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A realm of endless possibility

Editorial Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5678

IoT. It’s provided excellent fodder for animated discussions at technology seminars and often meant different things to different people. It’s been a hot buzzword in the tech industry for the last couple of years now. So far, despite all the hype, we haven’t seen many IoT products and services, but that is starting to change. If you scan the technology press, it’s hard to miss the announcements made by the top-tier vendors. Dell has recently set up its first dedicated IoT lab in Limerick, Ireland. IBM is pumping $3 billion into its new IoT business unit, and HP has splashed around the same amount of money to acquire Aruba Networks in a bid to move into the IoT space. Also, this year, we have seen a spate of IoT products and gadgets come into the marketplace, along with platforms and tools.

More importantly, the technology industry seems to have reached a consensus on what IoT means and entails, and we are only just starting to understand the impact it will have on businesses, cities and The technology individuals. Though IoT is defined as a network of physical objects with embedded technology, I industry seems think the term itself is actually a bit misleading, to have reached as it doesn’t always involve the Internet. The most a consensus on interesting definition of IoT that I have come across what IoT means recently is from Michael Portman, a professor at and entails, and Harvard University. To paraphrase him – “what makes smart, connected products fundamentally we are only different is not the Internet, but the changing nature just starting to of things. It is the expanded capabilities of smart, understand the connected products and the data they generate that impact it will have. are ushering in a new era of competition.”

It’s also fair to say IoT is an evolution of M2M, and in fact, it is the steep decline in the cost of sensors over the last decade that is driving IoT into the mainstream.

How do you take advantage of all of the sensors in every stage of business from the point of production to sales, and connect those together?

Talk to us:

E-mail: jeevan.thankappan@ cpimediagroup.com

Editor Annie Bricker annie.bricker@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 1643 Deputy Editor James Dartnell james.dartnell@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5684 Online Editor Adelle Geronimo adelle.geronimo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5683 ADVERTISING Commercial Director Chris Stevenson chris.stevenson@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5674 Group Sales Director Kausar Syed kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 1647 Sales Manager Merle Carrasco merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5676 Circulation Circulation Manager Rajeesh M rajeesh.nair@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5682 Production and Design Production Manager James P Tharian james.tharian@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5673 Designer Analou Balbero analou.balbero@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5680 Neha Kalvani neha.kalvani@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 3751644 DIGITAL SERVICES Web Developer Jefferson de Joya Photographer Charls Thomas webmaster@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9100

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Our events

EDITORIAL

I was promised hoverboards Talk to us:

So far in 2015, we have seen a great deal of progress in terms of technology. Compute power is becoming more compact and mobile, video conferencing applications are coming ever-closer to replicating live conversations, and everything from refrigerators to trousers are becoming smart. I admit, however, that I am left wanting – I was promised hoverboards.

The 1989 Michael J. Fox sequel Back to the Future II was largely set in the futuristic vision of the year 2015, and much to the delight of my entire generation, featured the levitating, wheel-free skateboard. Sure, there have been a few outfits that have attempted to create a viable prototype, most recently Lexus, but there has yet to be a version that comes close to mass production.

The fact that companies have at least attempted, and in some cases achieved, a measure of success in hoverboard ventures, is a positive sign, not just for the commodification of nostalgia, but for the progress of technology as a whole. We are coming around to developing gadgets that we only dreamed of a few decades ago.

We are coming This is not particularly new – who knows how around to much the touch screen tablets used in Star Trek affected developing gadgets the development of the modern incantation of the that we only technology.

The point is that we are fast turning science dreamed of a few fiction in to reality.

It makes me wonder – what kinds decades ago. of technology are we imagining today that will come to fruition in the next generation?

Recently released films such as Ex Machina and Lucy depict a world of singularity – where the lines between man and machine have blurred. Most analysts agree that we are coming up to a shift in our relationship with technology. Certainly, recent developments in artificial intelligence and human non-biological enhancements are bringing us closer to what might be the realisation of so many imagined worlds.

If this future is upon us, it stands to reason that it will fundamentally change the way we do business. In much the same way that the factory line changed manufacturing, a world in which machines can autonomously make decisions will drastically change the technological landscape. The assumption is that these changes will be positive, and alleviate instances of human error.

In the meantime, I need to get my hands – and feet – on a hoverboard.

E-mail: annie.bricker@ cpimediagroup.com

Big Data

Symposium

Our online platforms

Our social media

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Annie Bricker Editor linkedin.com/in/computernewsme

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Contents

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ISSUE 282 | july 2015

18

etisalat public and private sector workshops

Oasis investment It director madukar chaturvedi

28

United arab emirates university

16 Dell Innovation Day

48 Behaving badly

20 Partnership prosperity

52 Fast and fitted

21

32

Dell hosted in Denmark to showcase its renewed focus on innovation and enterprise offerings - a reflection of a continued strategic shift.

Lenovo's Tech World conference in Beijing brought with it a lineup of elite industry CEOs, product launches and new concepts.

Czech connect

EMC's annual CIO Connect Summit in Prague delved into how IT chiefs can continue to redefine the agenda.

40 In their hands cxo Corner: emirates group finance svp

www.cnmeonline.com

More often than not, employees make their own decisions when it comes to devices and software. Is this shift a benefit or a burden to the IT crowd?

24

Even the most robust IT security infrastructure can be compromised by one thing - employees with bad security habits.

G.Fast technology aims to bring broadband speed to users over existing copper lines. Is this technology ready to go, or will we see stop lights ahead?

59 Rethinking security

Citrix Regional Sales VP Johnny Karam on the "five W's" of modern security landscapes.

62 Middle East calling

Opportunities are changing the region as the SMB market expands.

How will this affect our regional telco operators?

july 2015

7

THE PROBLEM WITH

SECRET QUESTIONS Secret questions are either secure or easy to remember - but rarely both.

EASY ANSWERS AREN’T SECURE

HARD ANSWERS AREN’T AS USABLE

of English-speaking U.S. users couldn’t recall their secret question answer.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FOOD? With one guess, an attacker’s chance of guessing English-speaking users’ answer to this question is

19.7%

40%

>> The same users could remember reset codes sent via text messages or email 75% and 80% of the time, respectively.

WITH TEN GUESSES AN ATTACKER HAS A...

24%

CHANCE OF

21%

CHANCE OF

39%

CHANCE OF

HARD TO REMEMBER, HARD TO USE Guessing Arabic-speaking users’ answers to “What is your father’s middle name?”

Guessing Spanish-speaking users’ answers to “What is your father’s middle name?”

“ What is your library card number?”

>>

“ What is your frequent flyer number?”

9%

Guessing Korean-speaking users’ answers to “What is your city of birth?”

RECALL RATE

ENGLISH-SPEAKING USER IN THE U.S.

And a 43% chance of guessing their favourite food!

TRY TO FAKE IT

22%

RECALL RATE

55%

>>

37%

of people intentionally provide false answers to their questions

Because people choose the same false answers. This tactic actually increases the likelihood that an attacker can break in.

Success rate for the question, “What is your first phone number?”

The question, “What is your father’s middle name?” had a successful rate of

76%

WHY NOT JUST ADD MORE SECRET QUESTIONS? More questions means difficulty, for both attackers and users. #1 EASIEST QUESTION

#2 EASIEST QUESTION

“WHAT CITY YOU WERE BORN IN?”

“WHAT IS YOUR FATHER’S MIDDLE NAME?”

USER RECALL RATE

ATTACKER SUCCESS RATE

MORE THAN

WITH 10 GUESSES

79%

6.9%

USER RECALL RATE

ATTACKER SUCCESS RATE WITH 10 GUESSES

74%

14.6%

WHEN BOTH ARE ASKED TOGETHER USER RECALL RATE

ATTACKER SUCCESS RATE

ONLY

WITH 10 GUESSES

59%

1% >>

SOURCE: GOOGLE

towards the right direction...

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James Dartnell Deputy Editor, CNME

Column

Masked plan H

acktivist group Anonymous is at it again. More often than not when there’s some degree of moral injustice, they won’t be far away with their filmed threats of hacking and online mischief.

Their most recent ‘victims’ have been hate group the Westboro Baptist Church - who had threatened to disrupt the funerals of Charleston shooting victims in South Carolina - after Anonymous vowed to hack its website.

Looking forward, it will also be interesting to see how far Anonymous will take their 'work' in the interest of hacktivism.

The organisation is no stranger to the Middle East. Following allegations of vote rigging in the 2009 Iranian election, Anonymous, along with Pirate Bay and other associated groups, launched Anonymous Iran, a website in support of the opposition group The Iran Green Movement. Although this was an www.cnmeonline.com

act of solidarity, it didn’t hugely affect former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s power.

In March, Anonymous released the names of 9,200 Twitter accounts suspected of being affiliated with fundamentalist group ISIS. Farther afield, although it claims not to be affiliated with whistleblowing organisation WikiLeaks, in 2010 Anonymous launched denial of service attacks against MasterCard, who stopped processing payments associated with Julian Assange’s website, arguably the biggest corporation Anonymous has taken on.

Security vendors will – with some justification – label organisations like Anonymous as criminals and even terrorists – as they disregard laws and continue to exhibit security flaws.

However, while the immense cyber-power of nation states such as the U.S., Russia and China will always lean towards self-interest, hacktivists

like Anonymous can – at least – use the cloak of moral decency to exert their influence.

Who knows what impact this could have closer to home? Politically corrupt countries in the region will surely be future targets.

The organisation’s ability to shut down channels of communication within governments – and potentially of growing organisations like ISIS, who are estimated to have around 50,000 followers – is where its strength lies.

While it would be unwise to underestimate the abilities of such organisations, Anonymous and other hacktivism groups could surely inflict damage on their operations.

Although the illegal actions of Anonymous cannot be entirely condoned, they must be credited for raising the alarm to certain international issues, and, as the journalistic maxim goes 'afflicting the comfortable.' july 2015

11

CIO Soundbites What restrictions do you place on your employees’ network usage?

Neil Menezes, Vice President, IT Operations, Jumeirah Group “We’ve defined a fine line between operational efficiencies and security requirements to keep our information and digital assets protected. Due to the nature of our business we cannot restrict social networking sites, however, we do have some very intelligent systems that filter website usage. In addition, our colleagues have restricted profiles on desktops and notebooks, and USB access is also only granted based on justifiable business requirements.”

Rusty Bruns, Chief Information Officer, American University of Kuwait “Every staff member and student has usernames and passwords that expire every six months. Access to certain material is defined by username and password position; faculty members are on one level, followed by staff and then students.”

Faizal Eledath, Chief Information Officer, National Bank of Oman “We empower employees in the organisation to experience the power of technology, keeping in mind three vital principles: need to know, need to do and least privilege. By applying these principles, the employee’s network usage is governed through periodic reporting that allows the management to oversee the productivity and risk factors to the organisation.”

12

july 2015

www.cnmeonline.com

Scale smarter.

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Visit Dell.com/accelerate Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

1 Based on Principled Technologies report ‘Simplifying systems management with Dell OpenManage on 13G Dell PowerEdge servers’, September 2014, commissioned by Dell, testing Dell’s 13th generation R730 with Enterprise-level Dell systems management. As compared to manual configuration.

2 Based on product specifications for Intel S3700 SATA SSD and Express Flash results from the Storage Networking Industry Association.

3 Based on Dell internal analysis August 2014 comparing SATA SSDs to Express Flash - PCIe-Gen3 x4 testing random reads. ©2014 Dell, Inc. Dell is a registered trademark of Dell, Inc. Pudae ratet faces rerrori beaquide ped etusae. Um lant, test fugiaes dit rem qui aribusd aepuditatur aut apit lam sandebisque ea volupienis ent, odipiendaeIhicatem rem eatur adiasim porero berum sim rem dolora es ad quam, to debitis est dolorest, omnihit la santusam re, corrovid ut aditias eseque ad

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short takes

Month in view

Dell to open IoT lab

Dell has revealed it will launch a dedicated Internet of Things (IoT) lab in Limerick, Ireland to focus on creating end-to-end IoT software, hardware and services.

Announced at the US vendor’s EMEA Innovation Day event in Copenhagen, the IoT lab follows the creation of a similar facility in Santa Clara, California last November.

The Lab will provide customers with a space to build, architect and test IoT solutions, with Dell engineers helping build proof of concepts.

John Swainson, Head of Dell’s software group, said, “The IoT is about connecting every individual element of a business back together with the rest of the business, and being able to use the information you can gleam from that in innovative ways.”

The company also unveiled a new wireless IoT gateway to help secure and process sensor data at the edge of a network.

The device is designed to provide analytics at the edge of a network, reducing costs associated with transferring data to the cloud or a data centre, and features a two core Intel processor, supports OS’s including Wind River Linux, Ubuntu and Microsoft Windows IoT. 14

july 2015

Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht sentenced to life in prison Silk Road creator and chief operator Ross Ulbricht has been given two life sentences in prison for running the online criminal activity marketplace. Federal prosecutors estimated that the operation generated sales of more than $213 million from drugs and other unlawful goods between 2011 and 2013.

The life sentences are to be served concurrently, along with a five-year sentence for hacking and twenty years for money laundering. He also alledgedly sought to arrange the murders of five people.

In February, Ulbricht was found guilty of multiple charges related to the operation of Silk Road, including narcotics conspiracy, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to commit computer hacking and money laundering.

The narcotics and criminal enterprise charges carry maximum penalties of life in prison. Under current US federal sentencing laws, Ulbricht faces at least 20 years behind bars.

“Silk Road was terribly destructive to our social fabric,” Judge Katherine Forrest told Ulbricht in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.

Parents of two of the six people who

died from drug overdoses linked to Silk Road purchases also spoke in detail about the deaths of their children, and both asserted the victims would not have died had it not been for the easy accessibility of drugs on Silk Road.

Ulbricht’s lawyer Joshua Dratel had argued that federal prosecutors had little direct evidence of Ulbricht’s involvement with the site during the peak of its operations, claiming he had left it to others to operate.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has announced that he will leave the company on 1st July after months of pressure from disgruntled investors. www.cnmeonline.com

Ex-Nokia chief Stephen Elop will depart Microsoft following CEO Satya Nadella’s decision to reshuffle the number of the company’s engineering divisions from four to three.

SAP launches new HANA IoT features Aiming to better equip enterprises for Big Data and the Internet of Things at an enterprise scale, SAP has rolled out a host of new features in its HANA platform and predictive analytics portfolio.

The service pack 10 (SPS10) software is the biggest update to the in-memory database platform since its launch in 2010.

“Among the software’s most notable additions is a new remote datasynchronisation feature that enables organisations to synchronise data between the enterprise and remote locations at the edge of the network,” said Steve Lucas, President of Platform Solutions, SAP. Through the new platform,

Oracle launches 24 new cloud services Oracle has launched a number of new cloud services that the company claims will provide enterprises with all the tools they need to run their operations in the cloud.

Among the 24 new cloud offerings Monday are computer, storage and data management services.

“We’re now able to call our cloud services complete,” said former CEO and current Executive Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison said. “You can now move all your applications out of the data centre and into the Oracle cloud.”

One, the Mobile Cloud Service, is a set of tools for developing an Android or iOS app that runs entirely in the cloud. The developer can use the service to build a user interface, as well as for setting up an API for data www.cnmeonline.com

exchange. All development is done entirely within a browser, eliminating the need for installing software on each developer’s desktop computer.

Developers can use their own preferred languages or use Oracle’s Mobile Application Framework. The service also includes a software development kit (SDK) that allows developers to instrument their app, so they can tell who is using it, and how it is being used.

The company has also launched Integration Cloud Service, which provides a way for organisations to combine their different enterprise applications and cloud services so they can work together.

The company has also updated its Business Intelligence Cloud Service with new tools to visualise data.

developers can now build IoT and dataintensive mobile apps that leverage SAP HANA remote data synchronisation between the enterprise and remote locations via SAP SQL Anywhere embeddable database technology.

The result is that data from dispersed workplaces and remote locations can more easily be securely captured, accessed and fed back into SAP Hana.

SAP has also advanced its software’s analytics capabilities, not just in the core HANA platform but also in its predictiveanalytics portfolio.

Version 2.2 of SAP Predictive Analytics suite is now better-equipped to accommodate wide data sets and use them for predictive modelling.

Blackberry considering Android device According to recent reports, the next Blackberry smartphone could run Android.

However, it doesn’t look like BlackBerry would turn into just another Android vendor. Instead, the Android device would only be incorporated into BlackBerry.

Once the leading smartphone vendor, BlackBerry devices are slowly going extinct, accounting for less than one percent of worldwide smartphone sales during the first three months of 2015, according to market research firm Gartner.

Reuters news agency has said that the curved touchscreen slider device that the company showed off during Mobile World Congress could end up being its first Android phone.

It’s not clear whether a BlackBerrybranded Android device would be available to consumers or remain strictly an enterprise product.

Reuters also suggests that even if BlackBerry produces an Android-based phone it could still produce devices using its own operating system, BlackBerry 10.

So far BlackBerry reportedly hasn’t committed to anything, which means this may yet be another moment where the BlackBerry-Android mashup fails to appear. july 2015

15

EVENT

Dell innovation day

The winning formula With a renewed focus on innovation and enterprise technologies, Dell is raising the stakes with an end-to-end, solutions-oriented strategy. Jeevan Thankappan reports from Dell Innovation Day in Copenhagen, Denmark.

aving gone private almost two years ago, Dell has made good on its promise to go back to its B2B roots and focus on innovation with a customer-first strategy.

With some of its major competitors in transition, Dell has ramped up its enterprise offerings – from clients to cloud – and plans to tap into emerging technologies to drive growth and create new lines of business.

“This is a great time to talk about innovation, which takes many forms," said John Swainson, President, Dell Software, in his keynote address.

"They have all come together to create a society of the future, underpinned by technology, which has become a catalyst, influencing the way we think about the world, ways we do business and communicate.

Technology has become the key to unlocking human potential in the coming years."

He said cloud now offers new ways of virtually delivering every product and service in a faster and responsive manner, and the incredible advances in the base tehcnology itself has opened opportunities to not just carry out existing processes more efficiently but also to execute

H

16

july 2015

new processes in a manner that was previousloy unimaginable.

Dell, who had more patents in 2014 than any year in its history, is focusing its R&D initiatives on democratising the bleeding edge of technology to make it available to enterprise customers. “We are the largest hyperscale systems supplier and now we want to make them affordable and push them to our enterprise customers. We have also invested in Dell Financial Services to offer financial support for customers and have already done 100 plus PoCs this year to date,” said Jai Menon, Chief Research Officer, Dell Research, which was set up two years ago.

Menon also shared Dell’s annual technology outlook, the vendor’s take on disruptive technology trends and inflection points. “By 2020, specialisation via software will beat custom hardware, and servers will continue to advance in performance, memory capacity and bandwidth," he said. "A single server's capacity will exceed the entire printed collection of the US library of congress. We will also see the emergence of softwarebased data centres and enterprise data centres will be simplified to servers."

Dell’s outlook also says that by

2020, the majority of real-time data analytics will be seamlessly integrated into business processes, and will become democratised, instantly applicable and easy to consume.

A recurring message during the conference was the advantage of being a private company.

“It allows you to the focus more on what's ultimately important – our customers - and it’s already showing in our results," said Matt Baker, Executive Director, Enterprise strategy. "In EMEA, we are now number three behind Cisco and HP in networking, having come up from a lower position previously. We also grew our storage business while the rest of the market remained flat. In the server market, we are number two, and only 24,000 units behind number one. We remained the market leader in the density optimised space, which is more tailored towards hyperscale service providers."

While its major competitors are cutting costs and employees, Dell is continuing to invest in new lines of business and market coverage models, led by channel especially in the MEA market. Will this provide what it needs to reclaim its former glory? Dell, at least for now, appears to be on the right track. www.cnmeonline.com

Manage, order, track and pay anytime anywhere Etisalat’s Business Online Portal gives you all the tools your business needs Etisalat Business customers can now view and pay bills, place and track orders, report and manage service requests and so much more on the new Business Online Portal. Log in today and enjoy online support services from Etisalat securely and conveniently without having to pick up

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EVENT

Etisalat

Public and Private – Etisalat enables the region and its businesses On 9th and 10th June, Etisalat hosted events that aimed to show how the company can enable organisations, both public and private, to bring their processes and services into the digital age. n 9th June, experts from Etisalat, along with 200 IT professionals from across the private sector, gathered to discuss emerging trends in the industry, as well as improved services from Etisalat. As the UAE is home to one of the most diversified private sectors in the world, Etisalat takes the needs of each industry seriously.

O

18

july 2015

Ragy Magdy, Vice President, Enterprise Private, Etisalat, kicked off the event. “We are taking a ‘triple S’ approach,” he said. “We are improving structure, rolling out new systems and introducing new solutions.” He went on to explain how Etisalat is evolving with the changing digital landscape, and the company has adopted its approach to meet their customers’ changing needs.

Muhammad Rehan Sami, Director, Solution Architecture, Etisalat, then took to the stage to discuss the company’s managed services offerings.

Managed services are unquestionably the way of the future, said Sami, as companies need to reduce operating expenses and increase operational efficiency. “Etisalat’s new managed service offerings include enhanced SLAs, more control to the customer, www.cnmeonline.com

and new and enhanced portals,” he said. “This is certainly leading the managed services trend in the region.”

Rudolf Sarah, Vice President, Cloud Digital Services, Etisalat, then addressed the crowd to discuss how customers can get more for their money by leveraging cloud technology.

“Cloud is powering digital,” he said, “and reshaping IT across industries.”

When addressing new technologies, security is always a priority. Kamran Ahsan, Senior Director of Digital Security Solutions, Etisalat, outlined the security solutions that the company has on offer, as well as the state of security in the nation and worldwide.

“Etisalat provides hybrid DDoS Mitigation services, vulnerability management services, mail security services and security device monitoring, 24×7,” he explained.

Saif AlSalman, Senior Director Enterprise Global Services, Etisalat, then outlined the company’s global strategy and global value proposition, as well as a number of success stories from Etisalat customers. Emirates Airline is one of many satisfied Etisalat customers, AlSalman said.

“We implemented solutions at 308 sites for Emirates, including 120 airports in 70 countries.” Óscar Gómez, Sr. Vice President, Business Marketing, Etisalat, then addressed the room of customers to explore another disruptive technology – mobility. Enterprise mobility in particular, he said, is changing the face of the workforce.

“Our enterprise mobility solutions can enable the business transition from mobile connectivity to mobile workspace,” he said.

Another technology changing private businesses is mobile payment. www.cnmeonline.com

latest movement in the industry – the These days, retailers can be left behind Internet of Things. “We should question if they are not able to accept payments what service models can be established on the go. Ksenia Held, Manager, by having real-time data from our Solutions Marketing, Digital Payments, products and remotely communicating gave the crowd an overview of how with them,” said Eldem.

Etisalat’s mCashier mobile payment Following Eldem’s presentation, technology is freeing small to medium was Mohammed Shael Al Saadi, Chief business owners from the need to Executive Officer, Department of either rely solely on cash, or to invest Economic Development, Government in expensive payment solutions. of Dubai, who provided insights in “mCashier provides the ability to terms of having a ‘Connected Dubai’, perform debit and credit transactions outlining various IoT and Smart City using a portable mobile device,” she projects that the Emirate has. said of the new technology.

Next, Ahsan took the stage for the The day wrapped up with a second day in a row to discuss security presentation by Jose Sanchez, Sr. Vice in government services. “Etisalat’s goal,” President, Solutions Architecture, he said, “is to protect its customers Service Delivery & Project against the full Management, spectrum of Etisalat, who “Our enterprise modern DDoS outlined exactly mobility solutions can attacks by what Etisalat’s combining the customers enable the business want to hear transition from mobile power of onpremise and – the details connectivity to mobile cloud-based of Etisalat’s mitigation.” revamped workspace.”

Both cloud service model. and mobile “We have heard payment solutions were discussed, our customer feedback, and we are with the mCashier technology again changing the way we provide service at the centre of attention. After a brief and address issues,” said Sanchez. break, Mohannad Hijazi, Director, June 10 brought another engaging Business Marketing – Managed event by Etisalat, this time to address Services, Etisalat, addressed the crowd the needs of government agencies. Ali to highlight how Etisalat’s improved AlRashed, Director, Dubai Government managed services offerings can enable Sales, Etisalat, began the day’s event, government entities to focus on their by introducing both the agenda and the core operations. keynote speaker, Abdulla Al Ahmed, Both events, for public Senior Vice President, Government and private operations, were Sales, Etisalat. Al Ahmed outlined the unquestionable successes. Not company’s comprehensive plan for only did Etisalat discuss new and economic, social and human resources improved services and offerings, development. but also showed that their Ethem Eldem, Senior Director, customer relationships are of the M2M and Internet of Things, Etisalat, utmost importance. then took the stage to unravel the july 2015

19

EVENT

Lenovo

Prolific Partnerships Promotional gimmicks aside, Lenovo’s Tech World conference boasted a formidable roster of elite industry CEOs as well as some exciting product launches and demos. On the enterprise side, the firm also discussed its strategy to usher in more services and solutions-oriented offerings. James Dartnell reports from Beijing.

n array of renowned speakers adorned the event – conveying Lenovo's formidable position within the consumer IT space – showing the company has a partner network which can seriously dent the enterprise IT market.

CEO Yang Yuanqing's keynote was followed by presentations from Intel top-dog Brian Krzanich, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Baidu’s Robin Li. There was a unique buzz around Tech World. Affectionately known by Lenovo’s “fans” – 700 neon bannerhoisting techies – as ‘YY’, Yuanqing is something of a cult hero in China. He described how devices “are becoming an extension of humans.”

“Lenovo will focus on select relationships in the future,” he said.

“The relationship between person and device, device and network, device and device and the individual and their data will be key. We are reaching a stage where we are strong enough in the mobile, PC and infrastructure businesses to deliver

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the ecosystem that can support all these connections.”

Those aren’t the only shifting relationships within Lenovo, according to the company’s EMEA President Eric Cador. He described how Lenovo would be enhancing its software and services offerings. “We are aligning with our partner software companies – including VMware, Citrix and Microsoft – to provide cloud along with our other infrastructure services; we don’t want to be known solely as a hardware provider,” he said.

Company CTO Peter Hortensius announced Lenovo’s new Vibe Shot smartphone, which features a 5” HD display, 16 MP camera and Octa-core, 64-bit processor.

He also discussed other technologies the company has in the pipeline as part of its annual $1.5 billion R&D spend, including a smartphone with laser projection software – Lenovo’s Smart Cast technology, which features keyboard or gaming screen - and a dual screen smartwatch.

Concert pianist Lang Lang was brought on stage to demo Smart Cast, and played muscial notes off a projected keyboard, then an actual piano with Yuanqing flicking through projected notation pages as he played.

Following the Vibe Shot launch and product presentations, Krzanich highlighted the role of Intel’s Real Sense virtual reality technology in Lenovo’s devices, with gesture recognition its key component. He used the Vibe Shot to complete a 3D scan of Yuanqing. “There are huge possibilities,” he said. “Security, and A.I. will be key recipients of this.”

Nadella rounded things off by explaining the role of Microsoft's voice recognition technology, Cortana, in Lenovo devices, and discussed hologram technology due to feature in Windows 10.

When asked about the progress of the Motorola business' integration into Lenovo Middle East, Cador said, “Things are at an advanced stage. We have a couple of things to finalise before it’ll be complete. After summer we expect to make a lot of progress.” www.cnmeonline.com

EMC

Seizing possibilities Held in Prague, Czech Republic, EMC’s annual CIO Connect Summit delved into the continuously evolving IT industry and how technology chiefs can redefine the IT agenda.

The IT industry is going through a very interesting time,” opened Mohammed Amin, SVP, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Africa and Middle East, EMC, as he kicked off the annual gathering with his opening keynote address.

With the theme “Redefine possible” the summit event gathered over 100 CIOs and senior IT professionals from key industry verticals across the region as IT roles and responsibilities continue to evolve to unlock greater enterprise value.

Amin’s presentation highlighted various opportunities ahead for IT leaders to transition into the role of strategic CIOs so as to provide an agile and contemporary mix of services. He elaborated, “During the first few years of my career in the industry, IT was seen as an enabler for business.

“But today IT is no longer just an enabler for business growth. It has become the business itself,” added Amin.

Amin encouraged the attendees to redefine their IT agendas to meet business objectives and enable their transformation journeys to become genuinely software-defined

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enterprises, leading to greater business agility and efficiency.

EMC highlighted two trends that they believe are key to coping with software-defined transformation – 2.5 Platform and hybrid cloud. “A lot of IT functions are relying on apps today," Amin said. "However, as the industry grows, so does the infrastructure needed to support these apps. The 2.5 Platform is the way to move forward."

Businesses will soon require more applications that are faster and more agile to sustain their IT needs.

EMC expects the 2.5 Platform to get companies ready to smoothly transition to the third generation platform.

“Many organisations are still hesitant to utilise the public cloud, so we see a lot of companies moving towards the private cloud,” Amin continued. “Many of them will be building these private premises that will cater to their specific needs.

However, they will still need to store some of their data off-premise, so this is where hybrid cloud comes in.”

With their Federation Enterprise Hybrid Cloud, Amin said that EMC is

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highly capable of assisting customers in adopting this solution. This EMC offering can provide the operational and financial control, and visibility that IT organisations need from both private and public clouds.

Amin also underlined the rise of the Chief Digital Officers (CDOs), “Previously it was imperative that IT chiefs were knowledgeable of the technical side of IT. But today, as organisations begin to look for CDOs they’re expected to understand aspects such as finance, marketing and business development strategies.”

During the course of the event, other speakers including John O’Callaghan, Senior Director, EMC Executive Briefing Programs, EMEA; and Kennedy Brown, EMEA Director Enterprise Marketing, Intel, among others, shared best practices on the application and deployment of the software-defined data centre, and of cloud, flash and Big Data technologies within a range of industries – all enabling IT to achieve the agility, scalability and efficiency that businesses are in constant need of today. It also featured an exclusive session by Stephen Attenborough, Commercial Director of Virgin Galactic.

The EMC CIO Connect Summit 2015 acted as a insightful platform for IT leaders leveraging EMC technologies to exchange insights and expertise as they seek to redefine the IT agenda and business processes, and to drive competitive differentiation and performance enhancements. july 2015

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Nokia 3310

Given Nokia’s former status as the go-to company for a reliable mobile, it seems sad that it has faded into obscurity, the handset business now under the Microsoft Mobile brand. The 3310, however, stands as a testament to all that was once great about the Finnish firm.

The 3310 became the most successful mobile phone to be released in the year 2000, going on to shift 126 million handsets worldwide.

Simple, intuitive and compact, the camera-less 3310 featured an 84x48 pixel pure monochrome display, weighed 133g and had changeable front and back cover options.

At 459 characters, the 3310 allowed SMS messages to be three times longer than those of its competing devices, which was a major selling point at that time.

Utilities, now taken for granted, featured in the phone, which were another big hit. Calculator, stopwatch and reminder function were all part of the neat package, providing a forerunner for other mobile devices to be more than just phones, but of means of organise lives. And of course, who can forget Snake II. Millions of man hours were lost to the fiendishly addictive fun that resulted from guiding your snake around obstacles.

All in all, a hugely satisfying device for its time.

Rumours circulated online last year that it would be re-released with a 41 megapixel camera, running Windows 8.1. As nice - and bizarre - as that would have been, it never came to fruition.

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www.cnmeonline.com

CIO

Spotlight

Thrill of the chase Madukar Chaturvedi has seen a great deal in his career. From programming through punch cards to the modern era of computing, Chaturvedi reflects on his accomplishments.

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www.cnmeonline.com

adukar Chaturvedi, Director of IT, Oasis Investment Company, is comfortable in the face of a challenge. Born in Uttar Pradesh state in India in the days before computers had entered any kind of commercial market, Chaturvedi sought to follow the footsteps of his uncles and become a mechanical engineer. “I did not use a computer until I was in my 20s,” he says, “so when I was young, I thought that mechanical engineering would be the career for me.”

For his secondary education, Chaturvedi moved to Bihar and graduated at the top of his class. He was accepted, at that time, into the prestigious Saint Xavier College.

“The college was supported by universities in the United States, so we students received a US education while living in India.” Always the diligent student, Chaturvedi graduated from Saint Xavier’s with honours in Mechanical Engineering.

In 1971 he attended the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur for his master’s course. “It was there that I began using computers,” Chaturvedi says. However, it was a far cry from the many servers and PCs that he is surrounded by today. “I used a deck of punch cards – a computer deck,” recounting the arduous task of programming in the early days.

“There were 400 to 1000 cards in the deck. I would compile them and take them to the operator. I would drop the deck off with the operator, and after maybe a three-hour delay he would run the deck through the IBM 1620.” If there was an error in his programme, he would only know at this point, and would have to correct the entire deck.

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National Thermal Power Corporation It was tedious to say the least, in New Delhi. There, he brought but Chaturvedi recalls the process corporate and office systems into as a thrill. “I remember riding my the modern age with cutting-edge bicycle from my flat as fast as I could management systems and computer to reach the computer lab to see my services. “This was an essential results,” he says. “It was so exciting parameter to gain funding by the to set these elements in place and World Bank,” recalls Chaturvedi. see a positive result.” Always looking In 1982, Chaturvedi made a to improve processes, his favourite move again, this time to EMITAC. “I studies involved optimisation. was moving every three years,” he He took his love of results-based admits, “but I think that is normal programming with him to Poona, in early careers to move and then India, where he was employed by settle down.” This particular move Walchandnagar Industries as a Senior was bold in a number of ways. “I Industrial Engineer. “I was looking was in Sharjah,” he says, “and I had after computerised material planning never lived in the UAE.” He finished and inventory control,” he says. his previous After role, boarded a three years at “There were 400 plane and the Walchandnagar, to 1000 cards in next day was he moved to in a boardroom Engineers India the deck. I would with the financial Ltd in New compile them and directors of Delhi where he take them to the seventeen was hired as a companies Systems Engineer operator. I would tasked with in Management drop the deck off creating a new Consultancy. with the operator, financial system.

There, he “They asked developed and and after maybe a if I knew implemented three-hour delay he me accounting,” management would run the deck he recalls. In a control systems defining moment, and conducted through the IBM Chaturvedi market feasibility 1620.” admitted he using quantitative had not studied analysis. “Most accountancy. “I was nervous, but notably,” he says, “I provided I was bold. I told them I could consultancy for the government of learn the basics of accounting.”

India in the area of atomic energy. I Chaturvedi asked one of his friends, provided knowledge-based project a financial controller to help him. management consultation to atomic “He tutored me for 30 minutes and power projects of India.” then gave me a financial accounting Solidly entrenched in India’s book. I read that book for 72 hours, power scheme, in 1980 he became and then asked the directors of the Deputy Manager for EDP and finance to quiz me on this newManagement Services for the july 2015

25

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CIO

Spotlight TIMELINE development support centre found knowledge of finance. If you company, Oasis TechnoSoft, in India. can believe it, I passed.” A year This technical wing is set to develop later, Chaturvedi had developed an and implement ERP applications. He accounting system that was rolledhas brought cutting-edge technologies out to all seventeen companies. to the company, such as RFID for their Through the late 90s and into large warehouses, manufacturing the new millennium, Chaturvedi areas and work-in-progress areas for continued to trust his instincts and tracking products and inventory. take risks that paid off in the long“I am proud of my past term. He founded Orient Information accomplishments,” says Chaturvedi.

Technology in Dubai, and developed As he looks back on his achievements, the organisation into one of top IT he feels the need to give something service providers in the region. The back. As such, he was the adviser company grew at a rapid pace, with and head of the IT committee for more than 100 percent growth every high schools in Dubai. Under his year for three years. leadership, four In 2003 he schools were co-founded a “You can build a able to receive consulting firm bridge, but if the an “outstanding” that specialises bridge is going in evaluation by in Microsoft technologies – the wrong direction, KHDA in Dubai.

His advice for Advanced Business or if it is missing up-and-coming Solutions LLC in pieces, it is useless. IT professionals Dubai Internet – “Always keep City. Then, in 2005 In isolation things core business he took on the will never work.” requirements role of President in mind. The IT and Director of department has to IT People, an IT consider the company’s end-goals. You human resources company. can build a bridge, but if the bridge is Finally, in 2006 Chaturvedi going in the wrong direction, or if it is joined the Oasis Investment missing pieces, it is useless. In isolation Company, the holding company of things will never work.”

Al Shirawi Group. When he joined It has been some time since a Oasis Investment Company, he had young Chaturvedi tore through to start from the beginning. He set campus on his bicycle to see the up the IT division of the group, in a results of his computer programming mission to provide support for the deck, but he still feels that same 30 companies under the group’s excitement about technology. “I still umbrella. He implemented Oracle feel a thrill when I see things falling solutions – most notably Oracle ERP into place,” he says. “When all of the eBusiness suite and Oracle BI across elements are set up, and when I can companies throughout the region. see the immediate results, I feel just To support the group’s IT as accomplished as I did then.” goals, Chaturvedi set up a software www.cnmeonline.com

1973 Graduated with a Master's in Technology from IIT

1976 Joined Engineers India Ltd

1980 Joined National Thermal Power Corporation

1982 Moved to the UAE

1995 Founded Orient Information Technology

2003 Co-founded Advanced Business Solutions

2006 Joined Oasis Investment Company

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CASE STUDY

United Arab Emirates University

Bright students, smarter service

United Arab Emirates University comfortably sits in the top 500 higher education institutions in the world. With a long term goal of providing Smart education services that would be fit for its bright students, Director of Infrastructure and Core Technologies, Muhammad Imran Abdur Rasheed, set about implementing a fresh wired and wireless infrastructure for the campus.

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t seems strange to think that technology used to play such a small role in education. If we cast our minds back to 1976, when UAE University was founded by the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the country’s founding father, expectations of students would have been vastly different. Along with professors, they would spend days poring over books, class lists and worksheets. Now things have changed. UAE University is ranked as the best research facility in the GCC, and 385th overall worldwide, and its students expect the technology services to match and support the educational opportunities on offer.

The University’s IT infrastructure team is all too aware of the need to make the students’ learning experience, accommodation and dayto-day lives as comfortable and hasslefree as possible. For Muhammad 28

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backbone of IT; mobile, e-services,” Imran Abdur Rasheed, Director of he says. “Students here don’t really Infrastructure and Core Technologies, use physical books anymore. They’re UAE University, this means providing now on their iPads and smartphones, high-quality Internet services that and we need to enable them to utilise can allow the 14,000 students to stay these for work and personal purposes in-touch with relatives, access online by providing a solid infrastructure. services, and, most importantly, carry Ultimately, if they can’t connect with out their studies. technology, they can’t perform any “Technology is so important for academic activity.” any business, and in education, it lies Rasheed acknowledges how at its heart,” Rasheed says. “Students the role of technology has become demand state-of-the-art services for ever-present their studies and throughout work, as well as “Students here don’t processes that the automation really use physical would once of services.” take hours, He draws huge books anymore. if not days personal pride They’re now on to complete. from the role that their iPads and a higher IT infrastructure smartphones, and we “In education plays in need to enable them to organisation, delivering these do this by providing a it really is services, “Put simply, it’s the solid infrastructure.” becoming www.cnmeonline.com

used for everything,” he says. “From registration, enrolment, e-learning, assignments.” Rasheed says that the University has a plan to ensure that in the near future, everything will be cloaked in tech. “Whatever is not quite there yet, we’re aiming to have everything in a mobile or e-service format in three years’ time,” he says.

UAE University’s IT team had encountered a lot of administrative issues concerning its legacy infrastructure, as well as complaints concerning connectivity problems from students. Rasheed and his team identified the need for a fresh wired and wireless infrastructure, which could balance first-class connectivity and services with robust security. “Connectivity is such an important part of our infrastructure, but as security policies increase, user satisfaction invariably goes down,” he says. Educating users about new services would also need to be considered. “Although it’s expected that students are tech savvy, this shouldn’t be taken for granted,” Rasheed says. “The new infrastructure would have to translate as being easy-to-use in terms of the services on offer.”

The concerns surrounding Internet connectivity at the University were especially noted in student accommodation, where 8,000 students currently reside. “The demand for mobile is increasing,” Rasheed says. “The average student user has four to five mobile devices, which are not easy to manage in terms of connectivity. If we are unable to do this then students begin www.cnmeonline.com

Muhammad Imran Abdur Rasheed, Director of Infrastructure and Core Technologies, United Arab Emirates University july 2015

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CASE STUDY

United Arab Emirates University

to complain.” The demands for first class connectivity did not stop in the hostels. In order to deliver the solid foundations needed for students to access educational and personal information and applications, “seamless” connectivity would have to stretch across the University grounds, sports and play areas.

After initial dealings with system integrators EMW in 2012, Rasheed decided to use the firm’s services for a wired and wireless infrastructure implementation that would cover the entirety of the University’s student accommodation sites. Their very existence within the UAE proved an important selling point. “We’d always had problems before with other companies, that didn’t have a local presence,” Rasheed says.

“That makes such a difference when it comes to providing support and ensuring the delivery and reliability of the solution.”

The project initially began in 2014 as a Brocade-based infrastructure, which was supported by EMW. As it advanced, a range of other networking vendors and hardware were used as part of the solution; switches, routers and wireless access points were introduced from Aruba, Cisco and Juniper. Work is still continuing now, but with new student accommodation in development, the demands on the IT infrastructure team are unrelenting. However, what has been completed has already been a huge success for the institution.

An important benefit that the University has so far realised is increased user satisfaction. “It seems like stating the obvious, but the line of satisfaction goes up when the students get a best-in-class service,” Rasheed says. “Complaints and user www.cnmeonline.com

issues have gone down since we’ve made the changes.

The students clearly feel much more at home with the new service.”

Security concerns have also been put to rest, “We now believe our infrastructure is secure enough to ensure that we won’t be compromised with user data.”

Rasheed says the deal with EMW has saved the University “50 percent” on the OPEX costs of its wired and wireless infrastructure. “Their services have cost us half of our initial engagements with networking vendors,” he says.

“They’re very solution-focused people, who listen to our pain points.

We’ve received a better service for half the cost, and certainly feel as if we are in capable hands with them; they’ve now become a strategic partner for us.”

The changes have also provided greater ease of other processes for the IT and educational teams. From an academic and technological point of view, all round administration has improved. “We now need less people to support our infrastructure, which obviously saves our valuable time and resources,” Rasheed says. “Things have sped up and communications between University departments have been facilitated.”

Along with the personal benefits that students have been able to realise, there has also been a direct

boon in terms of their access to lectures. As part of the solution package offered by EMW, Polycom and Cisco technologies have been integrated into the infrastructure to provide video access to lectures.

“Students now have access to them through their smart devices,” Rasheed says.

“Lectures are recorded and can be remotely accessed. This is a huge value-add and timesaver; lectures can be watched back if students have missed something, which enhances their learning. It also means that, if for whatever reason, a student can’t be physically present at a lecture, they can catch up on it at a later time.”

To ensure progress doesn’t cease regarding the project, Rasheed engages with the senior management of the University on a weekly basis. “They’re specifically involved, as it all links to student service provision,” he says.

Looking forward, Rasheed is in no doubt that mobile learning constitutes the future of education, and that the enhanced infrastructure has made in-roads in helping UAE University reach that destination.

“The goals set by the leadership of this country demand that smart cities – and a smart way of life – are the norm. In nowhere is this more apt than education; the technology needs to be smart enough to support the wits of our students.”

“Although it’s expected that students are tech savvy, this shouldn’t be taken for granted. The new infrastructure had to translate as being easy-to-use in terms of the services on offer.”

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CXO Corner

First class finance

From New York to Nairobi, Paris to Perth and Beijing to Buenos Aires, Emirates is internationally acclaimed as one of the world’s elite airlines – and one of its most powerful brands.

James Dartnell sat down with the company’s Senior Vice President of Group Finance, Michael Doersam, to discuss the powerful bond between the firm’s Finance and IT divisions.

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Once you’ve caught the scent of kerosene, nothing else will satisfy.” Michael Doersam recites the aviation adage with a wry smile, revealing a passion for the industry, which began in line with his tenure at German carrier Lufthansa in 1988 - that has seen him make a marked rise to becoming one of the most established and influential finance chiefs in the Middle East, at Emirates airline.

Serving 144 cities in 81 countries from its Dubai hub, Emirates is currently experiencing something of a purple patch. Founded in 1985, the Group has seen the size of its business triple in the last nine years, www.cnmeonline.com

and things don’t look like slowing down. Synonymous with excellent customer service and contemporary products - the company has just added routes to Bali, Orlando, Multan and Bologna to its roster – and a superlative travel experience, the name ‘Emirates’ is firmly established in the four corners of the globe. Emirates Group recently reported a formidable 34.6 percent operating profit increase for the financial year 2014-15, with an imposing ability to grow its customer base, and continually satisfy those who are already on side. The role of technology in this financial transformation is undeniable, according to Doersam.

“There’s a very good relationship between IT and finance,” Doersam says, “There’s a high level of collaboration between myself and the company Vice President of IT, Patrick Naef. The senior management board - of which we are both members – takes decisions on IT investments, and we also take a number at group level across finance.”

The balance between technologists and those who are numbers-oriented is never overlooked. “For any IT venture we have two project managers – one from the business side and one from the IT side.” Doersam feels that results have spoken volumes about the strength of the departmental partnership. “Our track record has made it clear that we’re doing things the right way,” he says.

The shift to digitalisation is one that will impact every industry, and Doersam is fully aware of Emirates’ need to capitalise on the trend. In a low margin industry such as aviation, the ability to exploit any possible advantage is key. “The main question for us is ‘What will be its impact on finance?’” he says. “The massive quantities of data and information that are available need to be used in a meaningful way, and for this to happen, www.cnmeonline.com

channels available to customers has a strong collaboration between required a range of fresh approaches technology and finance is needed. We from enterprise IT teams. This shift in need to find the game-changing data so demand is never far from Doersam’s that the business can benefit.” mind. “From a business perspective, In line with this digitalisation we always have to think about being drive, a number of technology more agile,” he says. “Being able to analyst and research companies have offer products across a variety of labelled the future ubiquity of the platforms and systems is absolutely Chief Digital Officer role as inevitable. essential; the customer will simply Doersam, however, does not agree not accept being able to purchase with the assertion, saying that the through only one channel. This existing CFO-CIO collaboration should ultimately comes down to an extreme continue without interruption. “From collaboration between the financial a finance perspective I don’t see a real and commercial departments.” need for a CDO,” he says. “With a CIO Doersam says that Emirates is also and Group Finance SVP in place, both leading the industry with are embedded in business a high numbner of functions. The real issue alternate payment is how we can deal “Being able options. “We’re with the challenges to offer products continuously of Big Data across a variety of looking at going forward. platforms and systems new solutions I don’t really is absolutely essential; and have a believe that a number of centralised role the customer will simply new payment will benefit the not accept being able options organisation in to purchase through currently in this respect.” only one channel.” our development Unlike a lot of pipeline,” he says. businesses, where the “It’s imperative that we question surrounding remain as agile as possible.” who is the main custodian of Doersam firmly believes that company data – the CIO or the CFO comprehensive upgrades in both – remains contentious, Doersam has technology and business processes achieved a diplomatic and productive over the last nine years have made a balance in solving the issue. “At huge contribution to the company’s Emirates, it’s always discussed in terms success. While modern initiatives of a partnership,” he says. “We both like on-board Wi-Fi play their part have our business hats on, and by using in keeping customers happy, the ideas from both sides of the table we sharpening of internal affairs has ensure that it doesn’t sit on one side or been hugely beneficial. “On the one the other, and is used to find the best hand, the automation of systems has way forward for Emirates.” been hugely advantageous from an Emirates’ status as a worldaccounting perspective,” he says. “At class airline necessitates exemplary the same time, it’s opened up new service across the board, and, now opportunities on the analytics side. more than ever, technology sits near Technology is playing a massive part in the top of the list of customer service this. It’s always thinking of new ways priorities. To that end, the increased of fuelling Emirates.” breadth of payment and interaction july 2015

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INTERVIEW Andreas Wienold

Larger than life In the age of mobility, omnipresent enterprise video communication is gaining prominence. We caught up with Andreas Wienold, Vice President, International, Lifesize, to discuss how the company is hoping to enhance its cloud and on-premise collaboration presence in the Middle East.

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hat differentiates your collaborative communications services?

When Craig Malloy, our CEO and founder – who brought Polycom into the equation – came onto the scene 10 years ago, there was no HD; you couldn’t even recognise someone in a video call. We’ve changed that. We believe our technology is a huge step in making you feel as if you’ve actually met someone. People want the same experience as in Skype or FaceTime but in the business world. The industry has not offered that so far.

Tell me about your Lifesize Cloud offerings.

We started with cloud in May 2014.

Nobody wants a huge upfront infrastructure investment. If you want to connect five or six offices in region, we can get you started without a huge CAPEX of around $100,000. You just connect a Lifesize Cloud device to your microphone and screen, and that’s it.

How do you plan to convince regional would-be customers to opt for your cloud as opposed to your on-premise solution?

We deliver the same user experience in both. Some customers operate in closed networks, so our on-premise solution is right for them. We’ve virtualised all our infrastructure, so it can be sold as software or software pre-installed on hardware. www.cnmeonline.com

On the cloud side, it’s interesting to see how many customers we get who didn’t initially expect to be on the cloud. When the iPhone 6 was recently launched, people were queuing around the corner to get one for a US-based cloud service. They want the deduplication, they want the sexy device. In a business setup, it’s slightly different.

We want customers to understand that we don’t store their data, we only facilitate IP traffic and route it the easiest way between conversation participants. Cloud is the future, due to the scalability that we and other IP applications can provide. Whenever we sit down with customers, we have conversations about trust. Our partner IBM’s SoftLayer servers are more secure than a junior IT guy who is managing security from a closet.

Egypt has seen faster uptake of cloud, but the UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia have been slower, where our on-premise business is greater.

What importance do you place on mobility when it comes to your solutions?

We believe that every person should be connected in every room, everywhere. I’m a typical example. I live on video and my phone bill is next to nothing. I have a monthly meeting with 70 people in my team. If needs be, it can be streamed live on my iPad or recorded. We have applications for pretty much every device and OS.

What’s your strategy for growth in the Middle East?

We’ve built up a partner network here that geographically and vertically covers the region. We want to extend the power of video to people who just haven’t used it yet. There are so many organisations that have considered it – and liked it – but it was just too expensive. That’s now changing. Only about five percent of global meeting rooms are video enabled, so that means that 95 percent can still adopt it, which is an opportunity for us.

In terms of public services, e-government and telehealth there's a wealth of opportunities. There's a range of other projects here in the region where Lifesize has proved very successful. IP connectivity in the region is improving and that will only help us. On the other hand, our solutions are designed to work on networks that aren’t perfect; all our apps work on flakey networks.

Are there any important releases you’d like to discuss?

We’ve released our ICON 400 and ICON Flex, which is a USB device that supports a ‘bring your own application’ approach.

It has a USB cable, and customers can bring any communications app that they want to use on their laptop. This allows departments to bring their own collaboration application and get high quality video and audio, for instance if the engineering team prefers to use Skype, while the marketing group is a fan of Microsoft Lync, they can each use their preferred app. july 2015

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INTERVIEW Manny Rivelo

At the crossroads Manny Rivelo, the newly appointed CEO of F5 Networks, speaks about life in the age of cloud and SDN, and his company’s transition to software.

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an you walk us through your resume?

I am an engineer by training and started my career with JP Morgan. From there, I joined Cisco in 1992, when it was a relatively small company, with 1,000 employees. I was there for almost 20 years, and did everything from sales to engineering to business development. Three-and-a- half years ago, I joined F5 to help with security positioning of the company. During my tenure here, I have picked up some additional responsibilities including product management, marketing, and strategy. I have been involved with the executive leadership team along with John McAdam and I spent a big chunk of my time on strategy and all those aspects because the industry is changing.

Are you a hardware or software company now?

That’s an interesting question.

We were originally a hardware company because when F5 was founded in the late 90s everything was hardware. Today, although 36

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Do you support commodity we have hardware, the value is in hardware? software. The hardware we have We don’t build custom ASICs and we has special technologies designed leverage FPGAs inside our technology. to operate on high performance and But, yes, we see the trend is more there isn’t one feature that you can’t towards commodity hardware. A lot run in the cloud on a hypervisor. of what we do in high performance is The difference is when you are FPGA and when it becomes available dealing with hardware platforms on general computers, like Intel you can go to hundreds of gigabits plans to initiate, we of performance. will support that so Our high-end You need to bear our customers will devices do over still get the same 600 gigabits of in mind the fact performance. throughput and that customers soon will do 1.2 are still grappling Do you think ADCs terabytes. When will have a role to you are doing just with coming out play in SDN? software you get of traditional IT If you go back two 10 gigs, but, as I years, everyone infrastructure, said, the real value is in software. moving to a more was confused about SDN, and it took If you look at software-oriented too long to set up our engineering the network. When organisation, architecture. companies such which has over as VMware did 1000 individuals, a lot of innovation on top of the 90 percent of them are involved stack, giving you an instance in a in software. However, when you matter of minutes, the network – need high performance, we offer plumbing that connects everything specialised appliances that you can – was still manual. run in a chassis. www.cnmeonline.com

The SDN technology really operates at layer 2 and 3 and the impact that has on us is almost none.

All we have to do is to understand the SDN protocol at Ethernet level and interface with it. SDN doesn’t address services from layer 4 to 7 and it’s a connection-less technology, similar to IP. A lot of technologies that we deal with are in layer 4-7 and are connection oriented. So, what is really happening with SDN is layer 2-3 being more agile, giving you the ability to configure networks. What we are offering is a software-defined application services architecture from layer 4 to 7.

If you disaggregate software from hardware, does it really matter what the underlying infrastructure is?

No, it could be commodity hardware and we are okay with it. We have customers that buy just virtual, hardware or a mix of both.

What is the percentage of customers that buy only software?

It’s a small percentage at the moment. What we are seeing is a hybrid architecture where you have hardware at the entrance of your data centre because you need hundreds of gigabits of performance to mitigate DDoS type of attacks. As you move further back inside the data centre, they are using software and giving every application an ADC. Because it is tied to the application, you don’t need much performance and can have specific policies per app as opposed to consolidating multiple apps on a piece of hardware with multiple policies.

Isn’t it still early days for virtual ADCs? Yes, and it’s a growing business www.cnmeonline.com

defined data centres. The second and is growing in the cloud. You footprint is the cloud – if you are need to bear in mind the fact putting your workloads out in the that customers are still grappling cloud such as AWS, Microsoft Azure with coming out of traditional IT and Google, we need to be inside infrastructure, moving to a more those cloud service providers. software-oriented architecture.

The third area But integrating where we are ADCs into virtual We are similar making major environments to Cisco in investments in is presents converged systems. management culture and both You can buy a rack, complexity. Is that companies are which integrates where your BIG customer-driven. compute, storage and IQ comes into the picture, offering We work the same network and get a single pane of way and customers basic infrastructure.

But it doesn’t offer glass management wanted us to work layer 4-7 services for both physical and is not secure and virtual together. or available. That’s environments? going to be our job.

The intent The fourth footprint is Silverline, of BIG IQ is not to be a multiwhich is all about cloud-based service device manager for multi-vendor delivery. You tell us where you want environments. It’s a platform that to run your applications, and we will will help manage hundreds of have layer 4-7 services available thousands of BIG-IP installations and across all kind of infrastructure – be it line rates. However, BIG IQ will talk virtual, physical or hybrid. to other third party orchestration tools, offering the capability of Tell us a bit about your quickly provisioning what the partnership with Cisco. It's enterprise wants. certainly hard to have imagined, given the fact you were fierce What took you so long to come out competitors five years ago. with a cloud-based services delivery I did. Cisco became a great platform - Silverline - as some of your partner in our ecosystem. We are competitors have already been offering complementary from a company this? Was it the lack of use cases? perspective though there is some That wasn’t really the reason. We overlap on the security side, which is have been monitoring the market for quite small. We are strong in DDoS the last couple of years and wanted mitigation and web-application to make sure we come out with firewalling, and Cisco doesn’t do something that offers differentiated either of that. The only overlap is value. Our vision is to align ourselves in the basic firewall space. We are with four major footprints. similar in culture and both companies The first one is inside the private are customer-driven. We work the data centre, where the biggest change same way and customers wanted us is SDN. So we are addressing how to work together. to provision ADCs inside softwarejuly 2015

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Blog Michael Xie, Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer, Fortinet

Surpassing quantum encryption

I

T security is a fast moving and exciting field to be in. Fascinating industry news greets me almost every morning.

Recently I read that the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei is leading a project to build the world’s longest quantum communication network stretching 2,000km between Beijing and Shanghai by 2016. The builders hope to give completely secure communication to users though quantum encryption.

That’s certainly a big ambition.

A quantum communication network is, in theory, unbreakable. Any attempt to intercept the encryption key would alter the physical status of the quantum data, or qubits, and trigger an alert to the communicators. Currently, there are several other labs in various countries around the world that are looking to tap into this technology.

Is quantum encryption the holy grail of IT security, if such a pinnacle exists? I can certainly relate to the developers’ dogged pursuit of unhackable security technology, but that doesn’t stop me from asking if one single technology − no matter how perfect − can be the be-all and end-all solution to one of the most complex problems facing mankind today.

I can see two hurdles standing between quantum encryption and widespread adoption – the costbenefit proposition, and more importantly, the existence of weak links in other parts of the security system even if quantum encryption itself is impenetrable. www.cnmeonline.com

security chain − labelling it as an Are the benefits worth the cost? “unbreakable security” technology There are no clear indications of is overreaching. Many technologies quantum encryption’s costs yet but lie beyond quantum encryption, and it’s likely to be high, especially at the many domains lie beyond technology. initial stages when the technology is Boosting overall security requires immature and the pool of users is small. us to continuously strengthen Businesses are all about increasing the weakest link of the chain, as profit and reducing expenditure − low and when it appears. To be cost encryption technologies successful, there must be that are secure enough concerted, industryfor most enterprise Businesses wide action to applications already concurrently exist today. are all about upgrade So how will increasing profit and individual organisations reducing expenditure components justify the big − low cost encryption of the security jump in costs chain. for moving technologies that are That to quantum secure enough for most means that encryption? enterprise applications while security already exist today. solution Your enterprise providers work is as secure as its hard to share threat weakest link information and develop The tougher challenge their technologies, enterprises lies in the fact that security and consumers must take time to is an interconnected system, not an learn more about cybersecurity isolated jigsaw piece. If quantum and guard against attacks, CERT encryption is really hard to crack, teams must improve their response cybercriminals will look for a weaker capabilities; and institutions link in the security system to target. worldwide must step up their efforts They could, for instance, use social to groom cyber security talent. engineering to gain knowledge on The list goes on, and the how to access confidential data, or stakeholders involved are many. they could, like most hackers do These stakeholders need to do their today, plant malicious software in earnest best in their respective fields, end-users’ computers to steal their and cooperate with one another. That data when it is at rest. − not quantum encryption alone − is Since quantum encryption only the real key to making the world a promises to protect data in motion more secure and liveable place. − which is just one link of the entire july 2015

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solutions World Consumerisation of IT

The worker's shift

The consumerisation of IT is driven by employees who buy their own devices, use their own personal online service accounts, install their own applications and then connect to the corporate network, often without the organisation’s knowledge or approval. Is this new wave of autonomy a friend or foe to the IT department?

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he potential perils of personal connectivity in the workplace can be a difficult issue for companies to address. Known now as the consumerisation of IT, this term not only refers to the use of personal consumer electronics at work – such as iPhones and tablet PCs - but also online services, including online data storage, Webbased email services and social media or social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The widespread use of personal devices and connection to personal and social accounts shows no signs of slowing down.

This makes the separation of personal and professional technology use ever more difficult. With this in mind, employers need to be aware of how this can affect IT security.

As expected, the growing accessibility to devices and connectivity is driving the consumerisation of IT trends. Gone are the days when having a mobile phone indicated that the owner was on the cutting-edge of technology. Now, it is a bigger surprise to find an employee at any level within a company that doesn’t own one – or more commonly, multiple - smart devices.

This kind of ubiquitous access to technology develops personal preferences

T

“People are bringing their own devices to work because they like the user experience. They are downloading their own apps, using their own mobile network, and essentially, creating their own IT experience. Consumerisation is in turn transforming the way people think about computing, as workers demand the ability to work from locations that best enable them to get their jobs done.”

Kenan Abou Lteif, Sales Director, Citrix Middle East and Africa

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and technological autonomy in employees.

“People are bringing their own devices to work because they like the user experience,” explains Kenan Abou Lteif, Sales Director, Citrix Middle East and Africa. “They are downloading their own apps, using their own mobile network, and essentially, creating their own IT experience. Consumerisation is in turn transforming the way people think about computing, as workers demand the ability to work from locations that best enable them to get their jobs done.”

A tech savvy workforce is certainly a desirable thing, and there are many benefits to employees with intimate knowledge of their devices and online access. Farukh Ali, Regional Technology Manager, Global Technology, Asia, Middle East and Africa, IHG, gives some perspective from an IT Manager’s point of view.

“Giving freedom to employees has the potential to increase their productivity. By allowing them to utilise their preferred devices and not restricting their access, employees can focus on their work rather than waste time finding ways to connect and check their email or Facebook.”

With such freedom comes responsibility and risk. Companies - even those who want to grant autonomy of device and connection to their employees - must mitigate the potential risks the blending of personal devices and professional use presents. Maged Eid, Regional Director, Nexthink, believes that the real challenge lies with enforcing the pre-existing IT security policies across the varying and widespread consumerisation of the IT landscape.

Eid believes that in order to do this, “Enterprises need to implement innovative IT analytics solutions that gather and analyse data in real-time from the end-user perspective. IT analytics can quickly and easily show the end-user the processes running on a device, and correlate this data with data on the network services, resources and other factors, to provide the most complete IT security analysis available.”

Another approach to risk mitigation in a time where BYOD policies are rapidly becoming the norm, involves meeting the july 2015

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solutions World Consumerisation of IT

employee where they already are - the app store. Lteif explains, “While installing applications directly on non-corporate devices can increase risk, a BYOD programme based on enterprise mobility management, Windows app and desktop virtualisation and secure file sharing manages and reduces risk.

This way, all business information remains secure within the data centre, residing on the endpoint only when necessary. In cases where data does need to reside on the endpoint, it can be protected through isolation, encryption and remote wipe mechanisms.”

Ali believes that informing users is key.

“Education is important in ensuring security. The modern IT landscape is wrought with malware, security risks and bad actors. Ensuring that employees have up-to-date and comprehensive information about security risks can help arm them against potential security problems.”

Companies must also beware of the risks posed by IT security overkill. BYOD policies and the consumerisation of IT may feel like clear blue skies to most employees, but to the IT department tasked with mitigating the security risks, these policies can feel like a raging tempest.

“By allowing them to utilise their preferred devices and not restricting their access, employees can focus on their work rather than waste time finding ways to connect and check their email or Facebook.”

Farukh Ali, Regional Technology Manager, Global Technology, Asia, Middle East and Africa, IHG

“Enterprises need to implement innovative IT analytics solutions that gather and analyse data in real-time from the end-user perspective. IT analytics can quickly and easily show the end-user, the device, the processes running on the device, and correlate this data with data on the network services, resources and other factors, to provide the most complete IT security analysis available.”

Maged Eid, Regional Director, Nexthink

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“The natural instinct of the IT department is to favour security and, as a result, try to limit peoples’ choice of devices or constrain the endpoint environment, even if it means sacrificing the benefits of greater productivity and flexibility,” says Lteif. “But simply barring the door to consumer device usage and BYOD is neither realistic nor desirable.

It is inevitable that IT will face increasing pressure to provide access to any kind of app, anywhere, on any type of device.”

However, it would be a misstep to place the responsibility of meeting the challenges IT consumerisation solely on the IT department. Eid reminds us, “Embracing the consumerisation of IT is a collaborative effort between end-users, IT teams, and management. Once a policy is created, managing security depends on an enterprise’s ability to educate end-users, implement effective device management and support, and enforce the consumerisation of IT policies.”

As technology continues to evolve and blur the lines between our personal and professional lives, a need has risen for a more holistic approach to IT policy. The consumerisation of IT presents challenges as unique and varied as the employees themselves, and so too are the solutions.

Companies willing and able to embrace this new wave are sure to reap the benefits of a happier, more productive workforce.

www.cnmeonline.com

network World Network optimisation

Nimble networking Evolving and expanding a network to meet ever-changing demands from consumers and business users is a challenge. Network optimisation services help customers to get the most out of their network investment, with the focus on network performance and end-user experience.

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Strategic Innovation Partner

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lthough the benefits of effective network optimisation are applicable to a number of other IT processes and technologies, its significance is not diminished. Fast access to enterprise applications and data often mirrors the speed of employee productivity, with a fast network catalysing task completion. Reduced downtime plays an important part in this, with less interruptions being crucial, and ensuring morale is less likely to be impacted. All this plays a part in insuring bottom line is not affected.

Taj ElKhayat, Regional Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Riverbed Technology, views modern technology as a driver in the increased need for network optimisation. “In the last 2-3 years, Middle East organisations have been spending more on bandwidth and this is mainly due to the exponential growth in the volume of data and the fundamental change in traffic patterns,” he says. “For both personal and professional reasons, the amount of video content being transmitted across corporate networks is on the rise. All of this has contributed to a greater need for bandwidth which has in turn called for larger bandwidth-related investments. And as increased bandwidth comes at a premium, it raises operational expenses by a significant margin. Optimising the network instead offers a far more practical and long-term solution to bandwidth needs.”

Although a number of relatively new technologies have helped organisations make huge progress in reducing their CAPEX and

“Improving IT and network infrastructure via additional capacity can only help to a point, beyond which one has to look at optimising the existing IT and network infrastructure.”

Sridhar Iyengar, Vice President, Product Managemet, ManageEngine

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increasing operational efficiency and employee productivity, they often cause underlying drawbacks in terms of network performance.

While cloud allows companies to opt for a ‘payas-you-go’ model, and virtualisation can reduce expenditure on physical servers, underlying problems of complexity, low bandwidth and the rigidity of owned infrastructure can result.

Add in the increased use of mobile devices within the workplace, and the demands on the enterprise network have significantly increased. Evolving and expanding a network to meet ever-changing demands from consumers and business users is a challenge.

Sridhar Iyengar, Vice President, Product Managemet, ManageEngine, feels that network performance has a powerful impact on a business’ internal and external relations. “Today’s businesses run on critical applications that consume a lot of network bandwidth,” he says.

“Increasing volumes of data strain the already over-stressed network within an organisation.

Ignoring this can lead to non-availability or poor performance of business-critical applications and bad user experience, which will in turn lead to loss of revenue and customers. This makes it a business imperative and CIO focus area.” He also believes that adding capacity to a network is advantageous, but only to an extent. “Improving IT and network infrastructure via additional capacity can only help to a point, beyond which one has to look at optimising the existing IT & network infrastructure,” he says.

The variation in physical deployment location as well individual usage creates difficulties, according to Yarob Sakhnini, Regional Director, MEMA, Brocade. “Each application may be deployed across different sites and servers with different internal and external users and each one may have different technical demands, complexities and levels of priority,” he says. “However, all are subject to having the right connectivity within the organisation’s IT ecosystem.”

Sakhnini is also mindful of the need to ensure that applications do not operate in isolation, and are powered by high network july 2015

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Located on Abu Dhabi’s famous Corniche, with a 1.3km private beach, large conference center, 85 hectares of landscaped gardens, 302 rooms and 92 suites, the Emirates Palace offers the latest technology to help provide an unrivalled personal experience for each of its guests. High speed internet – one of the fastest and most extensive service in Abu Dhabi - is available across the entire grounds, and 24/7 “IT Butlers” are on call to provide IT support.

“To maintain our 5-star guest service levels and ensure that our guests enjoy their experience here, we needed to make our IT more dynamic,” says Mehmet Akdeniz, Director of IT/AV, Emirates Palace.

“The benefits of virtualizing our infrastructure are clear. With their proven experience of large virtualization projects, HP and MDS have enabled us to increase the reliability, flexibility and availability of our IT platform while containing costs and saving space. In addition, this has made our IT more sustainable and “green” by cutting energy consumption.”

Working with local partner MDS, HP deployed a reliable, costeffective virtual platform based on HP ProLiant blade servers and HP 3PAR storage powered by Intel® Xeon® processors to run the hotel’s business-critical applications, including

finance, HR, reservations and IT support. As well as providing a faster response for guests, the new platform improves the productivity of

“With their proven experience of large virtualization projects, HP and MDS have enabled us to increase the reliability, flexibility and availability of our IT platform while containing costs and saving space” Mehmet Akdeniz, Director of IT/AV, Emirates Palace the hotel’s administrative staff by allocating more space for server databases and storing more guest details.

Through extensive VMware virtualisation and server consolidation, HP has boosted the Emirates Palace hotel’s IT efficiency, performance and business continuity while improving space utilization in the data center. A compact HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure with HP ProLiant blade servers running Intel® Xeon® processors

with built-in intelligence and energy-efficient cooling has increased productivity by efficiently balancing workloads, and reduced power costs. It also enables more effective use of the hotel’s storage resources.

Data recovery times have been significantly reduced by an HP 3PAR solution running Intel® Xeon® processors with remote disk-to-disk backup replication, which allows the hotel’s IT team to back up all its data to disk and restore with performance of up to 40TB per hour. By eliminating duplicate data and providing up to 20 times more disk-space savings for efficient data protection, scalable HP StoreOnce B6200 Backup systems protect growing volumes of data and simplify data management across the whole environment.

To ensure that the migration from physical to virtual servers was achieved without interruption to the hotel’s daily business, HP Technology Services carefully tested all application servers before they went into production.

Applications such as Exchange Mailbox, Opera, PABX and Micros run on dedicated HP servers.

“HP helps businesses like the Emirates Palace transform their legacy infrastructure to achieve tomorrow’s goals,” says Herbert Zierl, HP UAE Managing Director. “HP simplifies the data center, making it more energy- and space-efficient while being less expensive to operate.”

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network World Network optimisation quality. “No application is an island,” he says. “To provide the services, processes or information they are designed to deliver, the network must provide the bandwidth and availability needed.” He believes that innate difficulties render the process to be needlessly complicated and time-consuming.

“Unfortunately, providing this level of support can become an arduous task. The inherent complexity of legacy networks, combined with the complexity of the enterprises’ IT ecosystem often makes it a manual, resource intensive and error-prone process.”

With increased strains on modern networks, many organisations could consider the easiest option to be cutting down on traffic that comes from certain sources. ElKhayat is particularly conscious of the way in which organisations handle the traffic that is generated from employees’ personal use. “One of the main challenges is that sluggish network performance is not only technology related but also a consequence of employees leveraging the network for non-work related functions,” he says. ElKhayat feels that a tough stance could serve to alienate employees in this regard.

“While outright blocking of websites can be carried out with ease, few businesses adopt such a hardline approach. For reasons that could be anything from the employees’ need to access social media and bandwidth hungry platforms for business purposes, to simply enhancing employee satisfaction, organisations are better off controlling rather than blocking access.”

He also thinks the creation of traffic hierarchy could be the key to solving this issue. “Network monitoring and management tools enable organisations to exert granular

“As increased bandwidth comes at a premium, it raises operational expenses by a significant margin.

Optimising the network instead offers a far more practical and long-term solution to bandwidth needs.”

Taj ElKhayat, Regional Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Riverbed Technology

“The inherent complexity of legacy networks, combined with the complexity of the enterprises’ IT ecosystem often make service provision a manual, resource intensive and error-prone process.”

Yarob Sakhnini, Regional Director, MEMA, Brocade

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control which can help them make their policies more ‘employee friendly’ while still ensuring that employee behaviour has little or no impact on traffic that is essential to the business,” ElKhayat says. “This could mean prioritising certain traffic and restricting the amount of bandwidth dedicated to certain websites and applications.”

Sakhnini agrees that certain applications need to be prioritised when it comes to optimising a network. “With more applications being developed and deployed all the time, the management of frequent updates, upgrades and security patches can become a never-ending challenge,” he says. “The IT department’s ability to keep priority software platforms - such as ERP, CRM, finance and accounting - available and responsive, directly impacts the enterprise.”

ElKhayat believes that insights into the network are the key to its optimisation.

“Leveraging the right visibility tools is necessary to give organisations the clarity they need in identifying bottlenecks,” he says. “These tools must focus on the intersection of applications, servers, networks, and storage, to deliver a single, unified view of performance through hybrid enterprise environments. Network monitoring tools will identify the volume and timing of data across the WAN and, if applicationaware, may identify the nature of the traffic.

However, these tools themselves will not reduce the volume of traffic, but allow for ‘intelligent prioritisation of the traffic’ and, in some cases, allow certain traffic to be blocked. Organisations should ideally have solutions for both network monitoring as well as a WAN optimisation.” july 2015

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Security AdvisEr Social engineering

Bad behaviour

Companies can spend untold funds on the latest security software, keep their firewalls and security infrastructure up-to-date, monitor networks, and employ the highest level of IT talent all in the name of security. However, it can all be rendered useless by one simple thing employees choosing to ignore basic regulations.

W

hen end-users have bad habits, there is no software or system in the world that can protect against a breach or attack. The most complex of password policies is null when the password is written on a neon green sticky note and stuck to the monitor. Enterprises often look to guard against sophisticated attacks on their IT networks, but simple bad habits can be the undoing of entire security systems. CIOs need to assess what everyday actions are threatening their system’s security.

The end game is still to thwart the advances of those looking to infiltrate a company’s network. Without these bad actors threatening the system, the bad behaviour of employees would be little more than

“Using weak passwords or the same or similar passwords for personal and work accounts is a common one.

Also, not vigilantly reviewing email sources or file types before opening email attachments.”

Glen Ogden, Regional Sales Director, Middle East at A10 Networks

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human folly. However, as hackers are a very real threat to any enterprise, companies and employees need to put their bad habits in check. This is particularly true for those with high-level administrative access. C-level employees may have access to a system, but may not be properly trained to use that access responsibly. Because of their greater access to valuable information, C-level employees are often the desired target of behavioural engineering and must be keenly aware of their actions while on the network.

Glen Ogden, Regional Sales Director, Middle East, A10 Networks, details the most commonly seen slip-ups perpetrated by C-level employees. “Using weak passwords or the same or similar passwords for personal and work accounts is a common one,” Ogden explains. “Also, not vigilantly reviewing email sources or file types before opening email attachments.” C-level executives deal with a high traffic flow of communication, but failure to remain vigilant may cause serious risk.

Ogden continues, “Another common example of bad behaviour is browsing risky websites from corporate computers. Browsing dangers can range from visiting social media sites, forums, and other non-business sites, to incorrectly typing URL domains and inadvertently accessing phishing or malware-laden sites.” www.cnmeonline.com

Anthony Perridge, Security Sales Director, Cisco, agrees that the C-suite must be especially cautious when it comes to behavioural security risks. “Many C-level executives tend to exhibit similar bad habits, like many other users, that may compromise the company’s security. Their smartphones and mobile devices carry a lot of data, which could be stolen should the device be misplaced or lost, putting the company’s data at risk.”

He goes on to explain, “The C-level executive may not use a secure network while using the device for transferring data, which makes the data susceptible to interception. In addition, mobile malware is growing rapidly which further increases the risks.”

Clearly, the C-suite needs to exhibit responsibility when it comes to security risks, however, every staff member with

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access to the network needs to understand their individual role in protecting the system.

As technology becomes a ubiquitous part of every department, employees at every level, from entry to leadership, must afford the time to think and act like an IT employee.

“Everyone is responsible for security in an organisation. This concept should be embedded phishing attacks reported in into the very culture of the 2013 company,” says Nader Baghdadi, Regional Director, Enterprise, Fortinet. “There are several things that employees do on a regular basis that could compromise the company’s security such as leaving laptops in their cars, sharing passwords or using weak passwords, and ignoring company’s security policy.”

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Security AdvisEr Social engineering

However, these violations are often not a deliberate thwarting of a company’s security policy that causes problems. “Complacency and recklessness play a large part in data breaches,” says Simon Mullis, Global Technical Lead for Strategic Alliances, FireEye. “It is absolutely imperative to address these issues in the workplace in order to avoid any fallout from a cyber-attack. Even the smallest steps, such as changing passwords often, being careful about anonymous emails and not leaving crucial information in easily accessible places, can go a long way in beefing up security in an organisation.”

The first step in solving any problem is identification. Once this bad behaviour is on the radar, companies need to ask what they can do to correct it. David Emm, Principal Security Researcher, Global Research and Analysis Team, Kaspersky Lab, places a key role in education, awareness, and open door policies. “It’s vital that companies develop an internal security awareness programme that makes staff aware of how attackers may try to use them to penetrate the company’s defences and explains what they can do to reduce the risk,” Emm explains. “It’s not uncommon for companies to create a security policy document, and require new staff to sign-off on the document. It’s less common for them to develop an ongoing programme that doesn’t just use the written word, but uses posters,

“Many C-level executives tend to exhibit similar bad habits, like many other users, that may compromise the company’s security.

Their smartphones and mobile devices carry a lot of data, which could be stolen should the device be misplaced or lost, putting the company’s data at risk.”

Anthony Perridge, Security Sales Director, Cisco

“Everyone is responsible for security in an organisation. This concept should be embedded into the very culture of the company.

There are several things that employees do on a regular basis that could compromise the company’s security such as leaving laptops in their cars, sharing passwords or using weak passwords, and ignoring a company’s security policy.”

Nader Baghdadi, Regional Director, Enterprise, Fortinet

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comic-strips, competitions, etc. to reinforce the message.”

Prevention and awareness is only half the battle according to Emm. The ability for employees to feel comfortable approaching the appropriate departments in the event of an incident is also key. “It is important to encourage staff to report problems,” he says. “If, for example, they accidentally click on a link or attachment, before thinking, they should be encouraged to report it to IT, rather than trying to brush it under the carpet. Only through such openness will staff become a positive element of corporate security.”

Mullis suggests, in addition to education and openness, that companies consider restriction policies to aid in security against bad behaviour. “Restricting the usage of apps, services or web pages, or even the devices themselves, certainly lowers the likelihood of any data compromise as a result of bad behaviour.” He does acknowledge however, “while limiting the attack surface cuts down on the opportunity for bad behaviour, employees must still remain vigilant.”

At the end of the day, a robust security infrastructure and policy are essential.

However, as employees gain increasing access to company networks, it is imperative that CIOs address awareness and education. Even the strongest of padlocked doors is useless if someone simply gives a thief the keys. july 2015

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Telecoms World Broadband on copper

Fast times While it’s still relatively early days in the rollout of fibre to the cabinet broadband technology, a new technology is around the corner that promises significantly higher download and upload speeds. G.Fast cabinets aim to provide faster speeds and less crosstalk, but only time will tell if they will truly deliver.

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in association with

inside buildings. I believe they will co-exist as complementary technologies.”

However, Pan En, Vice President of Solution Sales and Marketing, Huawei Middle East, believes that there may be a case for G.Fast taking over. En explains, “Operators have to strike a fine balance between fibre and copper infrastructure to provide quality broadband services - this is where G.Fast comes to the rescue. As one example, BT has already publicly communicated its ultrafast broadband vision, delivering speeds of up to 500Mbps to most of the UK within a decade, with G.Fast at the heart of that vision. BT plans to start deploying two large-scale pilots of G.Fast technology starting in expected speed from g.fast 2015. Subsequently, BT will start upgrading VDSL technology with G.Fast in a phased manner to achieve its vision.”

Of course, what users want to know is how this new technology can enable business. Amanulla Khan, Director, MEA, Belkin International, explains how faster is better when it comes to operations. “A huge amount of business in the modern age is dependent on Internet access for research, advertising, selling and communication. Faster broadband means better access to business “In my opinion, G.Fast is not going and customers that enable business to operate to phase VDSL2 out. Rather, they fully in global marketplace.” are going to co-exist. VDSL2 and Hegazi is also able to see a great deal of its next Gen Vplus will serve the benefit from the introduction of G.Fast into cabinet and street side deployments both the consumer and business worlds. in FTTC architectures while G.Fast will be “G.Fast will open up the bandwidth in the likely adopted inside buildings for FTTB drop segment and increase the capacity architectures, as well as FTDP as a drop and throughput to end-users allowing for technology for FTTH where copper still bandwidth intensive applications such exists inside buildings. I believe they will as video streaming and conferencing and co-exist as complementary technologies.” collaboration in multi-media as well as bigger pipe for Internet applications," he explains.

“Business applications like database access Gamal Hegazi, Regional CTO and Technical Lead, Chair Technology FTTH MENA, Alcatel Lucent and cloud will also benefit from the fat pipe created in the access to give higher service

hange is an inescapable partner to progress, and nowhere does change and progress happen more quickly than in the technology industry. As new innovations come to light, they often mean obsolesce of old techniques, ideas and technology. As is increasingly the case in the tech industry, speed is the name of the game. Faster uploads, faster downloads, less time spent transferring data means more time focused on core business operations. G. Fast is the latest innovation to promise greater speed.

However, Gamal Hegazi, Regional CTO and Technical Lead, Chair Technology FTTH MENA, Alcatel-Lucent, does not envisage G.Fast technology replacing its older and slower counterpart, VDSL2 anytime soon.

“In my opinion, G.Fast is not going to phase VDSL2 out,” he says, “rather, they are going to co-exist. VDSL2 and its next-gen Vplus will serve the cabinet and street side deployments in FTTC architectures, while G.Fast will be likely adopted inside buildings for FTTB architectures, as well as FTDP as a drop technology for FTTH where copper still exists

C

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1000 Mbps

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www.mindware.ae

Telecoms World Broadband on copper

capabilities and quality of experience accessing the cloud and online business databases. This means more bandwidth and less delay and delay variation, allowing for more applications and more users and higher quality experience on the same copper infrastructure.”

However, some may not be prepared to jump into the G.Fast camp just yet. As with all new technologies, there are challenges to be met. En explains further, “In general, G.Fast is not a viable option for operators that currently offer purely DSL-based broadband services with no fibre infrastructure. G-Fast requires a combination of fibre to the street cabinet - or to points even closer to the customer - and suitable street infrastructure and power.”

He goes on to say that G.Fast may not be as beneficial as it could be, if consumers aren’t ready. “The full impact of G.Fast may not be felt if consumers lack access to applications and content that consume high-bandwidth services like UHD gaming and video. However, while these are important considerations, they are really just part of an evolution path for operators as they look to succeed in a better connected world.”

Khan also raises a few salient points about the potential challenges of these early days of G.Fast, pointing out the problems it might cause with existing technologies. “The higher

“Operators have to strike a fine balance between fibre and copper infrastructure to provide quality broadband services - this is where G.Fast comes to the rescue. As just one example, BT has already publicly communicated its ultra-fast broadband vision, delivering speeds of up to 500Mbps to most of the UK within a decade, with G.Fast at the heart of that vision.”

Pan En, Vice President, Solution Sales and Marketing, Huawei Middle East

“A huge amount of business in the modern age is dependent on Internet access for research, advertising, selling and communication. Faster broadband means better access to business and customers that enable business to operate fully in global marketplace.”

Amanulla Khan, Director, MEA, Belkin International

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frequencies used by G. Fast inevitably limit the distance of transmission and increases the risk to other services such as FM radio," he says. "Secondly, the number of subscribers that can be connected to a distribution point is also limited. Finally, with most service providers already opting for FTTH, adaptation of G.Fast technology will not be a priority.”

The early days of any new technology are often fraught with challenges such as these, but if history has shown anything about the evolution of technology, it is that a faster, more powerful product will almost always win. The challenges that new and better technology poses are often met through further innovation. As the new technology inevitably comes into play, the everyday user experience is bound to be effected.

Hegazi sees plenty of positives for businesses and consumers in the G.Fastenabled future. “We’ll see higher speeds, better quality of service and increased quality of overall experience,” he says. “Also, G.Fast will offer cost-effective FTTB and FTTdp solutions and architectures, and more applications and more throughput for better usability.”

With a caution towards the inevitable challenges of its early days, G.Fast looks to be the future of high-speed service. july 2015

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By Bill Snyder

opinion

Smartphone ‘kill switch’

S

A report suggests that Apple’s introduction of a smartphone ‘kill switch’ resulted in a significant drop in phone thefts.

martphone thefts dropped sharply last year, thanks to security innovations such as Apple’s 'Find My Phone' remote-locator feature. However, a surprising number of consumers still don’t protect their phones with password locks, according to a survey from Consumer Reports.

An estimated 2.1 million smartphone users in the US had phones stolen last year, down from 3.1 million in 2013, a drop of just under a third, the consumer advocacy group reports.

That’s especially good news because smartphone thefts can quickly turn violent, and in isolated cases, fatal.

The survey doesn’t detail the type of phones that were stolen, but iPhone thefts likely dropped faster than stolen Androids because Apple moved faster than Google to implement antitheft features that are now recommended by law enforcement.

After Apple added a 'kill switch' to its Find My iPhone app in 2013, police departments around the country saw

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iPhone thefts drop. In San Francisco, for example, mobile phone robberies decreased by 27 percent in 2014, while iPhone thefts dropped by 40 percent, according to the city’s district attorney.

Android’s Lollipop 5.1 OS, which is available for select Androids and will continue to roll out to additional devices this summer, reportedly contains a kill switch, but it has to be implemented by device manufacturers, which could take a while. In the meantime, there are third-party Android apps you can download that offer similar features.

Smartphone owners have been able to remotely wipe phone data for years, and that’s a good way to protect personal information. But it’s not a strong theft deterrent. Phone thieves want to sell their purloined goods, and the kill switch effectively 'kills' stolen phones. Dead or 'bricked' devices aren’t worth much on the black market.

Minnesota and California passed laws that require manufacturers to make progress on installing antitheft

features by July, and similar legislation is being discussed in Congress, though nothing has passed through committee.

This is good news, but I’m disturbed by another finding in the Consumer Reports survey: only 46 percent of respondents say they set a screen lock using a four-digit PIN or stronger method, such as a lengthy password or fingerprint.

There’s no excuse for not using a password on your phone. Forgoing a password puts your personal data at risk and keeps the black market for stolen phones alive. Don’t think phone thieves are too dumb to know about this stuff, either. Many stolen phones are sent in bulk to overseas markets, so the thefts are obviously organised - if not carried out - by people smarter than your average mugger.

Protecting your phone is relatively easy. The slight inconvenience of having to enter a password, or use a fingerprint reader, is more than outweighed by the benefits of a screen lock.

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Blog Johnny Karam, Regional Vice President, Sales, Middle East and Africa, Citrix

Security rethink: The 5 W's

T

he transformation of enterprise IT can seem like one of the biggest challenges for security professionals, as there is a whole new skill-set required today to protect data. It’s no longer about providing employees an allaccess pass to the network, it’s about cohesively managing networking, virtualisation and containerisation technologies to give employees the flexibility to work from anywhere and feel confident their work and personal data are secure and separate.

The new model of security looks like this - instead of owning and controlling every element of the infrastructure, end to end applications, data, network, storage and servers - we’ll let employees use their own devices to access data and apps, even over public networks. We’ll use cloud services and SaaS solutions hosted and managed by third parties, so our own secure data centre becomes just one node of an ever-expanding hybrid environment.

With mobility now a core business requirement, and the consumerisation of IT changing the way people think about the technologies they use, we need to rethink security to fit a new set of requirements like containerisation and data access from anywhere, on any device. Broadly speaking, IT faces two intertwined challenges.

First is to meet employee demands, based on legitimate business needs for the flexibility and mobility to work on any device, in any location, over any network, with the full spectrum of on-premise, cloud and mobile apps and services at their disposal.

The second challenge is to address the critical vulnerability of private information, trade secrets, intellectual

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property and other valuable data across key areas including access control, application exploits, and physical and social engineering, and ensure protection at rest, in transit and in use both on servers and devices.

The importance of this mission can’t be overstated. Digitalisation is vastly expanding the volume of data within the typical enterprise, in tandem with unprecedented growth in data breaches, data loss and theft and cybercrime. Mobility aside, even the strongest perimeter security can’t ensure protection against human error and malicious insiders.

One virtue of the old security model was its simplicity: once you have logged in with valid credentials, you could access and extract all the data you wanted. Of course, this simplicity came at the price of data breaches and highprofile attacks.

The new model needs to be equally simple, applicable to every information access request and transactional decision, while protecting data the right way for the way we work now. You can think of it in terms of five W’s: • Who is trying to access data?

• What data are they trying to access?

• When is this happening?

• Where is the user?

• Why do they need this access?

The answers to these five questions are all a security professional needs to understand in order to decide whether to allow data access.

For example, the “who” question should be handled differently based on the “what.” More sensitive data calls for a higher burden of authorisation, more frequent checks and more stringent policies.

You wouldn’t want to burden lowlevel employees using public data

with multi-factor authentication procedures and repeated logins throughout the working day, but more sensitive data might call for scanning an employee ID, providing biometric data or submitting to webcam facial recognition.

The “who” should also be checked for alignment with the “when” and “where.” Is this the first time an employee ever logged in at 3:30 a.m.?

Is he/she trying to access sensitive data from another country? Does the data in question belong to an entirely different business unit or project? A diversion from the norm might not necessarily prohibit access, but it would raise a red flag requiring further explanation.

The system should also have insight into the “why,” with the predictive ability to understand from schedules and travel itineraries where individuals are likely to need access in the future, or how requirements will evolve based on changes to an employee’s role in the organisation. This can reduce the need for human intervention and avoid undue inconvenience for your dynamic and mobile workforce.

As data and people become more mobile, the final elements of this new security model help protect the organisation from risk in any scenario: encryption and auditability. Wherever it resides and travels, data must be encrypted both at rest and in transit so that even a breakdown in policies or processes won’t leave it vulnerable.

Combining mobility and flexibility with granular control, contextual access allows people to make greater use of data in more contexts to drive productivity and value without exposing the organisation to risk.

Instead of sleepless nights, it’s the stuff IT dreams are made of. july 2015

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To find out more, visit hidglobal.com/education © 2014 HID Global Corporation/ASSA ABLOY AB. All rights reserved. HID, HID Global, the HID Blue Brick logo, and the Chain Design are trademarks or registered trademarks of HID Global or its licensor(s)/supplier(s) in the US and other countries and may not be used without permission.

Kristina Lengyel, VP, Global Professional Services, Kronos

Insight

the big migration

A

Planning is the key to a successful move from on-premise to cloud services. fter careful consideration, you’ve decided it’s time to migrate a major on-premise software solution to the cloud. Effective planning is critical.

Usually available as a service engagement from a hosting vendor, this cloud readiness assessment is part checklist and part roadmap.

Today, the average IT department is already responsible for multiple systems, often as many as seven or eight. Trying to add a project as large and complex as an enterprise cloud migration too is simply not realistic.

A cloud readiness assessment may also help you achieve a faster time to value. For example, you are no longer looking to recover your longterm capital investment, but instead, expecting to gain instant value from your new OPEX spending.

Finally, a vendor’s cloud readiness team can usually deliver skills and specialised expertise required for the specific solution that you or hosting provider might not have in-house. These teams are truly cross-functional, with a mix of expertise in project management, technical implementations, business processes, industry-specific insights, and more. Additionally, these teams usually have dozens, if not hundreds, of migrations under their belts.

For example, a cloud readiness team will carefully evaluate your existing environment and document all aspects of your infrastructure that could be affected. This includes your entire architecture, including databases, applications, networks, specialised hardware, third-party interfaces, extensions, customisations,

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and more. Then, they create a comprehensive report that details these findings as well as their recommended action plan to achieve the most successful migration possible.

Cloud readiness in action To better understand how a cloud readiness offering could work – and its ultimate benefits – consider the example of moving an on-premise workforce management solution to the cloud.

The example of workforce management is especially relevant because recent research shows that an increasing number of workforce management buyers are adopting SaaS tools. Research shows that SaaS will be the main driver in growing the global workforce management market by almost $1.5 billion from 2013 to 2018. Additionally, Gartner research indicates, through 2017, the number of organisations using external providers to deliver cloud-related services will rise to 91 percent to mitigate cost and security risks as well as to meet business goals and desired outcomes.

Workforce management systems manage processes and data related to paying employees, managing their time and balances, storing sensitive HR information, complying with industry regulations, and other critical functions. Errors can be extremely costly, especially if they lead to missing paychecks, employee morale issues, lost productivity, grievances and compliance, or even potential lawsuits.

Specifically, a readiness service is ideally suited to address specialised areas of a workforce management deployment, including:

Data collection terminals. While many employees still refer to these as "timeclocks," the fact is that today's data collection devices are sophisticated proprietary technology consisting of hardware, software, and network/communication capabilities.

As part of a migration, a readiness audit would assess the organisation's data collection methods.

Interfaces and integrations. Workforce management solutions tend to use many different interfaces and custom integrations to feed applications such as ERP systems, outside payroll systems, or third-party analytics applications. In this example, the readiness assessment evaluates the entire integration strategy, including database settings, to make sure mission-critical data continues to flow to support existing business processes.

Customisations and configurations. Most organisations have custom reports, products, or database tables. Here, the cloud readiness service will thoroughly review existing customisations and configurations, and will provide recommendations to maintain, or even improve, the value they deliver.

When it comes to something as significant as migrating a major enterprise solution to the cloud, don’t go it alone. Investing in a cloud readiness service can help you assess where you stand today, plan for the migration, and execute against the plan. This helps free up valuable IT resources to focus on what’s really important – implementing strategic initiatives to help the business grow. july 2015

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Analyst view

Paul Black, Director, Telecoms and Media, IDC Middle East, Africa and Turkey

the Evolving Focus of Middle East Telcos Opportunities are changing in the Middle East, particularly when it comes to telecoms. Operators are moving to reinvent their services to cater to the growing SMB market.

S

aturation in the consumer telecommunications market is driving the convergence of IT and telecom services in most regions around the world, which, in turn, is creating new opportunities for business-to-business services.

These opportunities have motivated telecom operators (telcos) across the Middle East to reinvent themselves by moving beyond the provision of basic voice and data services to begin offering IT services.

This makes perfect sense, given the Middle East’s continuing economic growth and the prospect of major international events such as the World Expo 2020 and the FIFA World Cup 2022 being 62

july 2015

hosted here. Such developments, combined with the increased economic diversification efforts of governments across the region, mean that the number of businesses is forecasted to increase considerably in the coming years, with the number of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) expected to grow the most.

The SMB segment is widely recognised as a key contributor to economic growth and development in the region. IDC’s own research suggests that SMBs account for about 46% of total IT spending by businesses in the Middle East, and SMBs outnumber their large and very large counterparts enterprises - by a wide margin,

usually employing a larger percentage of a nation’s workforce.

And whether they have just one or 250 employees, they all require ICT solutions to maintain their operations and remain ahead of the game.

None of this has gone unnoticed by the region’s telcos. From establishing SMB-focused divisions and repackaging their existing connectivity services to creating all-in-one ICT solutions, they have been increasingly focusing on this burgeoning segment, which marks a considerable change from the strategies of previous years when most of the focus was on enterprises.

But which solutions in particular are seeing the most demand? www.cnmeonline.com

Cloud services are proving increasingly popular with SMBs across the region, but telcos have an intense battle on their hands to secure share in this space.

Indeed, service offerings such as computing, storage, disaster recovery, and business applications need to compete against those of international pure-play cloud providers that have huge data centres and are aggressively driving down service costs.

That said, regional telcos have some specific advantages. The fact that the data associated with cloud services will be stored within the country of origin and that sales support can be provided locally are important differentiators.

Furthermore, a symbiotic relationship exists between connectivity and cloud; improved and affordable connectivity can encourage cloud services adoption, while cloud services adoption will drive broadband data usage and bandwidth utilisation, enabling telcos to fund continued investments in infrastructure improvements.

But the provision of cloud services isn’t the only game in town; the need for improved productivity and increased efficiency, combined with the availability of enterprise apps for mobile devices, is driving demand for enterprise mobility among SMBs in the Middle East.

Rising consumerisation and the emergence of bring-your-owndevice policies in organisations is also supporting this trend.

Enterprise mobility has presented mobile services providers with the opportunity to www.cnmeonline.com

Cloud services are proving increasingly popular with SMBs across the region, but telcos have an intense battle on their hands to secure share in this space. create managed service offerings for mobile devices, including, but not limited to, mobile device management (MDM), mobile application management (MAM), mobile content management (MCM), and mobile security management.

However, the key to success in this space will be to move beyond offering individual elements of enterprise mobility and leverage partnerships in order to offer SMBs the integrated enterprise mobility management solutions that they truly desire.

Traditional data centre services such as hosted applications and infrastructure are also finding relevance among the large contingent of medium-sized businesses that have not yet fully grown into the cloud delivery model. From hosting websites to hosting applications, traditional data centre services appeal to businesses that do not have the resources required to invest in

their own data centre capacity. In many cases, progressive telcos are combining data centre solutions with their connectivity services to present a bundled package, a USP that potentially equips telcos with a significant competitive advantage when looking to do battle in this particular arena.

We are also seeing growing demand for managed connectivity solutions that enable SMBs to connect with employees, customers, and partners around the world, while unified communications and collaboration solutions are increasingly being incorporated into organisations’ business processes. Such solutions typically help businesses achieve cost savings, reduce travel risks, minimise latency, improve the customer experience, boost workforce productivity, and increase revenue, and they resonate particularly well with SMBs as they tend to have smaller budgets and operate in extremely competitive environments.

Ultimately, the opportunities are both broad and varied for telcos looking to exploit the sustained growth that will be seen in the Middle East’s SMB segment over the coming years. And while these are relatively early days, things are really beginning to heat up as a growing band of telcos focus on leveraging their existing infrastructures, skills, capabilities, vast customer bases, and brands in a bid to position themselves as the true service providers of choice for the region’s SMB community. july 2015

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PRODUCTS

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Launches and releases

Product: Blade 3T Brand: Razer What it does: This gaming powerhouse has an Intel Core i7 processor and a solid state drive under the hood, which Razer boasts as four times faster than previous models. But a gaming machine is about more than power, and Razer has given the B3T and Full 1080 HD, 3200 x 1800 resolution display with 262 PPI which can also operate as a touch screen. Bringing the games to life on the anti-gloss display is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M graphics card. The machine itself is compact, with Razer purporting that it is literally “thinner than a dime”.

What you should know: Designed specifically for gamers, the machine has many attributes that while nice to the average consumer, are probably overkill, like the gaming grade keyboard for instance. The green backlit keys are stylish, but not necessary for the word processing crowd. The same can be said for the anti-glare display and powerful graphics card and processor. However, with compact and sturdy construction, a powerful engine and full HD display, the B3T is a gamer’s delight.

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Product: CB30 Chromebook Brand: Toshiba What it does: Toshiba’s latest iteration of the increasingly popular Chromebook style of mobile computers is the CB30. It runs on an Intel ULV Celeron N2840 (BGA) Processor. The display is a 13.3’ TruBrite HD TFT, running Intel HD graphics. The slightly-large-for-its-class Chromebook weighs in at a light 1.35kg, and boasts 1 USB 3, 1 USB 2, 1 HDMI port and a headphone/mic jack combo, in addition to an SD card reader which supports Mini and Micro SD. What you should know: For those looking for a reliable, quality portal to the Internet with heavy emphasis on the Google line of products, this computer is a great fit. The display holds up, the ports are sturdy, and it comes with all the standard bells and whistles you’ve come to expect from a quality Chromebook, built-in camera, stereo speakers and Bluetooth 4.0.

Product: Wireless Hard drive Brand: Seagate What it does: Seagate has launched its new wireless external hard drive into the future with the Seagate Wireless storage system. The 1TB external hard drive does more than traditional external storage units, offering streaming capabilities to multiple devices. Data stored on the Seagate Wireless can be broadcast to smartphones, smart televisions and other devices connected to the same wireless network.

What you should know: The Seagate Media App can take a little bit of getting used to, but these types of features will undoubtedly improve with each new iteration. The app does offer a tutorial to walk users through the steps, and once one has learned to navigate the app, it does deliver on its promise to organise, store and stream digital data.

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Organised by

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Supporting new holistic requirements is paramount, with infrastructure convergence, optimisation and automation all key goals, while saving energy and costs are also top priorities.

This September, CPI Media Group will host its third annual Data Centre Build Roadshow, following on the huge success of the previous two outings.

The conferences will reach Riyadh, Doha and Dubai, and promise to be a cornerstone of regional IT education.

Each conference is designed to educate technology professionals and business leaders on the best way to design, build and operate a successful data centre. Each of these single stream seminars will host a selection of speakers including analysts, industry experts and sponsor case studies and will bring together 80-100 senior IT professionals and business leaders who are responsible, for their organisation’s ICT strategy.

Register at www.cnmeonline.com/datacentrebuild

9th September

For general and agenda-related enquiries Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5678 For sponsorship enquiries Rajashree R Kumar Publishing Director raj.ram@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5685 +971 50 173 9987 Chris Stevenson Commercial Director chris.stevenson@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5674 Group Sales Director Kausar Syed kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 1647 Sales Manager Merle Carrasco merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5676 For registration enquiries

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Backlog

4

Four challenges for Twitter’s next CEO

By Zach Miners

D

ick Costolo has stepped down as CEO of Twitter after five years on the job, relinquishing his post amid longstanding problems including sluggish growth and frequent abusive comments posted to the social network. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who is also CEO of Square, will be interim CEO when Costolo steps.

When Twitter finds a permanent replacement, he or she will face several big challenges. Here are four of them:

Defining what Twitter is Perhaps the biggest problem Twitter has is that many people who aren’t tech enthusiasts still don’t understand what it’s for or why they should use it. For every occasion Twitter is referred to as a social network, it’s also identified as a news source, a publishing system, a feed of real-time events and a micro blog.

Perhaps it’s all those things, but that doesn’t help sell it to people who aren’t yet on the service. If it’s a social network, why use it when Facebook’s around? If it’s a micro blog, why not use a proper blog like Tumblr instead?

Costolo has likened Twitter to a real-time feed of things happening in the world. But that viewpoint doesn’t always seem to wash when Twitter releases product updates geared toward group messaging, or when it removes the character limit on direct messages.

The new chief needs to make it clear what Twitter is for, and then stick to it.

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Making Twitter easier to use To attract new users, its next chief will need to make Twitter less intimidating and more intuitive to people when they first sign up. Who should you follow, and how do you find them? Should you publish tweets or just read them? The company has tried to address these issues with new tools.

Earlier this year, it began rolling out a feature called 'instant timeline' that uses a variety of signals, including the contacts on a person’s smartphone, to see who they might want to follow and automatically create a list.

Dorsey appears to agree on this.

On a call to discuss Costolo's departure Thursday, he said that the easier Twitter's service is made to use, the more accessible it will be to new users.

2

Getting the growth back If Twitter’s new chief can successfully deal with the above issues, this third one becomes easier: The growth in the number of people who log in each month has consistently slowed for the past couple years.

At the end of the first quarter, Twitter had 302 million monthly active users. That was up 18 percent from the same period last year, the lowest reported growth for the company. Slowing growth makes it harder for Twitter to attract advertisers, who supply the company with the bulk of its revenue.

To offset the anaemic growth, Twitter has developed new programs

3

to publish content from its site on other websites, to get it in front of people who aren’t regular Twitter users. Tweets now appear in Google search results, for instance, and tweets and hashtags are plastered across countless billboards, TV programs, and advertisements.

Twitter targets ads based on data tied to users’ activity. But the company faces challenges making money from ads when they’re shown outside the site, to people who Twitter doesn’t know much about.

Curbing the abuse Partly because Twitter does not require people to use their real names, content posted to its site can be malicious and offensive. Misogynistic and hateful comments about women in the gaming community were posted on Twitter, as well as a series of celebrities who have been victims of racist abuse. In a leaked memo earlier this year, Costolo admitted the company was not adept at dealing with abuse.

Over the past few months, Twitter has been improving its tools for letting users report abuse, and has changed its policies to ban some of the more controversial content. In March, the company added a new tool to let users report tweets to law enforcement.

Twitter's new chief will face pressure to further expand these user reporting tools, and develop new systems to proactively identify and root out abuse.

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ISSUE 282 | july 2015

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where Technology means business