Arabian Reseller - June 2020

JUNE 2020

Vol. 2. Issue 6.

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HYBRID CLOUD THE BEST OF BOTH THE WORLDS

Unite your data.

Unify your vision.

Data Visionaries Wanted

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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.

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CONTENTS 

06 07 08 09 10 11 17

NEWS

22

NetApp to Acquire Spot

Kodak Alaris’ INfuse Platform Enables Remote Work with Xenith Scan@Home Solution SentinelOne is Aston Martin’s Official Cybersecurity Partner

34

Fortinet’s SD-WAN Services Allow SPs to Expand their Service Offerings Attivo Networks use Deception to Ambush Cyber Attackers at Endpoint Huawei Joins the Industry to Accelerate Intelligent Network Upgrades Dell Launches New Series of Commercial Laptops and PCs

16 

24

F E AT U R E S T H I S M O N T H New Details Into Series of Targeted Attacks on Industries Revealed

26

The Debate of Per Job and Global Deduplication

28

Product Knowledge is Power

30 32

Strategic Framework Presented for a Blockchain-Enabled World Five Leadership Principles for the Cybersecurity Professional

20 ARABIAN RESELLER | June 2020

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EDITORIAL

JUNE 2020

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

SALES AND MARKETING Ranbir Sen ranbir@ryshamedia.com

CHRIS N. FERNANDO EDITOR IN CHIEF

A Journey Towards a Hybrid Cloud Strategy

Hybrid cloud is the combination of both public and private cloud solutions, where the resources are typically orchestrated as an integrated infrastructure environment. This allows the movement of app and data workloads between private and public clouds in a flexible way as demands, needs, and costs change, giving businesses greater flexibility and more options for data deployment and use.

A hybrid cloud strategy brings both public and private cloud environments together, giving enterprises the benefits of combining the best of both worlds. Hybrid cloud solution offers each businesses the flexibility to choose what pertains to their needs in any specific scenario. So depending on their requirements, businesses can deploy the best in-class hardware, software, or services for their use.

Additionally, since there is no vendor lock-in constraints, businesses don’t need to compromise on their IT solution quality. Further, the hybrid approach allows for a flexible policy-driven deployment, that enables

the distribution of workloads across public and private infrastructure environments based on security, performance and cost requirements.

Our cover story this month titled “Hybrid Cloud: The Best of Both the Worlds” explores the opportunities, the challenges, and the way companies need to commence their journey towards an effective hybrid cloud strategy. If your organisation is willing to make suggested changes and optimal investments in cloud solutions, hybrid cloud could be the right strategy for you.

It's custom cloud solution designed by keeping in mind your organization’s history, current state and future provides a more practical approach to addressing your current needs, as well as adapting quickly to the changing demands of the business. Hybrid cloud can function as a catalyst in bringing about a digital transformation in businesses, saving you from the “one size fits all” approach to cloud infrastructure. And such businesses that are willing to adapt quickly to the changing market demands, will definitely stay ahead of the curve.

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

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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

5

NEWS

NetApp to Acquire Spot

AMD Powered AWS EC2 C5a Instance Now Generally Available AMD has announced that 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processor-powered Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) C5a instances are now generally available in the AWS U.S. East, AWS U.S. West, AWS Europe, and AWS Asia Pacific regions. Powered by a 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processor running at frequencies up to 3.3Ghzi, the Amazon EC2 C5a instances are the sixth instance family at AWS powered by AMD EPYC processors.

NetApp has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Spot, to establish leadership in Application Driven Infrastructure. Digital transformation initiatives have accelerated and remained the top business priority, especially in today’s environment, and the public clouds offer the speed and flexibility needed to navigate this new normal as companies find new ways to work, interact and do business.

However, unoptimised clouds can be costly and slow down business transformation. To address this challenge, an Application Driven Infrastructure translates the application’s workload patterns and drives the best possible level of performance and cost for storage and compute, all done while maintaining the contracted service-level agreement (SLA) and service-level objective (SLO).

Together, NetApp and Spot’s Application Driven Infrastructure for continuous optimization will help customers save up to 90 percent of their compute and storage cloud expenses, which typically makeup 70 percent of total cloud spending, and will help accelerate public cloud adoption.

“In today’s public clouds, speed is the new scale. However, waste in the public clouds driven by idle resources and overprovisioned resources is a significant and a growing customer problem slowing down more public cloud adoption,” said Anthony Lye, senior vice president, and general manager, Public Cloud Services, NetApp. “The combination of NetApp’s leading shared storage platform for block, file and object and Spot’s compute platform will deliver a leading solution for

the continuous optimization of cost for all workloads, both cloud-native and legacy.

Optimized customers are happy customers and happy customers deploy more to the public clouds.”

Spot provides a combination of tools for visibility and automation, that drive continuous optimization of workloads in a single platform while maintaining both SLA and SLO. This relieves DevOps, CloudOps, and FinOps teams from the burden and complexity of managing, scaling, tuning, and optimizing cloud resources so that they can focus on business innovation under acceptable budget controls.

“Spot was founded with a vision to revolutionize the way companies consume cloud infrastructure services, using analytics and automation to deliver the most reliable, best performing, and most cost-efficient infrastructure for every workload on every cloud,” said Amiram Shachar, Founder, and CEO, Spot. “We look forward to joining the NetApp family and building together with the future of Application Driven Infrastructure and helping customers to deploy more workloads in the cloud.”

Together, NetApp and Spot will establish an Application Driven Infrastructure to enable customers to deploy more applications to public clouds faster with Spot’s “as-a-service” platform for the continuous optimization of both compute and storage for both traditional IT buyers with enterprise applications, cloud-native workloads, and data lakes. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of NetApp’s fiscal year and is subject to the satisfaction of certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

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By using the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processor, the C5a instance delivers leadership x86 price-performance for a broad set of compute-intensive workloads including batch processing, distributed analytics, data transformations, log analytics, and web applications. Available in eight configurations, with up to 96 virtual CPUs, the Amazon EC2 C5a instances take advantage of high core counts from the AMD EPYC processor to offer the lowest cost per x86 virtual CPU in the Amazon EC2 portfolio.

This provides customers with an additional choice for optimal performance and cost across a variety of compute-intensive workloads, including video game development and hosting which take advantage of the high CPU core counts and memory ratios provided by C5a. “The 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processors deliver the levels of performance required for our customers to confidently bring compute-focused workloads to the cloud,” said Forrest Norrod, senior vice president and general manager, Data Center and Embedded Solutions Group, AMD. “Together, AMD and AWS offer customers great flexibility and choice of compute options to help them optimize both performance and cost for a wide range of workloads,” said David Brown, Vice President, Amazon EC2, Amazon Web Services, Inc. “Since launching Amazon EC2 R5a, M5a, and T3a instances powered by 1st gen AMD EPYC processors, we’ve seen customers move many general-purpose and memory-optimised workloads to take advantage of the AMD EPYC processor capabilities and 10% lower prices over comparable instances. With the availability of Amazon EC2 C5a instances based on the 2nd gen AMD EPYC processors, customers now have a new option that enables better performance and cost."

NEWS

Kodak Alaris’ INfuse Platform Enables Remote Work with Xenith Scan@Home Solution

Xenith Intelligent Workplace Services has partnered with Kodak Alaris to create a pre-configured Scan@Home Solution built on INfuse, the global information capture specialist’s Smart Connected Scanning Solution. The platform enables remote workers to scan directly into line-of-business systems from their home offices. Many employees now working from home don’t have access to back-office systems, are without traditional printing and scanning devices, and don’t have an IT department that can quickly set up ways to scan and send invoices or file important documents to internal business processes.

“Stay at home” policies have forced organisations to rapidly review and re-engineer key business processes which are no longer fit for purpose for a home-based workforce.

Many companies that rely on the ability to scan paper documents quickly into business processes are now transporting boxes of paper to employees’ homes.

These papers often have to be processed and then scanned into another system or shared via email. In partnership with Kodak Alaris, Xenith Intelligent Workplace Services has created a pre-configured smart Scan@ Home Solution built on the INfuse platform that integrates directly into line-of-business systems.

Companies can now use a fully managed service to provide pre-configured scanners to virtual employees. “The Scan@Home Solu-

tion is easy to set-up without IT intervention.

All the remote worker needs to do is plug in the scanner and scan a pre-printed smart setup sheet to get started,” said Don Lofstrom, President & General Manager of the Alaris division of Kodak Alaris. All workflows – such as sending the document to the right person, or saving the information in the correct repository, network drive, or back-end system are pre-configured remotely by Xenith. Xenith connects the software or line-of-business applications such as invoice processing, records management, or customer account management with APIs from Kodak Alaris to create a full solution which is completely serviced, controlled and programmed through its cloud service in Microsoft Azure.

INfuse management software from Kodak Alaris allows Xenith to manage the fleet, set up the workflow, configure the devices, and allocate licenses – all hosted and operated by Xenith. The system is continuously monitored with notifications to ensure seamless functionality and if company processes change, Xenith can alter workflows remotely so the end-user stays hassle-free.

Marc Ueckermann, Chief Technology Officer, Xenith, added, “As companies adapt to a new way to work, there are indications that most will embrace more of a virtual workplace than they have in the past. With Xenith and Kodak Alaris, companies can quickly be up and running with this Scanner as a Service offering that requires no PC connection or local software.”

7

SANS Institute Intros Flexi-Pass

The SANS Institute has announced that users can avail the advantages of SANS Flexi-Pass until June 30th, 2020 upon purchasing the firm’s illustrious cybersecurity courses. This includes impressive benefits such as complimentary GIAC Certification Attempt, 6-month NetWars continuous training experience and Electronic courseware.

Users also get full access to all of the different training formats SANS has to offer – students can conveniently opt to study at their own pace, interact with world class instructors virtually or even hone their skills with hands-on labs and rich cyber ranges. As classroom-based trainings are currently on hold until after September 1st, SANS has put together a package to support the growing demand for cybersecurity education and to encourage technology experts on the frontlines at customer organisations to sharpen their skills and keep abreast of the times.

This will empower them to secure their firms against the rising number of COVID-19-themed cyber-attacks including phishing, ransomware, loaders, DDoS-attacks and so on. SANS has recently identified a 30 percent increase in attacker interest in Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) servers during the month of March 2020.

This increase coincides with a significant increase in exposed RDP servers, as measured by Shodan, the search engine that allows users to search the internet for connected devices.

Commenting on the company’s compelling new offer, Ned Baltagi, Managing Director, Middle East & Africa at SANS Institute, said, “Our mission is to empower current and future cybersecurity practitioners with relevant trainings and education. We are constantly listening to their needs, to best equip them in their fight against cybercriminal groups around the world who are relentlessly exploiting public fear of the current situation and increasing their activities.

With the introduction of SANS Flexi-Pass, we are offering an exciting package for world class security education on the highest level possible including GIAC certifications and our famous Netwars for six months. We urge cybersecurity professionals to capitalise on this great offer and increase their proficiency to stay ahead of the ever-evolving cyber threat landscape,” Baltagi concluded.

NEWS

AVEVA to Host Global Virtual Event Focused on Digital Transformation for Industries

SentinelOne is Aston Martin’s Official Cybersecurity Partner

AVEVA has announced that it will be hosting the first of a series of three virtual global events, under the umbrella of AVEVA World Digital, on the 16th and 17th June 2020. Attendees are invited to participate from the comfort of their desks, and experience the latest strategies for digital transformation, delivered straight to their device of choice.

Supported by strategic partner Schneider Electric, the first AVEVA World Digital event is designed to provide expert advice and real-world examples to help organizations adopt the right solutions to master the ever-changing business environment and facilitate resilience and growth. Themed around ‘Digital Resilience for Turbulent Times’, the inaugural AVEVA World Digital event is aimed at industrial professionals interested in innovative solutions that can build resilience and lay the foundation for digital transformation, now and in the future.

These will include CXOs, department heads, directors and managers interested in digital transformation from across industrial sectors. The event will be captioned in seven languages: English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Over the two-days, an impressive line-up of keynote sessions will take place all providing insights for digital transformational strategies to help organizations thrive in the post COVID-19 era.

Speakers will include AVEVA CEO, Craig Hayman, Jean Pascal Tricoire, CEO Schneider Electric, Rachel Botsman, Author, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Matteo Centù, Head of Industry 4.0, ENEL and Saad Bashir, CTO, City of Seattle.

The fully packed agenda will also include a panel session entitled Optimizing Your Agility in Disruption, on-demand content breakout sessions, and an AVEVA World Digital Expo featuring on-demand product demos.

“The world is changing beyond recognition and at a phenomenal pace. Consequently, organizations that operate with a globally remote workforce, supply chains and operating models are adapting in the face of growing daily disruption, and rapidly implementing new plans,” commented Craig Hayman, AVEVA CEO. “Consumer demand is inevitably shifting more toward the necessities for life, and the manufacturing industry is having to reposition to meet these ever-changing needs. Today, more than ever, digital technology experience and insight is relevant as companies collectively help global organizations pinpoint the massive opportunities for growth into new areas and increasing demand from new audiences.”

Register for AVEVA World Digital today at: https:// sw.aveva.com/aveva-world-digital

SentinelOne has been announced as the official cybersecurity provider to Aston Martin Lagonda, deploying the next generation endpoint protection platform to secure its manufacturing, headquarters, supply chain, and field offices against the ever evolving threat landscape. Founded in 1913, Aston Martin has been creating exceptional automobiles built with their values of beauty, craft, and art for more than a century and has become the epitome of luxury British heritage.

Challenged by the escalating threat landscape, Aston Martin made a significant investment revolutionizing its cybersecurity program with cloud-delivered Artificial Intelligence to replace legacy antivirus. Legacy antivirus was no longer fit for purpose in protecting against modern malware and the growing prevalence of ransomware attacks. In addition, legacy antivirus required too many employees to manage while obstructing Aston Martin Lagonda’s end user computing experience. With a complex IT landscape, including Windows, Mac, Linux, and Cloud Workloads, as well as high-specification CAD, CAE, and design production workstations, Aston Martin Lagonda needed a technology solution that would seamlessly perform across different operating systems and have robust APIs for seamless integration across the tech and cybersecurity stack.

“We couldn’t have any solution that was going to get in the way of our users, particularly our engineers and

ARABIAN RESELLER | June 2020

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designers,” commented Steve O’Connor, Director of Information Technology, Aston Martin Lagonda. “We wanted a platform that was simple to use and almost invisible to the users, but that would give us complete confidence and security. Most of all, we wanted something future-proof as Aston Martin Lagonda continues constantly innovating.”

“We were impressed by how quickly SentinelOne had come to lead the enterprise security market with capabilities we didn’t see from any other vendor,” continues O’Connor. After a shortlisting process, three vendors went on to proof of concept. During this process SentinelOne clearly differentiated itself, showing marked leadership against other well-established vendors. We saw unrivalled protection and very low numbers of false positives all while receiving positive responses from users across all operating systems.”

SentinelOne’s Singularity platform is a product-first approach, powered by award-winning patented AI and machine learning. The solution is able to not only prevent attacks, but also autonomously reverse any threat, freeing up technical staff and giving peace of mind that no threat slips through. Aston Martin Lagonda were able to take this peace of mind to the next level with SentinelOne’s Vigilance MDR (managed detection and response) service, delivering global 24/7/365 SOC scalability and protecting against even the most advanced threats.

NEWS

ExtraHop Partners With CrowdStrike

Fortinet’s Scalable Secure SDWAN Services Allow SPs to Expand their Service Offerings Fortinet has announced the continued momentum with network service providers who have chosen to leverage Fortinet Secure SD-WAN to scale and grow their business, deliver new value-added services, and limit overhead. With the recent increase in remote workforces, network service providers are facing unprecedented demand for highly scalable VPN service offerings.

ExtraHop has announced a partnership with CrowdStrike. The partnership includes the powerful integration between ExtraHop Reveal(x) and CrowdStrike Falcon, marrying best-of-breed cloud-native detection and response capabilities to provide protection from the network to the endpoint.

As businesses and government agencies have transitioned employees to remote work and moved more of their operations off premises, it has exposed gaps in availability, access, and security. Adversaries around the world quickly took advantage of the chaos, exploiting misconfigured remote desktop protocol vulnerabilities and ramping up phishing scams. With cloud adoption surging and a major spike in the use of personal computing devices for work, it is more critical than ever for organizations to maintain a clear picture of managed and unmanaged devices on their network, as well as determine which are being adequately monitored and secured.

The integration between ExtraHop Reveal(x) and CrowdStrike Falcon merges complete network visibility, machine learning behavioral threat detection and real-time decryption of SSL/TLS sessions to extract de-identified metadata for analysis. This approach provides joint customers powerful endpoint security and instant remediation of threats.

•

Real-time Detection: The integration allows security teams to rapidly detect threats observed on the network such as network privilege escalation, lateral movement, suspicious VPN connections, data exfiltration and more. It also helps thwart those

occurring on the endpoint, including ransomware, local file enumeration, directory traversal, and code execution. This provides complete coverage across the entire attack surface.

•

•

Instant Response: When Reveal(x) detects urgent threats it notifies the Falcon platform to contain the impacted devices ensuring analysts can rapidly investigate and resolve threats. This cuts off access to network resources and endpoints before a security incident can turn into a breach.

Continuous Endpoint Visibility: With automatic device discovery and classification, Reveal(x) continuously updates and maintains a list of devices impacted by threats, even on devices where the CrowdStrike agent is not yet present. This alerts CrowdStrike customers to newly connected and potentially compromised devices that need instrumentation for device-level visibility. It also extends edge visibility to include IoT, bring your own device (BYOD), and devices incompatible with agents.

"CrowdStrike and ExtraHop have been at the forefront of that shift, arming security organizations with the situational awareness and control they need to protect businesses and consumers in a perimeterless world. With this partnership and integration, our customers can now detect and respond to every threat from the core to the edge and everywhere in between," said Raja Mukerji, ExtraHop co-founder and Chief Customer Officer.

9

Additionally, as the SD-WAN market has matured, these same SPs are beginning to offer security services as new customer demands and deployment efficiency call for advanced and integrated security.

In fact, all participating service providers in a recent MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum) survey identified security as an essential value-added service they were either planning to offer or have already started offering on top of their SD-WAN solution.

“Service providers are increasingly turning to Fortinet Secure SD-WAN as the favored solution to deliver services that standout from competitors and achieve faster and better ROI,” said John Maddison, EVP of products and CMO, Fortinet.

“Because Fortinet takes an integrated approach that combines advanced routing, security and SD-WAN in a single solution while also providing an open and extensible API-driven ecosystem, SPs that partner with Fortinet are able to simplify their service offerings and gain a huge competitive advantage in the market.”

With advanced routing, security and SD-WAN functionality in a single solution, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN has emerged as a top choice for network service providers to offer new and differentiated value-added services to their customers.

Heightened by one of the broadest API ecosystems in the industry, Fortinet enables service providers to customize highly scalable secure SD-WAN services that can be quickly added to their offerings and easily deployed at customer sites.

Fortinet’s security-driven networking approach to SD-WAN empowers service providers with the ability to deliver highly scalable VPN services for business continuity.

NEWS

Attivo Networks use Deception to Ambush Cyber Attackers at Endpoint

McAfee Uncovers Flood of Attacks on Corporate Cloud Accounts

Attivo Networks has announced new capabilities within its ThreatDefend Detection Platform that aim to anticipate methods an attacker will use to break out from an infected endpoint and ambush their every move. This unique approach to detection specifically focuses on reducing the time an attacker can remain undetected and the amount of effort required for an organization to restore environments to normal operations.

This new Endpoint Detection Net offering will also serve as a powerful protection force-multiplier for businesses using Endpoint Protection (EPP) and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions by closing detection gaps and facilitating automated incident response. Protecting endpoints and preventing the spread of infected systems is a critical concern for organizations of all sizes, with research revealing that attackers can move off of an initially compromised system in 4.5 hours, on average.

Further, new research shows that the average dwell time – the time it takes to detect attackers operating within an enterprise network – increased an average of 10 days in 2019, from 85 to 95 days, highlighting the escalating requirement to secure endpoints and prevent an adversary from establishing a foothold. As a result, CISOs and security managers are increasing their spending and allocating budget for network detection and response tools, staff skills training, and endpoint detection and response solutions.

“Endpoints are the new battleground, and well-orchestrated detection and response capabilities are an organization’s greatest weapon against attackers,” said Ray Kafity, Vice President of META at Attivo Networks. “The new Endpoint Detection Net offering provides organizations of all sizes an efficient and effective way to derail an attacker’s lateral movement before they can establish a foothold or cause material harm.”

The Attivo Endpoint Detection Net product is tackling endpoint security challenges head-on by making every endpoint a decoy designed to disrupt an attacker’s ability to break out and further infiltrate the network. It does this without requiring agents on the endpoint or causing disruption to regular network operations. The company used historical attack data and the MITRE Att@ck framework as a way to understand the various methods attackers use to spread laterally from an endpoint and then created a comprehensive solution designed to stop them.

McAfee, the device-to-cloud cybersecurity company, has released a new research study titled Cloud Adoption & Risk Report – Work-fromHome Edition. The report uncovers a correlation between the increased use of cloud services and collaboration tools, such as Cisco WebEx, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with an increase in cyber-attacks targeting the cloud. Based on anonymized and aggregated data from more than 30 million McAfee MVISION Cloud users worldwide between January and April, the report reveals significant and potentially long-lasting trends that include an increase in the use of cloud services, access from unmanaged devices and the rise of cloud-native threats.

These trends emphasize the need for new security delivery models in the distributed work-from-home environment of today–and likely the future. In the time surveyed, overall enterprise adoption of cloud services spiked by 50 percent, including industries such as manufacturing and financial services that typically rely on legacy on-premises applications, networking and security more than others. Use of cloud collaboration tools increased by up to 600 percent, with the education sector seeing the most growth as more students are required to adopt distance learning practices.

Threat events from external actors increased by 630 percent over the same period. Most of these external attacks targeted collaboration services like Microsoft 365, and were large-scale attempts to access cloud accounts with stolen credentials. Insider threats

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remained the same, indicating that working from home has not negatively influenced employee loyalty. Access to the cloud by unmanaged, personal devices doubled, adding another layer of risk for security professionals working to keep their data secure in the cloud.

With cloud-native threats increasing in step with cloud adoption, all industries need to evaluate their security posture to protect against account takeover and data exfiltration. Companies need to safeguard against threat actors attempting to exploit weaknesses in their cloud deployments. Tips to maintain strong security posture include: •

Think cloud-first: A cloud-centric security mindset can support the increase in cloud use and combat cloud-native threats. Enterprises need to shift their focus to data in the cloud and to cloud-native security services so they can maintain full visibility and control with a remote, distributed workforce.

•

Consider your network: Remote work reduces the ability for hub and spoke networking to work effectively with scale. Network controls should be cloud-delivered and should connect remote users directly to the cloud services they need.

•

Consolidate and reduce complexity: Cloud-delivered network security and cloud-native data security should smoothly interoperate, ideally be consolidated to reduce complexity and total cost of ownership and increase security effectiveness and responsiveness.

NEWS

Veeam Announces its 2020 Data Protection Trends Report As organizations look to transform their business operations and revolutionize customer service, Digital Transformation (DX) is at the top of most CXOs’ agendas; in fact, DX spending is expected to approach $7.4 trillion between 2020 and 2023, a CAGR of 17.5%. However, according to the latest industry data released from Veeam Software, the leader in Backup solutions that deliver Cloud Data Management, almost half of global organizations are being hindered in their DX journeys due to unreliable, legacy technologies with 44% citing lack of IT skills or expertise as another barrier to success. Moreover, almost every company admitted to experiencing downtime, with 1 out of every 10 servers having unexpected outages each year — problems that last for hours and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars – and this points to an urgent need to modernize data protection and focus on business continuity to enable DX. The Veeam 2020 Data Protection Trends Report surveyed more than 1,500 global

enterprises to understand their approach toward data protection and management today, and how they expect to be prepared for the IT challenges they face, including reacting to demand changes and interruptions in service, as well as more aspirational goals of IT modernization and DX. Claude Schuck, regional manager, Middle East at Veeam said, “According to the Veeam 2020 Data Protection Trends Report, Middle East and African organizations would be well advised to focus on staff training and development as well as on IT modernization to accelerate Digital Transformation. With data being the most valuable business asset today, its protection and security is paramount and should be the base and stepping stone of each company´s digitalization strategy.

Although organizations in the Middle East spend a lot of budget on security technologies in general, there is still a considerable discrepancy when it comes to planning and implementing a data protection policy."

Huawei Joins the Industry to Accelerate Intelligent Network Upgrades Huawei recently released the Autonomous Driving Network Solution White Paper at Huawei Global Analyst Summit (HAS) 2020.

This white paper systematically describes the future network architecture, O&M architecture, and key technologies. With the collaboration of AI capabilities at the NE, network, and cloud layers, simplified and ultra-broadband networks are emerging, and network O&M is evolving to man-machine collaboration, providing carriers and industry partners with practical reference for digital transformation.

Lu Hongju, President of Huawei’s General Development Dept, said: “The next 10 years will be the golden decade for the booming development of the intelligent era. New technologies represented by 5G, cloud, and AI will inject core momentum to intelligent connection upgrades. Huawei calls on industry peers to explore practices and leverage data and knowledge to build an autonomous network that features automation, self-healing, and self-optimization, and seize new opportunities presented by the digital economy.”

The white paper points out that two changes are required to build ADNs: First, the NE-centric fragmented network

construction mode must be changed to the service-centric modular autonomous network construction mode. Converged “Manager+Controller+Analyzer” achieves single-domain autonomy and real-time closed-loop, balancing the cost and speed of intra-domain innovation and inter-domain collaboration.

Second, all industry parties should jointly define the target architecture for cross-domain openness and collaboration, as well as programmable API standards, greatly simplifying cross-domain service collaboration and assurance, reducing R&D and operation costs and risks, achieving agile business through simplified integration, and ultimately reducing the collaboration costs of the entire industry.

To achieve the ambitious ADN goal, the white paper suggests that all industry parties need to reach a consensus as well as jointly develop unified standards and hierarchical evaluation systems in compliance with the three-stage (development, research, and exploration) strategy, enabling the formation of an efficient and collaborative industry ecosystem and jointly facilitating intelligent upgrades as well as healthy and sustainable industry development.

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Genetec’s Transit Portfolio to Unify Security and Operations Transit agencies have traditionally relied on multiple single-purpose proprietary systems that don’t interconnect. To help security, IT, operations and vehicle maintenance staff work together, Genetec Inc., has announced a portfolio of solutions designed to help transit organizations unify their security and operations from a single intuitive interface.

The Genetec Transit Portfolio enables key stakeholders to work in sync using a solution that unifies wayside and onboard security with operational and intelligence products that leverage their existing security infrastructure to bring additional insights. Most onboard and wayside systems are built on separate, closed architectures that require costly custom updates and integrations to communicate with other systems in a limited way.

Transitioning to a single, open platform under a single pane of glass helps unify systems while laying the foundation for coordinated processes, efficient incident response, and collaborative work. This makes it easier to build internal processes to increase an agency’s overall operational efficiency. Additionally, transit agencies are increasingly being solicited for information from external partners (neighboring transit agencies, law enforcement, city services, etc.).

A unified system establishes an infrastructure that facilitates sharing data while keeping it secure. “To meet evolving demands and travelers’ expectations, transit agencies need to find creative ways to provide a safe and seamless journey for their customers, while also having the right systems and protocols in place to ensure efficient operations,” said Jermaine Santoya, Industry Marketing Manager for Intelligent Mobility at Genetec. “Using a unified security platform allows them to track all events in their vehicles and premises, record and retrieve actionable information efficiently, and provide an optimal experience for all commuters.”

At the core of the Genetec Transit Portfolio is the Genetec Security Center platform which unifies video management, access control and Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) capabilities.

NEWS

Nokia Joins the Open RAN Policy Coalition

Financial Services Organisations Increasingly Prone to DDoS Attacks

Nokia has announced that it has joined the Open RAN Policy Coalition to help enable a comprehensive and secure approach to 5G and future network generations. Alongside its customers and other industry stakeholders, Nokia will help shape policy choices that will impact how wireless networks are built, including support for research and development in open networks.

Financial services organisations have experienced a significant increase in the number of authentication and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks over the past three years, according to new research from F5 Labs.

The opposite was true of web attacks, however, which were notably down during the same period.

tion attack are often customer complaints about account lockouts, rather than any sort of automated detection,” said Pompon. “Early detection is key.

If defenders can identify an increase in failed login attempts over a short period of time, it gives them a window of opportunity to act before customers are affected.”

F5 Labs’ analysis, which examined customer security incident response (SIRT) data from 2017-2019, covered banks, credit unions, brokers, insurance, and the wide range of organisations that serve them, such as payment processors and financial Software as a Service (SaaS).

DDoS attacks were the second biggest threat to financial services organisations, accounting for 32% of all reported incidents between 2017 and 2019.

It is also the fastest growing threat. In 2017, 26% of attacks on financial services organisations focused on DDoS. The figure soared to 42% in 2019.

“The financial services sector is a highly regulated environment, which means their security budgets are high and there is a low appetite for risk.

However, they remain an attractive target for cybercriminals due to the value and high profile of the information they have access to,” said Raymond Pompon, Director at F5 Labs.

Yet again there were distinct regional variations. 50% of all attacks reported in EMEA over the three-year period were DDoS-related. Asia Pacific was similarly affected with 55%, but the volume dropped to 22% in North America. According to F5 Labs, denial-of-service attacks against financial service providers usually target either the core services used by customers (such as DNS) or the applications that allow users to access online services (i.e. viewing bills or applying for loans).

Attacks are often sourced from all over the world, likely via the use of large botnets that are either rented out by attackers, or purpose-built from compromised machines.

By disaggregating hardware and software components and leveraging open interfaces, Open RAN (O-RAN) technology has the potential to enrich the mobile ecosystem with new solutions and business models, and an expanded multi-vendor ecosystem. Nokia has been working within the O-RAN Alliance to help develop the open reference architectures and open interfaces that will be critical to the delivery of interoperable O-RAN solutions.

Nokia was the first major vendor to join the O-RAN Alliance and it is co-chairing the workgroups that are defining the Open Fronthaul Interface and the Near Real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), which will help automate and optimize the network. In addition to the O-RAN Alliance, Nokia has championed open standards in 3GPP, the Linux Foundation’s ONAP initiative, ETSI’s Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) initiative, and more.

In addition to technical contributions, Nokia supports the continued development and execution of a comprehensive strategy for open and secure RAN policy for 5G and beyond. Brian Hendricks, Vice President of Government Relations Americas, Nokia said: “Nokia believes that policymakers, operators and equipment providers should work together to support research and development of emerging network technologies that include open systems, advanced 5G technologies and foundational 6G research, with policies that support a robust ecosystem of trusted suppliers that will create a strong U.S. position in secure wireless technology.

We believe this coalition strongly supports this approach and we are pleased to join the industry to move forward on this important effort.”

On average, brute force and credential stuffing constituted 41% of all attacks on financial services organisations over the full three-year period. The percentage of attacks grew from 37% in 2017 to a high point of 42% in 2019. Brute force attacks involve a bad actor attempting large volumes of usernames and passwords against an authentication endpoint. Other forms of brute force attacks simply use common lists of default credential pairs (for example, admin/admin), commonly used passwords, or even randomly generated password strings.

Occasionally, brute force attacks leverage credentials that have been obtained from other breaches. These are then used to target the service in an attack known as “credential stuffing.”

Delving deeper, F5’s SIRT team found that there were clear regional variations in attack trends. In EMEA, brute force and credential stuffing attacks only amounted to 20% of the total, which is higher than the 15% observed in Asia Pacific but significantly lower than North America’s 64%. The latter is likely driven by a large volume of existing breached credentials.

“The first indications of an authentica-

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“The ability to quickly identify the characteristics of traffic when under attack conditions is critically important. It is also vital to quickly enable in-depth logging for application services in order to identify unusual queries,” Pompon explained.

Web attacks on the wane While authentication and DDoS attacks continue to spread, there was also a concurrent dip drop in web attacks against financial services organisations. In 2017 and 2018, they accounted for 11% of all incidents. In 2019, it was just 4%. “While it is difficult to determine causality, one likely factor driving this trend is the growing sophistication of properly implemented technical controls such as web application firewalls (WAFs),” said Pompon.

NEWS

Dell Launches New Series of Commercial Laptops and PCs

Dell Technologies has unveiled new business PCs across its Latitude, Precision and OptiPlex portfolios to make work more efficient and safe — no matter the location. Professionals can work smarter with Dell Optimizer, the automated Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based optimization technology, now available across Latitude, Precision and OptiPlex devices.

The built-in software learns how each person works and adapts to their behavior to help them focus on the tasks that matter most. It works behind the scenes to improve overall application performance; enable faster log-in and secure lock outs; eliminate echoes and reduce background noise on conference calls; and extend battery run time.

“The PC plays a central role in how we reimagine the way we work, even anticipating what we need to be more productive,” said Darrel Ward, senior vice president, Client Product Group, Dell Technologies.

“From the moment you log on to your last video conference of the day, you need a PC that adapts to the way you work. That’s why we are driving innovations that offer more intelligence, longer battery life, powerful speakerphones, compact designs and 5G support — all while moving our sustainability goals forward.”

“It’s critical to offer the right balance of portability with the right set of productivity features. Professionals want to turn on their device and know they have everything they need to accomplish their work, in one device,” said Maribel Lopez, founder and principal analyst, Lopez Research. “People want bigger screens in smaller footprints, solid speakers for excellent call quality, the ability to switch

from Wi-Fi to 5G on the fly, and built-in AI capabilities that optimize performance and eliminate background noise — ultimately helping them work smarter and faster from any location.” New Latitude PCs and 2-in-1s adapt to how people work. The new ultra-premium 9000 series and completely redesigned 7000 series feature machined and brushed aluminum designs; long battery life; an array of ports; and expansive, four-sided narrow border displays to see and do more. Available with 10th Gen Intel vPro processors and Intel Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) for nearly three times faster speeds, the Latitude devices offer businesses power, performance and global connectivity.

Dell has reengineered its industry-leading Precision workstation portfolio, designed to handle demanding workloads like intensive graphics processing, data analysis and CAD modeling. With smaller footprints, sleek designs, and thermal innovations, the new Precision mobile workstations deliver increased performance and ISV certifications with professional graphics from NVIDIA and the latest 10th Gen Intel Core vPro and Xeon processors.

Designed for creators and professionals wanting high performance and stylish design without the size and weight of a traditional mobile workstation, the Dell Precision 5550 and 5750 are the world’s smallest and thinnest 15-inch and 17inch mobile workstations. Creators and engineers can see and do more with the 16:10, 4-sided InfinityEdge (up to HDR 400) display. The all-new Precision 5750 is also VR/AR and AI-Ready to handle fast rendering, detailed visualizations and complex simulations.

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AppDynamics Research Finds Surge in Demand for APM, Cloud Monitoring and Microservices AppDynamics has announced new data revealing a surge in demand from technologists for Application Performance Management, Cloud Monitoring and Microservices support during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has required enterprise organizations to shift overnight to an almost completely digital world, leading to unparalleled demand on their IT organizations as they strive to deliver high performing digital experiences to their customers and employees through digital services including websites applications, IoT devices and wearables.

AppDynamics research shows that before the pandemic, 71 percent of consumers admitted digital services were so intrinsic to their daily lives that they didn’t even realize how much they relied on them. Today, digital services are essential in keeping workforces productive at home, allowing people to shop for groceries online, helping patients connect to tele-health professionals to report symptoms, access testing and so much more.

Angie Mistretta, Chief Marketing Officer, AppDynamics, “Applications have quickly become the gateway to the critical digital services we now rely on to function day to day, both for personal and professional needs. This means application owners are getting hit with record usage, while under intense pressure to get products, services and information to their customers quickly – all while maintaining a great digital experience.”

“Knowing that IT teams are now navigating an increase in demand and expectations, we wanted to better understand key areas where we could help. To do this, we analyzed the online behaviors of IT decision makers to determine changes from before the pandemic to now. Our data analysts examined organic surges in traffic to our company website, reviewed trending web search terms related to application performance, our most frequently attended training courses and compiled the most commonly asked questions from our customers between March 1 and April 4, 2020, a peak period of intensity in the COVID-19 pandemic,” the company said.

CHANNE L TALK

VAD Technologies Partners With MATRIX42 Matrix42 has added to its regional partners in the Middle East by entering into a strategic partnership with VAD Technologies. Under the terms of the agreement, VAD Technologies will promote the market leading Matrix42 solutions through its extensive network of channel partners across the Middle East.

Andreas von Lowtzow, Director Channel & Alliances at Matrix42, said, “The Matrix42 unified and intuitive platform offers a world class portfolio of Secured Endpoint Management, Enterprise Service Management and Digital Workspace Management, and our exciting new partnership with VAD Technologies will provide a world class partner network and strong support for the Matrix42 Middle East expansion strategy.”

VAD Technologies, a prominent IT and Technology value added distributor headquartered in Dubai, is renowned for providing customers with high-performance enterprise solutions. Mario M. Veljovic, General Manager at VAD Technologies, said, “We are extremely happy to partner with Matrix42 in the Middle East region. Our product and solutions portfolio require that we are constantly scouting disruptive next generation technologies to ensure that our partners can offer the latest and greatest to their customers. Matrix42, a leading provider for digital workspace experience supports perfectly our vision and completes our comprehensive IT service management portfolio.”

Matrix42’s intuitive platform offers a world class portfolio of Secure Unified Endpoint Management, and Enterprise Service Management. Its partnership with VAD Technologies demonstrates the company’s commitment to its Middle East expansion strategy.

“The VAD team are well known and well placed to drive regional efforts, as well as experienced with a healthy disruptive technology and Cloud portfolio. We are looking forward to working together to deepen channel relationships,” added Glyn Yates, Country Manager, IMEA region, Matrix42.

Cloud Box Technologies Achieves Dell Platinum Partner Status Cloud Box Technologies (CBT) has announced that it has achieved the prestigious Platinum Solution Provider status within the Dell Technologies global partner program. This elevates CBT into the top level of regional partners for the vendor.

In order to qualify as Dell’s Platinum Level Solution Provider, any channel partner must achieve certain certified competency requirements. Cloud Box Technologies met all these criteria to be elevated to the Platinum level.

CBT was recognized at the Platinum Tier of Dell Technologies because of a number of solution competencies, which include Core Client, Converged Infrastructure, Data Protection, Client Data Security, Networking, Server, Storage, and Workstation. The company was also certified to provide Data Protection Services.

“We are proud to achieve Dell’s

Platinum Partner status, which is a testament of our strong commitment to our partnership with Dell Technologies, and our credentials and capabilities to offer more value to our customers and help them deliver the outcomes they are looking for faster and more effectively than before. As a leading infrastructure and cloud solutions provider across the UAE and the Middle East, this recognition will allow us great reach into large and medium enterprises,” said Ranjith Kaippada, Director at Cloud Box Technologies.

“Enterprises today are battling with the devastating impact of COVID-19 and being a Platinum tier solution provider will allow us to lead with data center solutions, modernizing legacy equipment at the core. Storage solutions from Dell Technologies will allow us to build cost effective business continuity and disaster recovery solutions as well, that are both highly available and resilient,” Kaippada added.

CyberKnight Becomes Clearswift Distributor Exponential growth of data volume is dramatically increasing opportunities for theft, data leaks and accidental disclosure of sensitive information.

According to Gartner, “By 2021, 90% of organizations will implement at least one form of integrated data loss prevention (DLP), an increase from 50% today”.

In addition, recent Gartner research concludes that organizations continue to struggle with DLP deployments and complexities. CyberKnight has announced a new partnership with Clearswift, a HelpSystems Company, to further help organizations secure critical information. The Adaptive Data Loss Prevention Platform (A-DLP) by Clearswift is designed to automatically apply optimal security treatment based on data content, context and required regulation policy.

This includes real-time redaction, encryption, blocking or deleting. Adaptive DLP offers a unique ability to only remove sensitive information and malicious content passing in and out of the network without the need for human intervention, delays, and quarantines

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while eliminating false positives.

“Confidential data, whether corporate or customer-related, can be leaked from almost any computing device today, including physical and virtual servers, databases, end user equipment, flash storage devices, and mobile devices. Through the partnership with Clearswift we make critical information protection practical for regional customers that are faced with limited IT resources, and encounter more complex cyber threats and compliance regulations,” said Avinash Advani, Founder and CEO at CyberKnight Technologies.

“In today’s world, organizations are facing immense pressure to secure a broader attack surface. With our simple platform we help organizations reduce costs associated with managing false positives, distributed reviews and releases to direct supervisors, and the need to purchase multiple security tools (i.e., anti-malware, legal redaction and sanitization, PCI compliance, and so on),” added Ciaran Rafferty, Managing Director at Clearswift.

Secureworks Launches New Global Partner Program Secureworks has announced a new Global Partner Program to provide resellers and referral partners with a more streamlined and profitable way to meet growing customer demand for cybersecurity.

“During this time of rapid change and uncertainty, businesses are dealing with a heightened need for safety and security,” said Maureen Perrelli, chief channel officer, Secureworks. “Our new channel program provides partners with access to Secureworks’ leading cybersecurity solutions to address their customers’ needs along with a growth opportunity for a profitable and recurring revenue stream.”

Partner benefits are based on competencies and performance levels and include:

•

Base rebates – Earn predictable rebates, based on qualified revenue, beginning with the first increment earned.

•

New business discount – Receive extra discounts for signing up net new customers.

•

Marketing Development Funds (MDF) – Request proposal-based MDF based on business need and subject to approval.

Products and services available through the new partner program include Secureworks’ software-driven Red Cloak Threat Detection and Response (TDR) application, Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solution, and Incident Management Retainer for proactive and emergency incident response.

Software AG and Tech Mahindra Partner to Deliver IoT and Analytics for Telco Customers Software AG has announced a partnership with Tech Mahindra/ Working together, the companies will provide Internet of Things (IoT), analytics and integration technologies, services and support. This will enable communications service providers (CSPs) and manufacturers to drive digital transformation efficiently, quickly and with maximum impact for their customers, employees and business.

Vikram Nair, President, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Tech Mahindra, said: “As part of our TechMNxT charter, we are constantly looking to expand our partner ecosystem by connecting with industry-leading companies.

This partnership will strengthen our existing relationship with Software AG, and will enable our CSPs to accelerate the roll-out of digital solutions empowered with advanced IoT solutions.”

As CSPs increasingly move towards more data-driven and value-added services revenues, powered by

intelligent networks, they require substantial systems integration and solutions development work that can be best provided by Tech Mahindra and Software AG. John Schweitzer, Chief Revenue Officer, Software AG, said “Our joint solutions will help CSPs to accelerate the rollout of new advanced IoT offerings. Working with Tech Mahindra, we have made it easier than ever for CSPs to build stronger integration with OSS, BSS and other parts of telecommunications enterprise systems. This will allow CSPs to roll out new advanced offerings and onboard new customers faster than ever before, offering an unparalleled customer experience.”

CSP revenues will increasingly come from new digital offerings. To best take advantage of this opportunity, CSPs need new building blocks of connectivity management, hardware management and integration management which will be provided by Tech Mahindra’s domain knowledge and Software AG’s leading Cumulocity IoT platform.

Spectrami Intros Axonius Cyber Security Asset Management Platform Spectrami has announced a new distribution partnership with cyber security asset management vendor, Axonius. Axonius has developed a cyber security asset management platform to manage end-to-end devices. The platform integrates with more than 200 existing security and management solutions to provide enterprises a single window view of all the connected devices including mobile, compute, and IoT devices, instances and machines, whether they are on premise, remote, or in the cloud. The platform identifies the security coverage gaps and automates their security policy enforcement.

Commenting on the partnership, the CEO for Spectrami, Anand Choudha, said, “We are in constant search of bleeding edge technologies that are relevant to the needs of enterprises in the region. Enterprises are armed with the latest cyber security technologies, but all these technologies are working in silos, resulting in security gaps, which can prove risky. To counter such challenges, we are glad to partner with Axonius to introduce their cyber security asset management platform, which provides a unified view of all the assets and allows enterprises to take action to enforce their security policies.”

Speaking about this new relationship, Mark Daggett, Worldwide VP Channel & Alliances for Axonius, stated, “We are thrilled to partner with Spectrami as our distributor to help our growth efforts in the Middle East. Our partnership is off to a fast start and the commitment we have seen with the Spectrami team has been outstanding.

Our team is excited to leverage Spectrami’s knowledge and network in the region to introduce our Cybersecurity Asset Management Platform to customers.”

Spectrami will be marketing and promoting the Axonius cyber security asset management platform across Middle East, Turkey, and Africa.

COVE R STORY

HYBRID CLOUD THE BEST OF BOTH THE WORLDS Arabian Reseller speaks to industry experts who explain why hybrid cloud is a solution for businesses that want to have the cost efficiency of public cloud with the security of private cloud.

The race for digital transformation is on, with companies across almost every industry looking for ways to provide services and solutions driven by the latest technology. While the initial wave of cloud computing saw many organizations shift away from physical infrastructure, the next decade of IT deployments will see the embrace of true hybrid cloud architecture that provides far greater control and flexibility.

to the cloud are often faced with the dilemma of choosing between public or private cloud. The right way forward is to choose the one that best suits your organisation's workloads, and that could be public, private or even a mix of both. And in the rapidly evolving cloud market, identifying emerging trends can help drive digital business decision making, vendor and technology selection and investment strategies.

However, enterprises migrating

The Current State of the Cloud

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“Cloud, be it public or private, is gaining traction among a growing number of enterprises looking to create a more efficient IT architecture with cost-effective storage and data management solutions that let those enterprises do more with less,” explains Fadi Kanafani, the Middle East Managing Director and General Manager at NetApp. “With a secure cloud solution, enterprises can deploy a cloud infrastructure that accelerates time to market with new services and increases operational

efficiency and flexibility while cutting costs.”

Kanafani further adds that private clouds can offer enterprises more IT flexibility, reliable security, and cost containment versus continuing with a traditional “build and maintain your own” legacy systems approach. “Similarly, public cloud has gained more traction as an effective means to meet fast-changing IT needs and therefore it's now widely seen as a viable tool that can offer flexibility to scale computing services based on demand, thus allowing the potential to create cost savings if demand drops or as efficiencies are gained,” he adds.

Kerrie Jordan, the Director for Cloud Product Management and Product Marketing at Epicor Software Corp., says that Cloud comes up in 100% of the conversations with customers, prospects, and business partners. “To dig into that a little bit, Epicor formally interviewed over 2,300 professionals as part of the 2019 Global Growth Index. The results were pretty impressive — 84% saw cloud as playing an important role in their growth strategy, 90% run cloud applications today (with 31% saying they already use cloud significantly), and 92% are planning to invest in cloud applications in the next year. That means virtually every organization has some plan to leverage cloud to some extent.

When looking at industry metrics like this, it’s clear that cloud is here,” she adds.

According to a global survey conducted by the Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network, in partnership with A10 Networks, a vast majority of enterprises worldwide have adopted multi-cloud strategies to keep pace with the need for digital transformation and IT efficiency. “Among key survey findings is that approximately two-thirds of companies have now deployed enterprise applications across two or more public clouds. Around 84 percent of the respondents expect to increase their reliance on public

or private clouds over the next 24 months. Also, 35 percent have already moved half or more of their enterprise applications into the cloud. The rise of 5G edge clouds is expected to be a key driver for multi-cloud adoption,” explains Adil Baghir, the Technology Consultant Lead for MEA at A10 Networks.

In the Middle East, with the recent announcements from several global cloud service providers as well as an increasing investment from government in this technology, Cloud seems to be approaching a tipping point. “According to a survey carried out by Equinix recently among more than 1,200 senior IT professionals from across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) show the rise of multi-cloud. More than seven in 10 (71%) organisations are likely to move more of their business functions to the cloud in the coming years. 60% of EMEA IT leaders cite proximity to cloud service providers (CSPs) as an integral factor when choosing a data center in their local market,” adds Jeroen Schlosser, the Managing Director of Equinix MENA. Challenges of Cloud Adoption Using a hybrid cloud approach most definitely seems to be the way forward due to the benefits accrued by using private clouds and public clouds. Hybrid cloud computing is key to efficient management of a firm’s application workloads as different applications require a different platform. However, hybrid cloud does not come without its fair share of challenges and issues. The challenges include security concerns, effective management problems, migration complexities, components partitioning, trust issues, scheduling and execution issues, and numerous other problems. You should remember that these problems are not insurmountable, but they will take some effort to solve.

“Some of the key challenges of cloud adoption include ensuring secure data transfer and data access to meet compliance requirements,” says Srinivasa Raghavan, the Product Manager at Site24x7, 17

a service by ZOHO Corp. “Managing IT infrastructure spending while the ease of adding resources in the cloud threatens to push costs out of bounds. In addition, lack of expertise in implementing and managing the cloud and ensuring the proper governance process is followed for resources in the cloud are also the challenges.

Also, managing multiple clouds as more organisations look to a multi-cloud strategy to avoid being locked into one provider is a key challenge.”

Cloud adoption also requires a standardised IT operating model to design, develop, migrate workloads to and from the cloud. “Non standard practices only add to the challenges and delays the speed to reach out and solve business challenges. Governance, compliance and security consideration are other areas where businesses need to plan their approach before adopting cloud. Also, lack of skills and cost control could be the long term operational challenges why most SME do not adopt cloud easily,” explains Rohit Bhargava, the Practice Head for Could and Security at Cloud Box Technologies.

Baghir says that improving multi-cloud security is seen as the most critical challenge, followed by a lack of multi-cloud talent and expertise, the need for centralized visibility, and the capacity to more effectively manage application and infrastructure complexity. “Data locality is another issue as various countries have data privacy laws and compliance requirements based on location. The data is critical in all enterprise architectures.

Insecure interfaces and APIs represent another security challenge,” adds Baghir.

“The main challenge in my opinion is data migration to the cloud,” adds Kanafani. “Although there are native services provided by the cloud providers for migrating data, these solutions might require significant restructuring of the application during a “lift-and-shift” operation or they may not be as fast, taking days or months to

move the data. Therefore, a data migration strategy must be in place to ensure that the applications dependent on that data face minimal disruption and the migration budget does not get blown out of proportion.”

The enterprise faces evolving challenges as the Internet of Things (IoT), big data and tight regulatory compliance continues to alter the digital landscape. “With the increasing frequency of data breaches, security is continually a top-of-mind concern. Performance—specifically the need to locate services “at the edge” to reduce latency—is also a top priority. Security and performance requirements of multi-cloud connectivity can be confidently addressed through the capabilities of private connections and virtualization. Private cloud connectivity, software-defined networks (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) are giving enterprises greater control and flexibility in managing multi-cloud connectivity and security,” explains Schlosser.

IaaS Helping the Adoption of Cloud Solutions Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is growing faster than any other segment of the cloud services market — outpacing both SaaS and PaaS, and Gartner predicts that growth will continue for at least the next 5 years. According to Gartner, worldwide IaaS revenue this year is expected to exceed $72 billion. In the IaaS model, cloud providers host the infrastructure components traditionally residing in an on-premises data center, including servers, storage, and networking hardware, as well as the virtualisation layer, allowing users to scale quickly to meet demand.

“By leveraging on-demand Platformas-a-Service (PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings from cloud service providers (CSP)s and IT service providers, companies can accelerate their digital business transformation to open new markets and grow their revenue through new sources,” says Schlosser. He also adds that as more cloud activity accumulates at the edge, private in-

terconnection will be the fastest and safest way to access the necessary resources and services to make any cloud strategy a success.

“Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offers customers access to computing resources such as servers, storage, and networking. Organizations use their own platforms and applications within a service provider’s infrastructure or co-location provider. This has helped in the adoption of cloud solutions due to its main features and flexibility. Customers can pay for IaaS on-demand without purchasing hardware,” says Kanafani. “Also, there are no costs associated with buying and maintaining hardware. In addition, there is no singular point of failure, because data lives in the cloud. Another nice feature of IaaS is the scalability of the infrastructure empowering the virtualization of administrative tasks. In the end, it all comes down to which service fits the organization’s specific project or future plans best. IaaS is just one of a growing number of cloud service provider models to diversify provider offerings and cut waste from data management.”

IT organizations realize the substantial agility and cost benefits of rapidly growing cloud IaaS offerings, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. Leading enterprises are evolving their IT strategy by adopting various cloud computing models and software-defined networking (SDN) technology architectures for their internal private data centres to achieve automation, business agility, and dramatically reduced operational costs. “IaaS cloud data centre operators, by contrast, strive to deliver dynamically provisioned computing services and to increase responsiveness to the changing business needs, they also deliver end-user tenants vastly greater business agility, service provisioning times, and economics,” adds Baghir.

Eliminating Trade-Offs and Offering Best-of-Breed Solutions According to Kanafani, not everything belongs to a public cloud, which is why so many forward-thinking companies are choosing a hybrid

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Fadi Kanafani, Middle East MD & GM, NetApp

Kerrie Jordan, Director - CPM & Product Marketing, Epicor

Jeroen Schlosser, Managing Director, Equinix MENA

Adil Baghir, Technology Consultant Lead - MEA, A10 Networks

mixture of cloud services. Hybrid clouds offer the benefits of both public and private clouds and take advantage of existing architecture in a data center. “The hybrid approach allows applications and components to interoperate across boundaries (for example, cloud versus on-premises), between cloud instances, and even between architectures (for example, traditional versus modern digital). The same level of distribution and access flexibility is also needed for data.

Whether you’re handling workloads or datasets, in the dynamic digital world, you should plan for things to move around in response to evolving needs. Where applications or data live today might not be the best place for them to live over time,” he adds.

According to Baghir, hybrid cloud infrastructures provide organisations with the flexibility to get the maximum advantages of multiple cloud options. They can provide the best solutions from multiple cloud providers. “For example, some organizations plan to publish their critical applications on a public cloud to optimize the performance while storing sensitive data on their private cloud. This is a win-win model that addresses both the performance of critical applications on a public cloud, as well as the security concerns, in a cost-effective approach,” he says.

Agility is a growing business need.

The hybrid cloud allows enterprises to both keep up with responding to customer needs by innovating faster, while not shaking up the whole organization by moving to a full cloud environment. “With organizations often dealing with workloads that fluctuate in use, the hybrid cloud offers the benefit of unlimited resources on demand and an additional benefit of close monitoring of all resources being used to best balance your organization’s demand with supply,” explains Schlosser. “Hybrid cloud model is an excellent way to continue managing current business requirements while being able to support current and future

growth.”

Bhargava explains that hybrid approach is good for organization that have a certain level of IT infrastructure maturity. Those who can offer some services via public cloud without compromising current business needs and demand.

“A major portion of opportunities are from SME that have run out of power and space in their data center to have new infrastructure.

Hence Public cloud could be a time saver and flexible solution. As more and more application vendors provide native cloud connectivity, you would observe seamless connections from a private cloud to public cloud without users noticing any hiccups. BYOL or bring your own license is another good way to have a hybrid approach by using or migrating current licenses to/from cloud. Multi-cloud strategy at an advance level would surely dictate smooth communication from different cloud for each application,” says Bhargava.

According to Jordan, hybrid environments are common today, and increasingly so, for good reason.

“Hybrid cloud offers businesses the freedom to choose their own path to cloud — maybe they want to keep HQ users on premises but take a newly acquired division to the cloud. Maybe they intend to deploy financial applications locally but supply chain solutions in the cloud. Over time, companies tend to bring on applications in different areas of the business, and integrations to leverage data across this unique mix of systems can actually be highly valuable and create a competitive differentiator,” she explains.

Raghavan says that hybrid cloud deployments can help businesses effectively deal with the problem of ensuring security while keeping costs low. “Businesses can decide what sort of data to store externally in the public cloud, and what information should reside inside their private data center. That way, they can protect any sensitive

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data from external threats like data breaches and data loss,” he says. “The public cloud may look cheap at the start, but in the long run, the infrastructure costs are not justifiable. Having a private data center for longer running resources and using the cloud for shorter running workloads will help businesses optimise their cloud spending.”

Building a hybrid cloud architecture is a complicated undertaking for any organization, but one that can provide a number of significant performance and efficiency benefits. As more organizations shift away from on-premises infrastructure and embrace colocation and cloud solutions, hybrid cloud architecture will likely become more commonplace. By laying out their security and workload needs well in advance, companies can build the dynamic networks that not only help them to service customers today, but also grow their business into the future.

Rohit Bhargava, Practice Head - Could & Security, Cloud Box Technologies

Srinivasa Raghavan, Product Manager, Site24x7

CHANNE L INFLUE NCE R

Building Mutually Beneficial Relationships

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Nirmal Kumar Manoharan, the Regional Sales Director at ManageEngine, speaks to Arabian Reseller about roles and responsibilities of a channel influencer.

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

Over the past years, along with my team, I have been able to successfully create a channel from scratch. We set and implement short- and long-term channel sales strategies for ManageEngine to increase business productivity in the GCC region.

success in the channel?

Finding success in channel sales depends on identifying the right partners. Ideally, companies look out for partners with the ability to align with their business goals.

But, beyond this is the necessity to build a long term association with the partner, more like a friendship built on trust and mutual value.

Building a lasting and mutually beneficial relationship with channel partners has been one of my key focus areas, which resulted in proactively managing joint partner planning processes to increase performance and keep our customers happy.

At ManageEngine, we ensure our partners fully understand our work culture and innovative work environment, which helps them feel more connected with us and what we do. Slowly, our partners become an extension of our company.

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

As a channel influencer, I am responsible for building strategic plans and defining goals for our partners to achieve. I identify areas where our partners need additional training, and I provide guidance to my team of channel sales managers to help them coordinate with our channel partners to successfully execute our plans in each country and meet business goals set for the year.

Businesses equally share the responsibility in achieving success.

Businesses must have well-defined goals in place so that the partners can take strategic steps accordingly.

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

An ideal channel influencer must be able to identify key trends in the market and have the ability to develop well-crafted business goals for the company. Moreover, building a strong relationship with channel partners is the key.

How would you assess the current state of the channel?

As businesses are riding the digital transformation wave, the traditional reseller model is fading away. The growth of IaaS has caused a significant shift in the channel sales market and has reduced resellers’ ability to sell only hardware.

Earning their trust by guiding them, providing them adequate training, and encouraging them can definitely boost productivity and eventually help build relationships that last in the long run.

Many resellers are moving beyond simple order-fulfilment and embracing the VAR model of business. And as the IT market is advancing at a rapid pace, if not a VAR model of business, resellers must consider striking a balance between both the models to gain a

What is your advice on finding

The partners must be given a complete understanding of the goals and be provided with adequate support. What businesses need to understand is that performance might not be immediate and quality always matters over quantity.

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competitive edge.

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

Customer satisfaction has become a top priority in the market.

However, satisfying customers has become more difficult as the IT market continues to evolve and as customers themselves become more IT savvy and sophisticated.

In response, the channel has to be just as savvy and sophisticated, if not more so, but what we are seeing instead is a growing skills gap in the IT labor market.

As a result, channel partners aren’t always able to find the IT talent they need to serve, or satisfy, their customers. At ManageEngine, we ensure our partners are well-equipped with IT and product knowledge through frequent training and certification programmes that help them better understand and, ultimately, satisfy customer needs and expectations.

How can partners work effectively to generate growth?

Partners are the closest to our customers and maintain very strong relationships with them.

This makes it easier for partners to understand customer issues and challenges in their business, which makes it easier for partners to approach them with our products.

To ensure a satisfying customer experience, partners can provide dedicated implementation and other value-added services. Partners are our ground soldiers and have the opportunity to understand the market in much more detail.

They also give businesses the ability to identify key trends and shifts in the market as they are happening, far in advance of those trends and shifts becoming widely known or adopted.

EXPE RT VIEW

Will the Pandemic be the Catalyst that Finally Moves us to a Hybrid Working Model?

Written by Ramzi Itani, Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Barco Remote working has been a well-established trend for some time. Many businesses – particularly larger corporates operating globally – have invested heavily in the technologies and working practices needed to deliver truly flexible working. Now, the lockdown has seen almost every business in the world forced to suddenly follow suit.

Some have thrived, finding new ways to work with technology

to improve productivity, enable real-time collaboration and bring anxious, isolated employees together to find solutions to shared challenges. Others, particularly those in sectors where face-to-face physical meetings and where the right technologies are not in place, have struggled to cope and maintain business-as-usual in these highly difficult times.

Regardless of the response,

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what’s clear is that there will not be a return to the world before COVID-19. As we begin to think about how the pandemic has changed how companies and employees want to do business moving forward, here are five key workplace trends to consider.

Evolved Feelings About Collaboration and Communication The reaction to lockdown and feelings about returning to the office among employees have

been varied. Some, who used to travel extensively for business, may be reconsidering more virtual engagements in a post-pandemic world. Others will have realized that they can work just as effectively from home and want a more balanced mix of office and home-based working.

There will also be many who want to return to the office full-time as soon as possible, craving the human interaction. As lockdowns ease, we expect to see more companies considering a more balanced ‘hybrid’ approach where employees’ time is split between the office and working remotely from home.

Technology Will Define Success or Failure in the New ‘Normal’ Getting the technology right will be crucial for companies looking to navigate this new workplace landscape. During the lockdown, workforces have relied on conferencing solutions such as Zoom, MS Teams and Google Meet, to connect with their teams. With a phased return to the office expected in the coming weeks and months, companies will be searching for solutions that can enable effective collaboration and communication in both the physical and virtual worlds.

Gartner recently forecast that the proportion of enterprise meetings conducted face-to-face will drop from 60% now to 25% by 2024, driven by remote work and changing workforce demographics.

Those hosting conferences from office meeting rooms, for example, are looking at how they can wirelessly connect peripheral camera and microphone equipment to their own screens and stream that rich, audio-visual content to remote workers to enhance their virtual experience.

We’re now seeing increased interest in solutions like our ClickShare Conference product, which merges in-room collabora-

tion technology with the ability to connect with colleagues anywhere in the world, for precisely this reason.

Employees Will Want to be Trusted to Use Whatever Technology Solution They Feel Comfortable With While the majority of people do still use company-supplied hardware, the COVID-19 crisis has reinforced the trend of employees wanting to use their own devices to join conference calls and virtual meetings or exchange documents and data with colleagues. We are now seeing the next stage of evolution of this trend – what has been dubbed as ‘Bring Your Own Meeting’ (BYOM) – where employees not only want to use their own laptop or device, but also their own preferred video conferencing software.

Barco’s Future of Meetings research study revealed that employees used six different conferencing solutions in the previous six months, while 72% of people were taking their own laptops into meeting rooms. This employee desire for flexibility was one of the reasons we launched ClickShare Conference – to provide a platform-agnostic solution that gave users the freedom to use any conferencing tool whether they were in the office or working remotely.

More Investments in Dynamic Technologies The COVID-19 lockdown has shown us that digital collaboration can be just as productive as physical meetings, however, human interaction can often be what’s lacking. In fact, a Forbes Middle East survey revealed that 42% of the participants claimed to be equally productive working at home as they were in the office, while 34.3% said that they were more productive now.

Over the past few weeks, employees have also been discovering things they can do in virtual

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meetings that they didn’t even know were possible. From webinars to digital white boards to virtual breakout groups, a host of creative and collaborative digital assets have come into mainstream use in virtual meetings, and which are going to become more prevalent in faceto-face meetings going forward.

With this in mind, companies will invest in solutions that include moderation tools, audio and screen display control and enriched collaboration via annotation and blackboarding to host a range of virtual webinars and sessions.

The Way Businesses Structure Themselves May Change Companies have learned that they can rely on digital tools to connect their employees effectively. Offices will always be crucial to the way companies operate and, in that sense, we will return to ‘normal’. But companies are thinking about how and where they invest in office space and where virtual interaction can be better integrated.

The hybrid model would provide a more efficient solution for companies that need a localised, national and international presence and, for many, would help to strike that balance between physical and remote working in a way that suits not just their bottom line, but their employees too.

Whatever happens over the coming weeks, businesses are looking at what’s happened and seeing that remote working can bring real benefits, even in times of crisis. Post-lockdown, we expect to see a significant shift towards a more balanced hybrid approach, where employees have much more freedom to choose how they want to work and work flexibly to meet their and the business’ needs. There will always be a need for face-to-face interaction, we just need to find the right balance, facilitated by the right technologies.

MARKET UPDATE

New Details Into Series of Targeted Attacks on Industries Revealed ARABIAN RESELLER | April 2020

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In early 2020, a series of targeted attacks on industrial organizations in various regions was reported. According to the latest Kaspersky ICS CERT findings, these hits were focused on systems in Japan, Italy, German, and the UK. The list of targets included suppliers of equipment and software for industrial enterprises. Research has shown that attackers used malicious Microsoft Office documents, PowerShell scripts, and various techniques to make it difficult to detect and analyse their malware – including steganography, an ingenious data-hiding technology which conceals the fact that there is any information there at all.

Targeted attacks on industrial objects organically attract attention from the cybersecurity community: they are sophisticated and focused on the types of companies that are of critical value.

Any disruption in the work of the latter could lead to various unwanted consequences, from successful industrial espionage to comprehensive financial losses. The examined series of attacks was no exception. Phishing emails, used as the initial attack vector, were tailored and customized under the specific language for each specific victim.

The malware used in this attack performed destructive activity only if the operating system had a localization that matched the language used in the phishing email. For example, in the case of an attack on a company from Japan, the text of a phishing email and a Microsoft Office document containing a malicious macro were written in Japanese. Also, to successfully decrypt the malware module, the operating system must have had a Japanese localization as well.

Closer analysis has shown that attackers used the Mimikatz utility to steal the authentication data of Windows accounts stored on a compromised system. This information can be used by attackers to gain access to other systems within the enterprise network and develop attacks.

A particularly dangerous situation is when attackers get access to the accounts that have domain adminis-

trator rights.

In all detected cases, the malware was blocked by Kaspersky security solutions, which prevented the attackers from continuing their activity. As a result, the ultimate goal of the criminals remains unknown. Kaspersky ICS CERT experts continue to monitor new, similar cases. If you encounter such an attack, you can report it using this special form on the Kaspersky website.

“This attack attracted attention due to several, non-standard technical solutions used by the attackers. For instance, the malware module is encoded inside the image using steganography methods, and the image itself is hosted on legitimate web resources. All this makes it almost impossible to detect the download of such malware using network traffic monitoring and control tools: from the point of view of technical solutions, such activity does not differ from the usual access given to legitimate image hosting. Coupled with the targeted nature of infections, these techniques indicate the sophisticated and selective nature of these attacks. It is a matter of concern that industrial contractors are among the victims of the attack. If the authentication data of employees of the contractor organization falls into malicious hands, this can lead to many negative consequences, starting with the theft of confidential data and ending with attacks on industrial enterprises through remote administration tools used by the contractor,” said Vyacheslav Kopeytsev, a security expert at Kaspersky.

“The attack on contractors once again demonstrates that for electric power facilities to be operated reliably, it is critically important to ensure workstations and servers are protected – both on corporate and operational technology networks. Although strong endpoint protection may be enough to prevent similar attacks, in this case, we still recommend using the most comprehensive approach to support the industrial facility’s cyber-defense.

Attacks through contractors and suppliers can have completely different entry points within the enterprise, in-

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cluding ones on the OT network. Even though the attack’s objectives remained unclear, it is more accurate to follow the assumption that attackers have the potential to gain access to the facility’s critical systems. Modern means of network monitoring, anomaly and attack detection can help to detect signs of an attack on industrial control systems and equipment in a timely manner, and prevent a possible incident,” comments Anton Shipulin, Solution Business Lead, Kaspersky Industrial CyberSecurity.

To reduce the risks of being attacked, industrial organizations are advised to: • Provide training to employees of enterprises on how to work with email securely and, in particular, identify phishing emails.

• Restrict the execution of macros in Microsoft Office documents.

• Restrict execution of PowerShell scripts (if possible).

• Pay particular attention to PowerShell process startup events initiated by Microsoft Office applications. Restrict programs from receiving SeDebugPrivilege privileges (if possible).

• Install a security solution for corporate endpoints, with the ability to centrally manage security policies, and maintain up-to-date antivirus databases and software modules for security solutions.

• Use security solutions for OT endpoints and network to ensure comprehensive protection for all industry critical systems.

• Use accounts with domain administrator rights only when necessary. After using such accounts, restart the system where authentication was performed.

• Implement a password policy with requirements for the level of complexity and regular password changes.

• Upon an initial suspicion that systems are infected, perform an antivirus check and force password changes for all accounts that were used to log in on compromised systems.

EXPE RT VIEW

The Debate of Per Job and Global Deduplication Written by Hewitt Lee, Director of Product Management Team at Synology

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The unspoken truth of IT executives and leaderships wanting to demise businesses’ unstructured data has been gradually unfold and immensely discussed. Other than unstructured data, IT personnel need to take into account that the backup tasks that are frequently performed by copying and storing large data sets often leads to duplicated data, which in the long run would quickly lead to exponential data storage needs. According to Gartner, by 2024, “enterprises will triple their unstructured data stored as file or object storage from what they have in 2019”, and “40% of I&O leaders will implement at least one of the hybrid cloud storage architectures”.

And of course, the staggering amount of data that has been generated by businesses doesn’t come cheap. Gartner’s 2017 Data Quality Market Survey revealed that duplicated and poor data quality is costing organizations up to $15 million on average. At the macro level, bad data has estimated to cost the US more than $3 trillion per year. In other words, bad data is bad for business.

And thus, a critical driver to a company’s business and data continuities is to not only have the IT managers to understand the differences between various deduplication methods, but also implement an agile yet cost-efficient data management platform that provides data deduplication capabilities.

The truth about deduplication rates One of the most commonly utilized deduplication method is global deduplication. However, the effectiveness of data deduplication rate and ratios, and

cost efficiency are sometimes difficult to compare and measure without a universal standard. Hence, several assumptions need to be made so we may ultimately put things into perspective when comparing global deduplication to others.

Often when some vendors claim they offer data deduplication features, it is revealed that the deduplication do not deduplicate data between each task, not to mention devices. Thus, if a single full backup occupied 100GB of the storage space, the deduplication task will only be performed on each backup task. If backup is performed 10 times, the total of 1TB storage space will eventually be taken. Moreover, there have been cases of per task deduplication ratio being calculated by using total disk size from the source side, thus giving an illusion of higher deduplication rate.

Methods that’s more accurate and serves businesses better On the other hand, with global deduplication method, the backup task is performed across all physical and virtual environments. By using the same figure as above, with a single full backup file occupying 100GB, if perform together with incremental backup, the total storage space needed, in addition to the original full backup, would only contain files which have been altered. “When performing global deduplication on such backup strategy, global deduplication ratio calculated by backup solutions is often achieved using used disk size from the source side, thus giving a more accurate projection of the deduplication efficiency,” says Hewitt Lee, Director of Product Management Team at Synology.

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The two mainstream methods, per job deduplication and global deduplication, have long been debated over which methods serve businesses better. To put things in perspective, we should look at how the value of deduplication is measured between the two methods, which are the effectiveness of data reduction capabilities and maximum achievable deduplication ratios and overall impact on storage infrastructure cost and other data center resources and functions, such as network bandwidth, data replication, and disaster recovery requirements.

The two mainstream methods, per job deduplication and global deduplication, have long been debated over which methods serve businesses better. To put things in perspective, we should look at how the value of deduplication is measured between the two methods, which are the effectiveness of data reduction capabilities and maximum achievable deduplication ratios and overall impact on storage infrastructure cost and other data center resources and functions, such as network bandwidth, data replication, and disaster recovery requirements.

Implement a single solution that is already software-hardware integrated Last but not least, the total cost ownership of incorporating the servers with different backup and deduplication services, along with their incremental license and subscription fee, may pose both compatibility and financial challenges for IT managers. The simplest and the most cost efficient way is to implement a single solution that is already software-hardware integrated.

EXPE RT VIEW

Product Knowledge is POWER Written by Steve Murphy, CEO, Epicor Software Corp.

If you’re in the business of selling technology, you know that you win sales when you can solve tough, specific problems.

However, to demonstrate that you can solve a customer ’s pain points, you must know technology solutions at a detailed level—you need deep product knowledge. You must also understand the specific needs of your customers so you can communicate which solutions and capabilities are most relevant to them. When you have more comprehensive knowledge on both fronts, you can communicate how your solution is

differentiated, relevant , and superior on a functional level.

Take, for example, an automotive manufacturer. Production scheduling is a crucial aspect of their business. Contrary to manufacturers in other industries that may be more focused on cutting assembly line costs, many automotive manufacturers prioritize flexibility. They need solutions that provide the opportunity to make live adjustments in production scheduling as needed. If new data shows more customers are buying red and black cars than yellow, they can adjust the

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assembly line to produce cars that reflect that current market demand. A smart sales rep understands the auto manufacturer ’s priorities and communicates how their solution provides the flexibility to meet this need.

But simply understanding there’s a need for deep product knowledge is not enough. You also need to know how to best obtain product knowledge and then seek it out continually.

Here are six practical tips to help you stay current on product knowledge—three for com-

panies and three for employees.

WHAT COMPANIES CAN DO Embed product knowledge in company culture This first step is crucial. The importance of product knowledge starts at the top. Executives and other leaders should diligently work to ensure product knowledge is a valued part of your company culture.

Don’ t just know your product— talk about it with each other and your customers. Hold town halls with your employees and share how product knowledge will play a central role—if it hasn’ t already. Connect employees with internal subject matter experts so that ongoing conversations can be developed about the true benefits of your solutions.

Furthermore, when you meet with customer advisory boards, talk specifics about your solution. Demonstrate your expertise and enthusiasm for addressing your customers’ pain points.

Invest in product knowledge training O nc e th e imp o rta nce of produc t k now led ge is est ablished in yo ur c o mp any cult ure, fo l low th rough . You need to s p e nd time an d m oney on e duc atio n th at d elivers informat io n an d train ing to your e m ployees on p ro duct knowle dg e , imp o rtant product upd ate s , etc .

I f yo u run into p ushback on t his fro nt , emp h asize t he lo ng - term b en efit s you’ ll get o u t o f th is invest m ent . W hen a c ustomer feels your sales re p u nd erstan d s t heir busin e ss a n d s p ec if ic challenge s , not o n ly is yo ur com pany mo re likely to win a sale, but yo u a ls o estab lis h a greater leve l of trust for a long-term wo r k i n g relation s hip wit h t hat c usto mer.

Working relationships built on trust also foster better communication that can have many unforeseen benefits. For example, your customer may end up providing you with feedback that leads to future innovation for the solutions you offer. But it all comes back to the trust you establish with your customer through product knowledge.

Be smart about sharing product knowledge While providing employees with access to product knowledge is important , be strategic to maximize the impact of your efforts.

First, consider your words. Use plain language so communications and training are simple to comprehend and remember.

Also, translate complex industry jargon so it ’s easy for employees to share the information with customers.

Second, push out tech updates on an exception basis. This means sharing notable changes to a product . Avoid inundating your employees with unnecessary information.

Third, only send technology updates out to relevant personnel.

Mass customize who gets what information based on their job function.

Finally, consider providing in-person workshops given by leaders in your business who are black belts or superusers on a specific solution. Have them go out and share their knowledge on pain points of businesses you serve, as well as the value propositions of your solution.

WHAT EMPLOYEES CAN DO Consume in manageable doses Think back to your college days.

If you crammed for a test , you might get a B —rarely an A .

But, if you studied throughout the year and stayed up-todate on reading , the time you needed to study for your test

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was less intense, you typically performed better, and you were able to retain the information long term.

The same is true for consuming product knowledge. Consume information as frequently as you can—even if it ’s only two or three minutes at a time.

Read an article while you wait in line for coffee. Watch a short tech update after you put the kids to bed. This doesn’ t need to be a heavy lift—just a mindful one.

Ignore product release data at your own risk When your company provides you with a product update, use it. It ’s part of a good-faith relationship. They are prioritizing the importance of product knowledge, and they want you to as well.

Go a step further. If you receive information that is helpful to you, share feedback and say why you found it helpful. Conversely, if you need additional information, don’ t be shy about seeking it out .

Pursue information from objective outlets In addition to the product knowledge provided by your company, seek information from outside outlets. Consider looking beyond tech publications.

Professional, balanced publications and think tanks offer credible, researched information. For example, The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times have tech sections that can provide a well-rounded perspective.

Technology constantly evolves, and maintaining up-to-date product knowledge is by no means easy. Remind yourself that it ’s an investment in your success with your customers.

When you can provide them with specific information and articulate how solutions address tough problems, everyone wins.

MARKET UPDATE

Strategic Framework Presented for a Blockchain-Enabled World ARABIAN RESELLER | June April 2020

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In its study, The Enterprise Blockchain Multiverse— Cross-industry Analysis and Ecosystem Development, 2020–2026, Frost & Sullivan prepares readers for a blockchain-enabled world, laying out a long-range view of potential industry impacts as we race to build the foundations of the next-generation internet— Web 3.0.

It sets out a clear, concise, and detailed framework for both near-term and longrange strategic planning that accounts for best uses, converging technology, and critical success factors as new solutions are deployed to digitize process rails and capture value in transforming ecosystems at scale. The next global era of industry disaggregation and restructuring is here.

Existing IT systems are not fit-for-purpose when it comes to addressing the most pressing systemic problems of our time.

Enterprises are being forced to adapt to complex structural change as the technology industry undergoes a paradigm shift that undermines long-held assumptions,” said Maya Cotton, Information and Communication Technology Industry Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “All organizations and institutions will be challenged to keep track of the moving pieces and identify the ecosystem levers to push to ensure their near-term sustainability and long-term relevance.

Standard models of platformization, productization and servicization are giving way to strategic projects and collaborations among unique sets of players.”

In 2019 and 2020, enterprise blockchain solutions reached minimum viable product (MVP). Since then technical barriers are falling fast in the building of a new network of networks.

Hot spots of development are now making visible the shape of things to come and the leaders who are likely to dominate.

This is being led, first, by transitions in global financial and monetary systems where blockchain capabilities enable trust and digital connective tissue. All industry verticals will eventually be impacted to some degree.

Immense growth opportunities exist for those who can see and capture them; they include: • Global trade: Multiple process rails within the international trade ecosystem are migrating to blockchain-enabled networks and applications. Within trade, the challenge to supply chains posed by COVID-19 arrives at a time when they were already being retooled to capture 50x-100x gains in efficiency, creating a timely synergy.

• Cryptocurrencies, digital finance and the global monetary sys-

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tem: Dominant players in these systems, including the world’s largest financial institutions and central banks, are expected to roll out cryptocurrency strategies in the near term. The foundations of a global blockchain network are already in place while new services are being reimagined and programmed.

• Healthcare: This ecosystem represents some of the highest-complexity and highest-reward opportunities. The coronavirus stress-test has laid bare the many cracks in these systems that need to be filled.

• Social impact ecosystems to make a better interconnected world: In the blockchain multiverse, developing markets and social enterprises are attracting attention as blockchain is used to provide solutions to problems in ways that were not possible before.

The Enterprise Blockchain Multiverse—Cross-industry Analysis and Ecosystem Development, 2020–2026 is the latest addition to Frost & Sullivan’s Information and Communication Technology research and analyses available through the Frost & Sullivan Leadership Council, which helps organizations identify a continuous flow of growth opportunities to succeed in an unpredictable future.

CXO SPEAK

Five Leadership Principles for the Cybersecurity Professional Written by M.K. Palmore, Field Chief Security Officer at Palo Alto Networks

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Leadership is at the core of all success and failure in business. During a time of crisis, the critical strengths of leaders, such as compassion and agility, are pushed front and center for all to see. Some organizations will thrive while others will struggle and much of it is based on the decisions and actions of leaders.

Every organization needs good leaders, especially when things get tough. So, it’s important to keep developing your own skills as a leader, as well as grooming the next generation of leaders. In cybersecurity, it’s not uncommon for technologists to manage teams. I have been lucky to work for technologists who not only have a good perspective on leadership but can practice what they preach.

However, the more common refrain is that technologists understand technology but not people, that they tend to be technically competent but lack the social and emotional skills required for effective leadership. This presents a challenge in cybersecurity. As a field that demands specific knowledge and deep expertise, technologists are the natural choice when it comes to leadership. For non-technologists, it might seem daunting and they can feel overrun by the complexity of constant technological advances.

But here’s the funny thing about leadership — if you give me a skilled leader I could put him or her in charge in nearly any scenario and the outcome would likely be promising. A skilled leader knows how to motivate a team, inspire people, solve problems, delegate tasks, and be the captain of the ship providing confidence and a sense of community.

forged through deep experience and have two overriding characteristics: They are consistently self-aware, and always seeking to improve their skills in leading people. For technologists seeking to become better leaders, or non-technologists seeking to lead better in cybersecurity (or a related technical field), I want to share five broadly applicable principles that have guided me through the years.

Keep these in mind when you get a group of high performers waiting to be led: 1. Let Your Eagles Fly Good leaders recognize exceptional talent quickly. These eagles are normally well regarded by others and quickly prove their value and usefulness to the team. Once you have these one or two folks identified, share your overall strategy and vision and then let them do what they do.

Eagles rarely require intervention and direction. Once imbued with the strategic vision of the leader they typically forge ahead and bring a lot of value to the team.

Leaders can get hung up on methods.

Don’t! The worst thing you can do is attempt to impose your methods on someone else. It worked for you; maybe you are an eagle yourself.

You’ve achieved some level of success because your prior leaders trusted you to do what was needed to succeed. More often than not, you did just that. Don’t attempt to corral your eagles. They are talented and capable.

Their success will bring light to the team’s vision.

Of course, domain-specific expertise still matters. In leading people with technical skills, they need to know that you have a grasp of the concepts before they will accept your vision and strategy. That part falls on you. In addition to evolving your leadership capabilities, you must pay attention to honing your technical skills.

2. Prepare Your Team for Your Eventual Departure I am a student of leadership. One of the principles drilled into me early was that one of the best things you can do shortly after your arrival is to begin preparing your team for your eventual departure. It’s counterintuitive but serves your team in the best way possible by taking on the multi-disciplinary role of both leader and teacher. It can be done, especially as you begin to see members of your team clearly show their potential for future leadership opportunities.

Leaders are not born. They are

3. Train Your Workforce

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The cybersecurity field will keep changing at a rapid pace. Technology and innovation are not waiting for the information security teams to take great leaps. Keeping your workforce trained on contemporary and bleeding edge technologies and developments will ensure the readiness of your team and the individuals, who might be ready to tackle different challenges outside of your team.

4. Actively Look to Diversify Your Team Diversity is the buzz word here in Silicon Valley. There has been study after study and observations abound about the lack of diversity in the technology and cybersecurity realms. How many times have we seen splashy headlines of diversity hires only to see those folks leave an organization a year or two after a very public hire.

We need to do better and simply get this right. There’s a saying in business circles that which gets measured gets done. Time to apply this simple mantra to the hiring of a diverse workforce. The growing complexity of cybersecurity demands that we create a workforce highly capable and ready to tackle future challenges. A diverse team means you’ll have diverse ideas.

It’s all hands on deck. Let’s start acting like it.

5. Communicate on a Regular Basis It shouldn’t take a crisis to drive home the need to level up the amount of communication we do with our teams.

If you are not speaking to your teams weekly or bi-weekly in the current environment, then you are not likely in touch. Communication has always served as the life blood of team connectivity and now more than ever staying in touch with our people and simply being available are really the most important thing you can be doing. Jump on the Zoom or Google Meets and touch base with your team right now!

Five principles will not cover all of your bases, but it’s a great place to start. Being a student of leadership means constantly sharpening your tools. Get after it … and become a stronger leader!

PRODUCT REVIEWS

4/5 ASUS VivoBook S14 S433 The new ASUS VivoBook S series focuses on the younger crowd with its colorful laptops, which not only look good, but also do an outstanding job when it comes to productivity. We recently received the white version of the ASUS VivoBook S14 S433 for a review, though the laptop is available in four different colours such as Gaia Green, Resolute Red, Dreamy White and Indie Black.

Inside the box, the laptop accompanies a few accessories, that include a squarish power adapter which is smaller than most laptop power adapters you see on market. You also get some paperwork including the warranty information, the quick start guide and an envelop that says “Wow the World”, which includes some stickers that can be used to customize your VivoBook S14.

The VivoBook S14 S433 comes with a 14-inch display.

Since the laptop’s bezels measure 5.7mm thin, you get a screen-to-body ratio of 85%. The display also comes with an video tuning system called ASUS Tru2Life Video technology that works like those found in high-end TVs. According to ASUS, Tru2Life Video enhances clarity, colour, and contrast in video.

The body of the laptop is made of aluminum alloy, with 3D nano-printing technology to provide a smooth surface. The VivoBook weighs 1.4-kgs and measures around 15.9mm in thickness. The laptop is so thin and light that it can easily slip into a messenger bag or backpack, so you can easily carry it around. Structurally, the VivoBook S14 S433 feels pretty though.

Under the hood, the ASUS VivoBook S14 S433 is powARABIAN RESELLER | June 2020

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AED 3499

ered by an Intel 10th Gen Core i7-10510U processor running at a clock speed of 1.8GHz. You also get 8GB of RAM 512GB of PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSD storage to boot. Graphics on the laptop is handled by NVIDIA MX250 graphics with 2GB of dedicated GDDR5.

In terms of wireless connectivity, you get up to Intel WiFi 5 with Gig+ (802.11ac) and Bluetooth 5.0. There’s also a HD camera on top of the display for all your online video meetings during the “work from home” phase and beyond. When it comes to I/O ports, you get plenty of options.

On the left edge, you get the power port, an HDMI port, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack. On the right edge, you get a microSD card reader slot and two USB 2.0 ports, with the power and battery LED indicators.

We were able to play with the device for around two weeks and I have to say I am impressed. The laptop not only offers good design and build quality, but it also offers good performance. We did not run into issues while multi-tasking, playing games or working on graphics intensive tasks such as editing and rendering a video file.

All in all, the ASUS VivoBook S14 S433 is a stylish laptop that offers you to customise the overall external looks as per your requirements. It also offer a nice performance and efficiency ratio, all the while offering good battery life. If you are road warrior, and looking to buy a light weight laptop to carry around, the ASUS VivoBook S14 S433 could fit your bill.

Preview: ASUS ProArt Z490 Creator 10G Motherboard Content creators looking for a top-notch motherboard for upgrading or building their rigs can now rejoice. Asus has just announced the new ProArt Z490 Creator 10G Motherboard. We recently received a review unit from Asus, and this is the preview of the motherboard.

The Asus ProArt Z490 Creator 10G Motherboard is based on the Intel Z490 LGA 1200 ATX chipset and is built specifically for content creators. The motherboard features a 10G LAN card, onboard 2.5G Intel LAN, dual Thunderbolt 3 Type-C ports, dual M.2, USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and SATA 6 Gbps. The motherboard also supports up to 128GB of DDR4-4600.

Take a look at the motherboard and you will see how minimalist the whole theme is. The ProArt Z490-Creator 10G uses a black theme all over with straight angled ridged heatsinks, a gold-accented chipset heatsink and an L shaped power delivery heatsink designed to keep the 12+2 power delivery cool.

The power delivery itself uses teamed power stages and uses a single 12 V ATX power input to provide power to the CPU. The motherboard comes with the Intel LGA 1200 socket, so you can use the 10th Gen Intel Core processors with it. In terms of I/O ports, you get a boatload.

You get one HDMI 1.4b, two DisplayPort IN ports with Thunderbolt 3, two Thunderbolt 3 Type C ports, four USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A

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ports, and one Intel I225-V 2.5Gb LAN port with CreationFirst and ASUS LANGuard.

In addition, there’s also two PCIe 3.0 and one PCIe 3.0 x16, and Cystal Sound 3 chip that support Realtek S1220A Codec. Inside the box, ASUS bundles a separate Hyper 10G LAN card along with the motherboard. Since the motherboard comes with an onboard 2.5G Intel Ethernet and an optional 10G Ethernet card, you get a boosted cloud and internet-based communication for an accelerated workflow.

The ASUS ProArt Z490-CREATOR 10G features three PCIe 3.0 x16 slots for high-powered graphics cards such as NVIDIA Quadro, allowing you to enjoy enhanced performance for professional design, modeling and simulation jobs and on rendering applications.

The addressable Gen 2 RGB header, which can detect the number of LEDs on second-generation addressable RGB devices, allows software to automatically tailor lighting effects to specific devices. The header also offers backward-compatibility with existing Aura RGB gear.

If you are a content creator that needs to build a rig that can handle jobs such as 3D modeling and rendering, animation or media production, the ASUS ProArt Z490 Creator 10G Motherboard should on your tech shopping list. The pricing and availability will soon be announced in this region.

PRODUCT REVIEWS

4/5

AED 299

Oppo Enco W31 There are lots of options when it comes to wireless earbuds. But only a few stand out when it comes to quality. And if there is a combination of good quality and pocket-friendly price, then it’s a done deal. Today we are going to look at the Oppo Enco W31 wireless earbuds and find out whether it provides that great combination of quality and affordable price.

The earbuds offer a wireless range of around 10 meters, which is pretty good, especially if you are working from home at this time. The sensitivity of the 7mm drivers in the earbuds is 95 decibels. This is good enough for most of your usage, whether it is for listening to music, watching a movie or taking phone calls.

The Oppo Enco W31 is priced at AED 299 and comes in a minimalist package. Inside, you get the Oppo Enco W31 along with the warranty info, the quick start guide, the USB Type C charging cable, and two pairs of extra ear-tips in different sizes.

The Enco W31 earbuds come in a circular charging case and is available in two colours – white and black.

On the front, you get a slit to open the charging case and start using the earbuds within it. At the rear, you get the USB Type C charging port.

The size of the earbuds charging case is very portable and hence can be carried around in your pocket with ease. The earbuds come with Wearing Detection feature. So what this feature does it that it pauses the music every time either both or one of the earbuds is removed from the ears and then the music starts playing again as soon as you put them back onto your ears.

It Enco W31 also comes with Touch Controls. So while listening to music, if you double tap on the right earbud, the music will skip to the next track. But there is no way to go back to the previous music track by tapping on the earbuds. Double tapping the left earbud lets you switch the audio effects.

Pairing the Enco W31 to your smartphone or laptop is a a walk in the park. All you need to do is open the charging case and it immediately goes into pairing mode. Then, switch on Bluetooth on your smartphone or laptop and click on “Oppo Enco W31” from the list of devices available to pair. That’s it. The earbuds are ready for use.

Also during a call you can double-tap to answer or end the call. The earbuds also come with dual microphones with noise-cancellation – so phone calls sound very good with these earbuds. So what’s the verdict?

Should you buy the Oppo Enco W31?

And if you want to pair the earbuds with another device, open the charging case and hold down the function button till the LED starts liking. You can then pair the earbuds with a new device. The quality of the audio through the Oppo Enco W31 was very good.

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Well, since the earbuds come with features such as Wearing Detection, Touch Controls, and good audio quality, the Oppo Enco W31 is definitely worth the AED 299 you might spend on it.

3/5

AED 899

PlayGo BH70 Headphones There are hundreds of noise-cancelling headphones available on the market and PlayGo is the latest entrant into that category in the UAE market. The company recently announced the PlayGo BH70 Active Noice Cancelling Wireless Headphones on the market and we just received a test unit for an unboxing and review.

The headphone comes in a very good packaging that includes a carry case, the warranty info, and the user guide. Open the carry case and you will see the BH70 headphones inside it. You also get a Type-C charging cable, which is one of the first we have seen on wireless headphones.

The overall build quality of the headphone is quite good since the headband has some heft to it. However, the build quality of the ear cups could have been better – it feels a bit plasticky for now. The headphone itself has a dual-tone shiny finish in brown and grey colours.

Under the left ear cup, you will find the active noise cancellation button, along with the power button and the USB Type C charging port. The ANC button on the left allows you to cycle through three modes. This includes the active noise cancellation on, active noise cancellation off, and transparency.

Under the right ear cup, you will find the volume rockers along with the play/pause button between them. Pressing the play/ pause button twice will invoke voice assistants on the device the headset is connected to. This includes Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Apple Siri.

vate this, all you need to do is simply cup the left earphone. You also get the Auto Pause and Play feature.

So when you take the headphones off, the music stops. And when you put then back on, the music resumes. With the PlayGo BH70, you also get a Transparency mode that makes sure you are able to listen to your surroundings in situations where the environment noise needs to be heard.

PlayGo also has an app on the Play Store and the App Store.

Once you download the app, which is called PlayGo App, you will be able to choose from a wide range of equalizer presets. These include Pop, Rock, Jazz, and so on. And if you want to create your own preset, you can do so using the custom equalizer setting.

During the review period, I was able to use the PlayGo BH70 on my Xiaomi Mi 9 smartphone and my MacBook Pro. The audio quality is pretty good and the features such as Smart Touch & Talk and the Transparency mode worked very well.

Since the headphone is powered by the Qualcomm aptX codec, you get the best out of all kinds of music. The performance of the active noise cancellation feature was also good. On a full charge, I was able to get a full day’s worth of battery life on continuous usage.

For a price of AED 899, the Playgo BH70 is a competitively priced wireless headphone that comes with premium features such as active noise-cancelling, custom equalizers through the app, Transparency Mode, Auto Pause and Play, and Smart Touch and Talk, among others.

One of the features of the PlayGo BH70 is its Smart Touch & Talk feature.

If you are on the market for quality wireless active noise-cancelling headphones at a pocket-friendly price, you can check out the PlayGo BH70.

This feature detects human voices and increases their volume while temporarily lowering the sound of music. In order to acti-

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PRODUCT REVIEWS

3/5 eufy Security eufyCam 2 Anker Innovations is known for quality products and the company sells gadgets under a wide range of brand names including Anker, Soundcore, Nebula, Roav and more. The company also offers home security solutions through its brand eufy, and we recently received the eufyCam 2, which is a fuss-free wireless home security solution for review.

AED 1460

camera near HomeBase 2 (within the distance of 1 to 3 feet). Make sure you set up HomeBase 2 and eufyCam 2 on the app before you mount the cameras. Also, keep the camera at least 1 feet away from your internal or external hard drives.

The eufyCam 2 is a wireless home security camera system that offers a whopping 365-day battery life on a single charge. You also get HD resolution at 1080p, Night Vision, and so on. The eufyCam 2 is also IP67 weatherproof, and is compatible with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple Homekit. What’s more, there is also a 100DB siren included to shoo-away intruders.

Installing the eufyCam 2 is a walk in the park. First, you need to connect the base station and the cameras using the Eufy Security app, which can be found on both Google Play and the Apple App Store. Next, you need to plug the base station into an electrical outlet and connected it to your router through an ethernet cable.

Once that is done, you will need to scan a QR Code on the bottom of the base station to get it online. Next, sync each of the cameras to the base station by pressing a button on the camera’s rump and wait for the confirmation on the app. And then, all you need to do is mount the camera.

But before you mount the camera and while you are setting up the system, there are a few things to consider.

When setting up the cameras, make sure you place the ARABIAN RESELLER | June 2020

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You can use the app to find out if the signal is reaching the desired location. if the signal strength reads “Great”, you’ll know you’ve found a good spot. According to eufy, for optimum performance of the security system, it’s best to mount the camera 7 to 10 feet high, out of direct sunlight, and away from reflective surfaces.

The eufyCam 2 provides local and cloud storage options to store the footages recorded. The camera ships with a 16GB of embedded memory, which an be used to store almost 3 months worth of footage. However, if you need more storage, you can always opt for eufy’s cloud storage service using one of their subscription models.

During our review period, we found that the video quality offered by the eufyCam 2 was excellent. Due to the camera’s wide-angle view, we got a comprehensive coverage of the surrounding area. Live and captured footage was sharp and clear, while night vision footage was also very good.

Motion detection worked perfectly during our tests, and alerts arrived promptly. You can also adjust motion detection by increasing or decreasing the sensitivity on a slider and creating activity zones, through the app. If you are looking for a dependable and fuss-free home security camera system, you can’t go wrong with the eufyCam 2.

3/5

AED 1495

Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite was launched recently by the company alongside Redmi Note 9 Pro and Redmi Note 9. The Mi Note 10 Lite comes packed with Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G chipset, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The phone is powered by Android 10 operating system with MIUI 11 interface, out of the box.

Inside the box, you get the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite, a USB Type-C charging cable and adapter, soft case, SIM ejector tool, the user guide and the warranty card. The phone also comes packed with a Li-Po 5260mAh, non-removable battery.

The 30W fast charger inside the box will help you charge up a dead phone very quickly.

On the right edge, you will find the volume rockers, the power button and the dual SIM tray. On the top edge you get an IR blaster and a noice cancelling microphone. On the bottom you get the USB Type-C port, the 3.5mm audio jack, speaker grille and another noice cancelling microphone.

On the front, it features a 6.47-inches AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080-by-2340 pixels.

The AMOLED display looks excellent, even under

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direct sunlight – colours pop out and blacks are very rich. You also get an in-screen fingerprint scanner which unlocked the phone at a fairly decent speed.

On the front you also get a 16MP camera for blogging and selfies. Flip the phone around, and you will see the quad-camera setup at the back.

This includes a 64MP main sensor with an aperture of f/1.8, an 8MP ultrawide sensor, a 2MP macro sensor and a 5MP depth sensor.

Videos can be recorded at 2160p @ 30fps, 1080p @ 30/60/120fps and 720p @ 960fps. The camera performs really well, not only under good lighting conditions, but also under lowlight conditions. The phone also performs quite well – switching between multiple app windows felt smooth without any lags. Gaming sessions also get butter smooth.

The performance is very good, the specs are quite solid, and the quad-camera setup works really well. For a price of AED 1495, the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite packs in some flagship-level features without breaking the bank.

PRODUCT REVIEWS

3/5 Samsung Galaxy S20 Samsung launched the Galaxy S20 series at its Unpacked event in San Francisco in February 2020. The S20 series includes the regular S20, the S20 Plus and the S20 Ultra. I received the Galaxy S20 for review a couple of months ago and I have been using it as a secondary phone over the past two months.

AED 3199

the volume rockers and the power button on the right edge of the S20.

On the top edge, you will find the dual SIM tray, and a noise cancelling microphone. On the bottom edge, you get the USB Type-C port, the speaker grille and a second noise cancelling microphone. The security features on the phone include an in-screen fingerprint reader, face recognition, and secured folder. The fingerprint scanner was quite snappy in unlocking the phone.

The Galaxy S20 packs in a 6.2-inch OLED display on the front that offers a resolution of 1440-by-3200 pixels at a 120Hz refresh rate. It also comes with a 4,000mAh battery.

You also get 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage space, which can be expanded using the microSD card in the dual SIM tray.

The S20 is powered by Android 10 operating system with One UI 2.0 running on top of it. While the phone feels quite sturdy in build quality, it weighs a mere 163-gms. But you will need a phone case as soon as you buy this thing, because the S20 is very slippery. The S20 also comes packed with a triple-camera setup at the rear of the device.

Under the hood, the phone is powered by the Samsung Exynos 990 processor. Coupled with the 8GB RAM, the S20 performed really well during our review period. On GeekBench 5, the Samsung Galaxy S20 clocked 658 points in single-core tests and 2516 points in multi-core tests. The test results show a bit of improvement over the Galaxy S10, but not by a huge margin. But the, the performance has been fantastic.

The triple camera setup includes a wide 12-megapixel with an f/1.8 lens and OIS, an ultra-wide 12-megapixel sensor, and a 64-megapixel telephoto with an f/2.0 lens and OIS. Samsung says the sensor on that main 12-megapixel camera has been completely rebuilt, with its bigger pixels allowing in more light.

The camera setup on the Samsung Galaxy S20 performs quite well. Under good lighting conditions, you do get excellent shots. In terms of battery life, the Samsung Galaxy S20 offers a little more than a day’s worth. But, if you switch over to the 60Hz refresh rate from the Display settings, you can get a bit more juice.

You also get a 10MP front camera for your vlogging and selfie needs. Sadly, the S20 does not come with a ToF sensor, which you can find on most flagship devices out there on the market.

The ToF sensor offers improved portrait photos. The overall design and build quality is very good. The S20 comes with nice, slim bezels all the way around the screen. You can find

For a price of AED 3199, the Samsung Galaxy S20 may seem a bit expensive, considering there are flagship phones out there that offer more bang for the buck. But then, if you are used to the Samsung ecosystem, the S20 offers great camera capability and good performance, thus making it a worthy upgrade.

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