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DELL EMC ‘EXPECT MOORE’ DRIVES SUCCESS IN AGE OF DIGITIZATION / 06

PA G E S 5 2 VOLUME O5 | ISSUE 10 M AY 2 0 1 8 WWW.EC-MEA.COM

IAN JONES, DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OF SECURITY, WESTCON SECURITY

Visit Westcon at GISEC 2018 – Stand C16, Zabeel Hall 5 and 6

‘EDGE’ Going above and beyond the vendor and customer expectation has been the USP of Westcon Middle East. While the term ‘Value’ has different interpretations, Westcon-Comstor has been steadily ensuring that they are 100% vendor aligned and customer exclusive. / 32

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EDITORIAL

UNIFYING THE DIGITAL CHAOS

ANUSHREE DIXIT A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M

Like the Midas touch, organizations are turning a golden leaf in the page of their history with the Digital touch. While the Midas touch turned everything to gold, the Digital touch is a golden opportunity that can either revamp your infrastructure to give it a new model or create a chaos leading to a chasm in your organization structure. Our efforts, in the month of April, were aligned in this direction. To unify the chaos and bridge the gaps in digitization that is the worry of the end users and need-of-the-hour of the channel partners. To do this, we crafted some unique events with niche topics that were specifically designed for the customer and channel ecosystem. Starting with the ‘Hybrid IT, Unified Monitoring’ UAE and Oman roadshow held in association with Spire Solutions and SolarWinds, which in a span of 4 days (April 22-25) reached out to the key decision makers from the SI, reseller and end-user ecosystem in the UAE and Oman. The event was an attempt to understand how digitization is putting immense pressure on the complex, hybrid and multi-vendor environment and how CIOs can have a 360-degree view of their network and infrastructure (more insights on page 28). Our CIO Roundtable on HCI Redefined to be held on May 7, 2018 in association with Pivot3 will reach out to the Top 12 CIOs in UAE and divulge into their digital roadmap whilst presenting the need for smarter infrastructure for the software defined. Come May 10, and we will be raising curtains to one of the biggest CIO Awards and TECHtalk in the META region with the CIO 200, held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum once again aiming to celebrate the leaders who have championed the digital cause and led their organizations on the path of excellence. Do join us in the celebrations. Our stories in the May issue have a tint of the digital shade too! Our cover story for the month delves into the Westcon dynamics in living up to the reality of digitization and the VAD’s offering in the same. Also do take a look at the CIOs that we have covered in this issue (who belong to 4 key verticals viz BFSI, Healthcare, Logistics, Retail) and their respective take on digitization. Happy reading! And last but not the least, wish you all a happy, pious, and divine Ramadan in advance. Ramadan Kareem to all our valuable readers. ë

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2018 CONTENTS

VOLUME 05 ISSUE 10 M AY 2 0 1 8 W W W. E C - M E A . C O M

COVER STORY

The Data

Odyssey

There are two types of companies today companies that upgrade their storage to stack up or back up their data. /22

CIO SPEAK /21

DELIVERING PERSONALISED CARE JALEEL RAHIMAN, IT DIRECTOR OF PRIME HEALTHCARE GROUP ENTERPRISE ADVISOR ROADSHOW/ 28

ROADSHOW UAE & OMAN

INNOVATIONS /49

TRANSCEND 500S AND 300S SERIES

FEATURE STORY

LIGHTS ON!

GUEST ARTICLE /39

IT’S TIME TO UPGRADE YOUR FINANCIAL ANALYTICS CHRISTOPHER IERVOLINO, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, GARTNER

EDITORIAL::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 04 CHANNEL STREET : ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 08 COVER FEATURE (WESTCON) :::::::::::::::: 32 FOCUS STORY : :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 46

ADVERTISER INDEX: GEC OPEN 2018 02, SECURITY SMPOSIUM 03, SANS 07, FINESSE 09, RITTAL 11, TALARIAX 13, SPIRE 15, PIVOT3 17, VALUEMENTOR 19, ENT ADVISOR 27, GISEC 43, CARBONBLACK 45, MIMECAST 51, CIO 200 AWARD 52

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CHANNEL

STREET MOHAMMED AMIN, SVP - META, DELL EMC

Dell EMC ‘Expect Moore’ Drives Success in Age of Digitization Dell EMC hosted its Executive Summit – ‘Expect Moore’ – for business leaders in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa region at the InterContinental Budapest in Hungary. At this event, Dell EMC provided a blueprint for digital success and insight into how transformation initiatives can positively impact business results and

functions such as growing revenue, improving products and services, and the speedier introduction of new offerings to the market. The Dell EMC Executive Summit opened with a welcome note from Mohammed Amin, Senior Vice President – Middle East, Turkey, & Africa, Dell EMC, followed by the keynote by Geoffrey A. Moore,

renowned author, speaker, and advisor, whose work is focused on the market dynamics surrounding disruptive innovations. The event also hosted several sessions including a practical guide to making digital transformation real, a closer look at the smart cities of the future, the path to artificial intelligence, and security transformation for a digital

EMIRATES NBD GROUP LAUNCHES PRIVATE CLOUD AS REGIONAL FIRST IN BANKING SECTOR Emirates NBD has launched its own private cloud platform. It is the first bank in the region to implement a private cloud platform that leverages similar technologies to cloud-native companies, marking a major milestone in the Emirates NBD Group’s ongoing AED 1 billion IT transformation. Through its new private cloud technology, the bank’s IT platforms and applications will benefit through enhanced cost efficiencies as well as higher security, resilience, flexibility, insight and quality control. Emirates NBD’s future innovations will also be available with an accelerated time-to-market. Additionally, the bank’s growwing international customer base can enjoy a seamless digital experience across all of its banking channels as its private cloud leverages similar cloud-native application architecture as used by technology leaders like Google, Facebook and Amazon.

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ABDULLA QASSEM, GROUP COO, EMIRATES NBD

era, among others. Mohammed Amin, said, “The next industrial revolution is already here. Twothirds of businesses worldwide may be at risk of losing significant market share and market value over the next three to five years, being made obsolete by more agile and technologically-superior competitors.

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CHANNEL STREET

R&M Introduces Self-Contained Micro-Data Centre R&M launched its Telco Edge micro data centre in the Middle East. With a reduced physical footprint and significantly lower power consumption than traditional data centres, R&M’s new self-contained solution is ideal for rapid deployment at the network edge, placing services closer to customers and thus enabling telecom providers to improve application performance across the entire expanse of their networks. “With ambitious programs to deliver countrywide high-speed connectivity in both nations, there is growing need for innovative solutions that can deliver higher quality internet services while avoiding the significant capital expenses associated with traditional data centres. Edge data

centres can be quickly deployed to support the new demand driven by IoT and the cloud, without compromising availability and operational efficiency,” explained Manzoor Ali, Managing Director of R&M Saudi, Bahrain and Yemen. R&M’s Telco Edge is a self-contained micro data centre with built-in cooling, UPS and integrated fibre-optic cabling, as well as automated tracking and documentation of network cabling and IT assets. It is 99.9% noise insulated, prefabricated in the factory, and delivered in one piece – making it perfect for the edge location. As a result, customers can reduce latency and quickly add capacity while providing a secure and easy-to-manage data centre environment.

V2 PUBLIC CLOUD OFFERING GOES LIVE IN SAUDI ARABIA Virtual Vision (V2) has officially opened services for V2 Public Cloud – a public cloud offering based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) initiated in partnership with CloudSigma and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). The launch ceremony took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Riyadh on April 15th. The ceremony invited leaders from across the IT industry and influential regional businesses to attend the launch of one of the first public cloud offerings based entirely in Saudi Arabia. Among the attendees were Hazem Sandouka, COO of Virtual Vision; Mohammed Al-Kharouf, CEO of Virtual Vision; Mohammed Al Jasser, Managing Director of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Saudi Arabia; Wassim Al Baroudi, Channel and Alliance Manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Robert Jenkins, CEO and co-founder of CloudSigma; and Trey Goede of Saudi Aramco Entrepreneurship Ventures.

COMPANIES ARE BULLISH ON CLOUD ANALYTICS; SURVEY Seventy percent agree that analytics are moving to the cloud slower than other business applications; security and low-performing technology are the biggest barriers. A majority of the largest companies in the world: upto 83% agree that the cloud is the best place to run analytics, according to a new survey by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Teradata. In the next five years, by the year 2023, most organizations want to run all of their analytics in the cloud. But, an overwhelming 91% say that analytics should be moving to the public cloud at a faster rate. According to the survey, some of the biggest barriers to moving analytics to the cloud are security, immature and low-performing available technology, regulatory compliance and lack of trust. Other concerns center on technology integration and talent: 30% are struggling to connect legacy systems with cloud applications, while 29% of respondents cited lack of in-house skill as a barrier.

INCREASED SALESFORCE ADOPTION IN MIDDLE EAST DRIVES TRIPLE DIGIT GROWTH FOR 4C Cloud computing in the Middle East is rapidly evolving from a buzzword to an industry-wide trend with large scale implementations by regional enterprises, particularly in the Software-asa-Service (SaaS) segment. As a case in point, 4C, revealed another year of triple digit growth in the region,

driven by increased market confidence, and demand for cost-effective solutions that drive digital transformation. The company, which doubled its office space in the Middle East last year, also tripled its workforce following the successful addition of more than 30 new customer accounts in

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the same period. Jake Callaway, Managing Director, MENA at 4C explained, “Initial reluctance to trusting vital business processes to third-party providers has faded as businesses have realised the cloud is the fundamental enabler of digital transformation. 4C strategically

timed its entry in to the region and the investments we have made over the last two years now place us in a strong position to capitalize on this change in mindset.” “Salesforce is the global CRM leader with a powerful solution that spans all verticals and caters to the needs of organizations of all

sizes. Last year, our Dubai based consultants achieved nineteen Salesforce certifications, with this expertise – and as a premium implementation partner – customers who work with 4C, have the ability to unlock the full potential of the Salesforce platform” he added.

CHANNEL STREET

Robust IT Infrastructures to Aid UAE Businesses with GDPR Compliance

FADI KANAFANI, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, NETAPP

NetApp’s global research has found that the 1,106 IT decision makers surveyed across major markets are united in their concerns. One-third of respondents say that the impact of noncompliance with GDPR puts the survival of their business at stake. At the same time, two-thirds of respondents expressed some level of concern about achieving compliance by the deadline. Under GDPR, every business that deals with the personal data of an EU citizen must know where their data is stored at all times. This knowledge is the first step toward GDPR compliance. However, the survey shows that knowledge levels are low globally, with only 40 per cent of respondents stating that they can say with confidence where all of their data is stored. U.S. respondents are the most confident. Across EMEA, confidence is much lower, which is only 10 per cent higher compared to NetApp’s survey results in 2017. Fadi Kanafani, Regional Director Middle East & Africa, NetApp, said: “The level of awareness on the implications of the GDPR deadline is relatively low in the region and that could be the major reason behind the slow pace of activities aimed at ensuring compliance. Companies in the UAE do not shy away from investing in robust IT infrastructure and that will be an advantage in navigating this challenge.”

SECONDS

HID GLOBAL PARTNERS WITH MICROSOFT HID Global took the next step in its collaboration with Microsoft to deliver solutions that allow users to use smart cards to log into Microsoft Windows, devices and cloud-based apps, eliminating the sole reliance on username and password. A new FIDO 2.0-based authentication solution combines HID’s expertise in authentication with Microsoft’s expertise to add an extra layer of security to protect against more severe, emerging threats. VERITAS UNVEILS OVERHAULED DATA PROTECTION PARTNER PROGRAM Veritas Technologies debuted an enriched partner program focused on helping the channel drive growth and profitability. The new Veritas Partner Force program is designed to create higher earnings potential for more than 10,000 global partners who want to capitalize on Veritas’ 360 data management portfolio and multi-cloud data management solutions. FINESSE PARTNERS WITH KYRIBA Finesse revealed a strategic channel sales partnership with Kyriba. The partnership will give Finesse’s more than 200 corporate clients access to Kyriba’s enterprise suite, enabling greater financial controls and decision support as part of their digital transformation. With Kyriba, Finesse can address the pent-up demand for more secure and centralized financial management solutions, including

IMPERIUM TO ACCELERATE REGIONAL SMB CLOUD ADOPTION WITH AVAYA

payments, automated workflows, and real-time

Avaya revealed that Imperium Software Technologies is the latest company in the Middle East to be authorized to provide the “Powered by Avaya” cloud offerings. “Powered by Avaya” is designed to meet the growing needs of midmarket customers in the region for cloud-based communications solutions. Small-to-medium sized companies account for around 90% of registered businesses in the Middle East and Africa (MEA). With demand for cloud growing in the region, Avaya sees significant potential for channel partners that want to offer the same rich communication experiences customers expect from on-premises Avaya solutions delivered as cloud-based offerings. “Powered by Avaya” enables channel partners to offer Avaya’s UC and CC solutions in the way that best meets their customers’ needs – on premises, hybrid cloud, or fully hosted. Manikandan Karunakaran, Founder and Managing Director of Imperium Software Technologies, said: “Through ‘Powered by Avaya’, Imperium can now fulfill our customers’ demand for modern cloud-based communications. Avaya shares our vision for how communication shapes compelling customer experiences and drives new efficiencies across organizations. The extension of our partnership with Avaya gives us the freedom to innovate with our customers in a way that suits them, seamlessly transforming their businesses at their own pace.”

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TELR LAUNCHES TELRSECURE AT SEAMLESS MIDDLE EAST Telr launched its sub-brand – TelrSecure – at Seamless Middle East 2018. TelrSecure is a collection of antifraud features, designed to keep online merchants secure and their customers safe. This helps build the buyer behaviour of customers, who buy from more than 100 countries on Telr’s online payment platform. Through the timely exchange of information with Telr partners such as banks and Telr’s online merchants, TelrSecure proactively monitors and detects issues before these impacts the bottomline of online merchants.

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CHANNEL STREET

Exabeam and Exclusive Sign Distribution Agreement Exabeam has chosen Exclusive Networks to accelerate its market impact in the Middle East enterprise sector. The move supports Exabeam’s 100% channel model, which is focused on recruiting specialist partners, market-maker VARs and international/global SIs to exceed ambitious revenue targets. Exabeam’s solutions deliver on the original promise of SIEM – complete visibility into modern threats with automated response capabilities. The Exabeam Security Intelligence Platform provides organisations with unlimited data collection at a predictable price, machine learning-driven user behaviour analytics, and automated incident response, all delivered via one easy-to-interpret user interface. Unique among user and entity behavioural analytics (UEBA) solutions, Exabeam’s platform automatically creates a complete timeline of every event and anomaly tied to an attack – across devices, IP addresses, and credentials – to assess risk and automate many incident response tasks. “We have been admiring Exabeam’s growth which has far exceeded the annual growth rate of the SIEM market and are excited to join them on their journey” said Oliver Downs, Alliance Manager at Exclusive Networks Middle East. “Exabeam’s platform makes a compelling and fast sales proposition with an out of the box

value, whether as a standalone solution or complimentary to existing SIEM deployments. Their security intelligence technology provides the missing link for operations teams, threat hunters and incident responders”. As the latest addition to Exclusive Networks’ security portfolio, Exabeam joins an illustrious line-up of innovative cybersecurity vendors benefiting from a concentrated campaign of technical and product management support, focused lead-generating marketing activity and accelerated engagement with target partners. As well as underlining its integration within the CARM framework, this includes educating the channel about the unique opportunities surrounding UEBA and the Exabeam platform, and accrediting resellers to the Exabeam partner programme. “Exclusive Networks is well respected and we’re excited to be building out our channel with them as a true extension of our team,” said Brett Candon, EMEA Channel Director at Exabeam. “They understand Exabeam’s position in the market and the opportunities that lie ahead for our partners. They have the right pedigree to help Exabeam fully execute on its growth plan. The VCs of Exabeam – involved in the likes of Palo Alto, FireEye and Imperva – have witnessed this previously and we look forward to a longstanding, successful relationship.

SNB TO FLAG OFF SECURITY & NETWORKING ROADSHOW IN EGYPT SNB Middle East’s Egypt Partners can gear up to availing an in-depth knowhow of the VAD’s latest security and networking portfolio as they gear up for a roadshow on 18th April, 2018 themed as “Empowering Security & Networking” in Cairo, Egypt. The Agenda comprises of informative & factual vendor presentations across contemporary security solutions such as CCTV Surveillance & IT Security. Globally renowned brands like Bikal, Digifort, Allied Telesis, Pacom, & Huz are looking forward to play a major role by enlightening the audience with their latest technologies in today’s world. There are approximately 110+ C-level executives attending the event from various Channel Partners, Integrators, Consultants and End Users. To be held at the InterContinental City Stars, Cairo, the event will give SNB partners a unique opportunity to witness live demonstrations of the security solutions & effectively network with the key Vendors coming from across the globe.

INFINET’S 9TH INTERNATIONAL PARTNER CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS LATEST TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGHS InfiNet Wireless recently held its 9th annual international partner conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Bringing together 80 partners from 28 countries, including Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UAE, the two-day conference was designed to give the InfiNet

team the opportunity to update attendees on company performance, share its strategic and commercial direction, unveil a range of new wireless solutions planned for 2018 and beyond, highlight several innovative deployments from across the globe and recognize several loyal partners for

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their key achievements and contributions over the past 12 months. In his keynote address to all participants, Kamal Mokrani, Global Vice President at InfiNet Wireless said, “We had another strong year of double-digit growth, thanks in large part to the Middle East, which grew by 20% when

compared to the previous year. While the Middle East and the CIS countries will continue to be our core markets in the foreseeable future, we are now experiencing growing demands for our solutions from the Latin America and Africa regions, as clearly demonstrated by a whole host of successful InfiNet

deployments in these parts of the world. In terms of applications, service providers and WISPs still account for more than 50% of our revenue streams, but we are increasingly seeing strong demand for our solutions in the public safety arena, Oil & Gas and transportation/mobility sectors.”

CHANNEL STREET

Cisco to Bring Human and Digital Connections to Life at Expo 2020 Dubai Expo 2020 Dubai has teamed up with Cisco to ensure that the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region leaves a lasting positive impact and delivers on expectations to be a festival of human ingenuity. Cisco will provide its latest technology innovations that enable the exploration of new possibilities and connections for a sustainable, inclusive future. Expo 2020 will take place between October 20, 2020 and April 10, 2021 and organizers expect nearly 25 million visits, 70 percent from outside the UAE. Expo 2020 Dubai and Cisco will work closely to deliver a global event that is at the forefront of technological evolution and demonstrate how connectivity can

be a force for social and economic good, in alignment with the event’s theme, ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future.’ As the next World Expo’s Digital Network Partner, Cisco will provide the secure, intelligent foundation for connectivity through its intent-based networking solution, making Expo 2020’s technology infrastructure the most advanced in the event’s 167-year history. His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Expo 2020 Dubai Higher Committee, said: “Dubai is rapidly becoming one of the smartest and most connected cities in the world, exploring futuristic solutions that range from driverless vehicles to artificial intelligence solutions.

WEB CLIPS NETWORK INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHES N-GENIUS PAYMENT PLATFORM Network International launched N-Genius, a new payment platform aimed at revolutionising the way businesses manage and accept payments, either at the cash register or as a mobile solution offering payments on the go. The N-Genius platform is built for seamless, speedy and scalable trading. Supported by Android, it is designed to keep up with the fast-changing payments landscape, and gives Network’s customers fast access to the latest capabilities with minimum intervention. LOGMEIN COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF JIVE COMMUNICATIONS LogMeIn has completed its acquisition of

BOOKING APPLICATIONS ACCOUNT FOR 60% OF MOBILE TRAVEL PURCHASES In the company’s first official visit to the UAE, the Bitfury Group launched its regional operations and held seminars in Dubai and in Abu Dhabi with Emercoin to showcase blockchain projects that will improve services for companies, governments and individuals around the world. The event in Dubai was held in Dubai Design District and in Abu Dhabi was with KryptoLabs, an incubator based in Masdar City. Bitfury invited developers, blockchain enthusiasts and other industry experts to shed light on the team’s innovative services, frameworks and applications for the next generation of blockchain solutions: Emercoin, Exonum and LightningPeach. “We are excited to share our expertise here with other members of a community that is dedicated to raising appreciation for the technology and moving it closer to universal adoption,” said Alex Botezatu, head of Software for Bitfury.

Jive Communications. The acquisition, first announced in February, accelerates LogMeIn’s overall Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) strategy and bolsters LogMeIn’s popular collaboration portfolio, bringing together LogMeIn’s offerings like GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, and join.me with Jive’s innovative and award-winning UC products. EMERSON NAMED ‘INDUSTRIAL IOT COMPANY OF THE YEAR’ Emerson has been named the “Industrial IoT Company of the Year” by IoT Breakthrough. The award recognizes Emerson’s extensive innovation and leadership in driving Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and

MOVEMENTS INFOBLOX Appoints CHERIF SLEIMAN as SVP International Business

Lenovo DCG Appoints RICHARD WILCOX as Regional Director for Middle East

StorageCraft Appoints SAYED SHAMSHUDDIN as Regional Sales Manager for Middle East & India

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NUMBER GAME

6bn

MENA Software Spend to Reach USD 6 Billion in 2018 says Gartner

strategies for customers in manufacturing industries, including oil and gas, food and beverage, chemical, life sciences, power, water, wastewater and others. QUALYS SET TO LAUNCH TWO FREE SERVICES AT GISEC Qualys will launch two new free services at GISEC - CertView and CloudView. Harnessing the power and scalability of the Qualys Cloud Platform, CertView and CloudView provide organizations of all sizes visibility at scale to track and monitor all their digital certificates and cloud assets. As organizations digitally transform, the increased adoption of encrypted machine-to- machine communication and cloud infrastructure creates rapidly changing attack surfaces and new areas of risk.

ROADSHOW UAE & OMAN

HYBRID IT, UNIFIED MONITORING

CONTACT Office 1504, JBC3 Building, Cluster Y â€“ Jumeirah Lakes Towers, P.O. Box 393447, Dubai, United Arab Emirates T: +971 4 427 9940 | E: info@spiresolutions.com | W: www.spiresolutions.com

CHANNEL STREET

DSOA Chairman Inaugurates Orange Business Services Regional HQ His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA), officially inaugurated Orange Business Services’ new Middle East innovation hub and regional business headquarters at Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO). The official opening ceremony was attended by Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, Ludovic Pouille, the French ambassador to the UAE, Thierry Bonhomme, CEO of Orange Business Services, and senior officials from both entities and various business partners.The new regional hub includes a solutions showroom, presenting, and demonstrating Orange Business Services’ smart solutions portfolio and capabilities in a user-friendly space, designed to stimulate further innovative ideas and collaborative business opportunities. Speaking at the inauguration, Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni said: “We are pleased to

MIMECAST REPORT: LEGACY EMAIL SECURITY SYSTEMS FAILING

welcome Orange Business Services, the global communications solutions provider and integrator for multinational corporations with expertise in smart city consulting, to Dubai Silicon Oasis as the latest of our distinguished partners and stakeholders. Orange Business Services counts as the newest addition to more than 74 French businesses that operate out of the hub.” “We chose DSO as our regional hub because of its commitment to innovation and the strength of its business and startup ecosystem. DSO is also host to the Dubai Smart City Accelerator program, in which we are actively working with a group of startups, providing mentoring, consulting, and ‘proof of concept’ support. Our global innovation ecosystem now extends from Silicon Valley to DSO, from where we will support the work of our dedicated smart cities teams across the region,” said Thierry Bonhomme, CEO, Orange Business Services.

GARTNER REVEALS BEST PRACTICES FOR MANAGING DIGITAL TWINS Forty-eight percent of organizations that are implementing the IoT said they are already using, or plan to use digital twins in 2018, according to a recent IoT implementation survey by Gartner. In addition, the number of participating organizations using digital twins will triple by 2022. Gartner defines a digital twin as a virtual counterpart of a real object, meaning it can be a product, structure, facility or system. Gartner predicts that, by 2020, at least 50 percent of manufacturers with annual revenues in excess of $5 billion will have at least one digital twin initiative launched for either products or assets. “There is an increasing interest and investment in digital twins and their promise is certainly compelling, but creating and maintaining digital twins is not for the faint hearted,” said Alexander Hoeppe, Research Director at Gartner.

Mimecast Limited made available its quarterly Email Security Risk Assessment (ESRA), a report of tests that measure the effectiveness of incumbent email security systems. This quarter’s assessment reports that these systems missed 11,653 emails containing known malware, which should be the easiest to identify, as they are detectable by commonly deployed endpoint-based anti-virus technologies. Additionally, the report noted a continued challenge of securing organizations from unknown malicious attachments, dangerous files types, impersonation attacks, as well as even basic spam. As part of the assessment, Mimecast inspected more than 95 million emails, all of which had passed through organizations’ incumbent email security vendors. These organizations, in 20 different industries, invested millions of dollars to deploy a variety of commonly used on-premise and hybrid email security systems. The latest report found more than 14,277,163 pieces of spam, 9,992 emails containing dangerous file types, and 849 unknown emails with malware attachments — all missed by the incumbent providers and delivered to users’ inboxes. Most notably, 11,653 known emails with malicious attachments passed through these systems, an increase of 532 percent in comparison to last quarter’s assessment.

AL AHLI HOLDING GROUP GOES LIVE ON DIGITAL CORE TO TRANSFORM CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE One of the Middle East’s conglomerates, Al Ahli Holding Group, went live on a digital core to transform the experience for tens of thousands of customers in 20 countries worldwide, as part of an

innovative digital transformation partnership with SAP. As part of its Digital Transformation, Al Ahli Holding Group has gone live on the SAP S/4HANA real-time business suite, implemented by partner

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DXC Technology. SAP S/4HANA provides Al Ahli Group with easyto-understand business dashboards, which can improve automation, efficiency, and agility. “SAP solutions are designed

in backing with partner DXC to provide Al Ahli Holding Group with leading business solutions such as improved sales forecasting and stock replenishment, effective customer service, to optimize supply

chain, support daily operations and provide accurate analytics and reports that will support management when making important decisions,” said Mohammmed Khammas, CEO, Al Ahli Holding Group.

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CHANNEL STREET

Citrix Introduces Ultimate Rewards Program to Simplify Channel Incentives

TAJ EL- KHAYAT, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, CITRIX MENA

Citrix revealed an overhaul of its existing channel program and introduced Citrix Ultimate Rewards. The program is designed to make Citrix a better partner by simplifying the process and streamlining the incentives. The initiative is closely aligned with the company’s goal of helping customers make the strategic transition to cloud and is currently being rolled out in the region by recently appointed Taj El-Khayat, Regional Director for Citrix MENA. By consolidating incentives, increasing automation, and adding tracking capability throughout the process, Citrix Ultimate Rewards gives partners more time to work together with customers. It increases transparency and consistency of processes

and decisions and through artificial intelligence, can approve requests without human interference. Currently, partners often answer more than 30 questions before getting a deal registered, however the new system only requires nine questions for simple registration. “I’m excited to bring the Citrix Ultimate Rewards, to the region. We believe this cohesive program is a major milestone in our long history of being a channel centric organization. Partners will benefit from less complexity, so they can focus on delivering world-class customer experiences, ultimately making for a win-win situation where both parties grow and profit together,” said Taj El-Khayat.

FINTECH HIVE AT DIFC BROADENS 2018 PROGRAMME FinTech Hive at DIFC said that its upcoming programme will expand its themes to include insurance, Islamic finance, and regulatory technology services. The 2018 edition will build on the success of its inaugural accelerator programme, launched last year in partnership with Accenture. The programme will continue to bridge the gap between innovative tech entrepreneurs and financial industry giants, while providing a platform that enables the development of cutting-edge innovation in line with Dubai Plan 2021 and the Centre’s 2024 Strategy. “We are proud of the achievements of our inaugural programme, and look forward to further collaboration with our existing partners, as well as new financial institutions from across the Emirates and the region, who are looking to benefit from the DIFC ecosystem and our international network with financial hubs around the world,” said Raja Al Mazrouei, Executive Vice President of FinTech Hive at DIFC.

BOSCH REGISTERS RECORD BUSINESS PERFORMANCE IN 2017 Bosch is aiming for further growth in 2018, despite the difficult economic climate. After achieving record results in 2017, and in light of economic and geopolitical risks, the Bosch Group expects its sales revenue to grow by 2 to 3 percent in 2018. In the first three months, the sales revenue generated by the company matched the high level of the same period of the previous year, and even increased by around 5 percent when adjusted for exchangerate effects. “Our company is unequaled when it comes to combining comprehensive connectivity expertise with broad industry and product know-how. This is the Bosch Group’s unique selling proposition,” said the Bosch CEO Dr. Volkmar Denner. Denner sees improving the quality of life and contributing to eco- and climate-friendliness at the top of Bosch’s agenda: “Our ‘Invented for life’ ethos is our motivation for developing the best possible technologies for environmental protection. We want to help keep people mobile, while improving air quality.” To make practically zero-emissions traffic reality, the company is making heavy investments – both in making electromobility a market success and in enhancing the combustion engine.

INDUSTRY LEADERS STRUGGLE TO BALANCE DIGITAL INNOVATION AND SECURITY Akamai Technologies released data noting how companies are struggling with the tug-of-war between advancing digital innovation and ensuring secure digital

experiences that maintain user trust and mitigate risk. As part of a commissioned study of more than 350 global information technology leaders conducted by

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Forrester Consulting on behalf of Akamai, the results also show that the companies defined as being the most digitally mature — best balancing innovation and

security– grow faster than their competitors. “With the help of this research by Forrester, Akamai has created a way to evaluate how digitally mature a company is, based

both on the effectiveness of its digital experience and the strength of its security posture,” said Ari Weil, Vice President of Product Marketing, Akamai.

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CHANNEL STREET

Commvault showcases advantages of HyperScale Technology Commvault showcased the advantages of HyperScale technology in the region at the first Connections Live event held in the Middle East. The one-day thought leadership forum took place on 24 April 2018 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Jumeriah Beach Residences, Dubai. The event brought together industry experts, analysts, Commvault customers and partners from across the globe to discuss digital business transformation. It provided hands-on perspective on how to protect, manage and use the data that’s driving ongoing digital trends in the region to kickstart their strategy for innovation and industry growth. Local and regional customers attending the event included Dubai Police, Dubai Municipality and Emirates Steel. The impact of cloud on data on the region

was covered at the event, where Commvault demonstrated how IT agility can be achieved through scale-out infrastructure and HyperScale technology. This helps in ensuring businesses can use and exploit rapidly growing volumes of data, all while protecting it, keeping budgets in check and meeting service goals. Wael Mustafa, Area Vice President for the Middle East, South Africa and Turkey (MESAT) for Commvault, said: “Commvault Connections Live is a milestone event in which industry experts have discussed the latest trends in data protection and digital transformation with our partners and customers, advancing the discourse on using data to drive innovation and growth across local and regional businesses.

BT AL SAUDIA LAUNCHES NEXT-GENERATION MANAGED SECURITY SERVICES BT Al Saudia launched as the first in the market to offer Next-Generation MSS (Managed Security Services) in Saudi Arabia supporting customers in protecting and managing their network and IT infrastructure by security experts 24x7. According to Symantec’s Internet Security Threat report, Saudi Arabia is the most “impacted” country in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region in terms of ransomware and with the emerging cyber threats, the need to get secured is evergrowing. Organisations of all sizes, in all industries are struggling to secure their most critical assets. Martin Sutherland, CEO of BT Al Saudia, said: “BT Al Saudia is transforming in-line with the Saudi Vision 2030 to help organisations innovate and invest in the changing business environment.”

UAE BLOCKCHAIN PROJECT WINS EDISON AWARD 2018 The Avaya Happiness Index on Blockchain, developed in the UAE and showcased at GITEX 2017, was voted a Gold Winner for innovation at the 31st Edison Award™ in New York City. The distinguished awards, inspired by Thomas Edison’s persistence and inventiveness, recognize innovation, creativity and ingenuity in the global economy. The Avaya Happiness Index on Blockchain, which securely collects and analyzes customer data from multiple sources in real time, enables organizations to gain greater insight into their customers behavior and respond quickly to user trends. “This award, inspired by the various global initiatives being led by the UAE, showcases the thriving technology ecosystem within this nation and is yet another global mark of recognition for Dubai’s Happiness Agenda. When visionary leadership focuses on citizen happiness, and leverage the transformational capability of technology and collaboration, they unleash the immense power of human innovation.” said Nidal Abou-Ltaif, President of Avaya International.

NUVIAS AND HUDDLY SIGN PAN-EMEA DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT Nuvias has signed a pan-EMEA distributor agreement with innovative Scandinavian start-up Huddly for its ground-breaking intelligent collaboration camera. The ultra-compact and stylish Huddly GO offers advanced features such as an ultra-wide 150-degree lens, lossless digital Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) up to 4x, and 16 MP video - all at a fraction

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of the cost of existing high-end PTZ video conferencing cameras. Designed and engineered specifically for unified communications (UC), team collaboration and new pervasive video applications, Huddly GO is fully-compatible with leading cloud-based UC platforms already in the Nuvias Unified Communications Practice portfolio, including Lifesize,

BlueJeans and BroadSoft, as well as Microsoft Skype for Business and more. This new pocket-sized, USBpowered camera, with dynamic light optimisation and visual noise filtering, delivers high-quality images whatever the location and conditions. And, with an ultrawide field of vision, Huddly GO captures everyone in the room,

even in the tightest spaces, making it ideal for ‘huddle rooms’, mid-size conference rooms and large open environments. With the Huddly App users also get regular software upgrades to improve image quality and performance, while the Huddly Vision API makes it possible to develop advanced intelligent features using the camera’s multiple video streams.

INTERVIEW

DELIVERING PERSONALISED CARE WITH NUMEROUS MILESTONES ACHIEVED IN HIS CAREER, INCLUDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF A LONG-TERM IT INFRASTRUCTURE STRATEGY; INTRODUCTION OF SCALABLE AND GLOBAL MOBILITY STRATEGY; AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A MOBILE DEVICE MANAGEMENT (DMD) SOLUTION, JALEEL RAHIMAN, IT DIRECTOR OF PRIME HEALTHCARE GROUP IS ALL SET TO WORK ON LEVERAGING RPA AND AI TO IMPROVE THEIR PROCESSES AS WELL AS DELIVER NEW SERVICES TO THEIR PATIENTS.

JALEEL RAHIMAN,

IT DIRECTOR OF PRIME HEALTHCARE GROUP

Tell us about yourself and your role as a CIO/IT Head in this company. Appointed as the Information Technology (IT) Director of the Prime Healthcare Group LLC in January of 2018, I take on the duty of delivering reliable and scalable IT services aligned to business objective while ensuring data integrity and information security across the Group’s IT infrastructure and application services. Prior to joining Prime Healthcare Group, I was a part of the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where I held key positions, namely Solution Delivery Manager; Head of End-User Services – MEA & South Asia; and IT Infrastructure Manager – Gulf & Near East. I also served as a Head of IT Operations and Infrastructure at the Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company (ADNIC). I earned my Master of IT Management from University of Wollongong in Australia and obtained Bachelor of Science in Computing from the University of Portsmouth in the UK. I also hold a Higher National Diploma in Software Development from Scottish Qualification Authorities in the UK. Role as CIO at Prime Healthcare Group Develop IT strategy, budgets and project plans to support the business goals and objectives. Drive continuous improvement of IT processes & services, including development and implementation of Standard Operating Procedures and best practices, and providing written protocols and guidance to IT staff and end users. I lead the digital transformation team to deliver effective, efficient and sustainable processes/solution internally within the organisation as well as to our customer.

What are your business models and how has digitization played a key role in your organization? “Personalised Care Personally” is the philosophy at PRIME at all levels; we follow a patient centric business model. Technology is an enabler for providing more connected and reliable patient care. We are proud to say that we have a single patient record across our group and this enable our physicians and nurse’s visibility to all previous records of a patient which in turn helps them to provide better and complete service. Digitizing the entire medical record (i.e. eliminating paper file) for all out patients across the group have been a major achievement. More over all other related information including laboratory results and values and radiology images and reports are all digital and accessible to the healthcare providers using a single patient record. All this is available from a single system avoiding the complexity of switching between multiple systems. What kind of technology trends do you anticipate in 2018 for your organization? We are working on leveraging Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve our processes as well as deliver new services to our patients. The key themes of May issue are Big Data, Li-Fi and Financial Services. Would you like to share with us your opinion on one if these topics? With volume of data that is available today; innovation and service improvements should be data driven. This can only be done if an organisation get their Big Data strategy correct. ë

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COVER STORY

The Data

Odyssey There are two types of companies today— companies that upgrade their storage to stack up or back up their data; and companies that upgrade their intelligence and analytics to convert that data into opportunity. Regardless to say, the latter stands a better chance to not only thrive but have an edge above its competitors. Well, data may be the new currency for organizations todaybut it is really important to spend and save the currency wisely.

n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M > n PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

owever poetic or ‘Homer’ish it sounds, I like to associate the word Odyssey to Data. Data and a customer’s journey with it has not been less than a crusade. For example, a few years back, there was hardly someone who saw himself/herself pursuing a career as a data scientist. Today, they are the highest earning professionals in the entire globe. Organizations have realized the tremendous amount of value and fortune that a wisely used and analyzed data can bring on board. Hence data scientists are gaining prominence like never before.

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COVER STORY

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COVER STORY

“NetApp is committed to connecting companies to more clouds in more ways to achieve their digital transformation goals.” -WALID ISSA, SENIOR SYSTEMS ENGINEERS MANAGER FOR MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, NETAPP

“Data maturity cannot be achieved only by investing in advanced technology solutions, but by fostering innovation across all business processes.” -ALAA YOUSSEF, MANAGING DIRECTOR – MIDDLE EAST AT SAS

“There is room in the market as well as opportunities for everyone when it comes to today’s data-centric world, if organizations are willing to make sweeping cultural, strategic and organizational changes.” -ISLAM ZEIDAN, GENERAL MANAGER UAE AND MEAD, TERADATA

Well, IBM predicts that there will be more than 700,000 job openings for these types of specialized positions by 2020. This has further fueled the organizational demand for a 360-degree view of their data and workload that can give the decision makers a clear picture of resources over allocated and under allocated, structured and unstructured.

HOW BIG IS THE BIG DATA TODAY? Data-driven innovations will summarize the year 2018. There is no doubt in that. Today, data is nothing but ‘experience’. It all sums up to how an organization makes the best use of its data to enhance customer experience and at the same time extract value to offer a seamless service delivery. Data analytics and AI have seen a massive shift in 2017. Embedded analytics is the fastest growing area of Business Intelligence (BI). In a study from self-service analytics firm Logi Analytics, more than 66% of IT teams said they are now using embedded analytics in their organizations, while almost 30% said they were considering it. On the other hand, Forrester predicts 2018 to be

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the year that most businesses will come to terms with the fact that AI is necessary – and complicated. As more companies begin to implement the power of AI into their daily operations, they will realize advantages of this technology. “While data analytics is the heart of the digital transformation, data management should be the heart of any data analytics solution because high-performance storage ensures that analysis tools can access data quickly. A solid storage foundation is necessary for the success of any data analytics project and it is worth paying special attention right from the start,” says WALID ISSA - Senior Systems Engineers Manager for Middle East and Africa, NetApp.

DATA AWARE IS DATA READY Recently, I had a very interesting conversation with a CIO about the thin but major difference between being data-aware and insights-aware. The sustainability of your business relies heavily on understanding this difference. “While being data aware helps you take quicker decisions, being insight-aware helps you make

wise decisions,” said the CIO. A data aware organization has a complete view of its data cycle but is yet to realize the full potential of the data that resides in the organization. “To truly capitalize on the value of data, organizations require a platform on top of which complex workloads like advanced analytics can run, with the ultimate goal of creating competitive advantage through improved business operations and customer experience,” says Christian Putz, Director, Emerging Markets, EMEA, Pure Storage. “As a consequence, we have seen tremendous interest in our solutions, particularly FlashBlade. The technology is purpose-built for modern analytics and designed to drive tomorrow’s discoveries, insights, and creations. FlashBlade has already been deployed to manage some of the most data intensive workloads in the industry— vehicle automation, genomic sequencing, facial recognition, rocket simulation, textual analysis, software development, chip design, targeted advertising, geophysics and more,” he adds. “While there has been a lot of hype over the past few years, the reality is that we are in a transformative era in terms of analytic capabilities

COVER STORY

“Legacy storage vendors are retrofitting flash to decades-old systems, and perpetuating the status quo vs. embracing the true potential of flash.”

“Big data has the potential to empower organisations to make better business decisions, in real time” -MECHELLE BUYS DU PLESSIS, MD - UAE, DIMENSION DATA

-CHRISTIAN PUTZ, DIRECTOR, EMERGING MARKETS, EMEA, PURE STORAGE

the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. “At NetApp we aim to strengthen cyber security measures by collaborating with our partners. For example, we recently joined forces with Splunk for security information and event management (SIEM). Our agreement has effectively combined Splunk software and NetApp E-Series storage to boost threat detection and response, insider threat detection, compliance, user behavior analytics, and many more. With its massive I/O bandwidth, E-Series storage easily addresses the need to store enormous amount of data being gathered by Splunk from across servers, storage, and network devices of an enterprise, to cite a few,” says Walid. Alaa Youssef, Managing Director – Middle East at SAS, says, “The data generated by the attacker’s actions is the hallmark of cybercrime. And that’s the reason analytics is becoming a valuable weapon in the cybersecurity fight. The data to investigate and fight cybercrime is there. There are multiple systems in place that have the ability to gather and monitor the data needed to fuel faster cybercrime detection.”

THE STORAGE PROVIDER RESPONSIBILITY and the leveraging of massive amounts of data. If one takes the time to cut through the sometimesoverzealous hype present in the media, they will find something very real and very powerful underneath it. With big data, the hype is driven by genuine excitement and anticipation of the business and consumer benefits that analyzing it will yield over time,” says Islam Zeidan, General Manager UAE and MEAD, Teradata In the Middle East, many countries such as the UAE and Bahrain are at the forefront of harnessing the power of data to spur significant growth. With high smartphone-adoption and internet penetration rates, rising popularity of the cloud, and increased social-media use in a number of Arab states, big data analytics is gaining significant traction. In terms of faster adoption, much still needs to be done but regional organizations are nonetheless taking action in this regard.

BLOCKCHAIN AND INFORMATION DECENTRALIZATION In the coming years, major advances in cybersecurity are not only expected; they are absolutely

necessary. For this reason, blockchain advancement is set to be one of the most prevalent trends in 2018.Blockchain helps to encrypt Bitcoin transactions and other big data transfers that carry private or sensitive information. But what makes blockchain virtually uncrackable is the fact that no transferred documentation is stored in one place. Instead, they are broken up and scattered throughout various locations for security purposes.

BOOSTING CYBER SECURITY The use of big data analytics and machine learning enables a business to do a deep analysis of the information collected. Ultimately, this gives hints of a potential threat to the integrity of the company. A business can create baselines based on statistical data that highlight what is normal and what is not. With such analysis, entrepreneurs and business managers can know when there is a deviation from the norm using the data collected. New statistical and predictive models and possibilities can also be created using this historical data by

As per the report released by IDC, data creation is expected to reach a total of 163 zettabytes (ZB) by 2025 – a ten-fold increase in today’s numbers - with businesses creating 60 percent of the world’s total data. Storage providers play a pivotal role in handling massive data by offering new agile and innovative alternative to help address this data management challenge. Efficient data management is critical to optimizing operations and exceeding customer expectations.

FINALLY Big Data is still not utilized in the way it should be. It is a powerful weapon that is till lying in the arsenal. While the belief still exists, that Big data is only applicable to large size organizations where the data generation is huge, organizations have to realize that the term ‘Big’ is relative and it is not the size of the data that is big but the value. Some organizations also fear the chances of over the budget spending to implement big data tools. Well, now this is where we need the industry forces to align their synergies and impart the right knowledge. Dig deeper, the value lies deep inside. ë

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INTERVIEW NEW APPOINTMENTS

DRIVING NEW DIGITAL BUSINESS MODELS WITH THE MENA REGION’S INFRASTRUCTURE SPEND SET TO TOP USD 280 BILLION BY 2018, ONE OF THE REGION’S PLAYERS OF PEOPLE MOVING MACHINERY, AG MELCO HAS RAMPED UP ITS SUPPORT FOR MEGA PROJECTS WITH AN ENTERPRISE WIDE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION. A RAHEEM, IT HEAD OF AG MELCO TALKS ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION AND ITS PLANS FOR 2018.

Tell us about yourself and your role as a CIO/IT Head in this company. AG MELCO (AG Mitsubishi Electric Corporation) is the region’s largest vertical transportation provider with branches in 16 locations around the MENA region. I head corporate IT at AG MELCO with responsibility of overall budgets, strategic planning, IT alignment, ERP and corporate systems. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science & Engineering from JNT University, Hyderabad, a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago and a Master of Business Administration also from IIT, Chicago. I lived in Chicago for over a decade before moving to Dubai.

A RAHEEM,

HEAD OF IT, AG MELCO

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What are your business models and how has digitization played a key role in your organization? With the MENA region’s infrastructure spend set to top USD 280 billion by 2018, one of the region’s largest players of people-moving machinery, AG MELCO, has ramped up its support for mega-projects with an enterprisewide digital transformation with SAP. For many of the Middle East’s mega-projects, AG MELCO supplies, installs and maintains vertical transportation equipment that funnel tens of millions of annual visitors and supports economic growth. AG MELCO needed real-time visibility and decision-making to gain a competitive edge. Replacing legacy IT systems with digital transformation based on SAP S4HANA and integrating all business processes and departments on a single platform, AG MELCO has implemented seamless and real-time decision-making. As a result, AG MELCO is driving cost optimization, operational efficiency, and enhanced customer service on their installations.

AG MELCO’s digital transformation showcases global best practices in co-innovation to drive new digital business models, and business competitiveness by deploying applications such as business intelligence, customer service, finance, human resources, payroll, procurement, project systems, and sales. With over 350 SAP users, the SAP S4HANA ERP platform provides real-time visibility, cost optimization,operational efficiency, and enhanced customer service. What kind of technology trends do you anticipate in 2018 for your organization? In our organization for 2018, we would like to continue our venture into cloud computing as well as partnering with business units in identifying appropriate technological opportunities and providing applications to enhance operational efficiencies and strategic growth. We are also looking into making our workforce mobile, automating business processes (RPA) to improve visibility, control costs and reduce waste. The key themes of May issue are Big Data, Li-Fi and Financial Services. Would you like to share with us your opinion on one if these topics? In the realm of Big Data, with our state-ofthe-art ERP and Business Warehouse we are assisting us in strategic decision making through advanced data analytics using the power of HANA’s in-memory database. Other applications are looking at collecting and analysing Big Bata from sensors on our equipment to provide real-time visibility into equipment health and assist with predictive maintenance as well as pay-as-you-use business model.With Big Data, the possibilities are endless and imagination is the only limit! ë

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ENTERPRISE ADVISOR ROADSHOW

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HYBRID IT, UNIFIED MONITORING

nterprise Advisor recently hosted the Hybrid IT, Unified Monitoring Roadshow covering UAE and the Sultanate of Oman from April 22-25 2018. The vision of the roadshow was to educate the channel partners and end-users the critical need for a unified application and network monitoring. Distributed workloads and IoT devices can create control and visibility issues for IT professionals. A loss of visibility can lead to serious consequences, from network issues to downtime. The potential ben-

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efits of IoT must not be outweighed by the security risks and performance degradation factors for it to be a truly successful technology.According to SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2017: Portrait of a Hybrid IT Organization, the primary challenge posed by hybrid IT (weighted by rank) is the lack of control and visibility into the performance of cloud-based applications and infrastructure, something that is exacerbated by IoT devices. This is because IoT devices connect to cloud backends or edge-distributed endpoints rather than traditional data centres.

ENTERPRISE ADVISOR ROADSHOW DUBAI CHANNEL PARTNER DAY: 22nd APRIL 2018 VENUE: RIXOS PREMIUM HOTEL DUBAI ATTENDEES: 34 CHANNEL PARTNERS INCLUDING SIs, RESELLERS AND OEMs

“Hybrid IT and cloud are a reality for the majority of organizations today, unlike just a few years ago when they were limited to early adopters. Today, we are in a new era of work—one that is more global, interconnected, and flexible than ever—and organizations of all sizes are implementing cloud computing to better meet the demands of a modernized workforce. Our global study of over 803 IT practitioners, managers, and directors, SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2018: The Intersection of Hype and Performance showed that hybrid IT/cloud is

the most important technology/management tool for an organization’s technology strategy and digital transformation, and also has the best potential to deliver the highest return on investment for an organization. To put this in perspective, hybrid IT/ cloud was up against some of the latest IT buzz technologies, such as the internet of things (IoT), software-defined everything (SDx), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), automation, and containers,” said Derek Daly, sale engineering manager, SolarWinds.

DUBAI CUSTOMER DAY: 23rd APRIL 2018 VENUE: RIXOS PREMIUM HOTEL DUBAI ATTENDEES: 33 END USERS INCLUDING CIOs, IT HEADS, IT MANAGERS

The team explained how unified monitoring will can serve the purpose of the IT departments when they are away. CIOs have huge responsibility as todays revenue generation depends on their organization’s IT infrastructure. Delays in their systems can cause damage to their business. Solar winds along with spire solutions was successful in delivering the message on how they can do a better job in monitoring the IT infrastructure and watch it over in real-time. Adopting a management and monitoring toolset removes the need for manual troubleshooting. A single-pane-of-glass view offers cross-environment

visibility, with network insight leading all the way to end-user performance. Typically, an organization can struggle to consolidate this complex data structure comprised of multi-vendor, multi-technology performance monitoring and management systems. The CIO need for insight falls well below this overload of information. A typical CIO does not want an all-youcan-eat, but an a-la-carte dashboard with very specific performance data, easy to relate to the business needs. Regardless of where the IT asset sits, on-premises or in the cloud, SolarWinds delivers products that are easy to find, buy, use, maintain, and scale.

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ENTERPRISE ADVISOR ROADSHOW OMAN CHANNEL PARTNER DAY: 24th APRIL 2018 VENUE: GRAND HYATT HOTEL, MUSCAT ATTENDEES: 38 CHANNEL PARTNERS INCLUDING RESELLERS, SIs, OEMS

Heterogeneity is the new normal for the vast majority of IT operations today, with systems and applications spanning multiple cloud services, as well as on-premises infrastructure. Operations teams need a single platform to reduce complexity, quickly recognize problems, optimize performance,

and optimize resource utilization. SolarWinds products provide important advancements in these critical capabilities with leading-edge simplicity. We continue to strive to make monitoring these labyrinthine environments simple, powerful, and affordable.

OMAN CUSTOMER DAY: 25th APRIL 2018 VENUE: GRAND HYATT HOTEL, MUSCAT ATTENDEES: 30 END USERS INCLUDING CIOs, GM of ITs, IT Managers

SolarWinds team was represented by Mansoor Saleh, Middle East Territory Manger; Owen Murphy, Sales Engineer and John OCallaghan, Senior Manager EMEA, Product Marketing at SolarWinds.

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Muhammed Rehan, Networks Operations Manager from Spire Solutions kicked off all the events with a brief introduction of the VAD and Vendor portfolio and their unique capabilities in unified monitoring.

EXECUTIVE MOVEMENT

CULTIVATING CUSTOMER-DRIVEN MARKETING AS CMO, LANGEVIN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR GLOBAL MARKETING STRATEGY AND THE GLOBAL MARKETING ORGANIZATION AT EPICOR, INCLUDING CORPORATE MARKETING, FIELD MARKETING, AND TELEPROSPECTING. SHE BRINGS OVER 20 YEARS OF PROVEN EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE IN BUILDING GLOBAL BRANDS AND LAUNCHING INTO NEW LINES OF BUSINESS AND MARKETS TO DRIVE IMPACTFUL REVENUE GROWTH.

How long has it been since you joined Epicor? What was the most appealing factor about the company that attracted you? I joined Epicor in February 2018 and what really attracted me to the company is its great potential. It has great customers, great products, great partners and great people, which all together creates great potential for growth. From artificial intelligence (AI), big data and blockchain, to Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT)—business leaders are striving to identify the digital transformations that will have the biggest impact on enhancing employee and customer experiences and drive growth. This makes for a very exciting proposition for modern business software vendors who I believe will have a key position in helping companies overcome the challenges that stand between them and solid growth.

COLLEEN LANGEVIN,

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, EPICOR

Tell us in brief about your previous roles and experiences? How do you plan to utilize those experience in this organization? I bringmore than 20 years of proven executive experience cultivating customer-driven marketing, building global brands, and launching new lines of products and services to markets worldwide in order to drive revenue growth. Most recently, prior to joining Epicor, I was the chief marketing officerfor CLEAResult, the market leader in designing and implementing technology-enabled demand side management programs for utilities. While at CLEAResult, I led the development and execution of the go-to-market strategy and the marketing organization that drove significant revenue growth for the company. I have also previously held executive leadership positions with Dell and Iron Mountain, where as senior vice president of marketing my leadership of market strategy, product marketing and branding as well as the field marketing teams resulted in growing the business into a global market leader with over $3B in revenue.

What roles and responsibilities does your current role entail? As chief marketing officer for Epicor, I’m responsible for our global marketing strategy and the global marketing organization, which includescorporate marketing, field marketing, and corporate communications. What are your TOP 3 Priorities for 2018? Supporting ourbusiness strategy to drive a culture of customer-centricity, growth, and investment is my first priority.As part of this, I want to ensure that all of our go-to-market efforts across product, marketing and sales are aligned to create a consistent customer experience and deliver upon our brand promise that enables customers to easily get fit for and act on growth. Foundational in achieving this will be our talented team members and ensuring that we are maximizing and aligning the talents of our people – who are the essence of our success and our greatest brand ambassadors. In your current role, what is your responsibility towards your customers and partners? There is nothing more important in my role than my responsibility towards our customers and partners. Without them there would be no business. I look forward to continuing to support our customers’ and partners’ growth and business success through our go-to-market efforts. Tell us any interesting fact about Epicor’s office/employee culture. Epicor is a global company, but there is a true sense of family within each of our offices. We are grounded in our deep industry expertise, and we pride ourselves in our ability to fit the needs of our customers and enable our customers to successfully grow their businesses. Our goal is to drive a culture of growth for our customers, and we mirror that internally with our employees. ë

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COVER FEATURE

VAD with an

‘EDGE’ Going above and beyond the vendor and customer expectation has been the USP of Westcon-Comstor. While the term ‘Value’ has different interpretations, Westcon-Comstor has been steadily ensuring that they are 100% vendor aligned and customer exclusive. Ahead of the leading security show GISEC, we sit down for an interesting tete-a-tete with Ian Jones, Divisional Director of Security, Westcon Security for further insights into the VAD’s vision for the region and its business operations in 2018.

n W O R D S : A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M >

eing a Value-added distributor puts a great amount of responsibility on your shoulder. While you have to build a comprehensive portfolio of vendors to meet the emerging requirements of the clients, you also have to strongly adhere to saying ‘No’ to a vendor who does not flock wings with your business models. The Westcon-Comstor business model in 2017 and 2018 has been a living tale of this. The VAD has undergone a radical business transformation. EDGE is Westcon-Comstor’s approach to every opportunity and their commitment to every partner. With the four pillars of differentiating process in the EDGE framework: Engage + Develop + Grow + Extend, the program helps partners engage with their core services, develop and grow their business through new solutions, technologies, marketing and services, and extend their business by unlocking more profitable opportunities and expanding into

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new markets. On the security side, Westcon Security has been witnessing a steady and organic growth and is gearing up for some major announcements in GISEC.

RISING ABOVE THE CRUNCH The market is not steady and we are aware of it. Deferred payments and extended credit notes have become the norm for some companies, putting immense pressure on the channel’s cash flow. “We as distributors are constantly finding innovative ways to finance projects. Credit is still king! We have learned over the last year that end customers are looking for flexible ways to finance their critical projects. These include extended payment terms over a number of years, switching to an OPEX model or even deferred payments,” says Ian Jones, Divisional Director Security, Westcon Security. While the critical issue of cash flow may hamper

COVER FEATURE

IAN JONES, DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OF SECURITY, WESTCON SECURITY

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COVER FEATURE

additional investments and focus we have made and that is bearing fruit already. Vendors enjoy the level of exclusivity we give them and when we are assessing new vendor partners that do not compete with our current portfolio as it builds confidence in our strategy and we are greatly benefitted.”

BIG GROWTH Westcon Security Practice grew 30% in last Fiscal year

BIG NEWS

Rollout of global cloud marketplace later this year

the growth of some company, Westcon-Comstor is taking this as a valuable lesson and immensely focusing on inventing customer-friendly business models. This attitude has been one of the winning factors in the VAD’s growth.

A WELL-DEFINED GROWTH Westcon-Comstor has always had a clear vendor strategy and works on a no-compromise agreement. While the security side of the business accounted steady growth, UC and Comstor’s Cisco business was relatively low due to the lack of traditional infrastructure projects in the region last year. “We actually went through an exercise last year and actually divested out of a few relationships that were not working for both companies. This I feel will actually add to our success as we can double down on what is actually working,” adds Ian. It was a big news in the market when WestconComstor announced the discontinuation of distribution with one of its major vendor for the EMEA region. While we pressed Ian to tell us more about this, he said, “This is working out well for us. Our current vendors appreciate the

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ADDING THE VALUE IN VALUE ADDED DISTRIBUTION Distributors are no longer the ‘middlemen’ in the market ecosystem. The business reality today is that there is a clear and dynamic shift in the orientation of the distributors from pushing the sale of the product to understanding the customer pain point and taking across tailor-made solutions to them. This orientation is termed as ‘Value’ today. So, we asked Ian the significance of the word Value in Westcon-Comstor. “That is a very good question and not easy to answer. At Westcon-Comstor we define Value as being able to go above and beyond what our customers and vendor partners expect. But when you ask one of our business partners to define value you would get a variety of answers as they all have different interpretations and expectations when it comes to a distributor. Being ‘Dynamic’ is the way-to-go-ahead mantra for any VAD during these times. Traditions and legacies are being displaced by the changing customer demands. Westcon-Comstor has also taken some comprehensive steps in living up to this transition in 2017 and first half of 2018. “It’s well known over the last 2 years Westcon has been rolling out a global digital transformation project to consolidate all of our systems and processes. We now have uniform global systems for ERP, CRM, digital quote tools which have enabled the organization to be agile, efficient and dynamic. The final piece of the puzzle is the rollout of our global cloud market place which you will hear more about later in the year.” As a VAD, you can either complement a vendor by aligning with their market approach or supplement a vendor by providing additional value to the clients above the solutions provided. Westcon Comstor’s strategy has been quite unique in the distribution landscape. “We have dedicated vendor teams that ensure we are 100% aligned with how the vendors are structured and operate. We are able to execute the programs and priorities of the vendor and also add our own twist to allow us to add our own value to help grow both organizations.”

THE WESTCON SECURITY PRACTICE

As the security landscape is increasingly becoming vulnerable and the threat horizon is empowered further by emerging concepts such as CaaS, Westcon is committed to arming our security solution providers with products that are effective in today’s threat environment. Westcon Security Practice, that has grown over 30% in the last fiscal year, connects specialty vendors to solution providers focused on providing leading security solutions. The practice helps drive success globally by offering high-value expertise and innovation for solution providers and vendors through business enablement, demand generation and thought leadership. “Westcon security had a great year last year and that was due to a number of reasons. Probably the first is that I have a phenomenal team that has been building a successful business for a number of years. Even before my time the Security practice had regular double-digit growth and with a few key hires we have seen that success continue. Add to that we have a number of strategic vendor partners who operate at the top of their field and a very loyal channel we anticipate another great year.” “Our channel strategy has always been to recruit the right partners in the right territories, enable those partners, grow and retain those partners through good business practice,” adds Ian.

CHANGING THE GAME WITH NEWER TECHNOLOGIES When one reads about Westcon-Comstor, the key things that are highlighted is their strong adherence to Data Centre, Collaboration, Infrastructure, Mobility and Security-centric solutions. We ask Ian how these emerging concepts like AI, machine learning, robotics and HCI changing the game for the VAD. “IOT, AI, Machine learning are concepts that are already prevalent and they are starting to become the norm. As enterprises are producing more data and introducing systems that talk to other systems that will produce even more data the challenge will be securing all of these sub systems. Westcon-Comstor is already aligned with vendors who are championing these concepts and maybe a few smart additions to our portfolio will enable us to enter the next stage of the digital evolution with a full toolkit for our customer.”

GISEC AND BEYOND Well, GISEC is around the corner and as every year there will be a lot of announcements and revelations happening in the 3 days and around that. Westcon Security is gearing up for the security

COVER FEATURE

15%

Yoy Growth 2016-17-18

Channel Partner Programs currently being offered - Several programs are aligned to the EDGE frame-work

VENDOR ADDITION Carbon Black, Trend Micro, Certes

20%

Growth in Customer Base

Major Revenue generatingCountries in Middle East UAE, KSA, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman

The vad goals/mantra of Westcon-Comstor is to To lead the VAD distribution landscape by offering best in-class services to the channel

season with a kitty full of major announcements and expansions. The VAD is also opening regional offices in a number of countries and preparing for some aggressive strategies to build closer interactions with the customer. “I am personally very excited about GISEC. We will have representation from our top vendors who are working exclusively with us at the show. We will have technical experts and demonstrations of the latest technology and looking forward to meeting new and old partners from all over the region at the show.”

“The expansion has been driven by our customer needs to align with them on a local level. This will enable us to scale and serve our customers better by having local logistics, banking and finance options which will make a big difference especially as the tax landscape is changing in the gulf,” says Ian. Westcon will also add some new vendor to its portfolio in the coming months. The big news is definitely the launch of their cloud platform to serve the partners and vendors better and even bigger growth than last year. ë

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INTERVIEW NEW APPOINTMENTS

LAYING FOUNDATIONS TO PIONEER SIB WITH MORE THAN 24 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN IT AND WITH DEEP FINANCIAL DOMAIN EXPERTISE, SALEEM AHMED – SVP – HEAD OF IT FOR SHARJAH ISLAMIC BANK IS CURRENTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL ASPECTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACROSS SIB AND ITS GROUP BUSINESSES.

key role in your organization? Our Digitalization strategy is centered on both customer facing and internal facing processes. The overarching theme of SIB’s plan is to encourage a digitally driven mindset and attitude throughout the bank to ultimately ensure that consumers are provided with end-to-end banking services at their convenience. Constantly seek opportunities to increase throughput, leverage new technologies and improve efficiency and turn-around time. Digitalization of our processes using technologies like RPA are poised to uplift our operational efficiencies leading to faster turnaround times for our consumer. What kind of technology trends do you anticipate in 2018 for your organization? Business process automation and workflow shall be a key focus powered with enabling technologies like Robotic Process Automation. Digital banking for the consumer and STP processing for corporates shall drive our strategy going forward. Predictive analytics leveraging AI are also being explored to create contextually relevant options for business decision making.

SALEEM AHMED,

SVP – HEAD OF IT, SHARJAH ISLAMIC BANK

Tell us about yourself and your role as a CIO/IT Head in this company. Graduated as a Mechanical engineer in India back in 1990, I initially pursued a five-year career in manufacturing for Larsen & Toubro, where my desire for technology grew. I later moved to Saudi Arabia and spent 17 years working at what was formerly Citibank-owned Saudi American Bank – and is now known as Samba Financial Group. My major project during my lengthy tenure in this bank was with Saudi Aramco to automate the company’s initiation of transactions to the

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bank using its SAP ERP system. I then joined First Abu Dhabi Bank – formerly First Gulf Bank in 2013. There I played a lead role in ensuring all the merger requirements for all business areas are executed in FGB IT systems for day 1 of Merger. Last year I joined Sharjah Islamic bank (SIB) as Head of Information Technology. As the IT head, I am currently responsible for all aspects of IT across SIB and its group businesses (including the real estate and Islamic finance businesses). What are your business models and how has digitization played a

The key themes of May issue are Big Data, Li-Fi and Financial Services. Would you like to share with us your opinion on one of these topics? On Big Data, the industry solution landscape is maturing. While it is good to continue to explore the technology toolsets around big data (of which there are many), it is more important to ascertain the business wish list and their focus areas before embarking on a big data journey. On Fintechs, Banks have to embrace fintech’s and the fintechs also have realised that in order for them to flourish, they will need to co-partner and co-create with financial institutions. The customer will always be comforted in knowing that a bank is backing up or fronting such fintech initiatives. ë

GUEST ARTICLE

Manuel: ‘The classes are good, but the instructors really make the difference’ Manuel Leos Rivas, Security Expert, works with the mobile, governmental and banking solutions business units where he is always on the hunt for the bad guys. In his role, Manuel acknowledges that advanced security skills and knowledge of the latest hacker tools, techniques and procedures are crucial. He has therefore followed numerous SANS courses to keep ahead of his adversaries.

“2014 was the year I took my first SANS course”, says Manuel. “It was SANS SEC660: Advanced Penetration Testing in Orlando. I really liked the training so shortly after that I took SEC642: Advanced Web App Penetration Testing. Since then I have followed numerous other courses.” He praises the quality of the course content and instructors. “The classes are good, but the teachers really make the difference. They have years of experience in the field and a solid background in security. They talk about real compromises they encountered with their own customers and how they handled them. That is such valuable knowledge.” THIRD PARTY VULNERABILITIES Manuel studied system engineering and administration in Mexico and has been with Gemalto for over 6 years, working in one of their 30 Research and Software Development centres. The main security challenges are in third party products that Gemalto uses for its products. “We often discover vulnerabilities on a kernel, a database or application server. We then have to analyse where the problem is located, come up with solutions to solve the issue and deploy the patch when it is released.”

KEEPING KNOWLEDGE UP-TO-DATE To be able to spot vulnerabilities and hacks in time to stop damage, Manuel looked into the security courses SANS Institute offers. He notes that most other training institutes required multiple courses and reading a lot of books and articles whereas the SANS course was already packaged and ready to digest. “I have peers working in different business units and we sometimes agree to follow a training course together, so we can apply everything we learn in our daily jobs, new techniques that make our security better and faster.” CERTIFICATIONS Manuel uses a lot of the free reading material SANS offers in their Reading Room. “I usually pick between 6 and 7 webinars a year and read at least 3 whitepapers. I share those too.” Manuel also wrote two whitepapers himself: Profiling Web Applications for Improved Intrusion Detection and Securing the Home IoT Network. For his CyberSecurity Core Engineering certificate degree he needed to write 2 different whitepapers on Information Security Training. “Certifications are really important to me, I worked on them from the start.” He already has 8 GIACcertifications and later this year at least three more

will follow. FULL UNDERSTANDING OF THE CLOUD The security expert is proud of his job. “I have the ability to actively protect our customers from the bad guys out there. Because of my knowledge, experience and training I can better deal with threats and spot vulnerabilities and hacks before they can do any harm.” INSTRUCTORS GO THE EXTRA MILE The security expert lauds the quality of the SANS courses again. “I think they offer truly usable and high-level courses. The training is packed with content and there is so much to learn. There is room to screw up, and to learn from your mistakes. But most importantly, the instructors of the different courses I took, were all amazing. They have so much to offer, like good stories and key examples from their own practice.” Manuel feels like the instructors really go the extra mile for the participants. “Because of their experience and background they are able to teach the contents of the course, but they offer so much extra advice - that is a really valuable addition to the training.” ë

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SPECIAL STORY

e-Commerce - Enormous industry, Effortless payment When technology is on an evolving spree, it is very easy for companies to be left behind. E-commerce is one such platform that is being disrupted heavily by the emerging technologies. The existing or legacy technologies are taking a back seat and we can see an increased collaboration amongst the financial service providers and retailers or merchants in stepping up the game with omnichannel gateways and comprehensive and secure payment models. Its time to disrupt as the new players have all the potential to displace the traditional players. Payment technologies that are evolving YoY leaves the merchants difficult to keep pace with the changes. This is the time when people opt for an Uber instead of a taxi so as to pay the driver using the mobile without having to physically pull out the wallet and provide cash or card. E commerce is a fast growing market and this leaves the emerging entrepreneurs with a chance to displace traditional industry leaders. New technologies and easier payment methods make the firms reputable amongst the customers. There is still a dire need for more automated solutions in the eCommerce space. Companies can automate in house processes at a reduced

financial cost. Tools like Shopify Flow and Scripts enable for self automation. Automation process creates a specialized shipping option for a personalized checkout experience for customers. It saves time and money for the customers, thereby inc. This led to the average e commerce mobile conversion rate by over double in the shopify business. Shopify methods are accelerated checkouts which doesn’t ask the customers to re enter the same information repeatedly. This creates a personalised experience instead of being a random person making a purchase. With UAE having the greatest smartphone

20%

The mobile payment technologies market around the globe is expected to increase at a CAGR of 20.5% between the years of 2016 and 2024.

503bn

26%

In-store mobile payments will reach $503 billion by 2020, reflecting a CAGR of 80% between 2015 and 2020. (BI Intelligence)

50bn

Mobile point-of-sale revenue around the world is expected to reach almost $50 billion in 2021, (from $6.6 billion in 2016)

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The greatest security vulnerability associated with mobile payments is public Wi-Fi (26%), followed closely by lost or stolen devices (21%) (ISACA)

penetration of 73.8% and with 91.9% of its people having access to internet, smart and convenient pay will bring in more sales to the merchants. With the influx of smartphones in the UAE market, it is important to pay attention to multichannel retailing as part of the e commerce. Multi-channel retailing that targets the audiences on multiple platforms beyond a single website like social media, marketplaces and YouTube brings in more and instant sales. Every county has a set of constraints, market preferences and security challenges. To overcome such instance in Africa, where US e commerce has a strong hold “Mall of Africa” service was initiated. This service lets USA and UK companies to sell their products by reducing the risks of fraud. The service company distributes with strategic calculations and ensures that it reaches even to the remote areas of Africa. The company also provides security and tracks any unusual purchases. This is a B2B e commerce which is hiking up in sales much forward than B2C e commerce. Statista says, “the gross merchandise volume of business-to-business e-commerce transactions is projected to amount to 7.66 trillion U.S. dollars, up from 5.83 trillion U.S. dollars in 2013.” The difference in growth matches the entire projected transactions in B2C e commerce at $2.143 trillion in 2017. 89% of B2B researchers use the internet during their research process and conducts around 12 searches before engaging in a brand’s site. ë

GUEST ARTICLE

It’s Time to Upgrade Your Financial Analytics Financial planning and analysis needs to upgrade in four key areas to keep pace with digital business initiatives.

Everyone with a smartphone, tablet or laptop knows the feeling: Your hardware starts lagging, and you struggle to communicate with the newest and most vital technologies used by peers and associates. It’s time for an upgrade. Well, it’s no different in financial planning and analysis (FP&A), which could soon become stranded by outmoded applications if it doesn’t set a roadmap for upgrades. Traditional financial applications weren’t designed to answer the types of questions that a digital business consistently asks of them. Applications must enable a more flexible and collaborative approach with business partners. Applications leaders should first assess their current maturity in four key areas, so they can plot a roadmap for each: • Planning & budgeting • Integrated financial planning • Management and performance reporting • Forecasting and writing. PLANNING AND BUDGETING Heavy use of Excel is a good indicator of an immature budgeting process. More mature processes rely less on spreadsheets and favor purpose-built FP&A solutions that provide access to common databases, manage data scenarios and related workflows, and ensure transparency. Immature financial planning capabilities often resemble a shadow budget process, with iterative reporting that can take nine months or more to produce results — by which time the results are often outdated or irrelevant. Other earmarks of immaturity are simplistic reports, scarce analytics, and a lack of (or visibility into)

business-value insights. Higher levels of maturity are characterized by a focus on business drivers that impact the financial line items.The level of detail used must be appropriate to test a hypothesis (“what if ”) in a way that has business relevance. For example, this may include planning at low product stockkeeping unit (SKU) or customer levels, even if it requires tens of thousands of planning elements. INTEGRATED FINANCIAL PLANNING Maturity in integrated financial planning (IFP) is a binary measure: you either have it or you don’t. Finance departments that struggle to generate business insights in a timely and accurate manner from high-level financial data can rarely support an IFP program. By contrast, , higher levels of maturity in IFP translate into increased collaboration with other business domains, and greater business influence. For example, a mature IFP program can target specific financial planning objectives in outside business areas and generate fresh insights for its sales team. MANAGEMENT AND PERFORMANCE REPORTING Relatively immature FP&A functions routinely struggle with answering the “why?” behind the numbers. In these departments, spreadsheetbased deliverables often focus solely on accounting numbers, and lack many (or any) outside input and analytics, making it difficult to generate any insight. More mature performance reporting takes a holistic approach to answering the “why?”

n CHRISTOPHER IERVOLINO, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, GARTNER

behind financial results. Key to the mature state is the ability to capture and integrate a wide variety of data from different source — from enterprise resource planning tools and FP&A systems to the disparate Microsoft Office files that inevitably float around various outside departments. Mature reporting processes move beyond simple “board books” toward a more comprehensive “playbook” that incorporates a variety of data, builds a narrative around it, and ultimately generates actionable insights. FORECASTING AND MODELING Less mature FP&A capabilities typically rely on traditional planning and budgeting tools for forecasting and modeling capabilities. These tools tend to be static, and can’t cope with highly complex business environments. Greater maturity in these areas is marked by the ability to provide faster and more predictive analytics, adjustments “on the fly,” and an emphasis on high performance through leveraging in-memory computing (IMC) and advanced analytics. UPGRADE FOR THE FUTURE, NOT JUST TODAY Once applications leaders have assessed the current maturity of these key FP&A processes, they can more ably develop a roadmap for upgrades that will ensure FP&A can understand the questions their business partners are asking today, and will likely need to answer in the future. As AI-enabled solutions begin to enter the workplace, finance will become an increasingly tech enabled field. ë

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FEATURE STORY

Lights On! 40

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FEATURE STORY

Imagine the LED bulbs transmit high speed data without Wi-Fi or a LED lit streetlight can download movies as you pass by. Well, these scenarios are not out of any thriller movie. Li-Fi is expected to disrupt our lives in the near future and is anticipated to reach USD 75.5 billion by 2023.

n B Y: D I V S H A B H AT < D I V S H A @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M > n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K

had a CIO calling me up a few days ago asking – “For heaven’s sake, now what is Li-Fi?” In the spur of the moment, I just laughed off saying it is an emerging technology but then I realized, this technology has not gained much traction now and we need to shed some ‘Light’ on it. This technology that is expected to disrupt our lives in the near future is anticipated to reach USD 75.5 billion by 2023 according to Global Market Insights. But what is it all about? And how can this technology be of use to us?

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FEATURE STORY

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

The data transfer for internet application is higher

High-speed data transmission could be available everywhere

Secure - available only to users within a room and cannot be breached by outsiders

Complete elimination of health concerns

The signal’s range is limited by physical barriers

LI-FI Light Fidelity (Li-Fi) is a wireless optical networking technology that uses LED bulbs inserted with a chip for data transmission. The visible light from LED bulbs act as a carrier for data and can reach any device which is illuminated by it and creates signal for the receiver device, thereby transmitting data. Having the potential to transmit data up to the speed of 224 GB per second, this technology is faster than Wi-Fi. With no extra effort needed, it can be used even from the existing bulbs in the house as well as driverless cars or street lights to provide internet. As per the CEO of Switch Made, Jeremy Loisel – The technology has not gained traction because its functionality with handheld devices have certain challenges that are currently being addressed by researchers. “Once these are resolved, it is only a matter of time that Li-Fi could evolve as the next new technology in the lighting sector.” Efforts are being made to introduce Li-Fi technology in the Middle East. In March 2016, telecom operator du and Zero1 successfully demonstrated the capability of this technology in Dubai, UAE. In October 2017, Li-Fi maker

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Internet cannot be used without a light source

“The technology has not gained traction because its functionality with handheld devices have certain challenges that are currently being addressed by researchers,” -JEREMY LOISEL, CEO, SWITCH MADE

Other sources of light may interfere with the signal Whole new infrastructure for Li-Fi would need to be constructed

Oledcomm made talks to bring this technology to UAE for a residential project. However, to gain popularity, smart phone and laptop manufacturers would need to incorporate the necessary sensors and software that will negate the need for a separate dongle believes Loisel.

WILL LI-FI TAKE OVER WI-FI? Li-Fi stands to be much faster than Wi-Fi. With 224 gigabits per second speed, a person can download a minimum of 20 full length movies in a single second. According to Harald Haas, the inventor of Li-Fi, this technology can achieve density thousand times greater than Wi-Fi. The reason because Li-Fi signals are contained in a small area as opposed to more diffuse radio signals. Also, Li-Fi is more secure as its signals are only indoors unlike Wi-Fi where signals can pass through walls allowing anyone to share your connection. An interesting question that would make almost every person wonder is – Does Li-fi mean you keep the lights on all the time to access internet? It is a major misconception to think that

lights have to be switched on all the time. Bulbs could be dimmed to such a point that they appear off but still transmit data. While all this sound really good, Li-Fi has it own major problems that it is yet to overcome. This technology cannot be used without the source of light. As light cannot penetrate walls, the signal’s range is limited by physical barriers. While more secure, this limited range can be a bit disturbing. Li-Fi is also going to need re-investment in lighting infrastructure. Loisel says – “One of the biggest potential drawbacks is the interception of signals outdoors. Sunlight will interfere with the signals, resulting in internet interruption. But, LiFi has a distinctive advantage over WiFi: Radio signals used in Wi-Fi can interfere with sensitive electronic equipment such as medical appliances, which is not the case with LiFi.”

WHAT’S NEXT FOR LI-FI? Would there be enough space for Li-Fi to see the light? One of the biggest advantages of Li-Fi is its potential to eradicate congested radio waves and wireless dead zones. Although it will take some time for this technology to flourish, there is a great deal of potential for it to be used. Though its future looks bright, it has its own benefits and drawbacks. The true benefit lies in using Wi-Fi and Li-Fi to supplement one another! ë

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DELIVERING RIGHT SOLUTIONS ENTERPRISE CHANNELS MEA IN A CHAT WITH PRABHAKAR POSAM, CIO OF TRANSWORLD GROUP WHO BELIEVES HEADING IT AND BUSINESS PROCESS TOGETHER GIVES HIM COMPLETE INSIGHT OF THE ORGANIZATION AND ALSO THE OPPORTUNITY TO UNDERSTAND BUSINESS AND DELIVER RIGHT SOLUTIONS.

Tell us about yourself and your role as a CIO/IT Head in this company. As a CIO of Transworld Group of Companies, I am always looked at to deliver a business value. I focus on designing, implementing & monitoring right IT framework for the organization, which is scalable, secure & cost effective. I always believed “stake-holders first”. We are in complex multi-model logistics business across multiple geographies. At Transworld, we always believe technology will play a key role in driving future business. We are bringing multiple technologies like supply chain platform, cloud infrastructure, customer portals & mobility platforms. We are looking forward to implementing predictive analytics to bring efficiency in our process and evaluation platforms like Blockchain & Artificial Intelligence. I am passionate for technology innovations that’s create value to the business. My career started with writing manual books of accounts in small chartered accountant firm. Experience in accounts & audit helped me to understand basics of accounting, business & ERPs. I am also responsible for planning, designing, implementing & monitoring business processes. Heading IT & Business process together gives me complete insight of the organization and gives opportunity to understand business and deliver right solutions.

PRABHAKAR POSAM,

CIO OF TRANSWORLD GROUP

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What are your business models and how has digitization played a key role in your organization? Transworld Group is on path of digital transformation. We are working on one integrated operational & financial cloud platform supported by portals and mobility, empowering our sales force with CRM applications and KPI based dashboards and connecting our business partners on our application

platforms. What kind of technology trends do you anticipate in 2018 for your organization? This year we expect exponential changes in every technology direction. Machine learning and artificial intelligence will transform the entire industries, making way for virtual helpers for automatization. There will be a potential for smart homes and smart cities, with the Internet of Things (IoT) becoming intelligent. Blockchain is another revolutionary decentralized technology that stores and exchanges data for cryptocurrencies will change the way business transactions carried today. Blockchain will affect a variety of applications has impressive prospects in the field of digital transactions which will open new business opportunities in 2018. The key themes of May issue are Big Data, Li-Fi and Financial Services. Would you like to share with us your opinion on one of these topics? Big data is becoming one of the key trend within technology right now. The enormous data sets would be impossible for any single human to sort through, therefore demanding the help of automated big data systems. Every industry from manufacturing to logistics is beginning to see big data’s playing key role for their business. Around 80 percent plus of the data in the world today was generated within the past couple of years. Such an enormous amount of intelligence can teach professionals all about user habits, and IT officials are all scrambling to more fully integrate big data into their current operations. Big data is optional technology today will turn into mandatory technology tomorrow for all industries. ë

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FOCUS STORY

Service Digital Experience Seamless Itâ€™s the age of robo advisors. As trust on the online platform substantially increases, there is a surge in the need in the financial service industry for a more standardized and transparent advice or services for mortgage, debts and investments. Cryptocurrencies and FinTech are leveling up the game in their own terms in disrupting the wealth management industry.

n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M > n PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

s children, we all must have heard stories and fables from our elders on how some petite ones outwitted the mightier ones with their sheer wit and often won against all the odes. I was recently turning over the leaves of the book â€˜David and Goliathâ€™ by Malcolm Gladwell that comprises numerous stories of underdogs and misfits who outwitted giants. This is a serious reflection of how the market today is. Start-ups and small companies are giving the market giants a run for their money with their sheer appetite for innovation. The financial services sector is one of those that is being heavily disrupted by FinTech and other emerging technologies and the new kids on the block are consuming the major chunk of the pie. A cashless economy is an undying dream of the financial services industry. Mobile payments, mobile wallets and digital currencies have been fertilizing and nurturing this dream for over a decade now and a cultural shift in purchase and payment have empowered many countries to move towards a cashless approach.

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FOCUS STORY

-SANDEEP CHOUHAN, EVP GROUP HEAD OPERATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY, MASHREQ BANK

“A critical part of improving customer satisfaction in the financial services space is to ensure we do not neglect the underlying infrastructure. We have utilized advanced technologies in our technology operations, located within Dubai Outsource City, to ensure a completely seamless customer experience.”

DIGITAL INNOVATION Though disruptive trends bring all kinds of risk for the financial firms due to its vulnerabilities, regulatory and compliances, professionals are leaving no stones unturned in dealing with the complex legacy-bound past and introducing new systems. New modes and methods of transaction and easy accessibility for banking services have been further fueling the growth of the cashless society. It is not only the need to eradicate the hard cash that is driving the financial industry but also the need to save time spent on obtaining consultation and services. Robo advisers have been garnering a lot of attention owing to this and are emerging as a new category of financial services that are in a good position to offer some unique benefits to people looking for cutting edge wealth management solutions. “The pace at which digital technologies have accelerated across geographies and industry sectors is incredible and financial services have excelled by progressively adopting the “ABC of Digital Technologies”, A – Artificial Intelligence / Robotics, B – Big-data & C – Cloud computing,” says Sandeep Chouhan, EVP Group Head Operations and Technology, Mashreq Bank. Accenture’s Banking Tech Vision report, which looked at 589 bank executives in 30 countries including the UAE and Saudi Arabia found that 85 percent of GCC bank respondents agree that AI will revolutionize the way they gain information from and interact with customers.

TRANSFORMING CUSTOMER SERVICE STRATEGIES Financial services firm are on a quest to be holistically digital entities that are at the disposal of the customers with tailored and innovative services. As numerous studies suggest, it is very important that FS companies should realize the importance of using digital technologies to enhance customer experience. The industry is standing on the cusp of digital transformation and it is highly significant that the firms rewrite their DNA in order to better prepare the organizations as well as the employees for a digital disruption. According to a Deloitte study, as FSI firms align their digital business to the Digital DNA attributes, it is important for companies to also consider a data-driven approach to decision making. This is because regulators’ expectationsfor transparency with regard to how decisions are made has compelled FSI firms to move awayfrom instinctive decision making. According to Mashreq, Customers always

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FOCUS STORY

WHICH PART OF THE FINANCIAL SECTOR IS LIKELY TO BE THE MOST DISRUPTED BY FINTECH OVER THE NEXT 5 YEAR? -ALL INDUSTRIES

in the financial services space is to ensure we do not neglect the underlying infrastructure. We have utilized advanced technologies in our technology operations, located within Dubai Outsource City, to ensure a completely seamless customer experience.”

DIGITAL CHANNEL IN BANKING

“To stay away from competition, one has to relentlessly innovate with focus on expanding channels of engagement with customers, working with new partners to increase the rewards landscape, work with fintech companies to bring in new technology, work hard to prevent frauds.” -XAVIER ANGLADA, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND ACCENTURE DIGITAL LEAD IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND TURKEY

value speed, security & transparency and these technologies bring customer experiences to life with relative ease within an organization. “A critical part of improving customer satisfaction

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According to popular beliefs, the primary step in building a competitive digital baking platform is to first understand how the interaction with the customers are at the physical branches. Digital banking, until recently, was limited to a bank having a mere online presence. But steadily, digital banking is emerging as a norm rather than a necessity. Leveraging the mobile channel is highly important if one wishes to level up its digital banking offerings. You don’t necessarily need to make mobile banking better. It’s about using mobile banking as a tool that reflects your defined retail banking strategy. “Devices and channels are becoming increasingly, “Intelligent” and “Secure”. Advancement in digital payments have been growing rapidly since the underlying technology at all channels are getting smarter (Intelligent) and safer (Secure). The world is seeing a massive transformation of existing payment ecosystem. Players like Ripple, Earthport and Bitcoin building new Blockchain based payment highways, and financial institutions who will collaborate with the new breed of payment solution providers will compete in a field that is no longer an area exclusive to financial service providers,” says

Sandeep. There has been an increasing concern among the customers that banks are focusing more on enhancing their products, loans and services rather then leveraging their digital channels.

MOBILE BANKING AKIN TO ONLINE BANKING Xavier Anglada, Managing Director and Accenture Digital lead in the Middle East and Turkey says, “Mobile banking is already replacing online banking to be the vehicle of choice for new generation customers. In a world with more smartphones than any other devices, financial institutions need to innovate to bring newer concepts of mobile banking to their customers fingers. Newer features along with seamless experience is key to drive mobile along with safety features de-risking transactions.” Many banks are adopting the “Mobile first” approach. Bulk of the innovation and feature enhancements is happening first on mobile before being offered on other channels. The drive to enhance mobile banking forces banks to deeply invest in the UI/UX aspects of their services, and this enhances the popularity with customers. The speed, convenience and security are the prime reasons to bring existing customers & millennial generation to this channel. Advancements in smart phone technology and improving telecom speed and security will continue to see investments in these channels and there integration with the ABC of digital technologies will further accelerate and bring greater adoption of mobile banking services.ë

INNOVATIONS

KEY CAPABILITIES n Transcend’s 128GB 300S microSD cards meet the SD Association’s latest Application Performance Class 1 (A1) standards for responsiveness n UHS Video Speed Class 30 (V30)-compliant, allowing for smooth, uninterrupted Ultra HD 4K video capture n Offered in capacities of up to 256GB n Perform at temperature extremes of -25° to 85°C as well as being waterproof, shock and vibration proof, and X-ray proof n 300S SD cards are offered in 16GB-512GB capacities; 300S microSD cards in 16GB-128GB n 500S SD cards in 8GB256GBand 500S microSD cards in 8GB-128GB. n The 300S series tops out at 95 MB/s read and 45 MB/s write speeds, making it ideal for storing and running mobile apps

TRANSCEND 500S and 300S series

Transcend Information has released the 500S and 300S series of SD and microSD cards. These memory cards, produced in capacities of up to 512GB and featuring transfer speeds of up to 95 MB/s, are a readymade solution for the storage needs of today’s users. The gold 500S series, constructed of durable MLC flash, is ideal for action cameras and drones, while the silver 300S series SD cards are offered in capacities up to 512GB, and the microSD cards have been crafted with the smartphone market in mind. Transcend offers the exclusive RecoveRx data recovery and storage device management software for use with its products. With a user-friendly interface, RecoveRx allows users to search deep within a storage device for traces of erased photos, documents, music, and videos. Insert a Transcend memory card into a PC or laptop, launch RecoveRx, and a few mouse clicks later, recover accidentally deleted files. RecoveRx can also format and write-protect flash memory cards.

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INGENICO GROUP’S MOVE/2500 B Ingenico Group launched the Move/2500 B, a portable terminal combining the convenience of fingerprint authentication with the security of the latest PCI standards.The Move/2500 B addresses traditional financial inclusion needs to reach the unbanked population as well as local governmental schemes. In India, for instance, all POS will soon have to provide fingerprint authentication. In Mexico, where banks have the obligation to verify the identity of all loan applicants, the Move/2500 B could serve as a means of authentication. The recent certification of fingerprint authentication by EMVco as a Customer Verification Method could bring about new global schemes, making the Move/2500 B also relevant in mature markets and a strong differentiator for banks with a customer acquisition strategy. KEY CAPABILITIES n Maximum security. The Move/2500 B is PCI-PTS 5.x certified n Its TELIUM Tetra OS uses the latest cryptographic schemes with future-proof key length n Enables biometric payment in addition to NFC applications, EMV Chip & PIN,

swipe and contactless. n Designed for both indoor and outdoor use n The hybrid Move/2500 B comes with wired (Ethernet, PSTN) or wireless (3G & GPRS, with Dual SIM) communication capabilities. n CBM-E3 from Idemia complies with FBI standards, with PIV-IQS certification and process FIPS 201 approved algorithms. It is IP65-tested and ensures long-lasting features and outdoor readiness.

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INNOVATIONS

TOSHIBA S300 and V300 PEPPER Pepper is the first humanoid robot created to interact with humans. He’s well equipped with features and a high-level interface for proactively communicating with those around him, using the latest advances in voice and face recognition. His wide range of capabilities combined with B2B robotics applications makes him a very innovative business solution to enhance customer’s experience. Pepper is currently used in a wide range of industries such as retail, tourism, banking, healthcare, hospitality, enterprise, government and education. Jacky’s Business Solutions LLC is appointed as the first Value Added Reseller for SoftBank Robotics Europe in the UAE for its humanoid robot, Pepper. KEY CAPABILITIES n Pepper is capable of identifying the principal emotions: joy, sadness, anger or surprise. n Hearing and Speaking: Interacting and interpreting emotions wouldn’t be possible without the 4 directional microphones located on Pepper’s head n Pepper is able to function in complex environments thanks to his 3D camera and 2 HD cameras that enable him to identify movements, and recognise the emotions on the faces of his interlocutors n Connected directly to the internet, Pepper can keep you up to date with the latest news, the weather forecast, or even help you to find a recipe n Pepper uses his tablet to help you make choices, but also to express his own emotions. n Pepper is able to adapt his attitude to suit your own as closely as possible.

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Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation and Toshiba Gulf FZE, announces the launch of two new surveillance and video streaming Hard Drives to the consumer internal lineup, the S300 and V300. The S300 surveillance Hard Drive series is available in capacities up to 10TB and offers support for up to 64 high definition camera streams. The V300 Video Stream Hard Drive series is available in capacities up to 3TB and suited for all entry level recording and streaming for the home. The V300 Video Streaming Hard Drive series are designed for reliable video recording and playback, and offers built-in silent seek technology, which results in a quiet operation. The V300 low spin design reduces energy consumption by up to 25% . Available in up to 3TB capacities, the V300 hard drive supports video editing systems, set-top-box (STB), digital video recorders (DVR) and network video recorders (NVR). KEY CAPABILITIES n 24/7 reliability and high performance n large cache size up to 256MB. n The S300 performs at up to 7200rpm with a maximum data transfer speed of 248 MB/s n The S300 comes with built-in RV sensors to help suppress vibrations in multi hard drive platforms. n Available in up to 10TB capacities, the new surveillance hard drive can handle high workloads up to 180TB/year n Supports surveillance network video recorders (sNVR), surveillance digital video recorders (sDVR), hybrid sDVR(analog and IP) and RAID storage arrays for surveillance.

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