The Integrator by INTEGRATOR MEDIA

Code of Innovation Can’t Be Kept as a Secret, Anymore! I

n the 1990s, the concept of “open source” was coined by a group of American computer scientists to address the “software gap.” Unsurprisingly, many antagonists, especially corporate monopolists, termed it as a pipe dream. Today, nearly three decades later, we are ought to discuss how “open source” applications took over the world. Not only small ventures but also major IT enterprises are engaging in open source development, deployment, and public repos.

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The efficiency of open source in handling big data, cloud, security, and encryption has outgrown the criticism it had to field once. The largest SCM functionality of Git (GitHub) invited 40 million users and 190 million repositories, including 28 million public repositories. It’s important to mention that Linux remains the largest ever open source software project.

COVER FEATURE Open Source: A 90s-Born Collaborative Champion

Open source being the ground zero for technology development has become the preferred way of growing hot new technology

NEWS IN DETAIL

Acronis Introduces Advanced File Sync and Share for Better Work Collaboration

LG QNED Mini LED TV Sets New Standards for LCD Picture Quality

ESET Discovers IIS Web Server Threats Targeting Governments and E-Commerce

The 94th edition of Integrator brings insightful information on open source to you. As the topic is enormous, we continue to cover the thoughts and views of industry leaders in the 95th edition as well.

Will the Growing Emergence Of SDWAN Increase Opportunity in the Channel?

I am also pleased to announce our upcoming “ICT Champion Awards” that happens on the sidelines of the GITEX 2021. In the 14th edition of the annual awards, we recognize the industry leaders.

“The Integrator” evaluates the role of open source and its competitive qualities in the IT industry. We align with one of the key observations of Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a senior computer scientist, who proposed the need for open-source coding. He famously said, “the Internet and open-source initiatives are the free marketplace way of dealing with the extremely complex software issues we are facing."

Good luck to all and happy reading!

FEATURE

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Vivek Sharma

Red Hat and Nutanix Partnership to Deliver Open Hybrid Multicloud

Open Source Myth-Busting With Sandeep Chabra

Managing Editor

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 | Sales Inquiries: sales@var-mea.com All other Inquiries: info@var-mea.com | Editorial: editor@var-mea.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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TECHNOLOGY

NEWS BYTES

FORTINET OFFERS SECURITY SERVICES TO PROTECT DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURES

ortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, announces an expansion to its FortiCare and FortiGuard security services offerings, adding a new security service called FortiTrust. FortiTrust security services offer user-based licensing across all networks, endpoints and clouds, which traditionally have been siloed. Initial service levels are being offered for zero trust network access (ZTNA) and identity verification, with more offerings forthcoming.

John Maddison Executive VP, Products & Solutions Fortinet

or bandwidth consumption and making it easy to calculate total cost with built in volume discounts • Integrated single license for security services delivers desired use cases across the Fortinet Security Fabric • Easy implementation of new security services allows users to transition across various form factors, enabling organizations with hybrid architectures to shift from on-premises to cloud-delivered security • Easy options to upgrade and migrate between services

form factors. Other benefits of the new offering include: • Flexible user-based licensing of security services, eliminating the need to track device counts

FortiGuard Security Services provide organizations different services tied to their Fortinet devices, enabling coordinated and consistent real-time defense for the latest cyberattacks.

REDEFINING THE FUTURE OF SECURITY SERVICES FortiTrust provides security services that follow the user across an organization’s entire security platform, enabling organizations to easily manage and secure across all

CHECK POINT EXPANDS ITS UNIFIED CLOUD-NATIVE PLATFORM TO SUPPORT ALIBABA CLOUD

Itai Greenberg VP, Product Management & Product Marketing, Check Point

heck Point Software Technologies Ltd., a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions globally, announces that it is

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extending its multi-cloud support through the integration of Check Point CloudGuard with Alibaba Cloud, the digital intelligence and technology backbone of Alibaba Group and a global leader in cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Alibaba Cloud’s customers will benefit from enhanced cloud network security and posture management, while other organizations have the opportunity to leverage Alibaba Cloud within their multi-cloud environments. According to Gartner, 81% of organizations adopt a multicloud strategy to give them the freedom to use the best possible cloud for each workload. When looking to maximize security within such an environment, organizations require visibility and ease of management. Through the integration, organizations will www.VARonline.com

benefit from advanced security and visibility across their entire cloud infrastructure, including assets and workloads, while maintaining continuous compliance. Thanks to the ability to: • Deploy advanced security capabilities including firewall, Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), application control, Internet Protocol Security Virtual Private Network (IPsec VPN), antivirus, threat prevention, anti-bot, and more • Gain visibility across their entire cloud infrastructure with a fully unified, integrated cloud native solution • Achieve and maintain compliance with a robust library of out-of-the-box compliance and governance rulesets, as well as easy customization with Check Point’s Governance Specification Language (GSL) builder

ACRONIS INTRODUCES ADVANCED FILE SYNC AND SHARE FOR BETTER WORK COLLABORATION New advance pack boosts MSPs’ services by extending Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud’s essential file sharing service with electronic signatures, blockchain-based notarization, and compliance-enabling data security

cronis, the global leader in cyber protection announces a new advanced protection pack for its service provider solution, Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud. The new Advanced File Sync and Share pack builds on the essential file-sharing capabilities included in Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud, layering additional data security capabilities such as blockchainbased data notarization and electronic signatures so service providers can strengthen their workplace collaboration services. Demand for secure file sync and share services has skyrocketed during the past 18 months as 88% of organizations worldwide required employees to work from home and the same percentage of employees expect to keep working remotely to some degree. As a result, 67% of businesses spent more on remote tools and web conferencing. While those trends create opportunities for managed service providers (MSPs) that deliver IT to small- to medium-sized businesses, the challenge is that traditional file sharing solutions do not address the data protection concerns of modern organizations – including control over storage locations, access to

data, and what people can do with that data. Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud gives essential cyber protection capabilities to managed service providers (MSPs) that they can build their services on – including file sync and share on a pay-as-yougo basis. The new Advanced Files Sync and Share pack empowers them with enhanced data security that traditional work collaboration solutions do not offer: • File notarization, powered by the Ethereum blockchain, enables clients to notarize files of any format and type, providing irrefutable proof that a file is original and unaltered. In a world where criminal use of digital editing and deepfake technology for fraud and forgery is rapidly accelerating, such notarization eliminates the risk of logs, records, videos, or images being altered. • Electronic signatures, which enable multiple people to sign a document remotely. The simple drag-and-drop feature helps clients along every step of their document flow – from creation to distribution to signature. The eSigning service also creates a blockchainbased certificate to ensure the

authenticity of the signature and document. In both cases, the blockchainbased certificate creates an immutable audit trail, ensuring data authenticity. Combine that with the ability to select where client data is stored, and MSPs have all they need to deliver the compliance, data sovereignty, and performance required by clients in even the most regulated industries. “At Mindfire Technologies, we are very excited for the new advanced protection pack of Acronis Cyber Product Cloud,” said Mr. Rejeesh Kumar, VP - Technology & Strategies at Mindfire Technologies. "As a business partner, it does not only help us, but also helps provide our clients with the services they need. Cyber protection has become a priority and the advanced file sync and share pack will give them the peace of mind they need when it comes to securely sharing and accessing key data," he added. The launch of Advanced File Sync and Share is part of the regular monthly enhancements made to Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud, which ensure service providers can offer the most complete and up-to-date cyber protection possible.

TECHNOLOGY

NEWS IN DETAIL

TECHNOLOGY

NEWS BYTES

MIMECAST JOINS XDR ALLIANCE TO DRIVE A STRONGER CYBERSECURITY ECOSYSTEM

imecast Limited, a leading email security and cyber resilience company, announces it has joined Exabeam’s XDR Alliance as a founding member. The alliance is a partnership of leading cybersecurity industry innovators committed to an inclusive and collaborative extended detection and response (XDR) framework and architecture. The goal of the XDR Alliance is to foster an open approach to XDR which is essential to enable organizations everywhere to protect themselves against the growing number of cyberattacks, breaches, and intrusions. “We are thrilled to be a founding member and inaugural email security partner in the XDR Alliance,” said Jules Martin, vice president ecosystem & alliances at Mimecast. “We see collaboration in

security being essential in keeping our customers safe, and leveraging the members’ interconnected, best in class cybersecurity solutions, which allows joint customers to benefit greatly.” Collaboration is at the core of Mimecast’s industry leading cyber resilience ecosystem, which includes Exabeam plus 60 other partners, and supports the open framework that are engineered to underpin threat sharing, control points and remediation capabilities which are fundamental to the modern enterprise. The integration among the XDR members is designed to allow organizations to gain greater insights into their threat landscape, reduce complexity, minimize risk and improve threat detection and response times.

Jules Martin VP, Ecosystem & Alliances, Mimecast

VEEAM CONTINUES TO BE A LEADER FOR ENTERPRISE BACKUP AND RECOVERY SOLUTIONS

Danny Allan CTO & Senior VP, of Product Strategy, Veeam

eeam Software, the leader in backup, recovery and data management solutions that deliver Modern Data Protection, announces it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the Leaders

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quadrant of the 2021 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup and Recovery Solutions . Not only does this mark the fifth time Gartner has recognized Veeam as a Magic Quadrant Leader, but it is the second consecutive year Veeam is positioned highest overall in ability to execute; the company had the greatest shift to the right in completeness of vision of all vendors mentioned. Veeam believes this recognition further validates the company’s investment and commitment to protecting customer’s data and delivering a complete Modern Data Protection portfolio, as well as its decade-long reputation for innovation and product excellence. “Now more than ever, organizations expect and demand Modern Data Protection that www.VARonline.com

is simple, flexible, reliable and powerful,” said Danny Allan, CTO and Senior Vice President of Product Strategy at Veeam. “As a Magic Quadrant Leader for the fifth year in a row, Veeam is continually innovating and executing, and setting the industry standard. With $1B+ in annual bookings and 400,000+ customers, Veeam will continue to provide its community with the most advanced data protection across all environments – Cloud, Virtual, Physical, SaaS and Kubernetes – and the highest levels of customer-support.” Veeam released Veeam Backup & Replication v11 earlier this year, enabling the most advanced data protection solution for Cloud, Virtual, Physical and Enterprise workloads.

LG QNED MINI LED TV SETS NEW STANDARDS FOR LCD PICTURE QUALITY New TVs Boast Exclusive Quantum Dot NanoCell Color Technology for Authentic Color Reproduction and Maximum Viewer Immersion

G Electronics (LG) begins rolling out its newest and most premium LCD TV lineup. The manufacturer assures, the TVs deliver a stunning viewing experience with deeper blacks, more accurate color reproduction with greater contrast and brightness. The lineup consists of 8K QNED99 and QNED95 series models along with 4K QNED90 series models in screen sizes ranging from a spacious 65 inches to a colossal 80 inches. Featuring the company’s very own Quantum Dot NanoCell color technology, LG QNED Mini LED ushers in a whole new era in LCD TV picture quality with rich and accurate colors for immersive viewing. Certified by international product testing agency Intertek for providing 100 percent color volume and color consistency, LG QNED Mini LED TVs also eliminate color distortion across a wide viewing angle, ensuring everyone in the room can enjoy the ultimate in LCD picture quality. The bigger the screen, the smaller the details need to be. LG QNED Mini LED TV packs smaller LEDs into the backlight compared to other similarly-sized TV screens, increasing brightness and dimming zones. For example, LG’s 86-inch 8K TV (model 86QNED99UPA) is backlit by approximately 30,000 LED lights

arranged to create about 2,500 local dimming zones to deliver 10 times better contrast ratio than conventional LCD TVs. Deeper blacks and greater details within dark areas create a heightened sense of depth that makes images seem more realistic. LG QNED Mini LED TVs have received Eco-Product certification from SGS Société Générale de Surveillance SA of Switzerland. This certification is awarded to products that fulfill SGS requirements to standards that

include low environmental impact or recyclability. “LG QNED Mini LED TV represents an evolutionary leap forward, leveraging LG’s unique color reproduction technology and mini LED backlighting to achieve the pinnacle of LCD picture quality,” said Park Hyoung-sei, president of the LG Home Entertainment Company. LG QNED Mini LED TVs will be initially made available in North America followed by additional regions around the world.

TECHNOLOGY

NEWS IN DETAIL

TECHNOLOGY

NEWS IN DETAIL

ESET DISCOVERS IIS WEB SERVER THREATS TARGETING GOVERNMENTS AND E-COMMERCE Latest ESET white paper puts Internet Information Services web server threats under the microscope. Three of the discovered families - IIStealer, IISpy and IISerpent - are highlighted to show how IIS malware is being used for cybercrime, cyberespionage and SEO fraud.

SET researchers have discovered a set of 10 previously undocumented malware families, implemented as malicious extensions for Internet Information Services (IIS) web server software. Targeting both government mailboxes and e-commerce credit card transactions, as well as aiding in malware distribution, this diverse class of threats operates by eavesdropping on and tampering with the server’s communications. At least five IIS backdoors have been spreading through server exploitation of Microsoft Exchange email servers in 2021, according to ESET telemetry and the results of additional internet-wide scans that ESET researchers performed to detect the presence of these backdoors. Among the victims are governments in Southeast Asia and dozens of companies belonging to various industries located mostly in Canada, Vietnam, and India, but also in the US, New Zealand, South Korea, and other countries. Today, ESET Research is publishing the white paper “Anatomy of native IIS malware” and launching a series of blogposts on the most notable of the newly discovered threats: IIStealer, IISpy and IISerpent. These will be published on WeLiveSecurity starting today and following through to August 11, 2021. The findings of ESET’s IIS malware research were first presented at Black Hat USA 2021 and will also be shared with the community at the Virus Bulletin 2021 conference on October 8, 2021. IIS malware is a diverse class of threats used for cybercrime, cyberespionage, and SEO fraud — but in all cases, its main purpose is to intercept HTTP requests incoming to the compromised IIS server and affect how the server responds to (some of) these requests. “Internet Information Services web servers have been targeted by various malicious actors, for cybercrime and cyberespionage alike. The software’s modular architecture, designed to provide extensibility for web developers, can be a useful tool for attackers,” says ESET researcher Zuzana Hromcová, author of the paper. ESET has identified five main modes in which IIS malware operates: • IIS backdoors allow their operators to remotely control the compromised computer with IIS installed • IIS infostealers allow their operators to intercept regular traffic between the compromised server and its legitimate visitors and steal information such as login credentials and payment information • IIS injectors modify HTTP responses sent to

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Zuzana Hromcová Researcher, ESET

legitimate visitors to serve malicious content • IIS proxies turn the compromised server into an unwitting part of the command and control infrastructure for another malware family • SEO fraud IIS malware modifies the content served to search engines to manipulate SERP algorithms and boost the ranking for other websites of interest to the attackers “It is still quite rare for security software to run on IIS servers, which makes it easy for attackers to operate unnoticed for long periods of time. This should be disturbing for all serious web portals that want to protect their visitors’ data, including authentication and payment information. Organizations that use Outlook on the web should also pay attention, as it depends on IIS and could be an interesting target for espionage,” explains Hromcová. ESET Research offers several recommendations that can help mitigate against IIS malware attacks. These include using unique, strong passwords and multifactor authentication for the administration of IIS servers; keeping the operating system up to date; using a web application firewall and endpoint security solution for the server; and regularly checking the IIS server configuration to verify that all installed extensions are legitimate.

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TECHNOLOGY

NEWS IN DETAIL

HYBRID WORKFORCE NEEDS CYBERSECURITY ROLLOUT FROM DAY ONE By: Ali Sleiman, Regional Technical Director, Middle East & Africa at Infoblox

he hybrid workforce is a permanent reality for most companies these days. The sudden onset of the pandemic and associated shutdowns gave organizations very little time to prepare for such large-scale remote work, let alone time to think about how to secure their ‘work from home’ users who still needed to access enterprise applications in the cloud, and work with and store corporate data on their devices. Security teams now have to think about protecting corporate resources and data as employees are working outside the corporate perimeter. The pandemic, widespread remote work, and the adoption of new technologies have brought in changes that traditional network architectures cannot deal with. The existing paradigm where the security stack is located within the corporate network is no longer sufficient to protect these teleworkers. Teleworking also exposes the company to a much broader attack surface, as workers add personal devices and home and public Wi-Fi networks to the corporate network. The internet, cloud technologies and the onslaught of wireless all contribute to a massive increase in the attack surface. This requires a different security skill set and an increased awareness of the vulnerabilities of today’s IT environment. Bad actors are taking advantage of the chaotic nature of these times, by launching coronavirus-themed cyber-attacks and impersonating well-known websites that try to provide useful, timely information for the general public. Indeed, COVID-19 has become the subject of choice for phishing and spearphishing campaigns that seek to take advantage of the heightened

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Ali Sleiman Regional Technical Director, MEA, Infoblox

level of fear and concern. In this scenario, cybersecurity needs to be rolled out from day one, or else companies and their employees will be at serious risk from partially secured cloud deployments, data breaches, insecure applications, and remote locations where the security and management of the remote user and the local branch LAN is often ignored, leaving end-users vulnerable. In many cases employees working remotely ignore basic cyber hygiene rules like updating the operating system, using an effective antivirus or strong passwords and backing up data regularly. However, companies also have a responsibility to have structured security policies which address all security gaps. These need to be implemented and www.VARonline.com

adhered to by all employees. Remote workers and end-users will likely be active on a variety of mobile devices, home networks, and public Wi-Fi networks, which make them more likely to face cyberattacks. Leveraging the position a core technology like DNS security has in the network, can play a critical role in preventing attacks like lookalike domains, DOH/ DOT, data exfiltration, and content vulnerabilities. Without a security control like Custom Lookalike Domain, for example, that can monitor such risks, teleworkers will be more easily targeted and vulnerable to attacks, especially in an age where character substitution is increasingly employed by cybercriminals to manipulate users into exposing credit card numbers, passwords and other sensitive data. End-users will always have the primary responsibility of being aware of increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, provided the organization provides proper education and training, and enforces security policies. It is important to consider the risks in consumer grade Wi-Fi connections, as home routers are usually not secure or patched. There are also risks in using shared documents on cloud folders. Additionally, home browsers configured with plugins and certain applications may introduce substantial risk. CISOs should consider implementing technologies like BloxOne Threat Defense from Infoblox that includes a lightweight endpoint agent that helps end users with all of these vulnerabilities and more. While there are a number of different solutions available to protect remote workers, one of the best and most cost-effective is DDI (DNS, DHCP, IPAM).

WILL THE GROWING EMERGENCE OF SD-WAN INCREASE OPPORTUNITY IN THE CHANNEL? By: Simon Pamplin, Chief Technologist WAN Edge EMEA at Aruba Silver Peak, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

ver the past year the pandemic has been a catalyst for accelerated digital transformation and companies are now working hard to adapt and maintain the pace they set themselves. Alongside a myriad of other challenges, the new "work from anywhere" mandate has been a prevailing shift that businesses have had to embrace. Remote working is the new norm, and the net has widened in terms of business locations; instead of being fixed, viable ‘office’ settings could now be coffee shops, homes, shared spaces, and pop-up venues. This has altered the concept of a branch office; while the apps used are the same, the way they are accessed and secured is different, which is putting increased pressure on organizations to transform their WAN and security architectures. Many organizations have tried to manage this shift by stretching their legacy router and firewall centric infrastructures that simply can’t sustain the pace and aren’t flexible enough for modern applications that are primarily hosted in the cloud. As a result, there is a growing demand for SD-WAN, which relies on a cloud-first architecture. But how can channel partners maximize SD-WAN as a growth opportunity? And what should they look out for when it comes to identifying potential customers?

A NEW CONVERSATION One of the key benefits of SD-WAN is that it aligns the network to the desired outcomes of the business. The network is built around the

needs of the business and the software creates an agile virtual network enabling acceleration and innovation that can’t be matched by traditional networks. With SDWAN automation and intelligence, the network becomes self-driving, simplifying processes and driving efficiencies that ensure business leaders can get on with running their companies instead of worrying about the accessibility and security of their business applications. This shift in approach presents a huge opportunity for channel partners – particularly those who have sold traditional networking. Instead of talking to IT departments about new network ‘products’, resellers can now speak to business leaders about WAN and security transformation that will enable them to deliver on broader company goals and objectives, and gain time to market advantages. This means partners can target a new audience with a fundamentally new approach to unifying network and security architectures, instead focusing on addressing strategic business challenges for customers rather than simply reselling networking gear.

AN ENTRY TO CLOUD Businesses across every sector are considering some form of digital transformation, but this is often accompanied by concerns around complexity and disruption. SDWAN eradicates those concerns – with the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform, for example, it’s now possible to extend the www.VARonline.com

Simon Pamplin Chief Technologiest WAN Edge EMEA, Aruba Silver Peak

network into AWS, Azure, Google, or Oracle with a few mouse clicks, meaning businesses don’t need to worry about embracing a hybrid or multi-cloud strategy. This level of simplicity makes SD-WAN an attractive proposition for businesses considering cloud migration and gives partners another opportunity to have a strategic business discussion with customers. Furthermore, as partners continue supporting customers in their adoption and evolution of WAN and security transformation, they will have the ability to establish profitable SD-WAN business practices that will fuel their own growth and profitability in a sustainable way. To ensure resellers succeed throughout their SD-Wan journey they should partner with a trusted provider that offers ongoing training and certification.

FINAL WORD The good thing about SD-WAN is that it’s sector agnostic, so resellers have a vast target market and addressable market to serve. SD-WAN is driven by business needs and will benefit any geographically distributed business, which casts the net wide in a post-pandemic world. AUGUST 2021 11

TECHNOLOGY

NEWS IN DETAIL

TECHNOLOGY

NEWS BYTES

SENTINELONE UNVEILS STORYLINE ACTIVE RESPONSE TO TRANSFORM XDR

entinelOne, an autonomous cybersecurity platform company, unveils SentinelOne Storyline Active Response (STAR), its cloud-based automated hunting, detection, and response engine. Integrated with SentinelOne’s ActiveEDR, STAR empowers security teams to create custom detection and response rules and deploy them in real time to the entire network or desired subset, to proactively detect and respond to threats. STAR also enables security teams to turn these queries into hunting rules that trigger alerts and automated responses when rules detect matches. STAR replaces the need for manual, one-off, and laborintensive legacy EDR activities with automated, customized responses - empowering SOC teams to stay a

step ahead of the rapidly evolving threat landscape. Unlike legacy EDR watchlists, STAR can protect against new threats without software updates, write customized MITREcompatible detection logic, and add rules for industry-specific threats at machine speed. The SentinelOne Singularity XDR platform is built on the foundation of Storyline technology. Storyline leverages patented behavioral AI to monitor, track, and contextualize all event data across endpoints, cloud workloads, and IoT devices. The output is a dynamic model which scores risk and connects disparate event data automatically into an understandable story at machine speed. Storyline Active Response adds capability to the output of the Storyline technology to customize

detection and automate responses. “Despite advancements over the past few years, EDR products are still human-powered and dependent on manual work to respond to attacks. The result is a growing time gap which benefits the adversary in compromising enterprises,” said Yonni Shelmerdine, Head of XDR Products and Strategy, SentinelOne. “We built STAR to enable SOC teams to be proactive and efficient. The “R” of EDR - response - has always been too resource-intensive and is the weak spot where today’s products, people, and processes fall short. STAR is a natural evolution of our best-in-class visibility and advanced detection capabilities, enabling enterprises to benefit from the automation, scale, and speed that we’re bringing to the XDR era.”

TREND MICRO BECOMES A LEADER IN OFFERING ENTERPRISE EMAIL SECURITY

Dr. Moataz Bin Ali Trend Micro, VP & MD, Trend Micro MENA

rend Micro Incorporated, a global cybersecurity leader, announces it has been named a leader, in The Forrester Wave

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Enterprise Email Security, Q2 2021 report. Trend Micro is a leader among the 15 evaluated vendors, scoring second highest in the Current Offering category and tying for the highest score in the Strategy category, two of the three main categories evaluated. Email security is a key layer of security provided by Trend Micro’s cybersecurity platform. At the heart of the platform is Trend Micro Vision One, which delivers visibility and XDR for faster detection of attacks, using telemetry from email security in addition to the other components of the platform including endpoint, servers, cloud workload and networks. The Forrester report assessed that “Trend Micro delivers advanced, integrated email security” noting that “Enterprises seeking an email www.VARonline.com

security solution with strong endpoint integration (especially for Trend Micro-protected endpoints) and [incident response] capabilities should evaluate Trend Micro.” “Email is a preferred and an evolving mode of communication in the enterprise world, more so with remote working coming into existence, dependency on email as a tool has increased. The analysis of our email security solution is pivotal to our overall offerings” said Dr. Moataz Bin Ali, Trend Micro, VP & Managing Director. Trend Micro delivers a layered approach to email security to protect against simple phishing and spam as well as advanced targeted attacks, using pre-execution machine learning, macro analysis, exploit detection, and dynamic sandbox analysis for files and URLs.

With Open Source Solutions and Global Services from SUSE

We give customers the freedom to innovate everywhere.

FEATURE

NUTANIX

RED HAT AND NUTANIX PARTNERSHIP TO DELIVER OPEN HYBRID MULTICLOUD Red Hat OpenShift becomes the preferred enterprise full stack Kubernetes Solution on Nutanix Cloud Platform with AHV

ed Hat, the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source solutions, and Nutanix, a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, announces a strategic partnership to enable a powerful solution for building, scaling and managing cloud-native applications on-premises and in hybrid clouds. The collaboration brings together industry-leading technologies, enabling installation, interoperability and management of Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Nutanix Cloud Platform, including Nutanix AOS and AHV. Key elements of the partnership include: • Red Hat OpenShift as the preferred choice for enterprise full stack Kubernetes on Nutanix Cloud Platform. Customers looking to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift on hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) will be able

“This partnership brings together Red Hat’s industryleading cloud native solutions with the simplicity, flexibility and resilience of the Nutanix Cloud Platform. Together, our solutions provide customers with a full stack platform to build, scale, and manage containerized and virtualized cloud native applications in a hybrid multicloud environment.” 14 AUGUST 2021

to use an industry-leading cloud platform from Nutanix, which includes both Nutanix AOS and AHV. • Nutanix Cloud Platform is now a preferred choice for HCI for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift. This will enable customers to deploy virtualized and containerized workloads on a hyperconverged infrastructure, building on the combined benefits of Red Hat’s open hybrid cloud technologies and Nutanix’s hyperconverged offerings • Nutanix AHV is now a Red Hat certified hypervisor enabling full support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenShift on Nutanix Cloud Platform. The certification of the Nutanix built-in hypervisor, AHV, for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenShift offers enterprise customers a simplified full stack solution for their containerized and virtualized cloud-native applications. This certification delivers Red Hat customers additional choice in hypervisor deployments, especially as many organizations explore innovative, modern virtualization technologies • Joint engineering roadmap providing robust interoperability. Red Hat and Nutanix will focus on delivering continuous testing of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift with Nutanix AHV to provide robust interoperability. The companies will also collaborate to deliver more timely support by aligning product roadmaps • More seamless support experience providing faster resolution times for joint customers. Customers will be able to contact either company with support issues. The two companies are collaborating to deliver a best-in-class support experience for the interoperability of www.VARonline.com

Rajiv Ramaswami President and CEO, Nutanix

the certified products. Because of its distributed architecture, Nutanix Cloud Platform delivers an IT environment that is highly scalable and resilient, and well-suited for enterprise deployments of Red Hat OpenShift at scale. The platform also includes fully integrated unified storage, addressing many tough challenges operators routinely face in configuring and managing storage for stateful containers.

“We have a vision to enable open hybrid clouds, where customers have choice and flexibility. Our partnership with Nutanix brings a leading hyperconverged offering to the open hybrid cloud, driving greater choice for our joint customers in how they deploy their containerized workloads and backed by a joint support experience.”

COVER FEATURE

OPEN SOURCE

pen source trends will play a pivotal role in modern computing, particularly in application development and IT infrastructure. With open source’s rapid rise in prominence, the trends remain relatively obscure to the world. Open source being the ground zero for technology development has become the preferred way of growing hot new technology, particularly for start-ups. The open source juggernaut is set to sail well in 2021 and is project growth in the years to come. From enterprise solutions to cloud architects, from containers to encryption tools, and from data tools to insight creators, open source had managed to build the most avant-garde products including security firewalls in recent years. Its consistent pattern of growth has invited major IT giants to obtain stakes in innovative projects.

RISE OF KUBERNETES Kubernetes is an open-source system to automate deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications to leverage on-premises, hybrid, or public cloud infrastructure. Kubernetes allows scaling without increasing the ops team. Before Kubernetes, the development and deployment of cloud-native applications were challenging. After Kubernetes, open source platforms do all the heavy lifting. The platform for running containerized workloads attracted developers from the open source community around the world, and its functions are quite similar to an Infrastructure-asa-Service (IaaS) solution and a Platform-as-a-Service resource (PaaS). It also offers the facility to monitor the status of a deployment in-progress, and complements a DevOps ecosystem.

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A 90s-

Collaborativ

FOG COMPUTING Fog computing is a distributed network connecting edge computing and cloud or IoT. The core idea of a distributed network is that it connects different environments. Fog computing frameworks provide more choices to process data when appropriate. Cisco partnered with Microsoft, Dell, Intel and Princeton University in 2015 to form the OpenFog Consortium. General Electric (GE), Hitachi, and Foxconn came forward to contribute to the mission. Promotion and standardization were the primary goals of the consortium. It had also merged with Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) in 2019.

DATA GETS BIGGER AND BETTER Big data will continue to get bigger and better. Opensource technologies will continue to make big data into the future. Let’s take a look at the powerful open source tools that handle big data.

1. APACHE HADOOP

-Born

ve Champion

Apache Hadoop has enormous capabilities in processing large-scale data. It is also considered to be the most prominent tool used widely in the big-data industry. This is a 100 percent open source framework and runs on commodity hardware in an existing data center. Furthermore, it can run on a cloud infrastructure. Hadoop has four parts, which are: • Hadoop Distributed File System: A distributed file system compatible with very high scale bandwidth • MapReduce: A programming model • YARN: It is a platform that manages and schedules Hadoop’s resources www.VARonline.com

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COVER FEATURE

OPEN SOURCE

COVER FEATURE

OPEN SOURCE

•

Libraries: It helps other modules to work with Hadoop

2. MONGODB MongoDB is an open source NoSQL database. It has a lot of built-in features and it is a cross-platform compatible application. It is suitable for the business that needs fast and real-time data. It also runs on MEAN software stack, NET applications and, Java platform. Key features of MongoDB: • It stores any type of data like integer, string, array, object, boolean, date, etc. • It gives flexibility in cloudbased infrastructure • It partitions data across the

18 AUGUST 2021

•

servers in a cloud structure MongoDB’s dynamic schemas is another way of cost-saving

3. HPCC High-Performance Computing Cluster (HPCC) is one of the best open source big data tools and the competitor of Hadoop in the market. Important features of HPCC: • Helps in the parallel data processing • Runs on commodity hardware • Comes with binary packages supported for Linux distributions • Supports end-to-end big data workflow management www.VARonline.com

OPEN SOURCE AND CLOUD FACTOR With most IT departments willing to avoid installing and maintaining applications locally when possible, the cloud is becoming the chosen platform for open source applications. And the trend is not just limited to small app developers; even Microsoft Office 365 is a semicloud offering including its chief rival Google Apps. Hybrid cloud gave enterprises choices – to figure out the right kind of cloud that can handle their workloads. However, its definition changed over time. Initially thought of in the context of cloud bursting where the onpremise infrastructure can reach out to a public cloud if usage spikes,

the hybrid cloud now addresses data and application portability without racking up bandwidth bills for enterprises. Hybrid cloud today is essentially a functional and effective combo of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, container platforms, and public clouds, which facilitates data and application portability from one location to another whenever necessary.

OPEN SOURCE SECURITY What makes open source solutions the big fat targets is their rising popularity and ubiquity, which also makes the industry to take notice and collaboratively fund (once woefully under-resourced) projects like OpenSSL. OpenSSL is licensed under an Apache-style license. Barring some simple license conditions, OpenSSL is free for both commercial and noncommercial purposes. Users can report vulnerabilities and they get fixed regularly.

DATA ENCRYPTION

For open source enthusiasts, the last few years were full of exciting developments which contributed to the growth of many open source services – from CMS development to cloud.

This is the foremost and basic way to secure the whole data and encrypt your entire data to encode a message or information. Starting from small-scale enterprises to large corporates spend millions of dollars for a secure way of transmitting and receiving. As chances are high for cybercriminals to keep a tab on any careless distribution of data, mainly from financial institutions, and use it for fraudulent activities. So, user inputs and personally identifiable information (PII) have to be protected with utmost importance. Even though, there are numerous encryption tools available in both closed and open source software libraries, VeraCrypt, AxCrypt, FileVault, GNU Privacy Guard are www.VARonline.com

popular among free tools.

OFFICE APPLICATIONS Microsoft Office has an elephant share of users amongst office applications. It had further developed that to Office 365 combining email, video conference, and its traditional applications (Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). It could also propagate Office 365 as a complete solution with document control features. In the open source arena, the Documents Foundation community’s LibreOffice based on OpenOffice.org is one of the most popular software. The group of applications is observed as a feasible alternative to Microsoft Office 365 and acts as a free tool for edit, document and distribute content. The developer community claims, “we believe that users should have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change, and improve the software that we distribute.” It adds, “while we do offer no-cost downloads of the LibreOffice suite of programs, free software becomes the foremost a matter of liberty, not price.” Apart from LibreOffice, WPS, Polaris and a few others also offer open source document solutions for mobile and computer users.

CONCLUSION For open source enthusiasts, the last few years were full of exciting developments which contributed to the growth of many open source services – from CMS development to cloud. Infrastructure software is getting paradigm shifts and new developments under open source licenses massively expand their potential. Until now, there hasn’t been any disappointment for open source supporters but has exceptional resources and reasons to endorse the idea. Hopefully, we will see open source dominating even more soon. AUGUST 2021 19

COVER FEATURE

OPEN SOURCE

INTERVIEW

GOOD LIFE TECHNOLOGIES

OPEN SOURCE MYTH-BUSTING

Even if open source showcases massive growth rate over these years, it couldn’t get rid of some of the myths entwined along the way. The Integrator decides to address the matter diligently on an “exclusive” interview with an open source expert Sandeep Chabra. Mr. Sandeep is the founder of Good Life Technologies, an IT solution provider in the middle east. Open source is a “PRODUCT” Open Source is a community of developers, who develop codes and contribute them to the community. This may include bug fixing, enhancement of features, or integration of projects. There are several open source projects. Some are popular, some are yet to catch the attention of people. Linux is one of those popular projects, so is Ceph, and 200+ very known amongst thousands of projects. Open source is “FREE” That’s absolutely right! But continue reading further, we get down to the nitty-gritty of open source. The community develops and uploads a free version, called the upstream version, of the project and that is absolutely free to use. You would need to source the updates or bug fixing from the community itself. If you can afford the cost of downtime, lack of functionality, and criticality of the availability of applications or databases running, you may adopt that model. Several vendors provide their distribution of the project with certain add-ons and additional codes. They undertake the responsibility of giving support to them (i.e., provide you with remote support 24X7 as well as patches to fix an issue). The cost you decide to pay, is the support cost. Hence there are no licenses, but subscriptions. You agree to hire a vendor’s support at a service-level agreement (SLA), for a price, for a duration. Consider it like Office 365 or antivirus products. Open source subscriptions include INSTALLATION or ONSITE SUPPORT Absolutely not. Like any software product, the support is usually provided remotely by raising a ticket to the vendor. Ideally, you own an IT team or hired partner’s services team that undertakes the onus of updating, upgrading, and fixing problems as the recommendation of the vendor’s customer support. In summary, there is a charge for this and it may depend on the expectations, which could be but are not limited to: i. Support your environment when it is needed

20 AUGUST 2021

ii. Update or upgrade your environment when new patches are released or when you wish to upgrade iii. Availability of engineers round the clock, at my data-center iv. Availability of engineers and experts remotely - round the clock Open source PROJECTS ARE SAME, so all their variants No, absolutely not! A vendor releases several variants of the project by adding features and functionalities at a commercial support price. E.g., Let’s take Linux, the operating system (OS). 1. Vanilla Linux OS 2. Linux with SAP add-ons 3. Linux with HA 4. Linux for HPC 5. Linux with management agents (Smart Linux) Yes, it is important to work within a budget, but you can’t run a diesel engine with petrol or vice versa. Open source products are DIFFERENT BINARIES and depend on where we purchase Absolutely not. You could purchase the open source subscriptions from v. A partner or reseller of the particular product. Or from a vendor vi. Along with your hardware from an independent hardware vendor (IHV). E.g. HPE, IBM, DELL, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Huawei, Supermicro) vii. Consuming it from the public cloud service provider’s (CSP) marketplace. E.g., Azure, AWS, GCP, Etisalat Digital, Moro-Hub Cloud, etc. The binaries are identical and the only difference is the support model. While option 1 above means, you may create a support ticket for L1/L2/L3 levels with the vendor or vendor’s partners, the option 2 or 3 model is that you raise tickets with IHV or CSP partner for L1 and L2 level problems. In return, they raise that for L3 level issues with open source vendors. Several customers start escalation calls with the vendors, who have no data or account with the customer

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as the account is with the IHV or CSP, who are expected to front end all issues. Commercially any option may have a very slight cost impact. Open source products are new to the market and NOT YET READY for business-critical applications Absolutely not. It’s a fact that some of the projects are developing extremely fast and could be termed emerging technologies. But some projects are more than two decades old and very mature and have almost every feature that of non-stop IT projects. You simply need to check out the correct application version open source products with vendors. These are also tested with basic essential features such as: i. File systems ii. High availability or clustering iii. Scale-up/out iv. Back-up v. Antivirus products vi. Disaster recovery or tolerance products vii. Monitoring and management solutions viii. Certification by most hypervisors such as KVM, ESX, HyperV, OpenStack of several vendors ix. Compatibility with hardware devices for drivers, most networks, and protocols used by the industry Open source products are FREE for development or test or disaster recovery sites Absolutely not! You must have subscriptions for all environments, if you are seeking support from a vendor, directly or indirectly. It would depend on the vendor, to provide any commercial discount for non-production workloads or environment but it is certainly not free. It is very EASY TO CALCULATE the optimum and compliant quantity and type of subscriptions required Absolutely not. Although most of the products are easy to identify for the needs, the quantity is often miscalculated and the mistake is realized when an issue comes up or a trouble ticket is raised. We have often seen that 50 percent of the organizations are under deployed and are exposed to obvious perils, 30 percent are over deployed and refuse any optimization for cost-cutting. Bring your own subscription (BYOS) model makes it quite complicated especially in private, hybrid, or public cloud deployments. It is recommended that competent consultants are involved to purchase, renew or audit from time to time as the IT infrastructure keeps changing over time. Open source expertise is WIDELY AVAILABLE and normal IT support engineers are knowledgeable to handle all my requirements Absolutely not. For basic skills of operating systems

Sandeep Chabra Founder, Good Life Technologies

It is recommended that competent consultants are involved to purchase, renew, or audit from time to time as the IT infrastructure keeps changing over time. installation and configurations, there might be talents available. But when it comes to requiring a specific type of clustering for applications and databases such as HANA HSR, HANA HA, or application servers ASCS-ERS clusters, not many skills are available; though many people would dispute this statement. For some of the projects such as containers, orchestration, security, Kubernetes-based platforms including software-defined storage, there is a shortage of skills. As many organizations are adopting these rapidly, as an essential step towards digital transformation/agile IT, the world could do very well with a few thousand skilled engineers. It is always suggested to check out the details of the people involved to deliver the project and their credentials then going with the brand names of the organizations who take the orders for delivering the projects.

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AUGUST 2021 21

INTERVIEW

GOOD LIFE TECHNOLOGIES

TECHNOLOGY

NEWS BYTES

TENABLE HELPS ORGANIZATIONS DISRUPT ATTACKS WITH NEW RECTORY SECURITY CHECKS

n the wake of a growing number of both ransomware and sophisticated attacks, Tenable Inc., the Cyber Exposure company, has developed 10 foundational configuration checks for its solutions, including Tenable.io, Tenable.sc and both Nessus Professional and Nessus Essentials, that assess Microsoft Active Directory security readiness and align remediation efforts based on the threat landscape. These checks leverage Tenable’s expertise in securing Active Directory environments through Tenable.ad and are available immediately for existing customers at no extra charge. Bad actors have set their sights on the one system that connects everything on the corporate network-- from cloud, web apps, traditional IT and operational technology (OT): Active Directory.

According to Frost & Sullivan, 90 percent of the Fortune 1000 use Active Directory as their primary method for authentication and authorization. Active Directory is almost always the first target for bad actors once they gain a foothold in the enterprise. The Solarwinds hack and a string of high-profile ransomware attacks that crippled critical infrastructure have highlighted the critical role that Active Directory plays in enterprise security and the problems which can occur if not expertly configured, audited and monitored for high-risk activities. The Active Directory Security Readiness Checks are now generally available in Tenable.sc, Tenable. io, Tenable.ep, Nessus Professional and Nessus Essentials. Customers interested in a complete Active

Renaud Deraison Co-Founder & CTO, Tenable

Directory security solution are encouraged to learn more about Tenable.

SAVOYE APPOINTS ALAIN KADDOUM AS MD FOR THE MIDDLE EAST OFFICE

Alain Kaddoum Managing Director, ME, Savoye

s part of its mission to solidify its position in the Middle East as a leading global warehouse automation integrator and software publisher, Savoye has announced the appointment of Alain Kaddoum

22 AUGUST 2021

as the Middle East Managing Director. With Kaddoum now on board, Savoye will enhance its longterm strategy to become one of the leading providers of supply chain solutions in the region, combining hardware and software according to customer needs such as manual, semi-mechanised, mechanised, highly automated, or robotised installations. Commenting on the new appointment, Frédéric Zielinski, Managing Director of Savoye EMEA, said: “Our team is proud to welcome Alain as our Middle East Managing Director. As we have observed from his previous experience, Kaddoum goes out of his way to ensure the success of any business he is involved in. Knowing his leadership caliber and industry expertise, www.VARonline.com

paired with our support and ambitious vision, we are confident that Savoye is ready to impact the region’s supply chain industry even beyond our greatest expectations.” For his part, Kaddoum said: “I am excited to join Savoye and enjoy seamless collaboration with the team to strengthen our presence in the Middle East through our innovative warehouse automation and software offerings. The company has a lot of potential and has a big role to play within the region's supply chain, especially that the industry is continuously evolving to accommodate new trends and to cater to the changing needs of partner industries. Together, we will develop and integrate the most efficient solutions for Savoye and add value to all of our customers.”

TECHNOLOGY

NEWS BYTES

AMD RELEASES HIGH-PERFORMING RYZEN 5000 G-SERIES DESKTOP PROCESSORS

MD is bringing the Ryzen 5000 G-Series Desktop Processors with Radeon Graphics to the DIY market, bringing high-performance integrated graphics and powerful features to satisfy the most demanding gamers, creators and enthusiasts. Harnessing the power of “Zen 3” architecture, 7nm process, and Radeon Graphics, the Ryzen 5000 G-Series offers incredible generational improvements, driving over 100 FPS in gaming and high-speed content creation. With even more benefits for users, the Ryzen 5000 G-Series can take full advantage of features like AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution, Radeon Boost, AMD Smart Access Memory and more. AMD Ryzen 5000 G-Series processors with Radeon Graphics are expected to be available from global e-tailers/retailers.

Ultra-Responsive: AMD Ryzen 5000 G-Series Desktop Processors with Radeon™ Graphics deliver ultra-fast responsiveness and multi-threaded performance for mainstream PCs. Most Advanced Technology:

These processors with Radeon Graphics are designed with industry-leading 7nm process “Zen 3” processor technology for faster, efficient processing to get it all done, faster than ever before, while running cool and quiet.

BRAND NEW GAMING MONITORS FROM HP AT INCREDIBLE PRICES

he HP X Series Gaming Monitors deliver incredible value for the price and offer large, beautiful screens and a range of options sure to please all gamers. Four of these monitors will be IPS flat screened with 27”, 32” and

24 AUGUST 2021

34” options while the remaining three will be VA curved with 27” and 32” options. Each gaming monitor will be capable 165Hz refresh rate with 1ms response time, along with AMD FreeSync Premium, and all come equipped with HP Eye Ease with EyeSafe Certification and an adjustable stand, so you can game more comfortably. We’re also ecstatic to share that each monitor was sustainably made with 80% post-consumer recycled materials and recyclable packaging. Most importantly, the X series monitors give you a chance to experience a taste of our OMEN ecosystem with the ability to access a range of features in OMEN Gaming Hub. HP hints it will release its 1500R curved screen monitors in October. The curved ones will be similar to the flat screen variants in terms of design, features and port selection. The curved screen range features 350 nits of peak brightness and come with VA panels. The HP X27c has a full-HD (1,920x1,080 pixels) curved display, the HP X27qc has a QHD (2,560x1,440 pixels) curved display, and the HP X32c has a 31.5-inch 1,080 full-HD (1,920x1,080 pixels) curved display.

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TECHNOLOGY

EYE TECH

SONY MEA INTRODUCES A NEW INTERCHANGEABLE-LENS CAMERA FOR CREATORS

ony Middle East & Africa releases a new Alpha series interchangeable lens camera for creators, the Alpha ZV-E10. The new camera combines Sony’s advanced imaging technology with extensive usability and a custom-built feature set that is optimised for creators. At its core, the Alpha ZV-E10 features a 24.2-megapixel (approx. effective) APS-C Exmor CMOS sensor and BIONZ X image processing engine to produce high-quality imagery with high-sensitivity, detailed texture depiction and beautiful natural bokeh. Additionally, the Alpha ZV-E10 includes the acclaimed video-specific features favored in the popular digital camera ZV-1 including “Background Defocus” that can smoothly switch between a blurred (bokeh) and sharp background, as well as the “Product Showcase Setting” mode that allows the camera to automatically shift focus from the subject’s face to an object being highlighted. The Alpha ZV-E10 features a video-first design in a lightweight form factor (approx. 12 oz. / 343g ) and includes the popular side-opening Vari-angle LCD Screen that allows creators to connect external mics on top of the camera. This simplifies their setup while still allowing users to see the screen in selfie shooting mode and from high and low angles.

Key Features: • Interchangeable-Lens Camera for Expanded Creative Expression • Advanced Autofocus • High Quality Audio • Livestreaming • Cutting-edge Video Features

KINGSTON RELEASES FURY TO TAKE SYSTEMS TO THE NEXT LEVEL Kingston Technology Europe Co LLP, an affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., announces the release and shipping of its high-performance memory: Kingston FURY Renegade, Kingston FURY Beast, and Kingston FURY Impact. Enthusiasts and gamers can give their systems the upgrade they need and want with modules in DDR4 RGB, DDR4 non-RGB, and DDR3. Perfect for the gamer who wants cuttingedge performance, Kingston FURY Renegade DDR4 RGB1 allows you to crank up your frame rate, keep your streams broadcasting smoothly, and plough through your highlight reel editing. Offering speeds up to 4600MHz2 paired with quick CL15-CL19 latencies. The dynamic RGB lighting utilises Kingston FURY's patented Infrared Sync

26 AUGUST 2021

Technology™ to provide smooth, synchronised lighting effects. With its own aggressive, stylish black heat spreader and matching black PCB Kingston FURY Renegade DDR4 also provides ultra-fast speeds up to 5333MHz2, paired with quick CL13-CL20 timings. Both are Intel® XMP certified with profiles that are optimised for Intel’s latest chipsets – just select the hand-tuned profile in your BIOS and you’re ready to strike fear in the hearts of your foes. Available in single module capacities of 8GB - 32GB and kits of 2, 4, and 8 with capacities up to 256GB. Kingston FURY Beast DDR4 RGB and Kingston FURY Beast DDR4 provide powerful performance boosts for gaming, video editing, and rendering with speeds up to 3733MHz and CL15–19 latencies.

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TEAMGROUP ANNOUNCES THE 8TB MP34Q M.2 PCIE SSD AND SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM MEMORY CARD

o meet the market demand for large-capacity data storage, TEAMGROUP introduces two highperformance, huge-capacity storage products: the TEAMGROUP MP34Q M.2 PCIe SSD, which utilizes QLC Flash and the PCIe Gen3x4 interface and comes with capacities up to 8TB; and the high endurance card designed for high-resolution surveillance systems. Whether it is for computer equipment or security systems used at home or a business, TEAMGROUP provides reliable upgrade solutions for those who seek the best performance and stability. The company announced the TEAMGROUP MP34Q M.2 PCIe SSD, which utilizes QLC Flash and the PCIe Gen3x4 interface. It also supports NVMe 1.3 and the Dual Cache technologies: SLC Caching and DRAM Cache Buffer. The MP34Q M.2 PCIe SSD offers a massive capacity of up to 8TB, excellent read/write speeds of up to 3,400/3,000 MB/s, and an official five-year warranty with purchase, so consumers can buy and upgrade with confidence.

The high endurance card designed specifically for surveillance equipment has a Video Speed Class V30 and supports 4K and Full-HD recording and playback. With multi-protective and durability features, it can not only withstand both high and low temperatures, but it is also shockproof, waterproof, anti-static, and x-ray proof. Moreover, it provides long-term stable storage performance for write-intensive workloads. The high endurance card comes with capacities of up to 256GB and allows you to read and write 40,000 hours of surveillance footage, making it the perfect card for advanced security system storage.

Those looking for a cost-efficient upgrade will have the option of the smooth and stunning lighting effects of Kingston FURY Beast DDR4 RGB.

Key features: • Stylish low-profile heat spreader design • Available in single module capacities of 4GB–32GB, and kit capacities of 8GB–128GB. • Plug n Play automatic overclocking at C2666MHz3 • Intel XM and AMD Ryzen ready

www.VARonline.com

AUGUST 2021 27

TECHNOLOGY

EYE TECH

TECHNOLOGY

NEWS BYTES

NEXWEB CHOOSES BUTTERFLY PROTOCOL FOR POWERING NFT PLATFORM

exWEB Technologies, delivering technology innovation since 2012, is pushing into the decentralized and distributed web space by utilizing the Butterfly Protocol, the premiere community-driven blockchain domain provider. Building upon the open-source toolset that Butterfly provides, NexWEB will create additional tools to enable NFT (nonfungible token) marketplaces to be developed and deployed quickly. The Butterfly Protocol is the world's leading community-driven blockchain domain provider. It allows anyone to sponsor a blockchain top-level domain (bTLD) for use by the community or private use by using BFLY tokens to create the bTLD. Sponsors can acquire BFLY tokens via several DEFI exchanges, including the Uniswap

platform. Once BFLY are used to sponsor a bTLD, they are burned and removed from the finite supply. Eddie Quiroz, Founder of NexWEB, stated that, "The world of the decentralized and distributed web has reached the tipping point of use as decentralized finance and markets around digital assets drive growth. The Butterfly Protocol provides NexWEB with a baseline for using a naming system that replaces traditional DNS for the centralized world of the internet. By using Butterfly, we can build a robust ecosystem of tools for this emerging space that allows developers to create rather than invent." In addition to the bTLD, .nex, NexWEB has acquired .sandbox as a testing area for developers to expand on the provided toolsets.

The. sandbox bTLD will be offered as a working space on the decentralized web and open for registered developers without a fee except for gas transaction costs. The NEXW utility token will be used to access advanced tools and usage of services that require management and monitoring. It will also be used to acquire blockchain domains under NexWEB's premium domain services. In addition to the Ethereum blockchain, NexWEB will expand the toolset and access via other chains to create interoperability and efficient resource usage. NexWEB is creating the best-inclass set of tools to choose from for a fully contained system, including payment processing, digital watermarketing, fraud prevention, identity authentication, and more.

WIPRO LAUNCHES FIELDX, AFTER SALES AND SERVICE SOLUTION ON SERVICENOW

ipro Limited, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, launches FieldX, a cloud-based end-to-end digital service lifecycle automation solution built on ServiceNow’s Now Platform. Using FieldX, manufacturing organizations can enhance and scale-up their after-sales customer service operations while reducing costs. Built as part of the ServiceNow Partner Industry Solution Program, FieldX integrates the customer service and field-service management capabilities of the Now Platform with Wipro’s Internet of Things (IoT) and Augmented Reality (AR) platforms. By digitizing and automating departmental and cross-enterprise workflows, FieldX

28 AUGUST 2021

allows manufacturers to scale-up operations with reduced costs. FieldX helps manufacturers enhance their customers’ experience with omni-channel support that leverages Wipro’s processtransformation expertise and technological innovations. It also increases machine uptime through proactive IoT-based monitoring, while AR-based live assistance accelerates issue resolution. In addition, FieldX provides service operators and field service workers a 360-degree view of the customer, thereby improving their efficiency. Harish Dwarkanhalli, President, iDEAS – Apps & Data, Wipro Limited said, “FieldX is a significant step forward in our partnership with ServiceNow and it enables manufacturers to proactively www.VARonline.com

address their customers’ needs in after-sales service management. We look forward to working with ServiceNow to give other relevant industries the opportunity to leverage this comprehensive digital solution as they transform their own customer-service processes.” Binoy Gosalia, Global Head of Industry Partnerships, ServiceNow said, “Wipro’s expertise in Field Service Management and manufacturing, combined with ServiceNow’s continued innovation across the Now Platform, helps ensure that FieldX addresses all manufacturer needs. After-sales service and customer care are focus areas for ServiceNow, and we look forward to our continued collaboration with Wipro in this space.”

TECHNOLOGY

NEWS BYTES

IDC PUBLISHES A WHITE PAPER AIMING TO REDEFINE ALL-FLASH DATA CENTERS Stronger digital infrastructure will be crucial for local enterprises, with 65% of global GDP to be digitalized by 2022

new white paper published by International Data Corporation (IDC) and sponsored by Huawei is the industry’s first to systematically outline the all-flash data center in terms of storage, computing, and networks. The paper—titled "Moving Towards an All-Flash Data Center Era to Accelerate Digital Transformation"—serves as a crucial reference and guide for enterprises looking to transform digitally, aiming to promote the construction and future-oriented development of all-flash data centers across all industries. Data center transformation and innovation are inevitable trends as the region moves towards an intelligent era. With the ongoing upgrade of enterprise IT architectures, more organizations are investing in innovative technologies that cover data innovation, real-time agility, energy efficiency, reliability, and intelligent management. These aspects represent the new trends for a future-oriented, sustainable data centers. The white paper redefines the concept of an all-flash data center as one that adopts solid-state drives (SSDs) for at least 90% of its storage capacity, covering external storage systems and built-in storage of servers, while delivering high density and reliability, low latency, and energy efficiency. The all-flash data center will play a big role in the promotion of digitalbased businesses and applications, and helps enterprises to maximize the value of data innovation. In addition, the white paper describes the definition and positioning of the all-flash data

30 AUGUST 2021

centers based on global best practices in the financial, telecommunications, and healthcare industries, among others. It is therefore of value to those looking to supercharge their digital development needs as well as scientific and technological innovation. • The all-flash system is no longer limited to certain applications and workloads, and now can be rolled out to meet critical and value-added workloads in diverse environments. • National and international policies on green energy conservation have been gradually implemented across enterprise production and operations. An allflash data center is a smart choice for and the next step in sustainable development. • Data center networks are evolving towards all-IP networking. NVMe over Fabrics is projected to be the catalyst for transmission architecture innovation to achieve higher performance and simplify www.VARonline.com

O&M management, especially in a computing and storage disaggregated architecture. • Digital transformation is presenting new challenges to enterprises, including those presented by real-time data. The memory-driven infrastructure is now a mainstream choice because it provides optimal latency for workloads and uses cutting-edge technologies such as AI, machine learning, and deep learning. Such infrastructure is providing high data concurrency at low latency, perfect for workload expansion. • Going for.ward, digital infrastructure will evolve to become ubiquitous and cover the entire data lifecycle. The all-flash data center will implement crossdomain deployment throughout the data lifecycle, offering intelligent O&M that reduces data center management costs and complexity, while delivering higher unit performance and reliability than alternative models.

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