ISSUE 29 | MAY 2015
SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORKING: THE FLEXIBLE SOLUTION TO COMPLEX NETWORKING ENVIRONMENT
ALPHA DATA NAMED ‘MOST INFLUENCING CITRIX SOLUTION ADVISOR - MEA’ 2014 ALPHA BAGS PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS IN ADOBE CHANNEL AWARDS 2014 ALPHA DATA DELIVERS MICROSOFT PRO 3 TABLETS TO EMIRATES COLLEGE FOR ADVANCED EDUCATION
Unify your network. Divide your costs. Unleash productivity. Migrate to an HP Lync-qualified, SDN-enabled unified network that can: • Boost the UC&C user experience by up to 3X • Cut network configuration time by 80% • Slash TCO by up to 47% - with payback in less than 8 months
© Copyright 2014 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
HEADLINE
Alpha Data delivers Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Tablets to Emirates College for Advanced Education College is first in the UAE to provide all Foundation Students with advanced Microsoft device
Alpha Data, the UAE’s leading systems integrator and one of the longest-standing IT companies in the country, has announced that it has supplied Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablets to the Emirates College for Advanced Education (ECAE). The college is the first in the UAE to provide all its Foundation Students with the versatile Windows 8.1-powered device. ECAE approached Alpha Data, the Authorized Reseller of Microsoft Surface Pro 3 in UAE, for help in acquiring a touch screen device that could act as both a tablet and a laptop and make learning more interesting and productive for its students. Alpha Data began the project in December 2014, gathering and understanding the requirements of the college and working directly with our partner Microsoft to fit (Leverage) the outstanding capabilities of the Surface Pro 3 with academic needs. The sleek, stylish and powerful Microsoft Surface Pro 3 has a 12” screen and a thin magnesium alloy chassis. It features a highly responsive and accurate stylus pen for quickly and accurately taking down notes. It enables students to record lectures with the rear-facing camera or use the split-screen function to record and write at the same time. Important documents can also be stored and managed via Microsoft’s OneDrive file hosting service. Amar Singh, Head of Enterprise Division, Alpha Data, said: “As the Authorized Reseller of the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 in the UAE, we had 2 – 3 initial meetings to understand the requirement and then we provided POC to the customer, this includes the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and some Apps developed by our partner Microsoft to meet their requirements, we were able to convince the customer with this POC and they decided to go for Microsoft Surface pro 3. Today’s digital society requires more integration of technology into the educational domain to further enhance the IT skills of students while accelerating their learning curve. Alpha Data will continue to engage in similar projects to help educational institutions benefit from the power of advanced technologies.”
PAGE 3 | ALPHA NEWS | MAY 2015
HEADLINE
Alpha Data named ‘Most Influencing Citrix Solution Advisor – MEA’ for 2014 at Citrix Summit in Las Vegas Systems integrator honored for outstanding deployment of virtualization, networking & cloud solutions
Product Manager of Alpha Data’s Enterprise Division, represented the company during the Summit. “These awards highlight the exceptional contributions partners across the Middle East and Africa make to our business. Citrix considers its partner ecosystem as integral to its success and it is vital that we acknowledge expertise and dedication across the region – from managing the sales cycle to customer education and the implementation of software-defined workplace solutions,” said Noman Qadir, Director, Channels, MEA, Citrix. “We congratulate Alpha Data on its success in winning ‘Most influencing Citrix Solution Advisor – MEA’ and wish it every success for the coming year.”
Alpha bags prestigious awards in Adobe Channel Awards 2014
Alpha Data, was named ‘Most Influencing Citrix Solution Advisor - Middle East Africa’ for 2014 at the 2015 Citrix Summit held recently in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The company was honored for its outstanding sales and deployment of Citrix technologies. The Citrix Summit is the annual kickoff event for both Citrix and its global network of partners. At this year’s event, Alpha Data, a Gold Citrix Solution Advisor for the Middle East region, was honored for its exceptional ability to implement market-leading Citrix technologies for virtualization, networking and cloud services - in 2014. Alpha Data has overseen several high-profile integration works using server, application and desktop virtualization, networking, software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud computing solutions developed by Citrix. Deepak M.S,
PAGE 4 | ALPHA NEWS | MAY 2015
Alpha Data received 2 prestigious awards “TOP GUN & TOP PERFORMER Awards 2014 – For over all Outstanding Performance” in the region.
TRENDS
TECH TRENDS 2015 Source: http://www.frogdesign.com/techtrends2015/ It’s our favorite time of year – when frogs from around the world examine the state of technology’s future. Below you’ll find 15 declarations and projections from experts whose work continually advances the human experience. This compilation forecasts a few of our expectations for the future, and we look forward to your feedback as we collectively consider what is to come.
01 - MOVE OVER "STEP COUNTERS"
03 - THE INTERNET OF FOOD GOES ONLINE
Fitness technology startups are primed to shake up the health and fitness wearable industry, offering true insights and recommendations for athletic training. 3D, pressure, and motion sensors are being integrated to assess form, movement quality, and muscular exertion to automatically log your workouts and provide real-time recommendations to prevent injury and improve training.
2015 will see a new roster of connected kitchen devices that will profoundly change the way we produce, consume, and interact with food. Don’t be surprised to come home to a robot cooking pizza from original Italian recipes available on the Internet, or by making coffee (almost) out of your smartphone.
Companies to watch: Sensoria, Moov, LEO, GYMWatch
Companies to watch: My Vessyl, LG
02 - EAT YOUR TECHNOLOGIES
04 - AMBIENT INTELLIGENCE KNOWS WHAT’S UP
Companies to watch: ChefJet, Mellow, 3D Robotics
The introduction of Amazon Echo is just one of many examples of ambient intelligence. We’ll see a surge in products and services that quietly pay attention to what’s happening around them - learning what people do, how they sound, and what they’re interested in - all in the service of making better guesses as to what people might need or want. Prepare for a very smart, ambient world. Companies to watch: Amazon Echo, Google Now, Microsoft Cortana
CONTINUED
PAGE 5 | ALPHA NEWS | MAY 2015
Recently, cutting edge technology has been pushing its way into the food chain. In 2015 it will finally make its way to the dinner table. From 3D printed meals to data-derived diets to efficient home farming, technology is poised to revolutionize the dinner options in a 21st century home.
TRENDS
05 - ADAPTIVE EDUCATION PERSONALIZES LEARNING
08 - THE RISE OF COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY
Adaptive technologies will become omnipresent both in and out of the classroom, providing students with the ability to learn content at their own pace and potentially test out of areas when they are ready. Real-time data will lead to more actionable items for students and teachers - allowing for a personalized path to success.
What if your app and wearable device could not only diagnose your sleep apnea, stress, and anxiety, but also provide clinically proven treatments? While wearable health activity trackers were all the rage in 2014, the future will see the rise of therapeutic solutions: data-tracking hardware paired with clinically proven software that simulates cognitive behavioral therapy.
06 - ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: YOU’RE HIRED! Hiring is time-consuming. To save time during the hiring process in 2015, more companies will turn to video games to evaluate job candidate nuances such as creativity, problem solving, and collaboration. Candidates’ game scores will be measured against scores of successful employees, making hard data alongside subjective opinions from hiring managers - an asset to predict success. Companies to watch: Knack
07 - TEXTILES GET TECHY Your everyday items will be getting an upgrade. More and more companies and designers will create innovative smart textiles embedded with new technologies and sensors, which will impact everyday lives by monitoring health, behavior, and the environment. This year the hottest wearable device might just be the shirt on your back. Companies to watch: Rochester Cloak (Invisibility Cloak), Cityzen Sciences (Smart Sensing Fabric), Grado Zero Espace
Companies to watch: Big Health, Lantern, Olive
09 - 4D PRINTING ASSEMBLES ITSELF Imagine a factory in the future where the parts of a product assemble themselves, or where physical objects can adapt to a user over time. For instance, a 4D-printed chair could become more comfortable over time, or become stronger at stress points, instead of breaking. What if? This is the aim of 4D printing, a field popularized by MIT’s Skylar Tibbits and his self-assembly lab. We’re on the verge of seeing explosive progress in the world of 4D printing. Expect to read about advancements in the field in the near future. Companies to watch: Nervous, Stratysys
CONTINUED
PAGE 6 | ALPHA NEWS | MAY 2015
Companies to watch: Knewton, Aleks, Alt School, Dreambox, Kidaptive
TRENDS
10 - MICRO-FARMING NETWORKS GO MAINSTREAM Everyone will grow their own organic lettuce and trade it on a local social network for other types of vegetables. Our habits around food production and consumption are undergoing a radical shift, from wider adoption of CSAs to the prevalence of organic food, consumers are taking control of how and what they eat with new smart food technologies. Several companies are designing easy-to-use and aesthetically pleasing hydroponics and aquaponics systems for the home, which will allow anyone to manage a mini-farm with a smartphone. Companies to watch: Niwa, Pantry Labs, IBM Deep Thunder
11 - THE EMERGENCE OF THE CASUAL PROGRAMMER “Ubiquitous (or pervasive) computing” has become the norm as microprocessors, sensors, and cloud services made their way into almost everything in our homes, cars, offices, and beyond. It is becoming too burdensome for many connected product and service companies to deliver software that can anticipate use cases and integration points of thousands of new connected products coming to market. A shift is underway in software and service design where the command and control of this complex connected world around us will rely on “casual programming” experiences - giving every day, non-programming people the tools, services, and APIs usually reserved for the hackers and technology elite in friendly and accessible forms. Companies to watch: IFTTT, Wink, Zapier
PAGE 7 | ALPHA NEWS | MAY 2015
12 - PERSONAL DARKNETS IN THE SPOTLIGHT Secure messaging had the reputation of being for shady people. But ever since a series of high-profile hacks in 2014 laid bare the private lives of several celebrities - as well as thousands of civilians - there has been massive interest in messaging (voice, text, photo, and video) that is meant to be fundamentally secure from snooping. A new set of products emerged to take up this challenge, including everything from personal data vaults, to secure encrypted calls, to video chats. Expect to see even more platforms that make it easier for you to live anonymously online. Companies to watch: Silent Circle’s Blackphone, SpiderOak Cloud Storage, Geeksphone, DarkMail Alliance
13 - DIGITAL CURRENCY REPLACES LEGAL TENDER Digital currencies, including crypto-currencies, will thrive. Governments are exploring frameworks and systems to regulate and manage digital currencies, which will make their ubiquity in our everyday financial vernacular more profound. Ecuador’s Congress recently approved a reform to create a digital currency, and the New York State Department of Financial Services is considering establishing virtual currency exchanges. We can expect digital currencies to be used interchangeably with legal tender, giving birth to a frictionless, agile, universal payment system that will expand beyond the current banking ecosystem. Companies to watch: Government of Ecuador, The UK Government, New York State Department of Financial Services
Enjoy a 0% Installment Payment Plan for 3, 6 months on a minimum purchase of AED 1,000 made with your ADCB Credit Card at Alpha Data.
Surface 3 64GB HDD - 4GB RAM
Surface 3 128GB HDD - 4GB RAM
AED 2,175
AED 2,550
6 months installment = AED 362.5 / month
6 months installment = AED 425 / month
Quad Core Intel AtomTM x7-Z8700 processor 1.6GHz (2.4GHz burst speed) - 10.8� multi-touch screen, 1920x1280 resolution, 3:2 aspect ratio - 3.5MP front-facing - 8.0MP rear-facing with autofocus - USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort, microSDTM card reader
Type Cover Switch Between tablet and laptop in a snap
AED 499
Docking Station For the ultimate workstation experience
AED 655
To book your order kindly contact: Nishanth Shashidhar Mob: +971-52-8653798 nishanth@alpha.ae
Ram Arya Mob: +971-55-7698099 ram@alpha.ae
*First come first serve basis delivery starting from 15th of June, 2015
FEATURE
SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORKING: THE FLEXIBLE SOLUTION TO COMPLEX NETWORKING ENVIRONMENT By Sandeep Kokroo The advent of social media, mobile devices and cloud computing is overtaxing traditional networks. While rapid and dramatic innovations in automation and virtualization have exponentially enhanced computing power and storage capabilities, enterprise IT Administrators are often frustrated by delays caused by manual and inflexible network operations. A new paradigm that is addressing this major gap and revolutionizing computer networking in the process is Software-Defined Networking (SDN), an approach that enables network administrators to manage networks services via abstractions of lower-level functionality. SDN provides a flexible way to control the network so it can function like virtualized versions of today’s compute and storage capabilities. Through SDN, administrators can design, build, and manage networks that separate the Control Plane – the logic for controlling forwarding behavior such as security policies and routing protocol – from the Data Plane which forwards network traffic according to Control Plane logic. The SDN concept was originally implemented by networking vendors to deliver specific functions by separating the Data and Control Planes. When used as a full-fledged technology, SDN facilitates the programming of an entire network and the provisioning of application program interfaces or APIs using external systems rather than the conventional route of configuring individual devices. Sandeep Kokroo, Head Business Unit Service Provider - Networking & Telecom Department, Alpha Data, said: “SDN is an emerging technology which empowers IT-reliant organizations to replace the manual interfaces of their networks with programmatic versions that can automate key tasks such as configuration and policy management and even set the network to respond to specific application requirements on the fly. CONTINUED
PAGE 9 | ALPHA NEWS | MAY 2015
FEATURE
It is an important evolutionary step in networking that will enable organizations to more easily adapt to the complexities brought about by virtualization, cloud, and mobility through higher degrees of security, scalability, and manageability.” Alpha Data, one of the largest multi-disciplined systems integrators in the UAE, now has the capability to deploy SDN as a centralized, programmable network that can dynamically provision to address the changing needs of businesses accordingly. According to the company, enterprises that incorporate SDN into their IT infrastructure benefit from dynamic access control, seamless mobility and/or migration, a centralized network state, server load balancing, network virtualization, multiple wireless access points, energy-efficient networking, adaptive traffic monitoring, and denial of service, among others. From an economical point of view, Alpha Data notes that SDN reduces capital costs as it reduces the need to acquire purpose-built, application-specific integrated circuit -based networking hardware and instead allows for the adoption of ‘pay-as-you-grow’ models. The technology also drives down operating expenses as it makes network design, management, deployment and scaling easier. Moreover, the ability to automate provisioning and execution maximizes service availability and reliability by reducing overall management time and the possibility of human error. In today’s highly competitive business landscape, SDN offers the added edge of enabling organizations to quickly deploy new applications, services and infrastructure in step with evolving business goals and objectives. In addition, enterprises can tap SDN to drive new types of applications, services, and business models that can generate fresh revenue streams and squeeze more value out of the network. A growing number of organizations – including carrier and service providers, cloud and data centers, and even enterprise campuses – are shifting to Software-Defined Networking to address the enormous network demands spurred by mobility, the cloud and social media. With the Middle East emerging as a dynamic information and communications technology hub and a center for global business, specialists such as Alpha Data will be instrumental to ensuring that the region’s organizations derive maximum value from their network infrastructure amidst a constantly evolving enterprise IT landscape.
Sandeep Kokroo, is working as Head Business Unit Service Provider - Networking & Telecom Department at Alpha Data, with B.E. in Electronics and Communication from Karnatka University, India. A successful, and target driven leader with 21 years of in depth experience in Networking and Telecom industry. Away from the office, Sandeep is a dedicated family man, and avid technology follower.
PAGE 10 | ALPHA NEWS | MAY 2015
INTERVIEW WITH AN EXPERT
Discover Software-Defined-Network (SDN) Q: What is software-defined networking (SDN)? Imran Ali: Today, traditional switches are appliances with collections of routing / switching protocols delivered in a box. The networking appliance does not allow you (or any other external application) to directly control the decision making for switching the packets based on type of traffic. SDN architecture based network solution (physical or virtual) decouple control and data planes of the network, which translates to having the ability to influence and manipulate network traffic routing based on what benefits your business needs. Furthermore, the network can have a centralized control plane and the network can even be virtualized if required. Q: How do you see SDN coming to our markets? Imran Ali: SDN is networking paradigm shift which allows to align the network with business objectives. It provides agility and eliminates the ‘’human middle-ware’’ - aspect that we see in the legacy networks. It provides flexibility and rapid application deployment, and brings automation across the network from data center to campus and branch. Benefits of SDN adoption are clear, and we see more and more customers asking about SDN in the Middle East. Q: What is HP’s approach to SDN? Imran Ali: HP has created the most open, integrated SDN portfolio and ecosystem driving simplification. This creates networks that understand and adapt to your business applications in real-time. HP is the only vendor who has SDN App store where customer can access 3rd Party Applications directly. Also, HP has the highest number of Open flow switches in its portfolio. HP SDN Controller is an Enterprise class high availability controller. It has been downloaded more than 10,000 times in less than 6 months – an accomplishment that took one of our competing controller vendor more than 2-years to accomplish.
Imran has fifteen years of experience in the IT industry. He has served in multiple roles in companies like HP, Nokia Networks and Juniper, and his responsibilities included network design, implementation, architecture, engineering, administration and management. Imran is certified in various HP, Microsoft, Cisco and Juniper technologies, and he utilizes these skills in his current position as Solution Architect, combining both his exceptional technical sales- and implementation experience.
PAGE 11 | ALPHA NEWS | MAY 2015
THE TEAM The company is comprised of a team of individuals who have experience in the IT, Construction, and HR industries.
THE MISSION Guided by a primary principle of “bringing out the best in everyone we work with� our level of service is second to none.
For more information please visit: www.alphadatarecruitment.ae
RECRUITMENT Alpha Data also offers recruitment services to customers, we have an accurate understanding of management issues.
OUTSOURCING The primary activity of the company is outsourcing resources to customers who are looking for excellent people who are able to contribute to the organizations they work for.