Vectra Extends Cloud Identity

VMRay Signs Up With Multipoint GROUP to Expand Into the Israeli Market

VMRay has announced that it has signed a distribution agreement for the Israeli market with Multipoint GROUP. “Our business is built on identifying the most innovative, best-of-breed solutions in the market that will help organizations to meet their most pressing cybersecurity challenges,” said Ricardo Resnik, founder and Managing Director of Multipoint GROUP. “As one of the original pioneers of malware sandboxing technologies, VMRay is well recognized among security practitioners as one of the gold standards in its category. We see great potential in partnering with VMRay.”

For Multipoint’s channel partners, the agreement with VMRay represents an excellent opportunity to expand their portfolio with solutions that can drive immediate value by addressing their customers’ concerns regarding advanced malware detection. “We are proud to be working with Multipoint GROUP and its team of security experts to establish our presence in the Israeli market and build an ecosystem of local channel partners,” said Dimitris Raekos, Business Development Manager MEA at VMRay. “We are looking forward to leveraging Multipoint’s long-established expertise to deliver our leading-edge technologies for advanced malware detection to the market.”

VMRay’s global channel partner ecosystem includes Distributors and VARs across EMEA, APAC, and the Americas. Mindware has anounced that it has signed a distribution agreement with Cibecs. As per the agreement, Mindware will promote, distribute and provide implementation services support across the Middle East for the vendor’s flagship Endpoint Cloud solution.

Providing insight into the partnership, Silmi Khanfir, Director of Cloud & XaaS at Mindware commented, “During this year we have seen a shift in the way organisations operate. With the current remote working trend, workforces are highly distributed and critical business data is often inaccessible or at risk of cyberattack. IT departments often have very little visibility or control over endpoint data and devices. And this is where Cibecs’ Endpoint Cloud solution can play an indispensable role in helping customers to adapt for the new normal in IT operations. By providing a single, unified platform to discover, manage, backup and secure business data, Cibecs delivers the most advanced data management and protection technology.”

Cibecs Endpoint Cloud is a powerful cloud platform built for Azure, allowing IT departments and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to easily manage highly distributed and remote workforces, centralise, consolidate, and secure business data remotely, meet compliance regulations and drastically reduce desktop support costs. The vendor is a Microsoft IP co-sell partner with over 16 years of experience in endpoint data protection, backup & security.

Mindware will primarily target MSPs and the government sector – two areas where Cibecs has traditionally had great success. MSPs need to help customers eliminate risk, manage data efficiently, reduce spend and achieve compliance. Cibecs is helping MSPs solve data management challenges and save over 50% on their end-user data support costs. Cibecs is also very experienced in working within large government accounts. The company’s patent-pending Zero Knowledge Encryption Key Management ensures that data is stored in the cloud without any compromise in security, which is a key priority for government agencies.

Mindware Partners with Cibecs to Protect Distributed Endpoint Devices

Retail Connect March 2021 Sees 950 Private Meetings, 40 Product Pitches

ChannelHub successfully concluded its second Retail Connect One-to-One event for EMEA. The online event that ran from 2-4 March 2021 with an additional day of one on one meetings on 5 March, allowed each registered vendor to access and connect to over 300 registered buyers across EMEA and India. This edition saw the largest participation from Europe with Western Europe (25%) followed by 24% from Central and Eastern Europe. The second largest participation came from the Middle East with 18% and Southern Europe at 17%.

Retail Connect allowed them to set up direct one on one meetings with key decision makers at some of the leading retailers and distributors in the EMEA region. The event hosted keynotes and workshops conducted by event partner, GfK, and pitch sessions from vendors for key consumer electronic segments including mobile accessories, smart tech, PC, gaming, and AV.

Farouk Hemraj, CEO at ChannelHub, said, “We only deal with senior executives from the consumer tech channel across EMEA, people with decision making power. Audience quality is our motto and half of our team is dedicated to select and invite the right audience to our event. This is important for our vendors who need to find a way to continue to expand their markets and their reach across the globe.”

CyberKnight Becomes Sole Middle East Distributor for Netwrix and Stealthbits

CyberKnight has extended its relationship with one of its technology partners – Stealthbits to become sole Middle East distributor for Netwrix, following Stealthbits’ recent merger with Netwrix, a company that makes data security easy. This partnership will enable CyberKnight customers to address challenges related to identifying and detecting data security risk as well as protecting, responding, and recovering from cybersecurity attacks.

Gartner predicts that “through 2024 80% of information governance programs that do not include unstructured, semi-structured and structured data into the same governance program will fail, up from 30% today.” In addition, fragmented solutions in the data security market prevent organizations from building comprehensive security strategies to protect their sensitive and regulated data.

“We are thrilled about a strategic partnership with the combined entity of Netwrix and Stealthbits, now part of Netwrix. Their solutions will empower our regional customers to identify and classify sensitive information with utmost precision, reduce exposure to risk and detect threats in time to avoid data breaches – all while achieving and proving compliance,” commented Vivek Gupta, Co-Founder & COO at CyberKnight.

"We are confident that we will continue to drive customer value with CyberKnight through their deep-rooted channel partnerships, enterprise and government customer advisory relationships, strong cybersecurity expertise and local presence across the region,” said Rob Billington, Channel Manager, EMEA at Netwrix and Stealthbits.

Cisco Small Business Partner Summit to Explore Growth Opportunities

Cisco’s Small Business Partner Summit is taking place virtually this week, outlining the importance and growth potential of the small business sector across the Middle East and Africa. Small businesses account for 44% of all IT spending and continue to outpace traditional enterprise growth. On Tuesday 2nd March, summit attendees will be provided with insights into Cisco Designed – a tailor-made portfolio that delivers simple, secure and flexible products, available at competitive price points to help small businesses to thrive.

Participants will also learn about Cisco’s Partner Programs, incentives, and rewards to expand their own business offerings, while simultaneously empowering small business customers in their endeavors to leverage digital solutions. “The pandemic has intensified the digital divide that was already present in the small business market, and it is pushing companies to accelerate their digitization agendas,” said Hani Raad, General Manager of Small Business at Cisco MEA. “Business owners are realizing that digitization is essential, not only to ensure continuity today but to secure future growth and resiliency. With our growing portfolio of software and hardware solutions for small businesses, alongside tailored advisory, Cisco is playing a pivotal role in empowering the sector to thrive – at times of crisis and beyond. We look forward to sharing key learnings from the past year and exploring new growth opportunities at the Partner Summit.”

Indicating strong progress and understanding of the importance of investing in technology, IDC’s META DX Survey notes that 60% of small and medium businesses in the region have brought forward their digital transformation roadmaps by between 1 to 2 years. This acceleration has led to significant growth on digital and non-digital IT spending. Cisco notes growing to spend on areas including advanced malware protection, intent-based networking, and intelligent meeting spaces.

At the Cisco Small Business Partner Summit, attendees will learn how to adapt to the current climate and futureproof their business offerings while empowering small business growth. Following the event, all content will be made available to the public for on-demand viewing for a period of 60 days.

Jumbo Group Partners with SAWA Life

Jumbo Group has announced its association with SAWA Life – a sustainable social enterprise based in Africa – to bring unique tech-lifestyle accessories for customers in this market.

SAWA Life was founded in 2017 as part of a philanthropic mission of uplifting marginalized women in Africa through employment and showcases the beauty of designs synonymous with African culture through the creation of 100% hand-beaded fashionable tech accessories.

The artisans of SAWA use craft skills indigenous to Kenyan culture and paper beading techniques that originate from Uganda’s Luo tribe with sustainability firmly entrenched at the heart of the enterprise.

Pankaj Kumar, Head of Jumbo OmniChannel Retail said, “Jumbo has always pioneered unique concepts in tech retail for this market and our association with SAWA Life will add another dimension to our range of sustainable tech products. We are particularly pleased to launch SAWA Life as it aligns with the values of the Jumbo Group towards sustainability and the preservation of the ecological balance of our society at large. The vision of SAWA Life is also in tandem with the CSR values of our brand and we are happy to contribute to the empowerment of marginalized women in Kenya through this association.”

Schneider Electric Gets New Gulf Vice President for Secure Power

Schneider Electric has appointed Manuel Alzugaray Rodrigues as Vice President for the company’s Secure Power division in the Gulf region. Rodrigues, who has over 16 years’ experience in the technology channel space, will now lead the company’s data center business across Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

A computer systems engineering graduate of Boston University, Rodrigues joined Schneider Electric in 2014 as a sales manager. His last role was as an IT Business Unit sales director in North America. Rodrigues will transfer from North America to the Gulf this month.

“Manuel has excelled in a variety of sales roles throughout his time with Schneider Electric, and he’s exceptional in engaging with customers and partners,” said Ziad Youssef, MEA Vice President for Secure Power at Schneider Electric. “We’re excited about the capabilities that he’s going to bring to this role, and how he’ll take our Secure Power business to the next level.”

Schneider Electric’s Secure Power Division has supported the data center industry for decades with a range of power and cooling product; the Division is now driving transformation at the edge of the network with a range of new technologies. Secure Power supports customers, both business and government throughout the Gulf.

“The Secure Power business is fundamental to the promise that Schneider Electric makes to its customers worldwide. We are at the heart of digitization and we’re supporting our clients when it comes to greener, more sustainable data centers,” said Rodrigues. “I’m excited about what we can do with the team, our partners, and customers, to drive the region’s digital transformation and help the region lead the way when it comes to using technology for a better future.” IBM has announced that Fahad Alanazi has joined IBM as General Manager of IBM Saudi Arabia.

“I am privileged to join IBM and lead its business in Saudi Arabia,” says Alanazi. “Technology is a core component of the Kingdom's Vision 2030. By leveraging IBM's hybrid cloud and AI solutions, services and our ecosystem partners, IBM is positioned to accelerate our clients’ digital transformation journeys and support Saudi Arabia’s Vision.”

“Alanazi is a highly respected transformational leader and brings strong knowledge and expertise of the Saudi market. I am confident that his perspective and experience will be an asset to IBM and our clients,” said Hossam Seif El-Din, General Manager, IBM Middle East and Pakistan. “His appointment is a testament to our commitment to provide the highest level of expertise and support to our clients and continuous efforts to harness Saudi Arabia’s pool of vast talent.”

IBM Saudi Arabia Gets New General Manager

Riverbed Promotes Brecht Seurinck

Riverbed has announced the promotion of Brecht Seurinck to Vice President Channel Sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). In his new and expanded role, Seurinck will oversee Riverbed’s channel strategy across the region to maximize customer value and strengthen relationships with strategic partners. He will lead an outstanding channel sales team to drive growth and revenue through Riverbed’s channel ecosystem in 2021. Seurinck will report to Elie Dib, SVP, EMEA.

Seurinck is a channel and sales executive with more than 20 years of experience in leading direct sales teams across many geographical markets in the EMEA region. He joined Riverbed in 2014 in a senior channel management position spearheading one of Riverbed’s largest strategic partners globally, until transitioning into this new role. In his new role, he will also draw on his early business development experience at IT organisations including Vanco, Infonet, and Mobistar Corporate Solutions.

Elie Dib, SVP, EMEA at Riverbed, said, “Since the vast majority of our business is conducted through the channel, it continues to be a critical part of Riverbed’s go-to-market strategy in EMEA, as organisations accelerate their business transformation strategies, implement visibility and performance solutions and look to modernize their complex IT infrastructures. Brecht’s deep understanding of the international channel landscape, combined with his technology expertise and business acumen, makes him the ideal leader to spearhead the channel team. He will also be a great addition to our EMEA leadership team.”

ARABIAN RESELLER - FEBRUARY-MARCH 2021 // EXPERT SPEAK HOW THE PANDEMIC IS CHALLENGING YOUR IT NETWORK

While convergence of networking systems has been taking place, the benefits of a single and agile network to manage everything has been accelerated, explains by Arafat Yousef, Managing Director – Middle East & Africa, Nexans Data Network Solutions

The pandemic of 2020 has made the concept of remote teams and remote work collaboration a reality. Previously used by digitally mature and advanced organizations, like high-tech companies, the requirement of enabling mobile work triggered by the need for social isolation across much of 2020, has forced all organizations to adapt to this new reality.

Transformation of the physical workplace has been a logical consequence, whether at home or at the office. Team members whether they are part of the family working at home, or employees when they are working from the office by rotation, will usually not sit at any one physical location. They need to be able to work equally well from any place in the office work area.

Wi-Fi network connectivity and power over the Ethernet networks (PoE) need to be ubiquitously available and scalable across such places of work. Flexibility and scalability of the Wi-Fi network access points, access to the Ethernet, and availability of Power over the Ethernet, are now prerequisites to support teams working in the “new normal”.

While places of work, whether they are supporting the family working and schooling at home, or employees at the office premises, are transforming, on a much wider scale, networks within buildings themselves are also transforming.

Just a few years ago, the convergence of voice into IP based, LAN data networks, was a high point of disruption and innovation. Since then, there has been a relentless trend into converging siloed networking systems into IP networks. Today, these include security systems, building management systems, access entry systems, biometric systems, digital signage, low voltage power, LED lighting.

This has spawned the term – ‘Everything over IP’ or an ‘All-IP’ approach in the convergence of isolated networks.

The benefits of this convergence of networks are many, fueling continuous industry innovation and end user adoption. Such, ‘Everything over IP’ networks, offer significant benefits ranging from savings in power, cost, time for installation, activation, modifications and upgrades of networks.

Such types of networks also reduce the chances of network failures and downtime and because of their ability to rapidly scale up or down, match today’s requirements demanded by agile organizations.

However, all these innovations and transformations are also putting pressure on the design and architecture of networks. These include:

• Mapping the networks to match the functional distribution of workers. In other words, there should be more network points and connectivity, wherever there is more employee activity. Working areas with a high density of people and devices should also have the provision to provide higher network connectivity and power usage. • Creation of active consolidation points to allow networks to scale.

The creation of consolidation points allows the network to support

an unlimited number of devices in theory. In practice, it means it should be possible to create additional network points on demand. • Fibre To The Office (FTTO), can be used to boost redundancy and longevity. FTTO is a centralized LAN cabling technology that combines passive fibre cabling with active switches and requires no floor distributors or technical rooms. Combining fibre and copper offers the advantages of fibre infrastructure, while end-user devices can be connected with a standard copper connection, guaranteeing no changes in usage and comfort for the end-user.

The concept of a digital ceiling solution is becoming increasingly relevant in digitally advanced buildings. The traditional LAN network is now being deployed vertically to support the growing installation of ceiling access points, surveillance cameras, motion sensors, indoor atmospherics, amongst others. A digital ceiling approach combined with an FTTO solution could bring significant benefits in terms of flexibility and scalability to the building’s IT network infrastructure. The benefits of such, single converged networks, that support the connectivity requirements of agile organizations, are being realized every day.

Hot-desking and smart desking are now logical and functional solutions realized in the office workspace. For network administrators, managing a single network for operations, performance and efficiency offers huge time and cost savings.

AI IN 2021: TRANSFORMING DATA SECURITY AND PROCESS OPTIMISATION

Written By Ali Shabdar, MEA Regional Director, Zoho Corp

With COVID-19 disrupting former methods of business and most companies going fully or partially remote, data security has become an issue. With data no longer stored in specific network and device parameters, business data has been left exposed and at risk. That’s where AI will play an important role in 2021. Advanced AI technology will help enable data security by detecting potential threats and data breaches before they happen.

For example, AI will be used to recognize suspicious activity that could be seen as an indicator of a security attack. With AI setting thresholds becoming more sophisticated, 2021 will see security breaches minimized thanks to security becoming more proactive.

Besides data security risks, the shift to remote work has forced companies to become digitized rapidly, and with so much more data generated from the efforts, the need for AI tools has grown. In 2021, AI embedded into new and existing roles and workflows will optimize everything from driving to helping businesses sell more, and beyond. The future will be a combination of AI and humans working together rather than competing.

The benefits of AI from this year onwards will mostly come from process optimization and revenue maximization. AI will touch business software and redefine what is possible from an optimization stand point. At the same time, AI will have an emphasis on data protection from both a business perspective and a legal one. With the increase of data breaches, we’ll see AI working in malware detection, root cause analysis, outage prediction, adaptive authentication, and more.

BI

Smart BI is accelerating due to AI, Intelligent Storytelling, and more. In the last few years, BI (business intelligence) has gained momentum in becoming an essential catalyst for business growth, and with COVID-19 impacting the acceleration of software technology, we see BI rapidly changing to fit the future of business. In this year we can expect to see BI and AI working together to create augmented analytics and augmented data.

With augmented analytics, businesses will be able to identify data types automatically, model information straight from the source, and automate suggestions. With AI and BI working in unison, jobs will be completed more easily, faster, and more effectively. Aspects such as conversational analytics will gain more popularity and be readily adopted so that business users can simply ask questions in natural language and the engine will be able to understand and generate answers within seconds. Propelled by AI’s integration with BI, expect to see users with less technical backgrounds gaining analytic literacy in 2021.

Storytelling, also known as automated insights, will also help businesses in this year. Instead of users spending time determining which insights are more impactful for their business, intelligent storytelling will highlight key findings for them. The system will be able to track changes and build a narrative that’s digestible to the user and points to key findings.

Storytelling will also be able to generate presentations automatically to eliminate tedious busy work. It is important to note that while storytelling will impact business in 2021, it will need to be adopted in a way where deliverability of insights will come from regularly used business tools, such as email or a chat. Enabling storytelling to be accessible in these types of software tools will be a key component in driving the consumption of storytelling BI.

Embedded BI and self-service BI are also on the forecast for rapid growth in 2021. With embedded analytics giving end users the ability to manipulate data, businesses will be able to generate advanced analytics, rather than static reports as seen in the past. Momentum around embedded BI adoption has been growing over the years and interactive filtering will be more common in the near future.

Because of embedded BI, users will be able to create actionable insights, and business apps with analytical aspects will become more integrated. Additionally, self-service BI will provide businesses with AI enhancements to automate search engine reporting, insights, augmented data preparation, unified business analytics, and more. It has become critical for businesses to have the ability to connect all data points so they can have a 360-degree view of business insights. Unified business analytics will prove to be an essential aid in that process.

With COVID-19 and remote work accelerating cloud adoption, connected cloud will be a huge influence on BI in this year. Businesses will be looking for vendors that offer cloud-based BI as well as vendors that offer either self-managed cloud networks or private cloud servers like AWS and Google Cloud.

Additionally, mobile BI will prove to be more prevalent in 2021. Mobile BI will enable anywhere access to insights to work in harmony with a “work from anywhere” environment. While a limited screen size continues to be a challenge for mobile BI, specific mobile interfaces will become more prominent and will bring in aspects such as conversational capability to help drill down data further.

ARABIAN RESELLER - FEBRUARY-MARCH 2021 // EXPERT SPEAK HOW VIDEO TECH CAN HELP RETAILERS GET BACK IN BUSINESS

Written by Louise Bou Rached, Key Account Manager, Middle East, Milestone Systems

While the retail sector was already going through a period of great transformation, the pandemic pushed retailers to face these challenges from one day to the next. No longer for the sole purpose of differentiating themselves and becoming more competitive, but for their survival.

According to a report by Reportlinker. com, the UAE retail market was valued at $55 billion in 2019 and is projected to grow to $75 billion by 2025 due to various factors such as rising per capita income, growing tourism industry, increasing expatriate population and rising number of upcoming development projects in the country.

A combined effect of the adoption of AI, IoT, Big Data Analytics, among other advanced technology along with major events such as the Dubai World Expo 2020, will further boost the tourism, transportation, and manufacturing industries in the country.

However, in 2021, even after the lockdown restrictions have been lifted to a great extent, most people want to avoid crowded places like malls, shops or public places regardless of their size. Amazon, a relatively new player in the region, saw its sales in the GCC grow by 26 percent to $76 billion in the first quarter of 2020. The pandemic-related movement restrictions have led to a shift in shopping habits in the region with e-commerce expected to double in the next 5 years.

The equation is simple: if fewer people can or want to enter a store, there will also be fewer sales opportunities and, consequently, less business.

So, how can retailers adapt to this ‘new normal’, not only providing safety for their customers but also optimizing the sales and purchasing experience in a way that will make the buyers want to leave e-commerce and come back to the stores? Technology is and will be among the core assets to address both challenges – safety and the brick-and-mortar experience.

Let’s look at the current situation. Although stores are slowly going back to 70% or more, it is happening under strict hygiene and safety restrictions. As an assessment by epidemiologists in the science journal Science shows, these distancing rules (“social distancing”) will remain an important part of the fight against the virus to prevent renewed waves of infection in 2021 and beyond. This presents many retailers with a range of challenges and questions:

How can I make sure that my store is not overcrowded? Which area of my store is most frequented and when? How do I know if the minimum distance between people is being respected? How can I determine if all customers entering the store are wearing a face mask if required?

Every business is trying to create a secure environment for their employees and customers in the current situation.

The existing and new video technologies can increase your efficiency and sales, both now and into the future. After all, the same solutions that help you comply with the coronavirus regulations can provide you with interesting insights into your customers’ buying behavior after the crisis.

For example, what products are the customers most interested in? What paths are people taking within the store? What is the most frequent customer type? All these insights can be collected while respecting privacy and complying with data protection regulations.

What is the most profitable solution? The attitude that can guarantee a return on investments is not installing new products with the idea of unplugging them when the emergency is over. The most profitable choice is the system that doesn’t merely solve the challenges of today, but also offers possibilities for the future.

For example, a camera equipped with thermal technology costs more than a simple thermo-scanner, but while the latter will no longer have reason to exist when the emergency is over, a thermal camera can be used for surveillance, people counting, video analysis, etc. In two words: for protection and marketing!

Indeed, the attitude among retailers has changed during these unprecedented times. Many have seen how technology isn’t just a cost, but rather a benefit if perceived from a longer-term perspective.

As the corona pandemic has clearly demonstrated, it is impossible to predict what the future holds. This calls for an open and flexible platform offering the possibility of integrating any new technology that can be used to address future challenges.