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Editorial
Cover Feature - 16
Innovation is survival mantra
Hyperconvergence brings in the future
T
TechKnow
he technology industry continues to transform its market models and innovation is a pre-requisite for companies to survive and thrive. The cloud economy has taken off and individuals and companies now are buying several cloud services. The consumption of cloud services will surely rise on a linear curve and subsequently could see exponential growth. Of course as experts suggest, most companies will keep several critical workloads on premise and private clouds hosted locally. The channel needs to work around with embracing new models and creating new revenue streams with services wrapped around. They need to step up and build competence either by training existing teams or recruiting new specialists in key domains. The key about innovation is that it has to be a continual process. The channel needs to do periodic reviews of how they can further step up value propositions in their services. They must also look at allying with vendors who have a clear vision for the emerging software driven ICT economy. Cmpanies that are innovating are more are craving to create more market inroads while some others that have not innovated may have faded away. The companies that are innovating have the confidence that they are bringing to market solutions, which address emerging needs of companies in select sectors or across the spectrum. For instance, EMS is looking to work with telecom carriers and helping them innovate with existing subscriber base to create alternative revenue streams as their voice revenues dip. And they are seeing some spectacular success with these efforts. The channel needs to likewise look at opportunities as to how they can help their existing customers increase their engagement and revenue streams with their installed client base. In testing times and at all times, it is best to focus on retaining customers and upsell services that can benefit.
R. Narayan Managing Editor Founder & CEO: Vivek Sharma Managing Editor: R. Narayan Art Director: Faiz Ahmed Sr. Sales Manager: R. Subramanyan Sales Coordinator: Smitha Jithesh
HCI is a technology which is steadily progressing towards mainstream adoption
New in Detail
SAP launches second Startup Focus Event - 11
Lenovo enhances focus on Data Centre Market - 13
Intelligent protection - 13
Anthony Perridge, Regional Director of Threat Quotient discusses some aspects of the company’s focus
Sizeable proposition - 14
Farid Al-Sabbagh, VP & MD at Fujitsu Middle East, discusses Fujitsu’s solutions
Point2Point
Mobility to the fore - 20
Zuilfiqar Khan, CEO of Emitac Mobile Solutions (EMS) and Mustafa Rana, VP Sales at EMS discuss the various solutions propositions from EMS
Together with partners - 22
Rajashri Kumar, MEA Transactional Director – IT Business, APC by Schneider Electric discusses the iRewards Program program
Insight
Spatial intelligence, Soccer and Security Monitoring - 23 Vinod Vasudevan, CTO of Paladion says Spatial intelligence is key to Security Monitoring
Flash: talk about service - 26
Fadi Kanafani, Regional Director Middle East & Africa writes that Flash solutions must also integrate seamlessly with an enterprise’s data storage, management and analytics ecosystem
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StorIT and Tintri sign Distribution Agreement StorIT, a specialist Data Management solutions distributor in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has announced that it has signed a distribution agreement with Tintri Inc., a leading producer of VM-aware storage (VAS) for virtualization and cloud environments. As per the agreement, StorIT will promote and distribute Tintri’s entire portfolio of solutions through its extensive channel network of valueadded resellers (VAR) and systems integrators (SI) across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Suren Vedantham, Managing Director, StorIT Distribution, said, “We are excited to partner with Tintri, a company which has been at the forefront of innovation in recent times in the areas of data storage for virtualized environments and virtualized infrastructure management. For enterprise customers, Tintri’s technology value proposition provides significant benefits in terms of reduced expenses, increased performance and a drastic drop in management overhead and Tintri’s all-flash storage stands out for its ability to guarantee customers optimum performance of their virtualized applications. By leveraging on our strong channel network, we plan to provide Tintri with an extensive market reach that could secure significant market share and a sustained growth opportunity in the region.”
4 | July 2016
GBM is appointed first Apple Authorised Systems Integrator Gulf Business Machines (GBM), a leading provider of IT solutions, has been appointed as the first Apple Authorised Systems Integrator (AASI) in the UAE. GBM will now be able to incorporate Apple products to their existing information technology solution service offerings, with a view to providing large enterprises and corporate customers with integrated mobility solutions. Commenting on this achievement, Philippe Jarre, Chief Executive Officer of GBM, stated: “GBM has a 26year heritage of partnering with leaders in the global IT industry. As we continue our transformation journey at GBM, our collaboration with Apple is a commitment to bringing further innovations to our customers, delivering more value to our stakeholders and enriching the market with a new set of solutions.” GBM will offer Apple enterprise solutions in the region with a full suite of hardware, software, services and support that will bolster the mobility capabilities of organizations. Specifically, GBM will for the first time be able to provide corporate clients with a dedicated Apple business strategy, consultancy, as well as implementation services that will allow them to improve productivity, enhance efficiency and be more responsive to their customers’ interactions.
A10 Networks appoints Ingram Micro as distributor A10 Networks, a leader in application networking and security, announced that the company has entered into a distribution agreement with Ingram Micro in the Middle East. Ingram Micro is building a new Cyber Security division and promoting the wide range of market-leading security solutions from A10 Networks, including DDoS protection, SSL Insight, data centre firewall, Gi/SGi firewall, Secure Web Gateway, web application firewall (WAF) and DNS Application Firewall. Henk Jan Spanjaard, vice president of EMEA Sales at A10 Networks, says, “The Middle East has great business potential for A10 Networks as organizations upgrade and modernize their existing data centres, security and network infrastructure. The distributor agreement with Ingram Micro gives A10 extensive geographical coverage and is a sign of our commitment to the region, which is an important and growing market that has demonstrated high demand for A10 solutions. We continue to make investments in the area and recently added headcount in the Saudi region. Our proven mix of technology, knowledge, experienced workforce and quality partnerships will help us meet customers’ needs for solutions that are secure, responsive, and available.” The A10 Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi) capabilities complement Ingram Micro’s security business. DDoS attacks are growing in severity and sophistication across the region. Ingram Micro and its reseller partners will be educating enterprises and service providers about how they can avoid becoming another ‘attack statistic’ by building a robust DDoS security infrastructure with A10 Networks that is capable of mitigating the largest multi-vector attacks at the network’s edge.
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Kaspersky unveils Embedded Systems Security Kaspersky Lab announced the availability of Kaspersky Embedded Systems Security, a targeted enterprise-grade solution designed to protect ATMs, Point-Of-Sale systems and point of service machines. It is aimed at protecting a diverse variety of Windows-based platforms and handling the most sensitive financial operations,. Dmitry Zveginets, Kaspersky Embedded Systems Security Solution Business Lead, Kaspersky Lab said, “We’ve created a new product compatible with seven generations of computer hardware, which protects the system, even without an internet connection, and is highly flexible, in order to meet the unique demands of financial organizations as well as regulations such as PCI DSS. On top of this we have included advanced protection technologies like the Default Deny mode that bring financial security to a higher level”. Kaspersky Embedded Systems Security protects ATMs, PoS terminals and other specialized systems like ticket dispensers from all kinds of threats, with high reliability and a low footprint. It supports all Windows versions starting from Windows XP as well as Windows XP Embedded, Windows Embedded 8.0 Standard and Windows 10 IoT. The solution has low system requirements and can run on systems with only 256 megabytes of memory and just 50 megabytes of disk space. It protects machines from cyberthreats, be it remote attacks, or the on-site compromise of a system via USB sticks. Kaspersky Embedded Systems Security brings centralized reporting and management as well as a special Default Deny mode that blocks attempts to run any unauthorized executable code or drivers on ATMs and PoS terminals.
6 | July 2016
Microsoft opens centre of excellence for Oil and gas industry
Microsoft has launched a new Middle East and Africa centre of excellence for oil and gas in Dubai, built specifically to assist customers in driving digital transformation, cost cutting and optimisation of their operations across the region and the world. It is the largest such centre for Microsoft globally. The centre will help companies in the sector take advantage of the latest trends such as the Internet of Things (IoT), advanced analytics, modern productivity and cloud computing using Microsoft technologies like Microsoft Azure and Office 365. The centre also brings together leading industry players like Accenture, Aveva, Baker Hughes, Honeywell, OSIsoft, Schneider Electric and Schlumberger. According to the 2016 Upstream Oil and Gas Digital Trends Survey by Accenture and Microsoft, 80% of upstream oil and gas companies plan to increase spending on digital technologies in order to help them drive leaner, smarter organisations. IDC predicts that IT spending in oil and gas will increase to nearly $50 billion in 2016, while spending on connectivity related technologies should increase by 30%.
Axis acquires Cognimatics Axis Communications, a global leader in network video, has announced the acquisition of Cognimatics, a leading company of store optimization solutions targeting the retail sector. Cognimatics’ technology is for example used for people counting, queue measurement and occupancy estimation. The addition of Cognimatics’ knowledge and technology strengthens Axis’ solution offering in the fastgrowing retail market segment. “Cognimatics’ products are well-known with a successful track record in the retail sector, and complement our solutions in that market. Their commitment to developing innovative and easy-to-use products is consistent with Axis’ approach to provide the highest value solution for a range of customer needs. We are excited to be able to offer our partners and end users solutions that act as a natural complement to their existing Axis solutions,” says Ray Mauritsson, CEO at Axis Communications. Founded in 2003, Cognimatics is a privately owned Swedish company, headquartered in Lund, with 12 employees. The company offers a suite of video analytics applications that can be used to provide retailers with insightful behavioral intelligence that helps optimize their operations, improve customer experience, and enhance security and safety. Axis Communications and Cognimatics have cooperated for several years on both engineering and sales to provide integrated solutions to a number of mutual customers.
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TechAccess unveils Unify SME Initiative TechAccess, a leading value added distributor, has unveiled its Unify SME Initiative and new promotion to partners. An update session, which was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Dubai, introduced partners to the new initiative and shared details on rebates and promotions. Partners were also updated on Unify’s channel program, benefits, and TechAccess’ value proposition. Feras Zeidan, Unify’s new vice president for the Middle East & Africa, attended the event to thank partners for their continued support, and reinforced Unify’s commitment to enabling them with the solutions to help them grow their business. The SME promotion is valid on Unify’s X3 and X5 Openscape UC bundles, and open to Unify partners in the GCC, KSA, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Levant. Partners who achieve and exceed their targets, stand a chance to avail of attractive rebates and marketing support. “Unify has an exceptional UC portfolio that caters to enterprises and SMBs, and they have recently stepped up their focus on the SMB segment in the region. TechAccess' current promotion also targets the growing SMB segment, through which we offer enticing incentives, while continuing to support partners in selling a combination of the industry’s best UC bundles,” said Roshan Sequeira, Product Manager - Networks, TechAccess. Unify's solutions allow organisations to unite multiple networks, devices and applications into an easy-to-use experience. The vendor expanded its partnership agreement with TechAccess to cover the wider GCC and Levant region. TechAccess operates as Unify’s distribution partner across the GCC, KSA, Levant, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
8 | July 2016
Paxton Net2 Access Control Integrates with Dahua Video Integration Platform Paxton Access Ltd, a global designer and manufacturer of electronic access control and door entry systems, has announced the integration of its networked access control system, Net2, with a leading manufacturer of professional security and surveillance equipment, Dahua. The integration will provide a user-friendly interface to manage building security more easily. This integration allows for the easy configuration of Network Video Recorder (NVR) and Digital Video Recorders (DVR) with access control. Cameras can be associated to individual doors, enabling users to monitor video associated to access events. This provides a more comprehensive service for users, enabling them to take necessary actions both in realtime and post-events. Net2 is the UK’s most popular access control solution, with more than 150 additional buildings being fitted out with it every week. The security system offers centralised administration and control of sites ranging from one to hundreds of doors, and thousands of users. Dan Drayton, Paxton Access Ltd Sales Manager EMEA, said: “At Paxton, we encourage original thought. We develop innovative solutions that represent the company’s ethos of simplicity and quality, whilst answering the needs of the security market. It’s a pleasure to be working with Dahua, a company who place as much importance as we do on innovation, to offer installers a solution they have been asking for.”
Finesse appoints new Practice Head for IT Infrastructure Finesse has appointed Anand Lakhwani for Heading their global IT Infra Practice. In his new role, Anand Lakhwani will be responsible for enhancing the Finesse portfolio of Infra businesses, focusing on Cloud Computing, Data Access and Analytics, Enterprise Mobility, Hyper converged Computing , Unified communications, SDN, Security and Managed Services thus complimenting the existing Software system integration business at Finesse. This will involve Strategic Business planning, Solutioning, Partner Alliances and Customer Experience to increase the Top & Bottom line for Finesse and thus making Finesse a “one stop shop” for end-customer. Anand brings in-depth understanding and demonstrated sustained success of over 8+ years of implementing calculated sales strategies, action plans and Key Account Management across BFSI, Manufacturing, Automobile and IT/ITES. He comes with an experience of outstanding success in revenue generation, large deals structuring and delivered state-of-the-art solutions throughout his earlier avatar in Payments and Infrastructure domain from MasterCard and IBM respectively. Commenting on his appointment, Anand said: “I am excited to be working with Finesse. I was drawn to Finesse for the focus of customer-driven strategy in the company. Their array of partnerships and the company’s unique ability to integrate technology to enhance clients’ business is a key differentiator. I look forward to contributing to the company’s growth across the l global markets”.
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GBM Oman appoints Iyad Al Chammat as new Country General Manager Gulf Business Machines (GBM), the region’s number one provider of IT solutions, has announced the appointment of Iyad Al Chammat as the new Country General Manager for GBM Oman. Al Chammat will be responsible for aligning the company with transformational IT initiatives taking place across a range of the Sultanate’s business sectors. Commenting on the appointment, Phillipe Jarre, Chief Executive Officer of GBM, said: “GBM is proud to have Iyad on board. His 20 years of system integration, operations, strategy and leadership experience will ensure that GBM Oman builds on its commitment to provide world-class IT Solutions that supports the growth of companies across the Sultanate.” Al Chammat aims to further nurture key GBM solutions around analytics, mobility, cloud, collaboration, data centers, digital innovation, security and enterprise content management. “To be appointed the new Country General Manager for GBM Oman is both a tremendous honor and challenge. My aim is to strengthen GBM Oman’s already healthy business to help the country continue to lead the region’s IT industry evolution. We have a very strong team at GBM Oman and I believe we will have a very successful future together,” said Al Chammat. His leadership experience including 12 years in a number of senior roles at Cisco, such as General Manager for Yemen, Oman and Afghanistan - will continue to develop GBM Oman’s customer portfolio, which includes some of the largest public and private sector enterprises in the country.
10 | July 2016
Canon highlights relevance of retail analytics As part of the wider evolution of the region’s blossoming retail sector, Canon Middle East believes that the time is ripe for local businesses to tap the huge potential of Video Management Solutions (VMS) to drive retail analytics; a multi-million dollar industry being opened up by companies adding extra capabilities to their traditional surveillance solutions. Canon previewed new video solutions as part of Retail Show 2016 which took place at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre from 31st May to 1st June. "With the growing power of online retailers in particular, brick and mortar stores need to adapt to keep up with the competition, and retail analytics are a key part of this. These online retailers have staggering amounts of information on their customers, which many physical stores simply don’t have,” says Hendrik Verbrugghe, Marketing Director, Canon Middle East and Canon Central and North Africa. “Once companies are aware of how business processes can be improved through video management solutions, they can build up their surveillance systems over time, when they’ve seen for themselves the value of the solution.” At the Retail Show, Canon also unveiled two new low-light network surveillance cameras; the indoor pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) VB-M50B and the indoor fixed dome VBH651V. Both the cameras include new features that help to ensure high quality images, even in challenging low-light conditions. In addition to hardware, Canon Middle East demonstrated new capabilities in integrating its physical cameras with the very latest video management software such as Netavis and Titan to meet the retail industry’s evergrowing security and surveillance requirements.
Malwarebytes signs Redington Value as Distributor Malwarebytes, the advanced malware prevention and remediation solution for consumers and businesses, has appointed Redington Gulf Value Distribution as its first distributor in the Middle East. Having recently started operations in Dubai and launched a channel offering headed up by newly appointed Executive Chris Green, the Silicon Valley based company has significant momentum in the region. Redington Gulf Value Distribution will build upon this by providing a focal point for enterprise customers and resellers to purchase products through a local distributor. The partnership further supports Malwarebytes’ wider dedication to the channel in EMEA, joining an ever-growing operation in the UK, Ireland, Estonia, France, and Germany, with more to be announced in the coming months. Anthony O’Mara, Malwarebytes VP of EMEA said, “Our enterprise solution has a strong track record for being highly effective against the most advanced, pernicious threats. Because of this, we now protect over 10,000 businesses, detecting and blocking 605,000 threats per hour and saving 750 million IT hours on over 28 million endpoints.” “This proven ability to protect companies is driving significant demand across all sectors and in numerous territories. For this reason, we are delighted to be further expanding our presence in the Middle East with Redington Gulf Value Distribution.”
Awards Survey 2013
News In Detail
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AE digital Startups can become the keystone in increasing global GDP by USD 1.5 trillion and creating 10 million youth jobs, industry experts announced at the SAP Startup Focus Event, held in the build-up to GITEX Technology Week 2016. By 2020, digital startups in general will help increase global GDP by USD 1.5 trillion, according to the recent Accenture report “Harnessing the Power of Entrepreneurs to Open Innovation”. The UAE ranks as the top in MENA and top 20 globally in supporting entrepreneurs, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Index 2016. In line with UAE Vision 2021, the SAP Training and Development Institute has conducted a second Startup Focus Event in the UAE, held in partnership with Dubai Internet City’s in5 Innovation Center. During the two-day event with more than 150 participants, innovators gained insights from successful startup founders, and interacted with media and venture capitalists. Promising entrepreneurs also learned operational details on running their startup, and gained coding skills to build their application on SAP HANA, one of the world’s fastest growing in memory platforms. The event provided attending startups with the opportunity to become part of the global SAP Startup Focus Program. Majed Al Suwaidi, Managing Director of Dubai Internet City and Dubai Outsource City, said: "We are pleased to supports this year's SAP Startup Focus event which is one of the largest software companies in the world, and together we will offer entrepreneurs a vibrant environment to ignite their ideas. The success story of in5 Awards Survey 2013
SAP launches second Startup Focus Event innovation centre we launched in 2013, is a testament to Dubai Internet City's commitment to support and encourage innovation and creativity among startups and technopreneurs by providing promising talents with opportunities to network and learn from experts. in5 has played a leading role in supporting the tech start-up ecosystem in the region, and we are developing the innovation hub to stimulate innovation and excellence across technology, new media, smart education and sciences". "We shall always try to provide small businesses and startups the right platforms to grow, expand and continue to look at ways to foster innovation, enterprise and entrepreneurship over the coming years", added Majed Al Suwaidi. The Startup Focus Program supports more than 3,400 startups worldwide, providing startups with free access to tools, support, and training to develop innovations on the SAP HANA Cloud Platform, and
bring them to market in an ecosystem of 2 million people and 310,000 customers in 190 countries. The SAP Training and Development Institute launched the Startup Focus Program in the Middle East and North Africa in fall 2015, while meanwhile 10 startups building their business success on SAP’s innovative technology. ShortPoint is the program’s first successfully incubated and validated startup in the Middle East and North Africa and based out of Dubai. It develops tools to make web content design much quicker without coding requirements. As part of the Startup Focus Program, ShortPoint integrated their product with SAP HANA Cloud Portal enabling users to Design modern sites in just a few minutes, without coding or deep technical skills. “The Startup Focus program offers world-class support and access on an easy-to-use open platform, which help to reduce development time and cost. Startup Focus has
helped ShortPoint to enter the fast-growth UAE market and beyond, and we are committed to further supporting the region’s Digital Economy,” said Sami AlSayyed, Founder and CEO of ShortPoint. “Rolling-out the global SAP Startup Focus Program in MENA has proven to be truly boosting regional innovation through SAP technology. Our second batch of startups will benefit from an expanded ecosystem and support network, and we are confident to again showcase innovative solutions from regional startups on the global stage at premier industry events like SAPPHIRE NOW, the largest global business technology event,” said Marita Mitschein, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, SAP Training and Development Institute. UAE Startups such as ShortPoint aim to be further supported at the GITEX Startup Movement, which will bring together hundreds of global entrepreneurs, startups, and investors. July 2016 | 11
News In Detail
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enovo has intensified its focus on the $87 billion datacentre technology market by unveiling an expanded arsenal of IT solutions, including next-gen software defined storage, enterprise networking offerings and capabilities, the latest high-performance servers and an enhanced suite of hyperconverged appliances Lenovo launched a new and innovative Software Defined Storage (SDS) appliance program, called StorSelect, collaborating with leading Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to integrate their SDS software with Lenovo hardware in turnkey appliances. The factory-integrated appliances with end-to-end Lenovo support enable simple and confident deployment of scalable storage solutions. The first offerings in this program – the Lenovo Storage DX8200N and DX8200C– integrate SDS software from Nexenta Systems, Inc. and Cloudian, Inc., respectively, to deliver breakthrough return on investment for storage solutions. The DX8200N supports unified file and block storage for scale-up deployments leveraging three different technologies – all-flash, hybrid, and all spinning drives. The DX8200C is an object-based storage appliance that is ideal for large scale-out deployments and addresses the fastest growing segment of the storage market. Both offerings are built upon Lenovo’s industry leading x86 server platforms and will begin shipping worldwide in the third quarter of 2016. The company also unveiled
12 | July 2016
Lenovo enhances focus on Data Centre Market
its first Lenovo-branded midrange storage systems – new V-Series family of 12Gb SANs. The V3700 V2 and V5030 are flexible hybrid and all-flash SAN solutions that help clients confidently and affordably scale their IT operations to improve storage economics in their organizations. The Lenovo V Series family will begin shipping worldwide in June 2016. “This dramatically expanded portfolio is a powerful demonstration of Lenovo’s commitment to creating purposeful datacentre innovation in a truly open ecosystem,” said Tom Shell, senior vice president, Datacentre Product Group, Lenovo. “With the latest advancements in server performance, software-defined storage, hyper-convergence and rejuvenated networking capabilities, all delivered seamlessly in a partner-centric model, Lenovo is striving to redefine the datacentre inside and out.”
Lenovo rejuvenated its enterprise networking line with expanded offerings and capabilitie. The company released its next-generation network operating system, Lenovo Cloud NOS, which offers new functionality that enhances resiliency, cloud-level scalability and programmability. It will be available for customer download starting on June 17. In addition, Lenovo disclosed new details of its global strategic partnership with Juniper Networks, which was announced earlier this year. The two companies signed a reseller agreement under which Lenovo will offer Juniper Networks’ EX2300 and EX4550 Ethernet Switches, as well as the QFX10002-72Q datacentre spine aggregation switch. Lenovo refreshed its x3850 and x3950 X6 servers with new versions incorporating the latest Intel Xeon E7-4800 and E7-8800 v4 processors, which deliver up to 39% faster performance than the previous generation.
Lenovo also rolled out the ThinkServer sd350, an ultradense, 2U four node (2U4N) system designed for more demanding software defined workloads. Lenovo announced a significantly expanded portfolio of HX Series hyperconverged appliances, based on Nutanix, Inc. software and built upon the company’s latest server technology, to cover a broader range of workloads and deployment cost re quirements. The new offerings include the HX1000 Series for Remote Office/Branch Office (ROBO) appliance, the HX2000 Series for small to mid-size businesses (SMB) featuring Nutanix’s new Xpress software and integration of Lenovo’s latest server platform into its HX3000 Series, a “compute heavy” solution optimized for VDI and smaller virtualization workloads, and HX5000 Series, a “storage heavy” version optimized for Server Virtualization workloads with larger capacity demands Awards Survey 2013
TechKnow | Threat Quotient
Intelligent protection Threat Quotient is a pioneer in an emerging space as a threat intelligence platform provider. Anthony Perridge, Regional Director of Threat Quotient discusses some aspects of the company’s solution focus and plans for the region
Discuss the opportunity in threat intelligence market? The opportunity is huge. Gartner had done a research which figures out that less than 5% of organization have a threat intelligence platform. By 2018, about 50% of organization, in the enterprise and MSSP space, are likely to have a threat intelligence platform. So the growth is going to be huge. In this region, it is even less than 5% at the moment and so we expect huge growth. What is your solution focus? What is unique about ThreatQuotient is not the data or the feed but the platform. Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP) that centrally manages and correlates external sources with internal security and analytics solutions for contextual intelligence in a single pane of glass. It is the point of connection between all the sources of intelligence and the infrastructure. We are not a threat intelligence company; rather we are a threat intelligence platform company.
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Threat intelligence comes in all shapes and sizes- from commercial cloudsourcing communities, open source intelligence blacklists, and malware sandboxes, from existing technologies or you could can get it from information sharing in professional communities. It is hard to consume. With threat intelligence- the more you gather, the better. However, the more you gather, the more difficult is it to consume. Which is where we come in. we bring in the standardization and automation. How do you deliver your solution? We supply a platform as an image on your own hardware appliance or runs on VMware. It is sold as a subscription and but is a platform that is used by organizations that their own SOC or by MSSPs. We supply our system based on number of users and not on number of feeds because the latter can be complicated and counter-productive for a user who may have subscribed to ‘x’ number of feeds and
Anthony Perridge Regoinal Director Threat Quotient
then finds out another one that comes along which is more relevant but is not part of what he has subscribed to. Our value is in our openness. We can consume data from anything- Facebook, Twitter, custom applications, open source etc. to draw an analogy, the more haystacks you have, the harder it is to sift through them to find the needles but you have a better chance of finding as many needles.so we enable intelligence from myriad sources.
hundreds of dollars per annum. That is really expensive. So we need to make sure, what we are taking in is relevant to your industry by cross referencing it what you already know about your Business and vertical. You can do this with ThreatQuotient. You can eliminate the noise and get the attention of your analysts on the indicators of compromise. Once you find an indicator of compromise, you get the picture of the attack and where it is happening from.
What advantages does your platform offer a customer? There is a lot of intelligence available from the dark web but it is noisy and a lot of ‘rubbish’ to sift through to find the ‘golden nuggets’. If you are looking to buy on a subscription basis from an intelligence feed provider, it is
Discuss your channel focus? We are 100% channel focused. We are in the process of identifying partners in the region. We signed up our first partner for the region, HelpAG, a leading security expert and that has a SOC of its own. We are looking for more such partners in key countries. July 2016 | 13
TechKnow | Fujitsu
Farid Al-Sabbagh VP & Managing Director Fujitsu Middle East
Sizeable proposition Fujitsu offers an extensive range of solutions including a cloud platform that helps organisations looking to deploy more digital services. Farid Al-Sabbagh, VP & Managing Director at Fujitsu Middle East, discusses details Discuss the cloud solutions portfolio of Fujitsu? Is that a growing focus in the region? Cloud offers obvious agility, speed and cost efficiency advantages and has grown from an emerging trend to becoming part of the standard IT services delivery model for many organizations today. Fujitsu’s sees cloud as having a key role in underpinning our vision of a Human-Centric Intelligent Society, one where social and business innovation is driven by the intelligent use of information and communication technology. Fujitsu has extensive Cloud portfolio covering all Private, Public and Hybrid Cloud customer requirements. An
14 | July 2016
example would be PrimeFlex for VShape mainly for customers looking to have their cloud running on VMWare stack. For those who prefer to run their environment based on open source, Fujitsu works with them on our offering, PrimeFlex for Openstack. Both these solutions can be deployed as an integrated infrastructure package on customer premises. For customers looking for hybrid/public cloud we have Fujitsu hybrid IT K5 Cloud platform deployed across several regions. This highly flexible cloud service includes network, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). K5 enables you to modernize, innovate,
extend and interoperate. It lets you build, test and deploy new digital services more easily than other approaches. Fujitsu's Cloud is the foundation of our digital services, delivered in a range of styles to meet customers' needs for security, data regulation and business agility and it’s definitely a growing focus in the region. In the Middle East, cloud is picking up and we have seen many customers who are ready to adopt it. Fujitsu ME has already deployed Public cloud in partnership with one of the system integrators and seen multiple entities utilizing it successfully. You have a comprehensive
Big Data portfolio- elaborate on key elements in the portfolio? Big Data is a great opportunity for organizations. Establishing the right infrastructure able to keep processing time constant while volumes are increasing, is a challenge which should not be underestimated. Fujitsu has advanced solutions, where organizations can get optimized Big Data infrastructure solutions including hardware, software and services – all from a single source. FUJITSU Big Data portfolio is a powerful and scalable offering that provides business users with a more cost-effective way of creating actionable analytics from big data. Our
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portfolio consists of ‘PrimeFlex for SAP HANA’ and ‘PrimeFlex for Hadoop’. PRIMEFLEX for Hadoop is provided as a ready-torun Integrated System as well as a Reference Architecture for flexible deployment, and enables business users to tap hidden information from huge amounts of data. In addition, strategic big data consulting, analytics consulting, consulting for Hadoop, and integration and maintenance services supplement the offering. In Short, PRIMEFLEX for Hadoop analyses large volumes of data, extracting meaningful business-relevant information, combining the convenience of pre-configured and pre-tested hardware with the economic advantages of open source software. Fujitsu PRIMEFLEX for SAP offerings help to accelerate the SAP transformation process by augmenting internal resources and delivering a robust, agile infrastructure which supports business growth and innovation. PRIMEFLEX for SAP HANA is backed by 40 years of experience in delivering fast, secure, high availability implementations with optimized Total Cost of Ownership, successfully reducing complexity. Our SAP knowledge and expertise has helped our customers to transform their SAP environments in a smarter, faster fashion, with proven cost reduction by up to 90% and increased enterprise agility by up to 50%. The result is a modernized IT environment centered on delivering business impact.
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"Fujitsu's Cloud is the foundation of our digital services, delivered in a range of styles to meet customers' needs for security, data regulation and business agility and it’s definitely a growing focus in the region."
Has Big data deployments been a growing business in the region for Fujitsu and its partners? Yes, we have seen tremendous growth specifically in SAP HANA solutions and this will remain one of the major focus area for Fujitsu ME with our partner eco system showing great interest in this area. As a matter of fact, Fujitsu is the largest provider of SAP HANA deployments in the Middle East. Discuss if support and solutions for SAP and Oracle customers is also a significant area of focus for Fujitsu? As one of the world’s largest IT services providers, and as global partners at the highest tier to both Oracle and SAP, this is definitely a significant area of focus for us. Case in point - Fujitsu has over than 3,500 Oracle specialists and has exhibited its deep knowledge of Oracle by achieving Specialization in more than 32 Oracle technologies and this number is increasing. Similarly, we have SAP deployments across the globe with more than 2500 specialists. We constantly keep abreast of latest technologies on offer, and have achieved successful certification and completion of various SAP projects including latest products. We go beyond offering basic support and solutions and also help and advise customers entirely from an Enterprise Applications perspective.
Comment on the integrator partner strategy/focus for Fujitsu? Fujitsu globally delivers an integrated portfolio of products, services and solutions that enable customers to innovate and achieve growth in a Human Centric Intelligent Society. To address each customer’s individual needs, Fujitsu uniquely combines the ability to deliver with deep technical expertise, significant global reach and the rare ability to orchestrate bestin-class offerings from one of the most comprehensive partner ecosystems. We work collaboratively with the world’s leading IT companies to develop products, services and solutions and enable customers to optimize their IT infrastructure investments, while transforming or modernizing their business. By integrating the innovative expertise of our partners, Fujitsu is able to help its customers turn technology into a competitive advantage. As for the Middle East, except for a few global and extremely complex integration projects, most of our Datacenter Products are sold through a set of Select Expert direct partners, as well as through selected resellers. We also constantly invest in training, joint market development plans and support for our partners. You have recently opened
an office in Qatarwhat would be its focus? Fujitsu has seen a huge demand for their IT infrastructure and ERP application services within the country. Smart city plans, which include smart security and surveillance, environmental management, and disaster management solutions are integral to the development of Qatar as a modern, forward-thinking country. Combined with the country’s far-reaching plans for urbanisation, harnessing of big data, developing the necessary ICT infrastructure, etc prominent clients such as Qatar Petroleum, Oryx GTI, Nakilat, Qatari Diar and Hassad Food, among others will look to benefit from Fujitsu’s new office. The new office will also help us to work closely with our partners and large enterprise customers and offer them support whenever needed. Are there any plans to open more offices in the GCC? The number of cities getting smarter in the GCC is faster than anywhere else around the world which definitely calls for being closer to our customers. Hence, yes, we will be opening offices in other GCC countries as a part of our growth and investment plans for the region. Discuss key verticals that are showing growth in region from Fujitsu’s perspective? While Education and Healthcare verticals are consistently charting growth across all the countries, we also find a vibrant private sector and investments in the UAE across other verticals as well. July 2016 | 15
Cover Feature | Hyperconvergence
Hyperconvergence brings in the future HCI is a technology which is steadily progressing towards mainstream adoption
H
CI (hyper converged infrastructure) is largely being seen as the next phase in the journey towards software defined dynamic infrastructure and offers more benefits than converged infrastructure. HCI, with a software defined interface on top of commodity hardware, offers a shared pool of compute, storage and networking resources. It promises to do away with the limitations of silos of IT infrastructure and vendor lock-in. According to Gartner, HCIS will be the fastest-growing segment of the overall market for integrated systems and the market for hyperconverged integrated systems (HCIS) will grow 79 % to reach almost $2 billion in 2016. This will propel it toward mainstream use in the next five years. Anand Chakravarthi, Area Vice President - Middle East Sales at Pivot3
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says, “Converged infrastructure provided an on-ramp to more comprehensive, software-defined solutions like hyperconvergence. While enterprise-sized companies have typically been the most aggressive with adopting converged infrastructure, some SMBs have bought in as well, seeking benefits of agility and lower capital expenditures. But IT professionals still face certain problems with converged infrastructure – for one, lack of visibility and control of their own environments, also vendor lock-in and being forced to buy more than what they need, which drives up costs and consumes valuable floor/rack space.” Hyperconvergence, while still in the early stages of adoption in the Middle East, is seen as the next logical step in the evolution of software-defined infrastructure. It radically simplifies data
management, provides a single shared resource pool, and goes beyond servers and storage to make many legacy services like data protection products such as backup and replication obsolete, opines Anand. He adds, “Customers in the region are very sensitive about their data and HCI is a great platform with low TCO, much lesser datacenter footprint, as gateway for their local secure system for critical data; non-critical mass data can then be moved to the cloud. Such tiers help the customer achieve the best return of their investment and data security." Shams Hasan, Enterprise Product Manager, Dell Middle East says that there is a common misconception in the industry that to take advantage of Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) opportunities, customers need to have experience and/
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or, adoptions and implementations of conventional “converged infrastructure” but this is far from true. He adds, “HCI solutions usually come in a package of their own – for example the Dell PowerEdge XC series offers appliances that come bundled with Dell’s globally recognized rack-server technology and Nutanix’s software to provide Customers a best-of-breed HCI solutions. So, HCI solutions actually offer customers who may not have yet taken advantage of conventional “converged infrastructure” solutions the opportunity to leap-frog the trend and go straight to HCI.” Kartik Shankar, Senior Sales Manager, StorIT Distribution doesn’t pick sides and opines that says that converged and hyper converged infrastructure both help efficiently manage resource-hungry software applications, which is why many regional organizations are adopting either of these approaches. He elaborates that both approaches have their pros and cons but must be chosen wisely to meet specific requirements. He adds, “In converged infrastructure approach, best-in-class of compute, network, storage and server virtualization products are engineered together to address solutions that require ultimate flexibility and massive growth. These solutions are managed, maintained, serviced and supported by a single vendor. Due to its standardization, most of the time it becomes very difficult to add additional aspects and variants of a traditional datacenter other than its core aspects. However, this is compensated with robustness and reliability. Whereas, Hyper converged infrastructure (HCI) is a software defined approach towards converged infrastructure, which make it easier to add different traditional datacenter aspects. However, it cannot handle solutions requiring highest flexibility and it can turn into an expensive approach for requirements with massive scalability. So it is very important to analyze the requirements, before opting for either converged or hyper converged infrastructure.” Adoption rates in the region might be modest at the moment but the awareness
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is growing about the advantages that HCI offers. Anand adds, “In terms of regional dynamics, every customer we have met is keen to evaluate HCI; they may not be deploying HCI presently, but they are definitely aware of the trend and potential benefits of aligning IT with business strategy. Those who have deployed, with the help of dynamic solutions from Pivot3, are now more aware of the capability to expand beyond singular use cases and into running multiple workloads in addition to VDI, server virtualization, remote office and backup and disaster recovery on the same hyperconverged system.”
Why HCI? Customers moving to HCI are doing so to gain increased data
Anand Chakravarthi Area Vice President, ME Sales Pivot3
“Customers in the region are very sensitive about their data and HCI is a great platform with low TCO, much lesser datacenter footprint, as gateway for their local secure system for critical data; non-critical mass data can then be moved to the cloud."
efficiency, resource utilization, simplicity of federated management and the flexibility to merge with existing infrastructure. Anand adds, “While to many in the industry, there’s a thin line between converged and HCI, converged still has some limitations. Converged systems typically include just server and storage resource components and don’t solve fundamental data management challenges – essentially, it still provides the functionality of traditional storage array, merely migrated into a virtualization platform. Converged also doesn’t provide the levels of performance and efficiency needed to break the chains of siloes in
legacy IT environments.” As business are becoming more data-driven and workloads are becoming increasingly more diverse, digital technology opportunities for the business require significantly faster response times in terms of every phase- planning, acquiring, testing and deployment. These business realities put higher pressure on the IT function to enable business innovation amidst even more unpredictable capacity and cost expectations, whilst ensuring higher rates of success on innovation, risk, and gambles. HCI offers this advantage to start small and scale with requirements. July 2016 | 17
Cover Feature | Hyperconvergence management, better control and simplification of IT resources management, which in turn reduces the manpower and time required to manage these resources. It offers reduced initial deployment time (from 6-8 months to a few weeks) so that the software projects can go live much faster, and the faster provisioning of resources (from month to couple of hours). Scalability, cost effectiveness and reduced foot print in data centers are other key factors as well as improved operational efficiency, service and support.”
Blend or replace?
Shams Hasan Enterprise Product Manager Dell Middle East
Shams adds, “Un-predictability in any system is managed through good strategies of low-upfront costs and ability to grow rapidly as business demands grow. HCI beats conventional “converged infrastructure” in two key dimensions as it has the ability to start small, which has the advantage of low up-front CAPEX; and it has the ability to grow at a much more granular scale, which gives customers better control of the budget and ability to align technology growth to business workloads.” Converged and hyper converged infrastructure approach gives the customers more control on their IT environment compared to the traditional approach. It helps IT resources to spend more time to enhance their business by planning and deploying new IT initiatives rather than getting involved in less technical activities like break and fix, trouble shooting, evaluating individual components of the datacenter for compatibility etc. Kartik elaborates, “The primary benefits of converged/hyper converged infrastructure solution include centralized
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Costs could be a bottleneck in these times of economic challenges confronting most sectors globally and regionally. However, this technology upgrade would give them resources to address some of the economic challenges, as some early adopters are arguably already realizing the benefits. As Anand elaborates, cost will always be a factor for customers, but the bottom line is that they’ve already invested in an infrastructure expansion or upgrade. So rather than turning their backs on their existing IT investments, they can start small and scale out as needed, effectively implementing an HCI environment with one box and build towards a more software-defined infrastructure over time. He add, “As we’ve seen with converged, there’s often a requisite ‘rip and replace’ operation involved. When adopting a hyperconverged strategy, customers need to be on the lookout for these capabilities that allow them to blend in and phase out separate server and storage, effectively buying what they need when they need it.” He claims that Pivot3 are probably the only HCI vendor that coexist with existing infrastructure. “It should be mentioned that not all HCI vendors can offer the level of scalability that Pivot3 does - as you add to the HCI system, Pivot3 scales out for both or either compute and storage, most competing HCI vendors can’t do that. This is why Pivot3 is enabling the reality of the software-defined data center – it’s not something that happens overnight, it’s a journey that requires building blocks
and linear scalability controlled by the customer.” Shams says that customers with good IT planning and strategy practices find that transitions to HCI is actually not expensive at all, even effectively zero delta compared to any data-center evolution, upgrade, or refresh. A container strategy is a key approach to introducing HCI into existing infrastructure. That is because HCI solutions are often deployed for specific workload needs and hence can be “mutually exclusive” to the rest of the compute infrastructure stack. He further opines, “Customers with long-term relationships with Dell take advantage of the seamless systems management and interaction across the different technologies – racks, conventional “converged infrastructure’, and HCI – to be able to embrace New IT trends (such as HCI) as part of their regular datacenter evolution, upgrades, and refreshes. Bringing the right vision, ensuring a broad approach, and affording customers the broadest portfolio of the most trusted hyper-converged infrastructure solutions ensures our customers have zero bottleneck to New IT trend adoptions.” Kartik comments that container based deployments with HCI are seeing an increased demand. This offers the most suitable application packaging with HCI becoming the foundation as it provides great flexibility and a combination of resources for cloud services. He adds, “HCI deployments can be done without a ‘rip and replace’ strategy. The solution can be introduced into existing environments as part of normal technology refresh cycles, where it could refresh and replace all traditional IT components as individual refreshes over a period of time. However, Anand opines that whether container- or block-based, these aren’t broad level options customers consider when they are exploring their options or making a decision. He elaborates on concerns that customers need to address through their enquiries before deciding to go for a HCI solution. He says, “While HCI simplifies and shortens application life cycle management, which container-based
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deployments also contribute to, it really depends on what workloads customers want to run. In this sense, certain questions to ask when considering HCI vendors are if it allows you to prioritize storage performance to critical workloads and can it scale granularly alongside data center needs; Also does it offer assurance levels to ensure that critical services and applications are not impacted in extreme demand scenarios and does it have the built-in ability to deploy multiple, mixed workloads on a hyperconverged platform as well as standalone flash storage products.” There are HCI solutions for SMB customers as well to choose from and gives them benefits of enterprise features and scalability as growth demands. As Shams opines, HCI is particularly good for SMB customers because it has the ability to start small and has the ability to grow at a much more granular scale, giving customers better control of the budget and ability to align technology growth to business workloads. Karthik says, “Even though the hyperconvergence approach is largely associated with large enterprises, HCI is a good option for SMBs as it removes IT complexity, reduces operational costs, increases scalability and agility and saves times and valuable resources. HCI offers SMBs a software defined and scalable method of deploying virtualised IT workloads thus offering them the benefits of the cloud to the premises. While HCI solutions are seeing a demand from Government, oil & gas and banking, in the past two years, there have been more opportunities in SMB and mid-market segments as well.” StorIT represents some leading vendors when it comes to hyper converged infrastructure as well as converged infrastructure and open platform converged infrastructure. The distributor promotes EMC VxRail, a fully integrated, preconfigured, and pre-tested VMware hyper-converged infrastructure appliance family. Pivot3 offers a hyperconverged solution for small-to-medium organizations in the commercial, government and education markets. Anand adds, “HCI makes available all
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the features and benefits typically only found in enterprise SAN and virtual server environments for the SMB market. They can realize the benefits of enterprise IT capabilities, including shared storage, server consolidation and built-in failover, at a cost-effective price point and without the need for advanced IT skills.”
Taking to market More leading vendors are taking their HCI solutions to market and one can expect more announcements as this technology gains further ground. Dell claims its hyper-converged infrastructure portfolio in alliance with leading brands, offers customers the industry’s only single source for the broadest portfolio of the most trusted hyper-converged infrastructure solutions. Shams says, “In April this year, Dell announced improved performance on the Dell PowerEdge XC Series, the industry’s first Nutanix-powered systems,in addition to being able to resell the latest EMC hyper-converged offerings including VCE
Kartik Shankar Senior Sales Manager StorIT Distributioni
“Even though the hyper-convergence approach is largely associated with large enterprises, HCI is a good option for SMBs as it removes IT complexity, reduces operational costs, increases scalability and agility and saves times and valuable resources."
VxRail Appliance Family, VCE VxRack Node and VCE VxRack System 1000 FLEX. Dell’s channel partners have access to the broadest portfolio of HCI solutions, as well as industry leading services and support.” Pivot3 which been present in the region for over five years now with several key customers, has significantly expanded enterprise IT channel initiatives over the past year. The company recently hired a large regional distributor to take its enterprise HCI and PCIe Flash storage business to the channel and has ramped up its channel engagement and partner discussions. “We have an aggressive channel
strategy with many partner programs planned throughout the end of the year and into 2017. With the flexibility, performance, scalability and availability in the solutions that Pivot3 offer tied to the several hardware platforms that we can support, provides the IT channel the flexibility to offer solutions to their customer’s unique workloads that fit the business requirements in the most cost effective way.” Concurrently, as more vendors bring to market solutions based on HCI and as more customers realize the benefits of moving towards software defined infrastructure, HCI will gain further traction in the next couple of years. July 2016 | 19
Point2Point | Emitac Mobile Solutions
Mobility to the fore Zuilfiqar Khan CEO Emitac Mobile Solutions
Discuss how the company’s focus on Mobility solutions with Blackberry has paid off from the early days? Zuilfiqar Khan (ZK): We set up EMS specifically focusing on mobility business. We have three divisions- Emitac Enterprise, Emitac Healthcare and EMS. This is the 10th year of operations. We initially partnered with Blackberry for the UAE operations. We spread out our operation across the Middle East and later Africa to support Blackberry operations. We further expanded to several Asian countries including Pakistan, Nepal, Mongolia etc. we helped them grow and became a significantly large partner, taking them to 65 countries and signed with hundred carriers. We had over 3.5 million monthly data plans supported. Initially, we were only on the enterprise side of the business but later started the Blackberry phone distribution for the consumer segment as well. That took off really well. In 2010-11, we were about 15-18 % of their global sales. From thereon, we have pretty much stabilized at doing at least 15%, if not more of Blackberry’s global business, year on year. That has been a huge global achievement for a UAE based company.
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Emitac Mobile Solutions is a leading mobility solutions provider in the region and partners with vendors including Blackberry, VMware, MobileIron, Microsoft etc. Zuilfiqar Khan, CEO of Emitac Mobile Solutions (EMS) and Mustafa Rana, VP Sales at EMS discuss the various solutions propositions that EMS is pioneering in the enterprise and carrier space
We appointed a lot of reseller networks across so many different countries. Probably it is among the largest reseller networks that a UAE based company may have. We grew to establishing other partnerships such as the one with Apple which entitled us to be their partner in 35 African countries. How have you accounted for the shifts in the industry in your go to market strategy? ZK: Today, the mobile industry is in a different phase. We have evolved as a country thereafter. There are many companies even today that require Blackberry solutions and is part of what they do. However, there is also a definite need for solutions from the Android space and the iOS space as well. We needed partnerships for solutions that help manage mobile workforce or implement mobile access policies. To meet this requirement, we had partnerships with vendors including Mobileiron, Airwatch, SOTI, Appthority etc. Mustafa Rana (MR): As an EMM by itself is not enough to secure your mobile enterprise, we offer solutions
from Appthority, that help automate the scanning and analysis of employee mobile apps for risky behaviors, hidden actions, and mobile malware, providing continuous visibility and control over potential security and privacy threats to the company’s information. If you allow people to download apps on corporate owned devices, you are not secured until you have made the access to these apps watertight. That is a service we offer in conjunction with our solutions for managing the mobile enterprise. What is GEMA all about? ZK: We have an alliance at the global level-GEMA (Global Enterprise Mobility Alliance). We helped found this alliance along with other global level enterprise mobility solutions providers. This helps to come up with and keep standards in service delivery etc. We are on the board of GEMA. This helps comply with standards. It also helps all members to constantly learn and adapting from markets that are ahead in some aspects like kitting or consulting for instance. What is the company’s vision in brief?
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ZK: What we focused on for the first 9 years or so helped us grow from a startup to a billion $ company. However, we took a pause last year to reflect on where we would like to headed in the future and we concluded that Distribution couldn’t be a focus in the future, although it has served us well in our growth. Margins are razor thin; there are a lot of operating costs to with it and time and efforts as well. We are now all about powering mobility in the enterprise and carrier space. On the enterprise segment, we are strong in mobility and cloud,both private and public. Elaborate on your portfolio of solutions? MR: What we take to market is a proposition called as Enterprise Mobility Management Services. EMM is a part of that. Within EMMS, we consult, deploy, manage and train. On the basis of our long years of experience in the carrier segment, we offer our own consulting services. Typically customers who avail our consulting would opt for our deployment services thereafter because of the larger understanding that we would have gained into the customer’s requirements from our consulting engagement. Deployment could be cloud based or could be as simple as roiling out devices. This includes pre-configured & Kit for an out of the Box experience for the employees with ready to use enterprise devices with authorised Apps & Policies. And then we help manage the ecosystem, wherein we offer different management programs. We have clients from different verticals in the region who have availed these services . Are you appointing partners? ZK: We have had 160 resellers previously on the distribution side. We are now appointing 15 resellers on the services side. We are in the process of training these partners on the expertise we offer on services, from consulting to deployment and managing. We want to get to 100 partners in the next couple of years or so but at least 30 by end of this year, across the regions including Eastern Europe, MEA and Asia. These partners will take our solutions to market. We have many vendor relationships, which we can easily take
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to different market through these local partners. We focus on working with these partners rather competing with them. MR: The value add we offer via-a-vis a typical distribution model is that we offer some of our own IP in helping them wrap up several services around the products. Discuss how you are working with carriers in pioneering new solutions? We have 100 carrier relationships globally. We want to strengthen that part. We came up with products like EMS Monify. If there is a free WiFi connection at airport, we help monetize that. We authenticate the user first and then he an advertisement before he gets on to the free WiFi. More eyeballs means more monetization. This has been quite successful and we have seen over 70 projects take-off. These projects are in various locations wherever there is footfall such as malls, airports, ATMs, ticketing machines, bus stations etc in different markets. We also have signed up with a carrier for a nationwide implementation in the Middle East. In the carrier space, they have seen their voice revenues dip and they themselves feel they are a ‘dumb pipe’ which others are leveraging and monetizing, which is also unfair, considering the major investments they have done. Imagine a network with 20 million subscribers, if customers get some incentives like some data free or a discount, in return for engagement like seeing the advertisements. We are helping set up such models for the carriers. We are seeing a lot of engagement from carriers in these projects. Elaborate on the Monify model? ZK: There has to be willingness first on the customer’s part to be part of the program, to see the advertisements which he believes are relevant to him, based on his interest areas, and he has to then go through the registrations. Thereafter, through the day, you could have notifications maybe through an app, for continuous interaction. More advertisements he sees, he gets more benefits. This is a massive opportunity in accessing something like a 20 million subscriber base on perhaps an hourly basis instead of maybe 500 consumers in a mall. Such a program can open up the bottom of
Mustafa Rana VP Sales EMS
the user base at the bottom of the pyramid in developing markets. MR: Even in countries like the UAE for instance, people in blue collar jobs like taxi drivers for instance, may in all probability not opt for data packages. They may rather prefer such sponsored programs that gives them free data in return for viewing the ads. That can help tap the untapped segment to increase revenues of the carrier from their advertisers . What are the other products you offer? ZK: We have a product called EMS Kommand which is a Web design and hosting service which a carrier can offer to SMEs, to help them design their mobile site and build an ecommerce store. They can choose a domain and within 30 minutes they could be live. MR: We also have a product called EMS Link focused on HR that covers all aspects from the entry of an employee to his exitincluding contract management, payroll, assessments etc. EMS Link brings together all your HR workflows, connects them to the rest of your company’s systems and gives you a 360-degree dashboard view. July 2016 | 21
Point2Point | Schneider Electric
Rajashri Kumar Transactional Director - IT Business APC - Schneider Electric MEA
Together with partners Schneider Electric announced the launch of its "APC by Schneider Electric iRewards Program", a channel loyalty programme designed to reward reseller companies as a whole. Rajashri Kumar, MEA Transactional Director – IT Business, APC by Schneider Electric discusses how the program works to the channel’s benefit
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What is APC’s channel strategy for the Middle East? APC’s channel strategy is at the core of our relationship with our customers. From the smallest order to the largest projects, our reseller and distributor partners are critical to our business model. We have engaged with these partners since APC by Schneider Electric came to the Gulf region, and our network has considerably grown year-on-year. We attribute this growth to our constantly evolving channel department experts, who interact with our partners and keep a close watch on the market, and help APC adapt accordingly. Our partners are a key source of information for us, and they are able to understand what customers demand and expect in a dynamic and digitizing landscape. APC, in turn, provides its resellers with best-inclass trainings and tools for knowledge building through certified, free courses. Through their structured channel programs and initiatives, we also offer reward-based incentives to this vast community of sales and technology-based partners and experts, who work hand in hand with us to promote growth and visibility for APC. Tell us a little bit about the APC iRewards Program. The iRewards Program, launched in 2016 across the globe as well as the Gulf region, is a channel loyalty program designed to reward reseller companies as a whole, rather than just individual sales professionals. It is a partner sales incentive program in which
APC resellers earn points by claiming their APC invoiced sales. A reseller must be a “registered or Select Partner” in the APC Channel Partner Program in order to be eligible and gain access to iRewards. Once registered, the system will automatically accumulate points for APC products sold. The company decision maker registers as the iRewards Account Manager, and can decide on how to use this, such as reward performing individuals or reward performing teams for general rewards. The more eligible products sold by a company, the more points earned. APC by Schneider Electric is also offering attractive customer promotions to facilitate sales to the resellers’ clients. Points can also be earned by answering the Question of the Week (QoW) which quizzes resellers on material from some of the popular training courses available to them. What is the objective of the iRewards program? The iRewards program is a performance based incentive which encourages resellers to boost sales techniques and enhance the customer network. The program additionally prompts resellers to explore and engage with Schneider Electric’s technology solutions and stay tuned to the market’s trends and expectations while leveraging growth opportunities for their company. The program positively impacts the bottom line for both Schneider Electric as well as reseller. What kinds of rewards can
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a reseller receive as part of this "The iRewards Program, launched in 2016 across program? the globe as well as the Gulf region, is a channel Once a certain loyalty program designed to reward reseller number of points companies as a whole, rather than just individual have been earned, they can sales professionals." be redeemed for prizes such as luxury goods, gadgets, movie and initiatives for the to operate, record sales and tickets and experiences channel. benefit in the process.” (holiday or travel experience Schneider Electric has from the rewards catalogue. always been connected to How can a reseller sign up Points can also be utilized to its partners through the APC for iRewards? benefit the overall business Channel Partner Program, a Signing up for this program is (marketing materials and structured initiative which a simple three-step process: google adwords). offers partners a flexible and (a) Register at the APC Discussing the value of educational tool to grow and Partner Page iRewards program, Musthafa (b) Once you are verified, thrive in a competitive and M.V, Chief Operations Officer, evolving market. The focus the APC iRewards link will be Al Ershad Computers said: of this program is providing displayed “The new online portal for profitability, enablement, (c) Click on the link to iRewards is really convenient support, and an overall better enroll and begin earning and user-friendly. Earlier, partner experience. points! we had to manually upload The Program offers We encourage resellers to the invoices and if we lost sign up before August 15th to clearly differentiated program the invoices, we would lose levels that reflect a partner/ earn 500 upon registration! potential points as well. The reseller’s core competencies new program has made it and area of expertise. Tell us about Schneider really easy for the reseller These are: Registered, Electric’s existing programs
Select, Premier, and Elite. The program offers valuable market insights and guidance tools for businesses. Participating in the APC Channel Partner Program also provides special access to a wide variety of APC by Schneider Electric IT and nonIT solutions and services as well as many other benefits such as trainings and certifications, and increased visibility into business opportunities. The higher the levels – the more the benefits enjoyed. The newly introduced iRewards program portal is connected to the Channel Partner Program. Contact details: For further information, please contact Tel -+9714 7099 631 or Email channel. programs@apc.com.
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Insight | Paladion
Spatial intelligence, Soccer and Security Monitoring Security Monitoring can be enhanced by adopting the approach of how spatial Intelligence works opines Vinod Vasudevan, a co-founder and CTO of Paladion.
I
n the world of soccer, some players have a number of special skills that elevate their status from an average player to that of an eternal legend. One of these critical skills which allow players to transcend time is spatial intelligence or awareness. This is a dynamic skill which enables a soccer hero like Ronaldo to be so acutely aware of his surroundings. He knows the exact placement of his teammates and the location of opposing players as he moves with the ball. Spatial intelligence permits a player to instantly adapt to the changing environment and always be aware of the best strategy to create exciting scoring chances, whether it is with a nifty pass to another player or with a swift deke of an opponent. Legendary soccer players make such plays look
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entertaining in their simplicity, but they are lot easier said than done. All the players, whether teammates or opponents, are doing their own computing and there is no network linking their brains so a player can never be too sure how others are going to react to his or her actions. Average players often get surprised by the speed of an opponent or pass the ball where they expected their teammate to be, but that player decides to go in a different direction. This environment is dynamic and it is difficult, to calculate all the permutations possible. Superstar soccer players are able to map out all the movement in their mind because their spatial intelligence is so sophisticated. This allows them to score goals, complete accurate
Vinod Vasudevan Co-Founder & CTO Paladion
passes and make plays that other players find impossible to execute. Now that we have explained spatial intelligence from a human perspective, we can switch gears and show you how this concept can be applied to information security monitoring.
Enhancing Security Monitoring with Spatial Intelligence Practitioners in the information security world are well aware that Security Operation Centers (SOC) struggle to detect attacks by simply looking at Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) monitoring consoles. While monitoring events on a SIEM console, it is difficult to determine if the event under review is a real attack in progress.
To improve security monitoring, we need to enhance SOCs with spatial intelligence. Spatial intelligence with reference to information security is context information. There is a lot of context information available within our IT infrastructure that can be used for evaluating an event. Just as the position of a defender is useful information for Ronaldo to determine his next move; asset information, user information, vulnerability information, and network information are all useful in determining if the event or alert showing in a SIEM console is an attack or not.
SIEM and Context Information The idea of integrating context information within a SIEM console to help determine if an event is an attack is not
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an asset is in the a new concept. system along with Current SIEMs have "There is a need to recognize the dynamic nature of how severe is the capabilities which context information and a willingness to capture vulnerability. The allow them to this dynamism to increase security attack detection impact of system integrate context capabilities. Hence, the use of techniques that downtime and information keep pace with the changing nature of context effort required including asset information is vital." to implement a profiles (asset patch update are value, location, scan critical assets on a daily also important variables in the vulnerability information, and services, and ports) and basis, while some others decision. imperfect scanning cycles vulnerability information might scan every month or The patch update in organizations. It needs (CVE IDs, vulnerability name, quarter. Non-critical assets schedule adopted by to integrate an element of and description). SIEMs have might only get scanned an organization leads dynamism in analyzing context connectors to vulnerability annually. This essentially to a certain pattern of information. scanners which allow the implies that vulnerability vulnerabilities in existing In practice, this means that import of vulnerability assets. This is like a there should be a mechanism information on a periodic basis. information corresponding to an asset might not be fingerprint that is specific that enables the system In spite of this, there are few available for comparing with to an organization. Applying (SIEM/supporting technology) success stories of SOCs using an event to further determine to use available vulnerability a probability model to this this type of integration in if it is an attack. pattern of vulnerability data information to predict if a better evaluating an event and For instance, let us look across assets enables us specific vulnerability exists identifying attacks. at an event that is a Windows to identify this fingerprint corresponding to the event buffer overflow attack taking and predict the presence of that is being analysed. Lack of dynamic advantage of a specific vulnerability. This approach Referring to our previous integration of vulnerability. If the SIEM does is successful even in the example, we should be able context information not have updated information absence of information to use existing vulnerability This lack of success makes on this vulnerability due corresponding to a specific information available one wonder why SOCs to a sporadic scan cycle, it vulnerability from the last across Windows assets in find it difficult to integrate is difficult to compare the available scan. A similar the organization to predict context information and buffer overflow event with approach can be used for if a specific vulnerability realise value. The key reason the on-existent vulnerability other contextual information corresponding to the buffer is that SIEMs have treated information in a SIEM to that is dynamic in nature. overflow event exists or not. this kind of integration as determine the impact of this “static” integration, while in attack on the asset. This also Employing Data Scoring Goals by reality all of this information leads to weak or wasted Science to Adapt Identifying Attacks is dynamic and deserves a countermeasure actions. to the Dynamic There is a need to recognize different approach. We will In short, the method in Nature of Context the dynamic nature of context try to understand this better which SIEM technology is Information information and a willingness by taking the example of currently implemented, spatial Data science provides to capture this dynamism vulnerability information intelligence fails to deliver mechanisms to achieve the to increase security attack integration. proper information. Without type of dynamism needed, detection capabilities. Hence, Vulnerability information, this up-to-date data, no which leads to effective the use of techniques that for instance, is not static. It is possibility exists of scoring your use of context information keep pace with the changing changing all the time as new thus increasing the spatial nature of context information vulnerabilities are discovered in goal of stopping an attack. intelligence of a security is vital. We can only enable platforms every day. Similarly, system. our SOC analysts to improve Bridging the Gap asset components and Let us look at how data security attack detection To be able to solve this services keep changing and science can help us solve the if we adopt techniques problem by increasing the corresponding vulnerabilities dynamic nature of vulnerability which integrate dynamic ability to recognize an event change accordingly. Hence, information integration. “spatial intelligence”. These that is an attack requires vulnerability information is a Organizations tend to follow improvements should assist a different approach. The moving target. certain patterns while patching SOC analysts to effectively new approach needs to In addition, organizations their systems. Patching pierce through the noise of keep pace with the real have different periodical cycles decisions are mostly based event data to identify those world issue of evolving during which scanning occurs. on analysis of how critical events which are attacks. vulnerabilities, missing Leading organizations might
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Insight | NetApp
While Flash solutions are renowned for delivering consistent, predictable performance, it must also integrate seamlessly with an enterprise’s data storage, management and analytics ecosystem writes Fadi Kanafani, Regional Director Fadi Kanafani Regional Director MEA NetApp
Middle East & Africa, NetApp.
Flash: talk about service, not performance T
here comes a time in the lifecycle of every technology when vendors need to give businesses more than benefits such as cost savings, increases in productivity and ease of management. Advantages such as these have become base-level expectations in the eyes of IT buyers when investing in new technologies and services – perfunctory functions rather than services which add value. Any technology solution needs to reach a point when it goes above and beyond these requirements – unlocking the power to improve the service a
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business provides, change employee behaviour and enable the creation of new lines of business and revenue streams. Given the pace of growth in the all-Flash array market – with Gartner predicting a CAGR of 37% last year, increasing from $1.43bn in 2014 to $7bn by 2019 – Flash is a technology that needs to reconfigure its own perception in the industry. Traditionally, the value proposition of Flash is high performance, low latency and low power consumption. All-Flash arrays are generally equipped
to deal with the most performanceintensive applications, from databases behind websites and trading platforms to the heavy lifting involved in supporting a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). However, the so called myth of the all-flash data centre is set to become a reality. Demand for high-performance applications that sit outside the traditional sweet spots for flash is rising and Gartner predicts that while no data centres use only all-flash arrays for primary data today, 25% will by 2020. Therefore, the rhetoric around flash needs to change.
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Flash’s iPhone moment While at an operational level, technology experts still obsess over performance when talking about Flash, the conversation needs to be about service. All-flash arrays generally deliver a high enough level of performance for any end-user data set, and leading vendors are competing more aggressively on cost with every passing year. It’s about the watershed moment when Flash is no longer a technology that makes the IT teams’ life easier but one that offers strategic value and potential to the wider business. An overused but appropriate example of a very different technology is that of the Apple iPhone. The early smartphones enhanced the user experience of using a mobile phone – with features such as a camera, music and Bluetooth turning mobiles into a toy as well as a means of communication. The iPhone, however, did not just enhance the smartphone experience but changed the way humans interact with the Internet, consume content and carry out financial transactions. As an enterprise technology, smartphones were transformed from a device employees carried so that they were contactable on the move to one that has enabled new business models which have revolutionised the taxi, hotel and entertainment industries to name a few. As an enterprise tool, for Flash to achieve its iPhone moment vendors and IT buyers need to start viewing it as a means of supporting a level of service that defines the entire business in terms of its commitment to customers, partners and employees. Returning to the emergence of all-Flash data centres; one of the key drivers for the rapid rate of growth in the all-Flash market is that more and more applications are viewed as critical to business continuity and success. Thanks to a concept I refer to as the expectation economy, which is driven by the evolving relationship between humans and technology, businesses are under immense pressure to deliver experiences that are absolutely seamless. The simple fact is that if they fail to do so, a competitor or a disruptor will. So, whereas Flash has enjoyed a solid market
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in performance-intensive applications such as web hosting, finance and CRM systems or Virtual Desk Infrastructure (VDI), the hunger for consistent high performance is being replicated throughout the enterprise. Statistics from KISSmetrics tell us that 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load and that a one second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. Employees do not wish to be held back by technology in the workplace, particularly millennials who have pre-set expectations of how technology should enhance rather than restrict. And data has become one of the most powerful assets a business has to personalise the service it provides and deliver new experiences that exceed expectations, positioning them positively against their competitors.
The element of predictability Flash solutions are renowned for delivering consistent, predictable performance, but it must also integrate seamlessly with an enterprise’s data storage, management and analytics ecosystem. An example of this evolution in practice can be seen with the combination of NetApp and SolidFire. As well as scale IT operations, automate entire operations and enjoy the guarantee of completely predictable performance associated with SolidFire – enterprises can access, move and manage data across their entire storage environment easily thanks to NetApp’s Data Fabric. This translates into business value as IT decision makers can focus their energy on finding new ways of making technology support the business and at a strategic level the enterprise becomes more invested in using data more intelligently. The Flash buyer’s journey has changed. It is no longer a case of making a trade-off between price and performance, but an investment in a level of service that will define and differentiate you as a business. As more businesses make the psychological leap from seeing IT as an infrastructure for enablement to a foundation for innovation, the path towards the all-Flash data centre will become clearer.
NetApp ranked #2 in All Flash Array Market
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ccording to the IDC Q1 2016 Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise
Storage Systems Tracker, NetApp is growing much faster than the all flash array market as a whole and has gained market share versus the competition. Highlights o NetApp all flash array revenue grew 238.2% year over year, 2.7 times faster than the market growth of 87.4% year over year. o NetApp moved to #2 from #4 in the tracker quarter over quarter, with 22.8% revenue market share, ahead of Pure, HPE, and IBM. o As of the end of its Q4FY2016, NetApp indicated: • Its all flash array business has grown to an annual net revenue run rate of more than $700 million. • Its All Flash FAS line has produced eight consecutive quarters of year over year triple digit unit growth. “Flash solutions are changing the expectations and economics of enterprise IT,” said Brian Bakstran, acting Chief Marketing Officer, NetApp. “NetApp offers the industry’s broadest all flash portfolio, allowing customers to move toward an all flash data center while still using what they’ve already deployed and leveraging the cloud. Our new Flash Advantage 3-4-5 Program makes flash even more affordable, efficient, and risk-free – and we guarantee it.”
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EyeTech
DWR-925 4G LTE VPN Router Overview: D-Link DWR-925 4G LTE VPN Router with SIM Card Slot is an easy to deploy high performance Virtual Private Network (VPN) router with mobile connectivity to allow easy access to mobile broadband networks. Create a powerful private network for your home or small office with easy setup tools, advanced configuration options, and built-in security features. The DWR-925 4G LTE VPN Router with SIM Card Slot lets you create a secure high speed Virtual Private Network (VPN) for access over the Internet or a wired network connection. It supports IPsec, PPTP, L2TP, and GRE protocols in Server Mode, and also handles passthrough traffic. Advanced VPN configuration options can be set using the comprehensive setup wizard and includes multiple encryption options, key management, negotiation modes, and VPN authentication support using an internal user database. With the DWR-925 you’ll have all the tools you need to create the ideal VPN solution. Key features: • The DWR-925 4G LTE VPN Router with SIM Card Slot lets you connect to your 3G/4G mobile connection with fast downlink speeds of up to 150 Mbps and uplink speeds up to 50 Mbps. • With regards to redundancy, the auto-failover feature automatically switches between mobile broadband and fixed-line broadband to ensure you stay connected to the Internet in case one connection fails. • The serial port of the DWR-925 can connect to 56K modem as a failover option or be configured as a console port if necessary, providing extra flexibility and versatility. • The DWR-925 can encrypt all wireless transmissions using WPA or WPA2 to protect your wireless network against unauthorized access. • It also protects your network from online intruders and potential attacks over the Internet with dual-active firewall protection using Network Address Translation (NAT) and Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI).
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AT-AR2010V compact VPN firewall
Overview: Allied Telesis has announced the availability of the ATAR2010V compact VPN firewall. Developed specifically for secure communications applications where a small form factor is highly desirable—such as traffic control, video surveillance, vending, ticketing, and remote telemetry—the AT-AR2010V delivers the performance, reliability, security, and value that today’s customers demand. The powerful AT-AR2010V is capable of encrypted throughput in excess of 400Mbps. When combined with an integrated DPI firewall and Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (IDS/IPS), this high throughput ensures that high-speed machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and control is secure from attack or eavesdropping. In addition, features like optional 3G/4G connectivity, AC or hard-wired DC power, and a rugged compact design make the AT-AR2010V ideal for situations where mains power or wired network connections may not be available. Key features: • Compact, ruggedized VPN Firewall for deployment in harsh environments • High throughput and strong security features make the AT-AR2010V VPN firewall the ideal choice for remote, high-performance deployments, such as those found in transportation, retail, manufacturing, and many other IoT applications. • The AT-AR2010V is compatible with Allied Telesis Management Framework (AMF), a network management tool that provides centralized management and zero-touch installation and recovery of deployed devices. • Can survive the wide temperature ranges of industrial or outdoor applications, so it can deliver high-speed secure data almost anywhere.
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Tintri VMstore T5000
AXIS Q1615-E Network Camera
Overview: Tintri first introduced the Tintri VMstore T5000 all-flash series in August 2015. Today, all three models, the T5040, T5060 and T5080, are updated with new capacity options ranging from 17 TB to 308 TB. These systems leverage the latest in 3D NAND technology and high density drives to offer organizations both higher capacity and lower $/ GB. In the future, Tintri will also enable capacity upgrades with some of these models to allow customers to scale up their individual VMstores. Combined with VAS VM-level capabilities and VM Scale-out software, customers can scale with complete flexibility, growing from one Tintri
Overview:
T5040 all flash system to 32 fully populated T5080s.
The IP66-and NEMA 4X-rated AXIS Q1615-E offers aluminum and robust casing, sunshield to simplify installation time and
Key features:
costs. It is protected from dust, rain, snow and sun, and can
• The Tintri VMstore T5000 All-Flash series is the first
operate in temperatures from -40 °C to 60 °C (-40 °F to 140 °F)
all-flash VM-aware storage (VAS) to offer up to 308TB
using High PoE (30 W).
for 5,000 virtual machines (VM) in two rack units.
The camera does not only functions at -40 °C (-40 °F), but
• High density 3D NAND drives and multiple capacities
it can also power up at that temperature following a power
with expansion options gives you the ultimate
failure. This feature is known as Axis' Arctic Temperature
flexibility in performance, capacity and price.
Control. To guarantee heating, multiple heaters are placed in
• Enabled by the Tintri scale-out platform, you can grow
direct contact with the camera and the window. AXIS Q1615-E
from a single two rack unit 17 TB all-flash system to 10
offers a dual shell technology, where an internal shell stores
PB of all-flash in 1.5 racks, supporting up to 160,000
heat in cold environments. A fan ventilates the air in hot
VMs.
environments, where the heat is transferred to the outer
• Tintri’s VM-aware storage delivers performance
aluminum chassis for efficient cooling.
isolation and per-VM quality of service while guaranteeing high performance and low latency across the entire flash capacity. • The T5000 series enables all storage action at the VM- level—manage, replicate, automate and analyze any (or every) VM to keep storage simple.
Key features: • Outdoor-ready with Arctic Temperature Control -40 °C to 60 °C (-40 °F to 122 °F) • HDTV 1080p at 60fps • WDR-Forensic Capture and Lightfinder • Axis' Zipstream technology • Electronic Image Stabilization and Shock detection
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Stats & Trends
Healthcare Providers in MENA to Spend US $2.78 Billion on IT in 2016
H
ealthcare providers in the Middle East and North Africa will spend US $2.78 billion on IT products and services in 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. This forecast includes spending by healthcare providers (which includes hospitals and physicians' practices) on internal services, software, IT services, data center systems,
devices and telecom services. Telecom services, which include fixed and mobile telecom services, will remain the largest overall spending category throughout the forecast period within the healthcare providers sector with an expected market size of US $1 billion in 2016. "IT services spending is estimated to reach US $371
million in 2016. Implementation, with an estimated market size of US $99 million in 2016, and consulting, with an estimated market size of US $98 million in 2016, will be two of largest sub-segment within IT services in 2016," said Moutusi Sau, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Software spending will have the largest growth by 11.2 percent over last year to reach
Crypto-ransomware attacks rise
T
he number of users attacked with encryption ransomware is soaring, with 718,536 users hit between April 2015 and March 2016: an increase of 5.5 times compared to the same period in 2014-2015. The irreversible consequences of this kind of malware infection, along with the high value data that is being encrypted by ransomware tempts victims to pay for decryption, which in turn draws more cybercriminals
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into the business. It’s no secret that cryptoransomware, which encrypts data on users’ systems has become a huge problem for cybersecurity over the last few years. It has become so widespread that it could easily be called an epidemic. In order to accurately understand its scale, Kaspersky Lab has researched how the ransomware threat has evolved over a period of 24 months. The company’s analysis includes attack
statistics for classic screenblocker ransomware as well as crypto-ransomware. The report covers the full two-year period, which for comparison reasons has been divided into two parts of 12 months each: from April 2014 to March 2015 and from April 2015 to March 2016. These particular timescales were chosen, because they witnessed several significant changes in the ransomware threat landscape. Here are the key points revealed by the
US $438 million in 2016." Internal services will grow 4.3 percent in 2016 to be a US $519 million market. Internal services refers to salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff of an organization. The information services staff includes all company employees that plan, develop, implement and maintain information systems.
research. The total number of users encountering any type of ransomware between April 2015 and March 2016 increased by 17.7% compared to the period April 2014 to March 2015 (from 1,967,784 to 2,315,931 users around the world). The number of users attacked with cryptoransomware rose 5.5 times (from 131,111 in 20142015 to 718,536 in 20152016). The share of users encountering ransomware at least once as a proportion of the total number of users encountering malware rose from 3.63% in 2014-2015 to 4.34% in 2015-2016; The share of users encountering cryptoransomware as a proportion of those encountering ransomware rose dramatically – up 25 percentage points, from 6.6% in 2014-2015 to 31.6% in 2015-2016. At the same time the number of users attacked with blockers (ransomware that locks screens) decreased by 13.03%, from 1,836,673 in 2014-2015 to 1,597,395 in 2015-2016.
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