Intel® Xeon® processor Do it with an EqualLogic iSCSI SAN from Dell. Exploding data. Some might say it’s the sign of a healthy business. If so, your business is doing great. But the bottom line is, it’s a constantly changing variable that you have to manage wisely for the future of your business. EqualLogic iSCSI SAN data storage solutions from Dell offer • The lowest TCO of common storage array architectures, at 1/3 to 1/2 the total cost of competitors over five years1 • An all-inclusive, affordable pricing model • An intuitive management interface • Quick installation—in minutes, not hours • Scalability on demand • Interoperability—within and across product generations • Advanced software integration with VMware, Hyper V, SQL and Exchange for fast Snapshot recovery It’s time to change the way you think about purchasing and managing storage. High-performance EqualLogic iSCSI SANs from Dell come with the software and applications expected from an enterprise-level SAN—at no additional charge. There is no additional software to install or service costs to incur to initiate the data management and protection features.
APTEC DISTRIBUTION FZ LLC CALL Aptec at Tel: (+9714) 3697111 Extn: 154/155/147/286/496 Fax: (+9714) 369 7110 Visit: www.apteconline.com Email: dell-sales@aptecme.com
Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.
Time for consolidation For several years, value-add distribution was little more than a cliché for some of the companies that claimed to be VADs as well but with each passing day, it acquires more substance as a concept or as a Business model. Today when the IT demands of customers have evolved further towards components that help build more sophisticated network infrastructure and IT solutions that boost Business productivity, the role of the VAD has grown by a significant proportion. As expectations from VADs increase from all quarters and more significantly vendors who choose to partner with them, it also means entry barriers would also significantly move up higher for new companies to enter this domain. Unlike the earlier years for instance, it might be more challenging while not entirely impossible for small start-ups to cater to brands that are now getting the attention of larger sized distributors. In the past two or three years, several broadline distributors have attempted shaping up enterprise or value teams and handful have succeeded. Some have quietly limited further extensions of their modest value distribution teams while some remain a little short of confidence. There are a larger number of VADs as never before and the scenario is building up for consolidation. The benchmarks of excellence could rise higher in the industry. Perhaps one of the criteria, which would be a deciding factor, could be the quality of the pre-sales consultants who help the channel sell better. In other words, the entry barriers in a domain would only get tougher and the established distributors are in a better position to consolidate on their gains.
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Cover Feature Towards accelerated growth
The UTM space is looking up and the new generation appliances offering better efficiency and granular application level reporting and control are helping win over customer acceptance in enterprise verticals as this feature finds out
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Point2point Steadfast to fundamentals
K.S. Parag, MD at FVC speaks to The Integrator in the following interview about the company’s business vision and objectives
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Techknow / Avnet Delivering the proof of value
Hani Barakat, senior director Oracle business MENA, Avnet Technology Solutions speaks to the Integrator about how ‘the resource’, its new Technology facility will help Avnet’s business partners in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region address the business challenges of their end-user customers.
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Round Table / Cloud Computing A journey to the cloud
The Integrator organized a Round Table that brought into discussion a cross spectrum of perspectives from vendors, distribution and systems integrators on the current scenario of cloud based solution deployments and the challenges.
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Insight/ Allied Telesis “PoE is more than just remote powering”
Sabbahuddin Khan, Regional Manager at Allied Telesis Middle East, outlines the benefits of PoE for SMEs and argues that PoE is about much more than pushing power through LAN cables.
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Insight / Interactive Intelligence Middle East Mapping IP communication success
Evren Aker, Pre-Sales Manager, Interactive Intelligence Middle East lays out the migration roadmap for enterprises in the Middle East thinking of making a transition from a traditional PBX system to an IP Communications system
Regulars
R. Narayan Managing Editor Publisher: Vivek Sharma Managing Editor: R. Narayan Art Director: Faiz Ahmed Sales Director: Alishan Zaidi Sr. Sales Manager: R. Subramanyan Business Development Manager: Mallika Rego Sales Coordinator: Smitha Jithesh
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February 2012 | The Integrator
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quesTion #18 ] NETWORK SECURITY
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POLICY AND MANAGEMENT
Who Makes The highesT PerforMance LoW LaTency nexT-gen fireWaLL?
sonicWaLL
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SonicWALL® enables IT to get back in control and more easily and efficiently stay ahead of today’s constantly evolving threats and application-related issues. An advanced security platform consolidates core Next-Gen Firewall application intelligence, control and visualization, gateway protection, and inspection for SSL encrypted sessions for enterprises along with WAN acceleration for distributed offices. SonicWALL’s low latency platform scans and secures every packet of every protocol, efficiently securing the network, controlling Web 2.0 apps, and optimizing bandwidth. Secure network optimization that minimizes complexity and latency is now within reach. Learn about our SuperMassive™ E10000 Series and the rest of our network security line-up at sonicwall.com/optimize
© 2011 SonicWALL, Inc. SonicWALL and the SonicWALL logo are registered trademarks of SonicWALL, Inc.
DYNAMIC SECURITY FOR THE GLOBAL NETWORK
Christopher Green Sales Manager HP Gulf & Levant, Avnet Technology Solutions
HP P-Series Storage: Flexible & reliable solution for every demand Avnet Technology Solutions accelerates Resellers business for HP Storage Solutions HP P-Series Storage Solution delivers flexible storage infrastructure solutions, which are designed to meet a range of storage networking needs, from small and mid-sized businesses to the largest corporate enterprises.
The P-Series Family HP P2000 HP is the entry-level storage solution. It features the latest HP functionalities and host-connect technology. Due to its excellent price/performance ratio, P2000 is the ideal fit for smaller organizations with smaller budgets.
The HP P4000 is multitasking: the feature-rich SAN solutions serves demands from entry level to mid-market organizations. It offers enterprise functionality with simplified central management for multi locations. P4000 supports features like superior application availability and disaster recovery and also is optimized to work in virtualized environments.
HP P6000 is designed for mid-market and large enterprises with demand for high availability and performance. The efficient array system is easy to use and features builtin virtualization to consolidate storage and simplify IT.
How to find the perfect solution? With its team of HP Solutions experts, Avnet Technology Solutions has the right setup to help resellers in the region to find the perfect configuration for their customers. Avnet offers services, resources and technical expertise needed to accelerate business and ensure customer satisfaction.
Christopher Green, Sales Manager Middle East, Avnet Technology Solutions, said, “To analyze a customer’s actual demand and to find the right solution it requires certain skill-sets. Therefore, it is our constant aim to support our partners by offering trainings and technical updates on HP
Benefits for Avnet Partners Currently Avnet is running a special promotional scheme on the P4500 Storage system where every single order will be rewarded with an Apple iPod Nano and every order of 4 units with an additional iPad2. To benefit from the P4500 Promotion and for more details contact Avnet at hp-ae@avnet.com
Solutions. Additionally, we run channel programs, such as incentive promotions, on a regular basis.�
When to Sell what P2000 Primarily positioned for entry level customers Predictable data growth Scalable maximum to 96 Disks Can be managed with limited IT expertise Ideal for small business environment
P4000 Primarily positioned for entry & mid-size customers Unpredictable data growth Scalable maximum to 384 Disks Can be managed with limited IT expertise Ideal for virtual server environment Suitable for Data Recovery environment which provides instant business continuity for virtual servers
P6000 Primarily positioned for mid-size & enterprise customers Unpredictable data growth Scalable maximum to 450 Disks Strong level of IT expertise required Ideal for Business critical environment Suitable for a Data Recovery environment which provides instant business continuity for business critical servers (BCS)
February 2012 | The Integrator
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Iomega and Axis partner to showcase video surveillance Iomega, an EMC company partnered with AXIS Video Hosting System to showcase a hosted video surveillance portfolio at Intersec. Cizar Abughazaleh, regional director for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey at Iomega said, “At Intersec, we demonstrated how Axis, the market leader in network video, powered by Iomega’s leading cloud storage and security solutions, enables SMBs in the Middle East to leverage the power and cost effectiveness of cloud services, giving them a more secure, highly available and cost-effective solution for their video surveillance needs,” continued Abughazaleh. The AVHS-enabled Iomega network storage devices, along with Axis network cameras and encoders, allow resellers and integrators to deliver video surveillance capabilities to SMB customers. With Iomega and Axis’ hosted video service, SMBs in the region will only pay for the storage they need, allowing them to grow their infrastructure without requiring additional capital investment.
Changes to HP Partner program to increase opportunities for channel HP has announced changes to the HP PartnerONE and HP ExpertONE programs that enable networking channel partners to increase market competitiveness and revenue opportunities. HP has streamlined the specializations of its former Preferred Partner networking channel program in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. All channel partners are now in the PartnerONE program. HP has three new certifications for networking: Registered Networking Specialization: These Partners focus primarily on selling solutions to the SMB market and offer customers a choice of secure, affordable and scalable network solutions Professional Networking Specialization: HP Professional Networking Partners sell, deliver, manage and support secure, wired and wireless networking infrastructure solutions Advanced Networking Specialization: These Partners sell, deliver, manage and support complex, end-to-end secure networking and data centre solutions and have the expertise and skills in designing, deploying solutions and services spanning the networking lifecycle. “HP offers a fantastic range of opportunities for its partners, across the entire IT converged infrastructure portfolio. Access to HP education and training programs, the Network Design Centre, and many other partner incentives, makes doing business with HP partners easier and more profitable,” said Ayman Dwidar Enterprise Storage, Servers and Networking Channel Manager , HP Middle East.
IBM to Acquire Green Hat IBM is set to acquire Green Hat, a leader in software quality and testing solutions for the cloud and other environments. Green Hat helps customers improve the quality of software applications by enabling developers to leverage cloud computing technologies to conduct testing on a software application prior to its delivery. According to recent industry reports, software testing represents more than 50 percent of overall development costs, and testing teams often spend upwards of 30 percent of their time managing the complexity of the test environment. Green Hat creates a virtual environment that simulates a wide range of IT infrastructure elements, without the constraints of hardware or software services. Upon the acquisition close, Green Hat will join IBM’s Rational Software business. When combined with the IBM Rational Solution for Collaborative Lifecycle Management, developers and testers can achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency, effectiveness, and collaboration while delivering quality software to their business.
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EMC Introduces EMC Collaborative Solutions EMC Corporation participated as Gold sponsor in the Electronic Healthcare Records Forum at Arab Health 2012, held from 23-24 January 2012 in Dubai. This leading and time-critical event provides a unique platform for EHR professionals in the region to learn and network alongside key stakeholders to develop and advance EHR in the Middle East region. Yves Mahieu, EMEA Director Healthcare, EMC, a prime witness of the fundamental eHealth evolutions that are reshaping today the European healthcare space, delivered a keynote presentation on the first day of the event on EMC Collaborative Solutions. Based on EMC Documentum, VMware and EMC Storage, EMC Collaboration Solutions is an integrated IT solution that helps healthcare providers to built this 360° patient view. During his presentation, Yves explained how the top hospitals in Europe are using the EMC Collaborative Healthcare Solution today, to enhance datasharing, manage better medical data volumes and built 360° patient view.
Westcon Group Named EMEA Distributor of the Year by Juniper Networks Westcon Group, a value-added distributor of category-leading unified communications, network infrastructure, data center, and security solutions with a global network of specialty resellers, today announced its security business practice has been named “EMEA Distributor of the Year” by Juniper Networks. Westcon was honored at the First Annual Juniper Global Partner Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The award is the second time Westcon has received this honor from Juniper in three years.
ESET signs up Distributor Agreement with Bulwark ESET Middle East has teamed up with Bulwark Technologies LLC, a Value-added Distributor of IT security solutions in the Middle East to address the opportunity in the SMB and corporate segment. Bulwark will market, sell and support ESET’s ESET NOD32 Antivirus and ESET Smart Security solutions through its reseller network across the countries of UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Yemen. ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 utilizes multiple layers of detection and unique cloud technology to block all potential threats. Aji Joseph, General Manager, ESET Middle East commented “We are excited about this partnership with Bulwark for it allows us to penetrate further the markets in the region and reach out to a new breadth of customers. Bulwark already has an established customer base in the corporate and SME segment, which we would like to leverage through this synergy.”,
More than 30 partners from the Americas, Asia-Pacific and EMEA were recognized during the event, bringing together more than 1,000 partners from around the world. Steve Lockie, Managing Director, WestconME Group, commented “With a unique focus on security, networking and data center technology, Juniper is most certainly a visionary in this space. That’s why we’re extremely proud our teams across Europe, Africa and the Middle East have been singled out for their collective efforts. The announcement is a direct reflection of our commitment to resellers, resulting from a tight collaboration with Juniper at every level of their business.”
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Spectrami teams up with Varonis Systems Spectrami, a VAD has signed a distribution agreement with Varonis Systems, a leading vendor for unstructured data governance solutions. Varonis Systems provide solutions that manage and protect the unstructured data that is exploding and out of control within every organization. The number of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, media files and other business data sitting on file servers, NAS devices, and semi-structured repositories like SharePoint and Exchange is massive and growing fast. Data protection is necessary to safeguard an organization's customers, employees, business partners, and investors. “We are glad to partner with Varonis and bring the unique unstructured data governance solutions to the region,” said, Anand Choudha, Managing Director, Spectrami. “Spectrami will offer Varonis solutions, training, marketing and sales tools to its channel partners, in order to accelerate growth in this fast growing data governance market segment in our region”.
Dell strengthens Fluid Data Architecture At its first Dell Storage Forum event in Europe, Dell announced advancements in its Fluid Data architecture. The Fluid Data architecture, designed to enable customers to manage more information more effectively, is strengthened with new offerings that include Dell’s first deduplication backup appliance that integrates intellectual property from the Ocarina acquisition; a major software release for Compellent storage arrays; a new storage optimization solution for Microsoft SharePoint; and broader support for Dell Force10, PowerConnect and Brocade storage networking solutions. “Today’s IT organisations in the Middle East are moving faster than ever down a road that is constantly changing. That’s why their data needs to be as dynamic as their business,” said Dave Brooke, GM- Middle East Commercial at Dell. “With Dell’s new primary, archive and backup storage solutions available in the Middle East, the Dell Fluid Data architecture delivers the storage intelligence customers need to deal with a sea of constant IT change without driving up costs, wasting time or continually replacing infrastructure.”
FVC Signs Zoho to bring Emerging Cloud Applications in MENA FVC, a leading Value Added Distributor in the MENA region, has signed a partnership agreement with Zoho Corporation, a private company which offers a comprehensive suite of award-winning, on-line business, productivity & collaboration applications. Zoho Corporation serves the technology needs of more than 50,000 customers worldwide. FVC will represent ZOHO in the region as a Value added distributor for their online Cloud Applications, mainly Zoho CRM, Zoho HRIS, Zoho Projects, Zoho invoicing and Zoho Web Conferencing. This will be addition to FVC Cloud vision of bringing Emerging Cloud services to the region and equip our reseller community to offer cloud services. K.S. Parag, Managing Director at FVC, said, “Zoho is a very valuable addition as an online cloud applications distributor. One of FVC’s visions has always been to bring Emerging Cloud services to the region and equip our channel community with a comprehensive range of cloud services they can offer their enterprise customers. Zoho brings the highest levels of expertise, experience and flexibility to the region in cloud applications as they have more than 32 online applications.” As the first point of contact in the region, FVC will deploy dedicated sales and technical resources in MENA region.
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Seven Seas has tied up as partner for MindTree for providing Remote Managed services to its customers in the region. Seven Seas would provide two different scenario based services under this partnership. The first of the services would be to provide Level 3 or Onsite support for the customers, who will be provided with Level 1 and
The second service is under consideration and could include providing white labeled service, wherein Seven Seas would provide the SLAs taking into consideration a customer’s concerns on data integrity as well as the WAN costs to MindTree India. This service is likely to be provided in about a year’s time. Narendra Talreja, Director, Managed Services at Seven Seas says, “The
Seven Seas partners with MindTree
from Left to Right: Shivkumar Subramaniam, GM Middle East, MindTree; Narendra Talreja – Director Managed Services, Seven Seas; Rakesh Agrawal – GM Enterprise Services, Seven Seas; Mehboob Hamza, Chairman, Seven Seas ; Ram C Mohan - Sr. Vice President and Head IMTS, MindTree; Nayagam Pillai, CEO, Seven Seas; Satyanarayan Sridharan, Business Development Manager and Kunhammed Baramy, Presales IMTS, MindTree
Level 2 support remotely from the MindTree Managed Services center in India. All onsite tasks required to fulfill the defined SLAs would be provided by the field support of Seven Seas. The services include Managed Network Monitoring, Managed Network Operations, Managed Production Operations, Managed Server and Storage Monitoring, Managed Messaging Systems Services, Managed Global Help Desk, Managed Database Monitoring and Support, Managed Security Monitoring and Audit and Managed Application Support. 10
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current delivery of the managed services is provided via our service desk tool (1evel1), remote access tools (level2), onsite support (level3), well defined service levels or operational levels and periodic reporting. Customers have agreed SLAs on identified products or services deployed in their premise.“ There is an increasing opportunity for Remote management services in the region. Businesses today have to deal with a strategic intention to create transformational value and differentiation for their customers from the limited assets under
their control; both human capital and finance; while also having to manage and optimize the business critical operations that are enabled by IT and telecom infrastructure. IT operations are extremely critical to run-the-business, but at the same time they are repetitive, non-core and generate recurring costs to the business. Businesses prefer to focus on market leadership strategies and increase revenue by developing and selling valueadded products and planning for future growth. Such enterprises need to strategically consider contracting operations like business processes, network operations and maintenance, server and storage infrastructure monitoring and support, global help desk, dayto-day IT operations, production application support and enterprise backup to managed services provider(s). However, there could be challenges that would confront the speed of acceptance. Narendra says, “Changing Business Models like Collocation, Hosting services, Service & Application provider, IT Resource augmentation by various System Integrators and conglomerate companies will soon become a trend. International providers will seek local partnerships and models to provide the same with Telcos getting more competitive in pricing and technologies. The deterrents would be the concern on localization of the data and services being provided, the provider company will need to demonstrate ROI and TCO benefits to their business and the consumer. “ Within the UAE, Seven Seas provides managed services which include Facilities management services, Remote management, Disaster Recovery hosting services, Functional outsourcing, Resource augmentation, Platform Migration, IT infrastructure relocation and Maintenance contracts.
Cover Feature
The UTM space is looking up and the new generation appliances, offering better efficiency and granular application level reporting and control are helping win over customer acceptance in enterprise verticals as this feature finds out.
Bashar Bashaireh Regional Director Fortinet, Middle East
Towards accelerated growth among the Small business (SMB) and remote/branch/small/home office (ROBO/SOHO) customers. However, in the past UTM vendors found limited acceptance in the enterprise market as enabling multiple security functions on a single appliance could impact network performance. That seems to be changing faster now with new generation UTMs offering better performance finding greater acceptance in the enterprise segment.
“Historically, UTM solutions have represented an easy to implement and manage security umbrella for SMBs. Another main advantage is their low cost in comparison to purchasing many different security solutions. These two advantages are primarily responsible for driving rapid adoption of UTMs by SMB customers. But UTM solutions, as they have matured, have also gained traction in larger organizations.�
The UTM has been a convenient, easy to deploy and cost effective device featuring several colocated security services and that has historically been the secret of its success in the mid-market segment. It replaces the need for different standalone appliances A growing number of enterprise providing several Network security Bashar Bashaireh, Regional Director customers are now buying into the functions including firewall, VPN, at Fortinet Middle East says, UTM option and are turning to the endpoint, web content filtering, new generation spam blocking, UTM solutions virus protection, that satisfy intrusion "Historically, UTM solutions have represented their security prevention an easy to implement and manage security requirements and more. It better. The new continues to umbrella for SMBs. Another main advantage generation be a successful is their low cost in comparison to purchasing devices come product and has many different security solutions" with additional an ever growing functionalities footprint February 2012 | The Integrator
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security applications at the same time. Those factors limited their usefulness to larger organizations, and so UTMs were initially adopted by organizations that did not have great throughput needs or that used very simple architectures.” The growing success in the enterprise segment has been helped by the fact that the UTM vendors have focused on designing products that offer better throughput efficiencies. Surendar Bishnoi, General Manager at Cyberoam Middle East concurs that the UTM is gaining traction in enterprise deployments and are meeting the higher expectations of enterprise customers.
Haroon Iqbal Sales Manager MEA, WatchGuard Technologies
for better performance in comparison and therefore fare more favorably vis-à-vis the point appliances unlike earlier when some of their functionalities were more modest. Bill Prout, Technical Engineer, Network Security Group, Sophos says, “It’s true that UTM has not traditionally been considered suitable for the Enterprise, but that is changing due to a number of factors such as advances in the technology, budgets constraints, and increased industry confidence in multi-function devices. Earlier generation of UTMs had limited feature sets compared to point products, and the hardware of the time was not able to effectively handle the traffic and processing associated with running different 12
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He says, "Of late, enterprises are increasingly seeing value in adopting UTMs for their large networks. The present generation UTMs can deal with newly-evolving, future threats while providing high throughput performances for the most demanding enterprise networks. Therefore enterprises today see UTM as not only meeting their needs but as a product which empowers the IT administrators with greater flexibility and enhanced capability to provide real time security while ensuring their connectivity and productivity.” According to Haroon Iqbal, Sales Manager - Middle East and Africa, WatchGuard Technologies, the hesitation that enterprises had in adopting the first generation UTM devices would have been because of lack of proven capabilities. He says, “This could have been true in the past due to two main problems: performances and quality of UTM services sometimes ‘home made’. We are seeing more
and more enterprises interested in our UTM solutions that consolidate the security infrastructure and it’s cost effective at the same time.” While the limited functionalities of a traditional UTM devices and the fact that enterprises did not want to be fallible to a single point of failure slowed their acceptance in the enterprises, that is changing now. Bill says, “Today UTMs use newer hardware and software that can process and pass much more traffic than earlier models and as such they compare favorably to point solutions. They also offer a wide array of advanced features which in the past were only found on point solutions." According to Fortinet, while customers may not deploy all functionalities on a UTM, over time, they look at enabling more functionalities that already come with the UTM. This means an upselling opportunity to the installed base of customers. Bashar says, “The reality is that many of our customers adopt our UTM solutions to first leverage two or three security functions available within our appliances (firewall, VPN and IPS for instance). They therefore deploy our products within their security infrastructure where they already have other point solutions. It is quite common to see that over time, they choose to activate additional security features available on their appliances to replace existing appliances they had deployed. ” D-Link, more known for its networking products portfolio that target the soho and, SMB customers is also focusing more on
the UTM segment. The networking vendor’s go to market strategy involves using its established networking channel to sell to existing customers. D-Link's UTM devices portfolio cater from SOHO to Enterprise segment customers. Sakkeer Hussain, Sales and Marketing Manager at D-Link says, “Firewalls are important in our product portfolio, since we have many customers who look for complete networking solutions, out of one hand. Being able to purchase all networking equipment from one vendor adds tremendous convenience to the purchasing process and has hence been very beneficial for purchasing managers.” He adds, “Today’s continuously shifting security environment presents a challenge for small/ home office networks with limited IT capabilities. Fortunately, the D-Link NetDefend Unified Threat Management (UT M) firewalls provide a powerful security solution to protect business networks from a wide variety of threats. ”
much greater ability to detect and block attacks that directly target data. Although there is debate that true NGFW devices are built from scratch on new architectures that avoid performance bottlenecks (with a single pass engine used for all services), several of the leading UTM vendors have built next generation functionality into their products. They have now introduced the control of applications, application visibility and the ability to create rules based on users and applications. As of present, only a modest 5 percent of the firewalls deployed are “next generation” devices. Gartner expects that percentage to climb drastically by the year 2016 and could be as much as 60% of the overall sales. Shahnawaz Sheikh, SonicWALL’s Regional Director for Middle East, Africa and Turkey says, “ It is rightly indicated that enterprises today are seriously considering Next Generation Firewalls over point solutions for multiple reasons such
Sakeer Hussain Sales & Marketing Manager D-Link
visualization on enterprise class appliance offerings have raised the interest levels of many large enterprise customers in Performance the region. boost with “Although there is debate that true NGFW devices With the NGFW are built from scratch on new architectures that SuperMassive While earlier avoid performance bottlenecks (with a single E-10000 series, enterprise users pass engine used for all services), several of the SonicWALL may have shied leading UTM vendors have built next generation is uniquely away from the functionality into their products.” positioned to UTM, the next offer real Nextgeneration Generation as costs, consolidation, overall TCO, Firewall (NGFW) is winning over Firewalls, with best of class DPI and etc. From SonicWALL's stand point, the confidence of more enterprise IPS performances.” we are already there in the space customers. Next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) feature the ability of Enterprise firewalls and this was According to SonicWALL all of its reinforced in 2007 with the launch to inspect and control threats firewalls solutions can be deployed of the E-Class NSAs. Last year, the through application awareness. either as a UTM solution (SMB) introduction of Next Generation With deep packet inspection, or as a Next-Generation Firewall Firewalls that offers Application NGFWs inspect traffic at layer 7 – (enterprise) where only key security control, intelligence and real time the application layer and therefore services would be utilized: GAV, February 2012 | The Integrator
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profile based policies and a single interface for policy creation across all the UTM features, providing ease of management and high security with flexibility. Surender says, “Cyberoam’s patent pending identity-based firewall extends security right up till the user that embeds user identity in the firewall rule-matching criteria, enabling enterprises to configure policies by the user based on work profile in addition to identifying the individual user activity with user name. In doing so, it offers complete visibility into user activity, allowing enterprises to see ‘Who is Doing What’ in the network.”
Shahnawaz Sheikh Regional Director MEA & Turkey SonicWALL
IPS, Antimalware, Application Intelligence & Control with real time visualization, DPI SSL + RFDPI. For the enterprise it has a separate strategy because it offers additional point appliances that are part of its go to market strategy. Cyberoam claims that all its next generation UTMs offer stateful and deep packet inspection for network, application and user identity-based security and is wellintegrated with VPN, IPS, Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware, Anti-Spam, Web Filtering, Bandwidth Management, Multiple Link Management. It has further added an extra layer of security around human identity in its appliances. Its patent pending, Layer 8 Human Identity-based firewall appliance enables work14
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He further adds that the multicore processor architecture in its UTM devices helps address potential performance bottlenecks that can deter throughput efficiencies. This removes the need for hardware upgrades which he says plagues traditional UTM devices. “ Cyberoam’s multicore-aware software architecture is not enmeshed with the appliance hardware, making it easily reprogrammable to deliver new patches and policies online to address fresh attacks. Also, Cyberoam’s extensible firmware can update with future security needs of an enterprise. Cyberoam’s high speed and throughput values meet large enterprise performance requirements for technology trends like cloud computing, Web 2.0, mobility etc.” There is a considerable difference between traditional firewall appliances and next generation firewall appliances in terms of approaches/technologies.
Shahnawaz adds, “First-generation firewalls (traditional) were designed around one objective: to block direct threats coming from outside the firewall in a perimeter-based attack. But these stateful firewalls (firewalls that perform stateful packet inspection (SPI) or stateful inspection) alone are no longer enough. Mobile employees using multiple devices to connect to critical business data from home broadband or public wireless hotspots, and mountains of media and rich digital content are an evergrowing part of business software applications. Data inspection at the application-content level is necessary to protect against sophisticated hacking schemes. In the pursuit of application-level protection, “deep packet inspection” (DPI) has become the preferred approach.” According to the Sophos spokesperson, all its Astaro Security Gateway appliances offer NGFW technology as part of the UTM suite of security applications. They feature the ability to monitor and control applications irrespective of what ports are used for transport. Bill says, “All Astaro Security Gateway appliances offer NGFW technology as part of the UTM suite of security applications. This technology is just one of the tools used to protect against the latest Internet based threats, but its main benefits relate to its ability to provide very granular reporting and policy enforcement. NGFW technology provides the ability to peer into the communication stream to identify and control traffic no matter what port it may be using. This increased visibility also provides very detailed usage reporting and options for bandwidth control.”
Channel success In the context of the growing opportunity across a wider set of customers in enterprise verticals, the channel remains a vital link in the go to market execution. Astaro since its acquisition by Sophos is strengthening its engagement intiatives with the channel. Bill (Sophos) says, “Now that we’re part of the Sophos family we’ll also be integrating our products with Sophos’ best of breed point solutions to provide complete security for an organization. The goal is to be a one stop shop where partners can go to when they need to protect their customers and data, no matter where those users sit or how they connect to the network. We are looking to leverage Sophos’s enterprise class team to reach more system integrators. Additionally, we are actively recruiting new SIs into our partner community, specifically SIs that can offer professional services and looping them into our marketing strategies.”
a System Integrator can use. We offer free certification technical trainings and free sales training to better understand our technology not only from installation point of view but also to understand the customer’s needs and propose the right solution from our product portfolio. Our program WSP (WatchGuard Secure Partner) helps our best customers to get the certification, get extra rebate and website visibility to highlight their installation and support capability of our technology.” Manufacturers are evolving programs that facilitate systems integrators more to sell better. Shahnawaz says, “Our success in the region is mainly attributed to our SI channel who invests in technical resources, certifications and passion to sell and support SonicWALL products, we reciprocate to support their business cause by investing in presales and qualified professional sales teams within SonicWALL managing the channel partner expectations. We do this with consistent
Surender Kumar Bishnoi General Manager Cyberoam Middle East
to serve our SI channel partners the way they like to serve their customers.”
According to According to WatchGuard, SonicWALL, it will seek to it has seen We are looking to leverage Sophos’s enterprise strengthen its consistent class team to reach more system integrators. reach into the growth since Additionally, we are actively recruiting new SIs SMb space (502005. While into our partner community, specifically SIs that 500 employees) it claims that can offer professional services and looping them and grow in it had higher into our marketing strategies.” the mid-sized growth rates of enterprise 80-100% year market. The on year, it says company has seen over 10% it still retains a healthy growth rate channel communications, impart growth last year and targeting of 40-50% in the present, indicating certification and update trainings, 20% plus growth this year with a not only that the company itself is providing required business tools continued focus on the channel. doing well but also underscoring that helps wealth of product and the fact that this is an industry related information that can give Haroon Iqbal says, “We believe that is looking up and with most them ease to conduct business the skills are the main weapon vendors claiming healthy growth. with SonicWALL. Our motto is February 2012 | The Integrator
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Point2point | FVC
Right from the beginning, FVC has modelled its distribution business on the value model and has been for several years now one of the most prominent distributors when it comes to Technology distribution in its chosen domains. It’s associations with some of the top tier vendors as well as its commitment in being steadfast to its core competencies have been strategies that continue to pay off well. K.S. Parag, MD at FVC speaks to The Integrator in the following interview about the company’s business vision and objectives
Steadfast to fundamentals K.S. Parag Managing Director, FVC
Discuss the Technology domains that are the focus areas for FVC as a VAD? There are four areas of focus for FVC – unified communications, information security, application delivery and cloud computing. What we see in all these four domains that these tend to be extremely niche. These (technology areas) are addressing the ‘pain’ points and are helping enterprises to improve its efficiency and productivity. In information security, we are seeing enterprises’ need for compliance and government regulation especially in the 16
The Integrator | February 2012
financial sector where network managers would like to keep their infrastructure safe. FVC has been working proactively in this area to best address the growing requirements of both the enterprises and our partners that work in this sector. You have multiple brands in Unified communication. Do they focus on separate verticals/ segments or opportunities? The multiple brands we carry in Unified Communications complement each other so that we can offer a comprehensive Unified Communication portfolio. We still have a few gapss that we hope to
fill within this platform. These would necessarily have to complement our existing skillsets. The education and healthcare could see the most benefit from some of the applications of unified communications. Discuss the value proposition that FVC brings in? As a distributor that has been working in the cloud computing space for more than three years, we see clear advantages for our partners and their customers. The customer needs to understand what he wants to achieve. Cloud is a very big buzz word and not all cloud solutions are suitable for him . We can help him understand what his needs are and how best we can add value for them whether public or private cloud. Based on this assessment, we can put together our solutions (completely vendor agnostic) and propose the right solution based on customer requirements and needs. We have to make sure that we migrate existing infrastructures seamlessly to the cloud with least impact on the customers’ business. We also see that a large number of partners are system integrators who are not very clear on how to capitalise on these new technologies. This is where FVC can help the partner and his customer with our experience, sharing best practices based on existing implementation across the region. What have been some of the highlights for FVC during 2011? We’ve seen a year-on-year growth of up to 50% in terms of the business. In terms of expansion, the growth has come from all the areas, in unified communications, security,
cloud as well as application delivery. We have seen a larger growth in the application delivery segment. We have seen a stronger presence across the GCC and are strengthening the teams in UAE and Saudi Arabia. We are also expanding into Africa especially East and West Africa.
continue to be flat.We see the advantage of some of our technology offerings in areas where we are able to demonstrate a better return on investment and lower TCO (total cost of ownership).
In terms of consolidation, we are focusing on working with vendors whose technology and solutions add value in terms of broad skillsets – providing our partners and customers with a wider range of solutions that fit the growing needs of the enterprise network.
Is your channel entirely comprised of system integrators? We work with two types of System Integrators. We work with those who work on large enterprise networking projects and have the in-house talent and skills to manage these and the AV specialists that can manage unified communications and related technologies as part of large infrastructure projects.
Are you looking at partner with new vendors in any specific areas?
Discuss some of the investments that FVC has done to serve channel better in terms of
The customer needs to understand what he wants to achieve. Cloud is a very big buzz word and not all cloud solutions are suitable for him . We can help him understand what his needs are and how best we can add value for them whether public or private cloud.
Carrying on from the earlier response, we see a few gaps in information security and cloud computing – we hope to fill these with new vendor agreements. Do you see ICT investments in different verticals of the region on the rise? While we are seeing cuts in spending in a lot of these vertical sectors, we are seeing more investments in ICT projects in the education and (while oil prices stay strong) in the oil and gas sector. Government spending will
training facilities, channel engagements, POC etc? We will be investing in more resources in terms of people on the ground to support our partners, expanding our existing Executive Briefing centres both in Dubai and Riyadh so that our partners can leverage these as demonstration centres for their customers as well as training centres for our partners. In Saudi Arabia, we will be expanding the Riyadh office and provide better on the ground support in Jeddah and Al Khobar.
February 2012 | The Integrator
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Techknow | Avnet
Discuss in brief the fundamentals of Oracle Exadata Database Machine or Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud? Oracle Exadata Database Machine or Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud are Oracle “Engineered Systems”, where the system as a whole with all its building blocks share a single design authority and set of design
Hani Barakat Senior Director Oracle Business MENA Avnet Technology Solutions
Delivering the proof of value
Avnet Technology Solutions inaugurated its proof-ofconcept demonstration facility in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for Oracle’s Engineered Systems, including the Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud. Hani Barakat, senior director Oracle business MENA, Avnet Technology Solutions speaks to the Integrator about how the facility will help Avnet’s business partners in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region address the business challenges of their end-user customers.
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departmental applications to the largest like ERP and mainframe applications. Exalogic is optimized for enterprise Java, Oracle Fusion Middleware, and Oracle‘s Fusion Applications. It is also perfect environment for thousands of thirdparty custom applications widely deployed today.
The Integrator | February 2012
goals which will provide the most extreme value for customers. These systems are engineered into a single, high-performance integrated stack which eliminates traditional bottlenecks. Oracle Exadata Database Machine is the ideal and unique platform for extreme performance for all data warehousing, online transaction processing (OLTP), and mixed workloads. This makes it a unique and perfect platform for consolidation onto private clouds. Oracle Exadata Database Machine is a complete pre-optimized, preconfigured solution, engineered using Oracle HW and Oracle SW, that is massively scalable, secure and fully redundant. Its unique architecture and features lower cost of ownership, increase performance by 10x or more, and reduce the risk of downtime. Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud is the ideal platform for applications of all types, from small-scale
What are the objectives of the Demo centre. Avnet Demo centre, called THE [resource], is the leading cloudready technology demo center in the MENA region and it works as the point of reference for companies that would like to explore the potential of Oracle engineered systems; Oracle Exadata database Machine and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud. It will enable companies to experience the use of Oracle technologies by creating proof of concept designs and performance benchmarks based on the Oracle Exadata Database Machine or Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, a leading foundation for Cloud, to transform business requirements into a proven IT solution within an optimized, agile and risk mitigated environment. How can your channel partners make use of the facility? THE [resource] will help Avnet business partners and their customers select the right
business solution based on Oracle engineered systems, test their applications, experience the difference with Oracle solutions, and get it right the first time when they go for implementation. Services offered to Avnet business partners and their customers include executive briefings, needs assessment, solutions architecture workshops, technology demonstrations, ISV Competency, and training exercises. THE [resource] is one place where Avnet partners and their customers can enjoy all these value-added services with Avnet Technology Solution. The facility will help Avnet’s business partners in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region diversify and grow their business, shorten sales cycles, increase their chances of having win-win success stories with their end-user customers by addressing their business needs with a great tool like THE [resource]. Simultaneously how many partners can avail the facility? All Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) partners are welcome to utilize THE [resource]. We have put in place a clear engagement process and a solid operations methodology to guarantee the highest level of utilization for the facility while hosting multiple engagements simultaneously. We are taking advantage of Oracle engineered systems’ design and structure, Oracle virtualization technologies that allow creating multiple virtual environments to demonstrate different applications and technologies, and the operational practices we have in place to coordinate simultaneous engagements without
compromising on the quality of service. Discuss the size of the reource centre and the staffing? THE [resource] is a 1400 Square Feet facility located at Dubai Internet City which is one of the largest Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Business Parks in the Middle East and North Africa region. This facility is operated and supported by a team of Avnet professionals to provide the highest value to the partners and endusers. This team in comprised of technical consultants, solutions architects, products managers, and presales engineers. This facility is an Oracle Authorized Solution Center hence a member of the Oracle Solution Center community which gives Avnet access to additional resources and specialists. For every proof-of-concept
demo facility. Discuss growth potential for such cloud based solutions? There is a big growth potential for Oracle engineered systems not only for cloud initiatives but also as consolidation platforms. Oracle Exadata Database Machine is the ideal and unique platform for extreme performance for all data workloads be it warehousing, online transaction processing (OLTP), or mixed workloads. It is a unique and perfect platform for consolidation as well as for building private clouds. Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud the ideal platform for applications consolidation as well as and the foundation for secure and mission-critical private clouds. Data Explosion, maintenance, IT cost pressure, and performance are IT challenges that Oracle Engineered Systems can uniquely
Avnet Demo centre, called THE [resource], is the leading cloud-ready technology demo center in the MENA region and it works as the point of reference for companies that would like to explore the potential of Oracle engineered systems; Oracle Exadata database Machine and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud engagement at THE [resource] we look at forming a virtual team. This team will ideally be comprised of resources from Avnet, Oracle, our business partner, and enduser to get the most out of the engagement. For other services and engagements we may need to build different teams with fewer resources. In summary we consider this facility to be a tool for Avnet, Oracle, our business partners, and end-users hence we consider all of them the extended team of the
address and resolve. End-users gain competitive advantage with rapid deployment of these systems and the ability roll out business services and applications in timely fashion. They also gain competitive advantage with reduced total cost of ownership, increased performance and improved security. These advantages have been realized and demonstrated across multiple sectors like Telco, Banking, Public, Oil&Gas, Education and others. February 2012 | The Integrator
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Round Table | Cloud Computing
A journey to the cloud The Integrator organized a Round Table that brought into discussion a cross spectrum of perspectives from vendors, distribution and systems integrators on the current scenario of cloud based solution deployments and the challenges. The participants included James Lyne, Director of Technology Strategy at Sophos; Florian Malecki, Senior Product Marketing Manager, EMEA, Sonicwall; Dominic Storey, Technical Director EMEA; Pramod Shetty, Product Sales Manager, Saas & Networking, FVC; Narendra Talreja, Director, Managed Services, Seven Seas and Mahesh Vaidya, CEO, ISIT. The discussion was moderated by R. Narayan, Managing Editor of The Integrator.
Moderator: Gentlemen, cloud solutions are seeing a greater interest of late and perhaps a better momentum of adoption. We are here to discuss the current scenario of cloud based solution deployments and the challenges. We would like to hear your views on the topic. Over to you all.
Mahesh Vaidya, CEO, ISIT: As a systems integrator, we have already had solutions for cloud based storage, cloud based backup and cloud based archiving for the past three to three and half years. However, the adoption rate in the region has been on the lower side. A survey we did helped to understand the concerns of customers and the benefits they anticipated from cloud deployments. When it comes to doing storage back-up in the cloud, people in the region had largely been skeptical because of the reasons that the bandwidth was expensive and it wasn't reliable. The second concern was security. On the other hand, most of them were also keen about the benefits of these solutions like the flexibility and the quicker deployment time compared to the 4-5 months procurement time in case of onsite solutions. We decided to combine the best of the public and private cloud options. Most customers preferred a private cloud immediately with the option to a do cloud burst into the public cloud in future, moving some of their non-critical solutions to the public cloud.
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The Integrator | February 2012
Mahesh Vaidya CEO, ISIT
We were in talks with some Universities. For instance, one of them was running SAP which they wanted to continue with local hosting. However there were other applications like Registration. Either they could over provision and buy a lot of kit which would be lying idle until the next burst of demand comes or they could utilize the services of a cloud provider. In instances of a higher demand, they could migrate
the application into the cloud to execute the processing in the cloud. They were also looking at a hybrid cloud option. We put together a suite of solutions to help customers build a private and public cloud in a hybrid model. The software deployed enabled end-to-end provisioning of software for any type of VMs ( Virtual Machines), networking and storage. Users can access the service console and request provisioning of resources as required without any intervention required by the IT support staff. The next concern was security. They were moving VMs around between different security zones Traditional security policies with UTMs, Firewalls weren’t working in with those changing environments. We created over machines security policies which we will be implementing in some large enterprise accounts here. When virtual machines move along different multiple security domains, the security policies also move around with the machines. Additionally, we addressed the concern of the customer as to whether the cloud service provider could see his data when virtual machines are moved into the cloud and back. We made sure that even if you move the virtual machine, as long as you own the key, only you can see the data.
We have recently finished the design phase for the consolidation of multiple data centers for a large enterprise into three wherein two data centres were just about 100 metres away from each other and one was about 100 KMs away. The design for the consolidation uses these approaches mentioned. Narendra Talreja, Director, Managed Services, Seven Seas: As an SI, we have seen that the cloud is still understood as a vague concept. Within the region there are cases of traditional data centers being tagged as cloud centers. There is talk of the distinction between the public cloud, private cloud etc. Of the public cloud, you will notice a lack of interfaces, applications, middleware etc. For a customer looking at cloud solutions as options, he needs to address the solutions requirement firstly. This should look and take into account the size of the market segment he is in, the volume of customer data transacted daily, real time application needs, based on which he can choose to put the data in the public cloud. Once the choice is to use a public cloud, the next instance is to identify third party cloud service providers who is providing that kind of service for that particular industry and for that volume of data transaction. In a second possible customer scenario, when the data transacted is not that big then the customer
chooses the private cloud option. And of course, what we hear of customer concerns include worries about regulatory frame works, the best practices, legalities, security, scalability, availability etc. Of the public cloud deployments, nature of concerns include as to what legal contracts need to be signed, what are the penalties to be applied if there are any failures and downtime on the cloud availability etc. As I see, confidence is still weak in the market and the adoption rate is not very encouraging. Before the recession started, vendors were talking a lot about cloud computing already which was encouraging for the Systems integrators and service providers who got into this business model. At Seven Seas we created our own data center, trying to provide messaging services in a cloud environment. We were able to sell the solutions to more than hundred users. When the recession came, everything fell quiet. In the three years of recession the Technology never stopped evolving but the missing component has been the availability of applications. James Lyne, Director of Technology Strategy, Sophos: I completely agree that cloud is still understood or discussed as a vague term that encompasses different technologies and different commercial models and that the generalization makes it very hard February 2012 | The Integrator
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Round Table | Cloud Computing
(L to R): James Lyne Director of Technology Strategy, Sophos Narendra Talreja Director, Managed Services, Seven Seas
for talking of specificities. This is the reason why there is such poor confidence in moving forward on this. As I understand, there are three areas of cloud deployment scenarios from the vendor point of view. For a vendor, the first is using the cloud as part of delivering his technology, providing value in the bargain. The second one is protecting the cloud. Since there are lots of cloud services out there, are we as a security vendor able to keep our customer unharmed and safe? Lots of our customers are adopting salesforce.com for instance and several other popular applications. We’ve got to ensure to provide a safe environment for all that data. Finally, as a 100 % channel organization, we want to make sure we are delivering our products for the cloud through our partners. From product and delivery perspective, we have actually been delivering this from a long time. 22
The Integrator | February 2012
We weren’t really calling it cloud which is the new term to call it but, we had technology in our end points that enabled them to connect back to Sophos and look up additional data from a real time cloud. We have got over 150 million end-points constantly fueling this information in the backend, giving us intelligence and that loop has been critical to enable us to drive our technology to deal with the latest malicious code and make sensible decisions. It’s an example of software being a service using the cloud. I would suggest it is easier to take these products to market if we remove the term Cloud. Further, there is still a propensity to buy software and hardware among a majority of customers in the traditional way. What we have seen is a massive increase in
Florian Malecki, Senior Product Marketing Manager, EMEA, Sonicwall: The cloud is not new and we have heard about it quite a lot for years now. Within our organization, we have seen the benefits of moving stuff to cloud, whether public, hybrid or private. Security is a major topic when we talk about the cloud. For Cloud providers what matter is that he still needs to secure the service to all users whatever be the number at a certain instance. This means that the cloud providers should be ready to handle any number of users, rather than looking at securing maybe 100 users or 1 million users as a target. As a vendor we have been delivering cloud based security products for quite sometime and have been adding additional security services too. Especially
"For a vendor, the first is using the cloud as part of delivering his technology, providing value in the bargain. The second one is protecting the cloud. Finally, as a 100 % channel organization, we want to make sure we are delivering our products for the cloud through our partners." the adoption of cloud solutions outside security. Adoption of cloud is rocketing ahead in areas like CRM, where, the cloud solution is close to being the default preference for customers. The shift is starting to occur and more customers want delivery of products by this mechanism. Our solutions get delivered via virtual machine appliances which can be adopted in virtual data centers or the cloud. We have restructured our commercial model to incorporate more elements of a cloud based pricing structure. We have enabled our channel partners to deliver our technology.
in the SMB space, we have had requests to have cloud based data backup and restore solutions so that data can be restored very quickly if it gets lost. However, adoption rate of cloud is still not so broad. Dominic Storey, Technical Director EMEA, SourceFire: In the old days software services were seen as part of pure computing. Nowadays there is the mystery wrapped around the cloud services. Many customers want to keep their data internal and the issue of security comes up. Another
question is who is responsible for the SLA? A cloud solution designed to run alongside the current desktop versions is ideal. Here one can utilize scalability of internet processing and internet storage to actually deliver value service. Once you get into a mass cloud based system, the value can go up with the multiples of number of people attached to it. How we extract better usage of the facilities that people have at their data center never really depended on the hardware facilities. Thus it was easy for us to completely virtualize the core Source Fire centers. Services like intrusion detection and prevention, end-point detection, user identity detection can be virtualized and dropped into people’s data center, deployed by a MSS (Managed Security Service) provider and can be charged. When we deal with cloud based products, there is a high sensitivity to ensure where the products are from, especially for clients in critical sectors. Cloud Security is finally the most important service. This is true for big organizations including government departments who want to move their data to the cloud. From a collaborative point of view we need to think how we can federate clouds together. Pramod Shetty, Product Sales Manager, Saas & Networking, FVC: As a VAD, what we do basically is to bring in emerging technologies. We have seen some opportunities into begin with in cloud computing. Solutions like emails, email security, backup, unified communications etc., can be taken to the market through cloud to the channels and to the end users. The Cloud is a business opportunity to us
and to our partners it means great revenues coming year after year. We have showed our customers the value and savings that they can make when using a cloud before they sign an agreement. The number of users is just increasing. We came up with a portfolio where partners enjoyed reselling it. 70% of our first 100 customers of email security have Google apps today. We build the confidence that it works. Great companies with 1000-2000 users, which moved to Google apps, say that their information is safe at Google data center than at their own centre as they have the confidence we can take care of their data better. Being a value added distributor, the best advantage is that we are always in touch with the customer and so the feedback which we are getting for years now is that they are quite open to the cloud options. The ease of deployment, management and confidence has increased the customer readiness. We have been able to build a 40 – 45 strong partner community in the MENA region. When the customer is able to see the cost savings, we win most of the time. We thrived even during the recession time and adapted well to the cloud solutions opportunity. We see pure opportunity in it and an abundance of technologies that work. In spite of many legal issues and skepticism about the usage of cloud, we have government departments, major enterprises and medium size enterprises using different solutions from our portfolio. In a nutshell, we are having more solutions on cloud and the business I oversee survives only because of the revenues generated from customers of our cloud solutions.
Florian Malecki Senior Product Marketing Manager, EMEA Sonicwall
We have internal experts who can help to answer questions on privatization of cloud, provide chain management consultancy, who can talk to customers to convince them on the advantages of moving to cloud solutions. Our approach is different and based more on knowledge sharing and confidence building with enterprise customers. The adoption rate has increased. We have customers from financial segment, airline industry (RAK airways), couple of ministries etc on Google apps. The selling is all based on convincing the CIOs. We need to follow a top to bottom approach to sell cloud. The top senior guy can move it faster also because an IT manager probably sees a lot of discomfort and insecurities (of losing his job for instance). Channel partners need to educate them. Moderator: What are the major challenges as you do see it in the rapid deployment of these Technologies? How are they being addressed from your company’s perspective or from the industry’s point of view and what more needs to be done? February 2012 | The Integrator
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Round Table | Cloud Computing
of the cloud. Mahesh (ISIT): The assumption that cloud equals cheap is Hype and People are ready confusion to move some not necessarily the right way to sum up. The lingering applications cloud gets adopted when it provides better around cloud into cloud and technology and better solutions rather than will clear not all. The overtime as necessarily saving money. selling approach more people needs to be adopt these top to bottom. services. Adoption is There will be more case studies custodian of the cloud because another issue. Security is another and references as the technology it is not a Technology per-se major concern. Bandwidth matures. nor is it a standard and we have reliability, lack of bandwidth, cost had challenges convincing the of bandwidth is also of concern Secondly, it is the immaturity of the customer. What is important is especially when you are moving cloud providers that is blocking the how it is positioned with the machine critical applications into adoption of cloud services. There customer. Secondly, if the services the cloud. are lots of cases that you can point are available on the cloud and if to cloud provider and say they it is a public cloud (eg. Google We are coming up with solutions haven’t been using encryption, Apps), then the security of the to make the customer feel haven’t had good security policies data handled by the application comfortable, like making sure that etc. Cloud providers have different is questioned. These are the the encryption keys or the key levels of maturity, and different challenges we are facing from management is executed in-house levels of confidence. customers who are hesitanti. rather than by cloud providers. We also make sure customers Thirdly, Cloud is not always One of the challenges is that can migrate data from one cloud cheaper. Many people think since the ME and Gulf is more of provider to another without that moving to the cloud is expatriate driven markets, there is significant interruptions. People a fear that if everything is deployed saving money less expense. Not are more comfortable with these in the cloud, the jobs of IT admin or always. Salesforce might be more options and this can help increase expensive than a regular CRM suite support staff could get killed. the adoption rate steadily. but still people buy it because it is better. The assumption that cloud There are also the concerns of Narendera (Seven Seas): equals cheap is not necessarily the the higher volume of data and In a generic way, there is no right way to sum up. The cloud gets size of data on the cloud and adopted when it provides better the ownership risks from that technology and better solutions perspective. Then there are no rather than necessarily saving legal laws to monitor the cloud money. There are scenarios where performance and reliability. the price maybe the decisive factor Do we have cyber laws or any but they are a smaller number compliance rules that would of cloud services rather than the monitor the alterations and penalize accordingly? These are the majority. questions on which the customers Fourthly, ubiquitous connectivity is expect an answer from us. If we still missing. The cloud still struggles don’t have an answer then it is with the fact that we don’t yet going to take the customer a while have constant connectivity all the to adopt the cloud. In spite of all time. Things are improving and the above challenges, needless to 4G networks are rolling out. For say that yes, we are all endorsing some user scenarios, the cloud still the cloud phenomenon. doesn’t fit but there are lots where it does. James (Sophos): There are five major Pramod Shetty challenges to outline to readers Product Sales Manager, Finally, the most important one for that they should carefully consider Saas & Networking, FVC 24
The Integrator | February 2012
the VAR channel – how do they make money? There are a lot of VARs that make their money not just on margins by selling products from vendors but by adding value to the product. I absolutely believe that there are equal if not more opportunities in the cloud for VARs with the cloud but it is still not very clear.
like a Bank for instance, then they want to be sure that the people managing the cloud solution haven’t been compromised. Wouldn’t the customer want to be sure that the data centre of the cloud provider be secured? Those checks haven’t been validated as of today and needs to be regulated at the earliest.
Florian (Sonicwall): The costs benefits are not necessarily the best with all cloud options and cost should not be the paramount factor of deciding for a cloud solution. One of the challenges for SMBs especially is to be sure what is good for their business. The cloud providers would have a crucial role to play especially in the SMB segment. The cloud gives the SMB the flexibility to pay as you grow which is a distinct advantage.
There could be segments that could never use cloud services; maybe the utility sector clients who cannot afford a failure because some of their cloud applications failed to deliver.
Availability of good bandwidth could be a major issue. Cost of bandwidth would be an issue as well. In addition, reactivity, scalability and flexibility are all important factors that need to be taken into consideration.
Another issue concerning cloud is software diversity. Without diversity you don’t get innovation. One concern about cloud is that while you can have massive adoption, there could be several alternative applications and then coping with this multi-culture of applications could be an issue as well.
As an appliance vendor, we do deliver cloud services underpinned with the hardware. As the customer demand for virtual applications, virtual hardware and virtual appliances are increasing, we too are moving towards delivering more such solutions. However, the debate is still on about whether virtualization of the firewall is a good idea because that’s the prime gateway to your network from the outside world. Dominic (SourceFire): Some areas need to be better defined. With whom does the responsibility of the SLA lie? Who takes the ownership of security? The service needs to be secured and that’s where the buck stops. If we were to roll out a cloud solution to a large customer
Another issue is liability in terms of the longevity of service. Lot of organizations have to think about how they can make sure they can have a multi-cloud vendor alternative as and when required.
Political factors are also food for thought including politics of geography, politics of human rights etc. Five years from today, you may be buying cloud services from China, India, America or Russia. What if at some point geopolitics goes wrong, would you be in a position to have uninterrupted services especially if your service provider is from a different geography that is in the line of political differences with the country your Business is based in? The final point I would want to highlight is the reliance of the Internet itself. People say that the Internet is designed to cope with failure well. How true is that really?
Dominic Storey Technical Director EMEA, SourceFire
Pramod (FVC): One of the earlier challenges was that there not enough opportunities for the channel to make revenues on the cloud opportunities. However that has been changing in the past couple of years, at least with some of the major vendors. As a distributor, we are seeing the opportunities. 6-7 cloud vendors have changed the way the business is done. They have seen the need to create revenue streams for partners. These vendors don’t want to do deployment services, any pre-sales service etc. on their own and are giving the opportunity to partners. This is value to our resellers. More vendors should be following suit. Moderator: Thank you Gentlemen for your views. From the discussion, there appear to be a cautious February 2012 | The Integrator
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Round Table | Cloud Computing
outlook towards the cloud computing phenomenon as it picks pace. I would request each of you to summaries some of your thoughts.
At the moment the cloud is ready for partners to innovate and add value to their customers in terms of change management, business process reengineering and customization. Today, there are certifications from major vendors for the engineers, which help charge revenues from customers for the services.
James (Sophos): My one tip for people adopting cloud services is to adopt it is through a contract. It is about expectation management. If you have a vendor commit to appropriate deliverables, you are still going to need a reasonable level of assurance so that cloud provider is least going to be no worse than you in your environment. But if you are going to a cloud provider and buying a service without making sure about the language of security then you are going to have nasty surprises sometime soon. Narendra: We discussed several factors but one I would like to point out one of the scenarios that an SI has to face. As an SI, if I was making a sale of 3000 servers in a year, today that number might be down to 800. If I was selling 10 servers to a customer, that number might be down to 2 because I am moving the customer towards virtualization and server consolidation. While the overall revenues go down, the margins might go up a bit because of the value add services that are delivered. There needs to be a balance which is comfortable for the VAR in terms of revenue opportunities. There are challenges built into the system in the vendor community, the VAR community and even customers to make the journey to the cloud and needs to be accounted for. 26
The Integrator | February 2012
Pramod (FVC): At the moment the cloud is ready for partners to innovate and add value to their customers in terms of change management, business process reengineering and customization. Today, there are certifications from major vendors for the engineers, which help charge revenues from customers for the services. It is a choice that the partner has to make. He has to decide to join the bandwagon and be part of the pioneers or be left behind in this. Iit would be easier to go back to the same set of CIOs who have been ‘cloud ready’ and bought the first apps and try and upsell to them again. In a typical customer scenario, if there is a core application around which other customized apps have been deployed which are crucial to the Business, maybe the work for the VAR would entail trying to see how the whole apps ecosystem can be reengineered into the cloud environment. Such value-add opportunities can give them the gross profits they are looking for. Florian: Messaging security applications have been among the earliest cloud services. This is one of the easiest to offer as a cloud service. I am not sure if the same holds true for some other solution areas. This is something that needs to be realized. As I said, virtualization of the firewall maybe
not be ideal for delivery via the cloud.
Mahesh: We have taken a hybrid approach that suits our customers. They may need some applications on the cloud and not all. They need ease of management from day one. We have come up with a set of tools which includes a service console for automate provisioning within their environment and they can use the same console to manage the cloud if they have applications in the cloud. Dominic: There are some applications that are easier for moving into the cloud and some which are more challenging. Further, there could be also one risk that customers need to be aware of. They are no longer in the same level of control of their applications that are on the cloud as they are when these are in their own datacenter. If one of the cloud service providers rolls out a new app version and there are shared services on the customer site between that app and other apps, there could be a potential issue of integration unless the customer has control over the instance when the upgrade rollout is happening. As for the opportunity, there is a lot for the integrators, for consultants etc to do the integration. Moderator: Thank you all for an engaging discussion and some truly insightful comments on a topic which is visibly a game changer for the industry.
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Insight | Allied Telesis
Believe it or not the IT network has been around for going on 40 years, ably connecting PCs, printers and servers to support businesses in every sector. Over the past decade the network has evolved to deliver so much more, and the introduction of keyless entry systems, video conferencing equipment, IP security cameras and VoIP, to mention but a few, means that the once neglected network is now busier than ever with savvy SMEs maximizing all available bandwidth. To date, most SMEs have powered these often high-
demand devices through traditional means, failing to realize that they can maximize their existing network to run this equipment for them. Power over Ethernet (PoE) makes it possible for SMEs to harness the network to deliver power to these network-based devices. In fact, PoE can do much more than just feed power down a cable and can bring a number of advantages to small and medium sized companies including cost and power savings, business continuity, improved control and better system backup.
“PoE is more than just remote powering” Sabbahuddin Khan Regional Manager Allied Telesis, Middle East
Sabbahuddin Khan, Regional Manager at Allied Telesis Middle East, outlines the benefits of PoE for SMEs and argues that PoE is about much more than pushing power through LAN cables.
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The Integrator | February 2012
Cost savings One of the main benefits of PoE is cost savings; it reduces the time and cost of installing separate power cabling, AC (alternating current) outlets, and wall sockets; it doesn’t require a qualified, and often expensive, electrician to install; and it eliminates the need for a dedicated UPS for individual devices connected to the Ethernet - something most SMEs would consider as an option. Green credentials The reality is that while business users have good intentions to “go green” and reduce power consumption – whether to truly improve energy efficiency, or motivated by rising energy costs – the fact is, many businesses will
leave IT equipment running all night, consuming power. How many people leave phone chargers or laptop power adaptors plugged in all the time, even when the device is not using the power source? The answer is a lot! How many offices have means of switching off networking or networked equipments like wireless Access Points (AP), IP phones or surveillance cameras? Probably one out of a million. PoE powered devices can be powered on or off remotely, giving far greater control still keeping a high security level that devices like surveillance cameras need. Powering off devices ensures you
only pay for power that you’re actually using. As well as providing power to VoIP phones for emergency use, a business owner could also power down phones using software controls, not only saving a business energy but also money. A dedicated emergency phone could be allocated, with all other phones powered down when not in use. Ease of use PoE powered devices require less cabling than AC and therefore are easier to install and replace and more convenient to use. What’s more, using fewer cables gives a “cleaner” look. With a PoE adaptor there is no need for an AC outlet at the location of the endpoint, which offers further cost savings as it eliminates the need for an electrician to install an AC outlet–a decent cost saving for an SME. PoE also provides easier access to hard-to-reach locations where there is a lack of space for power deployment, such as external walls or interior ceilings. In locations such as this, a business won’t have AC power, but may have devices that require power. PoE eliminates the need for high voltage cabling. For the larger SME with offices in different parts of Europe for example, PoE is very useful for avoiding the complication with local variances in AC standards, outlets, plugs and reliability. PoE is a standardized approach across a network. Maintaining Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) With PoE SMEs can do so much more with their UPS than simply ensuring continued power to their server. Take for example an IP phone system. In the event of a power cut, all IP phones plugged into a wall outlet will
lose power, leaving the person in charge of IT and systems with a major headache. If the power endpoints are powered through a PoE switch which is plugged into a UPS, this allows for centralized uninterruptible power and ensures power is maintained, protecting the entire system in the case of such an event. UPS is far simpler to achieve using PoE. By feeding UPS protected power to PoE switches IP telephone systems can continue to operate through a power cut having to deploy only a central UPS. Power control When PoE powered equipment hangs, the IT administrator has greater control and can power cycle off/on without so much as leaving their chair. This is easier to administer, minimizes the downtime and means that wherever you are, you can reconnect your equipment to the network. Even for smaller devices PoE has significant draws over alternatives and Allied Telesis’ AT-6102G PoE splitter enables the remote powering, hence the control, of low voltage equipment. A business user with a number of smaller electronics devices – for example, emergency lights with low wattage – can centrally control UPS powered equipment. This is a non-conventional way to maximize the potential of PoE, which has obvious benefits especially in terms of centralized and even remote control. Network control PoE also enables better control over the network. A small business owner can make power-rationing decisions centrally for all PoE devices by configuring through the switches. In the case of a fully integrated system where PoE is used to
power access points, door entry and intercom systems, SMEs can develop a management system intelligent enough to power down PoE devices while the premises is empty, providing an energy and cost efficient system for a small, cost sensitive business. With UPS, PoE allows faster and more flexible deployment and enables small businesses to better monitor power consumption. No entry PoE even has the ability to control access to your buildings. With PoE+, SMEs can supply power to a door controller for opening and closing of up to three doors. PoE powered access control systems leverage a business’s existing IT infrastructure, eliminating the need for a local power source. In addition, installation costs are lower and setup is far quicker. With standards improving all the time, devices will continue to drain less power while networks will become more and more powerful . We’re not that far off from being able to actually manage and power the entire IT system from servers to user devices as a single entity. That’s great news for small businesses where often people regularly leave their power supplies plugged in draining power even when their laptop battery is fully charged. PoE is not “the next big thing” – the fact is, it’s available now for businesses of all sizes to take advantage of. PoE will continue to gain momentum as more compatible devices are developed and new applications are found to take advantage of the benefits of PoE but the clever few are already embracing the potential of PoE to improve efficiency and energy management, and ultimately improve their bottom line profits. February 2012 | The Integrator
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Insight | Interactive Intelligence Middle East
Mapping IP communication success Evren Aker, Pre-Sales Manager, Interactive Intelligence Middle East lays out the migration roadmap for enterprises in the Middle East thinking of making a transition from a traditional PBX system to an IP Communications system
Evren Aker Pre-Sales Manager Interactive Intelligence, Middle East
system migration while leveraging the new technology and associated benefits. So how does one make an informed decision when preparing an enterprise communications system upgrade roadmap? Planning any IT technology upgrade is never easy and if it happens to involve your company's enterprise communications systemIit takes careful upfront planning and an understanding of what's currently available since the last time you did an upgrade. IP communications systems, based on a soft switch design, are rapidly replacing aging digital PBXs. All-inOne solutions support traditional telephony services and unified communications tools on a single centralized server; full featured contact center services may also be available. Today's customer has the option of fully replacing their existing system or installing a colocated IP soft switch for a gradual 30
The Integrator | February 2012
Today's Enterprise Communications System Most enterprise customers have been migrating their communications systems from traditional digital PBXs to those based on Internet Protocol (IP) communications standards. These IP communications systems support traditional telephony requirements and in addition offer customers a collection of more advanced communications services. While there are several design options available, the one of choice for most of today's customers is referred to as a soft switch based on traditional client/ server architecture topology. The advantage of this design is that the adoption of industry standards
permits compatibility between the system and third party applications and that most, if not all, of the hardware equipment is nonproprietary. In spite of these advantages, many customers chose to upgrade their digital PBX to either an IP-enabled or Hybrid system design. This is done so as to retain a sizable percent of their earlier communications systems investment. The viable option to extend the life of existing systems is to install a co-located soft switch. The customer can then execute a gradual migration of users between the two systems. It may not be an ideal situation, operating two systems, but the cost savings and performance advantages to be gained are likely to outweigh the negatives. The Basics of Unified Communications Evren Aker, Pre-Sales Manager,
Interactive Intelligence Middle East says that one of the many advantages of an IP communications system is the availability of a range of features, functions, and processes collectively referred to as Unified Communications (UC). While many customers believe IP telephony and UC to be one and the same thing, in actuality, UC offerings facilitate and enhance the traditional telephony experience, not replace it. Implementation of IP communication systems provides the necessary framework for UC solutions. Many UC features and applications are enabled by Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a prominent industry standard for IP communications systems, particularly when customers need to interface to third party solutions. Justifying an IP Communications System A new IP communications system should be viewed as a business asset, not as an expense item (which many do). And as a business asset it should help reduce existing communications expenses as well as affect how the enterprise operates and competes in the competitive market. Basic justification factors fall into two categories: hard cost savings and enhanced user/ business productivity (both real and perceived). The following are a few of the many justification factors for implementing a current generation All-in-One soft switch IP communications system. Reduced hardware costs owing to: fewer common equipment hardware elements and as a result lower maintenance costs; use of non-proprietary third party
hardware equipment which allows flexibility in design choice; option of using PC-based soft phones. Enhanced system survivability and resiliency (reducing system disasters) based on: a limited number of points of failure compared to traditional PBXs; availability of cost efficient, fully redundant and geo-distributed communications control server options; pooled media services and gateway resources; alternate transmission signaling paths among servers, gateways and endpoints. Consolidation of multiple networked PBXs by migrating to a centralized data center system design offers numerous benefits including: fewer systems with significant hardware/ software savings; easier and more manageable growth and network expansion; centralized, more efficient system administration and management; lower cost integrated voice/data network transmission services; greater user mobility across the network. The Systems Upgrade Checklist It is recommended that a comprehensive corporate communications strategy be in place well before a customer is ready to replace their aging voicecentric communications systems. This approach must address goals and objectives of the enterprise's overall business strategy and identify how a new system can contribute to such things as: revenue enhancement; cost reduction; competitive positioning; market expansion; improved customer service; and Green initiatives.
Current generation All-in-One communications systems support hundreds of features and functions and it necessary to understand and identify the distinct communications needs of many different system subscriber communities, to avoid a “one size fits all� approach. Replacing an existing communications system can be traumatic for the majority of customers, because many system subscribers are averse to change. Identifying the current communications issues that can be addressed, corrected or improved by a new communications system will help gain stakeholder support and facilitate the migration process. An incremental implementation approach across the enterprise network is recommended for purposes of manageability and to avoid too much change at once. Customers with large networks should consider having a mix of new and old communications system platforms for a few years, gradually migrating on a site-by-site basis according to a well defined time line. Sufficient training services and help desk support must be provided to cover feature operations and system interfaces (desktop telephone instruments, soft phones, mobile clients). Personal one-onone training may be mandated at the executive level and small group training for system specialist, such as attendants, system administrators, and contact center personnel is also often necessary. Systems upgrades are inevitable and a well thought out strategy can greatly ease the transition process. February 2012 | The Integrator
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eyetech
AXIS Q60-C PTZ Dome Network Camera Overview and features: The AXIS Q60-C PTZ Dome Network Cameras feature integrated active cooling for exceptional and reliable video surveillance in desert environments. The high-speed pan/tilt/zoom cameras, with powerful zoom and resolutions up to HDTV 1080p, operate in heat up to 75 °C (167 °F). With the ability to withstand sandstorms, the easy-to-install and highly compact IP cameras meet the military standard, MIL-STD-810G. The cameras are ideal for use at construction, mining and oil/gas sites, along pipeline installations and for city surveillance. AXIS Q60-C cameras can operate in 75 °C (167 °F) down to -20 °C (-4 °F), and their advanced climate control system can handle rapid temperature changes to eliminate condensation. The IP66- and NEMA 4X-rated cameras are dust- and waterproof and require no additional housing. The cameras address a range of environmental conditions specified under MIL-STD-810G, including temperature shock, solar radiation and sand. An AXIS Q60-C camera is connected to a supplied media converter switch that provides two SFP optical fiber optic slots and two RJ-45 connectors, which
give installers the flexibility to connect the camera costeffectively to the network in a daisy chain over long distances using fiber optic or standard network cables. The media converter switch also enables the camera to connect to external alarm devices via two configurable input/output ports, and to 12 V power. The camera models consist of AXIS Q6032-C (with Extended D1 resolution and 35x optical zoom), AXIS Q6034-C (with HDTV 720p and 18x optical zoom) and AXIS Q6035-C (with HDTV 1080p and 20x optical zoom). The cameras support day and night functionality, wide dynamic range, H.264 and Motion JPEG, automatic guard tour, alarm management and intelligent video capabilities such as auto-tracking, Active Gatekeeper and other video analytic applications from Axis’ partners. They are ONVIF conformant and are supported by AXIS Camera Station video management software and the industry’s largest base of application software through Axis’ Application Development Partner program. AXIS Q60-C cameras will be available for order in March 2012.
New Dell DR4000 Storage Platform with Deduplication and Compression Overview & features: Customers continue to augment or replace traditional backup and recovery environments with disk-based solutions for their speed, access and reliability. The DR4000 combines the performance and reliability of disk-based backup with innovative deduplication and compression capabilities from Dell’s Ocarina Networks acquisition. These capabilities eliminate multiple copies of the same data and enable customers to keep more data online longer and readily available in the event of a disaster or data loss event. By keeping data online for weeks or even months before moving it to archive storage, customers can more easily locate and restore important data, creating new efficiencies and reducing the total cost of ownership for their storage infrastructure.
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The Integrator | February 2012
Avaya IP office 8.0 Overview and features: Avaya IP Office 8.0 is the new version of the company’s unified communications (UC) solution for small and mid-size enterprises (SME). The new version introduces a range of advancements for improving collaboration, including a comprehensive set of mobile capabilities that drive better team performance and keep mobile workers connected to
their colleagues and customers wherever they go. The new mobility application for Avaya IP Office 8.0— called one-X Mobile Preferred for IP Office— enables users to access a comprehensive set of unified communications capabilities on Android-compatible devices today,
Key features of Avaya one-X Mobile Preferred for IP Office include: • • • • •
Full multi-party conference management via mobile device offers the ability to invite, view, mute and drop participants during a conference call. Integrated presence enables users to display availability status to co-workers via mobile device , and show specific times of availability. Instant Messaging with voice conference capabilities lets workers easily find work colleagues via an integrated corporate directory and begin a text chat. Users can also Instant Message with multiple contacts and do voice conference with all. ‘Geopresence’ displays one’s location anywhere in the world, and is ideal for teams in hospitals, hotels or companies. Visual Voicemail lets users see all of their business voicemails on their mobile device with date/time information. Users can hear voicemail messages as they are being left in real-time and access a call in progress to converse.
and on iPhone devices in early 2012. Avaya’s new one-X Mobile Preferred for IP Office application builds on the previously-available Essential Mobility solution for IP Office. Essential Mobility extends voice capabilities such as one number access and call control, and is currently supported on Symbian, Windows Mobile and iPhone devices (support for Android and Blackberry devices will be available in first quarter of 2012). Avaya IP Office 8.0 also offers new “serverless” collaboration capabilities delivered through an integrated unified communications module, called the Avaya C110 Unified Communications module. This can eliminate the need for an external server in IP Office implementations, helping to simplify deployment for partners, reduce installation times and decrease equipment costs.
The DR4000 is ideal for small- and medium-sized organisations as well as remote offices of large enterprises in need of a disk-based backup solution that can: • Eliminate redundant copies of data by decreasing disk capacity requirements up to 15 times • Reduce dependence on tape backup • Reduce bandwidth requirements for data transfer by up to 15 times • Reduce backup storage costs to as low as $0.25/GB list pricing • Reduce the footprint of backup delivering power and cooling savings in the datacentre. The DR4000, available in 40TB, 81TB or 135TB effective storage capacities in a single appliance, features inline deduplication and compression, deduplicated replication, advanced data protection, and non-disruptive deployment, certified with leading backup software applications. In addition to excellent data reduction capabilities, the DR4000 reduces storage costs over time through an all-inclusive software licensing model that allows customers to leverage all of the DR4000 current and future product capabilities without incurring additional licensing costs.
February 2012 | The Integrator
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Stats & trends
Middle East businesses are more prepared for data growth
Cloud Server Market Set to Double from 2010 to 2012
Results from Oracle’s second Next Generation Data Centre Index show that data centres in the Middle East are geared for business growth.
Spurred by the rising use of online storage and infrastructure systems to support services like Apple Inc.’s iCloud, cloud servers will enjoy robust prospects in 2012 and then move on to become the fastest-growing segment of the server industry within three years.
Some key results from the survey reveal: • Those with “very little” in place has halved from 37 to 17% with other areas all improved • Those with <10% of their IT estate virtualized is significantly down from 52% to 16%. • There has been significant improvement in sustainability planning – also knowledge has improved of data centre energy usage: in Cycle 1 61% either didn’t see or didn’t know their energy usage. In Cycle 2 this is down to 42%. Significant progress on consolidation: • those doing “nothing” about it are down from 37% to 16%, • organizations saying they have seen “no impact” are down from 42 to 16%; those using less space has gone up from 17% to 29%. Organisations now have better visibility of future workload requirements: • use of straight line prediction methods is up from 15% to 30%; • ad hoc reaction to demands from the business is down from 33% to 11% Visibility of workload performance is much improved: • reaction to user complaint down from 40% to 22%, • use of real-world performance testing has increased from 9% to 28% • Respondents stating that there is “little” alignment have dropped from 29% to 16%. Significant improvement in systems availability: • Respondents reporting “rare” or “few” outages have gone up from 37 to 53%. Failure of IT systems is better handled: • Failures handled with “no impact” are up from 9% to 15% • Failures handled with “no mission-critical impact” are up from 12 > 23% • Instances where “any failure would impact the business” are down from 13 to 3% 34
The Integrator | February 2012
Shipments of cloud servers are projected to reach 875,000 units in 2012, up a notable 35 percent from 647,000 in 2011 and nearly double the 460,000 in 2010, according to an IHS iSuppli Compute Platforms topical report from information and analysis provider IHS.High growth rates ranging from 23 to 30 percent are anticipated for each of the next three years until 2015, by which time cloud server shipments will have hit approximately 1.8 million units, as shown in the figure below. The five-year compound annual growth rate for cloud servers beginning in 2010 stands at 31 percent—five times greater than the forecast for the total server market. Cloud servers also will make up an increasing portion of total server shipments—growing from just a little more than 5 percent of the market in 2010 to more than 15 percent in 2015. Given the massive potential of cloud computing in the years to come, a number of industry players have joined the fray either as hardware or software providers. While traditional server customers such as the enterprise, the banking industry and the government bought server products from either OEMs or value-added resellers (VARs), the server sales channel is evolving into a hybrid model in light of the rising popularity of direct sales by ODMs to their nontraditional end customers. I
Worldwide Cloud Server shipment Forecast (Thousands of Units) 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Source: IHS iSuppli Research, January 2012
Wave Tech Computers LLC P.O. Box: 3421, Sharjah, Toll Free 800WAVE-8009283 info@wavetechgroup.com, www.wavetechgroup.com
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