The Integrator

Josiane Sadaka CEO, Blue Carbon

Mission Decarbonisation

Setting goals was the theme of 2021. Since 2015, there has been a significant increase in the number of businesses setting science-based decarbonization goals; however, from 2020 to 2021 the lead- number climbed drastically. The UAE is driving the decarbonization dialogue in the Middle East with significant government programs that motivate companies to lessen their carbon footprint.

Blue carbon under the patronage of the His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, deploys emerging strategies in the context of country de-carbonization using only methodologies that focus on compliance markets.

BUT THE BIG QUESTION IS: HOW TO REACH THERE?

As they deal with the effects of the climate problem, many companies feel overwhelmed. In a time of uncertainty, they are attempting to continue working toward their decarbonization goals. In the face of an uncomfortable geopolitical climate, ongoing supply chain interruptions, and escalating inflation, they are trying to figure out how to conduct an orderly transition away from carbon.

Of course, we cannot instantly abandon the traditional methods of energy production and use. But given the urgency of the crisis, we must substantially speed up our transition to a carbonfree economy.

The path to decarbonization entails that businesses change the way they create, that we as consumers reassess the products we buy and the food we eat. In each process, we need to be the part of the solution. To achieve deep decarbonisation, we must reconsider how we produce and consume energy, as well as implement a radical shift to renewables and lowcarbon energy sources.

Let’s contribute for better tomorrow

Vivek Sharma Publisher

NETAPP DELIVERS PORTFOLIO INNOVATIONS TO ADDRESS SKYROCKETING ENERGY COSTS

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etApp announced availability of new ways for companies to monitor, manage, and optimize their carbon footprints across their hybrid, multi-cloud environments.

“It’s our belief that the world’s ongoing energy challenges require innovative solutions and we are steadfastly committed to continuing to develop energyefficient technologies and solutions that allow our customers to greatly reduce their carbon footprint,” said George Kurian, Chief Executive Officer at NetApp.

With new tools and resources announced at NetApp INSIGHT, organizations can more effectively achieve their carbon reduction goals

• Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) carbon footprint reports leveraging the Product Attribute Impact

Algorithm (PAIA) methodology.

• NetApp’s 4:1 Storage Efficiency Guarantee covers all ONTAP all-flash systems, including AFF A-Series, AFF C190, All SAN Array, and FAS500f.

• NetApp Cloud Tiering allows companies to automatically and seamlessly move infrequently used data from on-premises ONTAP storage to the cloud.

• NetApp Cloud Data Sense is a data catalog and classification solution that uses artificial intelligence to map and classify all cloud and onpremises data.

“NetApp’s ongoing commitment to innovation in our product portfolio, combined with the company’s decarbonization efforts, provide organizations with the tools and resources they need to reduce costs, run more efficient

Kurian Chief Executive Officer, NetApp

operations, and enable emissionsbased decision making,” said Cesar Cernuda, President at NetApp.

BASEBONE EXPANDS ITS MENA CONTENT OFFERING, SHINES THE SPOTLIGHT ON THE CONTRIBUTION OF ARABIC CREATORS

individual creators to monetize their content on our platform. We are confident that this move will inspire regional creators to make and share meaningful content and, in turn, help the brand to establish itself not just as a leading service provider in the region but as an enabler in the local creator economy,” said Michael Holmqvist, CEO, Basebone.

Basebone announced that it would be significantly bolstering its Arabic-focused content within its flagship product baseplay as part of its expansion strategy within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

“We are very excited over how the MENA expansion has been developing positively, and our local content strategy has gone above and beyond expectations. We are striving to support the local community by allowing

Basebone is designed to engage users and aid creators in producing quick, easy-to-create, and digestible content. Short-form video content, which is not more than two minutes long, has become an essential part of the video consumption experience. This, according to Benito Alvarez, CMO, will significantly boost local short video content creators to be more innovative and to create a deeper connection with their respective followers.

“Thanks to our latest innovations, our users can now access thousands of content types in their local language, including documentaries, books, games, and content from some of the best talent in the region, such as beauty blogger ‘Beauty by Lama,’ lifestyle content creator ‘Mohammad Matar’, and business guru ‘Eli Khudari,’” added Michael.

George

BEEAH GROUP PLEDGES TO ACHIEVE EMISSIONSFREE MOBILITY AT COP27

BEEAH Group, the Middle East’s pioneer in sustainable, smart solutions for future-ready cities, has signed the ZEV Declaration at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt. Around 200 signatories to the declaration, initiated by the UK Presidency, are now setting a roadmap so that by 2040, all new van and car sales will be zero-emissions vehicles (ZEV).

By signing the ZEV Declaration, BEEAH Group is taking definitive steps within its own operations and is joining the call to action for governments, businesses, and organizations to rapidly accelerate the transition to zero-emission vehicles and achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Following the signing, Khaled Al Huraimel, Group CEO of BEEAH Group, said: “As a pioneer for sustainability in the Middle East, we have been committed to setting the pace for sustainable action. Through

our businesses and innovations, we have demonstrated several models to advance net-zero emissions and zero-waste-to-landfill strategies. Now, as the first organization in the UAE to sign the ZEV declaration, we are hoping to lead by example and showcase tangible business benefits to using emissions-free fleets for operations, combining electric and hydrogen fuel solutions.”

In line with the UAE’s sustainability roadmap and the Net-Zero by 2050 strategic initiative, BEEAH Group has already made advancements to lower emissions across its businesses and projects. Within its holding group structure, one of BEEAH Group’s major businesses is its waste collection and city cleaning business, BEEAH Tandeef. Its fleet of thousands of vehicles comprises electric models, which enable operations across the UAE, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, including in the city of

Sharm El Sheikh where COP27 is being held.

BEEAH Group has also placed the Middle East’s largest order for fully electric Tesla Semis, which once developed will be one of the fastest and safest freight trucks in the world.

INVIXIUM LAUNCHES IXM VERTU – AN ELEGANTLY DESIGNED CARD AND MOBILE ACCESS READER

launch of IXM VERTU, a modern access control reader capable of reading RFID cards along with mobile credentials via BLE or NFC from up to 8 cm away. Installation takes mere minutes and configuration is easily completed for Wiegand or OSDP through a configuration app. For clients that already have an access control software solution, IXM VERTU can seamlessly be added to their existing access control system.

VERTU’s rich combination of features is built into a sleek, elegant two-tone enclosure that can be easily mullion mounted in small spaces and door frames, complementing any new or existing

décor. Its IK08 impact and IP67 ingress ratings allow IXM VERTU to be installed indoors or outdoors. The durability and appealing design of VERTU make it a great choice for businesses of all sizes and industries.

Shiraz Kapadia, CEO & President of Invixium, expressed his excitement at the new possibilities for Invixium customers with the launch of IXM VERTU. “While biometrics is the heart and soul of Invixium, we are humble enough to admit that not every door requires the extreme level of security that biometrics offers. VERTU strikes the perfect balance of sleek design and security.”

Shiraz Kapadia

CEO & President of Invixium

Invixium, a premier manufacturer of innovative touchless biometric solutions, today announces the

Khaled Al Huraimel Group CEO of BEEAH Group

TEXUB EMPOWERS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WITH INNOVATIVE DIGINOMICS TRAINING PROGRAM

TEXUB has launched DigiNOMICS, a training program to support B2B IT traders in their digital transformation journeys. It aims to educate on the economics of digitalization and trade as it evolves across the globe. The program focuses on how business revenue can grow because of shifting from traditional legacy systems to smart digital systems.

Following the global health crisis in 2020, B2B decision-makers noticed that online and remote selling was very effective. Sellers also saw that digital prospecting was as effective as in-person meetings to connect with existing customers. The DigiNOMICS training program by TEXUB elevates B2B IT buyers and sellers and highlights the value of how TEXUB can support their digital transformation journeys and

global expansion plans without any investments while reducing offline costs.

“DigiNOMICS focuses on skill development and skill upliftment to support partners as they adapt to digital transformation and understand the importance of digitalizing their businesses today,” says Suchit Kumar, CEO, TEXUB. “Niranjan Gidwani, Consultant Director, TEXUB, adds, “Launched earlier this year, TEXUB is a nonsubscription-based business which offers a safe, stable and seamless digital ecosystem for global IT and mobility trade in the B2B space by taking care of end-to-end business requirements and simplifying operations. DigiNOMICS will further help create greater brand awareness, credibility and visibility, while building trust in our markets.”

Niranjan Gidwani Consultant Director, TEXUB

QUALYS INTRODUCES TOTALCLOUD WITH FLEXSCAN DELIVERING CLOUD-NATIVE VMDR

struggle with managing cyber risk across cloud workloads, services, resources, users, and applications.

“Qualys is enhancing its widely used platform to deliver visibility, context, speed, automation, and orchestration in a comprehensive solution to help organizations scale their security and compliance programs for modern software development,” said Melinda Marks, senior analyst at ESG. ”

Qualys is announcing TotalCloud with FlexScan delivering cloud-native VMDR with Six Sigma Accuracy via agent and agent-less scanning for comprehensive coverage of cloud-native posture management and workload security across multi-cloud and hybrid environments.

As business applications and on-premises infrastructure migrate to the cloud, security teams

“As a finance organization, we need a continuous view of the security and compliance posture across our cloud applications, with clear insights into risk,” said Prabhuram Rajarathinam, CISO at Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company. With more than 31 million workloads already secured by Qualys, Qualys TotalCloud extends the industry-leading accuracy of VMDR with cloud-native FlexScan assessments to unify Cloud Posture Management and Cloud Workload Security in a single view with risk insights. TotalCloud automates inventory, assessment, prioritization, and risk remediation via an easy-to-use drag-and-drop workflow engine for continuous and zero-touch security from code to production cloud applications.

VEEAM ANNOUNCES VEEAM BACKUP FOR SALESFORCE ON SALESFORCE APPEXCHANGE

Veeam

VEEAM BACKUP FOR SALESFORCE

This new solution from Veeam — a market leader in Modern Data Protection — enables organizations to deploy a backup environment either on-premises or in the cloud, providing access and control of Salesforce data and metadata. It also provides powerful, rapidrecovery capabilities for IT departments and Salesforce administrators, including granular and bulk data recovery of Salesforce records, hierarchies, fields, files, and metadata. This new offering builds on the success of Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365, extending Veeam’s enterprise-grade platform to another industry-leading SaaS environment.

Whether a mistake with a script, data loader or an integration issue, the simple and easy-to-use user interface (UI) of Veeam Backup for Salesforce helps users resolve issues and retrieve data in just a few clicks — without executing additional backups, running long, full-backup comparisons or causing duplicates.

KEY CAPABILITIES OF VEEAM BACKUP FOR SALESFORCE INCLUDE:

• Salesforce native: Purpose-built to create backups and restore Salesforce data and metadata

• Fast and flexible recovery: Restore Salesforce records, hierarchies, fields, files, and metadata

• Secure data: Run a backup environment anywhere — on-premises or in the cloud (AWS, Azure, etc.)

• Custom scheduling: Set granular backup schedules and retention settings at the object level

• Simplified management: Manage several Salesforce instances from one console

• Incremental changes: Continuously create backups with incremental sync and flexible scheduling for Salesforce data

• Simple and easy-to-use UI: Run backup policies and restore jobs in minutes

• See and compare: See versions of records and metadata and quickly compare with production

• Restore hierarchy: Granularly restore linked objects to any record, including parent/child records

“With so many companies’ employees now working in a hybrid model, protecting cloud and SaaS data is more important than ever,” said Danny Allan, CTO and senior vice president of Product Strategy at Veeam. “In fact, Veeam Salesforce Protection Trends Report 2022 showed that 97% of respondents understand the criticality and need to protect top SaaS applications like Salesforce and Microsoft 365 data, yet backup of these applications has historically been the most overlooked by IT, resulting in vulnerabilities, security risks, data loss and corruption. In truth, there is a shared responsibility between any cloud application and the business using SaaS applications — but it is the company’s responsibility to be in control of their data. With our new Veeam Backup for Salesforce, we’re ready to support our customers and partners to ensure their business is reliably protected with intelligent backup powered by Salesforce APIs.”

Danny Allan CTO & Senior VP, Product Strategy Veeam

Software has launched the NEW Veeam Backup for Salesforce on Salesforce AppExchange which eliminates the risk of losing Salesforce data and metadata due to human error, integration issues and other data loss scenarios.

MIMECAST DISCUSSES THE LATEST SOLUTION AND ITS TRAINING PROGRAMS

Mimecast provides email management services and software. The Company offers enterprise cloud services for the security, archiving, and management of email, and corporate humangenerated data, as well as cloud-based email delivery, backup, security, and archiving solutions. The Integrator engages with Werno Gevers, the cybersecurity expert at Mimecast.

infrastructure that powers the Mimecast Product Suite. It allows customers to grow securely and seamlessly and uncover user insights that can accelerate detection and response.

Mimecast X1 Data Analytics, is built with one primary goal in mind: making information actionable for customers. It provides a platform for ingesting, correlating, and querying the mass volumes of data that Mimecast generates.

chains, an unmatched portfolio of open APIs and pre-built integrations, as well as effective awareness training that helps employees make fewer risky mistakes.

In the face of increased ransomware and cyberattacks, what types of businesses is Mimecast targeting? SMEs or large companies?

What is the latest solution that Mimecast is offering to businesses in this region?

The Mimecast X1 Platform was launched in August and is the foundation of the Mimecast Product Suite. Powering fully integrated services that deliver industry-leading protection for communications, people, and data, it makes information actionable and provides the reliability, resilience, and scale that the modern threat landscape demands.

The Mimecast X1 Platform underpins four core innovations designed to mitigate risk and manage complexities, namely:

Mimecast X1 Precision Detection, which is engineered to apply the latest advancements in AI and machine learning to enable the intelligent detection of emerging and unknown threat types. It delivers advanced protection for the top attack vector – email.

Mimecast X1 Service Fabric, which is the cloud-native

Mimecast Extensible Security Hooks (MESH), provides an API gateway that enables third-party integrations of all kinds, delivering full extensibility and allowing threat data, policies, and practices to be applied or shared programmatically with other security and data solutions.

What makes Mimecast's Email Security Solution the best in the industry, and how different is it from other providers of the same? Email is the open door through which nearly all vital business communication flows — and the threat vector through which virtually all cyberattacks begin. Email security must protect organizations against all the email attacks criminals have honed.

Mimecast's best-in-class email security helps organizations protect their email communication by offering state-of-the-art Targeted Threat Protection, proactive safeguards for company brands and their supply

The Mimecast product suite is designed to help organizations solve their cybersecurity and business challenges, with a plan that fits any organization’s needs. While some of our plans - such as our Cloud Gateway plan - are designed for companies with a minimum of 100 users, smaller organizations are able to access a configuration plan that suits their needs.

What is so unique about Mimecast’s security awareness training programs?

Avoidable human error contributes to 90% of all cybersecurity breaches. No security strategy can succeed if it doesn’t help human beings make good choices when it matters most. That’s why Mimecast reinvented awareness training from the ground up using insights from real educators to ensure employees make good choices when it matters most. Mimecast Security Awareness Training offers a fun, quick, and ongoing way to equip employees with the knowledge to avoid costly mistakes and strengthen the human firewall.

Werno Gevers Cybersecurity Expert, Mimecast

PFU (EMEA) LIMITED, PRESENTS PAPERSTREAM CAPTURE PRO APPLICATION

What is your main product to showcase at GITEX?

We are showcasing our capture imaging solutions from our hardware and software; including ScanSnap and fi-Series scanners and PaperStream Capture Pro application.

How is the response from the customers?

The response from the customers has been excellent. This GITEX has given us an opportunity to engage with partners in some instances that we have not seen for over 2 years. Partners have flown to Dubai from across the GCC, and it has been wonderful to be able to shake hands, meet those partners and look into their eyes while talking about our award-winning capture application solutions.

How do you penetrate your UAE customers?

We operate a strictly 2-tier distribution channel. We sell our products to our distribution partners in the Middle East, and they in turn sell them to reseller partners across the whole GCC. We offer many local micro events in the region from Jeddah to Riyadh to Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait.

What is the latest technology that you have presented on the market?

We have now got our ScanSnap products available in Arabic which we were excited to showcase, as well as our latest fi Series product range, the fi-8000 Series.

Which country in the Middle East is playing its cards wisely in terms of business?

We are currently the market leader, globally we have got a 36% market share. A market that we are seeing going through a radical change in Saudi Arabia, and we are

noticing huge opportunities in this country. We have had a footprint in Saudi Arabia for the last 25 years and our intention over the coming months is to recruit more people here in the Middle East.

What are your plans outside the region, such as in Africa?

We have been in sub-Saharan Africa for the last 16 years. We have had our presence in South Africa for almost 25 years. The growth in Africa is certainly strong. There is a lot of focus on the African market right now. We equally hold as many activities as possible and events in subSahara Africa. There are education partners showcasing our technology, and demonstrating to distributors the capabilities of our product, so we are treating both regions equally and putting in balanced investments.

How will the technology of scanners evolve in the next five years?

I think we have seen a great transition in our industry. Nowadays, paper is already digitalized; we are seeing a shift and increased volume of workgroup scanners, which are smaller, more compact, and portable. We see banks utilizing them at the front end and customers facing the back end. Most recently we launched Clear Image Capture technology, a truly groundbreaking technology in our industry that is bound to set the bar high for capture. Clear Image Capture is a breakthrough proprietary optical technology innovation debuting in the Fujitsu fi-8000 series. True image rendering and color shift prevention deliver industry-leading OCR accuracy rates and image quality that surpasses the capabilities of standard CIS or CCD alone.

PFU (EMEA) Limited, a RICOH Company, is a specialist company dedicated to information management solutions. Adrian Cafferkey, Regional Head – Middle East & Africa, PFU EMEA, explains the need, features, and the success of the PaperStream Capture Pro Application in an interview with The Integrator.

Adrian Cafferkey Regional Head – MEA, PFU EMEA

Blue carbon deploys emerging strategies in the context of country decarbonization using only methodologies that focus on compliance markets. The Integrator had an exclusive interview with Mrs Josiane Sadaka, CEO, Blue Carbon

Tell us about your company and what are your plans of expansion in the year 2023?

Blue Carbon is an organization incepted under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, which was formed to create environmental assets, naturebased solutions and register carbon removal projects under eligible methodologies. The company works not only on blue carbon projects, but green carbon projects as well.

2023 will be an exciting year for us. We aim to expand our cooperation and accelerate our efforts to lead the global transition for a de-carbonized economy using bilateral agreements. Our key goal is to develop “blue carbon” strategies in national and international frameworks (Identify gaps and opportunities, Identifying problems and courses of action, climate strategy planning documents, etc.) Most importantly, we aim to establish funding mechanisms for Blue Carbon conservation and restoration projects and create forest conservation and deforestation strategies (syntropic agroforestry, native forest conservation). We are also looking to curate and develop sustainable capacity building activities and have an active involvement in COP-28 preparation

Josiane Sadaka CEO, Blue Carbon

with meaningful contribution mandated by UAE government through global initiatives and cooperations

How well is the Middle East market prepared for the projects of blue carbon?

The UAE occupies a leading position with its sustainability efforts. During the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, the UAE announced its ambition to plant 100 million mangrove seedlings by 2030, significantly increasing the target of 30 million seedlings set in 2020. This saw light in 2022, when the UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment during COP27 announced the launch of the Mangrove Alliance for Climate. The initiative seeks to scale up and accelerate the conservation and restoration of mangrove ecosystems for the benefit of communities worldwide. Mangroves are the most visible Blue Carbon ecosystem, occupying some 68 square kilometres along the UAE coast. Less visible, and beneath the waterline, UAE hosts one of the world’s most expansive complex of seagrass meadows, supporting the second largest population of dugongs found anywhere

Also, as a part of its efforts to improve implementation of insite conservation and to build a network of protected areas between 2021 and 2025, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi targets the inclusion of a minimum of 20% of marine Blue Carbon habitats within Protected Areas. That’s not all, The National Climate Change Plan of the United Arab Emirates 2017-2050 considers enhanced mitigation and adaptation co-benefits through carbon sequestration from coastal and marine vegetation (blue carbon), all highlighting that the Middle East, and the UAE are well positioned for blue carbon projects.

Do we expect any bilateral agreements initiated by Blue Carbon to be signed soon with

the government and private companies?

Blue Carbon has already initiated bilateral agreements in 2022, and the New Year will see more such agreements take shape. While the UAE and Middle East will be the key focus areas for these associations, we also aim to have agreements in place in Africa, Oceania, South America, and other continents.

One of the most recent and important bilateral agreement is the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science & Technology and Sports, representing the government of Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Following the series of governmental bans and moratoriums imposed on carbon projects in Papua New Guinea (PNG), the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science & Technology and Sports, representing the government of PNG has now entrusted its carbon regulation framework to Blue Carbon.

communities, and individuals are turning to nature-based solutions –mainly trees and marine ecosystems. Research indicates that the world will require an estimated average of USD 5 trillion a year until 2050 of climate-related investments to reach net-zero goals. Given the enormous challenge before us, governments have been ramping up their climate action programs while businesses have been intensifying their netzero commitments.

Studies suggest that more than 30 percent of the cost-effective tools to address climate change by 2030 can be found in these nature-based solutions. This has led the focus to tree planting, a nature-based solution. Global effort is shaping up to bring awareness and a few businesses are working directly with local governments and communities around the world to leverage nature’s inherent genius.

During a high-level meet at

The agreement is in line with the Ministry’s complete confidence in Blue Carbon’s esteemed stature in designing and developing frameworks for regulated carbon projects, as well as Dubai’s gained credence in the legitimate carbon community.

Is there a growing interest among businesses in implementing nature-based solutions and environmental protection and blue carbon projects that can enable a de-carbonized economy?

Yes, In the never-ending quest to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, businesses, governments,

COP27, a collaboration agreement was signed between the UAE and Emirates Nature-WWF. The collaboration showcases the UAE’s commitment to scaling up Naturebased Solutions (NbS) as a key pillar to tackling climate change and nature loss in the lead-up to COP28 to be held in the country next year. By enhancing and restoring highly productive and valuable coastal ecosystems – including mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrass habitats – partners aim to highlight how working with nature can benefit people, nature and climate and make a significant contribution to the UAE’s Net-Zero 2050 Strategy.

"Our key goal is to develop "Blue Carbon" strategies in national and international framework."

Bilal Baig Technical Director for MEA, Trend Micro

TREND MICRO ON EVOLVING THREAT LANDSCAPE AND ITS FUTURE ITERATIONS

Trend Micro is a cybersecurity service provider. The company develops and markets internet and computer content security and threat management solutions. Bilal Baig, Technical Director for Middle East and Africa, discusses Trend Micro's approach to their partners, customers, and latest technological capabilities.

How is Trend Micro focusing on cybersecurity for IoT?

Trend Micro has various solutions and segments. One of these segments is IoT and ICS security. We also have a dedicated line of products to support this particular segment. We cover everything related to ICS and IoT, from sensors to aggregate-built IPS systems. Additionally, at the back end, we have an IoT reputation service. For example, plug in your smart fridge, and it starts to communicate outside the network and tries to download malicious content. Our smart protection network (the Trend Micro back-end for reputation) can see that and manage the traffic to block malicious content.

What are the highlights for Trend Micro in 2022 and 2023? Globally, we have been in the market for more than 25 years and have several strategic alliances worldwide. In particular, we will work with the ICS vendors to build more partnerships. On the other side, we focus on AWS and Azure on the cloud, a significant segment of our alliances. We have dedicated teams working on that and consistently improving upon it.

What products and solutions will you be showcasing at GITEX 2022?

Our portfolio is divided into four parts. We have a portfolio called Trend Micro Workforce One, which covers everything to do with enterprise users and connects everyday workforces.

Trend Micro Cloud One also protects everything

on the cloud, including hybrid cloud, cloud-native applications, and cloud-born companies designing their apps. We are providing security for cloud-based operations through Cloud One.

Our third portfolio is our Trend Micro Network One, which has everything to do with protecting an organization's network against threats from within and outside of its digital environments. So, we have the sandboxing, either on the cloud or on the IPS. All these portfolios are either cloud-based, SaaS-based or, as mentioned, on-premises.

The great thing about this is that we have Trend Micro Vision One, which gets all the Telemetry data from all these solutions into one console. We talked about EPP, which evolved to EDR, and EDR evolved into XDR. Now, we are talking about attack surface management and risks. What is the chance of a particular organization, and what is the attack surface? Well, it does not matter where you are and if you are working outside or within a corporate environment; we can analyze a company's attack surface.

The other aspect we highlight is how most companies are moving towards Software-as-a-Service capabilities or manage detection response. Moreover, this year at GITEX, we brought in specialized ICS modules. It shows the full industry-based attack simulation in a box with a real-time demo environment offering how the attacks happen.

Trend Micro is always one step ahead and ensures that the products and services we introduce provide protection and visibility to our customers.

WSO2 SHOWCASES MULTIPLE SOLUTIONS FOR CLIENTS AND PARTNERS AT GITEX

WSO2, a global leader in Digital Transformation solutions and services, helps digitally driven organizations become integration agile. Uday Shankar Kizhepat, Vice President and GM – MEA, discusses the layers of security solutions that they provide and how they differentiate from competitors.

What solutions are you showcasing at GITEX 2022?

WSO2 has been a technology partner to enterprises that build digital experiences for their customers, partners, and employees. Our platform, which consists of our API manager, Enterprise Integrator, and Identity Management, helps customers create these experiences.

We have multiple models for the delivery of these solutions—on-premises, private cloud, and so on. At GITEX 2022, we're launching our SaaS offerings to the market. These include Choreo, a digital platform that helps clients create digital experiences quicker and more efficiently, and Asgardeo, which is our identity as a service that helps access these experiences seamlessly.

What differentiates WSO2 from other SaaS providers?

Our foundation has been open source, which frees customers from vendor lock-in. Secondly, we give our customers flexibility to deploy as per their preferred model. They can use our solutions on-premises, in a private cloud (especially for government customers), or via the SaaS model (for those companies that want to establish things at great speed and scale). Thirdly, we have the entire "digital core". Our customers create APIs that need to be managed, and this is done through our API manager; we have our Enterprise Integrator, who helps to connect to multiple applications and systems; and finally, we have our Identity Access Management layer. None of our competitors has such a comprehensive suite.

Does WSO2's solution focus on any particular vertical in this region?

The software tools that we have cut across different verticals. Our platform is a horizontal layer, but having said that, we have accelerators for certain verticals. We have an open banking solution for the BFSI sector. For example, central banks are today mandating open banking standards. So, we have a verticalized solution built on our platform that helps our customers advance at a rapid pace.

Similarly, with healthcare, we have an accelerator that adheres to the highest industry standards for that sector. These are the two current vertical-specific solutions built on our platform. For us, it comes down to which industries are mandating open standards.

When a business approaches you and asks for complete SaaS support, what does that journey look like?

Companies today are like software companies that need to build digital experiences to create differentiation. WSO2 helps customers deploy in multiple ways. We understand that hybrid models are the preference today – customers will have some solutions on-premise and others in the cloud. So, if they have an infrastructure that's already set up, we can deploy our solution in that environment.

How do you operate in this market? Describe your partner's ecosystem and program.

Our model is highly channel-centric and, currently, over 60% of our business is transacted through our channel. We don't believe in having a huge sales force on the ground, and so we trust our partners to connect us to their customers.

We also have enablement programs for both our partners and our customers. We have various criteria in terms of certifications that our partners need to qualify with.

Uday Shankar Kizhepat Vice President and GM – MEA WSO2

GENESYS SHOWCASES CLOUD ADVANCEMENTS AT GITEX 2022

Genesys is a software company that sells customer experience and call centre technology to midsized and large businesses. It provides both cloudbased and hybrid cloud software. The organization offers internet and telephony-based interactions, network routing, outbound dialling, and workforce management solutions. The Integrator engages with Evren Aker, Director of Partnerships, Genesys, Middle East, Africa, Turkey & France, to discuss the company's future endeavours and its presence in the region.

a product, Journey Analytics can learn the user’s digital footprint; thereby, it can track them and provide them with the best service.

What alliances are you for in the region, and what are your previous partnerships?

What services do you provide in this region?

We are a cloud-based software company, so we bring the power of AI, machine learning, and its functionalities. We touch people's lives in many ways - from buying an excellent online product to its servicing and support. Companies might want automation in their processes. At Genesys, we allow organizations to provide seamless customer experiences. We connect people with companies. In this case, for example, we provide endto-end software solutions, support services, sales, and polling for message appointment bookings.

What new solutions have you brought at GITEX 2022?

We have five different focus areas at GITEX. Each of them focuses on various verticals. We mainly focus on the government sector, healthcare, airlines, and other industries. Along with that, the new innovation we launched was the core functionality of our flagship offering Genesys Cloud - Journey Analytics. Journey analytics is not just about online selling, it’s about understanding the customer’s journey and needs. When a consumer visits a Kiosk or enters a pharmacy to buy

AWS is our core strategic alliance in the region. However, if our customer has other products or functions, we will engage with them. But our core relies on AWS infrastructure as a platform. Apart from that, we have seven different partners that complement our solutions. They are the system integrators, the technology providers, GSIs, or BPOs. Moreover, we also have strategic alliances with Adobe and many others.

What is the response from the MENA region about cyber security? Is the region cybersecurity ready?

Cybersecurity is a trending topic. Residing in a public cloud gives us core security. However, some customers require that their security platforms be integrated, which is where we also support them. We provide our customers with secure infrastructure and secure data. Regionally, we experience great buying from the region, from UAE in particular. We meet customers where they are and localize our offerings and solutions.

Any particular message that you would like to convey to our audiences?

We are a software company and are very much focused on AI, Journey Analytics, people conversations, and AI conversations. This way we let companies understand their customers and serve them better. We aim to continue to power customer experiences for companies all over the world.

Evren Aker Director of Partnerships, Genesys, META & France

PALO ALTO NETWORKS: THE TRUSTED CYBERSECURITY PROVIDER FOR ENTERPRISES

Palo Alto Networks is the world’s cybersecurity leader. We innovate to outpace cyberthreats, so organizations can embrace technology with confidence. We provide next-gen cybersecurity to thousands of customers globally, across all sectors. Our best-in-class cybersecurity platforms and services are backed by industry-leading threat intelligence and strengthened by state-of-theart automation. The Integrator interviews Haider Pasha, Head of CSO Team, Palo Alto Networks EMEA & LATAM, at GITEX 2022.

What latest solutions are you showcasing at GITEX 2022?

As one of the leading cybersecurity organizations around the globe, our key focus is based on three key platforms; Strata, Prisma and Cortex. For Strata, the evolution of the Next Gen Firewall is a critical aspect of how an organization can achieve one of the most common goals that they have which is consolidation. What we are doing with it specifically in the Next Gen firewall is we have taken eight or nine different types of tools and combined them under one device to unify that particular piece. We have now started offering services; one of the critical services we are offering is Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), which secures the hybrid workforce with Zero Trust Network Access 2.0, while providing an exceptional user experience.

Prisma is focused on securing the cloud journey, and the key innovation here is Prisma Cloud and which enables our customers to achieve cloud compliance, detect and prevent vulnerabilities, and secure running applications with the industry’s only comprehensive cloud-native security platform. Cortex is reshaping the way the Security Operations Center will be designed, where we are addressing critical challenges that customers have specific to the Middle East region. Customers can safeguard their organization with proven endpoint security, detection, response, automation, and attached surface management. We are also in the process of launching the Extended Security Intelligence and Automation Management (XSIAM).

Brief us on Palo Alto Networks being the trusted partner for enterprises in their digital transformation journey. There is a massive digitization drive from the government to the private sector, and there can be no digitization without cybersecurity, so we are at the heart of the discussion regarding any digital program. CIOs, CISOs, and Boards of Directors now view cybersecurity as a business enabler, and ultimately we are supporting CIOs and CISOs on a long-term strategic journey where they can enable their businesses with new technology while keeping their infrastructure and data safe and secure. From our perspective, businesses need to focus on visibility for effective digitization. It is important to identify the most important information that each organization needs to protect and identify any gaps. The second step is to leverage the threat intelligence that’s available from the data you're gathering. At Palo Alto Networks we concentrate on identifying and addressing the long-term cybersecurity challenges so that our customers can transform their businesses securely with new technologies.

Haider Pasha

Head of CSO Team, Palo Alto Networks EMEA & LATAM

STRATEGIES TO AVOID CYBERSECURITY BURNOUT

By: Adrian Taylor, Regional VP of Sales at A10 Networks

countless network security threats they will be facing in the near future:

1. CREATE A “SECURITY-FIRST” CULTURE

The problem for CSOs is that, while most employees have some basic knowledge of cybersecurity best practices, which is all they have. Without ongoing training, knowledge testing and awareness, staff behaviour is one of the biggest cybersecurity risks that organisations face.

A study by Accenture revealed that less than half of new employees receive cybersecurity training and regular updates throughout their career.

Organisations must look to create a robust and distributed digital immune system with a radical re-engineering of staff behaviour.

four components:

• Network traffic control: Engineering networks to have micro-segments and microperimeters ensures that network traffic flow is restricted and limits the impact of overly broad user privileges and access. The goal is to allow only as much network access to services as is needed to get the job done.

• Instrumentation: The ability to monitor network traffic in-depth along with comprehensive analytics and response automation provides fast and effective incident detection.

CSOs, CIOs and CISOs have never had it so tough. Alongside their traditional responsibilities, they must now face a cybersecurity threat environment that is growing exponentially, and a growing cyberskills gap. As a result, many of them are reporting burnout.

Today, ransomware has become one of the greatest network security threats organisations have to deal with. As per the findings of the 2022 IBM Security X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region was ranked fourth worldwide for the most ransomware attacks. According to a report by Group-IB, between Q1 2021 and Q1 2022, the data belonging to 147 companies from the MEA region was uploaded on ransomware dedicated leak sites (DLS). And this is only one of the many threats that organisations must deal with.

Here are four strategies to make cybersecurity professionals’ organisations safer from the

2. CREATE A CONTINUOUS SECURITY EDUCATION PROGRAM

A “security-first” culture requires that all members of the culture appreciate the concept of network security threats. For this to actually have an impact on culture, however, staff must be trained routinely to ensure that their knowledge is current.

3. IMPLEMENT A ZERO-TRUST MODEL THROUGHOUT THE BUSINESS

Well-trained staff and a monitored environment are crucial to the successful protection of any organisation but without a foundational Zero Trust environment, defences will be intrinsically weak.

The Zero Trust model is a strategy for preventing network security threats that all enterprises and governments should be using to defend their networks. It consists of

• Multi-vendor network integration: Real networks aren’t limited to a single vendor. Even if they could be, additional tools are still needed to provide the features that a single vendor won’t provide. The goal is to get all of the multivendor network components working together as seamlessly as possible to enable compliance and unified cybersecurity.

• Monitoring: Ensure comprehensive and centralised visibility into users, devices, data, the network, and workflows. This also includes visibility into all encrypted channels.

At its core, the Zero Trust model is based on not trusting anyone or anything on the company.

4. ESTABLISH AND TEST DISASTER RECOVERY PLANS

A key part of a disaster recovery plan involves backups. However, it is surprising how often restoring from backup systems in real-world situations doesn’t perform as expected.

CSOs should plan the order in which backed-up resources will be recovered, know what the start-up window will be, and test backups as a routine task with specific validation checks to ensure that a recovery is possible.

Adrian Taylor Regional VP of Sales, A10 Networks

PROOFPOINT ON HOW TO COUNTER THE EVOLVING THREAT LANDSCAPE IN THE CYBER WORLD

Proofpoint, Inc. is a leading cybersecurity and compliance company that protects organizations’ greatest assets and biggest risks: their people. With an integrated suite of cloud-based solutions, Proofpoint helps companies around the world stop targeted threats, safeguard their data, and make their users more resilient against cyber-attacks. Leading organizations of all sizes, including 75 percent of the Fortune 100, rely on Proofpoint for people-centric security and compliance solutions that mitigate their most critical risks across email, the cloud, social media, and the web. The Integrator interviews Adenike Cosgrove, VP, Marketing, EMEA, at GITEX 2022.

content, threat, and behavior insights and gives a people-centric approach to data loss prevention (DLP).

Proofpoint Cloud Security: Provides secure access to the web and cloud services with access control, threat protection, data security, security monitoring, and acceptable-use control.

sit before the mail server, threat intelligence, and sandbox security. We also have threat analysts, leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence to determine the nature of the email.

What solutions are you providing, and what are you showcasing at GITEX 2022?

Protecting people is at the heart of what we do at Proofpoint. We are mainly into three things, which we are showcasing here. With an integrated suite of cloud-based solutions, we provide unique visibility into an organization’s most targeted employees and how and where they are accessing critical data.

We are showcasing our portfolio of people-centric cybersecurity solutions.These include:

Proofpoint Information Protection: Information Protection applies security solutions and other technologies, as well as processes and policies, to secure your information. Organizations get data protection against accidental mistakes, attacks, and insider risk across their cloud services, email, endpoint, cloud apps, web, on-premises, and shared cloud repositories. It brings together

Proofpoint Email Protection: Proofpoint Email Protection is the industry-leading email gateway, which can be deployed as a cloud service or on-premises.

Proofpoint Security Awareness Training: Attackers target people more directly than ever, and 95% of all cybersecurity issues can be traced back to human error. Ensure your users know what to do when faced with a real threat by providing them with targeted, threat-guided education.

What layer of protection does Proofpoint provide to its client regarding protecting and securing their data from cyber-attacks?

At Proofpoint, we provide our customers with a layered approach. Over the years, we have found that our clients increasingly want the flexibility of choice to integrate into their operations. We, therefore, provide a suite of services such as UI, an agent that gives one assault team visibility into all the threats targeting the organization and specifically its people, email security controls that

What sort of partner relationship do you have? How do you choose partners?

Partnerships are critical to us. We are a 100% channel organization, so we access markets through partners. Ultimately, we are looking to expand within the UAE and into Saudi Arabia as well. in the region and have been delivering.

Do these companies emphasize training their employees as much as the need for data protection and security?

One of the most significant changes we are witnessing is that more companies recognize the importance of training their employees.

With employees, it goes beyond raising awareness about security risks – it is about understanding their behavioral changes and ensuring you can measure them. As security professionals, we must ensure that employees can click securely and safely. Security awareness and training ensure that we identify the people that are vulnerable, understand how they work, and reinforce tailored security measures.

Adenike Cosgrove VP, Marketing EMEA, Proofpoint

ICEWARP COMMITTED TO STRENGTHENING ITS PRESENCE IN THE MEA REGION

IceWarp has been a global leader in developing email communication and collaboration solutions since 2001, with its headquarters situated in Prague. IceWarp has completely changed the way teams share information online and optimize business processes. It does this by providing a streamlined and seamless all-in-one collaboration platform that makes it easy for teams to work together on projects. The solution provides users with a brand-new set of apps that come complete with real-time collaboration tools, easy sharing options, and virtual office functions integrated into their email. This way, everything they need is available under a single login - Email, TeamChat, and Storage. The Integrator interviews Pramod Sharda, CEO, of IceWarp Middle East & India, at GITEX 2022.

How was your experience at the GITEX 2022? It was a great experience, and we are delighted to share that many people came to the booth. We had a lot of demos and showcased our new version of the IceWarp Email Collaboration Solution, so it was essential for us to be here. I'm delighted with how things went down here at GITEX 2022. We increased our presence and showed people what IceWarp could do. So, we're thrilled with how things turned out, and we will be making many new connections with our contacts here.

You are highlighting yourself as an alternative to Google Workspace and Microsoft Outlook across markets; how do you see that playing out in the coming years?

At IceWarp, our enterprise email and collaboration tools are the perfect solutions for businesses looking to improve productivity and efficiency in their workflows. Our unique trifecta of robust functionality, ease of use, and affordability make us a compelling choice. In every market, we have the same level of competition. This makes learning about the market and advancing our technologies much simpler.

We know what technology to use and are familiar with the typical requirements. Our differentiators help set us apart; right now, they're more important than ever in replicating success in every market.

What are your expansion plans in the Middle East? We intend to open an office in Riyadh soon and are also looking to explore the potential markets in Egypt. We see fantastic potential in these two countries because IceWarp is a local cloud provider that offers enterprise email collaboration solutions. We want to strengthen our presence in Dubai and Saudi Arabia to reach more Middle Eastern countries. One of our goals remains to provide security-focused services within this region, including those offered online and on-site at customer locations. Our cloud platform solution provides storage space for organizations, distribution centers, and data center managers. That complies with Icewarp's mission to help secure data, provide quality service, set new collaboration standards, and deliver it all through one solution.

Pramod Sharda CEO, ME & India, IceWarp

SEAGATE REITERATES ITS COMMITMENT TO THE UAE’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY

rolling out a program that will aim to collect broken hard drives and recycle them, so they can use the materials to create new hard drives that require over 100 elements. So, rather than going to landfill, they plan to tap into the circular economy, while also providing their customers with monetary incentives.

To add to their lineup of exciting solutions, Seagate is also working on bringing new technology for hard disk drives to market, in the hopes to revolutionize data storage within the span of the next few years.

Using Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology, which uses light to heat and expand the media like a rubber band, instead of 20 and 22 terabyte drives, they will be able to produce 30, 40, 50, 60, or 70 terabyte drives without increasing the physical size of the hard disks and can plug into your existing systems in the same way.

As a global leader in high-capacity storage solutions, Seagate is actively investing in UAE, one of the largest markets in the Middle East. Closely aligned with UAE’s Vision 2030 –, Seagate has placed key importance on the development of smart cities, to help meet the demand of cities that are increasingly coming to rely on an infrastructure of data. Seagate sees ample opportunity to support the growth of sustainable, smart city projects, which are already driving demand for storage systems.

Data Storage Systems are part of Seagate’s incountry flagship offering, which is intended to aid the UAE's aspirations to turn into a digital nation as a part of the country’s Strategy for Artificial Intelligence. With the largest storage and data transfer capacities on the market, Seagate's JBOB and SAN choices enable users to record data from tens of thousands of cameras to a single location. Using cutting-edge technology like Seagate’s ADAPT help customers install solutions that drastically shorten rebuild times.

To further align with UAE’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Seagate is considering

As the UAE is one of Seagate’s key markets in the region – one of the most important services they provide their customers in the country through their SkyHawk and SkyHawk AI surveillance, is the ability to retrieve data from a Seagate hard disk drive in the case of damage. Whether damaged due to fire, cyber-attack or even if a security camera is deliberately destroyed, customers can now send the drive back to Seagate free of charge, and they will recover all the data.

Seagate is not, however, just a hard disk drive manufacturer; but also takes pride in its Systems Solutions. In fact, they are the home of data storage – where data resides, is analyzed, and is transported to and from. “What I love about the UAE and its vision is that it's forward-looking. The UAE doesn't want to do things as they were 20 years ago. It is asking new questions about how we can do things better. At Seagate, we're looking forward to the future.” Said Jermaine Campbell, EMEA Surveillance Segment Lead at Seagate. He adds, “we are developing new technologies to enable higher capacity, faster, longer retention and even more security, as well as new technologies for rebuilding data. So, our products today can easily meet the demands of new technology in the future. There's a lot of alignment between the Kingdom's Vision and how Seagate manages its roadmap.”

Jermaine Campbell

EMEA Surveillance Segment Lead, Seagate

FORTIGUARD LABS CONTRIBUTES TO INTERPOL MULTINATIONAL CYBERCRIME SUPPRESSION OPERATION IN AFRICA

Sharing threat intelligence and working with other threat intelligence organizations improves protections for customers and enhances the effectiveness of the entire cybersecurity industry.

Supporting the Africa Cyber Surge Operation

Recently, FortiGuard Labs provided evidentiary support to INTERPOL and African Member countries as part of the Africa Cyber Surge Operation (ASCO) to help detect, investigate, and disrupt cybercrime through coordinated law enforcement activities, utilizing INTERPOL platforms, tools, and channels in close cooperation with AFRIPOL.

The ACSO is a multinational cybercrime suppression operation focused on identifying cybercriminals and compromised infrastructure in the African region. The INTERPOL Cybercrime Directorate and INTERPOL Support Program for the African Union (ISPA) collaborated with AFRIPOL and 27 INTERPOL member countries to leverage this intelligence and combat the growing threat of cybercrime across the continent.

The successful Cyber Surge operation and transfer of knowledge to multiple law enforcement agencies in the African region is the result of continued threat information sharing and trusted cooperation between INTERPOL, FortiGuard Labs, and other INTERPOL private partners.

FortiGuard Labs provided actionable threat intelligence over a six-month period, which consisted of botnet, command and control (C2), and malware infrastructure research, including C2 and malware and botnet victims located within the African continent.

“The Africa Cyber Surge Operation, launched in July 2022, has brought together law enforcement officials from 27 countries, working together for almost four months on actionable intelligence provided by INTERPOL private partners,” Craig Jones, Director of the Cybercrime Directorate with INTERPOL comments. “This intelligence focused on opportunities to prevent, detect, investigate and disrupt cybercrime through coordinated LE activities utilizing INTERPOL platforms, tools, and channels. This operation focused both on cybercriminals and compromised network infrastructure in Africa, allowing member countries to identify more than 1,000 malicious IP addresses, dark web markets, and individual threat actors, enhancing cooperation between INTERPOL, AFRIPOL and the member countries, and contributing to connecting policing for a safer world.”

“The Africa Cyber Surge Operation is a shining example of how shared threat intelligence on threat actors and joint operations across trusted partners can increase the cyber resilience of an entire region,” highlights Derek Manky, Chief Security Strategist &

VP Global Threat Intelligence, FortiGuard Labs. “It also shows how valuable cybersecurity training and education is to help close the cyber skills gap and effectively disrupt cybercrime at scale. We will continue to work with our private and public sector partners such as INTERPOL around the world to help make our digital world a safer place.”

For more than a decade, FortiGuard Labs has helped inform and protect customers, partners, and governments around the world. As a leader in the threat intelligence community, its mission is to provide the best threat intelligence designed to protect customers from malicious activity and sophisticated cyberattacks. The team is composed of some of the most knowledgeable threat hunters, researchers, analysts, engineers, and data scientists in the industry, working in dedicated threat research labs all around the world.

Fortinet has been an active member of the Global Cybercrime Expert Group and trusted partner to INTERPOL dating back to 2015 and became an INTERPOL Gateway partner in 2018. This ongoing collaboration has resulted in greater threat intelligence standards and protocols across the industry as well as impactful global cybercriminal takedowns.

Derek Manky Chief Security Strategist & VP Global Threat Intelligence, FortiGuard Labs.

NETAPP 2023 TRENDS AND TECHNOLOGY PREDICTIONS

By: Matt Watts, Chief Evangelist at NetApp

talent and be willing to provide the team members with the training they need.

SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability will only become more important to IT buyers. Vendors will have to work harder to increase energy efficiency with their facilities and on-premises equipment and provide improved methods for data categorization that enable buyers to look across their entire data estates and tier data. When we consider that 68% of data is used once and then never again, we can see how moving this unused data to the cloud, where it can be tiered and moved to cold storage, is beneficial for the planet.

CYBER RESILIENCE AND DATA PROTECTIONS

Businesses and organisations will rely more than ever on IT resources to provide round-the-clock protection and quick recovery for their data. This is because the question is no longer whether they will be attacked, but rather when and how often. Detection, protection and remediation will be the watchwords of cybersecurity in 2023.

Matt Watts Chief Technology Evangelist, NetApp

EVOLVED CLOUD AND MULTICLOUD

The multicloud will increase in importance as more services move from on-premises to the cloud. Cloud adoption will continue to accelerate in 2023 because of supply-chain issues requiring buyers to look beyond on premises hardware to ease procurement challenges. 89% of companies are using multiple clouds to manage IT services, operations, and infrastructure. This seems to be a place some companies have “landed” out of necessity, or even by accident, as they worked to mitigate supply-chain issues by linking to multiple cloud providers who could each help them drive innovation and ensure security, scalability, and flexibility outside their data center.

SKILLS GAP

It’s difficult finding talent that can work skillfully within one cloud. Creating teams skilled in managing multiple clouds becomes a significant challenge and can take extended periods to develop. If employees are only spending time on operations, they can’t innovate. This need will only intensify, and companies will need to become more comfortable in hiring for potential over

QUANTUM HYBRID COMPUTING

Criminals are increasingly sophisticated, and companies need to be equally sophisticated when it comes to their security measures. While this won’t happen overnight, the wheels have been set in motion for quantum to be a threat to encryption on sensitive data. We need to be thinking much, much more carefully about how we protect data today, from simple data theft to more advanced kind of encryption and decryption techniques.

By Walid Issa - Senior Manager, PreSales and

Solutions Engineering - Middle East Region at NetApp.

ENTERPRISE KUBERNETES

As more business-critical and data-rich apps get containerized and run on Kubernetes, they will need a richer set of data services for protection, mobility, compliance, and governance. Stateful applications will become ubiquitous with advanced data management needs, ransomware protection, and disaster tolerance.

MANAGE KUBERNETES – “CLUSTERS AS CATTLE”

A key trend for 2023 and beyond is to create lots of clusters and use tooling to manage 100s – 1000s of clusters at scale. The intention is to transition away from managing “clusters as pets” and using K8s as a true cluster operating system where the “cluster is the computer.”

NAAS: PULLING THE LEVERS TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS

By: Sherifa Hady, Vice President Channel, EMEA at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

as a part of your IT-as-a-service offers is going to be key to your resale success.” Canalys also confirmed that for partners the environmental accountability of IT investments will be one of customers’ top priorities within the next two to three years.

Sherifa Hady VP Channel, EMEA, Aruba

While digital transformation has undoubtably helped businesses gain a competitive edge, increase profitability, and enrich customer experiences across the globe, we cannot ignore technology’s contribution towards the world’s carbon footprint. As climate change continues to dominate conversations amongst businesses and consumers alike, we need to commit to reducing technology’s environmental impact.

Tackling this environmental crisis requires a collaborative effort across the entire technology ecosystem, from vendors to consumers themselves.

From a channel perspective, partners must now play a crucial role in helping their customers navigate sustainability challenges. In fact, with environmental considerations increasingly driving many customers’ tech purchasing decisions, channel analyst Canalys recently stated that for partners, “Being able to position sustainability

But what exactly does a sustainable IT-as-a-service offer look like? Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) is a great place to start. Recent research from Aruba has shown a clear appetite for this new network consumption model amongst end-users across EMEA. Already recognised by potential customers as a key enabler of financial flexibility and business agility, here’s how NaaS can also pull those all-important sustainability levers.

OPTIMIZING ENERGY CONSUMPTION

NaaS provides end-customers with innovative and sustainable networks that they can ‘rent’ from the experts on a subscription basis. By partnering with an experienced NaaS vendor, channel companies can combine their unique understanding of their customer’s business with the vendor’s depth and breadth of product and solution knowledge to provide a network configuration that optimizes energy consumption. To further reduce the customer’s carbon footprint, modern network vendors like Aruba also help deliver greener IT by sourcing electricity from renewables and utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML)-based models to bring down power consumption.

REUSING HARDWARE

Today’s NaaS offerings are increasingly accompanied by IT assed disposition

(ITAD) services, a practice built around reusing, recycling or disposing of unwanted IT equipment in a safe and environmentally responsible way. In fact, 77% of businesses view ITAD assistance and e-waste services as an essential element of a NaaS offer according to IDC.

By factoring asset decommissioning strategies into their NaaS offering, channel partners can enable customers to participate in the circular economy, ensuring the life cycle of products is extended for as long as possible and reducing waste to a minimum.

On top of this, with digital transformation pressures rising, purse strings on IT budgets tightening, and technology lifecycles shortening, organizations can add value back to their business through this model of consumption. Upcycling and remarketing idle equipment can give functional assets a second useful life, and in turn provide money back to the business for customers.

DELIVERING DATA

As sustainability requirements increase, and with the eyes of the world watching, organizations will be challenged to deliver more sustainability and environmental reporting than ever before. But with networking skills a scarce resource and existing IT teams stretched to capacity trying to deliver against the continued demands of digital transformation, help is desperately needed to deliver back the necessary data.

With NaaS, organizations can again buy in this expertise – and rely on their channel partner to provide them with key metrics around power usage, carbon emissions, and end-oflife disposal.

IMPROVING SUSTAINABILITY IN THE DATACENTER

By: Samer Labaky, Manager, Enterprise and Public Sector Accounts, UAE, and Oman at Nutanix

When it comes to provisioning the IT on which all businesses rely, running costs and energy efficiency have long played a significant role in the decision-making processes. Recently, however, concerns around global warming and soaring energy costs have moved them to the top of the priority list. This, in turn, is causing CIOs across the board to fundamentally rethink the approach they take, particularly when it comes to the datacentre where huge benefits are to be had on both counts.

THE SIZE OF THE PROBLEM

Estimates vary but according to the International Energy Agency (and others) , datacentres and their associated infrastructures account for around 1% of global energy consumption. In EMEA alone that translates to over 90TWh per year, or enough to satisfy the domestic energy needs of a small country. Moreover, this figure carries with it an environmental impact equivalent to running almost 6 million vehicles.

Big numbers whichever way you look at them and which, in turn, mean that any action to reduce energy consumption would not only save businesses money but have a significant impact when it comes to climate change.

DATACENTRE CHANGE

There are lots of ways of tackling this issue with some organisations, for example, abandoning their onpremises datacentres altogether and moving to the cloud. That, however, doesn’t necessarily save on running costs. Indeed, many businesses find it more expensive compared to running an on-premises datacentre, and with none of the budgetary certainty of an on-premises facility. Neither does it address the climate issues. It just makes them somebody else’s problem.

Of course, the cloud has other benefits besides, but the datacentre looks like it’s here to stay for some time albeit with changes to the operational model to deliver the benefits of cloud computing at a lower cost in terms of energy and emissions. Indeed, that change is already happening with growing numbers moving from traditional 3-tier architectures (servers + storage + networks) towards next generation

models, hyperconverged infrastructures (HCI) which, most analysts, agree is the best and most expedient way of reducing datacentre energy consumption and carbon footprint.

The reason for that assertion is down to the way hyperconverged models work by distributing computing power and storage across low-cost commodity hardware platforms, linking them with software and using virtualisation to provide an easily scaled and managed operational whole. A mature technology with several different HCI platforms available, here are the expected benefits in terms of energy consumption and climate change of switching from 3-tier to HCI models:

Measurable benefits could be achieved across a range of organisations from small businesses through big enterprises to the large scale hyperscalers and managed service providers

In comparison to traditional 3-tier IT platforms, next generation HCI architectures could potentially reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint by up to 27% per year.

Across the EMEA region HCI transformation has the potential to reduce energy consumption by 56.7 TWh and cut emissions by 14.2 million tonnes of CO²e over the period 2022-2025

By 2025 a full changeover to HCI across UK datacentres could potentially save 8.1 TWh of energy and 1.8 million tonnes of CO²e, roughly the same as taking 400,000 cars off the road

Samer Labaky

Managing Enterprise and Public Sector Accounts, UAE, and Oman, Nutanix

VECTRA RESEARCH: ATTACKS USING ENCRYPTION ARE BREACHING 70% OF ORGANIZATIONS

Vectra AI has released a report on “The Evolving role of Network Detection and Response (NDR)”. It highlights why today’s security teams find it increasingly difficult to detect and stop cyber threats targeting their organizations. The research found that 70% of organizations have fallen victim to an attack that used encrypted traffic to avoid detection. Almost half (45%) admitted they’ve fallen victim multiple times. Worryingly, two thirds (66%) still don’t have visibility into all their encrypted traffic, leaving them highly vulnerable to further encrypted attacks.

The report shows that cybersecurity and networking professionals are struggling against rapidly increasing threat detection and response workloads, preventing analysts from dealing with sophisticated threats. Key findings include:

• 45% of cybersecurity and networking professionals feel threat detection and response workloads have increased – 40% citing more resources in the cloud, and 36% more devices on the network

• 37% believe sophistication of threats has increased making it difficult for analysts to spot legitimate attacks

• 69% agree that the lag between exploitation and detection gives attackers too much time to breach a network – with 29% also citing communication issues between SOC and other IT teams

• 23% believe SOC analysts do not have the right level of skills, and one-in-five (18%) believe they’re understaffed – suggesting security analysts are not equipped to deal with the scale of cyberattacks they face

• 60% of SMBs feel threat detection and response is now harder – showing smaller organizations are struggling to keep pace with the evolving cybercrime landscape

“Organizations face a barrage of threats on all fronts — in their network, cloud, and IT environments — while cybercriminals use techniques like encryption to breach firms undetected. What’s more, many

don’t have the skills or staff to deal with increasing security workloads," comments Mark Wojtasiak, VP Product Strategy at Vectra. “To stem the tide against them, security teams need total visibility into their environments, so they can spot the signs of an attack before it becomes a breach. By empowering analysts with AI-driven Attack Signal IntelligenceTM, organizations can prioritize otherwise unknown and urgent threats that pose the greatest risk to the business. This improves analyst throughput by reducing alert noise, and arms them to reduce risk and keep organizations safe.”

Mark Wojtasiak VP Product Strategy, Vectra