecast SAFE Phish is engineered to provide welcome capabilities at a time when streamlining and automating processes has become a huge focus for CISOs and their teams,” Madon said. “We’re very excited about our expanded ability to keep organizations and their end-users safe during a particularly challenging time.”

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise has announced that Aster DM Healthcare has deployed a converged wired-wireless LAN and Unified Communications solution from Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise in its new Aster hospital in Sonapur, UAE. The implementation is in line with Aster DM Healthcare’s strategy to adopt a cloud-based approach and optimise IT spending across its multi-specialty hospitals.

Aster DM Healthcare is one of the largest private healthcare service providers operating across the Middle East. With a strong focus on clinical excellence, Aster is one of the few entities in the region with a strong presence across primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary healthcare through its 25 hospitals, 117 clinics and 238 pharmacies in the UAE. With IT playing a critical role in empowering healthcare professionals with access to the information needed to make crucial decisions, Aster is focusing on strengthening its IT infrastructure, in part with the implementation of a converged network infrastructure in its new multi-specialty hospital that includes a special 55-bed COVID-19 treatment facility.

“It is important for us to have a solid network foundation to support 24/7 operations across our health- care facilities. Providing our staff with fast access to patient records, critical healthcare applications and the means

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to communicate securely and efficiently is one of our primary priorities,” says Dr. Sherbaz Bichu, CEO, Aster Hospitals – UAE. “We are already familiar with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise solutions and services, since we use them in other facilities across the UAE, and we appreciate the level of engagement and exceptional post-deployment support we receive. Our new special 55-bed COVID-19 treatment facility was made operational in record time, which is impressive.”

At the heart of this converged network infrastructure is the Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista 2500 Network Management System (NMS), which is tailored to provide Aster’s IT team with a single-paneof-glass management platform. It also delivers the ability to monitor network traffic and critical functions and manage the end-to-end network from a web- based user interface.

“All IoT healthcare facility devices are connected centrally and data is seamlessly integrated with the hospital’s information system to form a central data repository for data processing and management.

This makes the data access and retrieval efficient, which in turn results in our doctors being able to access patient records, conduct procedures and deliver holistic management and treatment in a timely manner, there- by improving the quality of patient care we provide at Aster,” adds Dr. Sherbaz.

NEWS

Kaspersky Expands its Product Portfolio for Security Researchers

Kaspersky sandboxing technology is now available for use in customer networks. The on-premises Kaspersky Research Sandbox is designed for organizations with strict restrictions on data sharing, to enable them to build their internal security operations centers (SOCs) or computer emergency response teams (CERTs). The solution helps them to detect and analyze targeted threats while also being sure that all the examined files are kept inside the organization.

Last year, about half (48%) of enterprises in META region (Middle East, Turkey, Africa) experienced a targeted attack, a Kaspersky survey of IT decision makers revealed. These threats are often designed to only work in a specific context within the victim’s organization: for example, a file may perform nothing malicious until an exact application is opened, or unless a user scrolls through the document. In addition, some files can identify that they are not in the end-user environment – for instance, if there is no sign that anybody is working on the endpoint – and won’t run the malicious code. However, as a SOC usually receives numerous security alerts, analysts cannot manually investigate all of them to identify which one is the most dangerous.

To help companies analyze advanced threats more accurately and timely, Kaspersky’s sandboxing technologies can now be implemented inside a customer’s organization. The Kaspersky Research Sandbox emulates the organization’s system with random parameters (such as user and computer name, IP address, etc.) and imitates an actively-used environment, so that malware cannot distinguish that it is running on a virtual machine.

Kaspersky Research Sandbox has evolved from the internal sandboxing complex used by the company’s own anti-malware researchers. Now these technologies are available for customers as an isolated on-premises installation. Therefore, all the analyzed files will not leave the company perimeter, making the solution suitable for organizations with tight data sharing restrictions.

Kaspersky Research Sandbox has a special API for integration with other security solutions, so that a suspicious file can be automatically sent for analysis.

The results of analysis can also be exported to a SOC’s task management system. This automation of repetitive tasks cuts down the time required for incident investigation.

Kaspersky Research Sandbox can be integrated with Kaspersky Private Security Network. It allows organizations to not only gain insights on an object’s behavior, but also receive information on the reputation of downloaded files or URLs the malware communicated with from the Kaspersky threat intelligence database installed within a customer’s data center.

Frost & Sullivan Presents Top Sensor Technologies Impacting the Future of Smart Cities

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, Opportunities of Emerging Sensor Technologies Impacting the Future of Smart Cities, reports that digitization and advancements in Internet of Things (IoT) are driving the largescale adoption of sensor technologies across cities. Combined with key enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and highspeed internet networks, integrated sensor networks in cities are driving the creation of a connected city ecosystem to enable the optimal use of public resources. The scope of the research includes acoustic, lidar, radar, 3D camera sensors, environmental sensors, flow sensors, gas sensors, and humidity and temperature sensors and also addresses adoption scenarios in key smart cities across the globe.

“The need for a smart city is primarily driven by a requirement for a safe, secure, and sustainable environment that allows for effective population management while providing services to citizens in a satisfactory manner,” said Krithika Shekar, TechVision Senior Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “An integrated sensor system aids in establishing a seamlessly interconnected network with an anchor application and a centralized platform. Such a sensor network established for one purpose, such as street lighting, can enable several other connected applications, such as environment monitoring, public safety, and waste management. A centralized network will help reduce duplicated capital costs and eliminates the need for several individual complex networks.”

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“Major investments by top smart city governments in Singapore, New York, and Tokyo show rapid pace of adoption of smart solutions. The rise of smart cities has not only created growth opportunities for sensor makers, but has also accelerated the adoption of several supporting technologies such as 5G, robots, AI, and edge computing, creating endless growth opportunities for smart city applications.”

For further growth opportunities, smart cities should leverage the following sensor technologies: •

•

•

•

Electronic sensors are deployed in environmental surveillance sensors and speedometer sensors which are typically used in smart cities to carry out a variety of tasks, such as monitoring power and current levels for fault detection.

Infrared sensors aid in unbiased data generation in dynamic and unstable environments, which can help with decision-making in smart cities. Radar sensors are useful in utilizing complex computer data to analyze crucial archaeological site information.

Thermal sensors perform accurate tracking of energy distribution, while other smart sensors enable management of demand-side energy. As such, smart grid sensors help improve energy efficiency.

Proximity and lidar sensors can aid development of automated vehicle systems, which is critical to making a city completely smart.

CHANNE L TALK

NetApp Updates its Unified Partner Program

Help AG Partners with CrowdStrike

NetApp has updated its Unified Partner Program to complement and align with its partners’ business capabilities and models. NetApp’s award-winning partner program will be simplified and expanded to deliver a consistent program experience, enable digital transformation for customers, accelerate partner profitability, and provide partners with a predictable business environment.

“As a channel driven organization, NetApp is committed to enabling our partners in the Middle East with the necessary tools to help grow the business. The enhanced Program recognizes partners based on demonstrated expertise and their ability to accelerate the customers’ digital transformation efforts,” said Kristian Kerr, VP Partner Org EMEA, NetApp. “At a time when business continuity and sustainability is key for customers, partners have access to our strong solutions portfolio which gives them an edge in helping customers deal with rapid changes in their business. It gives partners the right motivation to drive customers to build their data fabric architecture and create business opportunities while optimising costs and operations.”

Enhancements to the Unified Partner Program in NetApp FY’21 will: •

•

•

•

Simplify. NetApp will unify contracts and agreements; streamline guides and policies; offer fewer, more focused, deal-based incentive programs; and offer growth attainment rebate programs.

Expand. NetApp will provide Registered Partners with access to more information, communications, enablement, and training. The updates will also include bringing Cloud First Partners into the NetApp Unified Partner Program and expanding NetApp Learning Services training programs for cloud partners and service providers. NetApp will also expand and update its specializations with new content and benefits, including the addition of SAP and XaaS (“anything as a service”).

Invest. NetApp will continue to invest in tools that make business planning and incentive management and measurement simpler and more collaborative for partners. It will offer a bigger payout in its New Account Incentive Program and allow rebates to be paid faster through the Run to NetApp Incentive Program. NetApp also launched a new Tech Refresh Incentive Program that helps partners take advantage of the extensive NetApp installed base.

Differentiate. NetApp now organizes partners

by Registered, Gold, Platinum, and Star program levels. The program will showcase partners with specific and focused specializations, highlighting partners who provide services across key focus areas, including XaaS, implementation, support, cloud, foundation, hybrid cloud, and converged infrastructure.

With the protection of endpoint devices being a prime concern for businesses as they adapt to increased remote working in the new normal, Help AG, the cybersecurity arm of Etisalat Digital, today announced its partnership with CrowdStrike Inc., a leader in cloud-delivered endpoint protection. As a member of the CrowdStrike Elevate Partner Program, Help AG will offer the award-winning CrowdStrike Falcon platform for comprehensive, real-time endpoint protection to businesses in the Middle East, with an initial focus on organisations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

just detecting malware to stopping breaches before they occur,” explained Berner. Commenting on the synergy between the two companies, he said, “CrowdStrike Falcon is unique in that it is a truly stand-alone solution that perfectly integrates with technologies from several of our other market-leading vendor partners. This enhances Help AG’s value-proposition and enables us to offer a comprehensive cybersecurity solution that delivers instant visibility and protection across the enterprise and prevents attacks on endpoints, whether they are on or off the network.”

In recent months, the uptake of cloud-based technologies has been accelerated in the region, owing to the urgent need for the rapid, remote deployment of advanced IT solutions as businesses strive to maintain continuity by enhancing their digital footprint and services. Highlighting the region’s growing acceptance and appetite for cloud-delivered services, Gartner estimates that public cloud services revenue in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) will total nearly $3 billion this year. “This partnership with CrowdStrike aligns with Help AG’s cloud-first strategy and offers our customers near-instant access to one of the industry’s highest-rated endpoint detection and response solutions with no upfront CapEx,” said Stephan Berner, chief executive officer at Help AG.

CrowdStrike Falcon unifies next-generation antivirus (NGAV), endpoint detection and response (EDR), cyber threat intelligence, managed threat hunting capabilities and security hygiene via a single, lightweight agent that is cloud-managed and delivered.

The benefits of this unified and lightweight approach include immediate time-to-value, better performance, reduced cost and complexity, and better protection that goes beyond detecting malware to stop breaches before they occur.

“Today’s sophisticated attacks leverage exploits, zero days, and hard-to-detect methods such as credential theft and vulnerabilities that are already part of the victim’s environment.

CrowdStrike provides a powerful, and an intelligent solution that is simple to deploy and that goes beyond

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In addition to offering consultancy and implementation services for the full spectrum of CrowdStrike’s offerings, Help AG will utilise the Falcon platform within its own Cybersecurity Operations Centre (CSOC) for the further advancement of its Incident Response capabilities. Falcon Insight – the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) component of the platform – provides remote visibility across endpoints throughout an organisation’s IT environment, enabling instant access to the ‘who, what, when, where and how’ of an attack.

CHANNE L TALK

VAD Technologies Partners with SIMPLIFAI

CyberKnight Partners with YL Cyber & Cloud Consulting to Expand into Sub-Saharan Africa

Simplifai has announce its entry into the Middle Eastern market through a strategic partnership with VAD Technologies. As part of the agreement VAD will promote Simplifai’s solutions through its extensive network of channel partners across the Middle East.

This Partnership will allow VAD and its channel partners to offer a new generation of business process automation tools to tackle customer engagement and case handling processes, hitting key challenges in the financial, banking and insurance industries.

Simplifai is an artificial intelligence (AI) automation company, creating digital employees that allow any business to leverage the power of AI in their everyday processes and workflows. The company’s solutions target work processes with high volumes of free-text communication through chat, email, web portals or documents.

Bård Myrstad, CEO of Simplifai, said, “We’re really excited about this partnership which aligns perfectly with our global expansion strategy. Together with VAD, we look forward to creating value for their channel partners and customers and to introduce our product portfolio to the general Middle Eastern market.”

VAD Technologies is a prominent IT and Technology value added distributor headquartered in Dubai, renowned for providing customers with high-performance enterprise solutions. Mario M. Veljovic, General Manager at VAD Technologies, said, “Constantly scouting disruptive next generation technologies means opening up new Business Opportunities for our Partners to support their Clients competitiveness. Simplifai’s AI Technology perfectly supports our Mission and adds something revolutionary to our already comprehensive Technology portfolio. We are extremely proud to partner with Simplifai to develop the Middle East region.”

According to IDC, sub-Saharan Africa’s ICT market is predicted to grow from $95.4 billion in 2020 to $104.2 billion by 2023. While cybercrime remains one of the greatest threats to Africa, sub-Saharan nations lose millions of dollars to cyberattacks each year. Multiple organizations struggle with the high cost of cyber security products, limited budgets, resource scarcity, lack of sufficient tools and awareness programs.

There is a big divide in the adaptation of technology and cyber security between sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa/the Middle East regions.

To address challenges and needs specific to the threat landscape in sub-Saharan Africa, CyberKnight has strategically aligned with YL Cyber & Cloud Consulting to focus initially on three portfolio vendors: Flashpoint – Trusted Intelligence; PhishRod – Security Training, Awareness and Anti-Phishing; and Valimail – Email Fraud Protection, Anti-Spoofing and Guaranteed DMARC Enforcement.

“As technology adoption continues to rise in Africa and more people have access to the internet, the number of cyberattacks continue to grow exponentially. While phishing remains the number one attack

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vector for successful data breaches, email security became one of the biggest concerns across the sub-Saharan region. In addition, social media fraud, account takeover, and social engineering threats have become a serious concern over the past few years. Through the strategic partnership with CyberKnight we aim to bring a unique set of cybersecurity platforms to help local organizations tackle today’s data breaches”, commented Yaadhna Singh-Gounden, Director at YL Cyber & Cloud Consulting.

“Africa has been among the fastest growing parts of the world in terms of cybercrime activities. So, we are excited to accelerate our African expansion plans, by joining forces with YL Cyber & Cloud Consulting to bring our market-leading Zero Trust Security-focused solutions to the region, to augment local organizations’ cybersecurity postures, boost resilience and build capacity. Having worked with Yaadhna before to successfully develop and close many cybersecurity projects in Africa, we are confident that this strategic partnership will allow us to leverage her strong partner ecosystem in the region and fuel our growth in Africa”, commented Avinash Advani, Founder & CEO at CyberKnight.

Unite your data.

Unify your vision.

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Š 2020 NetApp, Inc. All Rights Reserved. NETAPP, the NETAPP logo, and the marks listed at http://www.netapp.com/TM are trademarks of NetApp, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

COVE R STORY

AN AGENDA FOR

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Arabian Reseller speaks to industry experts who explain why digital transformation has become more urgent than ever As the COVID-19 epidemic continues to unfold across the world, political, bureaucratic and business leaders are coming to a common conclusion: Digital transformation has become more urgent than ever. It is time for the government, enterprises and society to invest more intensively in digital technology.

The reason behind such a call is simple. COVID-19, today, has already reoriented our relationship to the outside world and to one another. In response to travel bans, lockdowns, as well as containment measures

and quarantines, people are turning to online shopping, e-learning and social media to maintain some semblance of normality.

At the same time, aggressive social distancing mandates means companies, educational institutions and other organisations are harnessing digital technology to collaborate and operate more effectively. Organisations that were hesitant to invest in digitalisation because things were going reasonably well must review their stance now for business continuity and to mitigate the business impact of COVID-19. Or they risk

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their very survival.

The Current Scenario So is digital transformation underway in the region? “Yes, by all means and our partners are excited to understand how they can provide customers with the right DX solutions. Moreover, customers are even eager to understand what vendors and partners have to offer,” explains Maya Zakhour, the Channel Director for MEA, Italy and Spain at NetApp. “DX initiatives, however, are at different levels and stages. Some customers choose to go all the way with their DX efforts by deploying

data analytics and AI to their implementations, while some stop at simply digitizing their data.”

According to IDC, investments in digital transformation and innovation will account for 30% of all IT spending in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) by 2024. “So there is huge opportunity for vendors and partners, and both need to have their strategies in place to make the most out of these opportunities. If we look at the popularity of video conferencing today for example, imagine where all this data is being stored, retrieved and used. If not accessible at the right time, with the right information, that data is not of much use. Hence, we see huge opportunity from a data management vendor perspective, NetApp and our partners are well prepared to meet it,” Zakhour further adds.

Amin Hanafieh, the Country Manager for UAE at VMware, says that digital transformation is most certainly under way and gathering greater momentum, particularly in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. “The rest of the GCC is also making good strides and in North Africa I can say that Egypt is taking a lead. Across the region, many governments are paving the way and encouraging the deployment of the latest technology. Here in the UAE, the government is committed to going digital as part of the country’s ambitious diversification and development plans. Increasingly, private organisations also understand the need to digitally transform in order to compete effectively and seize opportunities afforded by the modern digital age,” he adds.

Hanafieh adds that he has seen an increase in demand across sectors, but especially in education and healthcare for digital workspace solutions including VMware Workspace One platform. “This allows organizations to provide their staff with immediate access to an entire set of business applications with seamless and secure access to all cloud and data center apps, including Horizon virtual desktops and applications as needed based on job functions,” he says.

Over the past two years, Jumbo

Group implemented various phases of digital transformation within the company such as rolling out a new CRM, upgraded warehouse management, last mile delivery solutions, as well as major transformation on its back-end ERP for transaction system.

“We have also implemented Robotic Process Automation (RPA), cloud based call centre solutions and ITSM (IT Services Management) solution.

The biggest challenge we faced is managing change, getting employees to unlearn the old habits and adopt new best practices. The other major challenge was to get people to reimagine the new way of working and then derive benefits out of the system in terms of better services, improved efficiency and growth,” adds Arvind Agrawal, CEO of Jumbo Group.

There are immense opportunities for vendors and partners with regards to digital transformation. “Traditional processes are being replaced with digital processes, and work models are being revised and implemented.

With evolving technologies, more time is being dedicated to development, as technologies are increasing workflow efficiencies, reducing errors and increasing flexibility and performance. Digital Transformation implemented has also increased the satisfaction for beneficiaries, in turn improving viability for investments,” explains Mutaz Al Hersh, Business Development Manager – KSA & Jordan at Kingston Technology.

According to Vijay Jaswal, CTO, Middle East & Turkey, Software AG, digitalization is not a choice anymore – in fact it forms the core of the region’s agenda. “Speaking of the GCC, Dubai continues to be at the forefront of transformation with several digitization efforts led by the Smart Dubai, Dubai’s Smart City projects continue to see movement in line with the city’s commitment of making it the happiest and smartest city. Additionally, the city’s AI roadmap continues to accelerate through several projects,” he says.

The opportunity for digital transformation is to shift the business from being product centric into becoming a technology business that is built around the delivery of customer 19

outcomes. “For this, you need to have a solid business transformation strategy. Choosing a right technology partner is the key to digital transformation, one that has the best assets and capabilities to help reshape the customer’s business and technology drive. There are some world class technology vendors that are present in the region who are capable of providing strong solutions and services to help the region into its digital transformation needs. There are a host of industries that are working towards their business and digital transformation including, Oil & Gas, Healthcare, Education, Manufacturing, Financial services, and we see great opportunities to work with them along with our vendor partners,” says Avinash Gujje, Practice Head – Infrastructure, Cloud Box Technologies.

Barriers to Adoption According to a global survey by McKinsey & Company (October 2018), 80% of the companies surveyed had taken on digital transformation efforts over the last five years. While an earlier study carried out by the research firm showed a whopping 66% failure rate, the new study shows an even higher failure rate. According to Jaswal the top pitfalls that hinder a succesul digital transformation are the lack of business objective and a disconnected strategy and execution, absence of success measurement metrics, a rigid approach to delivery, lack of young blood in the transformation journey, and fighting culture and collaboration.

A poor or non-existent DX strategy coupled with lack of skills, investment costs and executive buy-in are some key barriers to the adoption of a DX. Decision makers need to truly understand that power of DX and build their strategy to reap the benefit in the future. “DX is based on what customers want to achieve from their initiative. The DX concept is still vague to some who don’t fully understand its benefits. Some businesses simply look at DX as digitizing documents or archiving information. DX is beyond this and some companies that have a proper strategy in place have incorporated cloud, AI and ML to fully utilize their DX initiative,” says Zakhour.

According to Zakhour, a key concern for businesses, however, lies in understanding which vendor to work with as each vendor has a different narrative, a different technology, and different approach. “Cloud adoption is a concern for businesses, so we advise a hybrid cloud model to have more control over their data. The Data Fabric empowers our customers with secure access to their cloud data the same way as it is on-prem. While we see a decrease in on-prem solution, it still is a popular choice,” she explains.

Hanafieh also says that the biggest barriers to adoption of digital transformation strategies are lock-in with legacy solutions, disagreement amongst management team about technology investments, and a fear of losing control by migrating to the cloud. “When organizations look at the positive impact digital transformation can have on every aspect of their operations, they will realise that the perceived barriers are worth breaking down,” he adds.

“One of the obstacles is there are several companies that are yet to embark on digital transformation. For example, while one may try to fully implement electronic transactions, some partners still require paper based documentation as proof of transactions. Ideally if all partners in an ecosystem were to move to digital systems, we can process all transactions electronically and move to an eco-friendly paperless workspace,” says Agrawal.

Every digital transformation project needs to have a security transformation project to be run parallel. It is critical that the new technology being deployed is fully understood by all teams so that it can be properly secured. “As customers continue to expand their service offerings to stay competitive in the growing digital economy, partners must gather and use up-to-date threat intelligence to protect them from potential risk. Analyzing this information is the key for partner security teams to build sophisticated security strategies that address the evolving cyber risks their customers face. This not only allows partners to effectively manage today’s threats, but also enables them to offer comprehensive security solutions in the future,” explains Kalle Bjorn, Sr. Director, Systems Engineering - Middle

East at Fortinet.

Security Issues While digital transformation presents a range of opportunities to organizations, it also brings along a set of challenges.

“Some of the most prevalent are the evolving security needs that come with expanding one’s digital presence. As an organization we find that following a set of best practices helps us provide or customers with stronger security measures, these include; Integrating systems to create a unified security architecture, sharing threat intelligence across the organization, ensuring that safeguards work across the entire network and automating more than half of the security practices,” says Gujje.

Meanwhile, Zakhour says that NetApp has the technology in place to ensure that every bit of data that is being managed is encrypted at source. “For that we have backup and recovery, disaster recovery, data security and the data compliance solutions to support our customers even before a separate layer of security is being added to the deployments,” she adds.

Hanafieh adds, “Our philosophy and approach is to make cybersecurity intrinsic across the network, on anywhere, on any cloud and on any device.

By making security intrinsic across all parts of the network, we can reduce the risk to critical applications, sensitive data, and users by shrinking the attack surface across clouds, data centres, end users, and the enterprise edge.

We’re essentially shifting the balance of power from attackers to defenders by removing the complexity inherent with cybersecurity. We are delivering intrinsic security through a comprehensive portfolio spanning the critical control points of security: network, endpoint, workload, identity, cloud, and analytics.”

Bjorn also says that today’s evolving digital economy is radically changing how organizations around the world do business. “It is expanding their markets and opportunities, leveling the playing field, and enabling nimbler and more responsive business strategies. To achieve this, these organizations are rapidly consuming and deploying digital innovations that have radically retooled their networks. And traditional security solutions and sales approaches are

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Maya Zakhour, Channel Director - MEA, Italy and Spain, NetApp

Vijay Jaswal, CTO - ME and Turkey, Software AG

Amin Hanafieh, Country Manager - UAE, VMware

Avinash Gujje, Practice Head – Infrastructure, Cloud Box Technologies

simply not designed to protect these customers or address their security needs,” he adds.

According to Bjorn, protecting digital assets is more important than ever.

However, there is increasingly not enough available talent for organizations to adequately staff their security teams. “The cybersecurity skills gap continues to pose a challenge to organizational success, which has only been compounded by a growing barrage of cyber threats. However, the true challenge goes beyond the lack of cybersecurity professionals.

Today’s technology users suffer from a general lack of awareness of even the most basic threats, putting the organizations they work at constant risk of a potentially serious breach.

And that is due to a failure in understanding that cybersecurity is everyone's job, and organizations need training and education programs that address many different audiences,” he says.

Partnerships Key to the Success of DX Initiatives Partnerships play an important role in digital transformation projects.

“And that’s one of the many reasons why we recently launched VMware Partner Connect, a simplified and flexible program to help partners do business with VMware in a way that aligns to their business models,” explains Hanafieh. “Partner Connect also focuses on upskilling our partners’ expertise to align with our customers’ new priorities and models of IT consumption. Our partners have an excellent understanding of the nuances of the markets in which they operate and their customers’ needs.

By continually improving our relationship with our partners, I believe we will ultimately help our customers on their digital transformation journeys.”

A vendor and channel provider’s partnership has proven to be a successful combination in the region in the last few years. While the vendor brings in a solid product and sound technology solution to the table, a channel partner in turn is vital link to both; customers as well as the vendor.

“With their feet on the ground and a pulse on the market nuances, they are the first in the chain of com-

mand to detect market changes or trends and guide customers as well as vendors in shaping their offerings respectively. They are also able to shake up a customer’s inertia due to their proximity to them and get them to welcome a digital future in many ways. Therefore, it is a three-way winwin-win partnerships for the vendor-channel provider-customer with most accurate solutions at in the best possible manner,” says Jaswal.

Zakhour also reiterates by saying partnerships are essential, especially for a company like NetApp. “Because we do not have a direct model, we rely on our partners and distributors to reach out to the customers and provide them with a strong solution. Having the right distributors and a strong partner network that understand the success parameters for digital transformation initiatives and execute our strategy makes all the difference. We have incentives in place that encourage partners to go the extra mile to ensure overall success, and ensure their profitability,” she adds.

Meanwhile, El Hersh says that digital transformation is one of the top priorities for any country in the world.

“In the region, a wave of digital transformation is taking place in all industries. Countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are implementing and embracing emerging technologies rapidly and we can see an evolving change and a solid infrastructure to keep digital transformation underway.

Hence, a partnership between all sectors is very important to complete the initiatives of digital transformation cycle,” he says.

Striking the right partnerships and alliances is the need of the hour when it comes to digital transformation.

“What businesses and organizations stand to gain from a trusted partnership is that they act as a guiding force to navigate through the complex vendor landscape and helping in shaping the decision making process. What is also evident is that choosing the right partner to implement a digital transformation strategy is also key to being able to speed up the implementation process and the possibility of lowered costs,” explains Gujje.

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The road to building the right digital transition agenda can create an amazing advantage for any company. A focus on the business side of the transition is imperative and the right leadership will help ensure ROI and embrace digital transformation for the most effective results. The technology is important but should be the secondary consideration, and only implemented if it drives actual business success.

Arvind Agrawal, CEO, Jumbo Group

Kalle Bjorn, Sr. Director, Systems Engineering Middle East, Fortinet

Mutaz Al Hersh, Business Development Manager – KSA & Jordan, Kingston Technology

WOME N IN TECH

Keeping Up With a Progressing Market is Key to Success Sanchari Roy, the Marketing Manager for MEA at Barco, speaks to Arabian Reseller about her career journey so far

Tell us about your philosophy, when it comes to your domain of expertise.

Marketing is a domain that has always been innovative and dynamic in nature. With the changing dynamics of business across the industries my philosophy has always been ‘update your knowledge and related skills and keep practicing new ways to market your product or solution with changing market dynamics’.

Why did you choose IT to advance your career?

We are a generation that witnessed massive transformation in technology. From my childhood, I have been intrigued by how suddenly new technologies replace the old one and then new innovations can transform it to a complete different experience. During my post graduation days, I was doing an internship with a cloud based storage service provider and that is when my interest for technology led my path to advance my career in IT. Have you witnessed any transformation in the technology industry?

Since I started working, cloud has be been that one transformation which eventually changed the business dynamics. Today from hardware to software everything can be opted as service and companies can flexibly operate on OpEx by introducing the subscrip-

tion model. This has been a huge transformation over last decade.

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

AI is the most promising technology transformation that we are looking forward to. With advancement of machine learning we are going to witness a new era in technology.

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

Today, technology is dynamic and as big market as any other major industry. So I would advice anyone who is looking to advance their career in technology to self learn.

Today the technology that is been taught under different technology discipline are going to be either transformed to next generation or going to be obsolete in next few years. So to keep up with such progressing market, one always needs to be updated in their understanding of new technology and changing market requirements.

Are you involved in any sort of charity work?

I am involved with few NGOs in sponsoring and sometimes volunteering towards different social causes like providing Health and Hygiene to underprivileged area and women education in my home country.

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What is next for you in terms of your career in the tech industry?

Being an integral part of tech industry, I am always privileged to witness and learn the new innovations at an early stage. Barco as a technology company is always an innovator when it comes to advancing the existing technology or investing in new technology.

I am glad to be part of this cutting edge solution company and looking forward to be part of Barco’s journey of ‘enabling bright outcomes’.

What do you do to unwind after a busy day at work?

Growing up as an avid reader, good content is always my companion. Now with the ample availability of different OTT platforms a good content is just one click away. So I unwind my busy day with some good content, surfing though different social media platforms or meeting my friends.

What do you think the industry should do to encourage more women to enter the tech industry?

In my experience I see women are more inclined towards tech industry and any other industries. However irrespective of any industry, equal opportunity and equal pay grade model will always encourage women to take up more challenges and different roles in any industry.

AI Will Increase Retail Competitiveness and Sustain Long-Term Growth

EXPE RT SPEAK

Written by Ranjith Kaippada, Director, Cloud Box Technologies The COVID-19 pandemic has given way to challenges across industries and has brought some businesses to a standstill. Each industry is taking time to adjust and return to business and operate within new dynamics. The retail industry is one of the hardest hit sectors with physical outlets, shopping centres and malls closed to public or reopened with a string of constraints has taken its toll on revenues.

on the manufacturing floor, product design, inventory and in-store management, customer behavior and relationship management, and others. What is evident is that AI will help retailers think and plan more strategically instead of following a reactionary trend to meet customer demands.

While AI algorithms are put into use to predict fashion trends, be it color or style, retailers can now Retailers were not prepared have a more analytical approach to make the sudden and swift to product design and forecastchanges for various reasons ing. It can be suitably used to enand had ill-prepared IT environsure that the manufacturing unit ments. Many were not equipped is up and running with a miniwith online and e-Commerce mum downtime by predicting any platforms which would be the emerging production faults or most appropriate way to conduct abnormalities in machine behavbusiness during a lockdown. It ior. Inventory can be a deterrent was e-Commerce giants and local for retailers where huge amounts online platforms that upped their can be trapped in inventory capgame and utilized the situation to ital. AI helps in controlling this their advantage. Artificial Intelliby analytical forecasting and can gence (AI) was incorporated into definitely enable waste reduction. these online platforms. Understanding behavioural patterns Another area where AI will make and playing it out accordingly. strong inroads is with supply Going forward, AI that will play chain planning. It is estimated a vital role in many areas within to transform into a more collabretail. orative process that will involve material management and quality According to a recent survey by control, distribution and transResearchandMarkets.com, arportation. What it really means tificial intelligence in the retail is that AI is grasping available market is expected to grow at a data across these functions and CAGR of 35.9% from 2019 to enabling teams to make real time 2025 to reach $15.3 billion by decisions. For instance, when a 2025. The market by itself is dispike in demand in a particular vided into software and services. location is noticed, AI capabilities It covers a variety of retail aswill enable a more effective and pects including, supply chain and rapid distribution mechanism, as logistics, predictive maintenance well as the transportation teams 23

are able to plan and prepare themselves for the situation more efficiently.

Moving into the consumer realm, AI will now play a very significant role in understanding consumer behavior very relevantly at this point in time in the e-commerce sphere to engage and convert users. It will have a very strong impact on how brands will interact with consumers be it personalization of the customer experience, retargeting customers, visual search capability, identifying customer leads, chatbots and virtual assistants and advanced customer relationship management.

It is not surprising how AI has been put into action presently in many countries to check on people walking into public spaces and highlight body temperatures to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic needs with AI enabled cameras. While it is also being used in stores to count customers, heat mapping to detect popular areas within stores, as well as to improve security and loss prevention.

In a nutshell AI brings along operational agility and efficiency while reducing risks through visibility, lowered costs and higher quality products for the retail industry. With changing times, what retailers now need to focus on is a system to undertake some radical restructuring and foresee the possible changes they need to implement while moving into the future.

CASE STUDY

SonicWall Helps MAGRABI Hospitals & Centers Match Up With Emerging Tech Trends Dr. Ayman S. Anwar, the Corporate IT Director for MAGRABI Hospitals & Centers, speaks about why the hospital chose SonicWall to extend the security of its multiple hospitals, clinics and branches in the region Give us a brief about the project.

Why was it initiated?

We wanted to extend the highest level of security across MAGRABI Hospital & Centers’ distributed environment of multiple hospitals, clinics and branches in the region. Given the complexity of our healthcare networks and the growing volume of devices connected to our network, we were in the phase of architecting our integrated security platform to act as our first line of defense, specially securing our remote access.

We also wanted to apply a world class advanced malware detection and capabilities to analyze suspicious inbound, outbound, and internal network activity, and deliver custom sandbox analysis to detect, stop and mitigate never seen before DNA reshaped attacks. We also needed advanced email and web security solutions to help mitigate cyber-risks by detecting and removing threats such as malicious links in emails and attachments.

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What were the problems with the earlier system in place?

We have been using SonicWall firewalls for some time and were looking for an integrated security platform that offered comprehensive protection for our hospital, branches and clinics that can deliver best in class well trust security platform, zero touch deployment and centralised monitoring, management, reporting and analytics. Moving to SonicWall made sense for us as a company

because we are always looking for innovative solutions which match up with specific emerging technology trends.

How was SonicWall chosen for the project? Was there a tendering process?

We raised an open tendering process following our polices and standard to select the best value added technology and provider. We identified SonicWall as our security vendor of choice after thoroughly evaluating several vendors on the market. The SonicWall Boundless cyber security platform capabilities and the role SonicWall played as a security advisor was definitely a defining moment.

Tell us about how SonicWall provided the PoC and the assistance required in understanding the requirements?

SonicWall provided MAGRABI Hospitals & Center with multiple solutions architecting session to conclude the best practice architecture that fits our industry and infrastructure. This was followed by a POC for the final approved architecture and detailed POC results and recommendation was presented.

This led to deployment flexibility with high-availability, clustering, branch office connectivity, and centralised management, and reporting. This was combined with advanced SonicWall Antivirus solutions with Firewalls, which allowed us to deploy Web Filtering and Secure Remote Working via secure VPN using two factor authentications. SonicWall Capture Client, meanwhile, powered by SentinelOne, ensured that we are completely protected from new threats and we have extensive visibility to what’s happening with our endpoints.

Which products and solutions were used in the final project deployed at the hospital?

We used the following products and solutions from SonicWall: • •

SonicWall Firewall (Different Models to fit each hospital, branch and clinic) SonicWall Capture Security Center

• • • • •

SonicWall Cloud Application Security SonicWall Hosted Email Security SonicWall Secure Mobile Access Premier Support SonicWall Professional services

How was the local partner/system integrator chosen for this project?

There were multiple factors when we partnered with SonicWall and the local system integrator as following:

What sort of applications will the products and solutions in place be used for?

SonicWall will be our centralized security platform that provide on premises, cloud and remote workers across our distributed architecture

•

How was the overall experience with SonicWall in regard to the engagement, deployment, training (if any), post-deployment support, and so on?

We liked the pure, non-product focused, security consulting approach to help us to redesign our security best practice. We appreciated the complete cybersecurity platform vision covering all our requirements.

One of the key factors in selecting SonicWall was to maximize the efficiency of the IT team and overall infrastructure, allowing for proper healthcare to be administered to patients consistently.

Has the problem been resolved?

What value-add has the solution offered?

With proper planning and support from the SonicWall team, we were able to solve all our concerns and are proud that we will continue providing our customer with the best of class services they deserve. Our goal was to deploy security solutions that tied in with our larger vision of IT security which focuses on protecting information and ensuring nothing interrupts patient care nor impacts productivity

What was the unique advantage of going for SonicWall’s products and solutions?

SonicWall platform provides a powerful, integrated end-to-end security solution for network, endpoint, application, access control, wireless and cloud. SonicWall’s breadth of products, constant security updates, and overall TCO has allowed MAGRABI Hospitals & Center to securely deliver cutting-edge IT services to its caregivers and patients while ensuring that all information stays secure.

Zero Touch deployment with singlepane-of-glass visibility, management and reporting were convenient and offered improved efficiency.

What about ground support? Did SonicWall work with its regional or local partner/system integrator in delivering the solution?

From day on 1, we have been walking this journey hand in hand with SonicWall’s regional team and their partner right through the planning, delivery and implementation phase.

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• •

Very well trained and experienced with SonicWall Platform Regional presence across the Middle East Professional services capabilities Capabilities to provide 24x7x365 support

I would say that the proper planning with the right service helped facilitate the project execution. We liked the pure, not-product-focused, security consulting approach to help redesign our security best practice. We loved SonicWall’s complete cybersecurity platform vision covering all our requirements.

Dr. Ayman S. Anwar, the Corporate IT Director for MAGRABI Hospitals & Centers

EXPE RT SPEAK

Enabling Your Remote Workforce Under Increased External Pressures Written by Felix Bailer, Kris Lui, and Erin Dowd, Vertiv With governments around the world mandating employees quarantine at home, companies have launched the largest remote workforce enablement experiment in the world. The move is driven equally by a desire to maintain business continuity, protect workers, and proactively address regional requirements that are changing every day.

For some companies the move has been relatively seamless, due to their dispersed, digital workforce, while for others it has been a trial by fire, as they seek to enable workers rapidly and protect staff whose roles demand a continued physical presence.

Vertiv began the remote workforce enablement journey in 2018. In an interview, human resources (HR) leaders Felix Bailer, Erin Dowd, and Kris Lui shared insights and best practices from this journey, which accelerated dramatically in 2020 due to the global pandemic.

Bailer shares that Vertiv’s journey wasn’t driven only by business continuity motivations in 2018, but the desire to provide a better work-life experience that would create business flexibility, drive employee productivity, and help retain workers in a competitive industry.

Informally, workers within Global

Business Services (GBS) were given the option to work from home one to four days a month in all geographies and functions, while those whose jobs required an on-site presence were allowed stagger shifts to better meet their personal needs. That experience came in handy when the market situation required Lui to accelerate the pace in Vertiv’s Asia-Pacific region in February.

The following are lessons learned that could help in your own remote workforce enablement efforts.

Get Business Input on Remote Working If your company is going remote for the first time or is scaling a remote workforce initiative, Dowd recommends getting cross-functional input, even if it is done at speed. At Vertiv, HR business partners led this effort, conducting workshops, surveys, and business need reviews. Key factors to consider are business and customer requirements, key roles, the nature of work to be performed, regional cultures and processes, digital tools required, business continuity, security, and more.

Move Swiftly Amidst Changing Conditions Vertiv had piloted working from home in the company’s Manilla office, but the global health crisis struck before the model was deployed more fully in the region. Lui’s Asia-Pacific HR team

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members led the effort to introduce employees to remote working, starting in the north Asia sub-region during the Chinese New Year. Her team’s work involved monitoring governmental mandates, locating staff, making sure they were safe, ensuring they had the needed technology, and determining if facilities had robust sanitation equipment and procedures. After getting government’s approval, the team also needed to get staff ready for a phased return to work.

Fortunately, Vertiv was deemed an essential business around the globe, including in the China, India and North American markets. After about a month working remotely, 99 percent of staff in China have been able to return to the office but are still wearing masks and using multiple sanitation procedures to keep the work environment safe for colleagues. To restart operations, a business continuity team, including the north Asia sub-regional president and cross-functional leaders, met every day to plan mission-critical work.

Communicate to Employees with Empathy With recent events, change has been enormous. New developments have unfolded daily, forcing companies and workers to adapt. Vertiv leadership communicated early and often, to ensure that team members knew leaders

were concerned about their safety and well-being. Lui said leaders were empathetic and transparent about process changes. They worked hard to unify teams and refocus them on the work that needed to be done. “Stay calm. Don’t panic,” Lui said. “When you take care of your people, your people take care of the business. Show that you care about employees and how you can work together to serve customers.”

Develop an Employee Value Proposition Remote workforce enablement may be driven by crisis now, but is an important tool to help attract, develop, and retain employees for the long term.

Vertiv views working from home as an important recruitment and retention tool. According to Bailer, when the option rolled out in the Manila region, productivity soared by 15 percent and attrition dropped by a third.

Consider Personas as You Enable Workers Creating personas for employee groups can help speed enablement, as groups are equipped with representative tools and service. Common personas are executives (who typically have different needs that require enhanced visibility and accessibility in a remote environment), road warriors (who are now home-based), IT staff (who need secure access to key systems and applications), and customer-facing support staff, among others.

Remote Workforce Enablement Toolkit Standardizing enablement processes, such as onboarding, technology packages, and services can help speed enablement. Virtualized desktops enable one-to-many deployment that save IT teams time and effort. To move fast, Vertiv let staff take their equipment home and accelerated its collaborative software deployment plan to equip everyone with the same productivity tools.

Evolve Your Talent Model Many companies have adopted cloud services, such as online backup, disaster recovery, and desktop as a service (DaaS) to create business continuity.

Take the same approach with your staff. At Vertiv, nearly every member of the Global Business Services (GBS) team has a backup who is cross trained on his or her role. Employees are provided with different rotational assignments. And when a leader departs, the company aims to recruit from within.

This practice strengthens business continuity a number of ways, while also

increasing staff morale and motivation.

“We have moved from buying talent to developing talent,” Bailer says.

Consider Change Management Any major change to work practices will have its share of resisters. That may include your management team, which is accustomed to face-to-face contact with staff and customers.

Develop a full-fledged change management and communications plan that considers the why, what, and how of remote work. Share new processes, controls, and desired outcomes; and report back on how incidents are resolved or how processes are improved.

Vertiv’s GBS uses a communication and collaboration platform to link mid-level managers and internal customers for brainstorming, creating daily priorities, sharing a daily scorecard for IT, and reporting back. Leaders feel heard — and get to see how work continues at pace — increasing buy-in.

Plan for Disruption As workers adopt new tools and practices, there will be challenges. Managers, IT staff, and savvy team members can help solve technology issues. Create new tip sheets; share security best practices; increase service desk staff and hours; and communicate when issues, such as connectivity challenges, will be resolved.

Treat Workers Equally Most companies have staff who have presence-based roles, such as manufacturing line workers and managers, physical security teams, and delivery staff, who can’t be virtualized. Create a one-company value proposition by caring about their safety and communicating what you are doing to protect all workers. Consider deep-cleaning facilities and vehicles, providing staggered or additional shifts, spacing staff out on production lines, monitoring temperatures, providing generous sick leave, and erring on the side of caution.

In Singapore, Vertiv alternated work days with an A and B team of similar roles, having one group working Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the other working Tuesday and Thursday to decrease the number of workers on site. This created backup, ensuring business continuity in the event anyone on the team were to get infected.

Consider the Whole Person Employees are having a challenging time balancing work and family.

Conference calls with children’s voices

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and dogs barking are a part of the new normal. Show grace as staff are adjusting. Vertiv managers are checking in through one-on-one meetings with team members and sometimes wearing silly costumes on video conferences to help break the tension. Other companies have set up virtual coffee and cocktail hours to build camaraderie.

“People are very tense right now, so infuse some humor into your communication to keep work fun and help reduce stress levels,” Lui advised.

Provide Flexibility At some point in the future when the crisis abates, companies will need to revisit remote workforce enablement.

New processes will be well-established, but it’s likely that employees will have a variety of wishes, which will need to be aligned against business needs.

At Vertiv, we expect that our staff will likely choose to balance on-premise and remote work, as 63 percent have recently indicated they don’t want to work from home on a full-time basis.

One of our basic needs as human beings is to be socially connected to others for a sense of belonging. When we re-imagine the future of work, we’ll need to balance between achieving business results through a remote workforce and maintaining a culture of connectivity and inclusion.

“The point of this year is to rethink how we support workers,” Bailer says.

“It’s not just about IT. It’s about creating the whole ecosystem of remote enablement. Companies should have built-in flexibility as mass remote working may become a long-term model.”

Dowd agreed. “Some of the work we are doing now may not return to normal. There has been a paradigm shift in which work is no longer a place, but rather a way of being. It is something we do regardless of our location. In part, our job will be to ensure employees continue to embrace this concept and maintain the level of interaction and responsiveness that the company requires.”

My last important point is that when we teach people to work from home, it is about “work” not a place. Helping employees to get into the mindset that customers and other employees require interaction, they deserve responsiveness and serviceability; we strive to help employees adapt to the concept that “work is what I do, not where I am”.

EXPE RT SPEAK

Five Networking Keys to Successful Working From Home Written by Jacob Chacko, Regional Business Head – Middle East, Saudi & South Africa (MESA) at HPE Aruba The current crisis has put a spotlight on a tried-and-true networking paradigm: Working from home.

But despite the typical bandwagon claims, it turns out that effective remote or teleworker connectivity solutions have their own unique set of requirements that can only be satisfied with a broad range of products and services drawn from remote, branch and campus networking solutions delivering secure access to IT resources from the edge to the data centre to the cloud.

Based on Aruba’s extensive experience in enabling remote and home office networking, there are five key components of an effective and productive work-fromhome solution that highlight the differences between consumer and enterprise-grade solutions.

Ease of Connectivity: As employees make the sudden shift to working from home, it’s not just about somehow connecting to corporate resources, but how

easy it is to do that. Depending on circumstances, a secure software client may be best for a personal device, for others, new hardware.

But, no one wants to “read the manual” to set up their access, so automated zero- touch installation is a must.

Performance: Once connected, employees will expect the same level of performance and responsiveness as they enjoy in the office. That typically means more than the consumer-grade connectivity solutions that workers deploy for their home use.

Enterprise-grade hardware and software means that the in-home work experience will be the same as in the office.

Reliability: This is the companion point to performance. Enterprise-grade access solutions are built for long-life with enhanced components and extended testing and have anticipated challenges such as interference in their design. It all adds up to five 9’s of

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uptime that employees have come to expect.

Security: Security is more important than ever given the obvious lack of physical control in a home or remote environment. In-depth zero trust security includes multiple factor authentication, VPN encryption and traffic segmentation and consistent, role-based IT access policies that are applied consistently to a user or device no matter how and where they are connected.

Management: Work from home cannot mean “you’re on your own” when a problem shows up. IT needs the same visibility into the remote access network as they have on the corporate campus.

It starts with a centralized cloud management solution that tracks, monitors and ultimately either self-heals or facilitates rapid problem resolution, and includes application testing and network health monitoring from a client perspective.

5 Tips on How CISOs Can Cope with the Pandemic

EXPE RT SPEAK

Risk management and monitoring across the extended and remote enterprise may prove to be beneficial, as Adam Palmer, Chief Cybersecurity Strategist from Tenable, lists five best practices that CISOs can follow The pandemic has changed the world, perhaps forever. Employees are working at home using personal, and often unsecured, devices and networks. For a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), used to believing that for the corporate network perimeter “inside is safe, outside is unsafe,” now nearly everything is outside and there is no perimeter. New risks and vulnerabilities seem to be arising everywhere on many new types of devices. The threat landscape has expanded — a worrying position for any security leader.

Below are five ways that CISOs can do this successfully – reduce risk based on sound advice and progress through a systematic checklist: #1 If everything is important, then nothing is important During a crisis, resources are short and everyone is overloaded with demands. Everything can feel like a priority. For the CISO, the first task is to identify what is only innocent smoke from what is actually a fire.

By combining tools like threat intelligence, vulnerability research, and probability risk, CISOs can begin to prioritize the most critical vulnerabilities that are now distributed across the expanded enterprise perimeter. Prioritization focuses resources to the right area, in the right amount, and in the right sequence. #2 Avoid box ticking exercises In these complex times, CISOs cannot afford to use a generic checklist to scan their extended

network, which has now changed beyond earlier recognition. Work at home has meant that employees are now connecting to the network using whatever device is at hand that gets the task done — whether it’s to participate or host a video call; instant chat message with a colleague; access a cloud application; or any other daily task. In short, convenience has overtaken risk as workers struggle to deliver from home. For the CISO in this environment, a risk-based management approach that focuses on actual risks being exploited, not generic lists of potential risks, is most effective. This also avoids overrun of the operating expense (Opex) budget.

#4 The Board wants risk details The Board of Directors will want to know what risks the organization is exposed to, and what is being done to reduce/address them. By adopting a risk-based approach, CISOs can accurately assess, quantifiably, the level of risk exposure in terms that the Board can understand.

Using a risk-based approach, the CISO can profile the distributed risk across the extended enterprise on the basis of large-scale assets, geolocation, business units, and device groups, etc. The Board will be able to evaluate the business impact if any mission-critical areas are exposed compared to the cost to implement controls that reduce the risk.

#3 You cannot protect what is unknown One of the biggest challenges for a CISO today is visibility into what is happening in their remote work environment. The organization’s workers may have had to relocate from their normal home, or even their geo-location. Staff are connecting from multiple private and public networks, using multiple known and unknown devices, and at predictable but also unpredictable hours. The CISO needs to understand this activity pattern is now the new normal. To gain complete visibility of the extended enterprise network, CISOs should utilise authenticated agent scans that register and profile all assets being used. This will help the CISO build a unified and complete list of the vulnerabilities that have been created by distributed and remote work at home practices.

#5 The trap of instant gratification In this time of crisis, and under pressure from management to deliver security, CISOs might be tempted to purchase additional tools, hoping that a single purchase order may be the key to alleviate the overall risk levels of the organization to deliver quick results.

Unfortunately, a magic bullet simply does not exist. What is more meaningful is to better understand the risk environment and systematically demonstrate reduction of risks based on the prioritization of vulnerabilities. CISOs could also consider using managed service providers to reduce their day-today overheads of monitoring risks and vulnerabilities. They can also consider bringing in professional services to boost the skills capability of their internal teams to use existing tools and be more effective.

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PODCASTS

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The Rise of eSports Has Made Gaming Accessible and Attractive

INTE RVIEW

In an exclusive interview, Paul Collins, the General Manager for MEA at Acer, speaks about the gaming market in the region and future predictions What sort of market size do we have in the MEA region for gaming laptops and gaming PCs? Looking at the Middle East region, specifically UAE, GCC, Saudi, Egypt and a few export markets, the pure gaming laptop market is 15,000 units a month sold to gamers. It is a little tougher to predict Africa and the gaming desktop market, due to the self-build nature of the environment.

the regional gaming market?

Mobile has been the largest contributor to the gaming market in the past, and it’s great to see a move from mobile to other platforms in recent years. It appears that COVID-19 may also be a factor, as people are seeking more entertainment from home. We also see that team orientated games, such as 1st person shooters are gaining popularity with young adults and the team format is bringing more players into the fold, not to mention the rise of eSports which has made gaming far more accessible and attractive locally.

seeing a massive demand for gaming monitors and accessories such as headsets. Following this there will be demand in the future for 3D, VR, and new tech which will drive the business.

How is innovation driving the growth of the gaming market?

Can you share specific innovations from Acer?

In the early years of gaming it was the race for more power and speed How according to you is the marwith size and weight being sacrificed. ket segmented between casual Now as power can be delivered in gamers, hardcore gamers, and more compact units, the drive to professional gamers? “thin and light” devices is becoming If we look at the PC user market, not What are the challenges to market more important. This means that taking mobile users into account, the growth? innovations such as AeroBlade and split would be 70% casual gamers, Speaking as a gaming PC manufacVortexflow – Acer’s patented cooling 25% hardcore and 5% Semi Pro turer, the next generation consoles systems, are becoming technologies and Pro. The console and mobile

by Sony and Microsoft, in 2021 will that set us apart from competitors. market would be predominantly be strong competition. This is still Low power chips from CPU and GPU casual gaming. good for the overall market as there manufacturer mean reasonably good seems to be a natural evolution of battery life as well.

What is a sweet price-point for players from console to PC over time. gamers in the region when it In general, some localised market Some of our other innovations comes to buying a gaming laptop uncertainty in our region can also include the technologies featured or a PC? provide short term challenges to in our monitors. There’s LightSense The fastest moving segment at the business. in which the monitor detects the moment is for a laptop with a 15amount of ambient light in the inch screen, an Intel Core i7 chipset What sort of market opportuniviewing environment and automatand GTX 1650 graphics card. The ties and threats do you face as a ically adjusts its brightness setprice-point for these products and gaming laptop and PC vendor in tings to maximize viewing comfort. configurations is between $900 and the regional gaming market?

AdaptiveLight automatically adjusts $1000.

The opportunities are endless, as the monitor’s backlights to suit the we notice that the market has not ambient light in the room, while What will the regional gamfollowed a natural path. This means ProxiSense reminds gamers to take ing market size and growth rate be that there is an endless stream of a break after a set amount of time. like in 2021? new entrants to the market with For gamers, remaining competitive We have seen very good growth over people shifting from mobile phone in terms of faster refresh rates and the past months and this will mean gaming to other forms of gaming, shorter response times is critical a record year in 2020. I expect that females growing interest in gaming, and so in line with that, we recently the market may grow a further 10 to E-Sports, and the entrance of formal launched new Predator Gaming 15% next year. gaming leagues in the ME. These monitors which include up to 360 opportunities stimulate growth for Hz refresh rate and a 0.5 ms (G to What are the key factors driving many years to come. We are also G) response time.

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EXPE RT SPEAK

Cloud Computing vs. Edge Computing: Rethinking Healthcare Infrastructure Written by Damian Jaume, President, Dynabook Europe GmbH

Cloud computing isn’t exactly a new concept in the healthcare industry.

Its benefits have become increasingly well-known across the sector and, without it, we wouldn’t have many health-related services that both healthcare professionals and patients now rely on. It’s no surprise then that the European healthcare cloud computing market is expected to be worth around $55 billion (AED202 billion) by 2025. However, it is during the current Covid-19 crisis that cloud computing in healthcare has really come into its own.

Some people also believe that edge computing will eventually replace traditional cloud computing, however, this isn’t true. Both technologies have important and recognisable roles within a healthcare IT ecosystem. Having said this, there are use cases where edge computing has advantages over traditional centralised cloud infrastructure, especially during this unprecedented increase in remote medicine, including overcoming latency issues, operational strain and security. So, what do these benefits look like?

Lightening the Network Load The main differentiating factor between cloud computing and edge computing is how and where data processing takes place. With cloud, data is stored and processed in a central location (usually a data centre), whereas edge computing refers to data processing nearer the source.

We already live in a data-rich world with new technologies creating vast amounts of data that is generated close to the user or at the edge of the network.

Today, sophisticated IoT-powered medical devices and equipment, wearables, and the masses of health data available for gathering new insights into disease prevention and treatment all make the healthcare industry a data-heavy sector. Remote medicine, which has seen an increase even before the Covid-19 pandemic, only also adds to this as more and more patients, healthcare professionals and researchers try to access data and services across a wider geography, away from central hospitals at more localised areas within the community.

Edge computing allows healthcare companies and trusts to resolve this challenge as processing data at the edge reduces dependence on centralised cloud servers. In conjunction with edge data centres, edge computing can tackle more localised data compute, processing, and analysis, increasing network efficiency and responsiveness, freeing up the cloud to be used for more general-purpose business needs.

Lowering Latency The nature of the cloud means that information is relayed back to the data centre, processed, and then sent back to the edge of the network where the device is. This can take time for data to travel back and forth and can cause lag or latency. In many use cases, where the need to process data is not time-sensitive, the cloud offers plenty processing power, storage, and large-scale data analysis.

However, in some cases, especially in IoT data transmission and emergency medical scenarios, such latency

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can be life-threatening. For instance, hospital services need real-time patent information from ambulance teams. If there is a delay on this, they might not have the correct knowledge needed to save lives when the patient arrives.

Securing Healthcare Data As remote medicine rises, there is an increase in personal data being accessed remotely, which naturally raises security concerns. Healthcare data, in particular, is a lucrative target for cyber criminals and increased incidences of remote access give them greater opportunity to misuse sensitive information. With edge computing, data is filtered and processed locally, rather than sending it to a central data centre. Reducing the distance of data transfer and instances between devices and the cloud, means better security.

COVID-19 has undoubtedly altered an already evolving healthcare landscape. The cloud has allowed for data to be shared across organisations securely. However, edge computing provides an accessible, practical, and deployable solution that can help to ease bandwidth, increase network speeds, and tackle data security challenges. Choosing edge or cloud computing isn’t an either/or proposition, both technologies have different purposes and uses and will continue to have important roles for the foreseeable future. As telemedicine becomes the new norm for patients and healthcare workers alike, it is predictable that network infrastructure of the future will be a hybrid of the two.

Ensuring Continuity of Our Operations and That of Our Customers and Partners

INTE RVIEW

Anurag Agrawal, the Managing Director of Canon Middle East and Turkey, speaks about the measures his company has taken to ensure safety of its employees, and more During this COVID-19 crisis, what measures have you undertaken to continue your own business without disruption?

This is exceptional period for all of us, and humanity has been challenged like never before. But the most important lesson for us, apart from the need to follow all safety protocols, is to look ahead with optimism, and to prepare ourselves for the new normal.

For example, we have increased the number of engineers in our remote technical support team; they are equipped to deal with the issues our customers may face. Additionally, we ramped up our e-commerce services and secured next-day delivery of products and supplies such as printers, inks and papers; this further eased the transition of our customers to the home working environment.

At Canon Middle East, the first steps we took following the coronavirus outbreak was to put in place stringent safety and preventive measures to ensure the well-being of our team members, partners, suppliers and customers. We followed – and continue to abide by – the guidelines set by the authorities.

Which top industry verticals and markets have you seen the maximum traction?

While the COVID-19 has impacted all sectors of the economy, there are a few that were particularly hard-hit, such as travel, tourism and hospitality. On the other hand, several government departments and the education and healthcare sectors have continued to operate albeit in new ways – and therein, newer demand patterns – such as a more structured and reliant digital network to facilitate work- and learn-from home.

Alongside the precautionary measures and the efficient ways of working we put in place, we also ensure that our internal and external communications is authentic, positive and transparent.

We have ramped up our internal communications not only as a tool to engage with our team members but also to keep them motivated and inspired.

What measures and initiatives have been taken to provide uninterrupted service to customers?

Our focus, more than ever, is on ensuring continuity of operations for us as well as our customers and partners. This means having to deploy our resources judiciously, ensuring that any customer pain-point is addressed instantly – and any challenges they may face addressed proactively.

In our industry, there has been a noticeable increase in demand for document scanners, home printers, ink toners and paper arising from the customers need to stay connected and have seamless workplace functions even where they live because more people now work from home as well as school their children from home.

Homes have become a space as well where we try to push our frontiers of knowledge and skills exploring new ways of working and new pursuits of hobbies. As more people built a stronger online presence, 33

we have seen demand for vlogging equipment increase. With malls and stores now reopened and welcoming visitors, we are optimistic about seeing positive traction in demand for our products from in-store customers soon.

Have you put in place any contingency plans if this crisis persists or gets escalated?

As with most organisations, we embarked on a well-structured crisis response and evaluated contingencies for immediate/possible cost savings, even before entering the ‘recover’ and ‘rebuild’ phases. We also focused on streamlining our systems and further enhancing our digital transformation initiatives.

We are working on plans – for the near-term and medium-term – that will ensure we collectively come out stronger in the new normal.

What sort of business and financial impact do you expect for your business as a result of COVID-19?

This crisis will no doubt have an effect on all businesses. We are doing our best during this time to support our customers and the communities we operate in. We do not want to speculate on the business and financial impact; on the contrary, we want to see how we can add value to our customers and partners even as we all navigate the crisis.

That is why we have strengthened our external communication strategies – such as through the Frontiers of Innovation series mentioned earlier, to engage with all our partners, and enable us all to think ahead and prepare for the new normal.

PRODUCT REVIEWS

3/5

AED 839 & AED 229

Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus and Ring Chime Pro Ring is a brand that is well in the home security market for years now. The company churns out one quality product after the other at regular intervals. And the Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus is no stranger. This one is a battery-powered doorbell that offers advanced security features. This includes motion detection, a near motion zone, and pre-roll technology.

It captures footage in 1080p fun HD and offers two-way talk. It also supports Dual-Band Connectivity at 2.4GHz & 5GHz. You also get Night Vision and the doorbell works with Alexa. The product fits into the palm of your hands with the lens on the top and the doorbell button below it. It comes with two face plates - in Satin Nickel and Venetian Bronze.

The product is powered by a Rechargeable, Quick-Release Battery Pack, which is included in the package. It can also be hardwired to an existing doorbell system or transformer for continuous charging. A single charge of the battery can last about 6 months. In order to setup the device, all you need to do is scan the unique QR code behind the device.

This will trigger the browser to download the Ring app.

Once the Ring app is downloaded, you need to register the device for creating an account on Ring which can be used as a common account to manage all Ring devices. Once that is done, follow the instructions in the app to install the battery and so on. Now establish a connection between your router and the Ring app.

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After this is done, mount and secure the Video Doorbell 3 Plus on your door with the provided screws and the wall mount. The package comes with two wall mounts - one is an angled wall mount and the other is a regular wall mount.

You can choose to use the wall mount as per your choice.

Now click the faceplate into place. You can use the app to control the video doorbell and watch recorded content and live view. Now, let’s talk about the Chime Pro. This is device that extends your wifi signal to boost the network for all your Ring Video Doorbells and Cams. You also get a built-in automatic nightlight for added peace of mind.

And it is also a Chime - so you receive a Chime tone when someone presses your Video Doorbell or a motion is detected. For the sound, you can choose between Classic and Seasonal Tones. It also supports Dual Band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Connectivity. And comes with Adjustable Volume and allows you to Snooze Alerts.

So this device comes handy when there is a longer distance between your router and the doorbell. So in this scenario, the Chime Pro acts as a wi-fi booster for your Ring products on the network.

If you are looking for a dependable home security system, the Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus is worth considering. It is now available at a price tag of AED 839. The Ring Chime Pro meanwhile is available at AED 229.

Preview: ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming Motherboard The ASUS ROG Strix B550 Gaming series motherboards offer a feature-set usually found in the higher-end ROG Strix X570 Gaming series, including the latest PCIe 4.0. With robust power delivery and effective cooling, ROG Strix B550 Gaming is well-equipped to handle 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen CPUs. Boasting futuristic aesthetics and intuitive ROG software, ROG Strix B550-E Gaming gives you a head start on your dream gaming build. The ASUS ROG STRIX B550-E Gaming Motherboard is built around a solid foundation. The motherboards uses hefty power delivery solutions, sporting a 14+2 design stage.

It supports 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes from the CPU, WiFi 6 (802.11ax), 2.5Gb LAN, 14+2 teamed power stages, front and rear USB 3.2 Type-C support with even a dedicated Audio Type-C port. Gigabit LAN has been around for decades and we are finally starting to see more boards with 2.5G, 5G and 10G LAN ports on them. The ROG Strix B550-E Gaming motherboard has Intel I225-V 2.5Gb ethernet ports on them and they are quite fast.

The ASUS ROG STRIX B550 series motherboards with Wi-Fi 6 use the Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2×2 (max speed 2.4 Gbps) solution that also supports Bluetooth 5.1.

Fans of RGB lighting will be glad to know that the ROG emblem on the motherboard glows on the I/O shroud. You also get another small strip on the PCH heatsink, highlighting the STRIX branding. The overall design is quite simple, and is definitely much easier to work.

In addition to the power-based core, ASUS provides a couple of M.2 connectors, high-speed wireless networking from a WiFi 6 adapter, and Intel 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet. You also get the usual set of ROG STRIX features, including widespread AURA RGB support, SupremeFX audio, and value-added features such as AI Mic. The motherboard supports future AMD Ryzen 4000 series processors that use the Zen 3 architecture. The ASUS ROG STRIX B550-E Gaming is the flagship B550 series board for AMD and is packed with boatload of features.

The ROG Strix B550-E Gaming motherboard is also PCIe 4.0-ready and provides the latest connectivity options for supersmooth networking and blisteringly fast file transfers.

Audio enhancements give you a massive advantage, allowing you to pick up on the subtlest of cues for a completely immersive gaming experience. In terms of audio, ASUS is using the SupremeFX S1220A codec and offers USB-C audio capability.

In conclusion, the ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming motherboard offers a nice spread of features. The AI noise cancellation feature will aid gamers with a distraction-free gaming experience, and the power delivery system is definitely more than capable of handling all the Ryzen 3000 processors.

You also get boatloads of features such as WiFi 6, 2.5G Ethernet, SLI support, and a whopping 14+2 power stage power delivery system, all of which are stuff which you won’t usually find on more affordable boards.

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PRODUCT REVIEWS

4/5

AED 17999

ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 (GX550) There are lots of gaming laptops available on the market and many of them look similar in terms of design. And it’s been a long time since we were impressed with a laptop’s look and feel. The ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 GX550 gaming laptop takes everything to a whole new level.

The unique feature of this laptop is that it integrates two displays in an ultra slim form factor without sacrificing on the performance. As soon as you lift the lid of the laptop, you will see the secondary screen called Screenpad Plus, rise up as well.

The 14.09-inch Screenpad Plus serves two purposes.

It significantly increases the cooling capabilities of the laptop, revealing a large air intake for deep airflow. The Screenpad Plus also serves as a touchscreen secondary display for multi-tasking, for gamers and content creators.

HDMI, one mic-in, one headphone and one LAN port.

While the battery of the laptop is rated at 90 Wh, you get two power adapters. One is a 240W adapter, while the other is a 65W adapter. It also comes with a Backlit chiclet keyboard with a 1.4 mm key travel. You also get a dedicated key for the Armoury Crate which allows you to change the settings of the fan, and other elements such as AuraSync RGB lighting.

As a content creator, usually you need to toggle between multiple open windows when editing a video for example.

You may need to check multiple folders for music, video files, images and so on. With the ScreenPad Plus, you can arrange the folders on it, side by side, while the main display contains the video editing suite.

Or if your video editing software allows you to detach elements such as the toolbox or the timeline, you can easily drag and place them on the Screenpad plus for a faster workflow. Of course, thanks to the latest 10th Gen Intel Core i processor, 32GB of RAM, and NVIDIA graphics, editing and rendering of video files become quicker.

The 15.6-inch 4K primary display is bright and vivid, making it suitable for work and play. The display is also factory calibrated and PANTONE Validated to guarantee color accuracy and it comes with a refresh rate of 60Hz. There’s no webcam built into the system.

So Asus bundles an Asus Eye web camera as part of the package. Under the hood, the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 is powered by an Intel 10th Gen Core i9 processor. You also get a whopping 32GB of DDR4 memory and 2TB of blazing fast SSD storage space.

If you are into a job such as writing or editing, the screenpad Plus makes that process even easier. You can place the reference material in the screenpad plus and scroll through it using its touchscreen, while writing or editing your article. Due to its robust specs, your gaming sessions become effortless

The graphics is handled by NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER. This GPU comes with 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM. The laptop comes with a wide range of ports including 1 USB-C, one DisplayPort, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, one

For a price of AED 17,999 the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 GX550 is recommended for both professional gamers and content creators. This is because it offers top notch specs, powerhouse performance, and effortless multi-tasking with a secondary display.

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3/5

AED 1800

LG Sound Bar SN7CY LG launched a series of new sound bars a few months ago, powered by Meridian Audio, the British hi-fi specialists. The new models launched offer better bass performance, which the company claims boosts low frequencies and widens the soundstage.

We received the new LG Sound Bar SN7CY for review. So, read on to find out how it performed.

The sound bar weighs 3.74-kgs and is suitable for TVs with screen sizes of 40-inches and above. In terms of ports, you get one Optical, one HDMI 2.1 (HDCP 2.3) In and Out, and one USB. As mentioned before, you also also get wireless connectivity through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Inside the box, you get the sound bar along with the wall mount brackets, user manual, a remote control, two AAA batteries, and the warranty card. High-res audio is covered up to 24-bit/96kHz, and there’s also AAC/AAC+ compatibility for streaming. Plug in a USB and there’s support for FLAC (up to 192kHz) AAC, MP3, WAV, WMA and OGG (up to 48kHz).

The SN7CY is a sound bar that offers a minimalist aesthetic design. Under the hood, the sound bar comes with a five-speaker array, thus offering 3.0.2 channels. The left and right channels are made up of one 52 x 99mm woofer and a 20mm silk dome tweeter. The centre channel of the sound bar is a 2-inch full-range woofer, while the up-firing speakers use 2.5-inch woofers. There are also two 48 x 180mm passive radiators that make up the bass response.

The SN7CY also features Dolby Atmos and DTS:X to take the overall audio experience to a whole new level. In terms of the output, the sound bar offers 160W of RMS and it also supports High Res Audio.

In terms of connectivity, you get both Bluetooth and HDMI, and you also get AI Sound Pro which offers adaptive audio for every content you watch.

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In terms of sound quality, the overall experience was a mix. While the passive radiators offer a modest bass performance with the content being played, it lacks the depth and detail to properly describe low-end frequencies. We played most of the content using the Standard mode and everything felt good.

While the overall clarity of the sound is good, you always feel there is something missing. For an approximate price of AED 1800, the LG Sound Bar SN7CY sounds like an expensive affair, when there are far better soundbars available on the market at a lower cost.

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3/5

AED 4499

Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-54) When it comes to PC gaming, Acer is definitely a brand that comes to mind, with its top notch Predator Series churning out one insane gaming device after the other. The company also offers affordable gaming laptops through its Nitro Series. And today we are reviewing the Nitro 5 (AN515-54).

The Acer Nitro 5 comes packed in a black shell with maroon accents all around. When you switch on the gaming laptop, the red LED backlit keyboard lights up giving it an overall raging look and feel. The WASD keys on the keyboard are highlighted by a red border to make them stand out. So are the arrow keys and the NITROSENSE key which is identified by an [N] key.

With NITROSENSE, you can monitor and manage your laptop in realtime, which covers fan speeds, temperatures, per consumption, GeForce Experience, Acer TrueHarmony, Keyboard settings, backlight settings and more. The overall design and the build quality is very good. On the right edge, you get the power port, two LEDs (power and charging), USB port and the audio jack. On the left edge, you get the Kensington lock, LAN port, HDMI, USB-C, and two USB 3.0 ports.

Under the hood, the Acer Nitro 5 is powered by an Intel Core i7-9750H processor, running at a clock speed of 2.6GHz. You also get NVIDIA GeForce TX 1650 4GB graphics card for all your gaming and other graphics-inARABIAN RESELLER | July - August 2020

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tensive job requirements.

Acer also throws in 16GB of RAM and 1TB of HDD storage. The Acer Nitro 5 comes with a 15-inch Full HD IPS display that offers an excellent 80% screen-to-body ratio. Since the laptop also comes with Gigabit Wi-Fi 5 with 2×2 MU-MIMO technology, live streaming of your gaming sessions become a cakewalk.

The Nitro 5 also comes with dual fans, and Acer includes the CoolBoost technology and a dual exhaust port designed to keep it cool during extended gaming sessions.

According to Acer, its CoolBoost tech increases the fan speed by 10% and CPU and GPU cooling by 9% compared to auto mode. This keeps things cool during an intense gaming session.

During our gaming sessions, we did not encounter any lags or stutters. Everything felt as smooth as a hot knife through a block of butter. In our battery tests, the Acer Nitro 5 was able to provide a battery life of about three hours, before the laptop gave up the ghost.

For a starting price of AED 4499, the Acer Nitro 5 is aimed at those looking for a budget-friendly gaming laptop to start off. The Acer Nitro 5 is a mid-range gaming laptop that offers good overall performance at an affordable price tag.

4/5

AED 1799

Huawei Nova 7 5G vs Samsung Galaxy S20 In recent years, we have seen the rapid growth of the mid-tier segment as part of a wider trend with consumers demanding more premium featured devices at affordable prices. This is particularly evident among young tech-savvy consumers who want to have the best smartphones with advanced features, which are stylish while also at an attractive price point.

cool feature on nova 7 given it’s price range. The Samsung Galaxy S20 comes with a 128GB of internal storage and an 8GB RAM. The HUAWEI nova 7 5G has an 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage capacity.

The new HUAWEI nova 7 5G is a 5G smartphone and future ready. Compare that to the Samsung Galaxy S20, which is a 4G smartphone. And as you are aware 5G is three times faster than 4G. Now, when choosing a camera smartphone, you need to consider all given scenarios - be it indoors, outdoors, lowlight or even bright settings. The Samsung Galaxy S20 comes with a triple camera configuration. This includes a 12MP Ultra Wide Camera, 12MP Wide-angle Camera and a 64MP Telephoto camera. On the other hand, the HUAWEI nova 7 5G comes with a 64MP Hi-res AI Quad Camera system. This includes of a 64MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera, an 8MP telephoto camera with up to 20x digital zoom and a 2MP Macro camera for taking photos from as close as 4 cms.

In terms of selfies, the Samsung Galaxy S20 has a 10MP selfie camera. Compare that to the HUAWEI nova 7 5G, which sports a 32MP Hi-res AI Selfie Camera. The Selfie camera supports Super Night Selfie 3.0 mode that optimises skin tone and texture. It also supports noise control and reflection removal - so you will end up with incredible images even under low-light conditions. And if you are a vlogger, the selfie camera on the nova 7 5G supports 4k video recording with EIS to ensure Ultra Steady Selfie Videos.

One of the interesting features of the nova 7 5G is the “Dual View” mode.

Both the smartphones offer in-screen fingerprint sensors, it is a

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Under the hood, the nova 7 5G is powered by Huawei’s Kirin 985 processor. To test it, we ran 20 apps on both phones. The nova 7 5G opened the apps much faster. And when you play games on the nova 7 5G the games loaded without any lags or stutters. In terms of software, the nova 7 5G runs on EMUI 10.1, which is based on Android 10 OS. You also get HAUWEI’s app marketplace called AppGallery pre-installed on the device. HUAWEI’s AppGallery lists most of the apps which can be easily downloaded on to your device.

And, there’s also a Petal Search Widget which connected you to a million apps, thus making searching for and downloading your favourite apps very simple. Apart from a wide selection of local and top apps, you also get quality entertainment through HUAWEI Video, HUAWEI Music and HUAWEI Reader. In terms of battery charging, the nova 7 5G charges super-fast with its 40watt SuperCharger. The Samsung S20 meanwhile charges using a 25-watt charger.

As a verdict, we can say that Huawei places great importance on mid-tier smartphones and it is a true flagship device as it is Huawei’s first mid-tier handset to support 5G technology and has everything a young consumer needs in today’s digital world including high-resolution quad cameras with cool features like dual side video mode, powerful 5G chipsets as well as being premium designed with 3D curved glass. This combination of strong performance and must-have features also makes it appealing to a wide audience.

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4/5 HUAWEI Freebuds 3i HUAWEI’s Freebuds 3i comes packed in a white rectangular box. Once you open up the box, first you will see the wireless charging case which has the earbuds inside it. These are in-ear active noise cancelling Bluetooth earphones. The charging case has a white piano finish.

Digging further in, you get two more boxes. One of the boxes includes extra silicone eartips in different sizes and the USB type C charging cable. The other box includes a QR code card which lets you download the Hauwei AI Life app. You also get the quick start guide, safety information, and the warranty information.

The charging case weighs 51-gms and comes with a USB Type C port. There’s also a button next to the charging port which can be used to pair the earbuds with your phone.

There are two LED indicators on the charging case. One is near the slit on the front that lets you open up the charging case.

This LED indicator lets you check when the battery is charging and fully charged. Once you open the charging case, you will find another LED indicator that indicates the battery life left in the earbuds. It also flashes when it gets into the pairing mode for Bluetooth connectivity.

AED 399

issue.

The earbuds weigh only 5.4g so wearing them for a longer period is not an issue. The HUAWEI FreeBuds 3i features a compact body design and comes packed with a 10mm dynamic driver. Since it uses a stem design as opposed to a pod-shaped design, the microphone is placed much closer to you mouth to pick up your voice more accurately.

The earbuds support smart touch control for interaction. By holding your finger on the earphone, you can turn the active noise reduction on or off. Double tap to play and pause music or answer the phone. The smart sensor will automatically stop the music when you take off the earphones continue to play music when you put them back on and switch to standby mode when you place it in the charging case.

Pairing is quite simple - after the first pairing, the earbuds will automatically pair up with your device, and notify you.

Now since we have downloaded the HUAWEI AI Life app, it can also be used to pair the FreeBuds 3i with your phone.

This app offers lots of options - You can check the earphones’ battery status, change settings, update the firmware and lots more.

On a single charge, the Freebuds 3i offers 3.5 hours of playback time. When you run out of juice, you can use the charging case to charge your Freebuds 3i. The battery inside the charging case can provide up to 14.5 hours of battery life.

During our review period, the active noise cancellation feature worked very well. The smart touch controls made it easier to use the earbuds. On testing the earbuds with different genre of music, we found that we could identify the bass, treble and mids distinctly.

The Freebuds 3i earbuds come with an in-ear design and comes with three built-in microphones. The earbuds offer active noise cancellation up to 32dB. Since the earbuds come with different sizes of silicone eartips such as extra small, small, medium and large, finding a right and snug fit isn’t an

This is good, especially when you compare the audio quality with similar range of earbuds. For a price of AED 399, the Huawei Freebuds 3i is a smart choice. It offers excellent build quality and finish, a snug fit and overall good sound quality.

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