Arabian Reseller - September-October 2020

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 Vol. 2. Issue 8.

THE EVOLVING

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CONTENTS 

06 07 08 10 11 12 16 

NEWS

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CyberKnight Announces Legal Entity in Saudi Arabia, as Official Distribution Partner at MENA ISC 2020 ROG Partners with ACRONYM for the Special Edition Zephyrus G14 Philips Launches New 49-inch SuperWide Curved Monitor

34

Vertiv Launches Monitoring Solution for Small and Medium-Sized Edge Data Centres Qualys Multi-Vector Approach to EDR Now Shipping Gaming Hardware Market in UAE and KSA Grows in H1 2020 AVEVA Launches New Program for Industrial Channel Partners

20

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

20

The Evolving Threat Landscape

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26

Here’s How Video Doorbells Make Contactless Deliveries Safe

Four Reasons to Invest in Entry-Level Cloud Talent

31

Eurostar Group Launches New Anti Epidemic Equipment Division

32

Upgrading LANs the Smart Way

28

The Realities of Ransomware: Extortion Goes Social in 2020

ARABIAN RESELLER | September - October 2020

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30

EDITORIAL

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

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

CHRIS N. FERNANDO EDITOR IN CHIEF

Threat Landscape Has Shifted Over the Past Two Decades

SALES AND MARKETING Ranbir Sen ranbir@ryshamedia.com

DEPUTY EDITOR Edward Frank edward@ryshamedia.com

Cyber threats are becoming potentially more harmful as algorithms are employed and artificial intelligence becomes pervasive in affecting aspects of everyday life and business. Unfortunately, as hackers become savvier, it’s not enough for a corporation to secure network systems to recognize a threat before, during or even after their network devices are compromised.

One of the biggest problems in the cyber security industry today is that security operations teams are increasingly managing a profound amount of incoming threat data as well as having a shortage of skilled IT staff to address cyber attacks. This often translates into IT departments being operated by a smaller number of technically skilled people.

Adequate training is also a concern.

These facts combined with the pressure to adopt new technologies as budgets are shrinking is particularly concerning as the threat landscape becomes more complex. With the increased risks of a cyber attack, cy-

bersecurity needs to be on the mind of both boards and business leaders.

This is not only to prevent disruption of service and loss of revenue, but also to maintain a competitive advantage. Business must constantly innovate in the services the offer and in how they are delivered. Falling behind will be at the expense of customer loyalty and sales. Plus, with the change in generational interests, not appealing to the millennial need for open and on demand access could also result in company obsolescence.

Our cover story in this issue, tackles this very subject as we speak to industry experts to understand the changes in the threat landscape in the region.

The cover story throws some light on the steps companies need to employ to stay ahead of the attackers and minimize damage.

Do give it a read and we hope you will enjoy this month's edition of Arabian Reseller.

SENIOR WRITER Priyan Sampath priyan@ryshamedia.com

GRAPHIC DESIGNER John Christy info@ryshamedia.com

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Prarthana Mary prarthana@ryshamedia.com

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

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

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

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

While the publisher has made all efforts to ensure the accuracy of information in the magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors whatsoever.

Copyright @ 2020

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NEWS

CyberKnight Announces Legal Entity in Saudi Arabia, as Official Distribution Partner at MENA ISC 2020

Infor Poised to Support $8.5 Billion Digital Supply Chain Market in META Distributors and logistics providers in the Middle East will need to adopt vertical-specific digital platforms if they are to succeed in an industry roiled by changing dynamics, shifting customer habits, and changes wrought by COVID-19, according to a new white paper

by IDC sponsored by Infor. While 78% of CIOs from logistics, manufacturing and trade companies in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) region are currently engaged in or about to start a formal digital transformation program, much of their success may hinge on the type of platform they adopt.

CyberKnight has strategically aligned with VirtuPort as the Official Distribution Partner for the MENA Information Security Virtual Conference 2020, taking place October 5-6, 2020. During the event, which has historically focused pre- dominantly on the Saudi Arabian market, CyberKnight will showcase its Zero Trust Security (ZTX) Framework while participating with eight of its cybersecurity portfolio vendors at the exclusive online event. CyberKnight’s focus on supporting enterprise and government organizations in the Middle East to simplify and accelerate incident response, while achieving compliance, strongly aligns with this year’s conference theme, “Evolving from Resistance to Resilience”.

The technologies that will be represented

by CyberKnight at the event are: • • • • • • • •

Agentless IoT & OT Device Security

by Armis Deep and Dark Web Threat Intelligence by Flashpoint Analyst-Centric Threat Intelligence Plat- form by EclecticIQ Online Fraud, Anti-Piracy, Threat Intelligence/Detection & Brand Protection by Group-IB Remote Browser Isolation by Cyberinc Data Access Governance, AD Security, Just-in-Time Privileged Access Management by Stealthbits Data Classification & Digital Rights Management by Seclore Security Awareness & Training Platform and Phishing Simulation by PhishRod

In accordance with recent industry report

by Research and Markets, the Saudi cyber security market is projected to grow

at a CAGR of 12.4% during 2020-2026.

While proliferation of digitalization has opened new gateways for cyberattacks, securing cyberspace is a fundamental element for Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Vision.

To address the growing cybercrime challenges, as well as, support the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision, CyberKnight has established its legal entity in Riyadh with deployment of local sales and technical resources on-the-ground. This investment is to enable strategic partners to serve their customers better, achieve improved profitability and accelerated growth through in-country logistics, order processing and local-invoicing.

“While KSA has a robust economy with some of the region’s biggest organizations, a strategic geographic location, and technological advancements like cloud, 5G, and IoT, the country remains a prime target for hackers. Thus, protecting sensitive data is of paramount importance to organizations and consumers alike. Our office in Riyadh aims to offer best-of-breed cybersecurity solutions and services that comply with the Government’s national security requirements,” commented Ehab Derbas, VP of Sales at CyberKnight.

“The core tenets of Vision 2030 encompass the need for job creation and supporting the private sector. Our legal entity in Riyadh allows us to hire and nurture local talent faster, and therefore, contribute to the overall economic growth of the Kingdom. In addition, we are excited to support our channel partners on- theground, by providing them with relevant operational and financial support locally,” said Wael Jaber, VP of Technology & Services at CyberKnight.

ARABIAN RESELLER | September - October 2020

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One of the most important considerations for players in the distribution business is to choose vertical-specific digital platforms, states white paper author Jebin George, IDC program manager of industry solutions. “Because vertical applications are built to address the unique requirements of an industry, the need for expensive and time-consuming customizations diminishes. Such applications have inbuilt industry-specific capabilities that deliver targeted intelligence, industry context, and actionable analytics and guidance to users,” George states in the white paper.

“IDC believes that distribution organizations that use integrated platforms and cloud- based, vertical-specific applications will be the most likely to digitally transform them- selves in three to five years and emerge as true digital pioneers,” he adds. With spending on digital supply chain and logistics in META forecast to reach $8.5 billion during 2020-23, Infor, a global leader in business cloud sofware specialized by industry, is particularly well positioned to help organizations develop such vertical specific applications.

Khaled Al Shami, Infor director of solution consulting for Middle East and Africa, said: “The logistics and distribution sector in the Middle East is undeniably in a period of flux, with multiple forces driving change. But with the right digital transformation plan, challenges in the industry also present an opportunity for growth and development. What separates Infor from many other vendors serving the industry is our ability to offer vertical-specific solutions, and we look forward to working with a growing number of logistics providers as they adapt to the new dynamic.”

NEWS

ROG Partners with ACRONYM for the Special Edition Zephyrus G14

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) has announced a collaboration with ACRONYM to create a special edition ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop that melds top-of-the-line hardware with a radical new vision for what technology can be. Available for sale from the 18th of September in the UAE, exclusively at Virgin Megastore Dubai Mall, this device is based on a design concept grounded in Errolson Hugh’s vision of a more empowered user: not just a gamer, but a thinker and a creator.

ACRONYM’s co-founder Errolson Hugh has been a pioneer in the technical apparel industry since the company’s founding in 1994. In the 26 years since, their agency has built an extensive design portfolio dedicated to fusing singular style with the latest technology. Whether they’re designing product lines for Nike and Arc’Teryx, virtual video game gear for Square Enix / EIDOS, or creating clothing under their own flag, ACRONYM has a proven track record as a visionary in the apparel industry with a commitment to sourcing top notch materials to create utilitarian designs that go far beyond style.

Hugh brought in long-time collaborator, designer David Rudnick, whose studio, Terrain, is sought-after by industry leaders in fashion, music and the arts for their visionary approach to building visual systems that require a completely original aesthetic. Together, Rudnick and Hugh designed and prototyped a new design language from the ground up, including bespoke typefaces and material treatments, touching every aspect of the ROG Zephyrus G14.

On a pure component level, the Zephyrus G14 boasts a punchy 8-core

16-thread AMD Ryzen 9 CPU and a potent NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU, which gives it the power for content creation, like editing videos or streaming, and lets it blaze through tons of modern titles. It also features a slick IPS-level display that’s Pantone Validated for color accuracy and boasts Adaptive Sync variable refresh rate technology for ultra-smooth gaming.

That the device manages to pack this considerable power in a 14-inch chassis less than 20mm thin takes premium to a new level. The Zephyrus G14 is crafted from high-end materials, from its magnesium alloy deck to its aluminum lid, that allow it to be as light as it is strong. Visually, it’s also set apart by its one-of-a-kind AniMe Matrix LED display that offers gamers and creators a new platform to show off custom animations, text effects, and audio visualizers.

All repairs carried out by the ASUS service center are done by ASUS certified technicians to ensure the highest quality of work and to ensure the use of genuine spare parts. ASUS / ROG is the only brand to offer its customers free pick up and return, should they need to get their notebooks serviced.

A collection time can be scheduled by contacting the ASUS service center on 8000-3305910 or emailing service_ me@ asus.com.

All units are also sanitized before being returned to our customers. Unlimited access to over 100 high-quality PC games on Windows 10. One-month subscription to Game Pass that’s included with the purchase of your ROG Zephyrus Duo. With games added all the time, you’ll always have something new to play. The ROG ZEPHYRUS G14 ACRNM RMT01 will be available for AED 9,999.

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FireEye Launches New Mandiant Solutions in the GCC FireEye has announced the formation of Mandiant Solutions. “Over the past 15 years, the crown jewels of Mandiant have historically been our incident response expertise, and the intelligence that comes from it,” said Kevin Mandia, Chief Executive Officer at FireEye. The purpose of the Mandiant Solutions group is to bring new, controls-agnostic offerings to market that are applicable to every security team. This marks the beginning of our multi-step journey to augment and automate global security teams with more of the actionable data from our front lines, regardless of their SIEM or controls.”

Mandiant Solutions brings together the best expertise-backed products and solutions to empower customers with insights from the front lines. These offerings are de- signed to enable security defenders, while ensuring that cyber security investments effectively reduce organizational risk.

The Mandiant Solutions portfolio now includes: • • • •

Mandiant Consulting Mandiant Managed Defense Mandiant Threat Intelligence (formerly FireEye Threat Intelligence) Mandiant Security Validation (formerly Verodin)

“Every security team is asking the same basic questions. Are they breached?

Could they be? And what can they do about it?,” said Chris Key, FireEye Executive Vice President of Products for Mandiant Solutions. “We’re reimagining how expertise and intelligence are delivered so organizations can reduce risk and address threats effectively and efficiently, no matter the security technology they employ.”

NEWS

Philips Launches New 49-inch SuperWide Curved Monitor

Philips has launched its new Brilliance 499P9H 32:9 SuperWide curved display on the regional market. This 49-inch display also offers productivity enhancing features such as USB-C and pop-up webcam with Windows Hello, to deliver performance and convenience.

The 32:9 SuperWide screen has been designed to replace multiscreen setups, offering a resolution of 5120-by-1440 pixels.

Its MultiView enables simultaneous dual connect and view, while the 1800r curved display offers a more immersive experience.

It also supports Adaptive-Sync technology for a smooth viewing experience.

You can experience effortless gaming experience at any frame-rate with the Adaptive-Sync technology, that offers a smooth quick refresh and ultra-fast response time.

This Philips display features a built-in USB type-C docking station with power delivery.

Its slim, reversible USB-C connector allows for easy, one-cable docking.

Users can connect all their peripherals such as keyboard, mouse and RJ-45 Ethernet cable to the monitor's docking station. Simply connect your notebook and this monitor with a single USB-C cable to watch high-resolution video and transfer super-speed data, while powering up and re-charging your notebook at the same time.

The display also allows you to game effortlessly with the Adaptive-Sync technology.

You get fluid, artefact-free performance at virtually any frame rate with Adaptive-Sync technology, while also benefitting from smooth quick refresh and ultra-fast response time.

With its Compact Ergo Base, you can tilt, swivel and height-adjust for an ideal viewing position. The base is a people-friendly Philips monitor base that tilts, swivels and height-adjusts so each user can position the monitor for maximum viewing comfort and efficiency.

With the Brilliance 499P9H, you can now

securely sign in through its pop-up webcam with Windows Hello. Phillips' innovative and secure webcam pops up when you need it and securely tucks back into the monitor when you are not using it. The webcam is also equipped with advanced sensors for Windows Hello facial recognition, which conveniently logs you into your Windows devices in less than 2 seconds, 3 times faster than a password. In addition, you can use the webcam, the Mic and the Speaker to conduct conference calls whenever you need to.

eyes productivity. Developed for wellbeing, the Philips LowBlue Mode setting uses a smart software technology to reduce harmful shortwave blue light.

With its MultiClient Integrated KVM switch, the Brilliance 499P9H 32:9 SuperWide curved display lets you control two separate PCs with one monitor-keyboard-mouse set up. A convenient button allows you to quickly switch between sources. This feature is handy with set-ups that require dual PC computing power or sharing one large monitor to show two different PCs.

You also get support for a wider than usual colour gamut, covering 121% of the sRGB or 91% of the Adobe RGB colour spaces.

Philips also ships the monitor factory-calibrated to a Delta E < 2 accuracy. The Brilliance 499P9H 32:9 SuperWide curved display has been awarded the prestigious Red Dot Award for Product Design. The display impressed a panel of 40 judges with its innovative design, beating off competition from more than 6000 entries from 59 countries.

Phillips' innovative and secure webcam pops up when you need it and securely tucks back into the monitor when you are not using it. The webcam is also equipped with advanced sensors for Windows Hello facial recognition, which conveniently logs you into your Windows devices in less than 2 seconds, three times faster than a password.

The VESA-certified DisplayHDR 400 delivers a significant step-up from normal SDR displays. Unlike, other 'HDR compatible' screens, true DisplayHDR 400 produces astonishing brightness, contrast and colors.

With global dimming and peak brightness up-to 400 nits, images come to life with notable highlights while featuring deeper, more nuanced blacks. It renders a fuller palette of rich new colors, delivering a visual experience that engages your senses.

Studies have shown that just as ultra-violet rays can cause eye damage, shortwave-length blue light rays from LED displays can cause eye damage and affect vision over time. Hence, Philips’ LowBlue Mode allows you to experience easy-on-the-

ARABIAN RESELLER | September - October 2020

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The display also comes with Flicker-Free technology. Due to the way brightness is controlled on LED-backlit screens, some users experience flicker on their screen which causes eye fatigue. Philips Flicker-Free technology applies a new solution to regulate brightness and reduce flicker for more comfortable viewing.

Established in 1891, Philips is one of the largest electronic companies in the world and a pioneer in technology and innovation.

Guided and inspired by our vision and brand line ‘innovation and you’, our experts commit to improve people’s live and make the world more sustainable through meaningful innovation. At Philips Monitors, we strive to design and engineer displays that combine contemporary styling and premium user-friendly features, with the aim to satisfy our customers’ wide spectrum of needs.

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NEWS

Vertiv Launches Monitoring Solution for Small and Medium-Sized Edge Data Centres

UAE Businesses Need to Prioritise Skills as Much as Tech to Maximise Value From AI

Ver tiv has introduced Ver tiv Environet Aler t, a new software offering that brings enterprise-lev- el infrastructure monitoring and management capabilities to smaller data centres and edge facilities. Available globally, Ver tiv Environet Aler t is affordable and easy to use, eliminating the two most common barriers to the deployment of monitoring and management tools in these types of environments.

Ver tiv Environet Aler t delivers real-time, vendor-agnostic monitoring of critical infrastructure systems and aler ts the appropriate personnel immediately when those systems are at risk. The software acts as a single pane of glass, with a new, modern and intuitive user interface that delivers visibility and data to users. Users can customise the data points that are monitored and repor ted to focus on what they need to most effectively protect and optimise their business.

“Purpose-built data centre monitoring is crucial to provide visibility to operations and to reduce risks and costs, but few solutions have been able to economically scale for smaller operations,” said Mike O’Keeffe, vice president for service and software solutions at Ver tiv in Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Ver tiv Environet Aler t provides essential monitoring services for small and medium sized businesses to stay connect- ed with their critical infrastructure and ensure business continuity.”

Ver tiv Environet Aler t provides superior monitoring, aler ting, trending and data organisation capabilities for companies in such ver ticals as healthcare, financial services, government, education and other industries that rely on smaller data centres and edge facilities. It is compatible with SNMP devices and integrates via a published API with other network management tools, data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) software, and building management systems to enable a complete view of network operations and streamline management of those systems.

Global research released by Microsoft reveals that companies see the biggest business benefit from artificial intelligence (AI) when they combine deployment of AI with skilling initiatives that focus on both tech and soft skills. Surveying more than 600 employees and leaders within larger enterprises across the UAE, the research focuses on skills needed to thrive as AI becomes increasingly adopted

by UAE busi- nesses, giving enterprises insights into where to best place their investment.

“The high-tech UAE economy advanced by initiatives such as the National AI Strategy 2031 will accelerate new economic and social opportunities for citizens, governments and businesses and generate significant growth, a high priority in the current UAE economy,” said Ihsan Anabtawi, COO and CMO, Microsoft UAE. “This new study analyses how AI leaders are driving more business value in the new environment as companies skill, upskill and reskill the workforce to make them future ready. Those ahead of the curve will empower employees to unlock inherent business value from AI, ensuring their firms increase capacity to be more agile, adaptive and resilient.”

Among the UAE companies that are the most mature in terms of AI adoption, the majority of their senior leaders (93%) say they are actively building the skills of their workers or have plans to do so. Further, almost two-thirds (78%) of employees at these businesses say they have

ARABIAN RESELLER | September - October 2020

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already benefitted from reskilling programs. The research shows that companies prioritizing AI are focused on ensuring it’s complement- ing the talents of their people. These businesses are cultivating employee skills across every category – ranging from advanced data analysis and critical thinking to communications and creativity.

In the UAE, almost all workers (97%) are keen to take part in AI reskilling initiatives. The majority (77%) of those working within an organization using more AI say their organization is actively preparing them for a digital future that will be increasingly powered

by AI. “We’re seeing a virtuous cycle emerge among those companies who extract the greatest value from AI. These leaders have realised that having the right skills enables them to unlock more value from AI, are in turn encouraged to extend their use of AI, which levels up skills across their whole organization,” added Anabtawi.

To address the skills gap in today’s workforce, Microsoft has set up a virtual training ecosystem designed to benefit employees specialising in skills needed for future jobs. Initiatives like the Microsoft Cloud Society are part of this framework, which has to date reached over 256,000 members across the Middle East and Africa. Additionally, platforms such as the AI Business School are empowering individuals to remotely upskill in areas around AI, Cloud, Data and Security.

NEWS

Qualys Multi-Vector Approach to EDR Now Shipping

Synology Launches DiskStation DS1621xs+ and DiskStation DS1520+ Synology has launched DiskStation DS1621xs+, redefining performance expectations in a compact tower form-factor. Pairing a quad-core Xeon processor together with ECC memory and onboard 10GbE, the DS1621xs+ raises the bar for high-performance data storage and management.

Qualys has announced the immediate availability of Qualys Multi-Vector EDR. Taking a new multi-vector approach to Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Qualys now brings the unifying power of its highly scalable cloud platform to EDR. “Qualys Multi-Vector EDR provides our Infosec team with actionable visibility into our endpoints in terms of detecting malicious hashes provided by intelligent agencies as well as detecting potential malicious attacks through authorized processes, to keep our company assets secure. Bringing together asset management, vulnerability risk management and EDR through a single agent on a single console is very powerful and will help us reduce risk and secure our environment,” said Valentin Pashkov, head of IT Security at IKANO Bank.

“Qualys is entering the EDR space with an attractive offering — one particularly for companies that place a high priority on vulnerability management. This is therefore an opportunity for the vendor to expand its footprint within its installed base. Unfortunately, not all organizations have such a focus. Nevertheless, weaving in threat intelligence enables Qualys to combine in-house context and vulnerability management-driven prioritization with external context (i.e., the global threat landscape), representing an opportunity to achieve something greater than the majority of the market to date,” said Mark Child, research manager, European Security, IDC. “We are pleased to partner with Qualys to deliver VMDR and Multi-Vector EDR solutions via our global distributed network of Infosys Cyber Defense Centers,” said Vishal Salvi, chief information security officer & head, Cyber Security Practice, Infosys. “The highly scalable Qualys Cloud Platform, with its lightweight agent, sensors and its forthcoming incidence response capabilities, provides us with intelligent analytics that we need to effec-

tively protect our clients. This functionality strengthens our Cyber Next Platform powered services to provide deep visibility and actionable insights, thereby assuring digital trust.”

“We are proud to deliver Multi-Vector EDR to customers and extend into the detection and response market,” said Philippe Courtot, chairman and CEO of Qualys.

“Multi-Vector EDR is a truly groundbreaking offer that brings context and correlates billions of global events with threat intelligence, analytics and machine learning results to stops sophisticated multi-vector attacks. The combination of Qualys Vulnerability Management, Detection and Response (VMDR) and Multi-Vector EDR allows us to provide a single end-to-end workflow that helps companies greatly reduce the time to respond and allows for the consolidation of their security stack.”

Leveraging the Qualys Cloud Platform and the Cloud Agent to link vulnerability and visibility to EDR uniquely delivers a holistic approach that provides context beyond the endpoints to reduce false positives and streamline threat hunting. Qualys Multi-Vector EDR allows: •

Instant, real-time discovery of endpoints and their risk profile for continuous EDR monitoring across the enterprise.

•

Prioritization of suspicious activities correlated with external threat intelligence and the context of other security vectors such as exploitable vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and unapproved applications.

•

Multi-tiered response capabilities to mitigate immediate risk and orchestration to natively patch and remediate endpoints to reduce the attack surface.

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The DS1621xs+ shares a powerful Xeon processor found in some of the company’s datacenter bound devices, but now in an 11.5L chassis. Over 3.1 GB/s seq. read and 1.8 GB/s seq. write performance means you can tackle larger data sets and handle more users, even quicker than before. The company also paired it with ECC memory for maximum dependability.

Together with Btrfs and the comprehensive data backup options, your data is in safe hands.

Six internal 3.5″ bays enable up to 96 TB of raw storage capacity. When that’s not enough, bump that up to 256 TB, on-demand, by adding on two additional DX517 expansion units for a total of 16 drives. The DS1621xs+ also includes two M.2 2280 slots for blazing-fast NVMe cache so that you can make your storage go over 20X faster without sacrificing any bays.

Finish content creation projects, big backup tasks, and anything that needs fast file transfers quicker with 10GbE, built-in.

Slot in an additional 10 or 25GbE card to speed up and tackle high-resolution network rendering projects or provide even faster transfer performance for multiple virtual machines.

Data management shouldn’t be difficult.

Synology DSM simplifies difficult and cumbersome processes while still giving you ample control over decisions that matter. Create your own on-premises cloud with Synology Drive and protect data located on PCs, virtual machines, SaaS, and more with Synology Active Backup suite. Synology Inc. also announced the availability of the 5-bay DS1520+ storage system, built to excel in home and small office environments.

Ideal for data backup and organizing multimedia libraries, DS1520+ is a versatile and scalable option to create your own private cloud.

DS1520+ and DS1621xs+ are available from Synology resellers and partners worldwide.

NEWS

Secureworks to Acquire Delve Laboratories

Secureworks has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Delve. Delve intelligently prioritizes vulnerabilities at scale and in context as part of its automated vulnerability management platform. The company’s SaaS solution is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to provide customers with more accurate and actionable data about the highest risk vulnerabilities across their network, endpoints and cloud.

The acquisition demonstrates Secureworks’ commitment to evolving its cloud-native Red Cloak Platform, and extending Threat Detection and Response (TDR) application with new integrations, analytics and user experience improvements. The Delve all-in-one solution, automating asset discovery, vulnerability scanning, contextual vulnerability prioritization and remediation planning, will be available for sale as part of Secureworks’ portfolio this quarter. Secureworks will also integrate Delve technology into the Red Cloak Platform and TDR application.

“Against the backdrop of today’s digital landscape, our customers demand sophisticated, scalable solutions that respond to threats putting their business and workforce at risk,” said Michael R. Cote, Chief Executive Officer of Secureworks.

“The acquisition of Delve will enrich Secureworks’ intelligence, further differentiate our end-to-end capabilities, and accelerate our transformation to deliver software with security at its core.”

“We were the first to deliver a context-based, AI-driven vulnerability scanning and prioritization solution, and we believe this pioneering spirit is the ideal complement to Secureworks’ proven approach to helping customers grow their business securely,” said Gabriel Tremblay, Chief Executive Officer of Delve. “Together, we will expand customers’ access to the solutions and applications they need to make decisions that effectively defend their organizations against the most threatening adversaries." The acquisition is expected to be completed in Secureworks’ 2021 fiscal third quarter and is subject to customary closing conditions.

Gaming Hardware Market in UAE and KSA Registered 29% Sales Value Growth in H1 2020

One of the few sectors which have been positively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic; achieving robust growth as a result of spikes in consumer demand during the lockdown is gaming. According to GfK Point of Sales tracking of the sector in the Unit- ed Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, the first six months revenue generated by gaming hardware surged by 29 percent to bring the overall value of the market to $256 million.

Gaming notebooks (32%), video game consoles (31%), and gaming and lei- sure devices (17%) account for the top three largest shares of the pie, contributing over $207 million to this sector in January to June 2020. During this period, the fastest-growing categories were gaming monitors and gaming keyboards/mice, which generated 110 and 77 percent respectively more sales revenue compared to the same period last year. Exponential growth was also recorded for gaming notebooks and gaming headsets, which both reported a 60 percent surge in sales value.

Growth in the gaming segments tracked by GfK has sustained post lockdown in the two markets.

Findings in the second-quarter reflected devices such as gaming monitors and key- boards continuing to record increased sales by over twofold (+155% and +135%), while regular monitors (-22%) and keyboards (12%) either decelerated in growth or slipped into decline. Similar trends can be seen across other products such as notebooks, headsets, peripherals, and so on.

“At the onset of the global pandemic, we witnessed the

ARABIAN RESELLER | September - October 2020

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emergence of diverse trends in the technical consumer goods markets, sequenced over multiple phases – panic, adapt and new normal,” highlighted Shika Samuel, Analyst for IT panel at GfK. “We observed consumers warming up their appetite for gaming devices as they started exploring socially-distant ways to keep themselves occupied and amused amid the pandemic lockdown.”

According to the GfK Consumer Pulse survey conducted in the midst of the lockdown, nearly half (46%) of all respondents surveyed in Saudi Arabia said they dedicated more of their leisure time into gaming than usual during the COVID-19 lockdown. More than half (51%) of the respondents also indicated playing video-games as one of their key sources of indoor entertainment, ranking it a more prevalent option than others such as listening to the radio (30%), watching sports (37%), streaming music (49%) and videos-on-demand (50%) and just below the more traditional option of watching movie/ series (71%).

One of the many innovations of gaming devices today which has gained significant popularity with gamers is the capability to provide an immersive experience, specifically to real-life events/ sports through AR and VR Gaming devices. During the pandemic, Indoor VR workouts and sports are popularly used to keep fit while staying indoor during the lockdown. Based on the GfK point of sales tracking, the virtual reality industry in the United Arab Emirates in the first half of 2020 achieved a total value of USD 1.5 million—representing a growth of 46 from the same period in 2019.

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NEWS

Diligent Launches Arabic Software Platform for Boards and Executives

HP Intros New Printer for Today’s Distributed Workforce

Diligent has launched its first Arabic Portal, allowing boards and executives to receive the right information at the right time, collaborate on sensitive data securely and gain unprecedented visibility into the company to spot risks and act on opportunities. The Arabic portal aims to benefit those that use Arabic as a primary language, allowing them to navigate an intuitive interface.

Liam Healy, SVP and Managing Director at Diligent commented, “The demand for governance technology and specifically Arabic language is evolving rapidly as governance best practices become the new norm. This launch and our ongoing investments are examples of how Diligent is responding to customer feedback as well as our long-term commitment to serving the Middle East and North Africa market.”

Diligent’s board portal allows unparalleled board management with simplicity and functionality to enable effective governance and meet the demands of today’s boardroom. Used by over 19,000 organisations across 90 countries, the portal provides boards and executives with modern governance tools, allowing them to expand their reach outside the boardroom and share meeting materials in a secure environment.

“While offering modern technologies, analytics, and insights used to enhance the results and improve board governance, the platform meets international security standards and holds elite certifications on information security, ensuring sensitive files and documents always remain safe and secure. Diligent board portal software provides directors with the information they need for swifter and more informed decision-making,” the company said.

“For administrators, intuitive tools and customisable archives mean more efficient and effective information delivery supported by remote wiping if a device is lost or stolen. In today’s climate of escalating security risk and increasingly high stakes, Diligent delivers peace of mind with state-of-the-art encryption, data storage, access controls and more,” the company continued.

Corporate governance in the MENA region has evolved significantly in the past two decades, according to a recent study with Hawkamah on board best practices in the Middle East.

Most respondents stated that good governance practices have resulted in improved strategic decision making and long-term sustainability. The study also shows that this trend of governance improvement has continued over the latest threeyear period.

At HP Reinvent, HP Inc.’s annual global partner event, the company introduced the HP LaserJet Enterprise 400 Series, delivering an enterprise and managed-class experience in a small footprint for remote working and new office configurations. “Ready or not, businesses have had to make a swift transition to a much more distributed workforce – transforming a few offices into thousands of home offices. As a result, they need intuitive, nimble, and connected devices that can be managed remotely and securely, supporting how and where people work,” the company said in a press statement.

“The COVID 19 pandemic has created hybrid workforces, with 72% of office workers saying they’d like to work away from the office for at least two days a week even once COVID-19 is no longer a concern,” said Xavier Garcia, Global Head and General Manager, Print Hardware Solutions, HP Inc. “We believe this new small and mighty printer has met its moment: offering everything one would expect in an enterprise-class printer that fits where and how people work now and, in the future, – whether remote or in the office.”

Security has also become a top concern for IT managers and home workers alike. According to HP’s new Workforce Evolution study , security software was ranked by office workers in the US and Europe as the highest priority for upgrading the home office, further underscoring the demand for secure work solutions. HP’s smallest enterprise multi-function printer, the new LaserJet series provides: •

The “world’s most secure printers” for businesses of any size, no matter where you work. HP incorporates security into every step of the printer design, supply chain, and production process. HP Sure Start with automatic self-healing that protects, detects, and self-recovers

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•

from vulnerabilities and attacks.

HP Trusted Platform Module (TPM), providing secure device identity with certificate private keys, strengthening protection of encrypted credentials and data.

Security features go beyond just the hardware, including the cartridge, for an end-to-end secure printing system that protects your network and information.

Seamless remote fleet management frees up IT resources for strategic priorities. Ability to easily manage devices and settings remotely with HP Web Jetadmin and HP JetAdvantage Security Manager. Easily deploy and integrate HP and third‑party solutions with the HP Open Extensibility Platform.

Support card readers and allow users to use personalized settings to print from their own queue.

In addition to the new devices, HP today also announced a new version of HP FutureSmart firmware – enabling a consistent, secure operational system across HP’s entire enterprise printer series. Launching with the LaserJet Enterprise 400 series, FutureSmart 5 provides customers investment protection, additional security protections, and readiness for advanced cloud-based workflows. “Typical printer attacks can exploit older versions of firmware and allow the device to be taken over and halted operationally,” said Mark Vena, Senior Analyst, Moor Insights & Strategy. “HP is combatting the risk to printer security with a layered defense-in-depth approach to secure the print device along with the associated supplies.”

The HP LaserJet Enterprise 400 Series – available as a single function and MFP, mono and color and in versions adapted to Managed Print Services fleets – is expected to be available worldwide starting in December. HP FutureSmart 5 is expected to be available in December.

CHANNE L TALK

AVEVA Launches New Program for Cyway Signs Distribution Agreement for Industrial Channel Partners Netskope in MEA Region Cyway, a provider of identity-centric and cloud security solutions has announced that it has signed a distribution agreement with Netskope, thus expanding its footprint in the Middle East and Africa region. Netskope Security Cloud provides visibility and real-time data and threat protection when accessing cloud services, websites, and private apps from anywhere, on any device.

Koshy Oommen, Director of Operations at Cyway, commented, “Security technologies are gaining immense popularity as remote working is set as a new norm. Cloud-native applications require different rules and techniques for protection. Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) technology will take preference eliminating traditional perimeter appliance security and legacy solutions. Cyway looks at this partnership as an excellent opportunity to address cloud security transformational challenges from today’s dissolving perimeter.”

AVEVA has launched AVEVA Select, a new program designed for partners to gain full access to AVEVA’s comprehensive software portfolio. The new AVEVA Select program is designed to help customers accelerate their digital transformation agendas by leveraging the breadth of the AVEVA software portfolio across its install base.

Arie de Groot, the Senior Director of Channels EMEA at Netskope, explained that Netskope is rapidly expanding its worldwide customer base.

“Security is moving to the cloud. The complexity of perimeter security, the increase of cloud usage, and the ever-growing number of remote and mobile workers are the main drivers of our growth. The cloud cannot be secured with legacy network security methods. It requires a cloud-based platform hosted in a worldwide private network of data centres, always offering the fastest connections. With the opening of our data centre in the Middle East and our cooperation with Cyway, we see a tremendous opportunity to build a network of partners embracing our next generation solutions and to become the leading SASE provider in the Middle East.”

The AVEVA Partner Network today boasts over 5,000 members providing opportunities for Alliances, Systems Integrators, Distributors, Solution Providers and Technology Partners to participate in the AVEVA community.

With programs designed to suit every product and solution specialization and industry, AVEVA Select aligns to both market and technology trends helping companies simplify design, optimize production, reduce energy and maximize performance. Its programs and support initiatives are designed to promote the variety and value of applications developed and delivered on the AVEVA platform worldwide.

With AVEVA Select, partners will be able access the entire AVEVA portfolio through the channel that they have known and trusted, often for as long as 30 years. The program will expand AVEVA’s reach to a wider distribution of industries, outside its previous core customer base of mid/downstream Oil & Gas, heavy chemical, power generation and distribution, to incorporate many other sectors including Food and Beverage (F&B), Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Smart Cities and Infrastructure, Mining, Paper and Pulp, Utilities, Water and Waste and Discrete industries (e.g. automotive, electronics).

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The expanded AVEVA Select customer base will be able to leverage their installed Monitor & Control (M&C) and Planning & Operations (P&O) solutions from AVEVA to address new challenges, create opportunities and improve the performance of their industrial operations. Members of the current AVEVA Partner Network community also see the launch of AVEVA Select as very timely for the community.

“The AVEVA Partner Network continues to grow as a hub for the latest thinking on performance management of manufacturing operations and today it is utilized for the sharing of best practices with the partner community as well as harnessing their collective insights to help solve some of the world’s most complex industrial manufacturing issues. The launch of the new AVEVA Select Program comes at a time when industrial customer demand for digital transformation is growing exponentially and it will create new opportunities for the customer base,” commented Bob D’Agostino, President of AVEVA Select North.

“With the new AVEVA Select Program we can confidently grow the partner network from strength to strength by offering real value for our strategic technology partners, distributors, systems integrators and many more, enabling our network members to work better together to help their customers create increased business value. I am excited to be part of this journey which will undoubtably extend the capabilities of the AVEVA offering to a new and previously untapped partner audience,” said Jason Bass, President of AVEVA Select Central.

Mindware Signs Distribution Deal with Acer

Mindware has announced that it has signed a commercial distribution agreement across the Middle East with Acer. This will include the vendor’s commercial and education portfolio including Windows based laptops, Chromebook devices, accessories, projectors, Enduro and ConceptD devices. The main focus will be on the Travelmate Series, specifically designed both for the corporate world and the public sector. Mindware will drive the market penetration of these devices by mobilizing its extensive channel network across the region.

As part of the strategy to engage more closely with the enterprise sector, vendor and distributor will work hand-in-hand to educate the market on the latest commercial and education focused best practices and technologies. Providing an insight into the partnership, Nicholas Argyrides, General Manager – Gulf at Mindware stated, “The work from home and e-learning trends have fuelled demand for laptops and smart devices. For remote workers to maintain high productivity levels, devices need to have good processing power, portability, and durability combined with business features and advanced connectivity options.

On the education front, teaching staff and students need to have access to modern, purpose-built devices and apps that support the new blended learning model.”

“Acer Middle East is a company that understands these imperatives and are playing a vital role in the transformation taking place in the digital workplace and the education field.

Devices like the TravelMate have never been easier to work away from the office. Their wide range of robust, easy-to-use and manage Windows and Chromebook devices enables digital learning at the highest technical level. The devices facilitate collaboration and cooperation between teachers and students. We are very optimistic about the rapid uptake of these products as companies and educational institutions realize the tremendous benefits that these devices will bring to employees and students,” continued Argyrides.

Acer Middle East has achieved great success in the education market with a 92% market share in Chrome OS devices for Q1’ 2020 in UAE, as per latest statistics from research and consulting firm Futuresource Consulting. In 2019, Acer Middle East achieved the number one position in the region with 71% Market Share.

“As Acer Middle East looks to capitalize on the digital transformation taking place in both the education and commercial sector across the ME region, we are very pleased to partner with Mindware, a company that we believe shares our vision and drive. The focus is on small and medium businesses and the K12 education space. Mindware is the perfect partner to expand Acer’s brand awareness and loyalty amongst a focused partner base. With the support of Mindware and their reseller network, we look to replicate in this region the resounding success that our Chromebooks have experienced thus far in the Middle East,” concluded Peter Lacey, Commercial Head, Middle East at Acer.

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Abu Dhabi Municipality Selects Huawei as Digitalisation Partner Abu Dhabi Municipality has selected Huawei as a partner to guide its digital transformation journey, in line with the UAE leadership’s vision to streamline services and experiences through cutting edge technology aiming at a sustainable and globally competitive economy. Through its partnership with Huawei, Abu Dhabi Municipality has deployed a custom configuration of cutting-edge solutions, sustainably designed to meet the society’s digital needs today and in the future.

Key products driving Abu Dhabi Municipality’s digital transformation include Huawei All Flash Storage, and a Tier 4 Data Center – the most reliable solutions designed by Huawei for the mission-critical services of enterprises. Together, these solutions will build a robust ecosystem to store and protect all data, while enhancing the overall experience for Abu Dhabi Municipality employees and customers.

Abu Dhabi Municipality is working towards implementing Smart solutions and advanced technologies that will contribute to the Emirate’s Strategic Plans and enable the digital transformation of Abu Dhabi through collaboration and fast Access to services and information. The addition of a Huawei data center to its digital ecosystem will enable Abu Dhabi Municipality to increase productivity and better serve its customers, ensuring business continuity with greater reliability and proficiency. Huawei’s Tier 4 Data Center delivers high availability and high efficiency, with convenient, centralized maintenance and a modular design that decreases deployment time by 50 percent.

Ahamd Abdulsamad Alhammadi – Acting Director of the technical planning department, Abu Dhabi Municipality, said, “Our digitalization journey with Huawei this far has transformed our operations, building more resilience and convenience throughout the Municipality. We are guided in our digitalization by the vision of the UAE’s leadership to enhance our community through technology. With state-of-the-art solutions and impeccable customer service, Huawei has proved the ideal partner for us, and we are pleased to continue working with them.”

Dongyue Ouyang, Managing Director of Enterprise Business Group, Huawei UAE, said, “While digital transformation brings enormous benefits in terms of cutting costs, increasing agility, and driving productivity, going digital isn’t easy. There is a whole host of elements that organizations need to be able to manage in a more centralized way, whether it’s incorporating all sorts of new technology, integrating mountains of data in all forms, or adapting end-to-end business processes and structures to the changes these bring."

MOVE RS AND SHAKE RS

Philips Middle East and Huawei Appoints New President Turkey Gets New CEO for Cloud and AI Business Group in the Middle East Royal Philips has announced the appointment of Vincenzo Ventricelli as Chief Executive Officer for the company’s operations in the Middle East and Turkey, based in Dubai, effective September 1st.

Vincenzo Ventricelli joined Philips Italy in 1996 and has ever since held several positions in sales and marketing in different locations such as Italy, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. He moved to Vienna in 2004 to work in the Marketing Department and proceeded to take the position of Marketing Director for Central & Eastern Europe in 2006.

In 2008, Ventricelli was appointed as Marketing Director, Philips Consumer Lifestyle Middle East, Turkey & Africa – based in Dubai. He took over the role of Senior Sales Director for Middle East and Turkey (MET) in 2011. He became Market Leader for Middle East and Turkey for Philips Personal Health in 2015. Over the last three years, Ventricelli led the Health Systems business in MET with significant achievements. During his time as the leader of Health Systems, he built a strong team and developed the Strategic Account Management (SAM) approach, as well as accelerated Health Systems transformation into a solutions business. Ventricelli holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Bocconi University of Milan.

“Having been a part of Philips for over 20 years, it has been exhilarating to grow and develop its identity. I’m excited to take up my new role with the promise of Philip’s vision to make the world healthier and more sustainable through innovation.

I’m committed to work closely with our customers and partners in creating meaningful solutions that can make a difference to the healthcare community and eventually achieve our aim of improving the lives of 3 billion people a year by 2030. In addition to delivering added value to the local health systems, my target is to continue driving the company’s strategic objectives and growth across the region,” said Vincenzo Ventricelli, Chief Executive Officer Philips Middle East and Turkey. Özlem Fidancı, the former Chief Executive Officer of Philips Middle East & Turkey joined Philips Turkey in 1998. After serving several commercial and management roles in Singapore as well as in Middle East & Turkey, Fidancı became the Vice President and General Manager at Philips Consumer Products in Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) and later became the Senior Vice President in Health Systems for Middle East and Turkey in 2015. Between January 2018 and August 2020, Fidancı fulfilled her role as the CEO of Philips MET and was responsible for overlooking a total of 16 countries. Ozlem Fidancı has now been appointed as Head of Global Markets of Philips’ Domestic Appliances business, based in Amsterdam, effective September 1st.

With demand in the region increasing for cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, Huawei—a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices—has appointed a new regional president for its Cloud and AI Business Group as the company restructures its offerings in these fields.

Li Shi assumes the role of President of the Huawei Cloud and AI Business Group in the Middle East region effective immediately. Under his leadership, the group seeks to help governments and local industries to tap into the power of digitalization while creating more intelligent and safer societies.

Based in Dubai, UAE, Shi will oversee the expansion of the group’s regional product and solution portfolio along with partner ecosystems that will create ultimate service experiences by utilizing Huawei’s global capabilities. The executive will further seek to deliver comprehensive terminal-edge-cloud solutions and services to more of Huawei’s customers and strategic partners, all with respect to data sovereignty that can support the digital economy and smart society of countries across the Middle East.

Shi has nearly 15 years of international experience with Huawei.

He was most recently the CEO of Huawei UAE and had also previously held executive positions for Huawei in other Gulf and Levant countries.

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Charles Yang, President of Huawei Middle East, said: “The innovations behind AI and cloud computing are advancing by leaps and bounds, and will soon pave the way to a digital Middle East in which all things are connected. Governments and enterprises are reinforcing their investments in these two fields. Under Li Shi’s leadership, I am confident that Huawei’s Cloud and AI Business Group will bring the value of ubiquitous computing to even more communities across the Middle East.”

Li Shi, President for the Cloud and AI Business Group in the Middle East, added: “Nearly every industry in the region has been re-booting for the digital age. Cloud and AI technologies will accelerate this transformation over the next decade. By offering new cloud services with our partners, enabling deeper AI research and development, and introducing new supercomputing capabilities to the region, our team will reinforce Huawei’s unrivalled end-to-end capabilities in the ICT domain while inspiring innovation in organizations of all shapes and sizes.”

Established earlier this year, Huawei’s Cloud and AI Business Group in the Middle East is an evolution of the company’s Cloud Business Department. Under the slogan “Cloud Everywhere”, the restructuring enables a more focused approach to developing and deploying solutions that will form the bedrock of the digital world.

Fortinet Appoints New Regional Channel Director for Middle East partner community to better serve our customers.”

The current shift to remote work as a result of COVID-19 have forced new learnings in business agility and has paved the way for a new wave of advanced cybersecurity threats.

Fortinet,a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, has appointed Shane Grennan as its Regional Channel Director for Enterprise and Alliance partners in the Middle East.

Grennan will report to Alain Penel, Regional Vice President for the Middle East. In this role, Grennan will direct and oversee Fortinet’ 3000+ partners and alliance community in the region.

He is responsible for setting the vision and strategy for Fortinet’s engagement with its largest regional, GSI, OT and Cloud partners in the region and ensuring the execution of this strategy.

“Cybersecurity has never been more crucial than it is in today’s ‘new normal’ business environment. Fortinet continues to help its customers address their most persistent cybersecurity challenges, and our enterprise and alliance partners are key in this journey,” said Alain Penel, Regional Vice President – Middle East, at Fortinet.

“As Fortinet continues to grow in the Middle East, Grennan’s appointment bolsters our regional channel team and allows us to continuously increase value for our partners through mutual commitment and focus on our joint customers. Grennan has a proven record of rapid and sustained growth, creating and leading high performance teams. We are certain that he will continue to support our enterprise and alliance

Partners are increasingly being relied on by customers across industries to provide simplified, value added, strategic support, as they increase their investments in cybersecurity. Grennan’s direction and support will help partners transform their engagement levels to meet customer’s needs.

“I am excited to join Fortinet at a time when channel partners play a key role in helping organizations maintain business continuity,” said Grennan. “Fortinet believes that simplicity in cybersecurity can help deliver maximum benefits and we strive to bring that to customers with our partners using the Fortinet Security Fabric. My top priority is to work together with partners to understand their focus and help them transform with Fortinet at a new level. It will deliver a better customer transformation experience and enhance Fortinet’s overall solution and service offering.”

Prior to returning to Fortinet, Grennan was Regional Director at Cylance Inc, for the UK, Ireland & Emerging (SS Africa, Israel, CEE) at Cylance Inc, where he led the company's growth efforts in the region.

Grennan was previously Regional Sales Director UK&I at Fortinet where he built the Ireland/Scotland region to be one of the most successful in the EMEA region. Under his leadership the region has developed a base of loyal and highly capable partners, as well as leading customers in all sectors.

Prior to joining Fortinet, he held a variety of positions in Cisco and Nortel Networks. Grennan is an experienced Bachelor of Engineering and previously a Systems Engineer who worked in Europe and Asia for various networking vendors.

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Equinix Gets New Managing Director for MENA Region Equinix has announced the appointment of Kamel Al-Tawil as its new Managing Director for the Middle East and North Africa. In his role, Al-Tawil will oversee and continue to grow Equinix’s business portfolio in the region, defining the evolving strategy for the local markets.

The new MENA lead brings a wealth of experience to the role, having worked with major corporations like NCR, EMC and Oracle, where he served in multiple senior leadership positions—most recently as Vice President of Business Applications. Al-Tawil has led large-scale projects across business functions and companies, leveraging leading business and technology practices to deliver effective and efficient ways of working, whilst driving ongoing scale and growth.

The appointment further strengthens Equinix’s developing business in the MENA region, as the company supports organizations with deploying interconnection and other digital strategies to unlock growth in new markets, diversify and improve business and financial performance. The Middle East has proven to be an exciting market of growth for cloud adoption, with cloud becoming a key component of the region’s digital transformation.

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), investments in digital transformation and innovation will account for 30% of all IT spending in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) by 2024, up from 18% in 2018. Indeed, Equinix’s 2019-20 Global Tech Trends Survey, found over two-thirds (67%) of UAE IT decision-makers view digitizing their IT infrastructure as a priority. 7 out of 10 (72%) IT decision-makers surveyed in the UAE consider moving infrastructure to the digital edge a priority for their organization’s technology strategy.

“Having worked in the IT industry for 25 years, I am familiar with Equinix’s business and the critical role interconnection can play in digitizing businesses for success in today’s environment. I am looking forward to continuing Equinix’s expansion in the MENA region, helping organizations in their digital transformation journeys as they look to innovate and grow. We will continue to engage and collaborate with the world’s leading clouds, networks and service providers, supporting companies across the digital economy,” said Kamel Al-Tawil, Managing Director for Middle East and North Africa, Equinix.

COVE R STORY

THE EVOLVING

THREAT LANDSCAPE Arabian Reseller speaks to industry experts about how the security threat landscape is evolving in this region, especially under the current business climate Companies in every industry and of all sizes are finding themselves under an increasing barrage of cyberattacks. At the same time, the threat landscape is evolving, becoming more sophisticated and doing so at a faster pace than many organisations are able to keep up with.

The days are gone where a firewall alone was sufficient protection against a cybercriminal or group. The proliferation of connected devices, alongside flexible working practices and complex partner ecosystems have made

the boundaries of an organisation ebb and flow. Threat actors with malicious intent are taking advantage of at an eye-wateringly large cost to businesses.

There are a number of threats which are evolving more quickly than others, but what are the ones that businesses need to be especially aware of today?

Attacks Are Getting Tactical and Targeted While COVID-19 continues to drive cybersecurity trends as a whole, it has also inspired new

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attacks capitalising on our desire for news, assistance or guidelines that could help keep us safe.

While global malware dips, new and measured attacks, including ransomware, pivot the cyber war in the first half of 2020. Amid the disruption, a few key takeaways emerge: Malware is down, but changing and spreading. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worth noting, however, that less malware doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t necessarily mean a safer world.

Mohamed Abdallah, the Regional Director for Middle East, Turkey and Africa at SonicWall, explains,

“Across all categories of malware, SonicWall researchers have noted that attacks are both more tactical and more targeted than ever, giving them a greater chance of success. The malware that we are seeing is evolving to be sneakier and more malicious. As detection tools are refined, hackers are increasingly turning to fileless malware attacks that operate in memory and take advantage of legitimate tools such as Microsoft Windows Powershell.”

According to Abdallah, ransomware is up, particularly in the U.S. (+109%). “Office files continue to be leveraged for malicious agenda. SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) with Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection is catching more attacks than ever. Malware targeting Internet of Things (IoT) devices has risen to 20.2 million, up 50% from this time last year. Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting the massive influx of employees working from home. And intrusion attempts are up 19%, to 2.3 trillion.”

Mobile phones are also becoming a focal point for nation states and rogue hacking groups. Traditionally, attackers have been targeting mobile phones for taking data, performing surveillance on the users, and its location services.

“We've seen the transition by attackers to using the mobile phone as the penetration vector into the organizational network. That being said, there hasn't been an influx of new techniques introduced into the industry for penetration — we primarily see phishing emails at the top of most threat actors’ lists,” says Israel Barak, the Chief Information Security Officer at Cybereason.

Cyber crime actors continue to prey on victims using COVID-19 themed attacks. “Recently, we've seen attackers use fake apps that claim to offer continuous monitoring of the infection rates in a city or country. Or in one instance, a scam was being run with employees at one company receiving text messages appearing to come from the company's administrators with

an update on what the company is doing in response to the pandemic.

Employees will click on the links contained in the text messages leading them to fraudulent websites,” adds Barak.

security and more, hackers are nefariously exploiting the remote work platform to launch attacks,” says Subhalakshmi Ganapathy, Product Evangelist, ManageEngine.

According to Derek Manky, the Chief of Security Insights and Global Threat Alliances, at Fortinet, the potential attack surface of organizations continues to expand, and the speed and sophistication of cyberattacks continue to make defending the network ever more challenging. “With IT teams on constant alert, and much of their time spent putting out fires, it can be difficult for organizations to pause and look at the big picture.

Most breaches today are driven by cybercriminals who steal sensitive information to sell on the Dark Web, or encrypt systems and ask for a ransom,” he says.

Starting from the key loggers, stealers, remote access trojans (RAT) to sophisticated advanced persistent threats (APTs) like Chafer APT, and living off the land tactics, attackers are employing every technique to break the defensive security of enterprises.

Hackers are using newer forms of existing malware (such as Emotet) and new malware strains to beat cyber defense systems.

Manky further adds that as a result, hacking has become much more sophisticated and lethal.

For example, more than half of all attacks are managed by cybercrime organizations that are better organized than most companies.

“They approach their work like any business, except that their revenue streams are stolen data and extortion. Their new Cybercrime-as-a-Service ecosystem is one of the biggest reasons why the cybercrime industry grows dramatically and generates more than one trillion dollars in revenue every year,” he says.

Last year, various states in the Middle East including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan, and Turkey attracted a large number of inbound attacks. “Cyberattack patterns remain more or less the same for this year, but we are seeing a surge of new attacks that are designed to exploit the uncertainty and anxiety around the COVID-19 pandemic. With the spread of pandemic, many enterprises have adopted remote working. While the security analysts are working on scaling up organization-wide security frameworks to maintain users’ trust and handle multiple remote endpoints, cloud integrity, online identity verification, data 21

During the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the global community faced and is still facing new challenges that we could never anticipate.

“Lockdowns made most businesses operate remotely through the business’ network. Through that, we witnessed a heavy reliance on remote access systems which is making businesses more susceptible to malware, ransomware and phishing attacks. This has created a challenge for businesses due to the data theft, ransomware attacks, and data breaches they have faced during COVID-19,” explains Tamer Odeh, Regional Director at SentinelOne in the Middle East.

The threat landscape today has largely stabilized. With a few exceptions, the most prominent threats and their delivery methods have been consistent for the past couple of years. “It consists of nation-state attackers, highly skilled cybercrime organizations, and low-skill opportunistic groups and individuals. The nation-state attackers are the most difficult to defend against, if it's even possible. They are extremely highly skilled, endlessly patient and enjoy limitless resources,” asserts John Shier, Senior Security Advisor, Sophos.

“We can however learn from their past tactics and tooling which ultimately end up in the hands of organized cybercrime. This group is almost exclusively financially motivated and is responsible for a

majority of the threats we encounter. Many of them are highly skilled and well-funded. They are continually looking for the next edge in defeating our defenses. Both tech and humans. They operate botnets and create most of the malware in the wild. The low-skilled, opportunistic criminals contribute to the rest of the noise and distraction in the threat landscape. They rely mostly on automation and older, over-used, and detectable tools,” he continues.

Today’s digital environment is ever-changing. Different types of assets constantly enter and exit the enterprise, and some are ephemeral – lasting mere seconds or minutes. Another element adding to what is already a complex situation is security teams being tasked to secure operational technology (OT).

“According to a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, on behalf of Tenable, 61% of Saudi organizations who had suffered a business-impacting cyber attack in the last 12 months said these attacks involved their operational technology (OT) systems,” says Maher Jadallah, Regional Director - Middle East, Tenable.

According to Jadallah, in tandem, the number of vulnerabilities present in hardware and software is also rising, with the severity of each increasing.

The result is security teams with hundreds of vulnerabilities to sift through and, even if prioritizing by criticality, still have far more than they can possibly handle.

“Another trend that we see increasing is organizations opening up their networks and systems to third party suppliers in an effort to improve functionality and collaboration. The ramification is that, if a supplier is breached, the attacker might be able to traverse across to other connected networks and systems. This may cause direct operational and reputational harm to all persons and companies connected to the infected provider. Network segmentation and the isolation of privileged accounts can minimise damage caused by a third party supplier breach,” adds Jadallah.

Cyber Threats Moving Beyond Ransomeware Although ransomware attacks remain popular among cyber criminals, there are still lots of other attack vectors these adversaries are using to compromise enterprises and stronghold them. “What we have been seeing as a result of the current pandemic are a few things,” adds Christopher Hills, the Deputy CTO of BeyondTrust. “Enterprises that are having to embrace remote working are now faced with a flood of Helpdesk Tickets. As a result, some enterprises are relaxing policies on endpoints and giving employees more administrator rights to help relieve some of the helpdesk tickets.

This, in some cases, is causing an uptick in anxiety levels.”

Hills further adds that a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) approach for corporate resource access is another cause for concern. “More personal devices connecting to these corporate resources means more pressure on IT teams to control Anti-Virus, OS Patch Level, and other software, to ensure they are secure and without vulnerabilities that could allow cyber criminals to compromise these personal assets and use them as a conduit to gain access to the corporate resources,” he says.

Manky further adds, “One of the most lethal combinations is a sophisticated attack that targets humans when they are in a state of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. The current COVID-19 pandemic is a great example. The internet enables most people to do their own research, and sophisticated attackers are ahead of the curve. They have anticipated the generic behavior of individuals and prepared their campaigns for the events around us by stuffing the internet, and our in boxes, with disinformation, malicious files, and links to infected web pages” According to Manky, “Ironically, we now live in a world where human viruses and cyber viruses cross attack paths. This is extremely effective, generating a lot of money while causing a tremendous amount of physical and monetary damage. It

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Mohamed Abdallah, Regional Director - META, SonicWall

Israel Barak, CISO, Cybereason

Derek Manky, Chief - Security Insights and Global Threat Alliances, Fortinet

Subhalakshmi Ganapathy, Product Evangelist, ManageEngine

is very likely that we will see more game-changing vulnerabilities like Spectre, Meltdown, BlueBorne, and Broadpwn. Without true visibility and control over everything in their infrastructure, organizations will miss these threats when they breach their networks.”

Haider Pasha, Senior Director and Chief Security Officer at Palo Alto Networks, Middle East and Africa (MEA), says, “Given that more of the workforce is working remotely, we anticipate an increase in attackers targeting home routers and IoT devices, especially since 98% of all IoT device traffic is unencrypted.

For better precaution, consumers should ensure their physical router is not using the default password and must create a unique password for both their routers and all physical devices. Moreover, as some economies may go into recessions with unemployment numbers on the rise in some sectors, some individuals might turn to cybercrime – which typically happens in economic downturns.”

Preparing to Face Cyber Threats Cybersecurity criminals are preying on the landscape and opportunity.

They know that now more than ever, people, businesses and corporations are all having to adjust to working more “remotely.” This is opening up new avenues for attack that they might not have previously considered.

“It seems that banking institutions are the bigger targets, and while the Emotet Malware has become popular again since first emerging in 2014, we are seeing cybercriminals step up their attacks on Wire Transfers. Cyber Criminals are tactically attacking Wire Transfers and doing various things to intercept these transfers for their personal gain,” explains Hills. “The key to success is to remain proactive, not reactive. Continue maturing policies, procedures, software, and solutions. Think about compromise to your organization or enterprise from a cyber criminal’s perspective and focus on those areas first.”

Know yourself and know your enemy is the best advice. “Know your-

self is understanding how your business operate on all levels, from the operational to the executive, knowing how systems interact, how people interact and building your defenses around these specific interactions between company assets. Knowing your enemy is also crucial, threat evolve almost every other day and staying on top of the latest developments will surely make you more aware and capable of fighting off these threats when they target you,” Manky adds.

Attacks are evolving. They no longer have goals that concentrate on stealing financial information or bringing the business to a standstill using resource abuse techniques. “The goals are changing and so are the motives. Previously, the hackers were predominantly financially motivated. Now, most of the attacks have political and espionage motives. They are harvesting email or user account credentials so that they can target the cybersecurity posture of the company rather than exploiting loopholes and vulnerabilities. The damage in such cases is unimaginable,” adds Ganapathy.

Despite the growing frequency of attacks and increasing board-level awareness of common threats, many organizations are still failing to implement effective cyber defence strategies. Training is often inadequate and end-user awareness, often poor. “A new approach is required. One that puts people at the heart of cyber defence – ensuring employees are not just able to spot and deter attacks but are acutely aware of their role in keeping our organizations safe,” says Emile Abou Saleh, Regional Director, Middle East and Africa at Proofpoint.

According to Odeh, AI can helps us overcome this challenge faster and handles issues that are new to us in a more informed manner. “Whether organizations are mostly working from home or starting to go back to offices, the need for AI-powered technology that helps improve cybersecurity teams is essential. In order to 23

Tamer Odeh, Regional Director, SentinelOne

John Shier, Senior Security Advisor, Sophos

Maher Jadallah, Regional Director - Middle East, Tenable

Haider Pasha, Senior Director and CSO, MEA, Palo Alto Networks

defend businesses that embrace digital transformation and adopt IoT, cloud and more, organizations need dynamic artificial intelligence-driven (AI) next-generation endpoint protection platforms that defend every endpoint against all types of attacks, at every stage in the threat lifecycle without the need for human intervention,” he says.

breakthrough economics, SonicWall enables businesses to close the cybersecurity business gap and guard against the growing ranks of opportunistic cyber attackers.

By gaining a fuller understanding about where we find ourselves in 2020, we can move as safely and resolutely as possible toward the future, whatever it has in store,” he explains.

Handling Security Challenges Businesses spend countless dollars each year trying to protect themselves from various attack vectors that cyber criminals will use to breach them. According to Hills, what is interesting is that each company will have a unique approach depending on three major factors – Risk Tolerance, Risk Acceptance and Risk Appetite. “Having these items clearly defined and documented, is a great step. These should be the foundation of your security framework. Once these are documented, you can better approach the question of, “Am I prepared for the compromise.” If you can’t answer that question with a “Yes,” then you still have work to do,” he adds.

The good guys or defenders are constantly facing cyber risks and attacks from well-funded and motivated hackers. “Our advice to customers, partners and the wider industry includes three things.

You need to increase employee awareness of COVID-19 related scams. We understand that employees are more susceptible today to scams. Provide more training and awareness on some of the common techniques. And notify staff on how you as an employer will contact them in time of need — they should only use agreed upon forms of communications,” says Barak.

Hills adds that as a company, BeyondTrust tries to be as transparent as possible with its customers, by both sharing its experience and market trends, which drive decisions. “As a company, we continue to improve and mature our overall security posture, processes and programs. We continue to evaluate the cyber landscape and collaborate with our partners to enhance and mature our integrations so that our overall offering can lend itself better to suit each and every customer’s unique security requirements,” he says.

Meanwhile, Abdallah says that his company has recently introduced the new Boundless Cybersecurity model, designed to help organizations navigate a hyper-distributed IT reality where everyone is remote, everyone is mobile, and everyone is less secure. “By knowing the unknown, providing real-time visibility and leveraging

“As employers maintain work from home policies, there continues to be a massive increase in the use of personal mobile and company owned mobile devices. We help our customers and partners build a higher fence so that the phone is better protected by scanning and detecting malicious content that is delivered to the device, via channels such as text messages, instant messages, phishing emails and the like,” says Barak. “We also need to adopt a post breach mindset and realize that sometimes attacks will be successful. We need to have the infrastructure to protect in real time, and correlate the different parts of the attack — i.e. this attack started on a mobile phone and then moved into the corporate network — and then have the ability to remove the threat from the network.”

Pasha advises his customers and partners on various tactics related to being mindful about their security practices. “For customers, we strongly advise to think before you click on any links, and one should

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Gopan Sivasankaran, Senior Manager, Solutioning META, Secureworks

Emile Abou Saleh, Regional Director, MEA, Proofpoint

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

Christopher Hills, Deputy CTO, BeyondTrust

confirm that emails are from a trusted source. We also advise to be cautious about what to share on social platforms, as it is quite easy to unlock accounts by using personal details such as hometown or birthdays if available on public domains,” he says. “It is always advised to implement security measures as early as possible, stay alert and be aware of your security and privacy settings – for example, do not use the same password across multiple accounts. Our advice to enterprises is educate your workforce by running phishing simulations and social engineering training for employees. We must also be mindful on limiting audit access and using multi-factor authentication.”

Irrespective of the means of attack – email, cloud applications, the web, social media – today’s threats target people, not infrastructure.

So, while technical solutions and controls remain crucial in building a robust cyber defence, they are just one aspect of a broad and deep barrier against the latest threats. “It is therefore crucial to have in place an approach that puts people at the heart of cyber defence – ensuring employees are not just able to spot and deter attacks but are acutely aware of their role in keeping our organisations safe. This is only possible when their training goes beyond general awareness of common threats and they have a better understanding of how their behaviour can be the difference between a successful attempt and a successful attack,” explains Abou Saleh.

According to Gopan Sivasankaran, the Senior Manager, Solutioning META at Secureworks, user education is extremely important considering the entry vectors.

“Also, it’s vital for organizations to adopt security solutions that take a deliberate and highly targeted approach to machine learning and other data science techniques, which is exactly what Secureworks does. By pairing incident response experience and threat research with supervised and unsupervised

machine and deep learning algorithms, the Red Cloak TDR analytics software can detect unknown threats by identifying behavioural clues. The algorithms are trained on data from our entire customer base, which further increases the accuracy of the software,” says Sivasankaran.

Security awareness and training is the most important skill these days. Not just for IT teams, but across the organization. “It is important that all of us remain aware of what is going on and understand our PC environment better. At some point in time, experts may be needed to identify and isolate issues. Having a security policy is like having a life insurance. You need it, or else the risk of being a prey is far greater,” says Rohit Bhargava, Practice Head - Could & Security, Cloud Box Technologies.

Bhargava further adds that as Microsoft stopped supporting certain OS versions, it is important to protect information assets having a latest OS and authentic applications in PCs. “Social engineering hacks are paving their way and it is imperative to have a stronger password protection policy to ensure personal information is not accessible to attackers.

We always recommend that our SMB and enterprise clients create IT policies that highlight security awareness, offer security health checks and look for local partners with local expertise to offer managed protection and service to ensure higher levels of protection,” he says.

Shier says that doing security right is difficult. “That's why we always say there's no 'silver bullet' in security. A good start, however, is building a solid security foundation. This includes having the right people, processes and tools in place to give you a fighting chance.

A robust security culture ensures everyone is 'on duty' when it comes to protecting the enterprise.

Clear, easy-to-follow, and conservative processes will prevent simple mistakes from harming your 25

business. Using the very latest prevention and protection technologies will defend your organization against attackers when the first two fail. Taken together, these three are just a starting point on the never-ending road to a mature security program,” he says.

Organisations should focus on the basics first to stop the majority of threats they will face.

This means complete and live visibility into the entirety of their attack surface — be they IT or OT, traditional on-prem or in the cloud — as the first step toward reducing overall cyber risk.

“Security solutions must ingest threat data, such as in-the-wild exploitation of a specific vulnerability, then use that information to discern which vulnerabilities should be addressed immediately in order to seal off attack entry points,” adds Jadallah. “Once basic asset management and vulnerability management is in place, you can then monitor the environment for anything that deviates from the norm - be it network anomalies or policy violations, or changes to the actual runtime configuration of a device like a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) in an OT installation in a factory or plant.”

While it might seem like a luxury, taking the time to stop and think about the actor behind these attacks is vital. Enterprises need to start looking at cyberattacks and other security threats from the adversary’s perspective to understand which attacks are more attractive and lucrative for the actors and to know how best to protect against them.

For the businesses that don’t understand the threat landscape is evolving, problems will persist and they will fall further behind attackers. Organisations need to act now to ensure their cybersecurity strategies, and those of the enterprises within their supply chain, are up to date and able to respond to new forms of attacks quickly. Only then can they be safe against the ever-evolving threat landscape.

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Four Reasons to Invest in Entry-Level Cloud Talent Written by Kevin Kelly, director of Education Programs, AWS Training and Certification According to Global Knowledge, nearly 80 percent of IT decision-makers say their teams lack the skills they need. And this challenge is particularly acute when it comes to cloud computing. In fact, a report from 451 Research indicates that cloud skills gaps have nearly doubled in the past three years, with 90 percent of organizations reporting shortages. These statistics will come as no surprise to business leaders around the world who are struggling to find talented developers, architects, and business leaders to help them make the most of the cloud. There are simply not enough highly-experienced applicants to meet the demand.

How does an industry suddenly create a large number of highly-qualified cloud professionals with 15-plus years of experience? It doesn’t.

Instead, businesses need to rethink who they hire and how they train and retain them. Rather than chasing and competing for a limited number of highly-experienced professionals, employers should surround their most experienced employees with highly motivated, entry-level talent with strong foundational cloud skills.

Cloud providers, governments, and training organizations are working hard to populate the global IT ecosystem with entry-level cloud talent. Tens of thousands of individuals have already received hands-on cloud training, and many are eager to start their cloud careers in towns and cities around the world.

Here are four reasons why you should hire them.

1. Entry-level talent is often “cloud-native,” principled, and ready to learn.

Today’s entry-level cloud talent won’t come with a decade of on-the-job experience, but they won’t come on board with a decade’s worth of legacy thinking either.

Rather than needing to unlearn old habits and ways of working on now-defunct technologies, these individuals can help your company challenge outdated approaches and embrace change in the digital age.

Many individuals who are just starting their cloud careers are also digital natives. This new generation grew up with mobile devices, they understand voice-enabled technologies, and they know how to work virtually.

They think differently about data and devices, likely espousing modern and innovative notions

about technology and what it can do. Just imagine what such energy and high standards could do for your teams of solutions architects and developers.

2. Get the best out of your employees.

How can you get the best out of your most valuable employees? Give them a team to train, mentor, and work with. Building teams comprised of individuals with various levels of experience will help ensure that they are complementing and learning from one another.

Those new to the cloud will be able to grow their skills in a supportive environment, with mentorship from someone you trust who has ample experience.

By surrounding your experienced cloud talent with skilled, entry-level talent, you’ll also free them up to take on the more high-value aspects of their projects. Their team can do some of the building, and they can focus on more complex tasks, strategy, and design.

You may even find that giving your tenured employees tasks more closely aligned to their abilities might help them stick around longer. In a 2020 survey by Deloitte, respondents who said their companies use their skills effectively are more likely to say they plan to stay with their current employer. But remember, in order to get the best out of both your entry-level and most experienced employees, you’ll also need to make sure you are supporting their development.

According to Global Knowledge, only 59 percent of IT decision-makers approved training in 2019. “The absence of training support is puzzling,” the report explains, “considering a lack of training investment is a leading cause of skills gaps.” Make sure you give your team the support and resources they need—so that your company can keep the skills it needs.

3. Investing in entry-level talent will save you time, money, and resources.

Skills gaps are more than just an inconvenience; the financial and business repercussions can be grave. The IDC anticipates that in 2020, 90 percent of all organizations will have adjusted project plans, delayed product/service releases, incurred costs or lost revenue because of lack of IT skills. By hiring entry-level talent, you can bridge your IT skills gap, helping your company achieve its business objectives and meet demands on time.

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“It’s become more important to hire and grow junior individuals because it’s difficult to hire really experienced people at small-company money. So we like to grow our talent,” Jon Topper, CEO of Scale Factory in London, UK told us.

His company, which has hired a graduate from our AWS re/Start program, focuses on hiring individuals with strong foundational cloud skills and an interest in developing their careers in the cloud. Rather than hiring for hard-to-find technical skills alone, they hire with an eye toward base knowledge, technical aptitude, potential, and enthusiasm.

Research suggests that investing in your employees can help with your company’s retention rates. According to a 2018 LinkedIn Learning report, 94 percent of employees say that they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development.

4. Your team of diverse talent will be smarter and more stable.

Having a mix of talent and experience across your organization can also help create stability.

If you have one or two highly experienced individuals, what happens when one of them leaves? You can help ensure business continuity and financial stability by building strong, supported, and resilient teams—teams that don’t depend on a small number of irreplaceable employees. Hiring individuals with a range of skills, backgrounds, and experience will also have a positive impact on business decision-making and innovation. Research shows that diverse teams are smarter and more innovative.

Turning scarcity into opportunity The scarcity of highly experienced cloud talent is a major concern for many businesses. But this scarcity is also an invitation to hire, train, and retain talent differently. Companies large and small can tackle the current skills shortage by building and investing in diverse, resilient teams with a mix of experience levels. Rather than searching for hard-to-find—and difficult to keep—tenured individuals alone, companies should also invest in entry-level talent with strong foundational cloud skills.

Around the world, individuals are emerging from universities, training programs, and internships with hands-on experience in the cloud and an eagerness to launch their careers. Some of them will even hold industry-recognized cloud certifications. And they are key to bridging the skills gap and helping your business thrive.

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The Realities of Ransomware: Extortion Goes Social in 2020 John Shier, senior security advisor at Sophos explains the growing threat of ransomware that threatens to publish companies’ private data The early days of ransomware were very much transactional. You received an unsolicited email, clicked on a link or opened an attachment, and your computer eventually ran the ransomware binary which encrypted all of your user-generated files. The process of recovery was fairly straightforward. You either recovered your files from backup (after doing a full re-image) or you sent Bit- coins to the criminals in exchange for the decryption key.

In time, the criminals added the ability to communicate with them and things got a little more personal. These communications were mostly under the auspices of support.

Not only could the criminals increase their reputation as ‘trustworthy ’ merchants, but it also gave some individuals the ability to negotiate payment terms. In October 2019, the ransomware scene gave us a glimpse of things to come.

deadline. The city rebuffed the ransom demand and the attackers were silent. It took less than one month for this new tactic to catch the attention of more serious ransomware gangs.

The criminals behind Maze ransomware began incorporating this tactic of steal and share as additional extortion pressure in their ransomware operations.

The first such incident occurred in November 2019 when the Maze crew released a portion of a victims’ stolen data in a show of force and added social pressure for the company ’s lack of payment. Since then we’ve seen the Maze operators continue this behaviour and other prominent ransomware gangs have joined them.

A group calling themselves ‘Shadow Kill Hackers’ attacked the city of Johannesburg, claim- ing to have stolen data from the city ’s compromised systems. The difference here is that the at- tackers didn’ t encrypt any files. In this purely social attack, the criminals threatened to release financial and personal data of Johannesburg’s citizens if payment (4 BTC) was not made by the ARABIAN RESELLER | September - October 2020

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Today it isn’t uncommon to hear of a ransomware victim being extorted into paying a ransom under threat of data exposure. We’ve seen some criminals use their total access to an organization’s compromised systems to pit employees against their own executives and IT department by threatening to release stolen employee data if the company did not engage with the criminals and negotiate payment.

While it’s still too early to deter- mine if this form of social pressure will be more profitable than more traditional methods, it has heralded a new era in ransom- ware where social pressure and shaming is being used to increase the attackers’ bottom line.

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Here’s How Video Doorbells Make Contactless Deliveries Safe

As cases of COVID-19 rise again, Mohammad Meraj Hoda, Vice President of Business Development – Middle East & Africa at Ring gives us a look at how video doorbells improve all-round safety.

With the number of coronavirus cases continuing to rise in the UAE, we need to continue safeguarding ourselves and our families.

In addition to regular disinfection, hand washing, and social distancing, minimizing close contact with others will go a long way to help reduce our risk, even at our own front doors.

Over the past few months, we’ve all come to rely on home deliveries for numerous items – from groceries and food delivery to bank documents and online retail therapy. To open the door for each delivery is to expose ourselves to a new transmission risk, but thankfully for UAE residents, there are some quick solutions to hand.

Video doorbells, such as those available from Ring, are one such tech-savvy option. When used in combination with delivery apps, they allow customers to accept an order and even communicate with the delivery agent – all without opening the front door.

With video doorbells, you instantly receive a message on your phone when someone is at your door. Swipe the notification on your device and you can see the visitor live – from wherever you are. The Ring Video Doorbell 3, for example, offers full HD1080p for high-resolution video over a full range of 180 degrees.

Better yet, because it comes with

motion detection, you’ll be alerted before the doorbell is even rung.

The most advanced video doorbells offer enhanced remote communication with visitors from anywhere. So, whether you’re relaxing by your apartment’s pool or if you’re stuck in traffic a few minutes away from home during the evening commute, you can see, hear, and speak with the delivery driver without any extra effort.

This means that by using your Ring Video Doorbell you can let the delivery driver know you will soon be there or ask them to leave the package with your neighbor.

With such advanced technology, the person outside your front door need not ever know that you’re not at home. Video doorbells offer two-way communication, it’s easy enough to instruct delivery drivers to leave packages and parcels outside the front door – even when you are at home but can’t get to the door.

If you need to pay for a package, such as a food item, you should be able to do so via the vendor’s app. Such measures are particularly important in view of the enhanced national safety regulations due to COVID-19.

It’s easy enough to wait a few minutes until the courier has left to pick up your package – but remember to sanitize the surfaces first, in line with medical recom-

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mendations.

Video doorbells that are retailed in the Middle East can both livestream and record footage, which is then stored in the cloud.

This means that any activity around your property results in an immediate notification directly to your smartphone. Such activity can then be verified remotely, from anywhere.

In addition, Ring Video Doorbells also come with an add- ed Linked Devices function, that allows users to link their doorbell to compatible Ring Cams for an integrated, whole-home security system.

You will rest easy knowing your video doorbell connects to the wide array of smart devices within your home ecosystem. Smart doorbells typically slip easily into these existing setups, allowing you to network all your devices from a single access point.

The Ring Door View Cam, for example, connects to different networks, such as Amazon Alexa, putting you in control at all times.

And that’s the best situation to be in, wherever you are.

In addition to a host of security benefits, video doorbells also offer a number of clever advantages when it comes to contactless deliveries and physical distancing.

Most important is the peace of mind that a regular doorbell and peephole simply can’t match.

PODCASTS

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Eurostar Group Launches New Anti Epidemic Equipment Division

INTE RVIEW

Raju T. Jethwani, the Chairman of Eurostar Group, speaks to Arabian Reseller about how his company is combating the slowdown due to COVID-19 and diversifying into new areas of business Tell us about Eurostar’s plans to combat the COVID-19 situation?

Eurostar always innovates and embraces new technology horizons even during the challenging times in the history of mankind. Our B2B Business cycle is on the long term and mostly infra related which has a very consistent pattern of operations.

back after the hardships faced during COVID-19?

The markets will take time to reach post-COVID Levels, most probably by mid-2021.

However, it all depends on the various governments equipping themselves with the vaccine for COVID and implementing preventive measures to regain business confidences.

Why are products and soluHas the company diversified tions such as sanitization into other areas of business? tunnels, UV sanitization soluEurostar currently is consolidat- tions and so on necessary? ing its business lines and now An essential step in reopening with energy efficiency and man- businesses, offices, schools, agement, telecom and utilities, and so on, during the COVand infra-related products. We ID-19 outbreak is incorporatalso offer multimedia products ing new technologies and new such as hotel TV, pay TV cater- products that can make the ing to the hospitality and com- public feel safer and confident munity living sector, personal to get back and go about their care division and 3PL logistics routines till the time a cure is are the focused business the found. Continuous disinfection group is pursuing apart from of the premises becomes a nethe newly launched Anti Epicessity in such a situation and demic Equipment Division. apart from the usual cleaning and disinfecting methods that You recently announced were already in place, new techthat you will start offering nologies such as sanitization products in the sanitization tunnels , UVC sterilizers, and so business. Can you share more on, are being deployed. details?

We have launched Sanitisation The solutions used to disinfect Tunnels, Thermal Scanner Face the surfaces and air which are Recognition Devices, UV Blast- the common places of transer, Escalator Handrail UV light, mission of the virus. It should UV Disinfection Trolley for Air- be kept in mind that these soluports and Hyper/Supermarkets. tions are to be incorporate in addition to the existing practicAccording to you, when will es of social distancing, masks, the regional market bounce and hand sanitizers, which are 31

not to be ignored.

What are your thoughts on UV-C sterilizers?

Of all the technologies to combat the pandemic UVC sterilizers of various types have been found to be the most effective.

Germicidal UVC light has been around for several decades and the most commonly known are the ones used to sterilize the equipment in salons.

With outbreak UVC has found a renewed and more wider acceptance as its well know and proven fact that UVC light at bandwidths of 200 to 280nm.

It can deactivate various pathogens including bacterias and viruses.

Tests in labs have shown to effectively deactivate the earlier known coronaviruses such as MERS, SARS, and so on. And off late, it has been established to be effective against the COVID-19. Various UVC light sterilizers like handheld wands, UVC boxes, UVC towers, UVC trolley and baggage disinfection tunnels, chambers, UVC disinfection robots, UVC lighting fixtures, and so on, are being introduced in the market. As direct exposure to UVC light is dangerous for humans these are used in unoccupied places and under supervision of trained manpower.

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Upgrading LANs the Smart Way Written by Arafat Yousef, Managing Director – Middle East & Africa, Nexans Data Network Solutions

How do you ensure your LAN is future ready while retaining flexibility – and managing TCO? Ever-changing requirements Previously separate systems and platforms are increasingly converging, and at the same time bandwidth requirements are growing fast, driven by cloud applications, IoT, Wi-Fi 6 and more. This calls for future-ready LANs, capable of supporting several generations of technology. However, upgrading a LAN can be challenging for a variety of reasons. The network impacts a wide range of users and the overall company IT infrastructure, while supporting many different functions - from VOIP and Cloud applications to wireless access and security. Scope for downtime is limited. What do you need to bear in mind when (re-) designing or expanding an enterprise or facility network? How might FTTO help solve some of the issues?

Providing power, bandwidth and flexibility while, reducing cost There are several technology-related challenges to take into account, related to fast-growing bandwidth required for new applications, powering large numbers of distributed devices, and network flexibility, largely driven by convergence of previously disparate systems.

Furthermore, upgrading office IT infrastructure also brings quite a few physical and logistical challenges - architectural limitations, for example in listed buildings, or the changing functions of departments or entire buildings.

As WiFi6 makes more advanced applications possible, the LAN needs to provide ubiquitous capacity, with plenty of bandwidth reserves, to

the Wireless Access Point. After all, as more devices share wireless bandwidth it becomes increasingly diluted, possibly even to the point of becoming unusable. With the fast increase of connected LED lighting, sensor technology, and IP-equipped devices, Power over Ethernet is becoming a necessity.

Providing current over Ethernet cabling allows devices to be installed and moved around without having to worry whether there’s an electrical outlet close by. Power delivered through new generations of PoE is more than six times the level of the initial PoE standard. Without the right cable design, this may significantly increase heat build-up inside cable bundles. Often, a building will impose limitations to where cable can run. Older buildings may have protected status, and often spaces are simply too confined, or have cramped conduits and cable racks twisting at sharp angles. With fibre cables, the required bending can present significant problems.

As the functions of spaces in a building change over the years, it is vital that extensive rebuilding isn’t required each time, and data transmission and power capacity can simply be re-routed. The number of people in a building may increase or decrease and new applications may be introduced over time. From a technical perspective, that means you’ll need to ensure you can deliver enough bandwidth for even the most demanding requirements, as well as a growing number of mobile devices. Labour costs can also add up, especially when cabling has to be spliced on site, additional power outlets need to be introduced, or technical rooms have to be created.

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Consider Fibre To The Office A Fibre To The Office (FTTO) solution can help with the challenges described, avoiding the need to provide power outlets for individual devices, while ensuring vast bandwidth reserves as well as flexibility and providing the ability to scale up easily and cost-effectively. Fibre is laid up from the central switch to a connection point in the office or workplace. Here, a dedicated Ethernet switch ensures intelligent media conversion from copper to fibre.

Gigabit speeds can be realised while at the same time PoE is supported.

Copper cables supporting PoE over standard RJ45 interfaces allow a single network cable to be used to provide data connection as well as electric power. Whenever building layout changes, devices can simply be re-patched or added. They are immediately powered up and connected to the network.

No floor distributor is required, which saves a considerable amount of space per floor. Thick cable bundles are avoided, thanks to the use of pre-terminated fibre, optimised for fast and easy installation. Heat buildup and flammability are also avoided in this way, as well as by smart cable design.

Of course, as networks increase in size, or configurations change, keeping track of network configuration becomes increasingly difficult and every new connection is a potential point of failure. Cost and time investments are also reduced by automated monitoring, control and asset management and high bandwidth reserves and redundancy. Total Cost of Ownership can be optimised, while growth and energy consumption are balanced.

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Harnessing Data at the Intelligent Edge Written by Morten Illum, EMEA Vice President at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company Within the next two years, Gartner predicts that over 50% of data will be generated at the edge of networks. As the world recovers from the pandemic, this data will play a big role in helping companies survive and thrive in the new order. We have already seen an unprecedented amount of change over the past couple of months, which has led to many organisations accelerate their digital transformation journey – with data sitting at the heart of their strategies.

However, data is a commodity which is not necessarily valuable in and of itself.

In order to evolve, organisations need to be able to process and store data securely, they need to analyse and derive insights from it, and they need to drive business outcomes from those insights.

To successfully unlock the potential of data at the intelligent edge, organisations must have a fortified, resilient and secure network in place. With this in mind, here are three network management components that are integral to digital transformation (and therefore data success) in the post-COVID era.

Automation The huge increase in the number of devices generating data means that network traffic is busier than ever.

Today’s IT teams require closed-loop, end-to-end access control from the moment devices join the network.

However, given the enormous variety of devices connecting to the network, manual human intervention is no longer practical. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in.

Adopted as a ‘sixth-sense’, AI allows teams to develop policies that leverage context, such as the user role, device type, certificate status, location or application to make quick and accurate automated decisions each and every time. When leveraged correctly, AI can even make adjustments before network issues arise. AI-based analytics

can ensure that when a device begins to act suspiciously, it is automatically isolated, keeping other traffic separate and secure.

While even the best network engineers can spend hours trying to identify a problem – AI-based platforms do this work automatically with 95% accuracy. What’s more, through automation AI-driven platforms can redeploy time to IT staff, allowing them to focus more on critical thinking, innovation and value-add tasks.

Agility COVID-19 has also exacerbated the issue of overly complex networks based on disperate architectures as organisations attempt to right size for a given location. To address this issue, organisations should focus on network platforms with a unified infrastructure. This allows the entire network to be managed centrally from a single platform, rather than with separate applications across wired, wireless and SD-WAN. It also relieves the IT team from having to manually replicate changes, from campus to branch, and data centre to remote workers. No longer having to swivel chair manage multiple systems, a central platform allows network managers to operate with greater speed and agility.

The rise in remote working, and the need for network managers to seek better visibility and control over increasingly disparate networks, has also led to a stronger emphasis on cloud management. Cloud-native network management platforms allow organisations greater flexibility, offering a simple and intuitive way to manage the deployment and network assurance for wireless, wired and SD-WAN topologies from a single console.

A cloud-based network solution will become increasingly relevant for

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companies as they adapt to the ‘new normal’ and must find ways to support remote working, social distancing requirements and Track and Trace solutions. When managed from a central hub, a network management platform can correlate cross-domain events to reduce issue resolution time and manual errors, ultimately improving business agility.

Security Workforce mobility and work from home scenarios continue to expand the IT perimeter, as employees often access corporate resources on personal devices and from public Wi-Fi networks that are not secure. With more applications moving to the cloud – whether sanctioned by IT or not – protecting an organisation’s data has become even more challenging.

Given this, organisations must consider adopting a security framework based on the concept that all entities – both inside and outside the network perimeter – should and must be handled with care (i.e. Zero Trust). In practicality, this approach should ensure the identity of an endpoint, then enforce the policies applied to those endpoints with an application aware firewall. What’s more, network platforms should be underpinned by a collaborative approach which involves sharing information with other security platforms and dynamically adjusting policies to endpoints on the network.

Conclusion According to IDC, 55 billion devices will be connecting to networks within the next two years and are expected to generate 79.4ZB of data by 2025.

When you combine that with the irreversible shifts to a remote and distributed workforce, you can see that the network and IT need the right tools to keep pace. And automation, unified infrastructure and security are good starting points to consider these tools.

PRODUCT REVIEWS

3/5 MSI Cubi 5 10M Mini PC The form factor of a desktop PC has been ever changing with new categories being introduced onto the market from time to time. While many form factors have come and gone, a few have stuck around due to the efficiency and convenience they offer. One such form factor is the Mini PC.

AED 2000

Under the hood, the MSI Cubi 5 10M is powered by Intel’s 10th Generation Core i processors – you can choose from i3, i5 or i7. Our review unit came with an i5 processor and Intel’s UHD 630 Graphics. The CPU is cooled down using an active cooling system, so the processors should be able to turbo fairly often.

There are many players in the Mini PC arena and one of the trusted names is MSI. The company recently announced the launch of the MSI Cubi 5 10M Mini PC onto the regional market and they sent us a unit for review.

The MSI Cubi 5 10M supports up to 64 GB of DDR4-2666 memory through its two SO-DIMM memory slots. You also get an M.2 slot for an SSD, and a 2.5-inch bay for additional storage. Our review unit already came kitted with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage.

The Cubi 5 10M measures 124-by-124-by-53.7 mm and weighs around 550 grams, thus making it one of the most compact PCs available on the market, justifying the “palmsized” form factor. The overall design and build quality is pretty good – the device is built using a mix of metal and hard plastic.

To gauge real world performance, we used the MSI Cubi 5 10M as our primary PC for our day to day work. That included productivity, photo editing, design, video editing, and multimedia playback. Unlike most mini PCs on the market that are powered by low-performance based processors to keep costs low, the MSI Cubi 5 10M packs in the 10th Gen Intel Core i5 processor.

In terms of connectivity, you get a boat load! On the front edge, you get dedicated headphones and microphone jacks, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A connector, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, an LED indicator that indicates disk activity, and the power button.

As such, the overall performance was very good. The Mini PC was able to handle almost all the tasks we threw at it with aplomb. It was even able to handle graphics-intensive workloads such as video rendering for example and the occasional gaming sessions.

On the right edge, you get an external power button switch connector, in case you want to have an easy access for switching the device on and off, if the device is VESA mounted to the back of a display. There is also a Kensington Lock right next to it on the right edge to secure the Mini PC in its place.

For a price of around AED 2000, the MSI Cubi 5 10M Mini PC offers top-notch performance for day to day office work and occasional graphics-intensive workloads, offers all the latest connectivity options, supports dual monitor setup through its HDMI and DP ports, and is easy to upgrade its storage and memory options. If you are looking for a Mini PC that is almost invisible on the desk and can offer good performance, you should consider the MSI Cubi 5 10M Mini PC.

On the back of the device, you get an HDMI 1.4 port, a DisplayPort 1.2, two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a RJ45 GbE (Intel WGI219V) port, and the power port. Inside the box, you get the MSI Cubi 5 10M, a 65 W external power brick, an external power switch and the user manuals.

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4/5

AED 13999

Asus ProArt StudioBook Pro 17 ASUS has been at the forefront of technology innovations for decades now. While you may know ASUS as a gaming giant, they also produce products for content creators under the ProArt series. And today we are reviewing the ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro 17 laptop.

keyboard is covered by glass. With a single press of the toggle button, the touchpad turns into an ASUS NumberPad. The LED-illuminated numeric keypad makes it much easier to key in numbers. You get two colour options with the ProArt StudioBook Pro 17 – Star Grey and Turquoise Grey.

The ProArt StudioBook Pro 17 comes with a magnesium-alloy chassis with angled diamond-cut edges. A 180° hinge allows you to lay it completely flat on a desk for easy screen sharing. Its thin 18.4mm profile makes it one of the world’s thinnest Quadro laptops.

The laptop derives its power from a 57Wh 3-cell lithium-polymer battery. One of the highlights of this laptop is that it is also certified to be used with performance-hungry applications such as After Effects, AutoCAD, Premiere, 3D Max, and so on.

Under the hood, the StudioBook Pro 17 is powered by an Intel Xeon processor with 64GB DDR4 memory.

You also get NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 graphics with Max-Q Design – which means this laptop can deliver the performance required by graphics and media professionals.

In terms of audio quality, the ProArt StudioBook Pro 17 comes packed with ASUS Sonic Master Premium. This is a mix of hardware, software, and tuning technologies that were developed to deliver the best possible audio.

The laptop also meets the 810G military standard for reliability and durability.

As you open the lid of the laptop, you come face to face with a 17-inch PANTONE Validated display that offers an aspect ratio of 16:10. The display itself is an LED-backlit FHD offering a resolution of 1920by-1200. ASUS has managed to squeeze in a 17-inch screen into a 15-inch laptop chassis.

In terms of performance, we used Adobe InDesign, Autodesk AutoCAD and even Da Vinci Resolve. For Adobe Indesign we used it to design the pages of Arabian Reseller magazine and we found the performance to be fast and the workflow to be smooth. While using Da Vinci Resolve, editing, colour correction, and rendering video files was effortless/ We also tried 2D and 3D object design on AutoCAD and the overall experience was flawless.

The cooling system helps with stable performance and in keeping the noise levels down to 35 dB. In terms of connectivity, you get a boatload of ports. This includes a Thunderbolt 3 (with DisplayPort 1.4 support), 3 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1 HDMI 2.0, 1 SD card reader, 1 Combo audio jack, and one 3.5mm headphone jack.

This was possible because of the 64GB RAM, the Intel Xeon processor and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 graphics. The laptop is now available for a price of AED 13,999. So if you are a content creator who’s always on the move and looking for a compact and mighty powerhouse that can bring your ideas to life, we recommend the ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro 17.

You also get Intel Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) technology, which provides superfast online connectivity. In terms of storage, you get 2TB of NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 SSD with support for RAID 0 /1. The touchpad below the

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PRODUCT REVIEWS

3/5

AED 1049

Huawei Y9a

HUAWEI’s new Y9a is a mid-range smartphone that is designed for photography and super performance. It offers a super camera experience with a 64MP Quad Camera, 40W HUAWEI SuperCharge, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage space, and a sleek design for an affordable price point.

Fullview FHD display and super narrow bezels with the enhanced auto selfie pop-up camera rated at 16MP. The HUAWEI Y9a comes with the latest EMUI 10.1 software update as standard, allowing users to enjoy seamless, intelligent experiences and stay connected with ease.

The stunning smartphone comes in three stylish colour options such as Midnight Black, Space Silver and Sakura Pink. The 64MP Quad Camera setup also allows for low light photography thanks to AIS Night Mode 2.0 capable of shooting at 51200 ISO. Wide Angle photography is also taken care of thanks to the 120° Wide Angle Photo lens. Meanwhile, the pop-up selfie camera upfront boasts AI beautification and EIS anti-shake technology, so that you can be sure of always capturing perfect social media-ready selfies.

New features include HUAWEI MeeTime, a powerful application that offers video calling between Huawei devices in all scenarios. Smart Collage is a feature that eliminates the trouble of using third-party apps for editing. According to the number of photos (2-9) you choose, a collage template is automatically provided.

Huawei’s knuckle gesture supports multi-shape, or sectional screenshots, swipe to screenshot longer images or screen recording, making it more convenient for users to share what they see. The phone also comes with innovative features such as Game Assistant for a better gaming experience, Multi window split screen for better performance and even an e-book reading mode. Music lovers can also enjoy features like Party Mode, while gaming or watching movies is made more immersive with Ultra Shadow Enhancement that improves contrast and dynamic range.

The HUAWEI Y9a also features an industry-leading 40W (10V 4A) HUAWEI SuperCharge technology. Using this solution, users can charge the device up by nearly 70% in a 30-minute charging session. The 4200mAh large battery can support 44 hours of voice call, 108 hours of music playback, 14 hours of Internet browsing, 9 hours of video watching, or 9 hours of gaming. In addition to this, the AI Power Saving 7.0 feature further helps in managing battery life.

The HUAWEI Y9a is available for a price of AED 1049.

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4/5

AED 4500

ASUS STRIX RTX 3080 10GB OC Edition So NVIDIA announced its GeForce RTX 3080 powered by the Ampere architecture a couple of days ago and we have started seeing manufacturers announcing graphics cards based on this architecture. The Asus TUF Gaming RTX 3080 OC graphics card is one of the cards based on the new architecture.

reach 1,905 MHz by default in Gaming Mode, which is way beyond other custom cards.

By enabling OC Mode, you can increase the card’s peak clock speed to 1,935 MHz, a 13.2% increase over the boost clock of the RTX 3080 Founders Edition. The ROG STRIX RTX 3080 OC requires 3x 8-pin power connectors.

The card measures 318.5 x 140.1 x 57.8 mm, for reference, making it a 2.9-slot card.

The ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 features a buffed-up design with better thermal performance. From top to bottom, the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 has been radically improved to accommodate the impressive new Ampere chips from NVIDIA and to deliver the next wave of gaming performance innovation to the market. A fresh design and more metal surrounds a grouping of Axial-tech fans.

In order to gauge the real-world tests, we ran a few benchmarks on the ROG STRIX RTX 3080 OC Edition graphics card. On 3DMark: Night Raid the graphics score recorded was 126955, while on 3DMark: Fire Strike, the graphics score stood at 44199. Meanwhile, 3DMark: Fire Strike Ultra threw the graphics score as 11268, while 3DMark TimeSpy gave the GPU score as 18189.

ASUS’ Axial-tech fan design has been optimised for a new, larger heatsink that features more fins and surface area than last gen. The blade count has been increased on all three fans, with 13 on the center fan and 11 on the auxiliary fans. The barrier ring on the side fans has been slimmed down to allow for more lateral intake and to provide better airflow through the cooling array. The center fan’s extra blades and full-height ring provide boosted static pressure to blast air directly onto the GPU heat spreader.

Of course, quality and top notch performance comes at a price. The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 OC Edition comes in at a pricing of AED 4500. Professional Gamers will truly appreciate the value the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 OC Edition brings to the table.

It offers brilliant build quality and top-end components, revamped and better cooling system, overclocking capabilities, and blockbuster performance, all the while keeping itself cool under all circumstances. The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 OC Edition thus gets our Recommended stamp.

The STRIX RTX 3080 comes with 10GB of GDDR6X VRAM. The current batches of RTX 3080 cards also have 8704 CUDA cores, along with a 320-bit memory interface and VRAM that operates at 19 Gbps. The ROG STRIX RTX 3080 OC is currently the fastest RTX 3080 of the lot, though. The OC has a 1,440 MHz base clock and can

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PRODUCT REVIEWS

3/5

$680

BenQ GS2 Projector There are many projector brands available on the market and BenQ is one of the front runners in this category. And they recently announced a wireless portable DLP projector called GS2, which has been designed for indoor and outdoor entertainment.

In terms of design, the GS2 is near cubical looking projector, coming in off-white colour. It weighs around 1.6 kgs and comes in a dimension of 139-by-144-by139 mm. The overall build quality is pretty good and it comes in a completely rubberised body.

The battery offers around four hours worth of battery life. In terms of charging, we were able to go from 20% battery to 100% battery in less than an hour. We used the BenQ GS2 about 6-7 hours daily for a week. We found it to be very silent and there was no heating issue either.

During our review period, we used various interfaces to project content – either through HDMI, USB, or wirelessly by screen casting. In terms of the picture quality, the colours were vibrant and the brightness was up to point. The projector was placed about 6 feet away from the wall.

This is because it is IPX2 rated, which means it can withstand half-a meter drop and is also splash-proof up to a certain extent.

On the top of the projector, you will find the soft control buttons needed to operate it. There is a power button, three LEDs that indicates the battery life left, and the IR receiver.

Even in a dimly lit room, the picture quality’s quite clear. The text display on the screen was quite crisp and sharp and the overall experience was pretty good. As the GS2 is powered by Android 6.0 operating system, you can also install third party apps through Apptoide TV which comes preinstalled. Apptoide TV is a third party Android app marketplace that offers more than 2500 apps.

The GS2 also comes with two speakers built in, each driven by a 2W amplifier. There is also a USB Type-A socket in the deep bay which can be used to insert the dual band WiFi dongle, which comes packed with the device. At the rear, you will find the speaker grilles, the cooling vents and the magnetic power port.

In terms of connectivity to external audio, you get two options – Bluetooth and Bluetooth Speaker Mode. The Bluetooth option allows you connect the GS2 to external audio sources like Bluetooth speakers and audio accessories. The Bluetooth Speaker Mode will let you go from a Projector Mode to Speaker Mode by turning off the lamp.

The projector can be used for front projection, rear projection and even ceiling projection. Now lets talk about the specifications. So, the heart of any projector its projection technology and the lamp it uses. The BenQ GS2 is a DLP projector that uses an LED lamp.

It offers a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 and a native aspect ratio of 16:9. Under the hood the GS2 is powered by an MStar 648 SoC. It comes with Android 6.0 operating system. You also get 2GB of RAM and 8GB of storage space. Since the GS2 is wireless portable projector, it comes with a built-in rechargeable battery.

The BenQ GS2 is priced at $680. For that price point, you are getting a wireless portable projector that can be used for indoor and outdoor entertainment. You also get the flexibility of increasing the screen size as per your requirement and installing third party apps onto the device.

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3/5

AED 1999

BenQ Zowie XL2546K eSports Display The BenQ Zowie XL2546K is a 24.5-inch Full HD model that supports a high refresh rate of 240Hz. The liquid crystal panel is TN type, the brightness is 320 cd/m2, and the contrast ratio is 1,000:1. The response time, meanwhile, is rated at 1ms. You also get a wide range of inputs including three HDMI2.0 ports and one DisplayPort1.2, along with a headphone jack.

different option for actions such as spray control.

The size of the stand is smaller than that of the conventional model, so that you can use the desk space more effectively. In addition, the vertical movement width of the stand and the tilt angle width have been expanded so that the position of the screen can be finely adjusted during gameplay. There is also a Black eQualizer which lets you increase visibility in dark scenes without overexposing the bright areas.

All of the connectivity options can be accessed at the rear of the unit. You also get the power button and the options toggle button (mini joystick) at the back of the device. The overall design and build quality is pretty good and the finishing is that of the matte variety.

Inside the box you also get an “S.Switch” that lets you change the display settings with ease, and a pair of screen shield for added privacy during your gaming sessions.

The Colour Vibrance, meanwhile lets you adjust the colour setting and tone to differentiate enemy targets in-game. Also, the Game modes let you switch between presets for different game titles – these are all adjustments that allow players to play with their preferred visual settings.

The stand of the monitor supports -5 to 23° tilt, -45 to 45° swivel, 90° pivot, and 155mm height adjustment. The VESA mount is 100x100mm pitch, body size is 571mm width, 200mm depth, 443~521mm height, and it weighs around 6.2-kgs. The display comes with a new base that has been designed to take up less space while maintaining the same stability.

In order to test the performance of the monitor, we played Watch Dogs, CS:Go, and Fortnite. Visuals were stunning to look at thanks to the top notch panel used in the monitor and the gameplay was very smooth due to the high refresh rate. The 1ms response time, meanwhile, helps in minimising and preventing smearing or ghosting.

The Zowie XL2546L eSports Display also comes packed with DyAc technology that makes vigorous in-game actions such as spraying less blur. This allows you to see the position of the crosshair and the impact points more clearly, which can further help with recoil control. The DyAc+ is based on this same technology and through panel optimization, provides you with a

The BenQ Zowie XL2546K eSports Display has a lot going on for it. It comes with BenQ’s proprietary DyAc technology, 240Hz Refresh Rate, Black eQualizer, Optimize Gaming Precision, Shield, Personalised Viewing Angles, S-Switch and lots more. And these features make it one of the better displays out there on the market aimed at the eSports sector.

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PRODUCT REVIEWS

3/5

AED 449

Razer Ornata V2 Razer is a well-known brand for quality products in the gaming peripherals and devices arena and the company recently announced its brand new gaming keyboard called Ornata V2. This gaming keyboard is an upgrade over the original Ornata Chroma, as it comes with better-dedicated media controls, an infinite scroll wheel, and a plush leatherette wrist rest which connects magnetically to the front of the keyboard.

As soon as you plug the keyboard into a PC or a laptop, Razer’s Synapse 3 gets triggered. Through this app, you can program macros, keybindings, and custom profiles. You also get unique lighting effects with Razer Chroma RGB that syncs and works with over 100 game titles, such as Apex Legends, Fortnite, Warframe, and so on.

In terms of ergonomics of this keyboard, the entire experience is pretty good. Since the keyboard comes with a detachable wrist rest, extended gaming sessions become quite comfortable. The Razer Ornata V2’s RGB backlighting can be customized through the software on a per-key basis.

You can also control the brightness directly on the board, which is a nice addition.

The keyboard comes in a typical Razer packaging. Upon opening the package, the first thing you see is the Ornata V2 gaming keyboard itself.

Remove the keyboard and you will find the leatherette wrist rest just below it. The Ornata V2 is top-notch in design and build quality. The Razer Ornata V2 is designed with grooves that allow you to neatly tuck in its cable and feed it out in any direction. Doing this will keep your desktop clear of clutter and mess.

While nothing beats a proper mechanical switch, the hybrid mechanical switch on this keyboard feels pretty nice, too. The overall design and build quality is solid, and the user experience with the keyboard is very good.

It features Razer’s revolutionary Hybrid Mecha-Membrane switches – these switches provide a soft, comfortable typing feel with the positive clicky feedback of a mechanical switch. The keyboard also features fully programmable keys that can be customized through Razer Synapse 3. The media keys on the Ornata V2 include track skip, play and pause, and volume control in one area.

For the price of AED 449, the Razer Ornata V2 might seem a bit expensive. However, the hybrid mecha-membrane switches justify the price point by offering a truly outstanding typing and gaming experience.

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