The Integrator February 2018

Everybody.

Everywhere.

Every day.

Ordinary days require extraordinary protection.

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Find out more about the software behind the everyday at genetec.com/protectingeveryday

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ontents

Cover Feature - 18

Editorial

SDN’s growing footprint

The next leap

SDN through its various use case scenarios will empower organizations embarking on digital transformation

I

Point2Point - 14

ntersec’s 2018 edition underlined the fact that the commercial security segment is continuing to see healthy growth. Integrated security that connects all Access control / credential approving interfaces along with surveillance infrastructure that in turn is monitored and controlled by a central security management platform, brings to life the ubiquitous sentinel which protects the premises from all possible security evasions and intrusions. In recent past, there has been a spurt in growth for vendors focusing into the vast number of opportunity segments in commercial security.

From manufacturers of hardware like IP cameras and displays to manufacturers of NVRs, storage drives, VMS, analytics etc, the past few years have unleashed staggering growth rates driven by innumerable surveillance and Access Control security investments in the region, across both commercial and residential segments. This growth has come from both greenfield and brownfield investments, the latter being through upgrades or through migration from analog to IP infrastructure.

And while the growth rates have been very significant, unlike those seen in other segments of ICT, it is a matter of speculation if these growth rates will sustain or plateau, since most existing properties may well have already deployed necessary infrastructure in recent years and may not require any upgrades for now. Of course with construction of new properties in real estate continuing to see a healthy rate of growth, greenfield ventures may well keep the momentum going strong.

While security (both commercial and information security) has been more or less the bulwark of industry growth in recent years and may well continue to show a healthy outlook, it may be necessary to look at other opportunity segments such as edge computing for instance.

It is believed this is a segment that will witness a takeoff once IoT deployments of sensors for enabling smart infrastructure at the edge see a manifold increase. The channel needs to be ready for the next opportunity leap when it comes along.

R. Narayan Managing Editor

News In Detail

Intersec concludes on a high - 11

Microsoft highlights intelligence of Azure Databricks - 12

Steady in the mid-market

Ali Hyder, Group CEO of Focus Softnet discusses trends in the ERP market and their focus in the mid-market

TechKnow

Powering the SMB network - 15

Amanullah Khan, Managing Director, Linksys, Middle East, Turkey & Africa elaborates on the company’s SMB focus

Aiming for consolidation - 16

Gus Brecher, Business Development & Marketing Director at Cathexis discusses the company’s focus in the region

Secured credentials - 22

Kanty Riarh, President, RBH Access Technologies, discusses the company’s solutions

Built for surveillance - 24

Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director, Western Digital, discusses the surveillance focus of the company

Insight

Penny Wise and a Password Foolish - 26

Morey J. Haber, Vice President of Technology, BeyondTrust discusses risks to privileged accounts

An Automation Manifesto - 28

Mark Ackerman, Regional Director, MESAT & EE, ServiceNow outlines five “rules” for automation

GDPR - Costly Restriction or New Business Opportunity? - 30

Talal Wazani, Manager Strategic Security Consulting at Help AG stresses the need to understand GDPR better

Regulars

News Bytes EyeTech Market Stats

Published by: JNS Media International MFZE Founder & CEO: Vivek Sharma Managing Editor: R. Narayan Art Director: Faiz Ahmed Sr. Sales Manager: R. Subramanyan

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News Bytes

Huawei partners for Safe Campus solution At Intersec 2018 in Dubai, Huawei announced new partnerships with ICT players in the Middle East to deliver tailored public safety solutions that cater to specific industry needs in order to meet the demands of increased urbanization. Huawei unveiled its endto-end Safe Campus solution which brings together extremely high-quality video imaging, intelligent analytics software and a unifying cloud platform to create solutions for different vertical scenarios,.

The new solution is built on a cloud-based ecosystem that brings together a number of partners, working collaboratively to support the safety of citizens. Huawei works with regional systems integrator partner Visiontech and global technology partners Hexagon, SAP; iOmniscient for AI-based video analytics; Ipsotek and Vi Dimensions for smart video surveillance; Milestone for video management software; Vidsys for its Converged Security and Information Management (CSIM) software platform; and Zenith for number plate recognition technology.

Safe Campus is designed to be deployed in buildings, office spaces, stadiums, schools, hotels, and many more scenarios to assist in incident prevention, emergency response, and evidence collection.

4 | February 2018

Infinova concludes successful participation at Intersec

Infinova had a great kickstart for 2018 with the recently concluded Intersec 2018 Dubai Show. More than 41000 visitors gathered during the 3-day duration of the show. During the show, Infinova had an opportunity to interact with several new visitors during the show which included Consultants, End Users and new System Integrators. Infinova had a unique looking booth design, with a large structure imitating the look of an Infinova Bullet Camera.

“For the first time, Infinova was associated with Intersec as a Platinum Sponsor of the show. We consider Intersec as a great platform to increase our visibility and to interact with potential customers. We demonstrated our latest product offerings and also highlighted our major successful global deployments, particularly in City Surveillance, Airports, Metros and Industrial projects" said Milind Borkar, VP of Sales, Infinova, MEAand SAARC. “We showcased our latest technology offerings which included Face Recognition Solutions, H.265, 2/4/5MP Cameras, Starlight Series, Thermal, Explosion Proof, EdgeAnalytics Enabled Cameras, NVR, Video Management Software and much more.”

A10 Networks offers advanced hybrid DDoS protection for Enterprises A10 Networks announced the A10 DDoS Protection Cloud, powered by Verisign, and the A10 Thunder 1040 TPS appliance offering advanced on-premise protection.

With the availability of the latest A10 DDoS protection solutions, A10 delivers full spectrum enterprise protection to detect and mitigate distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

A10 DDoS protection solutions enable automated on-premise mitigation escalation, increasing the effectiveness of frontline defenses against all manner of DDoS attacks, including network-based, application layer, slow and low attacks and volumetric attacks that exceed the internet bandwidth of an organization. Orchestrated management of Thunder TPS and Cloud DDoS defenses offers multi-vector protection even during the probing phase of an attack or while transitioning from on-premises to cloud scrubbing.

“A10 now provides a single advanced solution for on-premise and cloud scrubbing enterprise DDoS defenses, backed by our DDoS SIRT team,” said Raj Jalan, CTO, A10 Networks. “The surgical precision and hybrid, full spectrum approach of the A10 DDoS solution ensures enterprises are resilient to advanced DDoS attacks in the most effective and economical manner possible.”

News Bytes

Genetec announces Airport Sense Genetec has introduced Genetec Airport Sense, part of the Genetec Airport Practice Group. This advanced operational analytics solution relies on data provided by an airport’s existing security infrastructure, including cameras, sensors, and various detection devices to produce actionable intelligence about airport security, operations, and passenger flow. By accessing and analyzing both structured and unstructured data from these untapped security information sources, airports can extend their security investment. Airport Sense is available now from any Genetec certified channel partner.

Until now, airports have traditionally relied on standalone, unconnected systems to manage passenger flow and security. By analyzing and correlating data provided by multiple sensors such as video surveillance cameras, access control hardware, and IoT connected devices, Airport Sense gives airport security and operations managers, business analysts, and airport executives, a deeper understanding of what’s happening in their facilities.

This allows them to make timely, informed decisions to improve the passenger experience and increase revenue for duty-free, retail, and food services in the airport terminal.

By relying on powerful analytics such as queue detection and delays, heat mapping, directional analysis, and people counting, Genetec Airport Sense pinpoints hindrances to the flow of passengers in ticketing, screening, and passport control—and can identify where wait lines build in areas such as duty free, dining, entertainment, and pre-boarding.

Airport Sense helps airports better understand passenger flow in retail and dining areas, leading to enhancements in terminal layout.

6 | February 2018

Xerox’s new Remote Connect tool simplifies printer management Xerox has introduced a software solution that helps authorized channel partners increase customer satisfaction by providing remote print management to their clients. The company’s new Remote Connect software improves device service and administration, and streamlines meter reads and supplies replenishment.

Remote diagnostics and support, based on Internet of Things device connectivity, increases device uptime for customers. Partners will also improve profitability as they manage device needs remotely and spend less time in the field.

Meter reads and supplies orders can be automated under the Remote Connect tool so customers no longer need to monitor and take action themselves. The tool provides Xerox channel partners with the data needed to trigger a delivery of new supplies at the right moment, reducing the amount of supplies customers need to store onsite and avoiding waste.

“We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best possible experience for their customers in the Middle East. Our ultimate goal is to reduce the amount of downtime and increase overall customer satisfaction that will consequently deliver better business practices for our regional partners,” said Pui Chi Li, Head of Marketing for the Middle East and Africa at Xerox Developing Markets Operations.

Infoblox elevates Help AG to Platinum partner Help AG has achieved Platinum partnership with Infoblox.

The premium status entitles Help AG to all the benefits of the vendor’s recently updated BuildingBLOX Partner Program which include incentives for accreditations, enhanced deal registrations, rebate rewards, and access to advanced sales and training tools.

Infoblox granted Help AG Platinum partnership status in recognition of the reseller’s value and pipeline contributions, achievement of bookings and accreditation targets, and commitment to technical excellence. The status elevation also reflects Help AG’s dedication to achieving and maintaining Infoblox’s highest levels of technical and sales certifications, and industry leading expertise in selecting the right solutions for its customers.

“The volume of cyber threats has scaled exponentially, stretching IT teams that are already struggling to maintain systems while also driving digital transformation in their organizations. Infoblox’s solutions bring much needed intelligence, insight and automation to network management and security,” explained Stephan Berner, CEO at Help AG. “Over seven years of close partnership, Help AG has built unmatched competency on this technology, thereby creating true value for customers who get the right solution for their environment, coupled with the best implementation and support.”

As with all its vendor partners, Help AG offers 24x7x365 support services to Infoblox customers via telephonic, webchat and onsite channels.

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News Bytes

D-Link to offer full range in CCTV Market D-Link has announced the launch of more than eight different products targeted at the CCTV market vertical.

According to the vendor, the move to enter the CCTV market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) follows the growth that this sector has witnessed in the last 12 to 18 months.

The vendor stated that the entry into the CCTV market is a natural progression for D-Link as the company already supplies channel partners and their end users a complete range of outdoor and indoor IP surveillance cameras.

Sakkeer Hussain, Director - Sales and Marketing, D-Link Middle East and Africa (MEA), said the company has decided to officially enter the CCTV market because of a huge interest in security hardware in the MEA geography. "D-Link is dedicated to setting new standards with our industry- leading business-class networking, wireless, surveillance and storage products," he said. "This pledge will continue as we prepare to introduce a complete range of CCTV products that will include NVR and DVR boxes to support the solutions completely."

Hussain added from CCTV cameras and switches to wireless, storage and software, D-Link has everything channel partners need to customise the business of security on behalf of their end user clients.

8 | February 2018

ETHOS signs partnership with Synology Synology announceda new partnership with ETHOS Technologies DMCC, a technology distribution company servicing reseller partners in the MENA region with a wide range of IT and security solutions.

“Over the past year, Synology has seen exciting growth in the Middle East market with increasing demand from our customers,” commented Nick Jheng, Sales Manager of Synology Inc. for the Middle East.

“With this new inclusion of distribution channel, we look forward to further extending our growing presence in the business market segments in the Middle East, from small-and-medium businesses to global corporations.”

Headquartered out of Dubai, UAE with operations in Pakistan, ETHOS Technologies DMCC has over 40 years of experience and has been awarded Reader’s Choice Partner Excellence Award 2017.

“The network-attached storage (NAS) market is expected to be worth USD 45.21 Billion by 2023. At Ethos, we have been evaluating multiple vendors for NAS and have chosen Synology for their proven expertise and high quality solutions. We are looking forward to an aggressive partnership and growth in the ME and Pakistan markets. We believe that with our proficient and technically sound team, we will be able to provide Synology with the additional push and drive that it needs to increase market share and become a leader in our region.” explained Imtiaz Ghani, General Manager of ETHOS Technologies DMCC.

AW Rostamani Shift Technologies partners with SnapLogic AW Rostamani Shift Technologies announced its strategic partnership with SnapLogic, a leader in self-service application and data integration.

By utilizing the company’s Enterprise Integration Cloud, organizations across the region will now have access to AI-powered data integration services ensuring their business processes are fully automated, they make informed decisions, and drive better business outcomes.

Yousef Al-Barkawie, CEO of Shift Technologies, said, “According to industry analysts, the iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) market has grown by more than 60% in 2016, the fastest growth area in the application infrastructure and middleware market.

Our strategic partnership with SnapLogic not only ensures that their Enterprise Integration Cloud will be applied to the region but also enables both IT and line-of-business users to create data pipelines that get the right data to the right people at the right time.”

“We’re excited to partner with Shift Technologies as we bring our leading self-service integration platform to the Middle East region,” said Neerav Shah, Vice President of EMEA Sales at SnapLogic. “The team at Shift has deep expertise helping hundreds of customers across industries connect business strategy and technology innovation, always with an eye on operational excellence, rapid time-to-value, and demonstrable ROI. We’re looking forward to working together to help organizations in the region truly become connected, data-driven enterprises.”

News Bytes

Dubai Police Signs MoU with Riverbed The Dubai Police has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), extending its relationship with Riverbed Technology to a broader spectrum in the field of development and upgrade of both applications and infrastructure.

Riverbed will now focus on the introduction of new and innovative technical solutions, while ensuring ongoing knowledge transfer and proper training to Dubai Police staff. The IT vendor will, in addition, constantly share new ideas and expertise in line with the Artificial Intelligence strategic drive of Dubai Police.

Brigadier Khalid AlRazooqi, General Director of Artificial Intelligence Department and CIO, at Dubai Police said, “Our objective is to be the best police force in the world and for this we are keen to implement cuttingedge solutions, particularly in the areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning.”

Towards the end of 2017, Riverbed invited Dubai Police’s IT team to its headquarters and provided a clear overview of the company’s solution portfolio and vision. “We were highly impressed by this visit and our excellent experience and relationship with their Middle East team. Having MoUs with key technology partners from around the world, such as Riverbed, gives us the confidence that we will achieve our goals,” Brigadier AlRazooqi added.

10 | February 2018

ManageEngine tunes SIEM Solution to simplify GDPR Compliance ManageEngine, the real-time IT management company, has enhanced its security information and event management (SIEM) solution, Log360, equipping it with a prebuilt report and strengthened correlation engine to simplify enterprises’ efforts to meet General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements. With its new correlation rules and GDPR-specific report, Log360 helps enterprises improve their ability to detect data breaches, prove that their data is always protected, and meet requirements stated in Articles 25(1) & (2), 32(1) (b), and 33.

Starting May 25, 2018, every enterprise that handles the personal data of European Union citizens will need to maintain GDPR compliance. The GDPR's main goal is to enforce transparent data collection and processing methods, as well as stricter data security policies. Non-compliance could result in a hefty fine, so enterprises have to assess their current data protection measures, document relevant information on data processing, and reform their data collection and processing procedures in accordance with GDPR requirements before the GDPR goes into full effect.

"Translating all the GDPR's requirements into IT security policies will have a huge operational impact on businesses of all sizes. The larger the enterprise, the longer it will take to fully adhere to the GDPR," said ManikandanThangaraj, director of product management at ManageEngine. "With just a few months left to become compliant, we've made it easier to get up to speed with the GDPR using Log360's real-time correlation engine and exclusive GDPR auditing report."

Leviton opens new Data Centre Factory Leviton opened its new Data Centre Factory at its Glenrothes, Scotland, facility. The Data Centre Factory provides data centre managers with bespoke network infrastructure products, including pre-terminated cabling and cassette solutions, with rapid delivery.

‘Field terminations can be the most time consuming, labour intensive process of cable installation in a data centre network,’ said Ian Wilkie, Managing Director of Brand-Rex, a Leviton company. ‘As data centre systems grow more complex, using pre-terminated infrastructure reduces downtime, labour costs, jobsite waste, and maintenance. When data centre managers can specify the exact length, cable type, breakout length, and fibre count for their network, they can cut installation time by as much as 80%.’

‘This investment extends our ability to support data centre customers across EMEA,’ said Bruno Filio, Vice President of Business Development. ‘Also, it combines our best US-made connectivity with Brand-Rex European-specific cables for a complete solution, delivered rapidly.’

The Data Centre Factory includes significant investment in staff, equipment, and IT systems, as part of Leviton’s broader efforts to meet the demanding requirements of data centre managers throughout the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The Data Centre Factory incorporates the latest equipment and processes modelled on Leviton’s successful US-based factories. The factory runs on world-class IT systems that allow for rapid delivery of make-to-order (MTO) products.

News In Detail

Intersec concludes on aa high T

he latest trends in artificial intelligence and robotics in policing societies, along with major projects fuelling growth in the Middle East commercial security landscape, were among many talking points, as Intersec concluded its 20th edition in Dubai on 23rd January.

The expo featured 1,337 exhibitors from 59 countries, while 29,532 visitors from 129 countries stopped by the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. Dozens of product launches and live demonstrations across a wide range of applications kept thousands of buyers and industry professionals entertained and informed.

The Dubai Police is one of Intersec’s long-standing Government Partners, along with the Dubai Civil Defence, Dubai Police Academy, the Security Industry Regulatory Agency (SIRA), and for the first time in 2018, the Dubai Municipality.

This year from its exhibition stand, the Dubai Police had a strong focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and smarter technologies to keep residents,

visitors, and communities safe.

It also showcased Robocop prototypes and new smart services that are already in place in its fully automated smart police station, which recently opened in September 2017.

Brig. Khalid Nasser Al Razooqi, Dubai Police’s Director General of Artificial Intelligence, gave an overview of the Government body’s vision toward using AI and robots in policing and protection.

“The Dubai Police has a target to be the smartest police force in the world, and we’ve been working on a new strategy based on AI that will ultimately increase the happiness of our residents and build Dubai to be the safest city in the world,” said Al Razooqi.

Al Razooqi said Dubai Police plans to open another eight Smart Police Stations in 2018, and while AI and robots will in the future take over more routine daily jobs, that won’t mean less ‘human’ manpower.

Among the new features at the 20th edition of Intersec was an indoor Drone Zone, along with two dedicated conferences on Drones and

Artificial Intelligence.

With 483 exhibitors in 2018, Commercial Security represented the largest show section at Intersec, and featured two-thirds of the world’s top 50 providers of video surveillance, access control, intrusion detection, analytics, and video management software.

Intersec has proved over the years to be a fruitful business platform for global leaders and industry start-ups alike. Korean company IDIS has exhibited for the past several years, and has watched its projects and partnerships in the Middle East expand significantly as a result of contacts established during the show.

“We’ve expanded our partner network with many due to the success of exhibiting at Intersec from 2015 to 2017. We’ve established new end-user customers and struck up strategic partnerships such as with G4S in Egypt and Saudi Arabia as a direct result of Intersec, with a number of projects now complete or underway. And we’re thrilled to announce at Intersec 2018 our project

with Al SulaimanJewellers that comprises 100 IDIS camera solution across 18 branches as well as offices,” said Harry Kwon, General Manager for IDIS in the Middle East and North Africa.

Meanwhile, Germany’s DoorBird was one of more than 30 companies in Intersec 2018’s fast-developing Smart Home and Building Automation section. A debut exhibitor in 2017, DoorBird returned this year to showcase the 2nd generation of its IP Video Door Station.

With 83 percent international exhibitor participation, Intersec’s global footprint was underlined by 15 country pavilions from Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan, UK, USA, and for the first time in 2018, Russia. UAE participation was also high, growing six percent yearon-year, with 223 exhibitors covering 10,500sqm of exhibition space.

Intersec will return with the 21st edition scheduled to take place from 20-22 January 2019.

February 2018 | 11

News In Detail

Microsoft highlights intelligence of Azure Databricks to data scientists

M

icrosoft recently hosted a special event for data scientists, to show how the company’s cloud-based big data offerings can help organisations analyse their corporate information stores like never before. The event falls in line with the Microsoft Cloud Society initiative that is designed to bridge the skills gap by supporting experts increase their technical acumen in the cloud era.

Data scientists from across the Gulf region gathered at Microsoft’s Dubai offices for the company’s ‘Data-AI 300 Community’ Meet-Up, a new platform facilitated

by Microsoft and driven by key community activists to explore and enable all aspects of data from managing to analytics through to data science. Many others joined the event via live-stream, as

12 | February 2018

industry experts explained how Azure Databricks can deliver unprecedented scale, collaboration and security to enterprises that are interested in exploiting their richest resource – data – to the full.

“Gulf organisations are under increasing pressure to do more with less,” said NecipOzyucel, Cloud & Enterprise Lead, Microsoft Gulf. “Their data represents a goldmine of actionable insights and opportunities – to engage customers, empower employees, optimise operations and enhance products, service levels and business models.

That is the power of digital transformation. That is the power of big data. And our Data-AI 300 Community event showed our delegates just how far we have come in our ability to intelligently exploit our vast

information reserves.”

Azure Databricks is a high-performance big-data platform based on Apache Spark, which has been optimised for Azure. The platform combines key performance benefits with an intuitive end-to-end experience. One-click setup and interactive workspaces allow greater collaboration between data scientists, data engineers and line of business. Azure Databricks also offers integration with Azure Active Directory and with Azure SQL Data Warehouse, CosmosDB, Azure Data Lake Store and Azure Blob Storage, as well as PowerBI. At the Data-AI 300 Community event, Microsoft big-data experts sketched out the future direction of jointanalytics technology, including the forthcoming release of the Public Preview edition of Azure Databricks, which will allow

data leaders to evaluate the power of Microsoft’s big-data platform.

Maddie Schults, Product Leader at Databricks, introduced delegates to the various optimizations Databricks offers above standard Apache Spark and their impact on performance and usability, as well as the tight integration into Azure, providing enterprises with the control to drive much needed transparency and compliance with regulatory requirements.

Asad Khan, Senior Analytics Engineering Leader at Microsoft, oversees teams on Azure Databricks, SQL Server, coming from a rich background of managing the development HDInsight in past years. He covered the combination of the various Azure Data Services integrated with Databricks, such as CosmosDB, Azure SQL Data Warehouse and HDInsight Kafka. Asad emphasized how Azure Databricks emerges as the best offer for managed Spark on Azure, while HDInsight shines in providing a variety of choices on managed Hadoop.

“Azure Databricks is the cutting edge of digital transformation,” said Ozyucel.

“It accelerates innovation by streamlining workflows, and allows organisations’ data scientists to take on any big data analytics challenge they can imagine, supported by the enterprise scale of Azure.

Capitalising on corporate data may be the defining challenge of the next decade for the region, as companies seek competitive edge and governments continue to optimise e-service delivery.”

Point2Point | Focus Softnet

Steady in the mid-market Ali Hyder, Group CEO of Focus Softnet discusses trends in the ERP market and their focus in the mid-market segment How do you see the ERP market evolve?

ERP has evolved more along the lines of Mobility and cloud enablement, including IoT plug-ins, increased accessibility for external stakeholders etc. Information has always been available but the way it is being used now has evolved which is about how you see and action based on the information available.

We have constantly evolved our products based around market trends as they change. In the past couple of years, the stress has been on more mobility functionalities, full access for users outside the office, better access via thin clients, cloud or mobile. For instance until about a couple of years ago, for the mobile version, we had only a dashboard and some alerts available but now all functionalities are enabled on the mobile version.

IoT plug in will bring in more changes in ERP in the next couple of years. There will be more automation features in Retail Management Systems for instance and as well in Logistics management. Retail, warehousing, attendance systems and all day to day work activities of the employees will all be integrated. AI is already being built into the systems. In fact BI is getting extended into AI. How are your ERP products positioned in the market?

We have been comfortably placed in between an entry level Accounting system and a Tier one Accounting system. I can confidently claim that we are the leaders in that space where you see the likes of Epicor, Dynamics, Sage etc. They are all

14  |  February 2018

there in the market but if you look at the sheer number of customers we have and the extensive localization features that we incorporate into our products for the region, this is unmatched by our competition.

Discuss your products?

Focus 8 is the flagship ERP of Focus Softnet. It can operate under the GCC VAT regime and is equipped with robust Business Intelligence tools. Focus I is a middle-tier ERP solution with wellintegrated business intelligence tools, and complete range of ERP solutions, including financials management, supply chain, and other modules. In Addition, we have vertical market capabilities including Focus RMS (Retail Management Suite), Focus WMS (Warehouse Management System), Focus MRP (Material Requirement Planning), and Focus e-RMS (Restaurant Management System).

Discuss the VAT focus in your products and customer enablement?

We were the first to be ready with VAT readiness in our software. We already had VAT enabled ERP for other markets including India, Canada, Singapore etc. in addition, our software had the flexibility to plug in the VAT requirements and adapt.

Our customers were ready before Jan 1st when VAT came into effect. We organized seminars in Dubai for customers which gave them insights into how we have enabled changes into our ERP for VAT, how it would affect their accounting, what all postings would be done and about VAT reports they would need to prepare and submit to the government.

Ali Hyder Group CEO Focus Softnet

What additional key features are part of your customization initiatives?

There are several. For instance, handling of post-dated cheques is a feature that is required as this is quite common here but no so much in other places. Similarly landed cost calculation is a key calculation feature as Dubai in particular and the UAE is so much export oriented. In addition, LC management is also a key feature. These are a few of the features on the financial side. Apart from these, labour laws for each country in the region are unique and need to be part of the customization features.

I believe, we have about 18-20 % coverage of the GCC mid-market for ERP. The others may have about 8-10 % each. Then there are fringe niche players who take up a lot of space in the market.

TechKnow | Linksys

Powering the SMB network Linksys relaunched its SMB portfolio in 2013 with the goal of bringing back the Linksys heritage of providing enterprise-grade networking products to SMBs. Amanullah Khan, Managing Director, Linksys, Middle East, Turkey & Africa elaborates on the company’s SMB focus

What is the company’s focus towards the SMB segment?

We are developing an entire range of networking products specifically designed to meet SMB requirements. Their needs are in many ways similar to enterprise customers and we have been trying to meet their needs for suitable technologies. Their needs are not very different from what enterprise customers need.

For instance, they want great customer service/ experience.

They need redundancy as in enterprise products. They need secure networks. They need solutions that can be deployed to improve productivity and efficiency of their employees.

In nutshell, an SMB needs almost everything from a solution that an enterprise requires. The difference is that they can’t pay the kind of money that enterprises can.

The prices points need to be in the affordable range.

This is where we come in with our SMB range of products. We are not bringing in enterprise products, all stripped down feature wise

for SMB customers nor are we bringing in typical consumer range products and presenting them as SMB grade products.

We are designing SMB grade products from scratch, designed with their needs in focus and with the right set of technologies. This is a story that resonates well with our customers in the SMB market and what makes our SMB focus stand out. This was one of our key focus areas at GITEX to renew the message going out to partners and customers .

Elaborate on the SMB product portfolio?

Linksys offers an extensive network portfolio for SMB organizations, including security devices, switches and access points. The Security devices of Linksys comprise of VPN routers with built-in firewall functionality, with an optional second WAN-port for a back-up internet connection.

The switch series of Linksys all offer Gigabit speeds. They vary in port-density from 5 to 52 and come in three categories: managed switches,

smart managed switches and unmanaged switches.

Additionally, in each category Power over Ethernet (PoE) switches are available. PoE switches of Linksys standard support the PoE+ standard which means they offer twice the power per port than standard PoE switches.

Linksys also offers access points for the SMB segment.

The top model access point of Linksys offers MU-MIMO technology to accommodate multiple connections simultaneously. We have a complete range that offer SMB companies the right solution for every stage of growth they are in. All models offer a complete feature-set and are able to support future needs of the company and network.

How have you enhanced partner support?

We support our regional and local channel partners from our headquarters and regional offices. Our channel partners are certified to perform presale activities, installation and after sales services. In addition,

Amanullah Khan Managing Director Linksys, META

they are supported by the Linksys sales, marketing, and technical support teams.

Under the Linksys Partner Advantage Program, partners have access to sales tools. Our partner program now has a portal enables partners to track their performance, profitability, training programs, certifications etc. They can opt for online training and there is a page for obtaining marketing collaterals.

What is the value proposition offered by your distributors?

In the commercial business segment, we have two value add distributors, Ingram Micro and Logicom. They bring a certain value proposition to our tier two partners who sell into the SMB segment.

This includes training and certifications initiatives we offer via them and also the fact that we utilize them as extended sales force to try and recruit partners in markets where there are gaps in terms of our channel breadth. The also engage with our partners in the market and their offices, providing knowledge transfer.

February 2018 | 15

TechKnow | Cathexis

Elaborate on the company’s focus in the global surveillance industry?

Cathexis has been developing solutions for the industry for over two decades and has customers across the globe. Our video surveillance solutions are deployed across diverse vertical markets, that include Retail, Manufacturing, Banking, Healthcare, Mining, Education, Transport, Residential Estates, Business parks, City surveillance, Government, Remote-monitoring, Shopping malls, Commercial property, and Mobile In-Vehicle Fleet Monitoring solutions amongst others.

Elaborate on the company’s focus at Intersec?

This has been the fourth year of participation for us. The platform has served us well in terms of enhancing visibility in the region’s market with partners and customers and we get to meet a relevant cross section of visitors. We have had very good quality visitors including consultants and end users at this edition as well.

At Intersec, the focus was on showcasing the latest innovations and an extended range of new features and enhancements to our flagship Video Management Software (VMS) Suite, CathexisVision.

CathexisVision which offers sophisticated and intuitive security and infrastructure management tools, has been seeing great traction in the Middle East market as it continues to be deployed across a broad range of customer segments and satisfying a wide range of operational and security management

16 | February 2018

Cathexis, a leading provider of Video Management Software solutions was an exhibitor at Intersec.

Gus Brecher, Business Development & Marketing Director at Cathexis discusses the company’s focus in the region

Gus Brecher Business Development & Marketing Director Cathexis

Aiming for consolidation requirements. The advantages of CathexisVision includes full customization, fast and efficient set-up, seamless integration and unrivalled return-oninvestment for a wide variety of market sectors, including: Hospitality, Banking, Retail, Education, Property, Oil & Gas, City Surveillance.

CathexisVision also offers easy integration with many third-party systems from leading brands, including across Access Control, Alarm Panels, Fire Panels, Analytics and Building Management Systems.

More Integrations are being added annually, and this has

enhanced CathexisVision’s user interface with video verification of events from multiple systems.

Discuss product enhancements in brief?

There have been several enhancements to our software, making sure the solution is high on performance without triggering false positives. We have included algorithms to detect background noise. Our main objective is to detect people in the wrong place at the wrong time leaving objects where they shouldn’t be, ensuring we are not generating

any false alarms. To do that, we need to learn the background environment so that trees blowing in the wind, dust, rain, water etc don’t trigger false alarms.

We have introduced some research features, trying to make the product more effective in a controlled environment.

Elaborate on the analytics focus in your solution?

We have two parts to the analytics in the CathexisVision Video Analytics Suite. There is video motion detection where we look at video motion also

with dynamic background. We have an object/ subject tracking algorithm that locks on a target and tracks anywhere within the perimeter/vicinity. Once you have locked in to the object/ subject, you can take decisions based on considerations like if the object has entered a certain area including restricted zones, exited an area, the direction, the speed etc. We have the left object detection as well.

Our analytics cover about 80% of what most people need from analytics. If they need more sophisticated features, they could be integrated with any specialist analytics vendor software.

What are the enhanced features of CathexisVision 2018?

CathexisVision 2018 offers the ability to configure analytics on both pre-recorded and live footage with Advanced Video Analytics significantly which boosts the value of any CCTV surveillance installation.

There are several improved background modelling techniques, which will improve effectiveness in outdoor environments by reducing false positives.

Further, we are also offering simplified software licensing structure with site based licensing to facilitate easier system design and deployment for distributors and installers.

With the added processing enhancements in CathexisVision 2018, hardware efficiency is maximised providing for improved utilisation of system resources. System hardware

"Hospitality has been a very key segment in the region and we have had maximum customer wins in this segment. We have probably done by now deployments in over 49 hotels in the region."

requirements can be specified for maximum processing and power efficiency by drawing off the power of the CathexisVision VMS. The new Dynamic Video Stream Selection (DVSS) is a feature that increases the number of cameras that can be viewed simultaneously, enabling maximum optimization of the hardware resources and improving system efficiency.

The ANPR technology has been enhanced considerably, including significantly improved recognition times, additional license plate libraries, as well as upgraded, user-defined, database search and reporting infrastructure.

wins we have had. One the early challenges we faced is that the market including consultants who have influence with high profile customers favored vendors who entered the market earlier and integrators aren’t in a position to recommend the right solutions always. That has been changing for us and we are successful in making significant inroads in terms of prestigious clients and project wins in sectors including hospitality, Utilities etc.

Elaborate on the customer focus at Cathexis?

We are proactively responsive to customer requirements for and our video surveillance solutions are built to cover the future needs. We pride ourselves on offering exceptional support, and product quality to exceed customer requirements

Discuss the key segments of growth in the region?

Hospitality has been a very key segment in the region and we have had maximum customer wins in this segment. We have probably done by now deployments in about 49 hotels and counting in the region. We have done many in Abu Dhabi.

We have done deployment for a stadium in Al Ain as well as for Ski Dubai. We have done several other government projects which we cannot disclose details about.

Discuss how you see the challenges in the market and the inroads you are making?

We are seeing growth in Europe and Africa. We have been having some good traction in the region although we would like it to be even better.

We are looking to make inroads in the market here and consolidate on some of the significant customer

Discuss hardware vendors you work with or recommend?

We partner with multiple hardware partners and are hardware agnostics. We work with the likes of Dell, Pivot3, Huaweietc to name just a few of these vendors. We are open platform. One of our distributors AgilityGrid sells Intransa; so Intransa would be a vendor we recommend.

Another distributor sells Overland products and that would be fine as well. On the other hand, the installer may want to go with another vendor’s products and that would be just as fine.

Do you do installations with thermal cameras?

We do a lot of thermal installations. We do a lot of big SOCs in Africa. Our projects have covered huge perimeter of 20 to 40 kms perimeter fencing.

We do a lot of integrations with the leading thermal camera manufacturers and include analytics as well.

Have you been part of smart city installations in this region?

We haven’t got into smart city projects in the region but are looking forward to. We have some city surveillance projects done in other parts including Europe, South Africa and the US. What is the channel strategy in the region?

We have Agility Grid and VAD as our two distributors in the region. We engage partners, the installers, the consultants and the end users. The distributors play out the fulfillment role.

Are you adding any resources in the local team?

We have a Business development manager and a Technical Manager. We are adding a Solution Architect/ Business Development Manager. We have a good growth traction in the UAE but need to grow the business outside the UAE. February 2018 | 17

Cover Feature | SDN

SDN’s

growing footprint SDN through its various use case scenarios will empower organizations embarking on digital transformation with better connectivity

S

DN or Software Defined Networks has evolved at a quickened pace within the past decade and continues to make inroads in deployments but with varying trends across different regions. SDN brings a new approach to designing, implementing and managing networks that is based on the common concept of separating the network control plane and data plane, where the control plane provides an abstracted centralized view of the network.

Mohannad Abuissa, Head of Sales Engineering - East Region, Cisco Middle East says, “Although Software-defined networking (SDN) is considered relatively a new approach in architecting and operating networks, today, our SDN based innovations for both enterprise and service provider type of

18 | February 2018

networks on a global scale are providing some significant measurable benefits to originations in different market verticals. However, we still see a variation in the level of adopting SDN solutions based on the region. For instance, in the Middle East region, SDN adoption is growing dramatically, especially within the last two years.”

According to him, the Middle East is very much at the forefront in adopting SDN but it has not yet become a mainstream technology when compared to western European and North American regions.

He elaborates, “We are seeing strong demand for SDN from industries with complex networks that need to quickly process large amounts of data – especially service providers, banking and finance;

energy, oil and gas; aviation and transportation; malls and retail; and safety and security.

With the announcement of our innovation – Cisco’s Software Defined Access (SDA) in June 2017, we have been seeing significant interest and demand globally and within this region in particular.”

The Telecoms sector seems to be leading the way in deployments. For Cisco, du was the first telecom company in the world to deploy Cisco ACI for its next-generation data center. Cisco’s largest ACI installation in the Middle East to date is with Saudi Telecom Company (STC), which is building three data centers to

By R. Narayan accelerate and streamline cloud adoption in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Apart from telecom, Academia and the scientific

research community have successfully applied SDN to facilitate data sharing across institutions, and to deploy new types of distributed computing applications. Globally, many large institutions, university systems, and state governments are adopting converged data center architectures to optimize application availability while reducing costs.

“Software-defined networking continues to go from strength-to-strength in the Middle East, with organizations and channel partners increasingly understand the business benefits from a softwaredefined platform. Over the past several years, software-defined networking adoption is leading to modernizing data center infrastructure. Middle East CIOs

are increasingly looking to work with channel partners to adopt converged and hyperconverged platforms, such as VMware vSAN and VMware NSX, which form the basis of the software-defined data center,” says Deepak Narain, Director of Systems Engineering - MENA, VMware.

According to Elie Dib, Regional Vice President, METNA at Riverbed, “In recent years, the Middle East has seen exponential growth in the amount of data from a variety of devices. Organizations are challenged with having to cope with a large number of connections, at reduced capital and operations expenses. SDN promises speedy service provisioning, network flexibility plus other additional efficiencies such as lower OpEx and CapEx costs.

The Middle East therefore, like other geographies, is looking to realise these benefits.

CIOs and IT decision makers that haven't begun investing in, or at least assessing SDN and SD-WAN, risk falling behind the competition. The Middle East SD-WAN survey that Riverbed conducted in Q4 2016, found that 78% of organizations agree that it will be a critical part of their network infrastructure within the next five years and 50% are already exploring the technology.”

Key approaches and differences Networking vendors and vendors that have been associated with the networking industry have brought their own strategies to the SDN market as it goes more mainstream.

Cisco’s answer to SDN across both the Data Center and Enterprise Networking environments is ACI, which is a holistic architecture with centralized automation and policy-driven application profiles. ACI delivers software flexibility with the scalability of hardware performance.

“One of the key elements of “Cisco ACI architecture” is a reliable and programmable infrastructure to support everything come on top of it, such as API integrations, automation, visibility optimal packets forwarding and control. A “Programmable Infrastructure” is a flexible type of network that offers the ability to be managed using software intelligence reside on a central controller, typically using application programming interfaces or API such as the open NX-OS software of the Cisco Nexus 9000 platforms,” says Mohannad.

This approach provides the ability for the SDN controller to provision network devices, push polices, gather data and intelligently build configurations based on pre-defined polices across single or multiple network nodes.

Consequently, although, considering traditional network management tools or techniques can be technically supported, it may lead to an overlap with the SDN controller management and configuration functions. Also, the more tools that perform the same management functions in the network you have, the higher possibility to introduce errors, duplicate tasks and these ultimately will lead to increased management complexity.

Mohannad Abuissa Sales Engineering Head, East Region Cisco, ME

Cisco’s approach is therefore on removing complexities in SDN deployment and orchestration.

“Cisco ACI is a turnkey solution that removes complexity of deployment and supports a broad ecosystem of technology partners thus providing customers flexibility and choice, provides integrated network approach (common policy for physical and virtual workloads, including containers), offers automation capabilities, addresses the needs of the data center holistically, not just the network automation and delivers fast payback on investment ,” elaborates Mohannad.

Deepak claims that VMware’s recent acquisition of VeloCloud Networks Inc. strengthens its strategy of being the industry’s softwaredefined leaders. VeloCloud

Networks Inc. leverages WAN to connect core applications, devices, and the public cloud to drive the maximum business benefit.

He adds, “Having open standards is a core part of VMware’s belief that organizations should not be locked into specific vendors, as they start to plug-and-play different solutions into their data centers. For example, VMware OpenStack allows for organizational developers to access APIs to create and localize the enterprise applications that best meet business needs for their software-defined networking.”

Elie Argues that SD-WAN approach expands upon the SDN vision and offers truer software defined functionalities for hybrd WANS that provide network connectivity to February 2018 | 19

Cover Feature | SDN

Deepak Narain Systems Engineering Director, MENA VMware

branches, beyond the data centres and LANs. He says, “While SD-WAN and SDN are similar, there are also great differences, given SDN’s narrower focus vs. SD-WAN’s broader focus connecting an enterprise’s data centres, branches, and remote users on a global basis. As a solution for LANs and corporate data centres, SDN is not designed for this environment, not designed to deliver cloud apps and services to growing, mobile populations of users across hybrid WANs that combine private and public networks. Companies need the same level of agility in WANs that they are achieving with SDN on their LANs. To achieve this requires a fundamental rethink of how enterprise networks, as a whole, are built and managed.

SD-WAN’s basic premise is that it allows networking to

20 | February 2018

be designed and orchestrated from the cloud using business policy rather than being handconfigured in the field, and that it unifies connectivity across various networks (including cloud networks, WANs, and LANs, all hybridized). This technology and approach can greatly increase agility, improve performance and security, and reduce the cost and complexity of network management.

Embracing IoT As the number of people, devices, machines and sensors coming online across the IoE, Middle East organizations require new capabilities to lead in the delivery of valueadded, cloud-based services and applications. Digitization through IoT is transforming the world. However, an intelligent network and a strong IoT platform are required to connect things securely, to

analyze data dynamically and to deliver business value. In the IoT era, where the Internet is connecting people, processes, data, and things to form one holistic connected network, organizations are now requiring their networks to become more agile to accommodate the increased amount of transmitted data along with the expansion of connected devices.

“SDN simplifies and accelerates the deployment of applications, reduces IT costs and operational errors, and helps make businesses more agile. It also helps in improved network performance, the ability to manage the endto-end network, and a solid network architecture and design that provides a future roadmap consideration.

The result is a modern infrastructure that can deliver new applications and services in minutes, rather than days or weeks required in the past.

In addition to helping reduce operational expenditure, SDN will also help create new revenue streams in future,” says Mohannad.

With network abstraction and automation that reduce network operations workload, SDN enables companies to grow their network to meet demands, and to scale back if and when necessary.

IT departments can apply a change once, and it is distributed across all of the networks, scaling delivery, and driving new business models and growth.

According to Deepak, “Internet of Things deployments cannot be done with existing network

infrastructure – IoT by its very nature of real-time analytics and edge computing, powered by software-defined networking. As the cost of the cloud continues to drop, channel partners are increasingly helping small- and medium-sized enterprises to adopt digital cores of softwaredefined data centers to gain the same capabilities as large enterprises.”

Deepak adds, “In the Internet of Things era, securing the network, connected devices, and enterprise applications is more important than ever. Rather than most security solutions, which aim to identify the “bad” of cyberthreats, VMware NSX protects applications and network infrastructure from the insideout, and uses the power of micro-segmentation to apply granular controls. By combining VMware NSX with the recentlylaunched AppDefense, which secures data center endpoints, organizations can gain the maximum security.”

Rise of SD-WAN Use cases of SDN solutions are several beyond the data center deployments. These include Campus LANs to easily orchestrate global policy to secure, differentiated access for staff and guests, contractors, etc. across multiple campuses, SD-WAN solutions to simplify their branch office and WAN deployments, and lower costs and risks with simple automation and orchestration and ofcourse SDN for data centers across networks, servers, storage, security, and services etc.

Of these, SD-WAN seems

to be most promising segment of growth. IDC estimates that worldwide SD-WAN infrastructure and services revenues will see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 69.6% and reach $8.05 billion in 2021. SD-WAN adoption is increasing and is expected to continue to do so in the near future.

Mohannad says, “Digital transformation will require network infrastructure to seamlessly connect any user to any application with the best user experience. This will require SD-WAN to work across the branch, campus, data center and cloud with open and programmable architectures for vendor interoperability. Customers are turning to SD-WAN solutions to simplify their branch office and WAN deployments, and lower costs and risks with simple automation and orchestration.”

The branch and WAN are being impacted by growing number of mobile devices consuming rich data and video, increased consumption of applications hosted in the cloud and more IoT devices generating large amounts of information and Big Data.

Some of the SD-WAN trends include flexible hosting options, improved security capabilities, virtualizing the branch, increased managed service offerings and end-to-end interoperability.

According to Elie, today’s networks with thousands of routers that have to be handprogrammed simply cannot support digital services with the speed and scale required. The Riverbed Future of Networking Global Survey 2017 found

that of the IT decision makers surveyed, 93% plan to migrate to SD-WAN within the next four years, up from just 4% today.

He says, “Riverbed SD-WAN transforms traditional networks into intelligent softwaredefined transport mechanisms designed and orchestrated by plain-language policies to deliver applications from anywhere to anywhere in the most efficient, optimized and secure way possible.

Whether apps are in the data centre or in the cloud, SD-WAN brings new levels of agility to the business, accelerating the delivery of all apps and steering them over the best network for the best performance.”

Riverbed’s SD-WAN solution SteelConnect is solution that helps to unify network connectivity and orchestration of application delivery across hybrid WANs, remote LANs, and cloud networks, which is key to ensuring seamless performance to all users.

Elie opines that the SMB market and hybrid network customers who have already adopted the cloud or XaaS are actually the ideal candidates for pilot SDN projects as the return on investment for such infrastructures is far higher and more rapid than for legacy migrations that might pose challenges to large enterprises.

“We have created a convenient and free-to-use SD-WAN ROI calculator to help organizations of all sizes estimate the cost saving SDWAN can have for a business.

Users can adjust various parameters including the number of branches, number of sites, users per site, and total

Elie Dib Regional Vice President, METNA Riverbed

site bandwidth to help calculate their potential savings. “

Skills and enablement Cisco predicts that approximately 220,000 new engineers will be needed globally every year for the next 10 years to keep up with the technological surge of IoT. “Skills shortage is one of the major challenges when it comes to SDN. In order to capitalize on this technology, enterprises will need welltrained and skilled staff.

Through Cisco Networking Academy (Netacad), we have been training and enabling IT professionals to gear up for trends such as SDN.” Along with training engineers, partner training is also key for success in enabling greater momentum and putting in place the right expertise to take the value proposition to

market.

Deepa says, “VMware’s Channel Partner Program provides a wide range of support for our Middle East channel partners in becoming skilled in software-defined technology. As softwaredefined technology changes rapidly, vendors and partners need to invest in skills training, in order to move from solution sellers to value-added channel partners, which can help CIOs to devise organizationwide digital transformation strategies.”

SDN deployments are a growth area, no doubt but across various use case scenarios would see different trends in terms of traction with the region’s organizations. With companies that have a digital transformation strategy firmly in place, it should definitely be integral to their ambitious growth.

February 2018 | 21

TechKnow | RBH Access Technologies

Elaborate on your participation at Intersec?

This is our eleventh year of participation. Intersec is always a success story for us from last 11 years. It has been a unique platform for us to have meetings with our end users and the partners across the region. We have had some new introduction in terms of products this year.

Discuss how this market has shaped up from your perspective?

RBH ME office is focusing on all the security requirements with standard and tailor made solution for our Middle East customers. We have dones projects for airports and many banks in the Middle East region, RBH Access is aiming for steady growth in all the segments for their security needs.

We work on project basis with our partners. The market has been steady from our perspective, showing about 10% growth. However, in a year when there are large projects that come in, that helps boost numbers.

The US and China are our stronger markets but the Middle East has been a good growth market for us. We have a significant number of prestigious customer wins and have provided security management solutions to Airports, Oil & Gas Sector, corporate, Gated communities, Banks and financial institutes in the region. We are focusing more in emerging markets and have an office in South Africa.

Discuss outlook for Electronic Access Controls markey in

22 | February 2018

Since 1995 RBH Access has been designing and manufacturing Access Control and Security Management systems for customers around the globe.

RBH sells its solutions in over 125 countries and in 16 languages with offices located worldwide.Kanty Riarh, President, RBH Access Technologies discusses the company’s solutions and focus

Kanty Riarh President RBH Access Technologies

Secured credentials the region?

We have notices a growing demand for integrated solutions that integrate immediate onsite response with electronic security and alarm systems. This growth is mainly attributed to heightened security concerns backed by government and regulatory mandates. Critical infrastructures, port securities and financial segments are the strong growth verticals.

What is your focus in terms of solutions and segments?

RBH offers from an Enterprise

to Small Business solutions, and has packages specifically tailored to a customer’s needs.

Employing open interface protocols, RBH allow for a great selection of available identification devices from proximity, to fingerprint and iris, as well as a myriad of other technologies available on the market today.

Discuss your new product introductions at this year’s Intersec?

As always, the show has been a success for us. We have used the opportunity

to showcase many of our new products. One of the major highlights have been the turnstiles that we are introducing into the Middle East. We see a significant opportunity for these products with infrastructural investments growing in the region. These are premium products and different from the regular turnstiles in the sense that there is lot more of intelligence built into them. These are therefore positioned for segments including commercial buildings, universities, Airportsetc which

have high traffic of people entering and exiting. You can control flow of traffic from either direction because of the bidirectional intelligence.

There are multiple technologies incorporated into these including facial recognition, biometric authentication, QR code etc.

We have also introduced NFC and Bluetooth connectivity features with our card readers.

We are offering three ways of securing credentials through our solutions without charges unlike competitors who charge extra for enabling an app. We provide this as value add to our customers.

Have you introduced these turnstiles in other markets?

Besides the Middle East, we have introduced in Africa, India and we will launch next in Europe. However, we don’t see market for turnstiles in North America and especially Canada because they don’t seem to prefer turnstiles and instead rely on alternative technologies including machines with retina scanners, video analytics etc as they don’t want to set up physical barriers.

Elaborate on your AxiomV suite of solutions?

AxiomV Enterprise Security Management System is meant for large multi-site/ multi-tenant applications, and seamlessly integrates Access Control, Alarm Monitoring, and Video Surveillance into an elegant and versatile building management and security system.

While challenging,

"We have also introduced NFC and Bluetooth connectivity features with our card readers. We are offering three ways of securing credentials through our solutions without charges unlike competitors." integrating different functionalities of security management is critical and AxiomV achieves this. It combines Access Control and Alarm Monitoring with Video, Building management automation, Asset tracking, Guard tour and Visitor management, and many more important security functions into an elegant and versatile security management solution.

The underlying software and hardware platform is very flexible and therefore adding new applications and solutions is quite easy. It features solid architecture and is highly customizable, offers a flexible user interface and powerful tools for Enterprise Security management.

Discuss features of your VMS solution?

Our VMS solution is RBHView which is highly scalable compared to other brands. It has the ability to grow with your requirement to be on your local networks or wherever worldwide and recording servers can be placed anywhere.

RBH View is a powerful Video management software platform allowing management, viewing and recording of industry standard IP cameras. It is a seamless bridge between user and technology to maximize building efficiencies and security efforts for an unparalleled video experience for viewing and incident

resolution. RBH View’s core is built for Flexibility, Expandability and Robust operation while maintaining a simple operational interface for maximum Return on investment. It can be deployed as a standalone product (small to enterprise) as well as integrated into RBH’s Access Control Software platforms, or simply sold as an upgrade to existing IP systems.

Once you install RBHView software on a PC of your choice, no proprietary servers are required. Irrespective of whether you have an existing IP Camera system or not, RBHView has built-in drivers for most IP devices and cameras (including ONVIF compliant) allowing upgrading of existing IP systems easily and conveniently to leverage existing costs onto the RBHView platform.

RBHView offer easy playback and export features for when investigations demand immediate action.

Further, RBHView’s advanced analytics (motion detection, object detection, directional analytics and more) provides enhancedevent resolution.

RBHView is fully integrated to all RBH Access control products combining all three phases of security into one seamlessly unified security solution. Therefore, we can offer our customers a truly unified access control, video management, and alarm monitoring suite of solution that offers great monitoring and

control functionalities to the customer over his premises and facilities.

Elaborate on your solution for SMB customers?

We have Integra32 Security Management System for SMB segment customers. It has 80% functionalities of our enterprise solution.

This seamlessly integrates Access Control, Intrusion Alarms, Elevator Control, CCTV & DVR, Biometric Authentication, Photo ID, Building Automation, and ON and Offsite Alarm Monitoring, into an elegant and versatile building management and security system.With a fully featured client or Web browser access to system management, Integra32 addresses all security management needs for small and medium size businesses and organizations. There is no limit to system expansion with an in-place upgrade path to our AxiomV Enterprise Security Management System.

Discuss your partner strategy?

Our sales, distribution, and support center provide services tailored to Middle East customer’s needs as we market our products through network of security dealers and systems integrators. We have been quite selective in our dealer recruitment and we offer comprehensive training to ensure that our partners are quite competent to deliver highest customer satisfaction for RBH customers. RBH works with system integrators for end to end solutions based on customer requirements.

February 2018 | 23

TechKnow | Western Digital

Built for surveillance Western Digital showcased its purpose-built products for surveillance applications at Intersec 2018. Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director, Western Digital, India, Middle East and Africa discusses the surveillance focus at the company and the new product announcements

Discuss the surveillance market as a growth area for WD? If you look at the growth of surveillance solutions, it is one of the highest as far as the IT part is considered, from a storage perspective. As we grow from analog to digital, to 4 k camera, the need for more and more storage is a reality. This is also being driven by the new regulations and standards to meet coming in in terms of number of days for which the recording needs to kept.

According to BIS Research, increasing demand for security cameras will push the global Video Surveillance Market to reach $62.62 Billion by 2023. The increasing demand for Video Content Analytics (VCA) and Video Surveillance and integration of surveillance with technologies such as drones and body-worn cameras have been identified as the key opportunities that could escalate the market growth in the coming years. A surveillance system works 24x7 so it requires higher storage use. For the Middle East region specifically, video surveillance is one of the largest areas of growth within both the homeland

24  |  February 2018

and commercial security markets. New evolving security and surveillance trends will see a rise in smart storage solutions.

Our surveillance Business has been good and growing at a good pace. The Purple family of drives are purpose built for surveillance and are rated highly in the industry and by customers.

We have an extensive portfolio right from the Sandisk extreme SD cards that can be inserted into the IP cameras that have specific SD card slots for local storage. SanDisk industrial SD and MicroSD cards store video at the edge, directly where it is captured, which then gets backed up on the WD purple hard drives that are meant for surveillance NVRs and DVRs, compatible with AllFrame 4K technology and can support up to 64 cameras per drive. Further, we the WD Gold solutions for analytics.

What are the latest initiatives and announcements on the surveillance front?

We have launched the 10 TB Purple drives.

Khwaja Saifuddin Senior Sales Director Western Digital, India, MEA

We have launched the myWD Certified Surveillance Storage Provider Program and we reach out to installers. The myWD Certified Surveillance Storage Provider Program is a tailor-made initiative that aims to offer training, sales support, value added benefits and incentives to security and surveillance system integrators, installers, solution and service providers to help them enhance their business opportunities and profitability.

This is a program launched across MEA and India. We have about 1000 installers enrolled between UAE, KSA and Turkey.

We have a few enrolled in India as well.

What was the showcase focus at Intersec for WD? Western Digital showcased an entire range of purpose-built WD Purple hard drives at Intersec 2018. We recognize the increasing value of surveillance across this region and we endeavor to help our consumers attain the most ROI from their surveillance investments with the right storage technologies to realize their goals.

"We have seen strong, continued interest in our WD Purple drives from individuals and property owners, as well as from leading public and private sector organizations, as the demands from surveillance systems evolve beyond monitoring to offering real time, quality video for analysis and insights."

We have seen strong, continued interest in our WD Purple drives from individuals and property owners, as well as from leading public and private sector organizations, as the demands from surveillance systems evolve beyond monitoring to offering real time, quality video for analysis and insights

Discuss the product highlights of WD Purple range of drives?

WD’s Purple surveillance-class hard drive family offers high performance, efficiency and capacity and these drives have been well tested and proven performers in harsh surveillance environments. The Purple surveillance-class hard drive family includes All Frame technology which

enhancesthe playback performance and works with ATA streaming to reduce errors and frame loss.

These hard drives are designed for reliable operation in HD security systems on a 24x7 basis with up to five hard drives and up to 32 cameras. The 10TB surveillance hard disk drive offers exclusive AllFrame technology to bring surveillance integrators and systems vendors premium reliability and peace-of-mind when installing home or small-to-medium business security systems. It helps replace the standard desktop drives that were not designed for the harsh 24/7 always-on,

high-definition surveillance environment, and for high temperature, always-on, surveillance security systems to ensure reliability and quality video play back when it is needed it most; all with less power consumption.

The WD Purple range of surveillance storage are also compatible with an extensive range of security systems and are designed for high temperature, always-on, surveillance security systems to help ensure reliability and quality video play back. Featuring IntelliSeek and AllFrame technologies, the WD Purple surveillance-class drive delivers premium reliability and peace-of-mind for both home and business surveillance systems.

Drives for Big Data on premise

W

estern Digital Corporation is expanding its portfolio for enterprise customers with a new, midrange series of 4 terabyte (TB), 6TB and 8TB air-based hard drives. The new products enable corporate data centers having data set sizes smaller than found in hyperscale environments to harness the power of data across a broad spectrum of Big Data applications such as analytics and distributed file systems.

Western Digital leads the highcapacity enterprise hard drive market for hyperscale and cloud environments with its 10TB, 12TB and 14TB drives, where the company’s HelioSeal helium-sealing technology is required for the highest capacities and densities to deliver the lowest (or best) TCO. However, many applications have small data sets or benefit from optimal performance from implementation of a cluster of lower capacity, air-based hard drives. Many traditional data center systems still rely

on moderate capacity points for RAIDbased block-and-file systems.

“The power of Big Data is driving the need for higher capacities across a broad spectrum of applications,” said Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director, Western Digital, India, Middle East and Africa. “Today, mid-range applications are preparing to move from 1TB and 2TB configurations to higher capacities.

Our new enterprise solutions blend the technology and TCO leadership of Western Digital’s capacity enterprise product line with a high-density, air-based hard drive design, allowing OEMs to offer data centers a solution to keep Big Data on-premises, rather than transition entirely to the cloud.”

Distributed file systems such as Apache Hadoop often have workloads that require higher access density in order to maintain performance when running Big Data analytics jobs. The “sweet spot” capacities for these applications are

4TB, 6TB and 8TB. Western Digital’s new enterprise solutions are designed for this space, while providing enterpriselevel performance and specifications for storage OEM partners to serve end customers with a range of capacity and price points while maintaining the enterprise integrity demanded by today’s data center architects.

The new Ultrastar 7K6, supporting 4TB and 6TB capacity points, utilizes a new 4-disk, enterprise class, air-based design. The new products provide up to 12 percent faster performance than the prior generation Ultrastar 7K6000 and is designed for traditional storage and server applications as well as distributed and scalable computing, including block-and-file storage architecture. Later this quarter, the company will deliver an Ultrastar 7K8 8TB solution, which is based on an air-based design and is the ninth generation of the company’s 5-disk platform.

February 2018 | 25

Insight | BeyondTrust

A Penny Wise and a Password Foolish Morey J. Haber, Vice President of

Morey J. Haber Vice President, Technology BeyondTrust

Technology, BeyondTrust discusses the wisdom of mapping and securing against risks to privileged accounts

H

ow much money would you spend to secure your passwords from being stolen?

If you actually could safeguard all your passwords, would you worry as much about a privileged breach? I think the majority of executives and security professionals would ante up a reasonable sum to make this a reality but that’s not what this article is about.

It is about the damage a compromised privileged account could cost an organization from a momentary perspective and a reputation perspective. If you need proof of this, consider the recent breaches at Equifax and Yahoo. Each one of these affected the company’s stock, executive bonuses, acquisition terms, and even the ability to do basic business like accepting payments in due terms.

A compromised privileged

26 | February 2018

password does have a monetary value on the Dark Web for a threat actor to purchase but also has a price that can be associated to an organization in terms of risk. What is the value and risk if that password is exposed and the contents it protects exposed to the wild?

A database of personally identifiable information (PII) is quite valuable and blueprints or trade secrets have even a higher value if sold to the right buyer (or government).

My point is simple, privileged accounts have a value (some a very high value) and the problem is not always securing them but rather identifying where they exist in the first place. Would you spend a penny, use a free tool, or existing product already in your organization to find them?

Odds are you are already doing

this, and you just need to know where to look to get this information. It would be foolish not to.

So how do you spend a penny or less to discover privileged accounts and rate their risk? Look no further than your existing operations and security teams. Your existing teams probably have a vulnerability assessment solution capable of performing user enumeration for operating systems, applications, and databases. Within that data, the results should include accounts and their creation date, last login date, password age, and which groups they belong to – including administrators group or root.

The results of these scans are generally ignored by vulnerability assessment teams but invaluable to security teams attempting to gauge

the exposure of privileged accounts. If you can discover where privileged accounts exist, you can measure their risk and then monitor for their usage. Any inappropriate access can be highlighted using log management or a SIEM and properly escalated for investigation.

Now I know some of my readers may be going – so what? We already do this. That is great, but do you take this to the next level and actually assign a risk to the account?

Do you quantify how often it is used, where its used from, and how many people are using it (sharing accounts is a bad security practice – by the way)?

This is where a penny becomes important verses being foolish.

All privileged accounts are not equal. Some are worth a penny (figuratively) and others a lot more based on risk. A

domain administrator account is of higher value than a local administrator account with a unique password (although that may be good enough to leverage for future lateral movement). Treating every privileged account the same is foolish. You could make the same argument for a database admin account verses a restricted account used with Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) for database reporting.

Both are privileged but owning the database verses just extracting data is not the same. Yes, both could be a devastating attack vector responsible for a breach but owning the database is the highest privileges you can get. Therefore, this could potentially allow a threat actor to maintain a persistent stealth presence (if cynical and crafty enough) until the organization identifies the breach.

So, just what should you do to take credential and privileges to the next level: • Identify crown jewels (sensitive data and systems) within the environment. This will help form the backbone for quantifying risk. If you do not have this currently mapped out, it is an exercise worth pursuing.

• Discover all of your privileged accounts using existing tools, free solutions (there are plenty), or via a dedicated privileged solution.

• Map the discovered accounts to crown jewel assets. This can be done by hostname, subnets, AD queries, zones, or other logical groupings based on business functions.

• Measure the risk of the

asset. This can be done using basic critical, high, medium, and low ranking but should also consider the crown jewels present and any other risk vectors like vulnerabilities.

Each of these metrics will help weight the asset score.

If you are looking for a standardized starting place, consider Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) and Environmental metrics.

• Finally, overlay the discovered accounts. The risk of the asset will help determine how likely a privileged account can be compromised (via vulnerabilities) and help prioritize asset remediation outside of the account mapping.

In the real world, a database with sensitive information may have a few critical vulnerabilities from time to time, in-between patch cycles, and be considered a critical risk when they are present regardless of the accounts identified. When patch remediation occurs, the asset may still be high risk, if privileged access is not managed, and will drop in risk if privileges are session monitored and access controlled. Criticality can be from vulnerabilities or unrestricted, unmanaged, and undelegated access in addition to attack vectors that have workable exploits. Spending a penny to find them and map them is a much safer security mechanism than foolishly leaving them unattended. Thus, a penny wise to understand your privileged accounts verses a password foolish used in a breach.

BeyondTrust’s Password Management Solution Integrated with McAfee ePO

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eyondTrust has announced that PowerBroker Password Safe has been certified on McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO). This integration provides joint McAfee ePO and BeyondTrust customers with automated privileged password and privileged session management capabilities through a single platform.

The certified integration will link the industry leader for privileged access and session management with the most advanced, extensible and scalable centralized security management software in the industry. Through its commitment to preventing privilege misuse and stopping unauthorized access, BeyondTrust is fully integrated with McAfee ePO to provide complete lifecycle management of privileged accounts directly from the ePO console.

According to Forrester Research, 80% of data breaches are the result of privileged credential misuse or abuse. When a data breach happens as a result of the misuse or abuse of excessive user privileges, the natural reaction for IT is to enhance endpoint protection and prevent the use of shared accounts. This reaction is designed to stop future attacks on important assets, but often requires multiple tools that don’t talk to one another. Integrating PowerBroker Password Safe with McAfee ePO will help overcome the complexity involved with making these changes and will enable cohesion within a single user interface, to manage endpoint and privileged risks.

The integration will address several critical use cases for organizations embracing privileged access management: • Selectively rotate privileged passwords on assets directly from ePO • Launch an interactive session or retrieve privileged credentials for SSH or RDP as an ePO Action using native client tools • Lifecycle management of privileged accounts from discovery through management within ePO • Identify whether a system is provisioned into PowerBroker and whether it is under Password Safe management • Automatically push tags from ePO into Password Safe, enabling dynamic access control for managed accounts February 2018 | 27

Insight | ServiceNow

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utomation has the ability to transform society for the better. Every day I see the powerful impact it can have, revolutionising the way business and everyday tasks are done, saving time, money and delivering gamechanging economics. It will increase productivity, which is essential for future growth and prosperity. It will also see the end of employees spending time on mundane, repetitive tasks, instead freeing up time to engage in more meaningful and enjoyable strategic or creative work.

Whether it’s a new report warning of the risks to employment or one saying exactly the reverse, there is currently an almost daily dose of automation speculation in the news. Yet most of the discussion is focused on what is happening. To succeed in understanding the implications better, we don’t need to discuss the ‘what’; we need to be talking about the ‘how’.

Automation is here, so how can we best prepare for the future?

As we head in to 2018, to ensure automation delivers on its huge potential, we need to lay the foundations for success.

To that end, here are five “rules” — the beginning of an ‘Automation Manifesto’ — that I believe will lay the groundwork for a future where automation can be embraced, not feared.

Fight the fear Automation isn’t scary. Change can be. But like any change, if explained, managed and executed with care, it can be powerfully positive. Despite many studies showing that automation will create jobs,

28 | February 2018

Mark Ackerman, Regional Director, MESAT & EE, ServiceNow outlines five “rules” he believes will lay the groundwork for a future

Mark Ackerman Regional Director, MESAT & EE ServiceNow

where automation can be embraced, not feared.

An Automation Manifesto recent studies have suggested that employees still fear it. It’s important to remember that automation isn’t new. It’s been happening throughout history, and we wouldn’t have the modern world — from farming to transport and energy to entertainment — without it.

It’s time for us to rebalance the debate around automation to reassure the wider public that done in the right way, automation can benefit us all .

Collaborative thinking

Government, educators, businesses, and consumers

all have a role to play in shaping the future of automation. Action in isolation will only help with some of the answers. I believe it’s necessary for Government and businesses, in particular, to show joint leadership, coming together to discuss and develop the policies, processes and practical guidance that will set the Middle East on the path to success. Where are the largest opportunities for our society and economy?

Education, education, education Technology is dramatically

changing how we view and interact with the world.

The development of skills however, is very challenged to keep up. By and large, education curriculums around the world need to develop alongside industry.

There are some examples of countries getting it right in early education. In Vietnam, computer science lessons begin at age seven. By age ten, students learn coding.

Skills are so advanced that a visiting Google engineer found kids in Grade 11 (1617 years old) would have passed the notoriously hard

Google interview process.

With coding increasingly important in virtually all areas of employment, we need to be moving to a model where everyone entering the world of work has at least basic coding competencies. Doing so has the potential to transform industries that many see as ‘at risk’ from automation.

Take manufacturing — technology enabled advanced manufacturing, powered by AI and automation, allows companies to build more, better quality products, at lower cost. We are already seeing manufacturers shift their workforce from the assembly line to developer roles, leading to increased outputs and staff numbers, and allowing the ‘reshoring’ of

jobs that would otherwise be outsourced overseas.

Skills for success It’s not only the youth who need to be educated differently so they are set for success in an automated world. Businesses also have an important role to play in re-educating and retraining all areas of the workforce.

Many companies are already reskilling employees to better interact with digital labour. Large companies should consider spending a percentage of turnover on retraining programs in areas where we know automation is likely to have a larger impact, such as logistics, retail, and repetitive clerical work.

Increasing research and

development spending will also be crucial: currently, about 5 per cent of companies undertake 54 per cent of industry’s R&D spending. For automation to succeed, this needs to change, and fast.

Educate for empathy and champion creativity Emotional intelligence (EI) plays a role in everything. People skills are already incredibly important, but will be in even higher demand in the future. Any job that benefits from the EI, that only humans can provide, will be in high demand. We need to look at ways to educate for empathy, so that the workforce of tomorrow will have the soft skills to thrive in the future. The same is true of creativity.

Machines will not be able to replace the innate human ability to create. It’s possible AI will be able to develop creative ideas, but humans will still be in charge of most creative industries. While Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects will be important, we must not forget than in an automated world, creativity will be essential.

These five rules for automation will not provide all the answers, and they won’t cover everything. They are intended as a starting point. Automation is already happening, and it won’t stop.

But it can deliver in a way that works for everyone, with careful planning, co-operation and considered thinking.

February 2018 | 29

Insight | Help AG

GDPR - Costly Restriction or New Business Opportunity?

The Middle East’s lack of understanding of the upcoming EU regulation is likely to place businesses across a wide range of sectors including cloud services, banking and finance, healthcare, insurance and tourism at significant risk says Talal Wazani, Manager Strategic Security Consulting at Help AG

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hile VAT compliance is currently top of mind for Middle East businesses, many are unaware of the implications of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The European Union (EU) regulation aims at strengthening and unifying data protection for all EU citizens and is set to come into effect by May 2018.

With just over six months till its implementation, there is still much confusion about the applicability of GDPR to organizations outside the EU that process and control data of EU citizens. Unfortunately, this places Middle East businesses of all sizes and across diverse verticals including cloud services, banking and finance, healthcare, insurance and

30  |  February 2018

tourism at significant risk.

The Importance of Data Privacy Data is the lifeblood of business today. However, awareness about privacy among companies is relatively low and there are early warning signs that Middle East businesses are not prepared to handle the deluge of personal data.

This year, with Equifax, the security industry witnessed one of the largest breaches of highly sensitive personal information and the impact of such breaches will be borne by consumers for years to come. The importance of safeguarding personal data cannot be neglected. The EU is taking the lead by penalizing

Talal Wazani Manager Strategic Security Consulting Help AG

companies with heavy financial penalties if they fail to comply with the regulation.

For businesses therefore, it is always better and less costly to prepare in advance, rather than face the fines and reputational damage later.

Why GDPR Matters to the Middle East Many regional organizations operate as subcontractors of European companies, conducting activities that include processing and supply of goods, delivery of services, and monitoring of customer behaviours through social media and data analytics.

Simply stated, any company, even one outside the EU, that is targeting consumers in the EU, will be subject to GDPR.

Although any organization processing the personal data of EU citizens is fully accountable to demonstrate compliance with GDPR, few are aware of their direct obligations. Such responsibilities might include implementing technical and organizational measures and notifying protection authorities in the event of a data breach. Abiding with GDPR also includes acknowledging documented compliance, conducting data protection impact assessments for risky data processing activities, and implementing data protection by design in operational processes and as a culture among employees.

The GDPR will enforce penalties for breaches by imposing fines for violations of

"The most important activity an organization that intends to become GDPR compliant will need is to conduct is an exhaustive inventory of the data related to their business processes. They will then have to either isolate EU citizens’ data from the rest or handle all data in compliance with the GDPR."

up to 4% of annual worldwide turnover of a company for a data breach and up to 2% of annual worldwide turnover for non-compliance.

In addition, the people affected by the data breach will be entitled to sue the company which failed to protect their data. Therefore, once the GDPR becomes effective in 2018, many EU organizations will be highly selective of the partners they chose to work with as many Middle East companies will face significant compliance challenges.

Getting Prepared For years now, organizations have faced difficulties in identifying their critical data and where it resides throughout its lifecycle. This is step number one not only in GDPR compliance but also in defining a cyber-security strategy within an organization.

The most important activity an organization that intends to become GDPR compliant will need is to conduct is an exhaustive inventory of the data related to their business processes. They will then have to either isolate EU citizens’ data from the rest or handle all data in compliance with the GDPR. It will be a real challenge especially for multinational companies that might now have to consider building entirely new data storage systems just for EU data.

With cloud computing becoming an increasingly prevalent technology, another very important element of becoming compliant with GDPR

will be to review the data and the protection clauses of thirdpart cloud storage and service partners.

A common mistake most businesses make with cyber security is to haphazardly invest in trendy technical solutions without focusing on their effective implementation and operation according to strategic roadmaps. At Help AG, we recommend using a practical approach, and adapting the company’s existing security technologies in line with GDPR frameworks.

A holistic approach to data inventory, initial compliance analysis and risk assessment, can help businesses optimize

their budgets, focusing on the protection of critical data and minimizing related risks.

Of course, a key success factor in the GDPR compliance journey is to have a Data Protection Officer (DPO) or professional who can support the organization in realizing its strategic data protection roadmap. GDPR compliance will require the DPO to have not only broad knowledge of security technologies and interpretation of the regulation requirements, but also keen awareness of legal and human resources.

Conclusion The GDPR is definitely a turning

point in attitudes and an opportunity to put businesses at the forefront of data protection, enabling them to build trust with customers. As the frequency of cyber-attacks continues to rise, organizations must focus on data protection to safeguard their business rather than to simply comply with frameworks such as the GDPR. Instead of viewing the regulation as a business limitation, companies should consider it as an opportunity that can help them redefine the marketing landscape.

The GDPR can be used by organizations that deal with sensitive information as a potential means to forge longterm relationships with their customers, based on trust and transparency.

What is GDPR?

T

“

he EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) replaces the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and was designed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower all EU citizens data privacy and to reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy.” The GDPR is a legal act approved and adopted by the EU Parliament in April 2016 and the GDPR regulation will take effect by May 2018 after the two-year transition period concludes. The GDPR not only applies to organisations located within the EU but it will also apply to organisations located outside of the EU if they offer goods or services to, or monitor the behaviour of, EU data subjects. It applies to all companies processing and holding the personal data

of data subjects residing in the European Union, regardless of the company’s location.

From May 25, 2018, every entity that handles personal data of European Union citizens will need to comply with GDPR. GDPR's key objective is to enforce transparent data collection and processing methods, as well as stricter data security policies. Any noncompliance could result in a hefty fine, so companies have to assess their current data protection measures, document relevant information on data processing, and reform their data collection and processing procedures in accordance with GDPR requirements before the GDPR goes into full effect.

February 2018 | 31

EyeTech

VSkyCube Overview: VSkyCube is a new generation of Hyperconverged Systems, optimized for small and medium enterprises, that scales exceptionally well for large data centers as well. For your company’s IT infrastructure to keep pace with your business cycles, you need systems that support fast, responsive development processes.

The VSkyCubehyperconverged system from Promise allows you to unlock the full potential of infrastructure hyperconvergence and adapt IT to the needs of your workloads.

VSkyCube uses a software-defined approach, combining tightly-coupled software-defined compute, storage, and networking in the form of hyperconverged nodes. Together with a centralized single pane of glass management system, VSkyView, these technologies deliver a preintegrated and adaptable cluster with a unified pool of resources that you can quickly deploy, adapt, scale, and manage.

Key features: • VSkyCube is the hyperconverged infrastructure operating software that provides an extremely economical infrastructure to run virtual machine-based applications • Effortlessly scales out as demand for either or both compute and storage capacity surge • Manages growth while allowing IT to run smoothly • Centralized management system, VSkyView, provides an easy and unified management interface for daily IT operations

32 | February 2018

Panasonic WV-X6531NS Overview: Panasonic showcased at Intersec, the new H.265 compatible outdoor PTZ camera, featuring high-quality Full HD WV-X6531NS video resolution with outstanding low light sensitivity of 0.015lx. This New heavy salt damage resistant camera is a new addition to Panasonic’s i-PRO Extreme X-series PTZ (Pan/Tilt/Zoom) cameras.

The WV-X6531NS comes complete with an optional Vehicle Incident Detection analytics, while offering full 360° continuous panning and an ultra-long 40x optical zoom lens with integrated gyro-senor, along with the new PTZ provides Intelligent Zoom Stabilization (IZS) that produces remarkably stable images even at longer zoom distances. A highly durable mechanical design ensures a superior quality surveillance solution for outdoor applications and the new X-Series. Furthermore, the WVX6531NS takes road and traffic monitoring to a new level of efficiency by providing enhanced situational awareness at longer distances and enabling security professionals to detect road and traffic incidents more quickly.

Key features: • The cameras’ ultra-long 40x high-power zoom lens covers 1.3X the distance of standard models, allowing a single camera to be installed at up to one-mile intervals.

• In addition, its ClearSight Dome coating prevents rain drops and dust from collecting on the dome surface, keeping surveillance viewing clean and clear and reducing field maintenance costs that are inherent with conventional domes.

• Optional Vehicle Incident Detection software (WV- XAE100W) provides easy and intuitive intelligence and traffic monitoring capabilities, enabling the cameras to detect unusual activity such as a stopped vehicle on a highway or a vehicle traveling in the wrong direction.

HP t310 G2 All-in-One Zero Client Overview: HP announced its first narrow bezel HP t310 G2 All-in-One Zero Client with seamless visuals, improved ergonomics and maximum data security. Powered by Teradici1 and compatible with VMware2 and Amazon3 virtual workspace environments, the HP t310 G2 AiO Zero Client allows customers to take their work to new heights with the design and performance they want, and the security they need.

With a virtually borderless full HD display, customers can enjoy an impressive visual experience with one or more monitors to create a seamless and aesthetically beautiful workspace. The comfort designed stand can be adjusted up, down, tilted, swiveled or rotated to support landscape and portrait mode, so customers can customize their workspace to meet their unique needs.

Leviton Cat 6A Universal Tool-Free Plug

Overview: Leviton announced its first fully tool-free, field-terminable plug, the Cat 6A Universal Tool-Free Plug. The new plug is easy and fast to install, and is built with a rugged metal body that

Key features:

provides superior alien crosstalk and EMI/RFI (electromagnetic

•

•

•

•

•

interference/radio frequency interference) suppression

Images and graphics come to life on a 23.8-inch diagonal Full HD (1920x1080) IPS display with a wide- viewing angle and sharp, detail-rich color reproduction.

The DisplayPort makes attaching a second display simple and fast.

A focus-friendly fanless design and thermal controls helps reduce noise distractions at your desk.

The high-performing Tera2 PCoIP zero client processor delivers full frame rate 3D graphics and high-definition media even over high-latency networks.

Manage your Zero Client with a one-year subscription to Teradici Desktop Access which is included with the purchase of every new HP t310 Zero Client.

while supporting 10GBASE-T networks and 100W Power over Ethernet (PoE) applications. The Cat 6A Universal Tool-Free Plug accommodates a variety of network applications, including the ability to connect directly to Ethernet devices in fixed locations with a field-terminated solution.

The Cat 6A Universal Tool-Free Plug delivers a standardsbased approach that allows easy connection to Ethernet devices throughout the building. The Cat 6A Plug offers an efficient way to connect to devices like cameras and WAPs without the use of a proprietary tool. The Cat 6A Universal Tool-Free Plug fulfills a key need for field terminable plugs with rapid termination, without proprietary tools.

Key features: • Full compatibility for shielded and unshielded cabling • Full backwards compatibility to Cat 5e and Cat 6 cabling • Robust die-cast housing for plenum-rating, durability and 360° shielding • Long release latch that ensures easy insertion and removal in confined spaces • Accommodates 22- to 26-gauge solid or stranded conductors, allowing it to be used with a wide variety of cable types

February 2018 | 33

Stats & Trends

IoT spending in MEA to see a steady climb T

he Middle East and Africa (MEA) Internet of Things (IoT) market is set to grow 15% year on year in 2018, according to IDC. The firm's latest forecast shows MEA spending IoT reaching $6.99 billion in 2018 and $12.62 billion by 2021 as organizations ramp up their investments in the hardware, software, services, and connectivity that enable IoT solutions.

"IoT adoption in the MEA region is expected to accelerate over the coming year as organizations from both the public and private sectors increasingly digitalize their businesses in a bid to automate their operations and ramp up productivity," says Wale Babalola, a research analyst for telecommunications and IoT at IDC MEA. "And as organizations increasingly realize the added value that is provided by IoT, we can expect to see further development of innovative industry-specific solutions."

Totaling $2.48 billion, IoT services is forecast to be the market's largest technology category in 2018, with the majority of this total going towards ongoing services, IT services, and installation services. Hardware will be the second-largest technology category, followed by software and then connectivity. The vast majority of hardware spend (85%) will go towards modules and sensors.

Meanwhile, software will be market's fastest growing category over the coming years, with spending in this area increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of

34  |  February 2018

21.3% over the 2016–2021 forecast period.

The industries that are expected to spend the most on IoT solutions in 2018 are manufacturing ($1.07 billion), transportation ($0.85 billion), cross industries ($0.76 billion), utilities ($0.75 billion), and consumer ($0.68 billion).

Manufacturers will direct most of their IoT spending over the coming 12 months towards solutions that support manufacturing operations and production asset management.

Over in the transportation sector, fleet management and freight monitoring will account for up to 78% of IoT spending in 2018.

In the "cross industries" category, which represents use cases common to all industries, IoT spending will largely focus on smart buildings and connected vehicles. Smart grids for electricity will account for a little over 82% of total IoT spending in the utilities sector, while around 50% of consumer IoT spending will be driven by investments around smart buildings.

The IoT use cases that IDC expects to attract the largest investments in 2018 are smart grid electricity ($0.62 billion), manufacturing operations ($0.57 billion), freight monitoring ($0.52 billion), smart home ($0.41 billion), and remote health monitoring ($0.40 billion). IDC forecasts manufacturing operations to overtake smart grid electricity into top spot by 2021. The use cases that will see the fastest spending growth over the 2016-2021 forecast period are insurance telematics

(32.4% CAGR), smart buildings (31.4% CAGR), airport facility automation (30.5% CAGR), instore contextualized marketing (28.8% CAGR), and electric vehicle charging (28.3% CAGR).

"The growing implementation of initiatives that leverage digital solutions

will continue to fuel IoT adoption over the coming 12 months, particularly in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, " says Babalola. "As such, these two countries combined are expected to contribute $1.57 billion of the MEA region's total IoT spending of $6.99 billion in 2018."