Also visit us at: www.condoprotego.com
Software
Converged
Defined
Infrastructure
Datacenter
Data
Enterprise
Backup & Archival
Storage
Disaster
Recovery
Data Security
Cloud
Solution
Best Technologies + Best Local Support = Best Value Proposition
the proven
IT storage and security specialist
From large enterprises to SMEs, Condo Protego delivers industry-leading, consultation-led solutions for storing, managing, protecting and securing Enterprise Data and setting up High Availability and Business continuity for Applications. This includes 24/7 support coverage and an unprecedented 30-minute response time.
Storage infrastructure
Converged Infrastructure
High Availability & DR
Data Backup & Archival
Consulting & Support Servcies
Data Loss Prevention
Security Analytics
Cloud-based solutions
Endpoint and Web Security
Office G-69, Building 17, Dubai Internet City, PO Box 38434, Dubai, U.A.E | Phone: +971 4 3642686 Email: info@condoprotego.com, www.condoprotego.com
Editorial
ontents
Supported By
Cover Feature 14
IoT, a burgeoning opportunity
Reskilling for the future T
here is a need for the channel to look at re-skilling as digital transformation initiatives gather speed. The companies that put faith in keeping up with constant training for their technical and consulting teams will be better placed to win vendor and customer confidence as they engage with each other over possible opportunities and leads. Partners have to innovate more, go to market faster and connect with the right customers at the right time and having well qualified resources will help go to market without any delays. In numerous conversations with senior industry people, the scarcity of right skills has come up. They believe there is a huge skill gap and there is an urgent need to bridge the gulf. With the domains of security, computing infrastructure etc undergoing massive shifts, influenced by changing paradigms including cloud, IoT etc, there is an imminent need for reskilling and adding more relevant capabilities. While those who are already have been in technical roles need to keep adding new skills and certifications in emerging technologies, those looking for similar roles will have to choose wisely and quickly from various certifications available. While automation and other new processes may make some of the job functions we have known redundant, new roles are opening up. As an industry veteran says, there is an emerging need for data scientists, to remote operators, to application developers as the IoT era emerges into the mainstream. He believes ‘there will be a worldwide scramble for IoT-capable workers’. Similar would be the case for resources who are quite up to speed on the most advanced technologies in security for instance as cybersecurity concerns are of paramount importance in an era of quite vicious cybercrime. And companies who keep the most capable teams in terms of resources will always emerge the winners.
R. Narayan Managing Editor
Digital transformation initiatives and smart city projects will be among key drivers in adopting IoT technologies
Point2Point - 12
A specialist focus
Jude Pereira, Managing Director, Nanjgel Solutions discusses the company’s focus in offering an end to end security solutions portfolio and services
Awards Overview - 18
Winners feted at the 5th Integrator ICT Champion Awards Awards Winners Spotlight Holistic approach - 20
Harish Chib, Vice President, MiEA for Sophos discusses the company’s vision of Synchrozed Security
Reshaping storage frontiers - 20
Fadi Kanafani - Regional Director - MEA, NetApp discusses the company’s focus in some of the key areas
Top control - 22
FirasJadalla, Regional Director - Middle East and Africa, Genetec discusses highlights of the company’s solutions
Reinforcing expertise for transformation - 24 SavithaBhaskar, COO, Condo Protego discusses the outlook and key focus areas for the company
Driving transformation - 25
Sunil Paul, Co-founder and COO at Finesse discusses how the company is enabling digital transformation.
Winner snapshots - 26 - 30 Insight
Could Fireball Malware Become the Next Mirai? - 31
Mohammed Al-Moneer at A10 Networks discusses the need for protection from the DDoS of Things
Regulars
News Bytes EyeTech Market Stats
Published by: JNS Media International MFZE Founder & CEO: Vivek Sharma Managing Editor: R. Narayan Art Director: Faiz Ahmed Sr. Sales Manager: R. Subramanyan
P.O Box 121075, Dubai UAE, Tel: +971-4-3705022 Fax: +971-4-3706639, website: www.VARonline.com Sales Inquiries: sales@var-mea.com All other Inquiries: info@var-mea.com | Editorial: editor@var-mea.com Disclaimer: While the publishers have made every attempt possible to get accurate information on published content in this handbook they cannot be held liable for any errors herein.
News Bytes
Etisalat to help Prime Healthcare in digital transformation Etisalat has signed an agreement with Prime Healthcare Group to provide an end-to-end managed services solution for their entire network infrastructure. The project will provide faster, secure and reliable communication enabling Prime Healthcare Group to improve their business efficiency and enhance their security across its countrywide operations. Salvador Anglada, Chief Business Officer at Etisalat said, “In the healthcare business; confidentiality of patient information, timely response and access to the best medical expertise is of utmost significance to build a successful reputation in the market. Prime Healthcare Group’s key objective to put in place a robust, reliable network and security infrastructure as the foundation to their Digital transformation will help them accelerate in the healthcare business." In addition to the network and connectivity, Etisalat was appointed to implement cutting edge security solutions to enhance resilience across customer network, as well as enhancing communication and collaboration across Prime Healthcare Group network by deploying the latest managed unified communications solution.
4 | July 2017
ISYX Technologies wins Cisco Emerging Partner of the Year 2017
ISYX Technologies, a fast-growing business innovation consulting company in the Middle East and Africa, has won the ‘Emerging Partner of the year’ award at Cisco’s 2-Tier channel partner event held recently in Dubai. ISYX was recognised for its outstanding performance and expertise in promoting and deploying Cisco’s transformational technologies within a short period of time since joining Cisco’s channel partner network. “Cisco has been leading the conversation on digital transformation and cybersecurity globally with its thought leadership and innovative solutions. As a trusted advisor, ISYX has been helping organisations transform their businesses by automating their processes and securing their infrastructure with leading-edge technologies from vendors such as Cisco,” said SharoonShamsuddin, CEO of ISYX Technologies. “We are pleased to win the ‘Emerging Partner of the year’ award, which is an achievement and a significant validation of our customer-centric approach. This award is recognition of our team’s capabilities and expertise in delivering end-to-end solutions,” Shamsuddin added.
Malwarebytes unveils cloud platform Malwarebytes, a leading advanced malware prevention and remediation solution, announced the release of its new single endpoint agent cloud platform for business featuring Malwarebytes Incident Response, Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection and a new cloud-based management console. Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection, now delivered as a service by the platform, features a signature-less Anomaly Detection Engine powered by machine learning. Combining seven protection layers, this new Malwarebytes solution is a more effective and efficient replacement for antivirus. The new Malwarebytes cloud platform makes deployment and ongoing management of Malwarebytes solutions easy. Administrators benefit from broader visibility into endpoints that exist within their environment. Additionally, the solutions do not require a constant connection to the cloud platform, meaning users are still protected when they are not connected. “The threat landscape is changing every second with new malware variants arising every day,” said Marcin Kleczynski, CEO, Malwarebytes. “As security professionals, it is our responsibility to protect businesses from these threats, but most competitive offerings take a singular approach to the problem that cannot keep up with how fast malware is evolving. That is why we are now equipping businesses with seven different layers for stopping and remediating today’s and tomorrow’s threats.”
News Bytes
Palo Alto ushers in new cloudbased Application Framework Palo Alto Networks has announced the Palo Alto Networks Application Framework, a cloud-based framework that extends the capabilities of the Palo Alto Next-Generation Security Platform, which will allow customer organizations to rapidly consume and implement a variety of innovative cloud-based security applications from any provider, large or small. This new framework represents a game-changing evolution of the Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Security Platform, disrupting the consumption model for organizations to rapidly access, evaluate and adopt cutting-edge security technologies with the Palo Alto Networks infrastructure they already have. It will extend the power of the platform to more rapidly achieve automated, consistent and scalable breach prevention capabilities, all delivered from the cloud. The modern network defender is challenged with continuously evaluating, deploying and operationalizing the latest security innovations to keep up with the latest adversary tactics. This puts high operational friction on security teams that must constantly manage fragmented workflows, redundant sensor and enforcement infrastructure, and multiple threat intelligence feeds, all resulting in labor-intensive operations that can hamstring their ability to prevent breaches. The framework introduces a SaaS (software as a service) consumption model, allowing customers to rapidly evaluate and deploy new capabilities via security applications built by Palo Alto Networks, third-party developers, MSSPs, and their own teams to solve a myriad of security challenges and use cases.
6 | July 2017
Attivo unveils new Deception Technology Attivo Networks, a leader in deception for cybersecurity defense, announced the release of its ThreatDefend Platform, representing the next generation of distributed deception solutions. The new platform takes deception-based threat detection to a new level, addressing growing marketing demand and technology advancements to outmaneuver modern-day attackers that are anticipating detection technology as a security control. Additionally, the solution has further expanded its integration partnerships and forensic attack analysis automations to deliver streamlined playbooks to better arm incident responders with an actionable defense against in-network threats. Next generation deception technology, advances the deception level well beyond simple emulations and low to medium interaction decoys. The environment becomes a “hall of mirrors” that is high interaction, runs the same operating systems and software as the production assets, authenticates. “Our platform is dynamic and offers a layered approach to stay one step ahead of attackers that threaten the existence of organizations in the region. The release of this next generation ThreatDefend Deception and Response Platform easily scales to match the needs of the customer in the Middle East, as it retains the element of surprise while adding features based on advanced deception techniques, predictive vulnerability assessment, adaptations for the environment and automations that simplify isolation and elimination of threats within the network,” said Ray Kafity, VP, META at Attivo Networks.
AudioCodes signs on Nuvias as distributor AudioCodes, the Voice and Unified Communications Networking Solutions vendor, has signed a pan-EMEA distribution agreement with fast-growing, high-value distribution business Nuvias, following the recent launch of Nuvias’ Unified Communications (UC) Practice across EMEA. Nuvias is now able to offer complete end-to-end solutions and technical support for Skype for Business and BroadSoft Business UC environments, based on AudioCodes’ Session Border Controllers (SBCs) and handsets. As part of the agreement, Nuvias has also been appointed as master distributor for AudioCodes’ range of Skype for Business and SIP handsets across EMEA, to ensure a rapid response to meet growing demand from the channel. AudioCodes worked with SIPHON Networks in the UK for two years, prior to SIPHON being acquired by the Nuvias Group at the end of 2016, and AudioCodes now sees the opportunity to replicate this successful relationship across EMEA. The initial focus will be on 16 key countries where Nuvias is already well established including DACH, France, Spain, Italy and the Nordics. Steve Harris, EVP Unified Communications for Nuvias commented, “With AudioCodes’ advanced SBCs and popular, intuitive handsets, we are now able to offer complete Skype for Business and BroadSoft solutions from a single vendor. We will also benefit from AudioCodes’ strong global relationship with Microsoft and will be working closely with their certified partners, making maximum use of our comprehensive suite of Microsoft UC professional services to drive product sales. With growing interest in unified communications we want to work with our channel partners so that their customers get the most out of their investment in technologies such as Skype for Business.”
Thank You, Dear Reader for Your Vote at iCT Champion Awards 2017
2017 18th May 2017, The Oberoi
1st PLACE: SOPHOS WINS ENDPOINT SECURITY SOFTWARE VENDOR OF THE YEAR AWARD
www.sophos.com
News Bytes
Credence Security partners with Rsam for GRC Solutions Credence Security, a subsidiary of Cognosec AB, and the region’s specialty distribution company, has signed a distribution agreement with Rsam, an enterprise software provider for risk and compliance solutions. As part of the agreement, Credence Security will be responsible for distribution of Rsam’s complete suite of solutions, with a particular focus on vendor risk management (VRM), security incident response and corporate risk and compliance assessments, across the Middle East and Africa. Credence will also be responsible for providing the professional services associated with deployments of these solutions. “According to a recent report by Micro Market Monitor, the MEA enterprise governance, risk and compliance (GRC) market is expected to reach US$1.22 billion by 2019 at a CAGR of 13.2%, driven primarily by the growing need for corporate governance and risk management”, commented Vivian Gevers, managing director, Credence Security. “A leader in the 2016 Gartner IT Risk Management Magic Quadrant, Rsam’s solutions perfectly complement our existing portfolio of cybersecurity solutions. Their highly adaptive, intuitive, feature-rich modules are easy to implement and allow businesses to automate their risk and compliance processes while adapting easily to any changes,” she added.
8 | July 2017
Ingram named strategic distribution partner for Dell EMC Aptec, an Ingram Micro company, has been selected as a strategic distribution partner by Dell EMC across the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Yemen. The expanded relationship builds on Aptec’s current partnership with Dell EMC and further strengthens Ingram Micro’s relationship with one of the world’s largest IT solution providers. As the leading value-added distributor in the Middle East, Aptec’s rich vendor solutions offerings now provides access to Dell EMC’s full portfolio of products, including advanced cloud IT infrastructure, converged systems, server/storage solutions and Client Systems. ”The expansion of our partnership to include the full Dell EMC solution portfolio is an excellent affirmation of the success during many years of Aptec as a distributor of Dell in the Middle East region,” said Ali Baghdadi, senior vice president and chief executive of Ingram Micro META region. “We are pleased to offer an expanded portfolio of advanced solutions to our reseller partners as we continue to deliver on our commitment to support the growth of their businesses. Our team possesses excellent expertise and is well-positioned to provide unparrallelled support to resellers to build their Dell EMC businesses.” According to IDCs Q1 results Dell EMC holds the #1 position in X86 server units and is number two in the META region, having outgrown the market both in shipments and revenue in the last quarter. In Storage, Dell EMC in the META region has shown solid quarter on quarter growth across entry, mid and high-end to all flash storage, and is the market leader in total external storage.
LogRhythm wins Gold in Gartner Customer Choice Awards LogRhythm, The Security Intelligence Company, has been named the Gold Award winner in the first Gartner Peer Insights Customer Choice Awards for Security Information and Event Management (SIEM). The Customer Choice Awards are a ranking of vendors by verified end-user professionals, taking into account both the number of end-user reviews, and the overall user ratings. Many users praised LogRhythm’s great customer support, noting that the support team is amazing and responsive, and highlighted that its SIEM product is easy to use and highly customizable. Users also reported that LogRhythm is worth the investment and has more advanced features at a lower cost, with the search, reporting and event management capabilities earning high marks. Gartner Peer Insights transforms the way enterprise software is bought and sold by creating another source of trusted information in the software buying process. Gartner’s review platform is a place for all IT buyers to find advice they can trust from fellow IT professionals—free from conflicts of interest. “It’s an honor to be publicly recognized around the world by real users for our world-class product and support,” said Chris Petersen, chief technology officer, senior vice president of R&D and co-founder at LogRhythm. “We are extremely thankful for the insights provided by our customer community. We believe this Gold Award validates our mission of helping customers quickly detect and respond to cyber-threats.”
THE JOURNEY TO HYPER-CONVERGED STARTS WITH DELL EMC Introducing the Dell EMC VxRail™ Appliance powered by Intel® Xeon® processors, VMware Virtual SAN (vSAN) and Dell PowerEdge - a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) appliance designed to modernize your data center.
Powered by VMware vSAN Kernel layer integration between vSAN and VMware vSphere enables the Intel® powered VxRail to deliver unique, unmatched performance and efficiency.
Greater Flexibility and Choice With the Dell EMC PowerEdge portfolio as a foundation, VxRail offers highly configurable appliances that meet any use case.
Fully Loaded for Max Performance Includes a full suite of enterprise-class data services, including deduplication, compression and erasure coding, as well as comprehensive data protection options.
Purpose-Built with Rich Data Services GPU hardware, high-density storage and low-cost, entry- level nodes ensure there’s a platform that fits your needs.
Start Small and Grow On-Demand Start with as few as three nodes and scale out compute and storage, or simply expand storage capacity as your business requirements evolve.
StorIT Distribution fzco
Plug in to Standards VxRail, powered by Intel® Xeon® processors, plugs in to the VMware ecosystem, allowing you to leverage your expertise and policies to extend your environment and maximize your VMware investment.
PO Box 17417 Jebel Ali Freezone Dubai, United Arab Emirates +971.4.881.9690 | info@storit.ae | www.storit.ae
News Bytes
Centrify enhances the Centrify Identity Platform Centrify, a leader in securing hybrid enterprises through the power of identity services, announced enhancements to the Centrify Identity Platform that deliver local administrator password management for Macs and comprehensive Mac application management and software distribution via turnkey integration with the Munki open source solution. These new capabilities enable Mac administrators to solve critical challenges by implementing best practices for controlling privileged access on Macs while at the same time simplifying management of Mac endpoints. “Our latest security capabilities extend shared account password management (SAPM) from servers, network devices, Windows and Linux endpoints to Mac, while at the same time simplifying Mac application management with Munki support that enables users to install applications without knowing the admin password,” said Bill Mann, chief product officer at Centrify. “The Centrify Identity Platform secures Mac endpoints as well as Windows and Linux with our market leading Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) and privileged identity management (PIM) solutions that help stop breaches across endpoints, infrastructure and apps.”
10 | July 2017
Help AG partners with TITUS Help AG has signed a reseller agreement with TITUS, the worldwide market leader in classification and protection solutions for unstructured data. TITUS provides flexible classification solutions that allow for the accurate identification of email, documents, and other unstructured file types. TITUS Classification enables people and technology within organizations to better understand, value, and protect information assets, leading to enhanced information governance and sharing decisions. Stephan Berner, CEO at Help AG, said, “Data is the new oil in the Middle East. The consumption, sharing, and analysis of information is what drives business but at the same time, these essential functions add security risk if not properly managed and monitored. In over a decade, we have established ourselves as the trusted security advisor to many of the region's largest government, defence and financial institutions. Through our partnership with TITUS, we will now focus on solving these enterprises’ most critical data protection challenges." Mitch Robinson, President and COO at TITUS, said “We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with Help AG to significantly grow our presence in the Middle East. Help AG’s track record and their wealth of knowledge and experience in the security sector will enable TITUS to increase the introduction of our solutions to enterprises throughout the area. We are looking forward to strengthening our relationships and growing our enterprise customer base in this region.”
SentinelOne joins Fortinet Fabric-Ready Program Fortinet and SentinelOne have announced a Fabric Ready partnership to deliver SentinelOne’s next-generation endpoint protection combined with the advanced defenses of the Fortinet Security Fabric. The Fortinet and SentinelOne integrated security solution delivers a comprehensive security architecture that spans networked, application, cloud and mobile environments to provide seamless protection against today’s advanced cyber threats. John Maddison, vice president of products and solutions at Fortinet said, “A rapid and coordinated response is critical to defend against today’s threats. The Fortinet Security Fabric has the breadth to scale across the entire enterprise infrastructure and the Fortinet Fabric-Ready partner program enables customers to apply the benefits of the Security Fabric to their multi-vendor environments. Working with SentinelOne helps our joint customers seamlessly integrate next-generation endpoint protections with Fortinet’s broad, powerful and automated security fabric.” Tomer Weingarten, CEO of SentinelOne said, “This new partnership with Fortinet is another significant step in changing the face of endpoint protection and replacing the old guard of legacy antivirus software on a global scale. Through this partnership, our mutual customers can now seamlessly integrate SentinelOne’s next generation endpoint protection solution, which is designed to meet the realities of today’s threat landscape.” Joining Fortinet’s Fabric-Ready program, SentinelOne Endpoint Protection Platform is now validated within the Fortinet Security Fabric to deliver automated, next-generation defenses to endpoints and servers. This cooperative approach enables zero-touch mitigation, containment and remediation capabilities to rapidly eliminate threats.
Everybody.
Everywhere.
Every day.
Ordinary days require extraordinary protection.
genetec.com
Find out more about the software behind the everyday at genetec.com/protectingeveryday
Š 2017 Genetec Inc. GENETEC and the GENETEC LOGO are trademarks of Genetec Inc., and may be registered or pending registration in several jurisdictions.
Point2Point | Nanjgel Solutions
A specialist focus Jude Pereira, Managing Director, Nanjgel Solutions, a leading security solutions SI, discusses the company’s focus in offering an end to end security solutions portfolio and services that help the company stand apart from its competitors
Jude Pereira Managing Director Nanjgel Solutions
Elaborate on the outlook for the market? From our perspective, the market is quite matured and the outlook is quite upbeat. They know for certain what solutions they want and what they can expect from these solutions. It is a lot easier for us to sell in current times than previously. Discuss in the backdrop of recent Ransomware attacks, what is an ideal approach in terms of solutions? Vendors have gone to the extent to guaranteeing if their customers are compromised, they will pay them back. There is no single solution that would be enough from ransomware attacks. You need all the right components of technologies that will ensure you can see from the time you may be targeted to the time you may be seeing some abnormal attacks in the network. You
12 | July 2017
need the complete range of detection technologies. Do you offer managed SOC services for customers? We intend to have our own SOC. 70% of our customers want us to manage their SOC. We have a managed services offering. We have been instrumental in setting up and managing over 10 SOCs in the region. There is demand from more customers but at this point, we have our hands full with managing the SOCs of existing customers. We wouldn’t want to let go of the opportunities but since managing a SOC is very demanding, we are working to our fullest capabilities at the moment with the existing customers we have. There is a lack of awareness regarding SOC and some customers have the mindset that SOC is like an appliance; they aren’t aware
that you cannot actually go and buy a SOC off the shelves. It requires a combination of people, process and technology and only in organizations that have a mature understanding of security and where they find it as having a critical impact, are they going to opt for an SOC. In most of these cases, they also opt for managed SOC services. Many customers, as much as over 65% of the market are still in the early foundational phase of putting in place individual elements like infrastructure security, network security, data security, user security etc and they haven’t as yet considered having an SOC. Discuss the focus on POC facilities? We have our own labs. We have drastically reduced the time to set up demos; within an hour you can show a real time scenario any solution with
actual data and various use case scenarios. For proof of concept (PoC), we have equipment at our office premises itself. This is the value we bring on the table and for PoC, we are not vendor dependent or have a need for any third party sourcing. Elaborate you strategy for adding new vendors? We have added some new vendors. While we have many mainstream vendors, there could be unique case scenarios, where point vendors bring value to the table and can be plugged in multi-integration scenarios for customers based on customer need. Is certification a key focus? Certification is a key part of the process and we are quite committed to the schedules of making sure our resources have the right certifications. If you want to be stand apart, it has to be done.
gitex.com
Re - Imagining Realities
“
Dubai’s digitisation initiatives could generate a potential USD 4.87 billion in value by 2019”
Supporting 145,000 trade attendees with their Digital Transformation initiatives
John Chambers, Chairman, Cisco, 2017
BUSINESS
CONTENT
NEW FOR 2017
53% of attendees have a live RFP 83% of visitors do NOT attend
2nd Year of stellar startup line up @ GITEX Futurists
Fintech program
60% of visitors are Sourcing new
5 High Profile Workshops
any other event suppliers
6,048 Meetings happen through our Matching Portal
Smart Manufacturing & Data Centre area
9 Vertical Conferences 1
Visionary, prototype-led Summit
Future Tech: public private partnershipprogram showing AR, AI, VR, Autonomous System & Robotics Solutions
Dubai attracted USD 7 billion in Foreign Direct Investment in 2016, with 73% directed to tech projects
CALLING out All innovators in 5G AR, VR, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Cloud, Cyber Security and IoT
CONTACT OUR TEAM FOR REMAINING PARTICIPATION OPPORTUNITIES +971 4 308 6282 / 4090 / 6566 / 6077 sales@gitex.com
Exclusive Digital Transformation Partner
Official Publisher
Official Publication
Official Airline Partner
Official Courier Handler
Organised by
Cover Feature | IoT
IoT,
a burgeoning opportunity Digital transformation initiatives and smart city projects will be among key drivers in adopting IoT technologies
I
n the next few years, a massive jump in number of devices that get connected is inevitable and will unleash the way ahead for a pervasive usage of IoT enabled services. While IoT related terminologiesand technologies have been around for years in the industrial sphere,there is an acceleration in bringing to the mainstream consumer market, both better IoT sensors and products as well as software, from an ever growing ecosystem of suppliers and integrators.The next few years, will see it getting more integrated into deployments across myriad use case scenarios in various industry verticals and smart city projects. According to Savio Tovar Diaz, Director of Sales
14 | July 2017
Engineering at Avaya, Asia, MEA & Turkey, “The Internet of Things (IoT) is here now and is here to stay: things like beacons, smart devices, smart cars, you name it. There’s undeniable growth as far as connectivity is concerned for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with more and more governments and businesses jumping on the digital bandwagon.” The number of IoT endpoints is poised for a swift growth, which makes the case for looking at IoT enablement as a key part of any digital transformation initiatives. FadyYounes, Deputy Managing Director and Operations Director - East Region, Cisco Middle East says, “Cisco predicts the Internet of Things (IoT) will become a $19
trillion market over the next few years while IDC predicts that the worldwide installed base of IoT endpoints will grow from 14.9 billion at the end of 2016 to more than 82 billion in 2025. At this rate, IoT may soon be as indispensable as the Internet itself.” The rapid growth in number of IP enabled smart devices apart from the significant traction in smartphone penetration is enabling improved connectivity and access to different digital services for consumers. Manish Bhardwaj, Senior Marketing Manager, Middle East & Turkey at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company says, “The opportunity of IoT is a very broad one. Today, IoT devices are being used to support a variety of use cases,
from connected workplaces and healthcare facilities, to smart cities with intelligent energy meters and utilities supporting businesses with smart lighting and HVAC systems.”
Enabling the ‘smart’ future The Internet of Things is gaining ground in the Middle East, especially in the UAE and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia thanks to digital transformation agendas such as UAE Vision 2021, Dubai Smart City, and Saudi Vision 2030. One recent industry survey shows that Middle East IoT spend will grow 20 percent in 2017. Savio opines, “The public sector is leading the way in IoT. Consider the Smart Dubai initiative, for example; its goal is to implement IoT solutions
Supported By
that enable innovation across the private and public sector to maximize happiness. Saudi Arabia, too, is pushing for more smart solutions. The International Data Corporation states that spending on IoT in the Middle East is expected to rise to $3.2 billion in 2019, almost doubled from the anticipated $1.8 billion spend in 2016, suggesting that we will see considerable progress in the years to come.” Savio believes IoT will serve as the backbone of any smart city or project. The benefits of a smart city are almost limitless as technology can be applied in myriad ways. He elaborates, “The applications of smart solutions can benefit healthcare, education, environmental impact, and even drive more inclusive societies. There is also a strong link between digitization and gross domestic product (GDP); higher GDP means more budget to invest in smart technologies, while the implementation of tech and digitization strategies in return leads to higher GDP. It’s a positive cycle that can only benefit communities, making smart strategies all the more important for today’s cities.” Avaya is focusing on enabling smart applications enabled by always on connectivity. Avaya has initiated several new projects enabling not only and people and applications to communicate with each other but things as well. “To name just a few examples, in partnership with Mashreq, Avaya launched the UAE’s first Smart Banking Anywhere platform, using
our SmartConnect solutions to turn Mashreq into the most virtual and video-connected bank in the Middle East. Together with Dr. Suleiman Habib Medical Group, we have embedded voice and video Communications in all Healthcare medical carts and devices within the hospital. This is where the future of IoT is going in the region – towards creating a future that empowers communities with always-on connectivity to the things that matter most, and the convenience that brings.” Cisco’s Smart City solutions, called Smart+Connected Communities, are being deployed across the Middle East’s leading Smart City projects, including the Dubai Design District, Energy City Qatar in Lusail City, Qatar, and in the King Abdullah Economic City in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. “Cisco fully supports the Middle East smart city vision. We are working closely with various cities and governments in the region in advising and consulting the government on the overall architecture, the blueprint of the city, and city services; accelerating the deployment of the infrastructure required; and maintaining and refreshing the supporting technology,” adds Fady. Since 2009, Cisco’s S+CC solutions have benefited more than 90 global Smart City projects, with Cisco S+CC using the network as the platform to transform physical communities to connected communities that run on networked information enabling economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Manish says that a smart city is where the ‘Internet of
Savio Tovar Diaz Director, Sales Engineering Avaya, Asia MEA & Turkey
Things (IoT)’ is manifested as a reality. “Wi-Fi is at the heart of smart cities and provides the base for intelligence communications between people and devices. A smart city-wide network infrastructure is also needed that interconnects citizens, government, business and objects. The same network that carries voice calls from office to office can provide video feeds to the police, backhaul data from traffic sensors to intelligent traffic systems, and provide high-speed Internet access to schools and underserved neighbourhoods.” He elaborates that in order to provision thousands of endpoints and get them connected, organizations need tools for identifying, automating and securing all devices on the network. “That’s where we’re
focusing our technology development, as well as providing solutions for extracting data from billions of connected things and making that information actionable.We’re lowering the cost of IoT by optimising the lifecycle of IoT devices. By reducing IoT connectivity, compute and control costs and embracing open interoperability standards to harmonise device communications, we are arming organisations with tools to dramatically change the economics and viability of large-scale IoT deployments. These tools, a combination of infrastructure and software platforms, help us deliver to the vast number of use cases that constitute IoT today.” For instance, Aruba’s ‘Meridian-powered’ apps use location-aware technology to trigger personalized push-notifications offers to July 2017 | 15
Cover Feature | IoT
Fady Younes Deputy MD & Oprations Director Cisco, Middle East
customers’ mobile devices based on where they are in the store. Collected analytics give retailers insight into products that customers search for most. And shoppers get turn-by-turn directions to departments, brands and products they want to buy.
Verticals such as manufacturing and transportation use large data sets to optimize operations processes and extend the life of high-capital cost assets, while for sectors like healthcare and consumer IoT technology is used to produce benefits that improve quality of life. In the O&G sector, budget constraints will push crude producers to improve and increase efficiencies in general by exploring ways to make its oilfields smarter, such as with unmanned oilfields, and by leveraging IoT technology to digitize operations and benefit from big data and analytics, sensors, and control systems.” HPE is delivering the Aruba Mobile First Platform and the HPE Universal IoT Platform to support IoT devices at the edge that are connected by a variety of technologies, including LAN, WAN and cellular, along with low power technologies such as LoRa and BLE. Manish says, “HPE Aruba customers are deploying IoT devices at a rapid pace across all vertical markets, but especially within the healthcare, retail and general enterprise, local government and industrial segments. While IoT is still an emerging market, by 2020 we expect mainstream adoption with a large number of consumer and enterprise use cases.” IoT enabled services are
expected to dramatically enhance productivity and save costs. While costs of implementations and maintenance could be a challenges in the early days, the dramatic improvements in decision making and enhanced quality of services would be well worth the adoption. Ossama Eldeeb, Senior Manager, MENA Partner Organization, VMware says, “With the Internet of Things, governments and organizations can enhance daily lives and business efficiency, and drive new digital revenue streams. Automotive, banking and finance, healthcare, and manufacturing verticals are being transformed by the Internet of Things, saving time and money with smart parking, connected banks and factories, and virtual healthcare checkups.In the Middle East, VMware is seeing strong demand for the VMware Pulse IoTCenter, which provides an end-to-end infrastructure management solution to onboard, manage, monitor, and secure their IoT use cases.” VMware is looking at collaboration as key for driving IoT innovations. As a member of the Industrial Internet Consortium, VMware shares best practices among technology vendors for practical IoT use cases, and recently joined forces with Samsung
Manish Bhardwaj Sr. Marketing Manager, ME & Turkey Aruba
to develop open source IoT software.
Challenges
The swift growth expected in IoT endpoints does make a more intensive mainstream adoption a foregone conclusion. However, there are challenges and as of now, studies suggest A vertical perspective that a good number of the As the Middle East is primed IoT deployments haven’t met to become a global driver in expectations. IoT connected innovations, “Despite the forward several verticals are early momentum, a new study adopters. According to conducted by Cisco shows that Fady, Manufacturing and 60 percent of IoT initiatives stall transportation are the vertical at the Proof of Concept (PoC) industries leading the way stage and only 26 percent of in terms of IoT investment in companies have had an IoT ME because of the unique set initiative that they considered a of capabilities that they are complete success. Even worse: able to enable and enhance a third of all completed projects in their service delivery were not considered a success,” systems using IoT. adds Fadi. He further elaborates, There are challenges “Other industries in ahead in wider the ME which are and speedier adopting IoT include implementations. "Verticals such as manufacturing and transportation oil and gas (O&G), On one hand, it is use large data sets to optimize operations processes utilities, education, believed that the and extend the life of high-capital cost assets, while for banking and intent to deploy IoT sectors like healthcare and consumer IoT technology is finance, healthcare, is gathering speed retail, sports and with an Aruba study used to produce benefits that improve quality of life." telecommunications. quoting as high as
16 | July 2017
Supported By
80% of the Businesses likely to deploy in some form by 2019. However, the fact is that there is a lack of clarity on the details and also apprehensions of the costs involved, security challenges etc. Quoting the study Manish says, “The study also uncovers a number of obstacles that IT leaders feel are preventing IoT from delivering greater business impact. In particular, the cost of implementation (38%), maintenance (62%) and integration of legacy technology (55%) were highlighted as key issues.While all (100%) of organizations that have adopted IoT claim that they can analyze data, 96% feel there are challenges to creating value from this data. 40% of businesses are not extracting or analyzing data within corporate networks, and are thereby missing out on insights that could improve business decisions.” The study further reports that over half (56 percent) of retailers who have implemented IoT in their stores are allowing personal mobile devices to access the network in order to enhance the customer experience. But taking into account the 41% of retailers who have already suffered from an IoT related attack because of malware issues, the report concludes that retailers need to find a middle ground between consumer benefits and protecting their network from attack. Ossama says, “Major IoT challenges facing Middle East organizations include having the right network infrastructure and starting with small IoT projects that can test their viability, and
security. Organizations need to provide security at different levels – include the device, object, or sensor level, the network level, and the user level with software updates.” While there is a need to look at swift deployments, the challenge is to ensure that security isn’t compromised as more IP endpoints come onto the network. Savio says, “Digital Transformation actually translates to delivering business Value at Speed. To be successful, platforms have to be agile & secure. Security is a significant challenge as more devices get connected. As Avaya we deliver native encryption to all our Real Time Communications modalities and secure our perimeters with our Session Border Controllers. However, we know Security is more than just technology, but also processes and People which need to be analyzed and delivered with stringent measures within an enterprise”
Adopting new opportunities New technologies including IoT are reshaping the economy and automation is being embraced in several areas, that’s talking away jobs. However, there are also new opportunities opening up that demands new skill or reskilling. Even for channel partners, the challenge is to build competence in new areas. Fady says, “While automation and more efficient processes may eliminate some jobs, IoT is creating many new job opportunities—from data scientists, to remote operators, to application developers. As the IoT-based economy drives
trillions of dollars in economic growth, some industries merge and new ones are created, meaning there will be a worldwide scramble for the same IoT-capable workers. Developing an IoT-enabled workforce is not an option—it is a must. You could implement IoT solutions and integrate them with your business processes, but if your workforce is not ready (in terms of both skills and culture), your IoT transformation will fail.” With the evolving technology landscape, channel partners know it is important to up skill or they will be left behind. Given the rapid pace of innovation in vendor IT technology, certifications are more important than ever because of new disruptive technologies in the market places, the skills gap is so huge that it will take some time for all channel stakeholders to narrow this gap. Fady adds, “As the transition to IoT, mobility, cloud and other emerging technologies gathers speed in the enterprise, a gap in tech skills approaches. In response, Cisco has introduced five certifications for partners, which also include IoT specializations in connected safety and security, industry experts in Manufacturing, Utilities and Transport. ” IOT deployments will be part of the larger digital transformation initiatives as well and partners need to be ready to embrace the new opportunities to consult and enable customers. Ossama says, “Middle East channel partners play a key role in guiding organization-
Ossama Eldeeb Senior Manager, MENA VMware
wide digital transformation agendas, and helping organizations to stay on top of the latest IoT innovations. As IoT deployments can be complex, channel partners need to have specialized IoT training and upskill customer staff on IoT solutions.” Savio opines that the IoT era opens up the opportunities for collaboration between many different sectors. Savio says, “IoT will see many previously unconnected things become suddenly smart, enabling them to become part of the wider network and providing the end-user with a more intelligent products. In this new world, no one vendor can deliver Business value in isolation. Ecosystem building will be a critical aspect of delivering value in this world where everything is connected, communicating and delivering an outcome.” As we move further ahead, the collaboration between different vendors and their partner ecosystems as well would be key to ensuring successful deployments and seamless transformation. July 2017 | 17
Overview | Integrator Awards 2017
Winners feted at the 5th Integrator ICT Champion Awards T
he 5th Integrator ICT Champion Awards Gala held on the 18th of May at The Oberoi hotel in Dubai was a spectacular event that was attended by the crème de la crème of the region’s ICT industry. The awards celebrated the winners of the 2017 edition of the Integrator ICT Champion Awards across 32 categories. The awards categories are constantly reviewed and revised year on year, keeping pace with the changes in the dynamic ICT industry. The Integrator Awards
18 | July 2017
come under the broader banner of the ICT Champion Awards initiative that include the highly popular VAR COC (Choice of Channel Awards) that have concluded 11 successful editions to date as well. The Integrator ICT Champion Awards, which were unveiled in 2013 have received exemplary recognition in the industry. The 2017 Integrator ICT Champion winners were chosen through a process that included accepting nominations in the first phase and an online
survey executed via www. varonline.com in the second and concluding phase. A majority of leading companies in the region’s industry participated by sending across their entries for different categories. These nominees were entered into the survey which was communicated widely to the region’s SI (System Integrator) channel so that they could vote for their preferred choices. The online survey had seen a significant increase in voting with every sucesssive
edition. The massive polling seen in the survey is a vindication of the prestige these awards carry as industry recognitions for the region. Those who polled maximum votes in each category were declared winners at the awards ceremony. The 5th edition of the awards were sponsored by Spire Solutions, Toshiba, Linksys, Exclusive Networks and D-Link who were among the Gold sponsors and Seagate, Finesse, Centra Hub Technologies, Condo Protego
The 2017 Integrator Awards Winners
as well as Sophos who were the silver sponsors. The gift sponsors of the day were PNY Technologies and WD. Mr. Vivek Sharma, Founder and CEO of JNS Media International said, “These awards recognize some great performing companies in the region over the past year and I would like congratulate all winners. While some repeat winners revealed their resilience, several new winners of this year’s awards also emphasize the inherent dynamism of the ICT market.”
Cloud Computing Vendor of the Year
Microsoft Gulf FZ - LLC
Converged Infrastructure Vendor of the Year
Dell EMC
Unified Communications Vendor of the Year
Avaya
SMB Storage Vendor of the Year
Western Digital
Enterprise Storage Vendor of the Year
NetApp
SMB Networking Vendor of the Year
Linksys
Enterprise Networking Vendor of the Year
Cisco Middle East
Endpoint Security Software Vendor of the Year
Sophos
Network Security Appliance Vendor of the Year
SonicWall
IP Surveillance Solutions Vendor of the Year
Axis Communications
Access Control Solutions Vendor of the Year
Genetec Middle East and Africa
Enterprise Mobility Management Vendor of the Year
Kaspersky Lab
Data Center Solutions Vendor of the Year
Nexans Middle East
ERP vendor of the Year
SAP Middle East & North Africa LLC
Network Management Vendor of the Year
Manage Engine
Networking VAD of the Year
Aptec, an Ingram Micro Company
Information Security VAD of the Year
Spire Solutions
Storage VAD of the Year
StorIT Distribution FZCO
UC VAD of the Year
FVC
Enterprise VAD of the Year
Exclusive Networks Middle East
Networking Integrator of the Year
Ixtel Technologies
Storage Integrator of the Year
Condo Protego
Security Integrator of the Year
Nanjgel Solutions
Enterprise Applications Integrator of the Year
ITWare LLC
BFSI Integrator of the Year
Finesse LLC
Managed Services Provider of the Year
OMA Emirates-Solution Gulf
Emerging Vendor of the Year
Centra Hub Technologies
Emerging Integrator of the Year
AGC Networks
Visionary Vendor of the Year
SentinelOne
Visionary Integrator of the Year
Help AG Middle East FZ-LLC
Product Innovation Vendor of the year
Seagate
Channel Champion Vendor of the Year
D-Link Middle East & Africa
July 2017 | 19
SpotLight | Sophos
Holistic approach Sophos, a company that has an extensive portfolio of next-generation endpoint and network security solutions, emerged the winner of the category ‘Endpoint Security Software Vendor of the Year’. Harish Chib, Vice President, Middle East & Africa for Sophos discusses the company’s vision of Synchrozed Security Discuss how through synchronised security, Sophos looks to address multiple vulnerabilities? Ransomware, botnets, and other advanced attacks work their way through your whole security system. Point products can stop individual elements of these threats, but these products work in isolation, and don’t communicate with each other. In contrast, Synchronized Security allows best-of-breed products to actively work together to stop advanced attacks. By sharing security information and automating cross-system response, you enjoy faster, better protection - and simpler IT security management, saving time and effort. With Synchronized Security your security solutions to talk to each other, sharing information and responding automatically to threats. For example, if the endpoint detects a threat, the firewall automatically isolates the
20 | July 2017
Harish Chib Vice President, MEA Sophos
infected computer and then the cleanup kicks right in to finish the job. What new approach does Safeguard bring to data encryption? What are some of the key highlights of Safeguard? Sophos SafeGuard is a synchronized encryption solution that protects data against theft from malware, attackers or accidental leaks. All organizations can now choose to adopt the best practice of "always-on" file-level encryption to protect data accessed from mobile devices, laptops, desktops, on-prem networks and cloud-based file sharing applications. Sophos is the first vendor to provide persistent, transparent and proactive encryption that protects files across Windows, Mac, iOS or Android platforms by default. Sophos SafeGuard encrypts content as soon as it’s created. And with the encryption
always on, you can enjoy seamless secure collaboration. Synchronized Encryption proactively protects your data by continuously validating the user, application, and security integrity of a device before allowing access to encrypted data. Do you see the next generation Firewall as a growth area? What have been the enhancements in your firewall offering? Effective network protection provided by Next Generation firewalls will remain a critical component of any comprehensive security strategy. Released in December 2016, the latest version of the next-generation Sophos XG Firewall added significant new features includingSophos Sandstorm that blocks evasive zero-day threats like ransomware, disguised as executables,
PDFs and Microsoft Office documents, sending them to its cloud-sandbox to be detonated and observed in a safe environment. It includes Synchronized Security that extends Security Heartbeat by adding missing heartbeat detection and destination Heartbeat protection. It can control access to endpoints and servers based on the status of their heartbeat, restricting potentially compromised systems until they are completely safe. In addition, the XG Firewall can determine the application responsible for generating unknown traffic on your network The Enterprise-Grade Secure Web Gateway (SWG) features a new inheritance-based policy building tool enables multiple user and group based web control policies. You can plug a full web policy into a single firewall rule for enforcement – dramatically reducing rule count.
SpotLight | NetApp
Reshaping storage frontiers NetApp, a vendor whose solutions are designed to enable clients to manage data across on-premises and public cloud resources was the winner of the ‘Enterprise Storage Vendor of the Year’ Category. Fadi Kanafani - Regional Director - Middle East & Africa, NetApp discusses the company’s focus in some of the key areas
Fadi Kanafani Regional Director, MEA NetApp
Elaborate on how NetApp is enabling storage solutions ideal for companies engaged in moving towards hybrid cloud infrastructure? As data sovereignty and fluid data movement are increasingly becoming critical for enterprises, CIOs are looking to move to the hybrid cloud model, because it delivers flexibility and agility, as well as the stability of the data centre, basically combining the benefits of public and private storage. NetApp is helping IT organizations build a data fabric for the hybrid cloud that seamlessly connects resources and allows data management, movement, and protection across internal and external cloud services.We provide a unified architecture so that data management remains consistent across cloud services. This helps eliminate silos by enabling data to flow as applications are moved, whether from legacy
platforms to cloud services with nearly unlimited scale, or from the public cloud back to IT-managed, private cloud environments. Do you see storage infrastructure management as a key requirement in digital transformation? Digital transformation is reshaping the way we do business across all industries and data sits at the core of this. Big data analytics is essential for digital transformation. It provides the ability to analyze information and transform it into an action plan, in order to get better insights, to take faster and more accurate decisions, and ultimately have a valuable competitive advantage. For a successful digital transformation journey, companies need to establish new ways of leveraging and monetizing data. Hence, there is a need for better data management, to enable
seamlessly storage and transportation of data. Also, in order to exploit data fully, users need the ability to leverage data wherever it resides and apply analytics to it. Analytics tools such as Splunk provide an open platform that can access other data stores, including Hadoop and make data in Splunk available for accessing and sharing across the organization. Moreover, because data isexternally protected, additional performance and efficiency gains can be realized by reducing theamount of data replication, lightening the load on compute and network resources and reducing theamount of storage required just for data protection. Discuss how your private cloud storage solutions are advantageous for users in staying in control in multicloud environments? Private cloud storage is
apt for allowing more administrative control and enabling CIOs to design the system according to the business needs. NetApp Private Storage as a Service (NPS as a Service) gives customers the freedom to connect to multiple industry-leading clouds while maintaining control of their data on private NetApp storage systems—with no capital expenditure. Available from multiple delivery partners, NPS as a Service leverages the patent pending cloud architecture that places NetApp storage next to the hyperscaler cloud compute, physically and logically separating data and compute via high-speed interconnections to multiple hyperscaler clouds. The technology interfaces with standard Internet-based virtual routing and network capabilities to bridge clouds simply and securely. July 2017 | 21
SpotLight | Genetec
Top control The top recognition in the ‘Access Control Solutions Vendor of the Year’ went to Genetec, a vendor that develops open-architecture software, hardware and cloud-based services for the physical security and public safety industry. Firas Jadalla, Regional Director - Middle East and Africa, Genetec discusses highlights of the company’s solutions
Firas Jadalla Regional Director, MEA Genetec
How is Genetec helping transform the Video surveillance market with a unified platform? Genetec has become a global provider of IP video surveillance, access control, and license plate recognition (LPR) solutions, compiled into a single platform called Security Center. This unified security platform seamlessly blends IP security systems within a single intuitive interface, to simplify operations, empowering organizations through unified command and control, connectivity to the cloud, and enhanced situational awareness. Genetec is helping transform the video surveillance market throughout industries such as city-wide surveillance, education, gaming, law enforcement, parking enforcement, retail, transportation, and others. Genetec solutions enable customers to integrate with one another, as well as with third-party solutions, allowing
22 | July 2017
customers to leverage investments and lower total ownership costs. What have been key features added in your latest release? The latest release of the unified platform has simplified the user experience; new access control and video integrations are now available. Genetec has also grouped access control and automatic license plate recognition. The new platform also allows users to finely manage exported or saved content such as snapshots and video clips, and facilitates modification prior to sharing inside or outside an organization. Examples include the blurring and masking of snapshots to protect privacy, editing saved video clips to remove either sensitive or less valuable content and then re-exporting the final clips, and adding new bookmarks to better qualify a recorded scene. Security Centre also
has an updated disaster recovery mode, enhanced authentication and encryption, augmented video archiving and export management capabilities, and a larger number of supported access control hardware options. How is your platform secured when faulty unsecured thirdparty vendor devices that can be hacked are added at a client site? Can the unified platform defend itself? Genetec’s Security Center has been developed with advanced cybersecurity measures and a protocol to protect it from hackers and non-authorized internal access. New authentication and authorization steps have been implemented to protect privacy and video data, when users request to access videos feeds. Only secured media stream requests are accepted by default, making sure that the person or
application making the request is authenticated. Genetec is capable of supporting a broad range of industry-leading cameras, encoders, storage, and CCTV equipment. Users are able to find cameras and devices, supported keyboards, and PTZ protocols supported by Genetec’s Security Center and Omicast, by viewing Genetec’s third-party vendor list. Elaborate on your channel roadmap and channel enablement? Genetec makes continuous efforts to supports its partners, and established the Genetec Channel Partner Program, to acknowledge outstanding performance, experience, and loyalty as a provider of world-class security solutions. Once enrolled in the program, partners are able to enjoy a range of benefits such as value sales and marketing resources, and in-depth product training and certification.
SpotLight | Condo Protego
Reinforcing expertise for transformation Condo Protego, a leading SI with expertise across several domains including storage systems, data availability, management, protection and recovery as well as security solutions, was the winner of the ‘Storage Integrator of the Year’ category. Savitha Bhaskar, COO, Condo Protego discusses the outlook and key focus areas for the company Elaborate how the company looks at digital transformation trends that are gaining ground as an opportunity? The Middle East and UAE are posting strong acceleration of nationwide government digital transformation agendas that combine government visions with private sector technology solutions expertise. The UAE is extremely bullish, especially thanks to Dubai Smart City, UAE Vision 2021, and Expo 2020 Dubai. As Middle East organizations enter the Digital Economy and Internet of Things era, the way that organizations undergo digital transformation is critical for new digital business models. Digital transformation trends are all about enhancing the user and customer experience with Big Data and analytics, and vary from industry to industry. At the heart of this digital transformation is the way that organizations management their
24 | July 2017
Savitha Bhaskar COO Condo Protego
data. Already we are seeing Middle East organizations at the global forefront of adoption of the latest innovative technology solutions. Discuss how the security focus is being strengthened and complements your overall portfolio? Data security has always been a core focus for Condo Protego. As the region’s leading IT infrastructure integrator, with a specialized focus on data and information management, our focus on security has continued to grow, taking on increasing urgency in the face of the rapid increase in the number and evolving types of cyberthreats. Our portfolio is now wider and covers everything from endpoint, to mobile, to data center, and applications. With a focus on solutions from Dell EMC, RSA, Symantec, and Forcepoint, Condo Protego is committed to helping Middle East organizations to
ensure that their corporate data is securely stored. We have experience in leveraging a combination of these solutions to meet our clients’ requirements for data security. On the storage side, how is data management changing? Data management has become even more essential now, as the data location can be on-premise, or in a private or public cloud. Regardless of the location, organization still need to manage their data uniformly, with the same compliance and governance requirements applying across board. It is important therefore to engage with consultants like Condo Protego, who are focused on the data stack, to find the appropriate solutions for them. What new solutions have been added over the past year? In 2017 and beyond, Condo
Protego will continue to redefine the region’s IT Information Management landscape by driving customer awareness and take-up of in emerging and new technologies. In Softwaredefined technologiesthat are transforming networking, servers, and storage, such as VMware’s NSX network virtualization platform for software-defined data centers, and VMware’s Virtual SAN software-defined storage. Converged and HyperConverged Infrastructure will be a focus where there is massive momentum in costeffective, easy-to-use, and factory-assembled converged and hyper-converged infrastructure, such as Dell EMC’s VxRail and VxBlock. All-Flash Storage is another key focus and is among the fastest-growing markets, especially among organizations that need realtime data.
SpotLight | Finesse
Driving transformation Finesse a company that provides services to over 60 banks & financial institutions internationally emerged the ‘BFSI Integrator the Year’ at the 5th Integrator ICT Champion Awards. Sunil Paul, Co-founder and COO at Finesse discusses how the company is enabling its clients towards digital transformation.
Sunil Paul Co-Founder & COO Finesse
How is Finesse looking at enabling clients towards digital transformation? Finesse is no longer considered just as a system Integrator but an enabler of Digital Transformation. This comes from the gradual shift from being a typical technology-driven entity that ensured complex systems work together towards the one who understands the dynamics of today’s business demands. With the huge changes with respect to the current models and execution strategies in the market, Finesse understands the need to identify areas of businesses where innovative technology solutions and services could solve the challenges of our customers. This consultative approach is followed by an in-depth study of the environment so that the best solution is suggested,
customized, deployed and supported on a long term association. Finesse's approach combines a comprehensive transformation by taking care of infrastructure and software of an enterprise with a collaborative approach to delivering the services so enterprises can focus on their core activities. This adaptability helps Finesse in keeping up with the ever evolving trends in technology. Block-chain, Robotic Process Automation, Big data, Internet of Things, Cloud solutions, Mobility and Converged Infrastructure are some of the new focus areas for Finesse. Which have been the new vendor partnership added over the past year? Finesse is at the forefront in working closely with our partners to offer the best of solutions and services on
opex models. We now have most of our offerings on cloud and on Pay as you Go model. The adoption of Blockchain, Robotic Process Automation, Augmented Reality, Analytics using AI, cloud, mobility and social media will have serious implications on the ecosystem and Finesse is well prepared with our partnerships with various industry leading technology companies across the globe. Our new technology offerings are from long existing associations with the likes of IBM, Kofax, NetScout, Qlik, Salesforce, Misys etc. Discus the core values of focus for the company? Finesse’s multi-cultural environment now consists of 350+ professional covering 20+ nationalities catering to over 200 enterprise clients. Finesse has created a community and an ecosystem
which is built upon ‘TRUST’. Finesse recently became the first IT organization in the region to create a human logo with the participation of all its employees. The logo was launched during the company’s Iftar gathering in June. The logo stands for sheer team work, collaborative culture and the passion for technology that the organization and the team embodies. Is IoT an emerging area of opportunity for Finesse? Yes, it is. Finesse is leveraging its expertise and in depth experience in BI & Analytics to drive IoT projects for enterprises. The acceleration of IoT from imaginative concepts to reality is based on the projected exponential growth and adoption of smart devices and the confluence of low-cost infrastructure, connectivity and data. July 2017 | 25
Winners | Integrator Awards 2017 Cloud Computing Vendor of the Year
The 'Cloud Computing Vendor of the Year' category was won by Microsoft, who is among the top vendors in the space and offers a comprehensive range of cloud computing products as well as services.
Unified Communications Vendor of the Year
Avaya was a repeat winner of the ‘Unified Communications Vendor of the Year’ category and the win reflects the strong market share it continues to have in the region including strategic project wins.
Converged Infrastructure Vendor of the Year
The ‘Converged Infrastructure Vendor of the Year’ award was won by Dell EMC, a vindication of its claims to be a leader in converged infrastructure solutions.
SMB Storage Vendor of the Year
The ‘SMB Storage Vendor of the Year’ was won by Western Digital, a manufacturer that has consolidated its portfolio for enterprise with large capacity hard drives and SSDs.
SMB Networking Vendor the Year
Enterprise Networking Vendor of the Year
Linksys has steadily strengthened its SMB portfolio and was the winner in the category ‘SMB Networking Vendor the Year’.
In the Enterprise Networking Vendor of the Year category , Cisco, a company that continues to have a formidable lead in the networking segment and offers a strong vision for the IoT era, won with the maximum number of votes.
26 | July 2017
Network Security Appliance Vendor of the Year
The ‘Network Security Appliance Vendor of the Year’ was Sonicwall, a company that has been among the leaders in next generation firewalls and has a strong channel focus, that have helped it create a strong regional success story.
IP Surveillance Solutions Vendor of the Year
The winner of the ‘IP Surveillance Solutions Vendor of the Year’ category was Axis Communications, a manufacturer that has been a front runner in the IP Security segment with a formidable portfolio of cameras and NVRs and has a strong presence in the region.
Enterprise Mobility Management Vendor of the Year
Data Center Solutions Vendor of the Year
The winner of the ‘Enterprise Mobility Management Vendor of the Year’ was Kaspersky Lab, a leading endpoint security vendor that in its latest endpoint security product for Businesses includes simplified deployment, protection and management of mobile devices.
The top honors in the ‘Data Center Solutions Vendor of the Year’ category went to Nexans, a leading player in the structured cabling market and has attractive offerings for the growing data center market.
ERP Vendor of the Year
The ‘ERP Vendor of the Year’ category was won by SAP, a company that has been a dominant player not just in the UAE but globally with an extensive portfolio of ERP products.
Network Management Vendor of the Year
The ‘Network Management Vendor of the Year’ category saw ManageEngine, a company that is consolidating and making further inroads in global markets in the domain of real time IT Network Management solutions, emerge the winner.
July 2017 | 27
Winners | Integrator Awards 2017
Networking VAD of the Year
Information Security VAD of the Year
The ‘Networking VAD of the Year’ category was Aptec, an Ingram Micro company and a regional partner for several leading enterprise technology vendors across storage, networking, and server technologies.
In the category ‘Information Security VAD of the Year’, Spire Solutions, a company that focuses on bringing advanced incident detection and response technologies to market, walked away with top honors.
Storage VAD of the Year
Enterprise VAD of the Year
The ‘Storage VAD of the Year’ category saw StorIT Distribution FZCO yet again emerge a winner, a recognition of its forte in the data management, cloud and storage domain.
The winner of the ‘Enterprise VAD of the Year’ was Exclusive Networks, a company that is one of the leading distributors of Enterprise solutions in MEA region and offers partners a full range of support.
Networking Integrator of the Year
Security Integrator of the Year
The ‘Networking Integrator of the Year’ was IXTEL Technologies, one of the faster growing integrators of the region that offers a range of solutions in emerging technologies of cloud computing, virtualization, and mobility and infrastructure solutions.
The top spot in the category ‘Security Integrator of the Year’ was won by Nanjgel Solutions, a company that provides solutions around data security, network security, application security, user security as well as security intelligence and analysis.
28 | July 2017
Enterprise Applications Integrator of the Year
The winner of the ‘Enterprise Applications Integrator of the Year’ category was ITware, a company that is focusing on Enterprise solutions for last 15 years covering multiple domains of manufacturing, supply chain, Services and Retail with an impressive customer base in all these domains providing ERP and BI services.
Emerging Vendor of the Year
Managed Services Provider of the Year
The ‘Managed Services Provider of the Year’ category saw a repeat winner in OMA Emirates, a company that has been a cutting edge provider of technology for the payment industry and continues to see success with it Managed Services offerings.
Emerging Integrator of the Year
The ‘Emerging Vendor of the Year’ recognition went to Centra Hub Technologies, a company that is offering solutions with highly scalable capabilities to suit organizations of varying scale and size across industries.
The ‘Emerging Integrator of the Year’ went to AGC Networks, a company that has scaled up operations globally over the past several years, has a very strong portfolio across domains and is making strong inroads in the region.
Visionary Vendor of the Year
Visionary Integrator of the Year
The ‘Visionary Vendor of the Year’ category saw Sentinel One, a vendor that is carving out a bold innovative strategy in the cybersecurity domain.
The top recognition in the ‘Visionary Integrator of the Year’ category went to Help AG, a company that is a leading cyber security services, solutions and consultancy provider in the region.
July 2017 | 29
Winners | Integrator Awards 2017
Unified Communications VAD of the Year
Product Innovation Vendor of the Year
Channel Champion Vendor of the Year
FVC, a company that offers a large number of technologies to provide high definition and high quality communication hardware and services to allow quality collaboration was the winner of the ‘Unified Communications VAD of the Year’.
The ‘Product Innovation Vendor of the Year’ category recognized Seagate for its continued efforts at product innovations in storage.
The winner of the ‘Channel Champion Vendor of the Year’ category was D-Link, a company that has been quite committed to growing opportunities for the integrator segment in the region in the SMB networking space.
30 | July 2017
Insight | A10 Networks
Mohammed Al-Moneer Regional Director, MENA A10
“possibly the largest infection operation in history.” “…Fireball, takes over target browsers and turns them into zombies,” Check Point wrote. “Fireball has two main functionalities: the ability of running any code on victim computers – downloading any file or malware, and hijacking and manipulating infected users’ web-traffic to generate ad-revenue. Currently, Fireball installs plug-ins and additional configurations to boost its advertisements, but just as easily it can turn into a prominent distributor for any additional malware.”
Potential Devastation
Could Fireball Malware Become the Next Mirai? Mohammed Al-Moneer, Regional Director, MENA at A10 Networks discusses how Fireball’s potential to become the next Mirai, or something worse, reinforces the need for protection from the DDoS of Things and IoT-fueled DDoS attacks.
T
his month, researchers uncovered a malware strain believed to have infected more than 250 million computers globally. It is further believed that this malware is present on 20 percent of corporate networks. Dubbed “Fireball,” the
massive malware infection originated in China and has caused disastrous outbreaks in Brazil, India and Mexico. There’s the potential for Fireball to become more calamitous. Security firm Check Point, which found Fireball, called it
What’s more startling, is that Fireball has the ability to execute commands remotely, including downloading further malicious software. This means threat actors could theoretically use the more than 250 million infected machines to launch a colossal and destructive botnet, that could rival Mirai. The Mirai malware is blamed for the DDoS attack against DNS provider Dyn that knocked many of the web’s biggest sites offline last year; the 600-plus Gbps attack against Krebsonsecurity; and the attack against service provider OVH. Attackers used the Mirai malware to take control of unsecured Internet of Things (IoT) devices, namely webenabled cameras, to build botnets. This gave rise to the DDoS of Things and heralded a new era of DDoS attacks, which for the first time, exceeded the 1 Tbps threshold.
While Fireball itself isn’t a DDoS attack, an attacker could weaponize the compromised machines and use them to build a botnet that rises to the level of Mirai, especially considering infected PCs are far more powerful than hijacked webcams. Maya Horowitz, threat intelligence group manager at Check Point, told Dark Reading that Fireball has the potential to be leveraged for a Miraistyle wave of gigantic DDoS attacks. "In [Fireball's] case, each infected machine was its own, and someday all these machines could get the command to do something," Horowitz told Dark Reading. "Any risk you can think of; any code can run on these machines."
Fight Fire with Fire The DDoS of Things is powering bigger, smarter and more devastating multi-vector attacks than ever imagined. Fireball’s potential to become the next Mirai, or something worse, reinforces the need for protection from the DDoS of Things and IoTfueled DDoS attacks. DDoS attacks are damaging. Along with service disruption, they can have a lasting impact that harms your brand reputation, your revenue and your user experience. You need to fight back. If Fireball reaches Mirai status, you need a weapon against volumetric, multivector DDoS attacks. You need major firepower to stand up to the DDoS of Things. July 2017 | 31
EyeTech
Integrated mobile access control Overview: Mobile Axis Communications announced the integration of HID Global’s Mobile Access with its AXIS A1001 Network Door Controller and AXIS Entry Manager software at IFSEC International 2017, which takes place from June 20-22 at London ExCeL. The Axis and HID mobile access control solution meets business demands to support mobileenabled workforces. The solution enables mobile devices such as smartphones to function as credentials, allowing people to gain access to secured buildings, rooms and areas.Devices and smartphones are ubiquitous today and their functionality continues to advance to include an ever more diverse set of applications, from contactless payments to health tracking. By integrating HID Global’s Mobile Access with its software and door controller, Axis has created a solution which combines the convenience expected in a mobile-first world with the levels of security demanded by businesses and their employees. Key features: • The HID and Axis mobile access offering is the first IP- based, end-to-end solution. It encompasses everything necessary for small-, medium- or enterprise-sized organizations to deploy mobile access control. • The solution includesAXIS A1001 Network Door Controller and the AXIS Entry Manager access control software, which is integrated with HID Mobile Access Portal and used to set up the systems, add new users and manage mobile IDs • The solutions integrates Mobile enabled readers from HID Global, HID Mobile Access Portal and the HID Mobile Access App, which is available through the Apple App Store and Google Play • The solution stores secure identities on smartphones for opening doors and locks instead of managing traditional printed identity credentials. This improves convenience for end users and is cost-effective and simpler to manage.
32 | July 2017
AIP10 access-point Overview: AXILSPOTunveiled its latest rugged, outdoor, long distance Access Point - AIP10 in the Middle East and Africa. The new AIP10 Access Point is capable of managing a variety of enterprise wireless networking workloads. This is a dual-frequency access point, using the latest IEEE 802.11 ac Wave2 Wi-Fi standard, supporting additional SFP interface with transmission speed of 1.2Gbps, and maximum of 400+ users, up to a range of 500M. The AIP10 access-point is a highly versatile device, meant to support indoor and outdoor enterprise wireless networks. With the fast pace of adoption of connectivity across all segments of business and consumer users, in emerging markets such as Middle East and Africa, providing seamless access both indoors and outdoors, is critical. The AIP10's rugged outdoor capabilities and inbuilt features like MU-MIMO, Turbo RF, carrier grade security, help to provide this much-needed user experience. Capable of withstanding salt spray, vibration, extreme thermal conditions, shock and dust, it is IP67-rated, and can operate in extreme environments. Supporting the latest 802.at PoE, makes the AIP10 access-point well suited for power-based, backhaul, enterprise networking applications into 3G and 4G base stations, including video surveillance. It can work well, both as pole or wall mounted, increasing its outdoor versatility. Key features: • The high-performance characteristics of AXILSPOT's AIP10, provide range, speed and outdoor durability, making it well suited for enterprise network smart city and backhaul applications. • It meets the use case requirements of Middle East and African emerging markets, which are characterized by expansion of transit hubs like airports, and large visitor presence in conferences centers, retail malls and upmarket plazas. • Turbo RF technology, another in-built feature, helps to provide high performance WLAN environment with intelligent load balancing, automatic frequency adjustment, and band steering.
Aruba asset tracking solution Overview: Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company announced a new addition to its location-based services portfolio that helps organizations easily track valued assets, resulting in improved organizational efficiency and lower capital and operational costs associated with misplaced assets. The Aruba asset tracking solution is fully integrated into the Aruba wireless infrastructure, enabling simplified, fully integrated deployments at dramatically reduced costs. Organizations worldwide lose millions of dollars every year on high-value items and inventory that are misplaced, lost or stolen. Furthermore, employees and customers suffer from lost productivity and poor experiences. Aruba asset tracking addresses these challenges with a solution that is integrated into the Aruba WiFi infrastructure, eliminating the need for a separate network. Organizations also gain the benefits of accurate tracking of important items using either an intuitive, mapbased mobile app or by integrating with organizations’ existing tracking solutions.
eVMS-PRO
Overview: WatchNET INC, CANADA has recently launched the enhaced version of its Enterprise Class VMS Software with more features, unifyingVideo, Audio, Advanced Alarm functions, Multi-level Redundancy, Mass Storage, greater Load Balance &Video Wall in a single managementplatform. Afaster graphical search and intuitive GUI is also included, redefining theapproach video surveillance. eVMS-PRO is one of the robust Embedded Enterprise Class
Key features:
VMS Platform applications in its class. The software unifieds
• This new software allows Aruba BLE-enabled Access Points and Sensors to act as asset tag “observers,” creating a sensory network that provides added value to organizations with existing Aruba wireless infrastructure. In essence, it allows their Wi-Fi infrastructure to double as an asset tracking network. • Cost-effective Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) – enabled tags are slightly larger than a quarter, making them ideal for items that range in size from IV pumps in a healthcare setting to pallets of goods in a warehouse. • Aruba’s configuration app makes set-up and ongoing management of the tags simple. Assets can be designated with names, photos and optional IDs so that like assets can be searched for easily.
video, audio & alarm Management functionality in into a single resource. The VMS Platform supports to manager and store large number of Megapixel Cameras with automated alert notification on-screen (single or multiple consoles) with a Video-Wall support. WatchNET is redefining its approach to security solutions and consistently improving product’s quality in order to be a true global leader. Key features: • eVMS-PRO is Scalable&Resilient, Client-Server Architecture (C/S), integrating multiple surveillance systems. • With eVMS-PRO, end users receive a perpetual license that includes a wide range of unmatched enterprise features. eVMS-PRO supports both Distributed &Centralized deployments. • The software has built-in Intelligent video analysis to aid in event identification (Tripwire, Intrusion, Object Abandonment, Object Missing, People Counting). • It has the facility to locate cameras quickly with a facility map on thick web and mobile clients. • It simplifies complex network configurations and setup by identifying cameras on the network.
July 2017 | 33
Stats & Trends
Worldwide cloud-based security services to grow 21 percent
G
rowth in worldwide cloudbased security services will remain strong, reaching $5.9 billion in 2017, up 21 percent from 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. Overall growth in the cloud-based security services market is above that of the total information security market. Gartner estimates the cloud-based security services market will reach close to $9 billion by 2020 (see Table). SIEM, IAM and emerging technologies are the fastest growing cloud-based security services segments. "Email security, web security and identity and access management (IAM) remain organizations' topthree cloud priorities," said RuggeroContu, research director at Gartner. Mainstream services that address these priorities, including security information and event management (SIEM) and IAM,
and emerging services offer the most significant growth potential. Emerging offerings are among the fastest-growing segments and include threat intelligence enablement, cloud-based malware sandboxes, cloud-based data encryption, endpoint protection management, threat intelligence and web application firewalls (WAFs). Increasing security threats, operational and cost benefits and staffing pressure drive market growth. Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are driving growth as they are becoming increasingly aware of security threats. They are also seeing that cloud deployments provide opportunities to reduce costs, especially for powering and cooling hardware-based security equipment and data center floor space. "The cloud medium is a natural fit for the needs of
SMBs. Its ease of deployment and management, pay-asyou-consume pricing and simplified features make this delivery model attractive for organizations that lack staffing resources," said Mr. Contu. The enterprise sector is also driving growth as they realize the operational benefits derived from a cloud-based security delivery model. "Cloud-based delivery models will remain a popular choice for security practices, with deployment expanding further to controls, such as cloud-based sandboxing and WAFs," said Mr. Contu. According to a global survey conducted by Gartner at the beginning of 2016, public cloud will be the prime delivery model for more than 60 percent of security applications by the end of 2017. "The ability to leverage security controls that are delivered, updated and
managed through the cloud — and therefore require less time-consuming and costly implementations and maintenance activities — is of significant value to enterprises," said Mr. Contu. Cloud-based security services market growth presents opportunities and challenges for providers. "On the one hand, new greenfield demand arising from emerging requirements from SMBs is driving growth. On the other hand, new competitive dynamics and alternative pricing practices threaten traditional business models," said Mr. Contu. Providers need to adapt to the shift from an on-premises to a cloud-delivery business model. "Overall, one of the main focus areas for providers relates to the shift from owning and selling a product, to selling and supporting ongoing service delivery."
Worldwide Cloud-Based Security Services Forecast by Segment (Millions of Dollars) Segment
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Secure email gateway
654.9
702.7
752.3
811.5
873.2
Secure web gateway
635.9
707.8
786
873.2
970.8
1,650.00 220.5
2,100.00 250
2,550.00 280
3,000.00 310
3,421.80 340
IAM, IDaaS, user authentication Remote vulnerability assessment SIEM Application security testing Other cloud-based security services
286.8 341
359 397.3
430 455.5
512.1 514
606.7 571.1
1,051.00
1,334.00
1,609.00
1,788.00
2,140.00
Total Market
4,840.10
5,850.80
6,862.90
7,808.80
8,923.60
Source: Gartner (June 2017)
34 | July 2017
Structured
25
CABLING
Solution for a Smarter Network Backbone
years
p e rforman
C
ce warranty
UL ®
US
LISTED
Switch to the most trusted, robust STRUCTURED CABLING SOLUTION across the industry
D-Link Copper Cabling Solutions
D-Link Fiber Cabling Solutions
AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTOR
A p t ec - an I ng r am M i c r o C o m p a n y P. O. Box 33550
Tel.: (+971 4) 3697 111
Dubai Internet City,
Fax: (+971 4) 3697 110
Dubai, UAE
www.apteconline.com
E-Mail: sachin.dawda@ingrammicro.com
www.dlinkmea.com
Millions of data points. A singular vision. Data Visionaries Wanted
netapp.com/datavisionary
Š2017 NetApp, Inc. All Rights Reserved. NETAPP, the NETAPP logo, and the marks listed at http://www.netapp.com/TM are trademarks of NetApp, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.