The Integrator by INTEGRATOR MEDIA

MARCH 2022

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MARCH 2022

EDITORIAL

Blockchain: Inevitable Disruption Steady. Swift. Inevitable. The growth and expansion of fintech can easily be defined using the three adjectives. The observation is based on the following facts rising popularity of digital payments, improved investments in tech-centric solutions, supportive government regulations, and enhanced adoption of IoT devices. Optimistically, we assess that blockchain technology could change the world more than we could imagine at this point. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, however, should essentially validate their claims and relevance with more solid examples.

COVER STORY

The cover story intends to examine the significance of the latest technologies in the financial service industry.

The Integrator, as a renowned tech publication in the industry, approaches the global fintech market and its key facets including API, AI, blockchain, distributed computing, big data, and robotic process automation, objectively in the enclosed fintech-focused March edition. We hope our thoughtful narratives backed by several levels of analysis by experts help enterprise readers choose fintech services wisely. The excitement of the launch of MEA’s biggest business-networking initiative titled “CBD SMEChampions 2022” energizes us to reap further success. With the annual partnership of the Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD), the SME Champions brings enterprises, tech giants, BFSIs, and logistic companies together on a common platform. It has an exceptional format comprising publications, gala awards, corporate golf tournaments, and CSR activities. Request partners and sponsors to take full advantage of year-round promotions and networking opportunities that come as part of the initiative.

Revolutionary Roads to Fintech and Crypto Spotlight

NEWS IN DETAIL

Newcom Receives Best Distributor 2021-22 Award From Logitech

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS

With Comprehensive Networking Portfolios, D-Link Supports SMBs Sakkeer Hussain, Director - Sales & Marketing, D-Link MEA speaks about D-Link’s new and innovative networking solutions.

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Murali Margassery Assistant Editor

MARCH 2022

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Vivek Sharma Murali Margassery Faiz Ahmed Suneeta Dadwani Sreejit Nair

CEO Assistant Editor Graphic Designer Business Coordinator & Executive Assistant Sales Manager

Content 16

The Middle East Becomes One of the Most Significant Fintech Hubs

INTERVIEW

Unified Marketplace for Hospitality and Travel Industries

FEATURE

Significance of Professional-Grade Video Collaboration Tools at Workplaces

COLUMN

28 30

Key Reasons Why You Need Zero Trust Architecture Metaverse: The Future of the Internet

Sales Inquiries:

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All other Inquiries: info@var-mea.com Editorial:

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Interactive Flat Panels Are Absolute Game Changers for Any Office

NEWS BYTES

Shipsy Raises $25 Million to Accelerate Global Expansion

AVEVA Joins Alizent to Help Asset-Intensive Industries on Digital Transformation

EYE TECH

Axis Showcases Security and Surveillance Systems at World Police Summit

Published by: JNS Media International (OMA Group Company) OMA House, P.O. Box: 3314, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Tel: +971 6 573 0000 | website: www.VARonline.com Disclaimer: While the publishers have made every attempt possible to get accurate information on published content in this Magazine they cannot be held liable for any errors herein.

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MARCH 2022

TECHNOLOGY

NEWS BYTES

BARRACUDA LAUNCHES UAE DATA CENTER, OFFERING LOCAL DATA PROTECTION

arracuda Networks has announced that its Cloud-toCloud Backup solution will now be delivered to customers in the United Arab Emirates from Microsoft’s local cloud data centers. This makes a total of 10 regions for the solution, and customers’ Office 365 backup data will be stored locally within the country, a key requirement for customers operating in regulated industries, and in complying with local regulations. Chris Ross, SVP International, Barracuda, said “As more organizations move to the cloud, they are looking to protect their data, while being able to handle and store data locally. Microsoft advises customers to use a third-party backup and recovery provider, and with these new regions, we will be able to serve our customers while helping them comply with data

regulations and policies.” Barracuda’s latest version of Cloud-to-Cloud Backup delivers a fast search and restore experience for Office 365 data, including Teams, Exchange Online, SharePoint, and OneDrive. It provides scale and resiliency, fast performance, and wide global coverage to protect Office 365 data born in the cloud. Necip Ozyucel, Cloud and

Enterprise Business Group Lead, Microsoft UAE added, “We are excited about Barracuda making Cloud-to-Cloud Backup available on the Azure UAE Regions to provide data residency. Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup provides a flexible and scalable backup solution with its cloud-native features running on our local data center regions in the UAE.”

UNIPHORE AND SPINSCI PARTNER TO IMPROVE PATIENT ACCESS WITH HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS

niphore, a conversational automation service provider, and SpinSci Technologies, a digital patient engagement solution provider, have entered a strategic agreement to enhance patients’ access and

MARCH 2022

engagement with healthcare providers. Under the terms of the agreement, Uniphore’s conversational AI and automation technology will be used in SpinSci’s Patient Access Care solutions, integrated with market-leading electronic health records (EHR) systems, to help drive efficiencies for contact center agents and self-service workflows for patients. Rajit Kumar, CEO, SpinSci said, “our ultimate goal is to help health care organizations provide best-in-class care for their patients, thus allowing them to experience smooth journeys. With Uniphore’s sentiment analysis technology and AI-enabled solutions integrated into our Patient Assist and Patient Engage solutions, our health system customers will experience improved clinical outcomes and better care management.” “At Uniphore, our mission from the start has been to help customers achieve better outcomes, and in no industry is this more paramount than in healthcare,” said Jafar Syed, SVP, Global Head of Channel Alliances and Strategic Partnerships.

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TECHNOLOGY

NEWS BYTES

TP-LINK LAUNCHES NEW BRAND IDENTITY, AGINET

P-Link, a provider of networking devices and accessories, has recently launched a new brand identity, Aginet, a go-to place for internet service providers (ISPs). An official release stated, “alongside the launch of this new brand identity, TP-Link is launching its complete ISP product line under Aginet.” Under the new brand identity, TP-Link is planning to release a comprehensive range of products and solutions, including WiFi routers, Whole Home Mesh WiFi, GPON OLT, GPON WiFi routers, VDSL modem routers, and 4G/5G routers. Aginet aims to help ISPs reduce on-site support by performing

operations, diagnostics, and maintenance remotely. All of this facilitates extensive automation to

reduce operational costs, improve customer satisfaction, and increase flexibility.

ACRONIS LAUNCHES ITS FIRST CLOUD DATA CENTER IN NIGERIA

cronis has announced the availability of a new Acronis Cyber Cloud Data Center in Lagos, Nigeria. Based on a release, the new data center gives service provider partners access to a full range of cyber protection solutions. The opening of the Nigerian data center is part of the Acronis Global/Local Initiative, an effort that includes global management for all data centers, geographic redundancy,

control for local partners, and a local disaster recovery site. According to an official release, Tony Ojobo, President of the Board of Trustee of the ICT Foundation and Former Public Affairs Director of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and a few other industry representatives attended the launch event that took place at the Lagos Oriental Hotel in the city of Logos. www.VARonline.com

Chidi Oliseowe, Team Lead, Madonna Systems Nigeria Limited said, “Today the world depends so much on data to the point where we can say data is life, and data security cannot be over emphasised. We at Madonna Systems are so proud to be associated with Acronis, a foremost leader in cyber protection. With the opening of their new Data Centre in Nigeria, Acronis demonstrates its level of commitment to the Africa Market.” “A local presence is a necessity for modern cloud businesses and we are proud to deliver the Acronis Cyber Cloud Data Center in Nigeria,” said Peter French Regional General Manager Middle East & Africa at Acronis. He added, “now, Nigerian companies, and businesses from neighbour countries too, will be able to store their strategic data locally while being backed by a global partner who is on standby 24/7/365 to address any issues.” MARCH 2022

TECHNOLOGY

NEWS BYTES

DIFC LAUNCHES AI AND CODING LICENSE IN COOPERATION WITH UAE AI OFFICE

Essa Kazim Governor of DIFC

ubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a global financial center in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (MEASA) region has announced the launch of artificial intelligence (AI) and coding license, in cooperation with the UAE AI Office. The license, which is a UAE first, would hope to help advance

the country’s AI Strategy 2031, which aims to enhance the UAE’s reputation in this field by attracting AI companies and coders. Companies holding the license will be able to work within a stimulating environment at the DIFC Innovation Hub, a cluster of FinTech and innovation companies in the region. The Hub hosts more than 500 firms, ranging from start-ups to global unicorns, representing over 60 percent of all GCC FinTechs. Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, commented, “Such initiatives reflect positively on the country's readiness to become a global destination for pioneering the industries of the future by adopting advanced technology and stimulating innovation in various fields.” Essa Kazim, Governor of DIFC, said, “Dubai and DIFC are global ambassadors for AI. Financial Services companies in DIFC and a broad spectrum of other industries across the emirate are setting the

Omar Sultan Al Olama Minister of State for AI

standard which is also contributing to the UAE’s ambitious goal to have an internationally competitive, knowledge-based economy. DIFC is proud to be collaborating with the UAE AI Office, confirming our commitment to the country’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2031 and leveraging the potential of AI to drive the future of finance.”

INSURETEK 2022 HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF DIGITIZATION IN THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY

he InsureTek Middle East 2022 international conference, which ran from Feb 9 to 10, 2022, spotlighted digitization and innovation in the insurance industry. “Bupa Arabia’s participation at the InsureTek Middle East 2022 Conference comes as part of our continuous efforts to be active partners in the development and growth of the insurance industry in Saudi Arabia and the region as a whole,” said Alshereef Hamideddin, Marketing and Customer Experience Director at Bupa Arabia. He added: "The future of the

MARCH 2022

Alshereef Hamideddin Marketing and Customer Experience Director at Bupa Arabia. www.VARonline.com

insurance industry in the coming years, not only in Saudi Arabia but also in the rest of the world, will largely be shaped by the industry’s ability to leverage digital transformation and AI solutions to improve customer experience.” Bupa Arabia for Cooperative Insurance was one of the first companies in the Saudi insurance industry to establish an entire department for digital transformation in 2018. Recently, Bupa Arabia launched its new "Telehealth" platform, which connects major healthcare providers with its members.

NEWS IN DETAIL

NEWCOM

NEWCOM RECEIVES BEST DISTRIBUTOR 2021-22 AWARD FROM LOGITECH FOR AMECA REGION

ewcom Computer Systems has received the “Best Distributor 2021-22” award for the 3rd time in a row from Logitech at the “Rise Logitech Partner Summit” on February 22, 2022. The award substantiates Newcom’s performance in the past financial year across Africa, Middle East, and Central Asia (AMECA) regions. Newcom, being Logitech’s authorized partner for the AMECA region, has outnumbered with their performance for the FY 2021. Logitech, a world leader in professional video collaboration (VC) solutions had invited 100+ tier 1 partners, distributors, and solution integrators to outline its business strategy. A full-day event was filled with learning, fun, and team bonding activities where the event started at Grand Millennium Hotel followed by a great evening at Topgolf in Dubai. With 18 years of excellence, Newcom Computer Systems is one of the best IT and value-added distribution companies offering both business and consumer solutions. “Adhering to our vision and mission to become a trusted distributor for every potential partner in the entire middle east and Africa region, also to meet our customers’ expectations with innovative products and impeccable services,” said Jai Bhatia – Director Sales and Marketing at Newcom. “As Newcom, we would like to thank the entire team of Logitech including Nancy Thomas, Brooke Ellingworth, Loubna IMENCHAL, Mohammad Ali, Azeem Mohammed, Mohammed Iqbal, and all the credits for the awards go to all our partners along with Newcom squad who made this possible,” Bhatia added. He also said, “with our current presence since mid-2021 in Africa region, we have opened our doors for new brands under new categories to associate with

MARCH 2022

our growing team.” The company came about as a belief in the need for a robust distribution system and has prevailed in creating and maintaining the trust of the large-scale customers in the Middle East and Africa region. Newcom has a strong distribution network with 2000+ trusted partners spread across the Middle East and Africa regions along with the support of our valued partners that include sub-distributors, wholesalers, power retailers, online retailers, system integrators, and value-added resellers, and distributors (VAR/VAD). Along with Logitech, Newcom provides an enterprise IT solution with renowned brands such as Samsung, Hikvision, Targus, Rapoo, ViewSonic, Norton, J5create, Tucano, HP, ESET which puts us into a place as one of the leading distributors in UAE. The range of these products spans monitors, gaming accessories, videoconferencing devices, docking stations, cables and adaptors, cybersecurity products, and more.

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NEWS IN DETAIL

CLOUDERA

ENTERPRISES ARE RESHAPING BUSINESS PRIORITIES FOR PLANET AND PROFIT: STUDY C

ouldera, an enterprise data cloud company, reveals more than one-quarter of business decision-makers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are now investing in environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) ahead of developing new products or services (24%) or growing shareholder value (15%) through its recent research report. It also finds that most knowledge workers also believe as much as 49% of the data their business uses on a day-to-day basis should be focused on doing good for the communities it serves. The comprehensive survey, which unearthed exclusive insights from a total of 2,213 enterprise business decision-makers globally including the UAE examines the fact that ESG is identified as a top priority for business leaders and those who fail to act for the good of communities put business growth and talent at huge risk. The study also explores the shift in attitude towards Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Data Analytics. The survey dubbed ‘Limitless: The Positive Power of AI Study’ also targeted C-Suite and a total of 10,880 knowledge workers among which 528 are UAE-based.

FAILING TO ACT FOR SOCIAL GOOD IS RISKY FOR BUSINESS GROWTH, TALENT Thirty-three percent of the UAE business decisionmakers and knowledge workers surveyed believe that their respective companies should publicly support sustainable business practices. Additionally, the vast majority of knowledge workers (56%) argue there is a need to use Data Analytics to deliver more sustainable business practices that benefit both their organization and the communities it serves. According to the report, businesses that truly want to embed sustainability at their core, its leaders must start to use data to deliver more sustainable outcomes – and

Karim Azar Regional Director, MET, Cloudera

quickly. Failure to act and 35% of knowledge workers and 32% of business decision-makers believe employees would leave the business. This, the report reveals, could be a business-destroying move amidst a global talent shortage, especially if all of a company’s competitors are addressing the gap. “In my opinion, businesses, regardless of the industry they operate in, should today act in a socially responsible manner. As the research points out, doing this can start with data. Companies can, and should, use big data and AI to make more sustainable business decisions,” said Karim Azar, Regional Director, Middle East & Turkey, Cloudera.

INVEST IN RESKILLING TO CURB FEAR OF JOB LOSS TO AI The research findings also dispel the long-held belief that workers were afraid of AI taking over their jobs. An explosion in the volume of data now available to businesses has made AI/ML a common threat to many job roles and a powerful ally. Over half of UAE-based knowledge workers say their daily tasks have been augmented or automated by AI (73%), ML (63%), and Data Analytics (78%) in the last 12 months. The biggest benefits of this have been saving time (40%) and allowing them/their team to focus more on strategic work (32%). “The study reveals a new wave of economics, focused on doing equally great things for profit, planet, and people - driven by automation and AI. For business leaders, this means it’s time to refocus how they think about technology investment — identifying not only the data that will support growth but also the technology that will help employees and communities gain meaningful access to it. At Cloudera, we work with our customers to transform their economic output with Data Analytics and AI,” said Mick Hollison, President, Cloudera.

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MARCH 2022

INTERVIEW

D-LINK

WITH COMPREHENSIVE NETWORKING PORTFOLIOS, D-LINK SUPPORTS SMBs’ DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION STRATEGIES

-Link is one of the global leaders in the design and manufacture of networking, broadband, digital, voice, and data communications solutions. The company caters products to the connectivity needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and enterprise environments. Sakkeer Hussain, Director - Sales & Marketing, D-Link Middle East & Africa speaks about D-Link’s new and innovative networking solutions. Tell us about the reaction D-Link receives for Nuclias, the networking solution, from its enterprise customers We have seen a rapid adoption rate for Nuclias Cloud since its unveiling. It was a relevant product considering the immediate market requirements back then and continues to add value to enterprises as they embrace hybrid working models today. We plan to enhance the portfolio with new features and better market segmentation to provide genuine value-add for our customers over the coming months. Nuclias Connect and Nuclias Cloud Remote Network Management Solutions are part of our revolutionary remote work solutions portfolio and are true market differentiators. Nuclias Connect helps customers to make their network easier to manage, configure, and expand. It empowers network administrators through its centralized control, configuration, and customization capabilities while minimizing their onsite workload. Nuclias Cloud portfolio allows enterprises across retail, education, and hospitality, as well as MSPs, to deploy professional-grade networks from anywhere and anytime, eliminating physical space constraints. The solutions offer centralized remote network management via an intuitive interface and multi-tenant architecture that makes outsourcing simple for end-users. Sakkeer Hussain Director - Sales & Marketing, D-Link MEA

MARCH 2022

What are the newer products that D-Link presents to SMBs and large enterprises? We have launched a host of new and innovative solutions since Nuclias and they are following:

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INTERVIEW

D-LINK Covr Series Wi-Fi 6 Solution: It features multi-pack options that are all fortified with Wi-Fi 6 and mesh technology to provide faster speeds, greater capacity, and less network congestion for the modern device-dense smart home. Covr AX Wi-Fi 6 solutions are perfect for simultaneous 4K streaming, VR gaming, video calling, and keeping the smart home connected. EAGLE PRO AI Series: It boasts a comprehensive range of routers to meet everyone’s needs for home Wi-Fi and 4G Wi-Fi. Equipped with Wi-Fi 6 Technology, the R15 AX1500 Wi-Fi 6 Smart Router, M15 AX1500 Mesh Router, and E15 AX1500 Mesh Range Extender deliver up to four times more capacity and 40% throughput increase than Wi-Fi 5. Other new launches include DCS-8300LHV2 Full HD Wi-Fi Camera with AI-based person detection, outdoor industrial AC1200 access point DIS-3650AP, indoor industrial access point DIS-2650AP, and so on. All our offerings enable organizations to achieve business outcomes and help in their digital transformation strategy. Speak about D-Link’s AI-powered Wi-Fi routers and their potentials D-Link’s Eagle Pro AI series routers feature built-in AI capabilities. Blending AI technology into the products helps monitor traffic, improve efficiency, and greatly enhance the home network. The AI Wi-Fi Optimizer scans and monitors the network in real-time to ensure that users are connected to the most ideal Wi-Fi channel. The devices feature the AI Traffic Optimizer feature, which automatically allocates bandwidth to different applications for the best connectivity. This feature also informs users which activities are causing congestion and allows them to de-prioritize. D-Link’s AI Mesh Optimizer is a unique AI beamforming technology that enhances mesh connectivity between routers and extenders for more powerful, reliable mesh Wi-Fi throughout a home. Cloud-based solutions appear to be obtaining high demand in the market. Give some insights into the cloud-specific solutions of D-Link? To thrive and enjoy long-term success in today’s digital era, relying on cloud technologies is critical. D-Link is a leader and a pioneer in networking and cloud-based

solutions. D-Link’s Nulcias solution is cloud-based and has seen immense success in the market. We also have mydlink cloud services, where customers can view, access, and monitor all their cloud cameras from anywhere. We also have cloud-based routers and access points. D-Link has also partnered with Ameyo. With this partnership, we are Ameyo’s only cloud partner in the UAE and Oman. We aim to bring the hardware reliability and software services under one umbrella with Ameyo’s product suite. How efficiently does D-Link provide after-sale support to customers? Speak about your partner networks and collaborations in the MEA region D-Link boasts an expansive channel ecosystem, our partners represent us in key verticals and markets. They offer true value-add to our customers in terms of services and support. D-Link grants access to partners to sell D-Link solutions that unlock additional revenue opportunities, which can enhance their company’s bottom line and efficiently serve regional customers. Working through our existing distribution channels, D-Link provides enrolled partners with considerable support and rewards for achieving verifiable D-Link targets on a revised, quarterly basis. D-Link is committed to providing partners with useful tools, resources, and the know-how of managing and growing their business to be customers’ trusted advisors in an increasingly digital era. What are your strengths and channel strategies to stay ahead of other networking products/service providers? D-Link is driving digital innovations through its extensive partner community. We are doubling down on our channel strategy with intensive partner training and education on how our latest offerings can play a key role in customers’ digital journey. D-Link has increased its channel investments over the past year and continues to enhance its approach towards channel sales, channel marketing, and partner enablement. This includes launching several avant-garde products, in-depth training, and support as well as resources to expand the customer base. Our channel partners play a key role in informing and enabling customers to understand the potential of technology. We are a well-established leader in the networking space and customers associate our brand name with reliability and high quality.

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MARCH 2022

TECHNOLOGY

COVER STORY

REVOLUTIONARY ROADS TO FINTECH AND CRYPTO SPOTLIGHT The cover story intends to examine the significance of the latest technologies in the financial service industry. It also attempts to objectively evaluate the theoretical and historical significance of cryptocurrencies and shed light on trending topics in the fintech industry.

intech helps resolve some of the most complex problems related to trading and transaction if it stands by its foundational ideas. Considering the wide appreciation of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and several others receive along with blockchain technology, which enables the existence of cryptocurrency, one can easily guess that “fintech” revolutionizes not merely the online financial services but the digital economy as a whole!

intermediary. All of these transactions are recorded in a distributed ledger, widely known as the blockchain, and verified by the network through cryptography. The crypto-blockchain ecosystem subverts central banks or similar institutions between transactions. Bitcoin was invented in 2008 by an unknown person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto.

BIGGER AND BROADER LANDSCAPE OF FINTECH

The blockchain ecosystem helps businesses develop apps and smart contracts and facilitate quick and secure transactions. It is essentially a digital ledger of enormous transactions and they are duplicated and distributed across the network of computer systems on the blockchain. All of the activities of blockchain are managed and administered using cloud-based service providers. The distributed ledger technology (DLT) and the complexity it carries out to maintain decentralized records of transactions invalidate the scope of any financial frauds. Each block in the chain records several transactions, and every new transaction that occurs on the blockchain would have a “digital identity” along with the digital identity of the previous transaction.

The finance sector is interwoven with technology since its early stages to offer customers a better experience in terms of loans, trading, and transactions. The pace of the evolution in the financial sector happened faster than normal in terms of currency or check-based transactions to credit or debit card-based transactions across the globe. In parallel, customers are introduced to mobile banking, instant loans, online payments, and more. When techfin enterprises i.e., Google, Amazon, Alibaba, Apple, and several others initiated digital transactions through stand-alone mobile apps and unified payment interfaces (UPI), the concept of fintech received wider appreciation. However, today’s landscape of fintech is incredibly broader compared to earlier predictions and calculations.

BITCOIN DISRUPTION The earliest decentralized digital currency, Bitcoin, ignited the financial revolution. The term revolution ideates as the exchanges of Bitcoin happen between users through peer-to-peer networks without an

MARCH 2022

DISTRIBUTED DIGITAL LEDGERS AND SECURE FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS

The following are some of the vital properties of DLT: • Programmable: The blockchain is programmable for smart contracts • Secure: No scope for intrusion and fraud • Anonymous: Users can protect their privacy • Distributed: The copy of transactions is distributed and transparent to all participants in the block

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•

Unanimous: The participants in the network can agree to the validity of each record • Time-Stamped: The transaction time is recorded in the block • Irreversible: Any record that is validated cannot be changed For organizations to involve in the modern methods of fintech, blockchain as a service (BaaS) is provided by many companies.

DATA AND PRIVACY PROTECTION One of the major takeaways of a blockchain-based transaction is it protects users’ privacy and curtails the exchange of unwanted user data between stakeholders. The debate about privacy started on the first day of public access to the internet. Most websites, webbased service providers, social networking sites collect users’ data and use them for marketing purposes such as target-based and demographic-specific online advertisements. Many of these activities are often face criticism as they are driven based on the “digital identities” created after collecting data, including personally identifiable information (PII) from multiple sources. The internet privacy crusaders argue, “the compromise of user privacy fuels social disparities, discrimination, prejudice, and political interests.”

CRYPTO: THE FUTURE CURRENCY? According to CoinMarketCap, as of March 2022, there are over 18,000 cryptocurrencies in existence. Considering their active and valuable status, there are 10,000 of them are trusted by users. The global crypto market cap is $2.12 trillion and it has 4 percent of growth – even after accounting cryptos’ volatility. Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), BNB, and Solana (SOL) are some of the notable and high-performing cryptocurrencies in the market. Sidharth Sogani, CEO at Crebaco, a crypto research firm, broadly identifies, “cryptocurrencies can be classified into different categories, i.e., DeFi, NFT, utility tokens, store of value tokens.” He further describes, “they’re easier for cross-border payments, cheaper and faster in transactions.” One of the major questions raised so far on crypto is, can the cryptocurrencies define future transactions? Perhaps, it is too early to draw a conclusion on the subject considering the manner economists, observers, and governments across the globe raised eyebrows at the decentralized pattern of crypto transactions. However, it is important to analyze, objectively, based on the growth and acceptance of crypto and supporting blockchain technologies. Nearly a decade ago, the crypto market was barely $10 million and today cryptocurrency market is worth over $2 trillion. Similarly, one bitcoin was equal to $1 in 2009 and now it is over $46,000.

CRYPTO LICENSING AND ADOPTION OF CRYPTO ECOSYSTEM In February 2022, Bloomberg wrote, “the United Arab Emirates is poised to issue federal licenses for virtual asset service providers to attract some of the world’s biggest crypto companies,” sourcing an unnamed government official. In an exclusive interview with The Integrator, Ola J. Lind, Director, at FTFT Capital, observed the rising future of fintech in the Middle East. He articulated, “The Middle East becomes one of the most significant fintech hubs.” (Read the following exclusive interview that is part of the cover story.) The following are the status of crypto usage in some of the key economies across the world and the information is partly accessed from ComplyAdvantage, a London-based RegTech firm. Cryptocurrencies aren’t considered legal tender in the United States (US). However, the US continues to progress in developing federal cryptocurrency legislation. Cryptocurrency exchanges are legal in the US and fall under the regulatory scope of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). Cryptocurrencies and exchanges are legal in Australia and the government declared that cryptocurrencies were legal and specifically stated that Bitcoin (and cryptocurrencies that shared its characteristics). Japan currently has the most progressive regulatory climate for cryptocurrencies and recognizes Bitcoin and other digital currencies as legal properties. China does not consider cryptocurrencies to be legal tender the Asian country banned all domestic cryptocurrency mining in September 2021. Regulations effectively banned the use of all cryptocurrency exchanges (foreign and domestic) in China.

MAJOR CRITICISM OF CRYPTOCURRENCIES American business magnate, Warren Buffet, criticized in a CNBC TV interview, “when you buy non-productive assets, all you are counting on is whether the next person is going to pay you more because they are even more excited about another next person coming along. But the asset itself is creating nothing." Microsoft founder Bill Gates told The New York Times in an interview, “Bitcoin uses more electricity per transaction than any other method known to mankind.”

CONCLUSION No matter how critics question the volatility of crypto, it gets improved attention; so, does blockchain technology. Currency in any form, physical or digital, is meant to measure value, therefore, it can’t afford to lose its practical value – institutions are required to reassure citizens that. Whether the blockchain changes the transactions of the future or not, the decentralized and secure nature of financial activities, certainly, turns more heads and impacts the future.

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MARCH 2022

TECHNOLOGY

COVER STORY

INTERVIEW

COVER STORY

THE MIDDLE EAST BECOMES ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT FINTECH HUBS FTFT Capital, also referred to as "Future FinTech," is a leading blockchain-based e-commerce business and a fintech service provider. Ola J. Lind, Director, at FTFT Capital, speaks to The Integrator about the pace and prospects of growth within the fintech space in the Middle East. Congratulations on becoming the UAE Ambassador for the Global Blockchain Business Council 2022. Could you tell us more about the news? As one of the three GBBC ambassadors representing the UAE, alongside Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan and Makki Ibrahim, I am truly honored to be a part of the Global Blockchain Business Council this year. I am confident that I will help the organization achieve its overall goal and create a positive impact through my contributions and guidance. According to you, what are the pace and prospects of growth within the Middle East’s fintech space? I believe the FinTech industry in the Middle East is growing at a fast pace; Across the region, within

MARCH 2022

due to an ecosystem conducive to new financial alternatives, an ecosystem where the government is at the center of efforts to drive innovation as part of a more extensive remit, and an ecosystem particularly interested in attracting international talent as a means of stimulating innovation domestically. Additionally, the demographics of the area and its geographic position as a “gateway” linking East and West support fintech development and growth.

Ola J. Lind Director, FTFT Capital

2022, estimates predict 465 fintech companies in the Middle East will raise more than two billion dollars in venture capital investment, compared to the over $80 million raised by 30 FinTech in 2017. Much of the region's investment has moved to some of the more active fintech industries. Payments and remittances start-ups, regtech, online lending, digital banking, insurtech, crowdfunding, blockchain, and cryptocurrency enterprises seem to be the most emerging sectors in the region. Nonetheless, the bulk of investment continues to go to the payments industry: around 85 percent of fintech businesses in the Middle East and Africa region operate in the payments, transfers, and remittances space. Further growth prospects are promising within the Middle East www.VARonline.com

Is there any specific Cryptocurrency you are personally enthusiastic about? I think the entire crypto world is fascinating and can change the world. Though we’ve been exposed to cryptocurrencies for a while now, we are just getting started. There is a lot more to discover and a long way to go. I am specifically more drawn to Filecoin. I have reasons to believe that the technology backing it has the power to potentially revolutionize several industries in the future. What advice would you give to people investing or looking to invest within Cryptocurrencies? People need to learn about different types of currencies and what each currency represents, after which they will be able to make an informed decision on where to invest. Secondly, it is beneficial to use readily available software, apps, or other technologies once you're trading to monitor financial markets and get relevant insights about industries. That being said, Solana and Filecoin are of interest to me.

INTERVIEW

LOGITECH How important is professional-grade video collaboration to innovation in the modern workplace? One of the major work-related changes driven by COVID-19 was remote and hybrid working. For many people, this meant working away from their colleagues, with less dialogue and face-to-face contact. Video collaboration came into its own during the pandemic, keeping teams connected and keeping the spirit of collaboration alive. But now, as remote workforces transition into long-term hybrid working styles, workers need easy-to-use, enterprise-grade collaboration tools as they move between home and office. Enterprise-grade headsets and webcams for home offices enable remote employees to continue collaborating and remain productive, with features that ensure their collaboration experience is not just average, but excellent. In terms of engendering a culture of collaboration, video conferencing tools are important for keeping your workforce active, engaged, and connected with their colleagues. This is important for people working remotely and can have an impact on an organization’s ability to retain talented staff. Employees who feel engaged will also be happier and more productive, producing better work and better results for your company. In fact, it is important to remember that human beings are naturally social. Working remotely can lead to alienation from your colleagues. Seamless, quality video collaboration overcomes this. By using video collaboration effectively, employees can achieve more face-to-face meetings than they would if they were working from the office. A relatively small investment in video collaboration technology pays off very quickly through increased productivity from a happier workforce, reduced demand for IT to fix glitches, and an improved relationship with partners and customers who can also benefit from seamless video collaboration with your organization.

SIGNIFICANCE OF PROFESSIONAL-GRADE VIDEO COLLABORATION TOOLS AT WORKPLACES

ogitech is one of the world's leading manufacturers of input and interface devices for personal computers (PCs) and other digital products. Loubna Imenchal, Head of Video Collaboration, Africa, Middle East, Turkey, and Central Asia, discusses the significance of professional-grade video collaboration tools at workplaces.

How are you working with the education sector? We are seeing huge demand in education. COVID-19 accelerated the shift towards distance and hybrid learning models. We’ve equipped many universities and schools in the region with conferencing solutions. These tools make a world of difference to the quality of lessons, lectures, and tutorials. Consistent quality is vital to students’ ability to learn. It is also important for teachers to have access to tools that are intuitive and reliable, allowing them to focus their efforts on teaching. We have many products for education. The Rally Bar, an all-inone video conferencing solution, is ideal for universities and schools, enabling teachers to deliver lessons with consistent high-quality audio and video. It features AI-assisted motorized pan, tilt, and zoom, which means it can adapt to meeting dynamics and keeps the camera on the action. Logitech recently launched the www.VARonline.com

Loubna Imenchal Head of Video Collaboration, META & Central Asia

Logitech Scribe, an AI-powered whiteboard camera that is compatible with leading services like Microsoft Teams and Zoom. It broadcasts whiteboard content into video meetings with incredible clarity, virtually transporting everyone into the same room. It’s ideal for education and we’re excited about bringing it to the Middle East. What kind of solutions do you provide for the healthcare sector? Video collaboration has proved invaluable in the healthcare sector during the pandemic. It means a patient in one clinic or hospital can be checked by a specialist who may be hundreds of kilometers away. This reduces the need to travel, with all its risks of infection. With highend video collaboration solutions, the specialist can see the finer details, help diagnose ailments, and offer advice. Patients can even have their homes equipped with webcams for regular consultations with their doctor or specialist. MARCH 2022

FEATURE

FORTINET

THE BALANCING ACT OF FSOS IN A TECH-DRIVEN WORLD Written By: Ricardo Ferreira EMEA Field CISO at Fortinet

igital acceleration is impacting how we work, live, and consume services. In addition, the digital evolution of Financial Services Organizations (FSOs) raises essential questions about the future of banking. One looming concern is how FSOs will compete against fintechs, including addressing the need for innovation to improve customer experience.

ADAPT TO CHANGING TIMES The top three strategic areas outlined in the IDC Infobrief, sponsored by Fortinet, “Accelerating Transformation Through Cybersecurity in Financial Services,” highlight the core priorities for financial institutions: Trust, Security, and Resilience. So, the question is, how can FSOs lead and win through innovation while ensuring that risks do not overwhelm a traditionally risk-averse industry? Many FSOs have begun adopting new digital business models to help them thrive in a digital-first economy. These include prioritizing investments in key areas such as data-driven security, legacy modernization, and personalized and contextual customer experiences. But

MARCH 2022

for these business models to work, they will need to rely on data, analytics, and cloud platforms. So, when we ask, “what does success look like for the future-ready bank?” we see three major themes: • Automation and cost reduction: Automation, managed services, and cloud platforms will enable FSOs to innovate faster. Automation allows business units to integrate with the rest of the organization, build selfservice, and reduce manual labor costs, such as adopting Robotic Process Automation and artificial intelligencepowered chatbots to deal with insurance claims. In investment banking, robot advisors use machine learning-powered algorithms to help retail investors make better decisions. Thanks to cloud platforms and managed services, these new products and services are economically feasible because they shift traditional CapEx to activities that create more value. • Customer intelligence and centricity: New platforms provide data and analytics for anticipating customer needs and hyper-personalizing the customer journey. Customer data, such as investment patterns, can guide a robot advisor to recommend portfolio choices aligned to customer preference. Similarly, natural language processing can help an AI system quickly assess a customer's issue to redirect them to the nearest branch or get the appropriate representative involved. • New value propositions: Open banking was a massive change for banks, helping them realize the power of APIs. Building Banking as a Service (BaaS) has allowed them to develop new services and create stronger partnerships. But what about the customer experience? Who is not irked when reminded of their first troubled mobile banking experience, with terrible UX and lack of integration? It’s why, when some fintechs launched their online mobile banking, it was a beacon of light in a dark room. A real-world security example that everyone might remember was the usage of biometrics for accessing online mobile banking. Big brands took a long time to adopt it, and while it might seem trivial from a UX perspective, it’s leaps and bounds towards progress. Today, traditional brands regularly launch products that emulate offerings from nimbler fintech organizations. The lesson is clear: to gain a competitive

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FEATURE

FORTINET advantage, banks must focus on creating a fast, intuitive, and seamless customer experience. Are clouds grey in banking? These business models require the accelerated consumption of new platforms, such as cloud computing. Financial organizations must understand they can create differentiated value and increase competitiveness by using the cloud to increase their speed of innovation and accelerate the go-to-market of new services and products. Cloud platforms also serve as a bridge to modernize financial organization workloads. CIOs want to migrate workloads cohesively while ensuring the capabilities from their on-prem solutions are still available. Major Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) have jumped at the opportunity to integrate their environments into the same control plane. Yes, but isn't that risky? Regulators have flagged the concentration risk. For example, the Bank of England has highlighted it in their stability reports. The latest Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) PS21/3 rules address third-party risk and operational resilience. And the European Union has gone a big step beyond with its Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). All these activities and proposals are designed to address these concerns. The European Systemic Risk Board has flagged cyber as a systemic risk to the European financial system due to the increase in cyberattacks— especially in the financial industry, which is 300 times more likely to be the target of cyberattacks. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) emphasizes that cyber events propagate risk through the entire financial system via three broad transmission channels: risk concentration, risk contagion, and erosion of confidence. That is why cybersecurity is a priority as part of the EU’s "Europe fit for the digital decade" policy program. Programs such as EU-HYBNET, ACCORDION, and DORA for financial services ensure Europe works as a single entity by harmonizing requirements to increase resilience and protect citizens. What can financial organizations do about it? To start, security needs to be woven into transformation efforts to ensure that innovation and transformation are conducted securely. For this to work, security must be included from a project's inception, not as a bolt-on after a project and its services are launched. What about protecting financial assets? 55% of European financial organizations already use some form of zero-trust strategy for their authorization and authentication. Zero-trust shifts the traditional paradigm from the implicit trust for users and resources inside a static, network-based perimeter to an authentication model that focuses on users, assets, and resources.

Ricardo Ferreira EMEA Field CISO, Fortinet

Zero-trust requires authentication and authorization to be performed every time access is granted to a specific resource. How do we address the ‘weakest link’ problem? While people are an organization’s most critical asset, they are also the primary source of data breaches and network compromise. Organizations must be prepared for a loss of control if their workforce is not educated on cyber awareness. Some large financial organizations have created partnerships with e-learning portals and vendors to provide tailored courses using nudges and financial instruments to reskill the workforce with new technologies. Similarly, financial organizations must plan to mitigate the rampant cybersecurity skills shortage, which will impact 90% of organizations by 2025, resulting in delays in the transformational journey. What can we do? Digital acceleration is essential for competing in today’s financial marketplace. However, it doesn’t come without risk. First, ensure employees are trained and reskilled in the organization's technologies. Second, share data with industry peers to learn best practices and identify potential issues. Transaction Monitoring Netherlands (TMNL) is an excellent example of transaction data sharing to mitigate Anti-Money Laundering (AML). Finally, work with vendors and partners committed to cross-vendor openness and integration. When vendors work together across the threat landscape, the sum of their products is greater than the individual parts, deepening your level of cyber protection.

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MARCH 2022

FEATURE

PLUM JOBS

OVERCOMING THE FINTECH RECRUITMENT CHALLENGE Written By: Deepa Sud – CEO at Plum Jobs

s consumer appetite increases for digital finance. So, people can manage their own money online at their convenience and in real-time. The fintech industry is facing a massive skills shortage. Whilst fintech companies globally are securing billions in funding, recruiting the right talent fast to scale their companies and outpace their competitors is quite another matter. Despite being a young sector, fintech is redefining every major industry. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain are establishing themselves as leading Middle East fintech hubs. Whether it is digital lending and banking and payments, blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTS or asset management, most indemand skills are: • Data remains the king and every sector requires scientists who can synthesize and mine data • Business, financial, and data analysts with predictive and prescriptive analytics; • Artificial intelligence • Blockchain experts with the explosion of cryptocurrency • Mobile technology-related skills • Cognitive and soft skills and capabilities

KEY STEPS TO HIRE THE RIGHT CANDIDATES FASTER Automate and streamline the recruitment process: For faster hiring especially in sourcing and

MARCH 2022

screening candidates. This could include live chat or bots on your company website to filter relevant candidates. Role clarity: Define the technologies that you are looking for is crucial, especially in an algorithmdriven recruitment world Remote working: It is certainly opening up the talent pool and many roles can be filled by contractors who are anywhere in the world Flexible working practices: Millenials are redefining traditional productivity measures such as how many hours are worked in the office. They are measuring the output of the work performed Modern technology stack: Matters to candidates because of the breakneck speed, at which technology is evolving. People are looking to work in modern stack environments to deliver the best results and advance their skills and experiences. Salaries and benefits: They are very competitive so it is important to get your budgets allocated correctly. With an acute talent shortage and low retention, companies are being forced to pay higher salaries to attract and retain the right skills Improve gender and diversity balance: Whilst some companies are making headway as remote working has become more prevalent, consider women and different nationalities to widen the www.VARonline.com

experiences and skills available. Learning and career development: It should be a priority so your employees cannot be poached. Millennials are the largest demographic pool of candidates that have FinTech skills and this generation moves regularly and seamlessly between jobs because they are on the lookout to learn new skills in different environments. FinTech is a high-growth industry and it is transforming the global ecosystem. By adopting even one of these approaches you will minimize the number of wrong hires. Whilst tech education has yet to evolve, offering real-time learning is the key to attracting and retaining elite talent. Ultimately the success of any organization in this field to grow and stay ahead of competitors comes down to being able to attract and retain the best tech talent.

INTERVIEW

EXPLORE TECH

UNIFIED MARKETPLACE FOR HOSPITALITY AND TRAVEL INDUSTRIES ExploreTECH is a unified marketplace that makes connections and delivers solutions besides providing tech solutions for the hospitality and travel industries. Ralph Melis, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at ExploreTECH speaks about the capabilities of its unique platform.

Ralph Melis Co-Founder & Managing Partner, ExploreTECH

Speak about the key benefits that the ExploreTECH platform will provide to technology providers and buyers The platform will provide users with a unified source of information for multiple technology providers. They can access the latest tech solutions that complement or further develop their strategic goals. Through the platform, they also have access to verified user reviews and can conduct a comprehensive vendor comparison for informed decisionmaking. Buyers on the platform have access to a global network with established vendor relationships, and ExploreTECH can deliver turnkey implementation and on-demand

project support based on the requirements through our Voice of the Expert consultancy model. The subscriptions are divided into four tiers so that every tech provider can find a subscription that meets their needs, whatever their current market penetration level. This is beneficial to all solution providers, regardless of their current level of market penetration. How does the platform stand out from its competitors if any? ExploreTECH is the only platform of its kind to use both English and Arabic comprehensively throughout, and so reaches a wider audience than any other. Simultaneously, ExploreTECH positions itself as a trustworthy and objective source of key technology insights. Using our subject matter expertise, we also enable buyers to more comprehensively understand how technology solutions can assist them in the formation of long-term strategies to improve business processes and profitability. Tell us about what sorts of consultancy services ExploreTECH offers its customers – On the ExploreTECH platform, you www.VARonline.com

can receive genuine subject matter advice on a variety of subjects, enabling a new kind of digital strategy development for users and technology providers alike. In addition, by lending the voice of the expert that ExploreTECH has developed with subject matter specialists, tech providers will be able to use our advice and expertise to enhance their go-to-market strategy, benefit from increased brand awareness and grow their target audience. Here are some of the topics that enterprises can select from to receive advisory services from our experts: • Travel distribution contracts and growing direct channels • Benchmarking and comparing corporate booking tools in travel • Strategies on how to work with metasearch in travel • Better retailing for travel agencies and travel management companies • Infrastructure technology design • Hotel pre-opening and reflagging, • Hospitality distribution and technology, and more MARCH 2022

FEATURE

BENQ

INTERACTIVE FLAT PANELS ARE ABSOLUTE GAME CHANGERS FOR ANY OFFICE Written By: Manish Bakshi Managing Director at BenQ Middle East

ith enterprises reopening worldwide, most of them are moving to smaller offices (as more workers go remote) and upgrading their office technology. This ongoing change unfolding with the pandemic offers organizations an excellent opportunity to improve and upgrade the way they operate. In addition, trends indicate a growing shift to hybrid work, consistent with the progression of organizations downsizing their office real estate and converting spaces previously reserved for employee desks and cubicles to more valuable and collaborative meeting hubs and workspaces. This makes an interactive flat panel an ideal solution that not only saves space but also consolidates multiple collaborative tools like wireless projection, presentation screens, cloud whiteboards, and VoIP systems into one, easier-tomanage device. Here are some ways in which interactive flat panels can transform any office:

CONSOLIDATING MULTIPLE TECHNOLOGIES INTO A CONVENIENT SOLUTION Considering how office real estate is shrinking, adding new hardware to already packed rooms with even more things makes no sense. Instead, companies need to streamline their use of technology, and a multi-purpose solution like an integrated flat panel (IFP) does just that. An IFP takes away the need to purchase and install several tools for different requirements like standard displays, projectors, tablets, speakers, and more. Interactive displays are designed to integrate all the functionalities these devices offer and more into just one system.

TRANSFORMING CONTENT CREATION AND CONTENT SHARING COMPLETELY Whether an IFP is being used for presentations or cloud whiteboarding, one doesn’t have to worry about poorly drawn flow charts, unreadable diagrams, or markers running out mid-meeting. The intelligent and highly beneficial features of IFPs can exponentially propel engagement in business meetings to a genuinely

MARCH 2022

Manish Bakshi Managing Director, BenQ ME

magnificent level. IFPs allow ideas and information to be shared easily with features like digital documents written on using a stylus pen or a finger, images being moved and resized quickly, and changes presented in real-time.

EMPLOYEES AND MEETINGS BECOME MORE FOCUSED IFPs enable everyone to stay more focused on the presentation and the meeting agenda rather than get distracted by the minor issues and problems mentioned above. Moreover, a large number of IFPs come with recording capabilities that can make sure that everything that is covered in a meeting is recorded and saved. Hence, no one needs to worry about taking notes or photos of the main display. Notes and screenshots can be taken in real-time with the built-in recording feature in IFPs that allows presenters to take screenshots, record notes shared, and put them into the whiteboard app simultaneously. This results in better meeting outcomes and more productive meetings.

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FEATURE

VEEAM

UNDERSTANDING KUBERNETES Written By: Michael Cade, Senior Technologist Product Strategy at Veeam Software

ne of the ever more popular topics in information technology (IT) are container systems, such as Kubernetes. Increasingly, decision-makers at companies of all sizes cannot avoid asking themselves whether containers should be integrated into their own IT infrastructure. At the same time, VMware's Kubernetes Report 2021 says that Kubernetes is already being used more widely, but at the same time there is a lack of expertise and the necessary security. Reason enough to take a closer look at important questions around Kubernetes - especially from a data protection perspective.

INTEGRAL PART OF HYBRID AND MULTI-CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURES? In the networks of many corporations and long-established companies, containers do not yet exist, or have only existed for a short time. They were not part of the traditional network structures based on a data center. However, neither are they an integral part of modern multi-cloud environments or hybrid solutions - they just fit in very well. It is similar to virtualization: this also started as a trend that not every company had to take up and therefore not all did - only early adopters integrate technology from the beginning. But 20 years later, it seems, a large proportion of all companies have virtualized a high number of workloads. Kubernetes is now acting as a management platform for containers and interestingly, established and regulated industries

Michael Cade Senior Technologist Product Strategy, Veeam Software

like banking and financial services show greater interest and are early adopters of this technology, while other industries are still observing and evaluating the pros and cons.

COMPATIBLE WITH THE RUNTIME ENVIRONMENTS? Of course, the question immediately arises as to whether Kubernetes and the virtualization software are compatible. First, let’s set the record straight about exactly what we are talking about: Kubernetes is an orchestration system for containers; Docker for example, is for now the most common container runtime. The containers created in Docker can each exist and be worked on separately. Developers can manage them individually and do not necessarily need a higherlevel solution to manage them. But with the number of containers, the www.VARonline.com

complexity grows, and the overview is lost. To keep this effort small and as clear as possible, a central administration point must be set up - and this is where Kubernetes comes into play. The software keeps an eye on everything and ensures, for example, that payloads are distributed dynamically and sensibly to the containers to guarantee the availability of a service and ensure that it can meet all requirements. Kubernetes is thus an orchestration for Docker and accordingly, a connection between the two is not only possible but desirable.

KUBERNETES ON THE RISE? The analysts at ESG published a report in September 2020 called Data Protection Trends and Strategies for Containers, which summarizes the results of a survey of 334 enterprise IT professionals from the United States and Canada. When asked about their use of containers, 67 percent said they use them for productionrelated applications. This statement underscores the increasing adoption and integration of containers into systems and networks, and this trend will continue over the next two years. With the rise of containers, Kubernetes will then also increasingly enter the scene to manage the new environment well. Kubernetes will probably start this triumphant march with startups and large corporations first, because the former can build their networks and accordingly incorporate the new technology immediately, while the latter have the necessary money and personnel to successfully incorporate the new technology. MARCH 2022

SME CHAMPIONS

NEWS BYTES

SHIPSY RAISES $25 MILLION TO ACCELERATE GLOBAL EXPANSION

hipsy, a SaaS-based smart logistics management platform provider, has raised USD 25 million in a Series B round co-led by A91 Partners and Z3 Partners along with existing investors Info Edge and Sequoia Capital. The company plans to use the funding to continue growing its stronghold in the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asian markets while accelerating expansion into new markets such as Europe and US. To kick start its Middle East expansion, the company launched its operations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in June 2021, considering the country a major hub for exports, imports, and re-exports. The funding also comes in the wake of a performing freight and logistics market in UAE valued at US$19 billion in 2020, which is expected to reach US$31 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of over 8% fueled by the country’s highly competitive and effective logistics infrastructure. Soham Chokshi, CEO and Co-Founder of Shipsy, commented, "It takes us closer to our goal of becoming the de-facto logistics operating system globally, such that every shipment being delivered, whether to a consumer or to a business, whether domestically or internationally, is powered by Shipsy." Shipsy’s team is based out of India, Dubai, and Indonesia that handles the movement of more than two million parcels every day.

MARCH 2022

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PAKISTAN’S BANK, H TEMENOS TO TRANS BANKING SERVICES

emenos, a banking software company, announces that HBL, Pakistan’s bank network is to adopt the Temenos core banking platform to provide domestic and international operations. The platform will accelerate the Bank’s services across all segments, markets, and channels. The Temenos implementation will include a full suite of client-friendly products and services that will provide end-to-end, technologically advanced solutions to both HBL’s conventional and Islamic banking clients. The new system will also hope to enhance adherence to local banking regulations and improve reporting standards for international markets in China, GCC, Europe, and SAARC countries.

SME CHAMPIONS

NEWS BYTES

AVEVA JOINS ALIZENT TO HELP ASSET-INTENSIVE INDUSTRIES

HBL SELECTS SFORM ITS S Muhammad Aurangzeb, President & CEO - HBL, said: “The open technology platform provided by Temenos is flexible, global-ready, and has the breadth of banking services to meet our clients’ fast-developing banking needs. This partnership contributes to our goal to become a ‘Technology company with a banking license’.” “Temenos open platform for composable banking will free the bank from legacy constraints. To innovate safely at speed, as well as scale its offering and achieve its growth goals. We are proud to support HBL as it delivers on this exciting vision for more than 25 million clients worldwide,” said Max Chuard, Chief Executive Officer, Temenos.

Kim Custeau Senior Vice President - APM & MES, Aveva

veva, an industrial software developer has announced a global partnership with Alizent, a digital transformation solution developer for asset-intensive industries. The partnership claims to combine forces to empower industries such as energy, power, water, food and beverage, and metals and mining to transform critical asset maintenance operations. It offers to provide customers with bespoke solutions having enhanced confidentiality and cybersecurity, and increased operability. Kim Custeau, Senior Vice President - APM and MES at Aveva said, “The ambition behind our partnership with Alizent is to provide unmatched levels of integrated data, AI, and augmented analytics. As a result, our customers will be able to identify new opportunities to realize their current and future digitalization goals.” The AVEVA-Alizent partnership plans provide an end-toend asset lifecycle solution including data infrastructure, APM, and services to asset-intensive industries. Consequently, key users will be able to anticipate, adapt and make the production flows of each of their units more reliable and therefore more available, while optimizing the performance of plant operations. Alizent enables Digital Transformation for asset management, production, and logistics. It serves companies in Industrial Gases, Energy, Environment, Energy & Water, Metals & Mining, and Food & Beverage industries. www.VARonline.com

MARCH 2022

FEATURE

SAFE SECURITY

TAKE THE GUESSWORK OUT OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE CYBERSECURITY Written By: Saket Modi, Co-Founder and CEO at Safe Security

he disruption of critical infrastructure has a ripple effect on national and global economies and societies; directly impacting the sovereignty of nations and its people. When a Colonial Pipelines, Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation, or a Springhill Medical Center cyberattack happens repeatedly across the world, the entire critical infrastructure security ecosystem needs to be re-imagined. A modern-day cyberattack leverages vulnerabilities across the spectrum. Starting from employee social media reconnaissance, purchasing ransomware toolkits off the deep and dark web, leveraging cloud misconfigurations to move laterally within connected systems and networks, and targeting their efforts to compromise the most vulnerable vendors - cybercriminals are maximizing impact with minimum effort. When cyberattacks are so interconnected, then why is the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure siloed and reactive?

THE CONVERGENCE OF IT AND OT HAS REVEALED MORE VULNERABILITIES IN CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE. In previous years, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure typically required high investments, physical reconnaissance, and access to expensive operational technology. The isolated nature of this sector, yielding low output, ensured threat actors focused their energies on more ‘rewarding’ fields, often including financial services or healthcare. As business demands for speed, efficiency, and interoperability increased, the critical infrastructure sector adapted. Most critical

MARCH 2022

Saket Modi Co-Founder and CEO, Safe Security

systems were extremely complex, to begin with, and this complexity is only increasing as the number of IoT devices and connections grows. Additionally, these systems are a mix of unsecured legacy systems and modern technology. The convergence of Information Technology and Operation Technology systems in the critical infrastructure setup have made it a hotbed of cyber threats. Especially in the Middle East that is at the forefront of 5G and IoT implementation, the pandemic added velocity to a change that was in motion. Transitioning to cloudbased technologies has created a ‘Swiss Cheese’ architecture with multiple entry points - employees are geographically dispersed, connecting to workloads and data that’s now in a multi-cloud fabric. Additionally, customers and suppliers have changed the way they www.VARonline.com

function. The number one issue with a vast digital footprint is the lack of real-time security visibility. Without the right knowledge of cyber risk, businesses are basing their cybersecurity strategies on reactive threat-driven strategies. This is similar to driving forward on a busy highway, while only looking at the rearview mirror! According to Cybersecurity Ventures, global cybercrime costs are expected to reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. During the same period, global spending on cybersecurity products and services is projected to exceed $1.75 trillion. This means for every $2 spent on securing organizations, there is a loss of $10. Unfortunately, organizations are stuck in a catch-22 scenario of being breached more often as they invest more in technology.

CYBERSECURITY IS ALL ABOUT KNOWLEDGE Cyber Risk Quantification platforms enable security leaders to take the guesswork out of cybersecurity by giving them sound data sciencedriven basis to measure, manage, and mitigate cyber risks. When a business knows the risks involved, they’re able to make informed decisions about their cybersecurity initiatives. Cyber Risk Quantification platforms generate a breachlikelihood score using data sciencebacked risk engines that can feed information-driven confidence to security teams. It aggregates signals across employees, technology, policies and processes, cybersecurity products, and third (nth) parties to generate a score. With it, security teams can locate where the weakest links lie across the enterprise in real-time.

FEATURE

A10 NETWORKS

KEY REASONS WHY YOU NEED ZERO TRUST ARCHITECTURE Written by: Amr Alashaal, Regional Vice President Middle East at A10 Networks

n the late ‘80s through the early ‘90s, network security was simple; once an entity (a person, a machine, a process) that was inside the envelope of your network and authenticated with your security service (typically the computer you were using) it was assumed that entity was, henceforth, trustworthy. This security architecture is called perimeter security. This architecture worked well because there were no external connections to your network and the network itself wasn’t complicated. This simple security architecture couldn’t last for long. By the late ‘90s, these networks began connecting to the internet, paving the way for websites and email to become mainstream. By the 2000s, hundreds of service providers began offering Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which has become a strategic component of enterprise business operations. Now, the envelope of the network is no longer as clearly defined. Consequently, network security challenges became much more complex. To sum up the state of network security to around 2010: • The network no longer had a single, unbroken network perimeter. It had become “porous” to support mobile and remote workers, as well as business partners and new third-party services. • “One and done” authentication of entities requesting access became inadequate for the new and more complex network security demands. • You could no longer assume that anyone on your network, including your staff, could be trusted.

MARCH 2022

A BETTER NETWORK SECURITY ARCHITECTURE The realities of 21st-century enterprise networking required a new paradigm and in 2010, John Kindervag, an analyst at Forrester Research, wrote a paper that popularized the idea of the Zero Trust architecture. Over the next few years, as enterprise computing evolved to embrace cloud computing and the problems with perimeter security became more pressing, the concept of the Zero Trust architecture gained traction. The fundamental concept of the Zero Trust architecture is simple: “Never trust, always verify.” Making a Zero Trust network work requires in-depth traffic inspection and analytics. Central to this is the use of SSL inspection solutions that decrypt and analyze encrypted network traffic (sometimes called “break and inspect”) to ensure policy compliance and maintain privacy standards. By monitoring encrypted traffic to detect suspicious network communications and malware payloads as well as attempts to exfiltrate controlled data, for example, credit card and social security numbers, SSL inspection makes it possible for the Zero Trust model to comprehensively do what it’s supposed to do – protect networks from both internal and external threats.

FIVE REASONS WHY YOU NEED TO MIGRATE TO A ZERO TRUST SECURITY ARCHITECTURE If you haven’t started down the path of reengineering your network to www.VARonline.com

Amr Alashaal Regional Vice President Middle East at A10 Networks

become a Zero Trust network, here are the five crucial reasons to do so: 1) The complexity of your network—the number of users, where they work, the devices they use, the number of workloads, your use of SaaS, adoption of a hybrid cloud environment, and so on—is just going to increase. A Zero Trust network reduces the complexity of securing your assets and makes it much easier to isolate problems. 2) Because the complexity of your network is increasing rapidly, your security perimeter will, and maybe already does, look like Swiss cheese. Consequently, the attack surface of the network has expanded and the only practical way to reduce your level of vulnerability is to start establishing micro-perimeters and microsegments to regain control. If you’ve started down the path to a Zero Trust network, are you moving fast enough? Could you move faster? Does the C-suite understand the issues and is it willing to fund a strategy that might be all that stands between business success and irreversible failure? If you’ve not yet started to plan and implement a Zero Trust architecture, why not?

FEATURE

INFOBLOX

DNS IS AN INDISPENSABLE PART OF A MODERN SECURITY TOOLKIT Written By: Cricket Liu Chief DNS Architect at Infoblox

s I am fond of saying, back in the early days of BIND name servers - when I got my start in DNS - they had a whopping two security features: They didn’t accept responses from IP addresses they hadn’t queried (colorfully known as “Martian responses”) and they stuck a random, 16-bit number into outbound queries and verified that the number came back in responses. For a very long time, DNS servers were mostly the target of attacks. There were the “three K’s”: cache poisoning attacks dreamed up by Eugene Kashpureff, Amit Klein, and Dan Kaminsky. (I should point out that only one of them, Kashpureff’s, was ever used in anger. Klein and Kaminsky discovered theirs and reported them responsibly.) There was the Li0n worm, which capitalized on a vulnerability in BIND. And of course, DNS servers of all stripes are commonly both used as amplifiers in DDoS attacks and are themselves the targets of DDoS attacks. Within the DNS community, we concentrated largely on the security of DNS servers and the DNS system. BIND was enhanced to support access control lists on almost everything: queries, recursive queries, zone transfers, and dynamic updates. We began running DNS servers in chrooted environments, using the principle of “least privilege.” And we introduced Transaction Signatures (TSIG) and the DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) to help safeguard DNS data. It’s only been very recently in DNS’s history that we’ve realized the potential of DNS servers as security tools. With the advent of Response Policy Zones in 2008, we could instrument our DNS servers to issue “benevolent lies” when queried for information we knew could harm

the querier and, perhaps equally importantly, we could tell when someone queried our DNS servers for data we knew was malicious. This begat a blossoming of companies that produce DNS threat intelligence in the form of RPZs and distribute them to subscribers, either for a fee or free of charge (Infoblox does this, as do partners including Farsight Security). Now you can plug a variety of RPZ “feeds” into your DNS infrastructure and enable your DNS servers to protect your users and systems from known malware distribution sites, command-andcontrol infrastructure, and much more. RPZs are also enormously useful in helping detect infections and breaches. A laptop that sends a query for a domain name uniquely used by a particular species of malware is almost certainly infected with that malware. The most advanced companies and vendors feed DNS telemetric data—what we in the biz call “passive DNS”—into data stores and then run machine learning algorithms over it. Sophisticated ML algorithms can detect all kinds of malicious activity in passive DNS data: queries sent by malware’s Domain Generation Algorithms (DGAs), for example, or queries for lookalike domain names masquerading as well-known, legitimate destinations. All of this, I think, proves that DNS is an indispensable part of a modern security toolkit, playing both an active and a supporting role in keeping networks secure and tracking malicious activity. I hope that you’ll take a look at your DNS infrastructure and think about how you could enhance it to tighten your defences.

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MARCH 2022

FEATURE

CENTURY FINANCIAL

METAVERSE:

THE FUTURE OF INTERNET Written By: Vijay Valecha Chief Investment Officer - Century Financial What exactly is the metaverse? Where does it stand now and how will it look in a couple of years? How can interested investors capitalize on the investment opportunity in the metaverse?

THE METAVERSE: “AN EMBODIED INTERNET”

Vijay Valecha Chief Investment Officer Century Financial

he world of immersive technology is undergoing a seismic shift as innovations rapidly alter the digital kingdoms, we live in. One of them is the emergence of the “metaverse,” touted by Big Tech as the inevitable future of the internet. For those who are unaware, the social media giant, Facebook, announced the change of its name to Meta on 28th October 2021, and Meta materials, a Canadian company that has nothing to do with Facebook saw its shares surge as much as 30% after-market, and finally ended with a 4.6% gain in regular trading Friday at $4.70 per share. Meanwhile, Facebook (now Meta) shares gained 2% to end the day at $324. While the term metaverse might sound new to many, it is essentially been around for over three decades. Passionate readers of famous books like Snow Crash or cinematic lovers of films like Ready Player One or The Matrix, know that the metaverse isn’t a new concept. It has been a theme in science fiction for decades. But soon, metaverse won’t be referenced purely in science fiction movies and books. It has already started attracting a lot of buzz in Silicon Valley and aims to become real.

MARCH 2022

The term metaverse is a combination of the prefix “meta,” which means beyond, and “universe.” It generally refers to shared virtual world environments which can be accessed by people using different devices. Regarded as the next best thing in technology, metaverse can be considered as a digital space made more lifelike by combining virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). It can be regarded as an immersive world where millions of users, or their avatars, can slide in and out of a plethora of activities as they socialize, work, and play. It is expected to be the successor of the mobile Internet, similar to how Web 3.0 is expected to become the successor of Web 2.0.

WHY IS IT TAKING OFF? The concept has surged in popularity post the COVID-19 pandemic. As more people function remotely, there has been an increased demand for ways to make online interaction more lifelike. Fans of the metaverse see it as the next stage in the development of the internet.

FROM GAMING TO CONCERTS AND E-COMMERCE Video game platforms are the best representation of proto-metaverse worlds. Roblox, Epic's "Fornite", Niantic's "Pokemon Go", Facebook’s “Horizon” and Microsoft's "Minecraft" all have grown organically to attract millions of users. Some like Roblox and Fortnite are expanding beyond games into other entertainment, social, and e-commerce applications. The world's biggest fashion companies such as Vans (VFC), Gucci have also experimented with making virtual clothing, which people's avatars can wear in metaverse environments.

HOW TO INVEST IN THE METAVERSE While much of what the metaverse is might still be vague, there are already opportunities for people to indirectly invest in the potential success of the metaverse.

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FEATURE

CENTURY FINANCIAL Company Shares

 Facebook (FB)  Nvidia (NVDA)

Exchange Traded Funds )ETFs(  Roundhill Ball Metaverse

ETF (META)

 Roblox (RBLX)  Unity Software (U)

Cyrptocurrencies )NFTS & Virtual Tokens(  MANA  SAND  Metaverse Index (MVI)

 Microsoft (MSFT)  Snap (SNAP)  Sony (SONY)  Activision Blizzard (ATVI)  Tencent (TCEHY)

 Facebook, or Meta, as it would be called now, is investing heavily in the metaverse. During the earning call this week, the company said that it will invest $10 billion this year on Reality Labs to build the metaverse. It has already spent $2 billion on acquiring Oculus, which develops its VR products, and will continue spending millions each year in R&D. Snap will provide investors with exposure to both AR/VR and a glimpse of what e-commerce will look like in the near future. Snap is developing Spectacles to reach as many users as possible.  Nvidia besides providing the usual CPUs, GPUs, and data centers, will offer the most crucial part, its Omniverse.  Tencent (with its 40% stake in Epic Games) and Unity Software could provide the leading operating system for the metaverse, which could dominate the markets just like iOS and Android today.  Roblox may be seen as a game, but ideally, it is a platform to build on, create with, and interact with others around the globe.  Microsoft and Sony are both working on hardware (Xbox and PlayStation) but are also involved in the future of gaming through cloud computing. Sony has invested close to half a billion dollars in Epic Games, while Microsoft has Minecraft, which could be compared to Roblox. Besides, Microsoft sees Metaverse as a collaboration and business tool. Gaming stocks such as Nintendo, and Activision Blizzard will also be prominent.

METAVERSE NFTS As the metaverse adoption popularizes, blockchainpowered metaverses that utilize NFTs, and crypto assets will also benefit. NFTs are digital assets that digitally represent a wide range of unique items such as art, in-game, and collectible items. While many metaverse platforms provide free accounts for people to join, trading virtual assets on blockchain-based platforms requires cryptocurrencies. Several blockchain-based platforms require Ethereum-based crypto tokens, such

as MANA for Decentraland and SAND for The Sandbox, to purchase and trade virtual assets. The cryptocurrency rallied to as high as $4.95 on 31st October 2021 from merely $0.89 on 28 October 2021 and is currently trading near $2.76 at the time of this writing. Meanwhile, SAND surged from $0.76 to as high as $2.45 during the same period. Currently, it is trading near $1.60.

FUTURE OF THE METAVERSE FIRMS

PROJECTIONS

Bloomberg Intelligence

$800 billion market size by 2024

ARK invest

$400 billion revenue by 2025

PwC

$1.5 trillion boost to the global economy by 2030

Metaverse is anticipated to be the next big thing after the internet which will create a virtual ecosystem for humans. Bloomberg Intelligence recently projected that the metaverse’s market size can reach $800 billion by 2024, while ARK Invest forecasts the revenue from virtual worlds could reach $400bn by 2025, up from approximately $180bn in 2021. Accounting and advisory giant PwC estimates VR/AR technologies to deliver a $1.5 trillion boost to the global economy by 2030, compared with $46.5 billion in 2019. It is unclear to what extent a true metaverse, which replicates real-life perfectly, is possible or how long it would take to develop. However, the next few years will likely be a crucial time for this niche as more developments can be announced by the companies that are participating in this disruption.

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MARCH 2022

TECHNOLOGY

EYE TECH

AXIS SHOWCASES SECURITY AND SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS AT WORLD POLICE SUMMIT

xis Communications has participated in the 2022 edition of the World Police Summit (WPS) and demonstrated its video and audio products that can be leveraged by policing and law enforcement entities and enterprises. The summit, which took place from 14 to 17 March at the Dubai Exhibition Centre, Expo 2020, in the UAE, brought together policing officials and experts from around the world to discuss current trends and technologies. “We have a strong relationship with the law enforcement authorities in the Middle East and are proud to be showcasing our solutions for smart cities and traffic management at the World Police Summit,” said Ettiene van der Watt, Regional Director for the Middle East and Africa at Axis.

AXIS PRESENTED THE FOLLOWING SOLUTIONS: • Multisensor and multidirectional cameras for city surveillance: Multisensor and multidirectional cameras provide seamless 180° coverage with great detail and minimal distortion. With their seamlessly stitched images, multisensor cameras also eliminate blind spots. They are well suited for railway stations, metro stations

and airports, squares, stadiums, campuses, and parking lots. They’re also ideal for perimeter surveillance around critical infrastructure, public or government buildings, banks, and healthcare centers. Edge-based video analytics: Combining high-quality images with automated edge-based video analytics allows the detection, verification, and response to incidents quickly and efficiently. The traffic cameras reliably spot actionable incidents with significantly fewer false alarms. Audio for security: The audio technologies can also help smart cities flexibly tackle issues that are having a direct and detrimental effect on citizen wellbeing.

NOKIA LAUNCHED AFFORDABLE C-SERIES SMARTPHONES

MD Global, the manufacturer of Nokia phones, has announced three new Nokia C-series smartphones – the Nokia C21, Nokia C21 Plus and Nokia C2 2nd Edition. Florian Seiche, Chief Executive Officer, HMD Global, commented, “I am excited to announce that our services portfolio includes a secure device financing solution for smartphones and other devices. At HMD, we are bringing together these two ingredients, a high-quality smartphone experience and a

MARCH 2022

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TECHNOLOGY

EYE TECH

LG SOUND GADGETS CREATE THE PERFECT BALANCE OF SOUND Earbuds in the streets to blasting their favorite music on the LG XBOOM at a social gathering, these stylish products are perfect for any occasion.” Both the devices claim good sound quality with other features following:

LG TONE FREE EAR BUDS: • •

G introduces TONE Free Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds and LG XBOOM 360 aiming to enhance users’ sound experience. An official release claims, “both products have been designed to create the perfect balance of sound with power and clarity from using the LG TONE Free

• • • •

Ergonomically designed Arc Design with an earbud stem 4.4 millimeters shorter than models Meridian Audio Large drivers and diaphragms featuring silicone edging Active noise cancellation 10 hours of playtime and 24 hours of usage with the charging case

Conical-cylindrical shape

financing solution which builds upon our mission to make modern mobile technology accessible to everyone.” Sanmeet Kochhar, Vice President for HMD Global MENA & India, said, “We want people to love their phones, and ensure they keep them for as long as possible. Resilient, secure, designed to last well and look good, these are smartphones built for today’s needs. They deliver a seamless mobile experience to fans, while ensuring their data stays safe and secure.”

THE NOKIA C-SERIES

•

Delivers 360-degree sound with minimal distortion Offers 10 hours of listening enjoyment on a single charge Built-in metal handle for easy movement Durable fabric cover

– designing Nokia phones that last for longer whilst maintaining excellent build quality. Nokia C21 Plus: The hero of the C-series family – Nokia C21 Plus – is the smartphone that keeps on giving. It’s designed for durability and is rigorously tested to achieve sleek style and strength, while also delivering on battery life and, most importantly, remaining affordable.

KEY FEATURES: • •

The three new devices epitomize the durability and long-lasting battery life qualities Nokia phones became famous all those years ago. This, combined with the best of Android software, and security updates cements HMD’s vision for 2022 and beyond

• •

LG XBOOM: •

•

• •

The device comes with two different battery sizes 4000mAh and 5050 mAh Built around a robust inner metal chassis with an IP52 rating protecting against elements, with dirt, dust, and water droplet resistance 6.5” HD+ display A 13MP dual camera with Panorama and Portrait modes

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MARCH 2022

TECHNOLOGY

RESEARCH TECH

BLOCKCHAIN MARKET WILL REACH CAGR OF OVER 49% BY 2027 GLOBALLY

lockchain is a distributed ledger with transparency and immutable features. Recording the transactions and tracking assets are parts of the blockchain technology process. An asset can be substantial or concrete such as a house, a car, land, cash, etc., or intangible such as intellectual property, patents, copyrights, branding, etc. Anything of value can be tracked and traded virtually on a blockchain network, reducing risks and cutting costs. Blockchain business depends on information. The faster it is recorded in the system and more accurate the information is it can be beneficial for the blockchain system. Blockchain is an ideal platform for presenting or delivering information. Due to being immediate, shared, and transparent, Blockchain technology is the most effective and efficient distributed ledger. As for the permission of blockchain, only licensed network members can access the information. Besides applying blockchain for only bitcoin, there are various applications available for blockchain technology. Blockchain technology can track

MARCH 2022

orders, payments, accounts, production, and much more things. Users can visualize all information about transactions end to end which gives them greater confidence, new efficiencies, and opportunities. The emergence of blockchain technology is expected to bring a revolution in many aspects of human lives. Through decentralization and removal of intermediaries, blockchain technology provides the world a unique opportunity to take a digital leap. According to the research report “Global Blockchain Market Outlook, 2027" published by Bonafide Research, the global blockchain market is forecasted to have a CAGR of 49.24% by 2027. The global blockchain market is segmented into five major regions which are North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The AsiaPacific region is expected to acquire more market share in the global blockchain market. In this region, the Asian Development Bank has announced that it will use blockchain technology as its www.VARonline.com

essential database to make crossborder securities transactions providing efficient and secure services. Initial investments in Ethereum produced unpredicted returns in the Asia-Pacific region. As public chain technology, it is vastly spreading and expanding the possibilities of blockchain. Asia-Pacific region has successfully invested in Polkadot, Blockfi, and Terra too. From the underlying infrastructure blockchain system to the decentralized financial app (DeFi), the blockchain industry has grown into the Asia-Pacific region. Blockchain technology is driven by a unique investment strategy, comprehensive and long-term perspective. IBM Corporation, Amazon Web services, Wipro limited are some of the major players in the global blockchain market. Blockchain, a distributed ledger technology has the potential to transform a wide range of markets and industries fundamentally. As to enhance the blockchain technology approach, Global Blockchain Policy Center is exploring the benefits and risks of blockchain technology. This can be utilized to ensure raising the economy globally. By the essential output of blockchain technology, it could be used as a foundational technology in forecast years. Blockchain technology has many unfolding potentials for various applications. For instance, banks can use a blockchain database to handle remittances for higher productivity at a lower cost. With this feature, they can improve the transactions without sacrificing security. Blockchain technology could boost the global economy in upcoming years through raising levels of tracking, tracing, and trust. Healthcare, education, and public administration sectors are estimated to have higher benefits of blockchain technology. Even though blockchain was introduced with the vision of the banking sector, it has started disrupting other industries as well.

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MARCH 2022

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The Integrator

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