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Cloud gains T

he MENA region and in particular the Middle East has been quite receptive to new Technology adoption in past several years. It is no wonder then that the cloud services market in the MENA region is expected to see one of the highest global growth rates for public cloud services and the UAE’s cloud market in particular is anticipated to see a CAGR of 43.7% until 2016, according to an IDC analysis. Gartner also provides a robust growth rate forecast of 21.3% in 2014 for the MENA region with revenues expected to total $620 million, up from an estimated $511 million for 2013. In 2017, IT spending on public cloud services in the region is expected to reach $1.1 billion. Rising deployments of cloud based solutions is being driven by the rising awareness of the transformational nature of cloud computing as well as the cost benefits. However, one of the bottlenecks slowing down the adoption rates is the change inmindset as well as the trust with service providers, given the challenge that organizations may be sensitive about working with providers from other countries.As service providers make more over the cloud services available,the barriers will break gradually. Cloud computing services are much unlike traditional products with their defined architectures and this has been a disruptive factor to reckon with for the IT supply chain. On the brighter side, there is a rising opportunity for partners who cansuccessfully aggregate multivendor technologies across both physical and virtual domains and deliver solutions that Businesses need. This could be either done by VADs who could then push those solution sets through their resellers or else SIs themselves could focus on the integration that will give their profile a critical value differentiation. The challenge would be to negotiate the tough phase from the launch of a cloud services until it gathers enough critical mass in terms of clients, which would ensure a predictable revenue model.

R. Narayan Managing Editor

Founder & CEO: Vivek Sharma Managing Editor: R. Narayan Editor: David Ndichu Art Director: Faiz Ahmed Sr. Sales Manager: R. Subramanyan Sales Coordinator: Smitha Jithesh

Content

Editorial

Cover Story - 18

Reimagining network security

There is a need for integrated network security to combat security threats consistently and avoid managing security in silos that creates risk to the business

News In Detail

Dimension Data To Quadruple Its Data Centre Business By 2018 - 11

ComGuard hosts ‘Tech Convergence’ - 12

Feature - 22

EMC takes centre stage

To effectively protect corporate data in a progressively virtualized world takes a certain pedigree and acumen that only a few companies like EMC provide

TechKnow

Full stack solutions - 14

Mohammed Areff, Avaya’s Managing Director for Gulf and Pakistan region discusses how more of its customers are preferring to buy the full stack of solutions

Strong intent drives growth - 24

Surender Bishnoi, WatchGuard, Regional Manager MEA explains how WatchGuard is increasing the channel focus in the region

Allied Telesis The IP surveillance opportunity - 25

Sabbahuddin Khan, Regional Manager at Allied Telesis Middle East discusses the company’s value propositions in the IP surveillance segment

Thinking Ahead - 26

MagedEid, Regional Director for Nexthink discusses how the company’s pioneering solutions can assist companies get ahead of security threats and system failures

Insight - 28

Cloud Computing Availability

Mahmoud Samy, Area Head, Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan at Arbor Networks explains why availability should be the top priority for cloud operators

Regulars News Eyetech Stats

Published by: JNS Media International MFZE

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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

Derga Consulting and MDS Ap Tech Announce JV Derga Consulting Italy and MDS Ap Tech FZ LLC, part of the Midis Group of companies, announced a joint venture initiative that will provide an all-round systems approach to integrated and reliable end to end solutions to the SME market covering a wide array of sectors, including ERP Business Intelligence, Mobility, Cloud, and In-Memory Computing to the SME Market across the Middle East. The two companies will combine the global resources and expertise of Derga Consulting and MDS Ap Tech. Operating under the name Derga Consulting Middle East FZ LLC, the joint venture will be headquartered in Dubai, with additional support offices in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon. Tony Achkar, VP MDS Tech, said, “We have a very ambitious business plan for the company, building on the reputation that Derga Consulting has developed for itself as a leading provider of Industry Solutions based on SAP Software. We are uniquely positioned with our ability and expertise in providing state-of-the-art solutions, combined with the value of the Industry Templates, for the Business Application Software market in the Middle East.”

4 | May 2014

StarLink Extends Distribution Coverage with Dell Software

StarLink, a security-specialized "true" Value-Added-Distributor (VAD) has entered in a new agreement with Dell Software expanding distribution of Dell SonicWall. StarLink’s channel partners in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon can now provide their customers with Dell Software’s leading connected security solution. This includes SonicWALL’s Next-Generation Firewall and VPN appliances with application intelligence, control and visualization and valueadded security subscriptions such as anti-virus, intrusion prevention and anti-spyware for wired and wireless networks of all sizes. “This extended distribution coverage with Dell Software is very exciting for us, as it enables StarLink to work closely with our channel partners across the region to grow our Dell Software business with SonicWall security products. As a part of our Year of the Channel initiative, we will be welcoming our Strategic Partners into StarLink’s Choice Program, as well as Dell’s PartnerDirect program,” said Avinash Advani, Director – Business Strategy, StarLink.

Schneider Electric in Magic Quadrant Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. as a leader in the Magic Quadrant for Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS).This report marks the first Magic Quadrant for ADMS, reflecting the maturity of the industry and stability of the market. “The new Magic Quadrant demonstrates the evolution of the ADMS market and points to rising consumer expectations for grid reliability,” said FrédéricAbbal, Executive Vice President, Energy Business, Schneider Electric. “We consider our position as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant as confirmation of our mission to enable customers to unlock the power of technology to make energy safe, reliable, efficient, productive and green while improving business performance. We continue to innovate and offer new capabilities that support critical business processes for utilities during normal and storm operations.” Schneider Electric is positioned the furthest for Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute in the Gartner Magic Quadrant. Schneider Electric believes this position is attributed, in part, to the company providing the highest number of ADMS functional components in production – roughly twice as many as the nearest competitor – as well as interoperability with third party systems and complete SCADA and outage management system (OMS) functionality.

News Bytes

Axis announces PoE+ over coax blade Axis Communications announced AXIS T8646 PoE+ over Coax Blade for multi-channel migration to IP. It enables the re-using of existing coax cabling when migrating. Making use of current infrastructure is an important consideration especially in large scale installations when re-cabling is not only costly but can also be very disruptive to everyday business. For instance, at hospitals or prisons, re-cabling might not even be possible as it would lead to severe interruption. “This is a very strong alternative for customers to get the all benefits of IP video surveillance without having to make any significant changes to their existing infrastructure. The AXIS T8646 PoE+ over Coax Blade fits Axis’ video encoder chassis. Any combination of encoder blades and AXIS T8646 can be used simultaneously, so customers can migrate to IP at any pace they want. We are leading the way to migrate from analog to digital video surveillance and are offering our customers choices”,says Baraa Al Akkad, Axis’ Regional Sales Manager for the Middle East..

6 | May 2014

Seagate Kinetic Open Storage Platform to Fuel New Scality Storage Solution Seagatehas confirmed that Scality, an industry leader in petabyte-scale object storage, is the latest in a growing list of partners developing storage solutions based on the new Seagate Kinetic Open Storage platform developed for largescale cloud service providers, financial services and media customers. The Seagate Kinetic Open Storage platform empowered Scality’s awardwinning storage solution, the Scality RING, to offer better performance and significantly lower TCO by eliminating the storage server tier in the data center. The Scality RING now integrates the Kinetic Open Storage platform for an all new scale-out storage solution. Jerome Lecat, CEO, Scality said, “This kind of fundamental rethinking requires real innovation, not just the evolutionary incrementalism of yesterday’s technologies. The Seagate Kinetic Open Storage platform represents exactly the kind innovation required to achieve the full promise of the Software-Defined Data Center. We are extremely excited to work with Seagate to make this vision a reality.”

Avaya Automated Campus extends automation Avaya is extending automation from the data center to the end device, completely removing manual provisioning from everyday service delivery. The new Avaya Automated Campus builds on the company’s software-defined data center framework, now spanning the data center and the campus. Avaya’s software-defined data center framework leverages Avaya Fabric Connect with enhanced Shortest Path Bridging and intelligent orchestration capabilities. With the Avaya Automated Campus, IT departments can turn up scalable cloud-based services by provisioning end points at the Data Center edge and the Wiring closet edge – without having to configure any devices in between. The announcement also includes the automated attachment of end-user devices, such as wireless APs, IP cameras and phones, and non-fabric switches with a new feature called Avaya Fabric Attach. Fabric Attach can significantly reduce the potential for errors by eliminating hundreds of edge CLI commands that can cause end user service delays and costly downtime and performance issues. "Avaya has developed a new approach that simplifies the entire service delivery process from the Data Center to the end device and saves our customers valuable time while eliminating the risk. We did it for the 2014 Sochi Olympics and now, for the third time as part of InteropNet, and we can do it for businesses everywhere,” said Maan al Shakarchi, Sales Director Middle East, Africa, Turkey, and India, Avaya Networking.

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News Bytes

StorIT and Quantum hold successful Multi-city Seminars StorIT announced that together with Quantum, it held successful ‘Quantum Backup workshops’ for customers and partners in Dubai and Riyadh. The workshops covered product presentations on Quantum’s traditional tape library and disk appliance solutions and highlighted the benefits of partners joining Quantum’s partner Alliance program. The joint workshops with Quantum in Dubai and Riyadh, saw more than 30 channel partners and customers attending the event in both cities. Andrew Childs, Regional Sales Manager at Quantum held an interactive presentation covering a wider perspective in a changing backup and archive environment, Francois Eid, Presales Consultant - Expansion Markets at Quantum spoke on the features and benefits of using Quantum’s latest solutions. They also shared their regional business strategies, introduced their latest technologies, shared global success stories and highlighted the benefits of Quantum’s partner alliance program.

8 | May 2014

Ixia Launches Integrated Partner Program Ixia has announced its integrated global partner program in the region, which will help partners increase revenue while providing their customers access to an industryleading portfolio of network visibility, security and test solutions. The first phase of the program, called Channel Xcelerate, is aimed at building a regional & global network of qualified partners who will have access to Ixia’s Visibility Architecture portfolio. Jayadevan. K, Director Operations at ComGuard, Ixia’s partner in the region says, “The launch of Channel Xcelerate will help us to further support our partners across the region and expand our channel business." “Designed to empower our partner community, Channel Xcelerate ensures that our partners have all the resources they need to successfully sell Ixia’s visibility solutions, while underscoring our commitment to joint business objectives—growing the customer base and increasing market share,” said Lori Cornmesser, Vice President of Ixia’s Global Channel Sales. The Channel Xcelerate program encompasses Ixia’s current worldwide community of experienced visibility partners as well as the strong partner network of recently acquired Net Optics, Inc. With the regional launch, the program is now open to Ixia’s partners in the region.

Nexthink Awards Emitac Enterprise Solutions Partner of the Year As an initiative to acknowledge top performing partners, Nexthink, the unique provider of End-user IT Analytics, awarded Emitac Enterprise Solutions as “Platinum Partner of the Year” in the Middle East. Emitac Enterprise Solutions was recognized for its outstanding performance and customer service in 2013 in the region. Emitac Enterprise Solutions has been a strategic partner of Nexthink since 2012, delivering integrated and innovative solutions to customers and enabling them to achieve true value from their IT investments. Emitac Enterprise Solutions and Nexthink’s joint customers in the region include the Abu Dhabi Department of Finance, Abu Dhabi Municipality, du, and ADCO amongst others. Miguel Angel Villalonga, CEO, Emitac Enterprise Solutions said, “Emitac Enterprise Solutions is proud to receive the Partner of Year award, which truly reflects our commitment and team efforts. Nexthink’s End-user IT Analytics is the perfect complement to our solution portfolio and our vision, bringing IT departments a new level of visualization and actionable insight, which helps companies run their operations more efficiently. We look forward to a stronger collaboration in the future.” Nexthink provides real-time visibility and analytics on the usage of the entire IT infrastructure and endpoints from the end-user perspective.

News Bytes

Veeam Partners with Redington Gulf Veeam Software announced a strategic partnership with Redington Gulf to continue growth throughout the Middle East. The alliance comes at a pivotal time as Veeam looks to further expand its reach in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Veeam experienced accelerated growth in the local channel last year following a 113.7 percent customer growth and a 148.9 percent increase in its booking revenue. “Our new partnership with Redington Gulf is instrumental in strengthening and growing Veeam’s position further in the GCC. As such, we are looking to expand our customer and partner base in the region, as well as gain more significant presence within certain countries” said Gregg Petersen, Regional Director, Middle East and SAARC. “Redington has a wide network of distribution points across the region and strong relationships with resellers. In this way, Veeam will be able to reach out to new partners and complete their virtualization proposition with the leading Data Protection and management technology.” In 2013 Veeam gained in excess of 450 new customers in the Middle East alone.

10 | May 2014

emt and Catbird offer security products for virtualisation emt Distribution is now offering security solutions from Catbird, specifically focused at virtualisation. Catbird's virtualisation security solutions portfolio includes a complete range of solutions that can protect virtual environments from internal and external threats, replace multiple physical security gateways with virtualised versions, and provide a portable and secure virtualised desktop to endpoint users. "Virtualisation is playing an ever more important role in corporate networking environments," explained Nandini Sapru, Director Sales at emt Distribution. "While it creates opportunities for hardware platform consolidation and cost savings, it also presents multiple implementation and security challenges. The security for virtualisation product space has not been tapped well enough. While many antivirus vendors offer malware detection and prevention in the virtualized space, Catbird offers much more, such as logical zoning, data leakage prevention, and NAC within the virtualized space." Catbird has a product offering that substantially improves security within the virtual network infrastructure. By using Catbird's solutions, a network administrator can eliminate costly and ineffective network security devices. Catbird also offers auditing services for the network and improves time to market.

Huawei puts spotlight on key issues at Cloud World Forum With over 450 delegates at the Cloud World Forum MENA hosted in Dubai, Huawei brought together a delegation of regional and international experts to investigate how new digital platforms will help local businesses and telecom operators to create a competitive advantage through cloud-based ICT solutions. As Principal Sponsor of the event, Huawei displayed live demos of its latest technologies that viewers were able to witness and experience. In addition, Huawei participated in a series of hot topic sessions that addressed the most talked about challenges facing the ICT industry today. “Technology innovation into new service areas is driving the economy as a whole, and the telecommunications industry in particular, in the direction of cloud-based services,” notes Pietro Hagemann, Executive Director of IT & Cloud Computing Solutions, Huawei. “Telecom operators will need to enhance and enrich their service portfolio to transform themselves into truly end-to-end service providers. Businesses have also recognized the efforts being made to build the public’s confidence in data security in the cloud, and how such frameworks can allow organizations to analyze vast amounts of data that until now had largely existed in silos.” With the dawn of a new cloud computing era, Huawei presented its FusionCube solution at the event showcasing how the IT infrastructure platform can empower businesses through distributed storage, an open virtualization platform, and best-in-class cloud management software.

News In Detail

imension Data, the USD 5.8 billion global solutions and services provider, said today that it will quadruple the size of its data centre business to USD4 billion in the next five years. The Group’s existing USD1 billion data centre business has a significant presence in all major regions. It’s looking to aggressively grow and scale these businesses both organically and through acquisition. In addition, Dimension Data believes its access to a significant set of data centre assets across its parent company, the NTT Group, differentiates the business. “In all regions and with all clients, large and small, there is an urgent need to undergo the transformation process needed to not only achieve better data centre performance and manage disruptive technologies but also to become progressively greener, in terms of environmental custodianship,” says Dimension Steve Joubert, Group Executive for the Data Centre Business Unit. “Although all our markets are targeting exponential growth, our analysis shows there’ll be higher rates of growth in mature regions such as Europe and North America, given the legacy data centre investments in those geographies that require transformation. For many organisations, the most cost effective way of navigating the future will be through IT-as-a-Service, managed services, and outsourcing.” Joubert says that the

cloud, virtualisation 3.0, and software-defined everything have changed the data centre landscape forever. “New workloads, users, connected devices, and locations are compounding the pressure on the data centre and our clients are asking for help in dealing with all of this in a way that helps their data centre become a true ‘business response centre’, capable of being agile and speedy when the business needs it to be.” “Getting there requires an integrated approach in the secure delivery of workloads and applications across the traditional data centre, cloud Steve Joubert Group Executive Data Centre Business Unit

Dimension Data To Quadruple Its Data Centre Business By 2018 and the enterprise network, all of which make up the next-generation data centre. This calls for a level and range of capabilities that the average organisation doesn’t have and shouldn’t need to build or acquire when all the considerable benefits of cloud, networking, security, and systems integration experience as well as economies of scale and a global footprint are available through Dimension Data.” Currently Dimension Data operates 12 public

cloud locations around the world and further locations coming online in the next few quarters. Dimension Data significantly extends its cloud locations through its OneCloud partners, giving it one of the largest cloud footprints in the world. Additionally, Dimension Data offers its clients the significant benefits of its membership of the NTT Group. NTT is the world’s second largest provider of data centre space, with some 243 secure data centres

globally. Dimension Data also has access to NTT Data’s application and workload capabilities in industrialstrength solutions and services around SAP for example; and to the 6,000 engineers in NTT Facilities who have built some of the most advanced data centres in the world. “This, coupled with our investment in people, process, and management capabilities focused on managing the next-generation data centre, gives us a massive advatage in the market,” Joubert says. May 2014 | 11

News In Detail

ComGuard hosts ‘Tech Convergence’ C

omGuard, a leading IT security value added distributor hosted its annual partner conference in Dubai, in an effort to recognize and reward its channel community for business excellence. The two-day off-site conference brought together more than 250 channel partners from across the Middle East, India and West Asia. The annual partner conference is ComGuard’s most significant channel partner gathering. It brings together partners from across

12 | May 2014

the region and presents them with the opportunity to meet top-line vendors, exchange business insights, and update themselves on the latest channel initiatives and incentives. The conference began with a special keynote from ComGuard CEO, Ajay Chauhan, who introduced a partner loyalty programme, new business road maps, and enhanced channel programs, in addition to providing a toplevel review of the IT Security market and the role of the channel.

“Aptly titled ‘Tech Convergence – inspiring thoughts, aspiring greater heights’, clearly conveys ComGuard’s vision and mission to promote technologies, and enable our customers to make the best use of them,” said Ajay Chauhan, CEO of ComGuard. “Over the years we have worked relentlessly to streamline channel activities to help us achieve a faster sales turnaround, while achieving goals of educating and supporting partners to achieve superior project

deployment. Thanks to the incredible success story of IT Security across the region, there has been a tremendous spurt of business activity. It has attracted attention of leading vendors across the globe. The partner conference carries forward its significance in terms of its proven success while providing a platform to innovate and streamline business activities through live interaction with technology partners.” The two-day conference offered networking opportunities for technology and channel partners from across the region. Partners also enjoyed two evenings filled with entertainment along with icebreaking sessions on the first day. Day two of the conference included B2B meetings and concluded with a gala dinner where ComGuard presented 32 awards to partners who demonstrated outstanding contributions, commitment, as well as business excellence. “We believe this year’s conference was a runaway success, as we received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our technology and channel partners, which is encouraging. The B2B meetings were a key highlight as it enabled fruitful discussions between vendors and partners, which enabled cross selling of products and services," added Chauhan. The ComGuard Partner Conference was sponsored by diamond partner Kaspersky Lab; gold partners Ixia, GFI, AirTight and Ping Identity; and silver partners Bluecat, Exalt Communications, Niksun.

TechKnow | Avaya

Mohammed Areff MD, Gulf & Pakistan Region Avaya

Full stack solutions Avaya is a leading provider of business collaboration and communications solutions and is looking to have more customer buy the full stack of solutions across the key areas of its focus. Mohammed Areff, Avaya’s Managing Director for Gulf and Pakistan region discusses further details of Avaya’s strategy.

14 | May 2014

Please elaborate on Avaya’s SDN strategy SDN is certainly not new for Avaya. We started network virtualisation with ADN (Application Driven Networks). The industry standard became SDN and we go with it. Applications and their provisioning regardless of geographies and the hardware is becoming more important than the hardware itself and therefore the significance of ADN or SDN. We use protocols like SPBIEEE 802.1aq (Shortest Path Bridging) in our network virtualisation strategy. We have our industry standard Fabric Connect technology that gives customers the flexibility and the empowerment to provision their applications and be flexible in the ways they have deployed, where they deployed, how they deployed etc using the SDN technology. This is a key strategy for us. Our pedigree with networking and Switching is strong, going back 25-30 years and this solution is built on top of the best in class framework. We already have over 100 customers using this Technology and some of them are in this city too. This also includes Government bodies. Discuss your Virtualsation focus? Virtualisation is almost a mature technology and we have been providing our customers Virtualised solutions for quite some time including virtualized servers or datacenters etc. VENA is our networking platform

for enabling Virtualisation. The Avaya Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture (VENA) Fabric Connect solution enhances productivity by optimizing the way that networks are deployed, implemented, operated and maintained. We look at customer’s specific requirements when it comes to virtualisation deployments. If a customer need to keep a percentage of physical network and add a layer of virtualization, we do that. Further, when customers want to build a data centre or a DR site from scratch, we offer to build it up with Virtualised technologies. However, it is the customer’s prerogative to have what he wants, and we focus on providing exactly what the customer needs. We have partnerships with VMware and Microsoft, among others, on the Virtualization front.Further, Avaya’s technologies are open standards based whether it is ADN or anything else. Customers always trust a company that gives them the flexibility. Does Avaya focus more on enterprise or the midmarket? The definitions of enterprise and mid-market has different connotations to different companies and perhaps in different geographies as well. Avaya has mid-market solutions that support up to 2000 users. In this part of the world, that would be easily a big enterprise. A 1000 user organization maybe called

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TechKnow | Avaya

driven. However, there are unique "We don’t drive partners. We allow them to lead requirements that and choose. We have regular meetings with partner cannot be fulfilled executive and trainings to help the partner decide this by a partner and on the basis of their strengths and how they would has to be dealt position the solutions." with directly by Avaya. There are also customer who this is a growing number. We For instance, we are now would want work directly are growing high double digit introducing technologies like While Avaya has been with Avaya perhaps because rate in the data centresegment speech analytics that can help synonymous with contact of security reasons. That is a and high double digit in the you figure online if a customer centre solutions, discuss all small percentage though. video space. Data networking is unhappy. The supervisor can primary areas of focus for We don’t drive partners. is a focus area for us. Scopia easily figure out online when the company today? We allow them to lead and has become a brand with a customer is interacting Avaya has three Business choose. We have regular increasing number of users. with an agent whether the focus areas. With contact meetings with partner As a company, we believe, customer is unhappy and he centre solutions, the focus executive and trainings to customers derive the most can interrupt the call to sort is on enriching customer help the partner decide optimized benefits when they out issues. We are also using experiences of our customers. this on the basis of their buy end to end solutions from text analysis. We are also With the Collaboration strengths and how they us in the three areas -data working on an engine for solutions including unified would position the solutions. networking, collaboration and video analytics. communications or video In some case, we would do contact centre solutions. We conferencing, we focus on a joint event with a partner highlight this to the customer How has the growth been in productivity solutions that to showcase solutions to the but leave it to them to decide neighbouring GCC countries? are innovative as for instance partner’s customers and we since our solutions are open Kuwait has grown the video conferencing could also pay joint executive standards and can work with phenomenally in the past two solutions are low bandwidth industry solutions from other years for mid-market solutions visits to the partner’s top and high definition. For all of customers. They lead and vendors. I am happy to say that and the full stack. Similarly on these applications to work, we enable them to do so. more and more customers are Oman and Qatar as well. Midthere should be a strong Iconnect is a strong partner embracing the fact that they segment companies maybe underlying data infrastructure program that focuses on would maximize benefits if categories as such because of and that is our third area of enablement. they buy end to end solutions their size in numbers of staff focus and this also includes We don’t get partners on from us. but they may still need to other Technologies such board for the sake of adding address complexities including for instance the voice numbers but do so only Discuss growth for the multiple locations like for communication platform when there are identified contact centre Business retail chain. Our solutions for Aura that enrich customer needs in particular segments. The Contact Centre Business those users who still want experiences. Therefore the We don’t want to crowd the is growing and has strong enterprise grade technologies focus is on providing platform partner landscape that makes demand in this region. Call even in the contact centre for technologies that enrich it a challenge for partners to centers are a crucial touch point example. Customers pay cost customer experience, help invest because they may not with the customer whether effective prices but get the them collaborate and increase see guaranteed returns in for the Banks, governmental sophistication of en enterprise productivity using innovative such scenarios. organizations or for other retail solution. technologies. Top partners obviously organizations. They can get a provide end to end stack feel of customer’s satisfaction Are you a channel driven Do you see more customers or unhappiness as well they company? Elaborate on your solutions but even midbuying end to end solutions also provide a window to try channel engagement and market partners are doing from Avaya? and upsell services to the strategies a good job in providing full Today 20 % customers are full customers. Our model is primarily channel stack solutions. stack customers for us and an enterprise depending on what they do like Financial institution for instance. The enterprise segment is looking more promising for these Technologies.

16 | May 2014

Cover Feature | Network Security

Reimagining network security There is a need for integrated network security to combat security threats consistently and avoid managing security in silos that creates risk to the business

18â&#x20AC;&#x201A; |â&#x20AC;&#x201A; May 2014

etwork security is being redefined today as BYOD becomes more pervasive. The primacy of redefining network security in a world made borderless by near ubiquitous connectivity across devices and apps cannot be understated. In addition, the advent of changes including Virtualisation, cloud computing, SDN etc are only accentuating the need for redefined security frameworks that can combat the evolving threat scenario more effectively. Therefore there is a need for a more effective approach to securing the network vis-à-vis conventional approaches which seem inadequate. According to Ray Kafity, Regional Sales Director, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, “FireEye’s research has revealed that despite bold claims and billions of dollars invested, heritage protections like traditional and next-generation firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, anti-virus, and web gateways can, in fact, no longer stop advanced malware or targeted attacks. Rather these traditional defenses rely heavily on signatures, known patterns of misbehavior, and reputation to be effective at accurately identifying and blocking advanced targeted attacks. This results in a gaping hole in network defenses that remain vulnerable to this generation’s cyber-attacks. “ A massive shift is being witnessed in the industry as a result of the exponential growth of digital information and there is a need for a growing number of employees to access corporate resources from any device, from anywhere, at any time. This is becoming essential to competitiveness as the pace of work quickens further and Businesses can ill-afford any bottlenecks because of infrastructural challenges. At the same instance, security of corporate data needs to be up to speed. Florian Malecki, International Product Marketing Director, Dell Security says, “Companies must somehow ensure that users can gain access to systems and data they need to do their jobs without

compromising security, compliance and efficiency. In order to address these complexities, compliance and regulation must be integral part of organizations to ensure that when users access data, they are doing so securely, in a compliant manner, and with full organizational visibility and control. As a result, network security is still a key part of the overall IT Security strategy but nowadays it has to be adaptive and context aware.” There is a need to move towards a multilayered security approach. Organizations have over the past few years movedaway from single function appliances towards multi-function security appliances but they need to now step up and see if they indeed have a seamless connect between various point solutions they have installed over the period of time and whether they are good enough to combat the evolving threat scenario that calls for application and data level security vis-à-vis traditional approaches. He adds, “Many organizations have addressed their security challenges by adopting layers of protection, effectively managing the security of their intellectual property in silos. BYOD, the cloud, advanced persistent threats (APTs) and other security threats are often dealt with inconsistently and separately with disparate point solutions, leaving IT to react to ever-evolving threats rather than proactively overcoming the challenges.” There are various trends that are fuelling the need to redefine the approach to redefine network security. Virtualization and the advent of SDN for instance are among the key factors driving the change. Vibin Shaju, CISSP, Regional Manager, PreSales, Middle East, McAfee, part of Intel Security says, “Organizations are consolidating and redefining the data center by embracing virtualization. Virtualization deployments is now likely to go significantly higher. Consolidation brings on the challenge to keep the security and compliance standards high.We are seeing a redefinition of the network as the data center gets redefined as software defined

Ray Kafity Regional Sales Director, META FireEye

networking starts to show up. It’s very important fitting the security and visibility to this complex environment driven by business needs.” He adds, “Organizations are integrating tablets and mobile phones into their environments to match with the business needs. People bring in their own solutions, their own hardware, and their own software for that matter and integrate that in to a complex enterprise environment. Further he adds that Web and Identity is another area of challenge, whether our identity extends to the cloud and beyond which adds to the complexities of managing network security. Dell’s Florian in fact presents the argument that given changes in the IT industry, the perimeter is disappearing and becoming more and more borderless. Florian adds, “More so than ever we May 2014 | 19

Cover Feature | Network Security

Vibin Shaju, CISSP Regional Manager, Presales, ME, McAfee

virtual desktops would argue that and servers to "Not so long ago, all you needed to protect were network security applications and is a must for any stationary systems in designated physical locations. databases. organisation. The But today, we need security that protects a virtual He adds, endpoint security “This integrated network of people, networks, services, and applications market is a framework delivers commoditized and that can be anywhere at any given moment." real-time visibility crowed market. into the security And given the information such as jailbreak or root status and risk management profile of your growth of mobile devices accessing the (critical to minimize the risk of malware business. At the same time, it automates corporate networks, end point security is infection), device ID, certificate status the security solutions through policy-based an absolute necessity. and OS version — checked before access deployment of countermeasures. We keep Therefore, Florian believes that it is is allowed. This feature seems simple the security always up to date owning more crucial these days to protect data at enough, but only SMAs, such as Dell SMAs the world’s most comprehensive threat rest and in-flight: this is where network appliances, include this protection. intelligence.” security solutions, such as Dell Secure An integrated security approach needs McAfee in addition has GTI, its threat Mobile Access (SMA) and Next Generation to be one that facilitates greater control intelligence platform that generates Firewalls, come into play. For example, at application level as well as helps reports with more than 100 million any mobile device (corporate or personal) enforce policies and monitoring across all sensors worldwide. With visibility across connecting to an organization’s network manifestations of the network, physical or all threat vectors — file, web, message, must have its security credentials — virtual quite effectively. and network — and a view into the latest Vibin says, “Business requirements vulnerabilities across the IT industry, have changed. Security needs to change McAfee correlates real-world data as well to address these new business collected from millions of sensors around dynamics. Not so long ago, all you needed the globe and delivers real-time, and often to protect were stationary systems in predictive and most importantly real-time designated physical locations. But today, protection via its security products. we need security that protects a virtual McAfee Security Connected empowers network of people, networks, services, and to protect the business everywhere, applications that can be anywhere at any wherever employees and digital assets go. given moment. Security needs to achieve “There is a need for security that’s the same ubiquity.” built-in by design, seamlessly integrated McAfee has been among the vendors into every device at every layer of the who have envisioned such an approach. compute stack and is protecting valuable Its Security Connected platform provides intellectual property, data, devices, and a unified framework for hundreds of identities. So in everyday and business products, services, and partners. According life, people can feel secure in the digital to McAfee, any organization can improve world. It’s why we’re taking a “security its security posture and minimize connected” approach. Across every operational costs through its innovative architecture of every platform from chip concepts, optimized processes, and to cloud — smartphones and tablets to practical savings. PCs, servers, and beyond. We’re moving Vibinsays, “McAfee Security Connected security from discrete solutions to an enables businesses to optimize security integrated approach as pervasive as every day and reduce risk while driving computing itself.” compliance and improving operational McAfee has also launched the find, efficiencies—everywhere. From mobile freeze and fix advanced malware solution devices and endpoints to mission-critical (MATD) to prevent against complete networks and servers. From hosted zero day threats based on sandboxing services in the cloud to supply-chain and static code analysis with integrated processes between partners. And from GTI and Gateway Antimalware engines.

20 | May 2014

McAfee also unveiled the Next Generation firewall powered by Stonesoft, one of McAfee’s recent acquisitions. Dell’s vision of integrated security is positioned as Dell Connected Security. It intends to empower users while keeping them secure. Florian says, “Dell believes that managing security in silos creates risk to the business. Dell Connected Security eliminates silos of security information, connecting security across your data, infrastructure and applications with our data, network, endpoint and security services solutions. In addition, better security means better business. Dell Connected Security allow organisations to securely embrace all the key trends (mobility, social media, big data, could, etc.) therefore empowering them to be more competitive.” FireEye offers an unified approach as well to security. The model detects threats in real time as well as reduces the time to contain and resolve the threat, thereby preventing or minimizing the business impact of these threats. The FireEye Platform does this with a multi-faceted approach to security – Prevent, Detect, Contain, and Resolve. Ray says, “The new generation of cyber-attacks and advanced attackers are targeted on acquiring valuable and vital information, such as personal and intellectual property details or insider information from organisations. Additionally, these attacks which are left undetected by traditional defenses are noticed across all industries. Therefore, FireEye’s Continuous Threat Protection model has been developed to combat these advanced attacks and persistent adversaries’ on which organizations need to reimagine security and adopt this model.” FireEye’s main offering, the Threat Prevention Platform, is appliance-based and uses the Multi-Vector Virtual Execution (MVX) engine. Each solution is devised for a specific threat vector—web, email, and file—and intended to complement one another.

“The FireEye Threat Prevention Platform is used by leading enterprises, government agencies, and highereducation organizations around the world to stop today's advanced cyber-attacks that breach traditional defenses, extract proprietary information, and damage corporate resources. Additionally, FireEye’s acquisition of Mandiant, the leader of advanced endpoint security products and security incident response management solutions, unifies the critical components required to provide state-of-the-art cyber security: the most complete library of actionable threat intelligence on advanced threats and a product suite that applies intelligence to detect and prevent attacks on both the network and on endpoints,” says Ray Kafity, Regional Sales Director, Middle East, Turkey and Africa. FireEyealso offers Managed Defense, a subscription-based service that provides continuous threat protection to help enhance security. Managed Defense extends the value of the FireEye Security Platform with 24x7 expertise and monitoring from FireEye expert analysts. It also provides a range of subscription services that complement a customer’s security operations with lean-forward capabilities. Available in three tiers of engagement, Managed Defense enables users to align the chosen service or services with your team’s skills and risk tolerance. There is also a need to have a centralized tool for managing and enforcing security policies across a network. McAfee has a tool called the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (McAfee ePO) , which as the foundation of McAfee Security Management Platform, enables customers to connect industry-leading security solutions to their enterprise infrastructure to increase visibility, gain efficiencies, and strengthen protection. As for Dell, Right now, each one of the Dell Connected Security products (that came from acquisitions) has their own management tools. However Dell SecureWorks can centrally manage

Florian Malecki International Product Marketing Director Dell Security

and enforce customer security policies as a managed service, maximizing an organisation’s security. Florian adds, “Our R&D team is already working on integrating some of these acquired technologies to increase the overall IT Security protection but also give better visibility and manageability to customers when it will become available.” In summary, Network Security should enable high visibility and real time actions which is a key in dealing with advance malwares. An integrated approach will provide that best and this seems to be the approach being taken by a growing number of security vendors. May 2014 | 21

Feature | EMC

Never has corporate data being this much, or this precious. To effectively protect this prized commodity in a progressively virtualized world takes a certain pedigree and acumen that only a few storage solutions providers can muster, none more so than EMC

Fady Richmany Senior Regional Director EMC

EMC

takes centre stage E

MC’s roadmap projects growing need for data protection in an increasingly software defined environment. Last year, the data management giant launched ViPR, asoftware-defined storage solution to face the storage challenges brought on by the 3rd IT platform driven by cloud, mobile, web and social. Building on this, EMC is enhancing its data protection technology in a software defined world through the offering of Data Protection as a Service (DPaaS), enhanced visibility and control for data owners while trying to solve the back-up challenge,while

22 | May 2014

enabling customers address continuum requirements and the end-to-end view for data owners. “Last year we made a major announcement on the back up of the future with ViPRand the main concern was why backup is so challenging to data customers,” says Fady Richmany, Senior Regional Director, at EMC. EMC, Fady explained, has always sought to solve data backup challenges,starting in the old days with tape-based storage and solving the problemsthat existed then. Afterwards,the

company came up withits deduplication appliance to solve the limitations brought on by tape and allowing scaling so there would beno bottleneck at the end of the tunnel. Today the challenge is data that is growing exponentiallywithbackup taking more and more time. Data owners who needed to ensure that their data is protected have resorted to engaging in doing their own backup without relying on what is happening in the background with their IT staff. This eventually creates silos as everyone backs their own data. “EMC came up to bridge

and complexity the gap with in data protection integration of the "With the multi-tenancy features, we can provide a in months and applications so that years to come. we can provide diverse group of peopleDPaaS on the same platform “Our promise to more visibility to while providing strict isolation through secure the customer is data owners,” Fady that if they make said. walls,making sure no data is compromised.” the transformation EMC began with today with the some applications technology that we like Oracle and SAP failure, whether man-made or natural, are providing, and change their data centre before moving to cover the whole stack owners will decide how they will rebuild to become software-defined,there will be today. “All the enterprise applications their content,” Fady said. no need to change again in the future and today can be directly writtenon the data If they rely on the old backup system, they will simply need to scale,” says Fady. protection platform, moving from what in case of failure, they need to roll back Requirements for data back-up and we used to call the accidental architecture to a day before (24 hours) for the latest recovery cut through industries and tothe new storage protection architecture,” update which translates to loss of 24 segments, Fady says. From a Telco using Fady said. hours’ worth of data. With continued data a billing application to a bank that cannot The major advantage of a softwareprotection, however, the system takes a afford to lose customer information backup defined infrastructure, customers and snapshot of your data on the same storage and recovery is today a basic business vendors agree, is the scalability factor. array and a customer can simply go back requirement. “These organizations cannot “With VMWare EMC is able to offer data to the latest snapshot they had which afford an application to go down or take protection with the ability to scale and provides a far shorter time frame between time to roll back and they will have to go deliver on the promise of the software backup and recovery. “Continuous data for very high availability.” defined data centre,” Fady said. protectionoffers more guarantee since you EMC is taking the availability capability Further, EMC’s data deduplication are always taking a copy, you can roll back even further, with the new VPLEXMetro storage platform, Data Domain, offers to the latest update which may be just a point that delivers availability and data enhancedmulti-tenancy features as well few minutes old,” Fady explains. mobility across sites. This means that for as a new innovative OS. Today EMC is The third and highest level is Active/ a business with three offices in different able to offer a lot more service on a active which offers real time replication; parts of the world, active backing up the single platform. “With the multi-tenancy in case of system failure, there’s zero same data means that if site A is down, features, we can provide a diverse group loss because the data is replicated at the customers can run service from site B and of peopleDPaaS on the same platform same time. “The premise of the whole if site A and site B go down, both can run while providing strict isolation through process is the business continuity that applications from site C. secure walls,making sure no data is ensures that not only is the customer’s We are the only company that can compromised,” Fady said. Recovery Point Objective (RPO) zero, the do this, Fady says. At the end of the day, The Visibility and Control capability Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is also what is relevant to the enterprise customer offers data owners a direct access so they zero. That means that applications are is that it costs them a lot of money with can write straighton the data protection immediatelyaccessible,” Fady says. the traditional storage architecture. EMC platform. This way, Fady says, thedata Further from SDN-based data protection studies and surveys, including a recent back-up admin is happy and so isdata being a rip and replace proposition, Fady one with IDC that showed just how much owner because both of them are able to says the whole process should be seen money firms are losing if they do not see what they are doing. as a natural progression that began with scale-up their data back-up infrastructure. Today data protection is not just about a transformation a while back when That study revealed that with a large having backup, or having just continuous customers using tape for back up moved company with about 2,000 users and data protection; customers want to have to adopt a disk-based deduplication based about two petabytes of data to be data till the end for business continuity. backup and data recovery system. It’s then protected, they stand to lose around three Organizations then have to make a choice only natural for customers to move to this million US dollars per year. EMC is then depending on the application criticality to new technology, Fady observes. able to show customers that before and decide how far back they will roll in case In addition, software defined after investing with EMC solutions, they of failure. “We do backup for one reason: architecture future-proofs customer stand to have an ROI in about 5-7 months, to recover. So data protection is protecting requirements for the inevitable increase Fady explains. your own data and in case of operation

May 2014 | 23

TechKnow | WatchGuard

How key is the channel to WatchGuard’s success in the region? WatchGuard is recognized as a leader in the network security space and was named a leader for UTM in Gartner’s Magic quadrant for 2013.Watchguard has a rich product line and has the potential to take the lead in the market. The strong channel engagement in the 35 countries that we manage from here would be key to that strategy. We are looking at expanding further into different markets and are already working towards that. We have a couple of distributors in the MEA. They are Logicom and Comguard. We have distributors for the Levant and Africa as well. Do you see growing demand for virtualized UTM solutions? Virtualisation is a market that is picking up and we have great solutions for the virtualisation segment. The Fireware XTM V and XCS V, WatchGuard’s UTM and email and messaging security products respectively now have virtual versions that work on Hyper V and VMWare. These are meant to help customers who are adopting cloud services driven by virtualization in the back-end.However, this doesn’t impact the demand for Physical hardware UTM appliances which has been growing impressively. Discuss your BYOD solution? We had launched a wireless access point solution last year, wherein the UTM becomes a wireless controller so you can have multiple wireless networks of up to 16 SSIDs. The solution gives you the capability not just to support these identities, but then a user can apply specific policies for them. For instance one might have a wireless network for corporate machines and a wireless network for personally owned machines and then have separate security policies applied. So the BYOD devices can still access emails but they cannot access the important database that has the account information.

24 | May 2014

While WatchGuard continued to see strong global growth with small- and medium-sized distributed enterprise customers, the company achieved a significant increase in high-end platform sales as the UTM value proposition continues to penetrate into the larger enterprise space. Surender Bishnoi, WatchGuard, Regional Manager MEA discusses the company’s strengths as well focus in the region Surender Bishnoi Regional Manager MEA WatchGuard

Strong intent drives growth Discuss your collaboration with other security vendors? For the various other functions of security, Watchguard focuses on including best of the best in these technologies.We have best of the modules built into our products. For Content filtering, we include Websencewhich is the best in its space. For IPS, we have, Trend Micro IPS among others. For Antivirus, we have the top brands built in such as Kaspersky, AVG etc.the data loss prevention solution comes from Sophos. We have teamed with APT heavyweight, Lastline, for cloud-based, full-system-emulation

inspection capabilities for the new Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) solution, WatchGuard APT Blocker. What is WatchGuard Dimension? You might have the best of the boxes or appliances but at the end of the day, you need visibility which shows how the live status of the network. Dimension provides great reporting of all possible threats on a single console. WatchGuard Dimension is a cloud-ready network security visibility solution that comes standard on all of WatchGuard’s integrated network security platforms.

TechKnow | Allied Telesis

Allied Telesis offers a diverse portfolio of products, and a suite of features, that can enhance the ability to securely and reliably transport security video footage across an IP network. This includes a variety of reference designs for network solutions for different scenarios. Sabbahuddin Khan , Regional Manager at Allied Telesis elaborates on the company's IP surveillance focus. Sabbahuddin Khan Regional Manager Allied Telesis

The IP surveillance opportunity Do you see IP surveillance adoption rates going up? The interest in network equipment capable of supporting Digital (IP) Video Surveillance is growing for almost every market. The economic advantages of a single network able to manage all the different services, including video surveillance, is a driving factor for IP surveillance deployment. Despite the fact that there are regulations in certain territories requiring separate networks for Surveillance systems, an Allied Telesis solution remains an excellent choice as a result of the local total cost of ownership (TCO).

Please elaborate on your switches portfolio for IP surveillance solutions? Allied Telesis offer network equipment designed to support IP video surveillance. The wide support of Power over Ethernet (PoE+) in different families of switches, from the basic Layer 2 to the advanced Chassis Switch; from the DIN rail industrial Ethernet to the dual hot swappable PSU devices; covers all the possible applications. The tradition in multimedia stream management supports all possible topologies and the interoperability with the main Camera and VMS vendor guarantees a trouble free installation.

Do you also offer video servers and encoders? Allied Telesis only offers network equipment, but is fully committed to providing the best network experience for all server and encoder developers. What support do you provide channel partners in making transitional deployments from analogue to IP based installationsor even help set up systems that can handle both analog and IP? The management of IP cameras and IP VMS are similar to the management of any other network device. In addition, in a mixed environment, analog to digital convertors are also considered as network devices. On the other hand, the management of video streams within a network is not an easy task, especially once dozens of video flows are simultaneously present. Allied Telesis offers their Partners all the support and information needed to be able to manage the installation of digital video surveillance systems optimally. Is decision making to go in for IP based surveillance deployments an easy one? The advantage of a digital video surveillance in term of maintenance costs, security, image quality and the ability to perform real time video analytics is so evident that the decision is easy. The ability to automate the perimeter of a large installation with alarms that will activate as soon as someone crosses the boundary, without requiring continual viewing of monitors by personnel, is only one example of the possibilities. In a large installation with substantial lengths of Coaxial cable the use of Media Converters, able to transport Ethernet over the Coaxial cable, minimizes the impact of cable replacement. IP systems enable high-quality video and permits video analytics in real time or on recorded videos. Further, the authentication mechanism, embedded in the network devices, improves the global security. While replacement of an analog camera with a video signal is quite easy, the replacement of a digital camera authenticated in the right way is almost impossible. May 2014â&#x20AC;&#x201A; |â&#x20AC;&#x201A; 25

TechKnow | Nexthink

Specific to the Middle East, what issues are regional companies facing in terms of “unusual activities” and/or security threats? Enterprises in the region tend to believe that standardization is the perfect solution, but theystill need someone to audit in real-time whether end-users are complying with corporate security policies or not. The main challenge enterprises face today is the lack of visibility of all endusers who are utilizing the IT infrastructure, irrespective of physical or virtual workstations.

MagedEid Regional Director Nextthink

Thinking Ahead Firms big and small are realizing the value of End-User Analytics among employees, providing visibility and insight into IT operations and security for IT Governance. MagedEid, Regional Director for Nexthink discusses how the company’s pioneering solutions can assist companies get ahead of security threats and system failures

26 | May 2014

With end-users increasingly on mobile, (BYOD) how does this affect compliance and security? Increasingly, end-users want to access everything from their mobile devices where most organizations have no control. As a result, end-users are accessing confidential data without proper security tools in place. In addition, end-users are utilizing the corporate IT infrastructure with their devices, which add an unexpected workload and hinder its performance. When it comes to security,we are seeing too many cases of data leakage because of mobility and/or BYOD. This can be prevented with IT analytics solutions. Enterprises should not be against mobility and BYOD,however, when considering these initiatives,they need to have the right technologies in place to protect their most valuable asset, which is the data.

Discuss some of you partner engagements in the region and briefly your go-to channel strategy Channel partners remain the focal point of any enterprise solution provider doing business in the Middle East. Local IT integrators are trusted advisors who know their customers extremely well and they invest heavily in supporting their customers to make them successful. The channel is very important to Nexthink and we work closely with our partners. Are there specific companies that would benefit from end-user analytics? Every company is a candidate for end-user analytics. IT analytics provide essential visibility and insight into IT operations and security for corporate IT governance, enabling enterprises to better manage demand, deliver value and protect against risk. Enterprises that embrace IT analytics also benefit from a substantially improved quality of service and more proactive end-user support. With big-budget projects like IT transformation, how do you crunch the numbers to help clients visualize their ROI? Managing IT transformations is highly complex, with the risk of substantial delays and unnecessary costs that can arise from missed deadlines. Enterprises need real-time visibility of their entire IT infrastructure and endpoints

and IT analytics can deliver accurate guidance for enterprise transformation projects. For example, the ability to analyze all application executions and every network connection, helps enterprises to quickly and easily see the status of what is working well and what areas need improvement. IT analytics enable enterprises to make informed decisions in real-time, based on actual results and not based on assumptions, which is especially important when it comes to capacity planning. After analysis, how does

"Nexthink provides real-time mapping of the performance of an enterprise’s IT infrastructure. Nexthink allows enterprises to strengthen IT security in from a single point of view: that of the end-user."

Nexthink help customers deal with threats they come across? Most would agree that enterprises cannot manage and cannot secure what they don’t see and what they don’t know. Nexthink provides real-time mapping of the performance of an enterprise’s IT infrastructure. Nexthink allows enterprises to strengthen IT security in from a single point of view: that

of the end-user. Visibility and real-time IT analytics enable enterprises to understand the exact situation and identify axes of investigation to solve and prevent problems that could affect one or more end-users, before they are reported. With data now increasingly turning into Big Data, how does this affect End-User analytics, outcomes and

challenges therein? What is the value of Big Data if enterprises don’t know how to use it, analyze it or even understand it?IT departments need to leverage IT analytics to understand exactly how applications and IT services are being consumed, and how the IT infrastructure is operating in real-time. Thanks to the investigative power of IT analytics, with just a few clicks, the health and activity of every endpoint is visible and accessible, allowing the IT department to rapidly diagnose whether an issue is network, server, workstation or application related.

May 2014 | 27

Insight | ARBOR Networks

With cloud computing’s paradigm of shared infrastructure, DDoS attacks on a specific target can quickly affect many or all tenants. In this column, Mahmoud Samy, Area Head, Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan at Arbor Networks explains why availability should be the top priority for cloud operators, and outlines best current practices for preventing and mitigating attacks.

Mohmoud Samy Area Head, ME. Paksitan & Afganistan, Arbor Networks

Cloud Computing: Ensuring Availability for One and All T

he growing popularity of the cloud computing model has been accompanied by a great deal of discussion, and some concrete action, regarding security concerns related to the use of computing, storage, networking and services infrastructure which, by definition, is shared among multiple end customers. While the classic siloed, single-tenant

28 | May 2014

server model quite often involves the use of shared networking and ancillary services infrastructure, such as DNS, bringing together the application logic and proprietary data of multiple organizations on the same computing/networking/ storage substrate has highlighted these concerns, and brought them to the forefront for many IT

professionals and executives worldwide. Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are launched with the intent of negatively impacting the availability of the targeted applications, data or services. While DDoS attacks launched against classic siloed systems often cause collateral damage due to their impact on shared resources—such as network

infrastructure, DNS, etc.,—the inherent and explicit multitenancy of cloud computing environments means that an attack against one tenant/ customer is an attack against all end customers making use of the same shared infrastructure. Best practices for ensuring availability Ensuring availability in the face

DropBox/ElephantDrive/Amazon S3

Insight | ARBOR Networks

of DDoS attacks can be challenging. Fortunately, there is a large body of best current practices for maintaining availability which have been developed by the Internet operational community and successfully deployed by many service providers and data center operators with a good track record of maintaining availability. By properly assessing the risk to availability posed by the cloud computing model, operators and end users of cloud services can work to minimize their risks and maximize the security postures. All organizations should implement the following as part of their organic cloud computing architectures and/ or ensure their cloud providers have done so: • Maintain up-to-date communications plans, including contacts for peers and upstream providers so established operational security teams can react quickly and effectively to DDoS attacks. • Participate in online mitigation communities to increase the effectiveness of coordinated responses to attacks. • Implement strong, scalable architectures that minimize state- and capacity-bound chokepoints, which can otherwise be exploited by attackers, leading to DDoS attacks that cripple publicfacing properties. • Implement real-time

30 | May 2014

"The inherent and explicit multi-tenancy of cloud computing environments means that an attack against one tenant/customer is an attack against all end customers making use of the same shared infrastructure." detection, classification and traceback capabilities to identify DDoS attacks, understand what is happening and take appropriate defensive measures. Flow telemetry such as Cisco NetFlow, Juniper cflowd and sFlow should be enabled at all network edges, and exported into a collection/ analysis system such as Arbor Peakflow SP. • Deploy a source-based remotely triggered blackholing (S/RTBH) capability which leverages existing network infrastructure in defending against simple packet-flooding attacks from a relatively small number of sources. S/ RTBH leverages BGP as a control-plane mechanism to instantaneously signal edge devices to start dropping attack traffic at the edges of the network, based on the purported source IP addresses of the attack-related packets. • Avoid deploying firewalls and IDS/IPS in front of Internet-facing servers. Even the largest devices are DDoS chokepoints; they degrade the operational security posture of the network and applications by making them more vulnerable to DDoS than the servers alone otherwise would be. Instead, policy should be enforced by stateless ACLs in

hardware-based routers and switches, which are capable of handling millions of packets per second. • Deploy intelligent DDoS mitigation systems, , in topologically appropriate cleaning centers to block attacking traffic on a more granular level, including sophisticated application-layer attacks and spoofed attacks. • Employ infrastructure ACLs (iACLs at the relevant network edges—peering/transit, customer aggregation edge, etc.) to protect the network infrastructure itself. For traffic that is destined for Internetfacing servers, use additional service-specific sections to restrict the traffic to ports and protocols associated with the services and applications on those servers. • Filter irrelevant Internet protocols at network edges via ACLs. There are 254 valid Internet protocols. Packetflooding attacks based on protocol 0, ESP, GRE and other relatively uncommon protocols can be used by attackers to bypass ACLs that only contain policy statements relating to common protocols such as TCP, UDP and ICMP. • Deploy additional network infrastructure best practices such as controland management-plane

self-protection mechanisms (rACL, CoPP, GTSM, MD5 keying, etc.). • Make network infrastructure devices accessible only via designated management hosts. During attacks, a dedicated, out-ofband (OOB) management network allows devices to be managed irrespective of conditions on the production network and ensures continuing visibility into attack traffic. • Configure public-facing servers in a hardened manner, with unnecessary services disabled, service-specific configuration hardening, IP stack tuning and other relevant mechanisms. • For Web servers, Apache modules such as mod_ security and mod_evasive provide additional defensive capabilities. Maintaining availability in the face of DDoS attacks can be challenging, but as the above list of best common practices demonstrates, it is neither impossible nor out of the reach of organizations of any size. By ensuring that availability is given the appropriate emphasis, organizations can ensure that stakeholders are able to properly assess the risks associated with the cloud computing model and successfully mitigate those risks in order to reap the benefits of cloud computing while ensuring continuity of operations.

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eyetech

A10 Networks – Thunder 6630 Overview: The rapid growth of data center traffic from mobile, cloud, big data and web is creating demand for high performance and scalable data center infrastructure solutions. These trends are increasing the adoption of higher performance compute infrastructures, which are in turn driving the need for higher 40GbE/100GbE networking infrastructure solutions. To meet escalating performance needs, A10 Networks has introduced the Thunder 6630 Application Delivery Controller (ADC) with flexible 10GbE/100GbE interface options and throughput of 150Gbps. Thunder 6630 is based on

A10’s innovative Advanced Core Operating System (ACOS) software. The ACOS platform is an application networking software architecture optimized for 64-bit multi-core processor systems. In order to maximize the capabilities of these increasingly dense multicore CPUs, ACOS implements a proprietary shared memory architecture that scales more efficiently than conventional memory management architectures, like inter-processor communications (IPC). This shared memory architecture enables A10 products to utilize these increasingly common multi-core CPUs efficiently and scale performance with increasing CPU cores, enabling ACOS-based products to process two to five times more web transactions in certain head to head product comparisons per unit of computing and memory resources, power, rack space or list price. Key Features: • Industry’s First 100 Gigabit Ethernet ADC for Layer 4-7 Services. • Maintains performance leadership in the fixed Layer 4-7 networking appliance category • Leverages the same data center efficient designs as other ACOS-based appliances consuming less power, cooling and rack space, which are critically important metrics for large data center operators.

32 | May 2014

Philips Cloud Monitor Base

Overview: MMD, the leading technology company and brand license partner for Philips Monitors, is set to streamline IT in organisations everywhere with the all-in-one simplicity of the Philips Cloud Monitor Base. The brand-new Philips Cloud Monitor Base brings VDI within easy reach of enterprises, providing all the benefits of maintaining data and software on the server, and eliminating the need for computing power on individual desktops. Users simply attach their current Philips monitor to the stand, and can plug directly into their enterprise Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environment for access to centralized IT applications, data storage and security. Key features: • Available in two versions – the SB4B1927VB for VMware infrastructure and the SB4B1927CB for Citrix – the Philips Cloud Monitor Base consists of a smart, ergonomic stand to which users can attach any Philips S, P or B line monitor of any size between 19 and 29 inches, instantly connecting their desktop with the enterprise’s VDI. • There is no separate PC or notebook required, and users can connect a mouse and keyboard directly to the base. • Easy to deploy and easy to manage, it is a cost- effective way to transform a monitor into a zero client: since enterprises can use existing Philips monitors with the new base, there is no need for additional outlay on hardware. It simply plugs into the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure that the enterprise already has in place.

Seagate 6TB Drive for Cloud Data Centers

ATEN HDMI Matrix Switch Overview:

Overview: Seagate is now shipping the world’s fastest 6TB hard disk drive (HDD) delivering supersize storage and enterprise reliability to meet the explosive growth of corporate and cloud-based data centers in the region. The Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD version four boasts industry-leading performance and is an important step forward in scale-out data infrastructure. Featuring the fastest performance available for a nearline HDD, the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD enables faster data transfers by building on an

The ATEN VanCryst VM5808H- 8x8 HDMI Matrix Switch with Scaler provides exceptional switching speed for real-time HDCP audio/video content, without compromising quality and reliability. The VM5808H is ideal for environments where instantaneous switching of HDMI content are critical to the viewing experience, such as live-streaming events, auctions, racing and entertainment, and surveillance applications. Key features:

eighth-generation platform that enables the drive to

• The VM5808H HDMI Matrix Switch offers the

deliver up to a 25% increase in performance over

capability to route any of eight HDMI sources to

competing 6TB drives—making it ideal for bulk data

any of eight HDMI displays and resolution types.

storage. Utilizing the latest generation of 12Gb/s SAS,

• It can independently switch and arrange HDMI

the drive provides customers with the scalability for

inputs and outputs in different combinations,

future-proofing their systems.

as well as provide a quick view of all port connections via the front panel LCD. • The VM5808H features unique Seamless Switch function that utilizes ATEN’s high-performing scaling engine in its FPGA chips to unify the video formats and deliver continuous video streams, real-time switching and stable signal transmission. • With the scaling technology, various input video resolutions can be scaled expertly to the target display's native resolution, giving viewers the best picture and video quality. • Additionally, the scaling engine offers a range of

Key Features: • Industry-Leading Performance— 25 percent faster than competitive 6TB drives.

aspect settings that automatically adjusts the picture ratio to ensure an optimal viewing experience.

• Highest Capacity Available — Up to 6TB per drive for maximum density server and storage solutions. •

Enterprise-Class Reliability — Industry-leading rotational vibration tolerance for consistent performance and enhanced error correction for accurate data storage.

•

Best-in-Class Security — Self-Encrypting Drives (SED) with Instant Secure Erase for easy drive disposal or repurposing and FIPS SED security options

May 2014 | 33

Stats & Trends

Digital Universe to Grow 10x by 2020

MC Corporation announced results of the seventh EMC Digital Universe study, which quantifies and forecasts the amount of data produced annually. This year’s study titled “The Digital Universe of Opportunities: Rich Data and the Increasing Value of the Internet of Things,” with research and analysis by IDC, reveals how the emergence of wireless technologies, smart products and software-defined businesses are playing a central role in catapulting the volume of the world’s data. Due, in part, to this Internet of Things, the digital universe is doubling in size every two years and will multiply 10-fold between 2013 and 2020 – from 4.4 trillion gigabytes to 44 trillion gigabytes. For perspective: • The amount of information in the digital universe would fill a stack* of iPad Air tablets reaching 2/3 of the way to the moon (157,674 miles/253,704 kilometers). By 2020, there will be 6.6 stacks. • Today, the average household creates enough data to fill 65 iPhones (32gb) per year. In 2020, this will grow to 318 iPhones. • Today, if a byte of data were a gallon of water, in only 10 seconds there would be enough data to fill an average house. In 2020, it will only take 2 seconds. The Internet of Things comprises billions of everyday objects that are equipped with unique identifiers and the ability to automatically record, report and receive data – a sensor in your shoe tracking how fast you run or a bridge tracking traffic patterns. According to IDC the number of devices or things that can be connected to the Internet is approaching 200 billion today, with 7% (or 14 billion) already connected to and communicating over the Internet. The data from these connected devices represents 2% of the world’s data today. IDC now forecasts that, by 2020, the number of

34 | May 2014

connected devices will grow to 32 billion – representing 10% of the world’s data. The Internet of Things will also influence the massive amounts of “useful data” – data that could be analyzed – in the digital universe. In 2013, only 22% of the information in the digital universe was considered useful data, but less than 5% of the useful data was actually analyzed – leaving a massive amount of data lost as dark matter in the digital universe. By 2020, more than 35% of all data could be considered useful data, thanks to the growth of data from the Internet of Things, but it will be up to businesses to put this data to use. This phenomenon will present radical new ways of interacting with customers, streamlining business cycles, and reducing operational costs, stimulating trillions of dollars in opportunity for businesses. Conversely, it presents significant challenges as businesses look manage, store and protect the sheer volume and diversity of this data. Other Key Findings: • Emerging markets are producing more data: Currently, 60% of data in the digital universe is attributed to mature markets such as Germany, Japan, and the United States, but by 2020, the percentage will flip, and emerging markets including Brazil, China, India, Mexico and Russia will account for the majority of data. • Data is outpacing storage: The world’s amount of available storage capacity (i.e., unused bytes) across all media types is growing slower than the digital universe. In 2013, the available storage capacity could hold just 33% of the digital universe. By 2020, it will be able to store less than 15%. Fortunately, most of the world’s data is transient . • Data touched by the cloud will double: In 2013, less than 20% of the data in the digital universe was “touched” by the cloud. By 2020, that percentage will double to 40%.

Axis Communications’ Academy

Building your strengths in network video

Your customers and your success depend on you having the most up-to-date, comprehensive knowledge in the industry. Axis Communications’ Academy makes it easy to stay one step ahead — putting network video knowledge right at your fingertips. The Academy gives you a wealth of information to help you build your strengths through every part of your chain — from interactive system design tools, practical “how-to” guides and

specialized webinars to registration for classroom-based training and certification. And it’s available anytime, anywhere, in your language from Axis’ own highly-trained Academy staff. When your knowledge source is the company that invented network video and continually sets the standard for innovation in the industry, rest assured customers will recognize your expertise — driving more business to your door. Get the Axis picture. Stay one step ahead. Visit www.axis.com/academy

Axis Communications’ Academy - the global learning center for network video

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DWL-3600AP

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