EC-MEA November 2020

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SYNOLOGY’S ACTIVE BACKUP

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ZERO FOX AND DIGITAL IMPERSONATION

PA G E S 6 8 VOLUME O8 | ISSUE 04 NOVEMBER 2020 WWW.EC-MEA.COM

BIG DATA

MA STREAM OR GO G NICHE With emphasis on cloud adoption for post pandemic survival, analytics, ML, RPA for productivity, big data appears to be moving into specialised backgrounds.

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The truth about data management

ARUN SHANKAR EDITOR A R U N @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M

In the nineties it was data warehousing and business intelligence that were the promised saviors for all things required in data. But complexity and lack of interoperability continued to hold back mainstream adoption. Then came the concept of Big Data structures and data lakes in the middle of this decade driven by open source offerings.

Today Big Data and data lakes is overshadowed by other digital technologies that have met with much faster adoption like cloud computing, machine learning, and analytics. Big Data and data lakes also continue to face challenges because of the highly skilled nature of their implementation and operations.

With accelerating ability to calculate from data using tomorrow’s technology, it still comes down to the same question, what would you like to do with the data, points out Kingston Technology’s Antoine Harb. 5G based applications are expected to boost adoption of Big Data technologies, providing a large number of use cases.

Dr Ryad Soobhany at Heriot-Watt University, says millions of advertisement dollars are lost in running inefficient marketing campaigns, due to lack of Big Data and analytical applications. Without a systematic approach today, data lakes may end up becoming more like data dumps. Data analysis needs to concentrate on extracting relevant information so that organisations can focus on their main business goals and projects.

Generating insights from large scale data structures is expensive and in order to get returns requires a high level of skills. Even if a company has the best data analytics available, it still requires a degree of human interpretation from people within the organisation, says Khaled AlShami at Infor.

Without designing a proper data storage strategy, data can literally become worthless, says Shafiq Ur Rehman at Injazat. And without a data strategy an organisation’s Big Data may be worthless. But once the foundation of data repositories is established, it can provide unlimited competitive advantage to the organisation, with a 360-degree view.

During the pandemic, businesses have transformed strategies, accelerating shifts towards data lakes and storage management. Since Big Data and data lake technology are relatively new fields and developing rapidly, organisations lack awareness of the opportunities and outcomes that can be gained, says Tarek Abbas at Palo Alto Networks.

Enterprises are challenged with analysing huge amounts of data within a reasonable time. Vendors are also working with each other in partnerships, to boost compute performance across Big Data and data lake applications. Says NetApp’s Walid Issa, the vendor’s Big Data analytics delivers twice the performance, moving data and workloads to cloud or wherever needed, while ensuring data is backed up.

In our innovation section we look at market facing responses from vendors Synology, ZeroFox, Versos, and channel partner Malco Technologies. Plus, the latest thought leadership insights from eight leading industry executives.

Turn the pages and happy reading. ë

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CONTENTS NOVEMBER 2020 | VOLUME 08 | ISSUE 04

38-45 COVER STORY

MAINSTREAM

OR GOING NICHE

l KINGSTON: What would you like to do with your big data l HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY: Data lakes may be more like data dumps today l INFOR: Why the RoI from Big Data has a human element l INJAZAT: Without a data strategy your Big Data may be worthless l PALO ALTO NETWORKS: Using AI to secure Big data and data lakes l NETAPP: Accelerating Big Data analytics and movement of data l ALIBABA: Building data lakes and Big Data using public cloud

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EDITOR’S PAGE.

35-36

SECURITY NEWS

16-25

SPECIAL REPORT

06-09

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12-15

56

VIEWPOINT.

EVENTS NEWS

PRODUCT NEWS

REAL LIFE

FITS 2020 47-52

INNOVATION SYNOLOGY: MOST BUSINESSES PAY MORE THAN THEY SHOULD FOR BACKUPS, HERE’S WHY

26-31

CHANNEL NEWS

58-65

ZERO FOX: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FUELING DIGITAL IMPERSONATION

GUEST COLUMN MALCO: INNOVATIONS IN INFRASTRUCTURE AND SMART INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS

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CLOUD NEWS

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PEOPLE

VERSOS: PREVENT, DETECT AND RESPOND QUICKLY TO RANSOMWARE ATTACKS

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VIEWPOINT

NEVER TRUST, ALWAYS VERIFY Zero Trust is a framework, it’s not a thing or a product you can buy. It is an application and user centric security and not infrastructure centric security, explains RNS’ Samir Chopra.

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raditionally, the security approach was a castle approach wherein, everything and everyone inside can be trusted and the primary focus is investing in controls that either protect the systems or the networks.

This kind of an approach has a few fallacies.

If you look at the landscape, most modern attacks are inside out. The trusted systems brings the attackers inside with them and the systems are compromised in any one of the zillion ways. Smart devices and shadow IT are other vectors which are not accommodated in this approach. This implies, devices is no

longer the border, the user’s identity and data are the new borders.

WHAT IS ZERO TRUST? The key principle of zero trust, network is always hostile. Internal threats exist, along with external threats in the network. Every device and user must be authenticated and authorised. Policies must be dynamic and enforced on all assets. These policies need to be implemented on individuals, workloads, networks and devices. Irrespective of the location, all information must be secure. The challenge is to initially discover the critical data since is so dispersed in today’s enterprise. The identity of the user must be checked and all network traffic must be registered and analysed. Never Trust, Always Verify!

Zero Trust is a framework, it’s not a thing or a product you can buy. It is an application and user centric security and not infrastructure centric security. Zero Trust allows the security to be dynamic and evolving with the changing times, which is the best part, a security that is designed inside out along with increased flexibility and productivity for staff as well as contractors.

Moving to cloud is a responsibility for securing data and infrastructure, cloud is nothing but a substitution of your infrastructure and applications which are provided by an ISP or MSSP. Hence, it introduces a lot more threat vectors today, so corporations need to be more vigilant about the business risks which are introduced in your eco-system while moving into cloud.

If you look at the landscape, most modern attacks are inside out Its an architecture that can manage data agility, cloud and serverless applications; it’s a business enabler but more importantly, is an architectural state of mind. The complexity must be minimised and there should be no security gaps; for example, there should not be any security discrepancy in internal and external networks. Policies should be more data-centred and safeguard data from inside and outside of the network.

GET PROACTIVE ON ZERO TRUST Existing approaches have been revealed as fundamentally inadequate in today’s workfrom-anywhere environment, exposing the company to unnecessary risk by providing too much access and too little accountability. At an unprecedented pace, malicious threat vectors take advantage of this. Zero Trust protection model and the current business and risk environment fit with an application-focused approach to access. ë

Existing approaches have been revealed as fundamentally inadequate in today’s work-from-anywhere environment SAMIR CHOPRA,

CEO and Founder, RNS Technology Service.

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VIEWPOINT

THE ROAD TO 100G IN ENTERPRISE DATA CENTRES To meet the annual increase in data traffic, enterprise data centre managers need to prepare for the next technology evolution, says Nexans’ Arafat Yousef.

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nterprise data centres need to prepare for the next technology evolution to accommodate the incessant increase of data generation. 100G is set to become the next speed for the core or spine network. Different variants of protocols for 100G Ethernet are now available using multimode fibre. There are now various options ranging from parallel to duplex transmission.

THE NEED FOR 100G ETHERNET Our society and economy have become increasingly mobile, digital and smart. The services we use each day run on server racks in data centres. These data centres are essential to customer satisfaction and business efficiency and their function extends far beyond that of a data repository. This digitisation of business processes, social media and Internet of Things resulted in an exponential data traffic growth and increased pressure on network requirements.

To meet this annual increase in data traffic, enterprise data centre managers need to prepare for the next technology evolution. In comes 100G Ethernet. Hyperscale data centres, think Google and Facebook, have been working with 100G for some time and we expect these solutions to become widely adopted in Enterprise data centres as well.

3 WAYS TO IMPLEMENT 100G WITH MULTIMODE FIBRE Different options using multimode fibre for 100G are becoming available. These are either based on parallel transmission or the recently introduced solutions based on duplex transmission. For the latter Short Wavelength Division Multiplexing and Bi-Directional transmission are gaining momentum.

IEEE’s parallel optics protocol uses 4 fibres to send and 4 fibres to receive information and utilises the MTP connectivity. The SWDM Alliance uses 1 fibre to send and 1 fibre to receive information. Per fibre 4 different

Data centres are essential to customer satisfaction and business efficiency and their function extends far beyond that of a data repository wavelengths are used with a transmission speed of 25G per wavelength. Cisco’s BiDirectional solution sends 50G on the same fibre on 855nm in one direction while in the opposite direction 908nm is used to receive 50G. So, 2 fibres are required to achieve a total capacity of 100G. For both SWDM and BiDi the well-known LC connectivity is used.

However, all these protocols have one thing in common: the reach is reduced to around 100 meters. For most enterprise data centres this length limitation shouldn’t be a problem as in most cases channel lengths remain under the 100m mark.

SMART CHOICE Furthermore, the complexity of data centre configurations is increasing. Replication of core switches or fibre channel directors are adding more and more connections to the channel. Also, creation of channels between different data rooms can result in channels with up to 6 connections. However, the resulting issues can be resolved by the introduction of Ultra Low Loss connectivity solutions. ë

ARAFAT YOUSEF,

Managing Director, MEA, Nexans Data Network Solutions.

The introduction of Ultra Low Loss connectivity solutions can resolve most issues

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VIEWPOINT

PANDEMIC PSYCHOLOGY IS DRIVING INSIDER THREATS

It only takes one absent-minded employee to jeopardise the security of your entire organisation, points out Proofpoint’s Emile Abou Saleh.

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rganisations around the world are at a greater risk of insider threats than ever before, with reported incidents up 47% year on year. And they are as damaging as they are prevalent. In the UAE, Proofpoint’s recent research found that 17% of surveyed companies had suffered an insider threat attack in 2019. Mass migration to remote working and increased reliance on cloud systems, coupled with potential financial pressure, job insecurity, unfamiliar circumstances, and the general anxiety of a global pandemic have created a perfect cyber storm.

ADAPTING TO A NEW LANDSCAPE Any strong cyber defence must be adaptive, and nothing calls for greater adaptability than a global pandemic. As many employees are working outside of the norms and formalities of the office environment, they may be unsettled, distracted by chores and home life, and more prone to making basic mistakes.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been hundreds of Covid-19 related phishing attacks. It only takes one absent-minded employee to jeopardise the security of your entire organisation. Defence teams must also account for new behaviours that may once have raised an eyebrow, such as employees logging in at unusual hours to work around childcare.

THE SINISTER SIDE OF PANDEMIC PSYCHOLOGY Unfortunately, the increased potential for mistakes is not the only weak link on display to the opportunistic cybercriminal. The psychological pressure of the uncertainties brought by the pandemic can give way to a more sinister threat: the malicious insider.

While malicious insiders are less common, they can be more damaging. Many use inside knowledge to evade internal defences, and actively take steps to cover their tracks,

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been hundreds of Covid-19 related phishing attacks EMILE ABOU SALEH,

Regional Director, MEA, Proofpoint.

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Start by implementing a comprehensive privileged access management solution to monitor network activity making them far more difficult to detect and contain. On average, a malicious incident costs $755,760, more than double that of a negligent threat. The same is true of employees with a grievance against your organisation. A disgruntled employee could see themselves presented with a seemingly simple and effective method of revenge.

BUILDING AN INSIDE-OUT DEFENCE Spotting the potential for insider threats is never easy. Spotting them outside the office environment where there is less scrutiny or pressure to meet security standards is harder still. The only effective defence is a flexible, robust, multi-layered strategy that combines people, process, and technology.

Start by implementing a comprehensive privileged access management solution to monitor network activity, limit access to sensitive data, and prohibit the transfer of this data outside of company systems. Controls must be watertight, flagging and analysing every log for signs of negligence or foul play.

Supplement this with clear and comprehensive processes governing system and network access, user privileges, unauthorised applications, external storage, data protection, and more. Everyone in your organisation must know how to spot and contain a potential threat, and, whether intentional or not, how their behaviour can put your organisation at risk. While today’s working environment may feel more relaxed, security best practice still applies, perhaps now more than ever. ë

VIEWPOINT

FINANCIAL SERVICES ARE VULNERABLE TO RANSOMWARE

The stakes are incredibly high for the financial services industry to properly protect and secure data, points out Veeam’s Rick Vanover.

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he financial services industry is an appealing target for cyber criminals today. Arguably, consumers financial, banking, trading and superannuation information is some of the most important data held by organisations today. The stakes are incredibly high for the financial services industry to properly protect and secure this data. Failure on this front will result in incredible damage to the company’s reputation and huge financial costs. While ransomware is incredibly complex and a huge responsibility for organisations, there are steps that can be taken to mitigate risk from the get-go.

UNDERSTANDING THE THREAT The main points of entry into any business for ransomware is through Remote Desktop Protocol or other remote access mechanisms, phishing emails and software vulnerabilities.

The reality is that Internet-connected RDP needs to stop. IT administrators can get creative on special IP addresses, redirecting RDP ports, complex passwords and more; but the data doesn’t lie that over half of ransomware comes in via RDP. This tells us that exposing RDP servers to the Internet does not align with a forward-thinking ransomware resiliency strategy.

The other frequent mode of entry is via phish mail. The third area that comes into play is the risk of exploiting vulnerabilities. Keeping systems up to date is an age-old IT responsibility that is more important than ever.

demand any particular type of hardware and is versatile enough to address nearly any failure scenario.

DO NOT PAY THE RANSOM In spite of these techniques, businesses must still be prepared to remediate a threat if introduced. Our approach is simple. Do not pay the ransom. The only option is to restore data. Additionally, organisations need to plan their response when a threat is discovered.

In disasters of any type, communication becomes one of the first challenges to overcome. Have a plan for how to communicate to the right individuals out-of-band.

This would include group text lists, phone numbers or other mechanisms that are commonly used to align communications across an extended team. In this contact book you also need security, incident response and identity management experts, internal or external.

While ransomware is becoming an inerasably dominant threat across the financial services’ industry, there are definitely steps that can be taken to mitigate risk and prepare for the worstcase scenario. For all businesses today, having a full proof back up plan in place is incredibly important in ensuring the business survives and thrives through any potential cybercrimes. ë

Failure to protect data will result in incredible damage to the company’s reputation and huge financial costs

BACK UP DATA With so much at stake, organisations in the financial services industry must also prepare for the worst-case scenario and prepare an ultra-resilient backup storage. The 3-2-1 rule is a good starting point for a general data management strategy. The 3-2-1 rule recommends that there should be at least three copies of important data, on at least two different types of media, with at least one of these copies being off-site. The best part is that this rule does not

RICK VANOVER,

Senior Director of Product Strategy, Veeam.

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EVENT NEWS

GCF, CONTEXT host second Channel Insights virtual summit on business in the new normal The second virtual summit in the Channel Insights Series unfolded on October 19. Titled How Will Channel Executives Cope With Business In The New Normal?, it was hosted by Global CIO Forum in association with CONTEXT. Currently, more than ever before, there is an increased need for channel executives to build trust, confidence and transparency into their vendor and channel relationships. This includes a more holistic approach to business partner relationships that will strengthen core business delivery process and better prepare an organisation for future uncertainties.

THE SPEAKERS

The speakers for the How Will Channel Executives Cope With Business In The New Normal? VirtualSummit included Adam Simon, Global Managing Director and CFO at CONTEXT; Ashish Panjabi, Chief Operating Officer, Jacky’s Business Solutions; Ernest Azzam, Regional Business Manager for HP’s Large Format Printing across Eastern Europe, Turkey, Middle East and Africa; and Hesham Tantawi, Vice President, Asbis Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

Adam Simon pointed out that as per published data, the global ICT industry has been the least impacted amongst all, but the EMEA channel has gone through its share of challenges. As per early dipstick results, working from home is not the preferred mode of working across the immediate region. The product categories that have experienced rapid growth due to remote working include home cinema systems, smart glasses, web cameras, smart weighting scales, notebooks, tablet PCs, headsets, monitors and all in one inkjets. Another trend has been the movement of IT channel to sell out cloud licenses that went up by 70%. Average sales values for multiple product categories went by around +5%, and the channel got used to keeping much lower levels of stock.

Ashish Panjabi noted that UAE is today, much better than many parts of the world, with the number of initiatives being taken by its Government. One of the key initiatives, during the global lockdown months from March to May, was to keep Dubai open for logistics and shipping. It became the centre of the world for air freight and shipping operations, he pointed out. The initial months of the pandemic impacted the channel and were characterised by panic about cash flow and survival. The channel community rallied and worked to ensure that cash was available with all partners, albeit at much lower levels. There were and have been no runaway cases from UAE’s channel community due to distress from the pandemic, Panjabi pointed out.

UAE based, Dubai Computer Group also took a number of initiatives to ensure that operations and survival levels were proactively sustained amongst its members. Digital printers of statutory pandemic related warnings were included amongst essential services allowing them to continue operating across the pandemic.

Another important initiative was to ensure service and support levels for ICT products were sustained and equipment remained working everywhere. As the months of August and September have rolled on, another realisation is that the pandemic is not going away anytime sooner. We will have to live with it, points out Panjabi.

Ernest Azzam said that the huge benefits that remote training

Ashish Panjabi, Chief Operating Officer at Jacky’s Business Solutions LLC

Ernest Azzam Large Format Printing Regional Business Manger - Eastern Europe, Turkey, Middle East & Africa at HP

Adam Simon Global Managing Director CFO CONTEXT

Hesham Tantawi Vice President, ASBIS META

Tim Davies Country Manager, Middle East at CONTEXT

is now providing to end users of large format printers. HP’s Barcelona centre now demonstrates remotely how to install and operate large format printing setups including production. This allows the complete team to attend including onsite operators, sales, and the owner management. With such complete inclusion of team members, Ernest feels that remote training workshops are more beneficial than real life ones, where previously only the owner management travelled for hands on installation and operational training. Installations and diagnostic support is also being provided remotely. During these months the approach is to work with zero stock levels added Ernest. The post pandemic phase has also thrown open the requirement of new skills to fit new job opportunities.

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EVENT NEWS

Global CIO Forum, CONTEXT launch Channel Insights Series for the distribution industry On October 12, Global CIO Forum in association with CONTEXT flagged off the Channel Insights Series, that aims to empower various segments of the supply chain and distribution industry with actionable insights and clarity on the way forward.

Over 8 sessions, the series will table case studies, research notes, survey results, and analysis of how various organisations have responded to the challenges created by the pandemic.

The Channel Insights Series is a unique opportunity for the entire channel community to gather and surge ahead. It will bring together vendors, distributors, resellers, retailers and other key players. Participants include senior executives from Dell Technologies, Jacky’s Business Solutions, Mindware, Aruba, Spectrami, Mam International, and many more.

SESSION 1: RECAP 2020, IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC ON THE CHANNEL

The first of the Channel Insights Series, hosted on October 12, was titled Recap 2020, Impact Of The Pandemic On The Channel VirtualSummit. The disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has been unprecedented, but distribution and supply chains across EMEA have done well to curb the impact that the pandemic has had on business. Channel partners, on the frontline of the Covid-19 crisis, and distributors are playing a pivotal role in this new normal.

To thrive, each subsegment of the wholesale distribution industry needs to assess the best way to measure the shift in customer behaviour, address supply chain disruptions, and plan over the short, mid and long term.

The keynote speakers for the Recap 2020, Impact Of The Pandemic On The ChannelVirtualSummit were Ashraf Hamid, Distribution Director Middle East, Turkey, Africa and Russia at Dell Technologies; Adam Simon, Global Managing Director and CFO at CONTEXT; and Tim Davies, Country Manager, Middle East at CONTEXT. The VirtualSummit also included presentations by Alaa Zahran, Business Unit Manager at Mindware and Ravinder Sharma, ICT Division, Mam International, based out of Sanaa, Yemen. Their presentations were followed by a panel discussion and a Q&A round.

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Ashraf Hamid Distribution Director Middle East, Turkey, Africa & Russia at Dell Technologies

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Adam Simon Global Managing Director & CFO CONTEXT

Tim Davies Country Manager, Middle East at CONTEXT

EVENT NEWS

GCF, RNS and Akamai host virtual summit on security in the cloud

around the world or in the cloud, or support employees on the road, you rely on the internet to keep your business connected. Protecting those connections can be critical in a world of evolving security threats and changing business requirements. Mobile, cloud, DevOps, Akamai and RNS can help. These organisations understand the internet and how you use it to drive your business forward.

TOPICS COVERED

The RNS Cyber Defence Conference – Series 2, Security in the Cloud VirtualSummit focused on improving your organisation’s digital transformation and cloud security posture, and helping protect against credential abuse and fraud. Topics covered included: l What security looks like in the cloud l Impact of DDoS attacks to site owners l Be prepared and know what to do in the event of an attack. l Block malicious activity before it adversely impacts your business l Protect your customer’s personal data l Detect anomalous script behaviour in real-time

THE SESSION

Samir Chopra Founder & CEO RNS Technology Services

Siddharth Deshpande Security Technology & Strategy Director, Akamai’s EMEA

Faizal Babu Kavungal IT Governance and ERM Specialist Gulf Drilling International Ltd Qatar

Cyber-threats are everywhere. In today’s online landscape, they’re not only more prevalent but also more sophisticated. No company wants to be the next cyber-attack news headline. Hosted on November 4 and brought to you by Global CIO Forum, in association with RNS Technology and Akamai, the RNS Cyber Defence Conference – Series 2, Security in the Cloud VirtualSummit offered actionable insights that can help you improve your organisation’s cloud security to protect against cyber-attacks.

Whether you sell to customers over the web, operate data centres

The keynote speakers for the RNS Cyber Defence Conference – Series 2, Security in the Cloud VirtualSummit included Samir Chopra, Founder and CEO at RNS Technology Services; Siddharth Deshpande, Security Technology and Strategy Director at Akamai’s EMEA; and Faizal Babu Kavungal, IT Governance and ERM Specialist at Gulf Drilling International, Qatar.

The opening note was handled by Samir Chopra. He handed the mic over to Richard Meeus, Director Security Technology and Strategy Akamai’s EMEA, who spoke on the topic of DDoS Still Here, Still Effective and Still Making Money? Meeus also later dwelt on the topic of How to be Resilient to Data Theft. The session included a panel discussion on the topic of Strategy Around Cloud Security, and concluded with a Q&A round.

GCF, Aruba, Batelco host virtual summit on the new norm in hospitality On October 27, Global CIO Forum, Aruba and Batelco successfully hosted the Are you ready for The New Norm in Hospitality? VirtualSummit. In this summit, participants were introduced to the new normal inside the hospitality industry. The keynote speakers discussed overcoming business challenges inside the hospitality industry, and transitioning to a new normal. They also presented cases studies that helped understand user experiences in the hospitality industry.

The virtual summit was managed by Magesh G, Solution Engineer at HPE Aruba Gulf and Mohamed Heiba, Solution Architect Hospitality at HPE Aruba. The welcome address was delivered by Khalil Zainal, Head of Technology Partnerships at Batelco.

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EVENT NEWS

GCF, Red Hat, Ingram Micro host summit on automation and containerisation

On October 20, Global CIO Forum, Aruba and its partners successfully hosted the Does your network have a sixth sense?

VirtualSummit. Aruba’s partners included Jordan Data Systems, Specialized Data Systems and Sama Vision Data Systems, from Oman, Jordan and Iraq, respectively. In the virtual summit, participants were introduced to Aruba’s Edge Service Platform, which is an AI-powered platform designed to unify, automate, and secure the Edge. Aruba ESP combines AIOps, Zero Trust Security, and Unified Infrastructure.

The session was managed by Shadi Al Khatib, Territory Sales Manager for Levant at Aruba and Sriram, Solutions Engineer at Aruba. Also joining them was Loai Madanat, Managing Partner for Specialized Data Systems, Jordan Data Systems and Sama Vision Data Systems.

Shadi Al Khatib gave a company overview of Aruba’s products and solutions, while Sriram presented the ecosystem of third party IoT solution suppliers that Aruba’s Edge Services Platform integrates with. Along with Loai Madanat, the three executives answered multiple questions on availability of skilled resources in Northern Iraq, usefulness of Aruba’s Edge platform in IT and OT integration, how to source Aruba’s third party IoT solution partners and various features of the Edge Services Platform.

Shadi Al Khatib Aruba Territory Manager Levant

Sriram Aruba Solutions Engineer

Loai Madanat Managing Partner for JDS, SDS, SVDS

THE TOPICS

Topics covered in the Does your network have a sixth sense?

VirtualSummit included: l Network challenges at the Edge l Aruba Edge Service Platform, ESP l AIOps l Unified infrastructure l Zero Trust security l Reimagining the workplace with Edge

Global CIO Forum, ARCON host virtual roundtable on Privilege Access Management On October 7, Global CIO Forum in association with ARCON, successfully hosted The Privilege is all Yours virtual roundtable with delegates from the Saudi government. The gathering discussed the critical role played by Privilege Access Management in protecting organisations.

As cyberattacks become increasingly sophisticated and devastating, it is critical that organisations have granular level control over privilege accounts. Privilege Access Management is, therefore, one of the most critical factors today in building unified access controls and governance framework, thereby making it one of the topmost priorities of CISOs and CIOs today.

TOPICS COVERED

l Manage, monitor and control privileged accounts seamlessly l Ensure secure access to target systems and applications l Implement deepest levels of granular level control over

privileged accounts l Strengthen authentication mechanism with multi-factor

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validation and password vaulting l Offer a centralised policy framework

THE SESSION

During The Privilege is all Yours virtual roundtable, Anil Bhandari, Chief Mentor and Thought Leader at ARCON fielded a diverse set of questions from the delegates. The session was interspersed with multiple polls.

Anil Bhandari Chief Mentor and Thought Leader ARCON

EVENT NEWS

GCF, Juniper Networks and Alpha Data host summit on cloud-powered AI-driven enterprises

On October 13, Global CIO Forum, Juniper Networks and Alpha Data successfully hosted the Cloud-powered AI-driven Enterprise VirtualSummit.

IT has never been more critical to business, nor has it been more complex.

As the number of devices, operating systems, applications, and users continues to grow, how do organisations stay ahead?

The answer is artificial intelligence. AI-driven insights, automation, and actions can maximise the experience for organisations and users. It can also bring unprecedented simplicity, reliability, and security to an enterprise network. In this AI-driven enterprise, there’s no more guessing about whether users are having a good experience. The summit also discussed the right corrective action when problems arises, by putting all of the insight, automation, and actions you need to optimise the user experience at your fingertips.

THE VIRTUAL SUMMIT

Haitham Saif SR.System Engineering Manager - META Juniper Networks

Mohamad Makhzoum System Engineer, Juniper Networks

Refat Al Karmi SR. Consulting Engineer, Juniper Networks

Waleed Qadamani System Engineer, Juniper Networks

Biju Bhaskaran Pre-Sales Manager at Alpha Data

The attendees for the Cloud-powered AI-driven Enterprise VirtualSummit were mostly from the BFSI and government sectors in the region. Introductory session was by Biju Bhaskaran, Pre-Sales Manager at Alpha Data. This was followed by a deep dive, conducted by Refat Al Karmi, Senior Consulting Engineer at Juniper Networks, into the importance of driving enterprises towards cloud and AI. That, in fact, is the only effective solution for modern enterprises, where multiple devices and users are on the same platform.

His presentation was followed by a brief demo of Mist Systems’ AI solutions and the dashboard. This was led by Waleed Qadamani, System Engineer, Juniper Networks. The virtual summit concluded with an interactive panel session, driven by Haitham Saif, Senior System Engineering Manager, META Juniper Networks, and attended by Mohamad Makhzoum, System Engineer, Juniper Networks and Waleed Qadamani.

GCF, emt, Acunetix, and Netsparker host security summit for businesses in Africa

On October 13, Global CIO Forum and emt Distribution, in association with Acunetix and Netsparker, successfully hosted the African Convergence to Technology VirtualSummit. The virtual gathering discussed market trends, offered technology insights and suggestions to deliver a more secure and safer 2021 for businesses in Africa.

Globally cyberattacks are increasing and new cybersecurity risks are emerging. The pandemic has made remote working more vulnerable.

In the virtual summit, participants learnt how African businesses can protect their digital and web presence. The two-hour long summit included two technology and product sessions, followed by a panel discussion.

THE SESSION

Mobasseri Co-Founder and CEO emt Distribution META

Naresh Kumar Director of Regional Business Development, EMT

Mo Hassan Partner Account Manager at Invicti security

Nandini Sapru Vice President Of Sales, EMT

Gabriel Ajilore Head Information Security, Union Bank Nigeria

Naji Yousif Ahmed Information Security Manager, Sudatel group

Dr Inas Sobhy CIO of Educational Institution

Arun Shankar Editor, GEC Media

The first technology and product session was titled Find, Fix, Protect, Be Ahead of Hackers, Control Your Web Security. It was led by Naresh Kumar, Director Regional Business Development, emt Distribution and Mo Hassan, Partner Account Manager, Ivicti Security.

The second technology and product session was titled Driving Data Centre Effectiveness and Cost Optimization. It was led by Cherry Tongol, Sales Executive, emt Distribution and Fawad Laiq, Senior Technical Manager, emt Distribution.

This was followed by a panel discussion on the topic, African Cyber Security and Cybercrime.

Panellists included Gabriel Ajilore, Head of Information Security, Union Bank Nigeria; and Mo Hassan, Partner Account Manager, Ivicti Security. The discussion centred around three key topics. l Top challenges for African enterprises to deliver cyber security l Top cyber security threats for African enterprises l How do African enterprises respond in a cyber security emergency

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AI SOCIETY BAHRAIN

TRANSFORMING OIL ECONOMIES TO INNOVATION RICH ECONOMIES Bahrain has an ambition to become the centre for artificial intelligence research, attracting multi-national technology companies to set up base here.

Middle East is expected to add 2% of the total global benefits of artificial intelligence in 2030

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he fast advances of artificial intelligence, robotics, and other technologies have a huge impact on economies around the world. Modern businesses realise the significance of artificial intelligence for their future growth and prosperity, investing heavily in digital technologies.

This is why countries in the Middle East, majorly including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and Oman, among others, are taking steps towards embracing such technologies by augmenting their investment across diverse sectors and bringing effective policies and commitment.

As the world has already reached Industry 4.0, governments and corporations across the Middle East are turning significantly towards artificial intelligence and advanced technologies.

According to PwC estimations, the Middle East is expected to add 2% of the total global benefits of artificial intelligence in 2030, equivalent to $320 billion. Saudi Arabia is a leading country in the region and expected to contribute 12.4% to the GDP with $135.2 billion during the same period.

Researchers expect Saudi Arabia to gain the region’s biggest economic impact from artificial intelligence by 2030. With its Vision 2030 strategy, the country has targeted that date to build a thriving digital economy that replaces previous income sources such as oil.

Artificial intelligence is central to the vision, as Saudi Arabia has illustrated with its groundbreaking artificial intelligence initiatives. It already has the world’s first robot citizen, Sophia. It is also building NEOM, an automated new future city that will have more robots than people.

GCC countries will soon transform their digital economy from consumer based to producers and innovators. Leading the way is the Kingdom of Bahrain with ambitions to become centre of Artificial Intelligence research and development.

The aim is to be an attraction for multi-national technology companies making their base out of Bahrain for future growth in the region.

There are some major sectors where artificial intelligence has taken off, not just in the Middle East but around the world, such as transportation, home security, infrastructure, and data optimisation for workplaces.

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EASA SALEH AL GURG GROUP

CIOs ARE WELL SUITED TO RETHINK THEIR ORGANISATIONS CIOs can rethink business, because they spend a lot of time thinking about what could go wrong, if IT systems are unavailable, business is unavailable.

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he whole world is suffering with Covid-19 and we are no different. It has been a great reset for all countries, organisations and individuals. As IT professionals, business continuity and disaster recovery are in our DNA. This crisis has forced all organisations to start experimenting how to be more nimble, flexible and resilient. The pandemic has also shown us how important is to bring in a deep sense of empathy and understanding to your workplace.

It is also a time that we realise, how great it was to be in office where we all shared the knowledge, camaraderie that made us all better. We all have got this innate ability to continuously push our limits which also has been helpful for individuals and organisations to thrive upon.

Business is always an infinite game and knowing that you can never win is the road to success.

It is all about how far you can stay afloat and perpetuate the game. None of us were aware or could predict this pandemic and Act Early and Act Decisively was the key message across.

We have also seen the leadership across countries, organisations getting engaged and having relentless communication to ensure team safety and wellness and foster awareness and empathy.

This is the time for us to think differently and it is certain that the recovery will be digital.

In order for companies to transform and to get from surviving to thriving, they need to focus on building a data driven organisation, accelerating digital adoption, and start to re-think their organisation.

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TRUKKIN

WHY TRANSPARENCY WILL DRIVE EFFICIENCY IN SUPPLY CHAINS Every logistics business needs end-to-end visibility of their supply chain but increasing transparency does not automatically change efficiency.

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o organisation producing physical goods can shy away from acknowledging the importance of logistics management. The two most important pillars of logistics are transparency and efficiency.

Transparency is what every business aspires, but few manage to attain. Every transportation and logistics business needs end-to-end visibility of their supply chain. And if you are wondering why this is important, you are asking the right question.

Empowered with this information, a business can make better, informed decisions for all the stakeholders. This information comes from data generated by smart devices and user activity.

Today, there is tons of data out there waiting to be collected and analysed. From vendors, employees, transporters and customers, there is data throughout the supply chain, and it is just a matter of collecting it. Whether through manual collection or systems integration, it is worth the effort to gain more insights into aa business’ supply chain.

The logistics industry is going through a major transformation. This transformation will drive the change from greater transparency to enhanced efficiency. Logistical efficiency is defined as how smoothly an enterprise conducts its operations. Although increased transparency leads to better efficiency which will lead to enhanced productivity, this change is not automatic.

Businesses must strive for enhanced transparency at every level to drive efficiency and productivity.

To put this into perspective, traditionally customers used to book a shipment and receive an estimated delivery date. With tracking devices and reduction of human intervention and room for error, customers now have access to shipping and tracking systems 24x7.

Efficiency should optimise customer value and eliminate tasks that are not necessary.

Decision makers are acknowledging a shift in the role of digital technology from being a driver of marginal efficiency to an enabler of fundamental innovation and disruption.

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ROSETTANET SINGAPORE GS1

MAPPING THE CIOS RETHINK, RESET, RESTART STRATEGIES The focus and timing of the research covers pre and post pandemic phases for CIOs to rethink, reset and restart strategies.

INSIGHTS n Technology Research Insight 2020 was initiated in May 2020. n 59% respondents said they would hire a technology leader with both transactional and transformational leadership style. n Highest impact from the pandemic has been demand and forecast has become unpredictable followed by capacity imbalances across industries and frontline staff. n Industries that lead with IR 4.0 adoption are automotive, healthcare, manufacturing, telecom, logistics. n IT budget spend is going to be high for information security, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, data science.

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lobal CIO Forum and RosettaNet Singapore GS1, announced launch of their partnership driving global research into digital transformation and technology adoption trends in May 2020.

Technology Research Insight 2020, uses a technology informed 360-degree approach with an in-depth analysis of challenges faced by technology leaders, technology investment

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strategies, culture and diversity, and innovation trends.

The survey questionnaire is designed to gather insights across industries, countries and geographies to analyse and adapt them to specific market segmentation. Confidentiality of responses is maintained, and research feedback will be aggregated for analysing outcomes and actions. The focus and timing of the research covers pre and post pandemic phases for CIOs

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to rethink, reset and restart strategies.

The outputs from the research will be used to deliver actionable programs by technology thought-leaders and consortiums globally through webinars, round-table discussions, training programs, and others. The research will set priorities for the short- and long-term driven by the thought-provoking industry leaders, evangelists, government agencies, and educational institutions globally.

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LEVI STAUSS & CO

SHOPPERS REWARDING SAFE, SUSTAINABLE STORES WITH LOYALTY Shoppers are increasingly becoming digital, rewarding brands that highlight sustainability, and retailers committed to safe and healthy practices.

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he retail sector has been one of the worst affected by the pandemic crisis.

It has significantly impacted how retailers need to think about surviving the pandemic and importantly being resilient as markets and economies start opening.

If there is one thing in common, it is that retailers who had commenced their digital transformation journey and more omni-channel ready prior to the crisis, were better prepared to make the shift to digital commerce and in gaining the confidence of shoppers through this period.

The crisis in many ways accelerated the investment in technology versus pausing and helped retail companies align with the changing shopper behaviour.

Shoppers were increasingly becoming digital and omni-channel, prioritising essentials, rewarding brands that highlight sustainability, and retailers committed to safe and healthy practices.

More consumers are now shopping online and have chosen to permanently make a shift to digital e-commerce for a portion of their purchases.

Over 60% of global consumers have changed their shopping behaviour, many of them for convenience and value. It has become imperative for retailers to start putting their shoppers at the center of everything they do.

To be a successful omni-channel retailer, they must provide a single consumer experience across all their channels; know their consumer across channels, who are they, how they like to shop; and provide a single view of the product.

Digital enablement is the other ingredient for the success of retailers and in winning post the crisis.

Omnichannel customer experience needs deep and tightly integrated technology systems and enablers; each use case requires a different set of IT capabilities; requires a foundational overhaul of the IT infrastructure and legacy systems.

In summary, every crisis creates an opportunity.

Omni-channel retailers must better understand the changing shopper behaviours, accelerate the digital transformation journey and create a greater resilient organisation. This is the new normal.

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ELITE LOGISTICS SINGAPORE

PANDEMIC PUSHING CIOS INTO NEW BALANCING ACT Engaging effectively with business, grooming IT leadership team, motivating remote working teams, selecting right solutions, are part of CIOs new balancing act.

HOW CIOS CAN MANAGE THEIR REMOTE WORKFORCE n Be considerate, use your experience and knowledge to encourage team members since everyone is worried. n Build collaboration tools, be available for teams since they look for guidance, support and suggestions. n Your workforce may not be in front of you for a long time, support them when things goes wrong. n Make a day as no meeting day, to be strategic, and for teams to catch up on personal tasks. n Make meetings as stand ups, some are shorter and some are longer for top issues to handle. n Work with business closely to ensure operational success.

HOW CIOS NEED TO HANDLE IT OPERATIONS n Focus on future value driven solutions and bring higher level of automation. n CIOs are the drivers for business continuity to deliver solutions in an agile way. n Focus on cybersecurity and accelerate cloud adoption. n Technology speed teams to support core functions and rapid development. n Technology leaders to think outside of their lanes, all areas of business are ours. n CIOs need to be on top of shrinking budgets while business expects more. n CIOs cannot be in all places and need to build a strong leadership team. n IT leaders need to be business savvy and centric in solution identification.

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DUBAI INVESTMENTS

THE CIO REBOOT

WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD, CIOS RECIPE TO MOVE FORWARD

n The pandemic has expedited many initiatives for an organisation.

CIOs need to give themselves a reboot and approach their organisation, its business, its customers, with a fresh mindset, focusing on disruption.

n Disruption is the key to a digital transformation programme. n If you are not disrupting, you are not doing something right. n Disrupting an existing process is the absolute key ingredient for success. n Disruption will create chaos, scatter brains, seem like a bull in a China shop. n Transformation does not mean small changes to your business. n Transformation means exactly that what the word signifies. n Transformation is a redefinition to establish sustainable impact. n The transformation journey is not easy and will need patience.

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nnovation, disruption, and transformation are the three key pillars on which an organisation needs to build its digital transformation roadmap.

Post COVID, digital transformation has taken on a slightly different meaning; transform everything you do, with the customer at the center of it. If your digital transformation journey does not impact a customer’s life in a positive way, then please do not proceed down the road.

This pandemic, if at all anything has only expedited many of the initiatives for an organisation. So, when people ask me if digital transformation will continue post the pan-

demic era, I say, of course it will, and probably in a more expedited manner.

Innovation today, does not necessarily have to mean something new that has not existed before. It could be adaptation or reapplication of an existing solution or product or idea as long as the application of this approach is towards transforming or doing business differently, catering to the demands of the consumer in this new era.

Disruption is the key to a digital transformation programme. If you are not disrupting, you are not doing something right. Dismantling or disrupting an existing process or environment is the absolute key ingredient for success in cor-

poration’s digital transformation programme.

Of course, the disruption will create some chaos, scatter some brains, and may seem like a bull in a China shop at times, but then, these are the facets of work in progress. As a technology and business leader, we need to learn to embrace the chaos for a meaningful transformation to happen.

This is the final stage when you have gone through the preceding stages and are now ready to take your organisation to the next level. Transformation does not mean small changes to your business or to your customer service or to your internal process. Transformation means exactly that what the word signifies.

It is a major redefinition or recasting or a revolution of sorts to establish a more meaningful and long-term sustainable impact.

The transformation journey is not easy and will need immense patience, perseverance, acceptance to disruption, thinking differently.

In closing, all I would like to say is, get ready for the reboot. This needs to be a cold reboot and when you are back, you will welcome to a new world and present yourself in a transformed manner to the customer. Welcome to the new world!

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CIO’S WISH LIST FOR THE POST PANDEMIC WORKPLACE The pandemic has accelerated change in every part of the real world and the digital world including the CIO ecosystem. Top CIOs at FITS 2020 look at fundamental questions including how has the post pandemic phase impacted the functioning of the CIO; what types of resources can benefit the CIO in the post pandemic phase; and should CIOs relook at their soft skills and position in the organisation.

CIOs need to drive creative new customer experiences, because in the new normal instead of face to face interactions, they will be driven towards the virtual world NIKHIL KUMAR NIGAM AMITY EDUCATION GROUP

Covid-19 pandemic has been a watershed event for the world in every aspect. CIOs need to drive creative new customer experiences, because in the new normal instead of face to face interactions, they will be driven towards the virtual world. Agility is essential to IT leadership as the pandemic illustrated how quickly a company’s outlook can change. As business priorities evolve, so must technology. CIOs must be able to act quickly and decisively in order to survive and stay relevant CIO insight is critical to business strategy and they have to be the part of the new business continuity plan. Looking ahead, CIOs will see demand swell even as their budgets are compressed and they need to deliver high value at a low cost. Previously agreed upon plans may need to be reexamined, recalibrated, and adjusted to meet new demands.

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New hybrid digital employee experience has to be introduced that not only brings in emerging technologies, but also brings in ease of work with better productivity with the help of automated operations, collaboration tools and mobility. New digital playbook and digital transformation plan is the key to success in the new normal. Business continuity plans need to be redesigned and reinforced.

Emerging pandemic rules and regulations that are being laid down by the government need to be carefully worked upon.

Supporting IT employees right now is perhaps the most important job of all. Getting them the help, personal and professional, that they need to work through these times is paramount. Financial restructuring of IT will be required so the CIO’s need to look forward to make their presence in the board room and in discussions with top management. One should have empathy and place themselves in another’s shoes. We never know what the other person is coming through in the post pandemic situation.

Social skills, where the ability to build and manage relationships and influence others will be the key to network and success. CIOs need to engage in team building and networking that can generate healthy professional relationships that leads to better productivity.

Emerging pandemic rules and regulations that are being laid down by the government need to be carefully worked upon.

Motivation is the drive that is internally generated rather than resting on external rewards or financial compensation or recognition that will be much needed. Dynamic and democratic leadership is one of the most effective leadership styles because it allows junior team members to exercise authority, they will need to use wisely in future positions they might hold.

Digital trust becomes a bedrock for initiatives and CIOs are donning a new role as chief trust officers to align business and cybersecurity strategies NAVEEN HEMANNA SUBEX SECURE

Virtual is the new real and CIOs have accelerated the digital transformation of their IT systems to cater to the demands from both internal and external stakeholders. Digital trust becomes a bedrock for all such initiatives and CIO’s are donning a new role of chief trust officers as they need to align their business and cybersecurity strategies to drive growth during these tiring times.

With the acceleration of digital transformation, there are now many more assets and endpoints connected to the Internet that increases the risk posture of an organisation. Hence, having a wholistic view of all the assets and their vulnerabilities becomes one of the key priorities of the CIO’s so they can redefine their security strategies and provide internal and external stakeholders a digitally secure environment to transact as well improve customer satisfaction and trust.

Employees have seen the biggest transition by adapting to work from home and for some it is a completely new way of working and interacting with fellow colleagues and customers. Hence, CIOs have to empathise their situation and engage with them via various platforms, so they feel connected and deliver value to the organisation.

The sudden shift to remote work has accelerated digital transformation, accommodating flexible ways of working, with IT leaders downsizing physical infrastructure SHAH E ROOM KHAN EMIRATES COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

We are in an era that many would call the post-pandemic, new normal. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced organisations across every industry to alter how they deliver products and services. Due to the current epidemic requirement have changed, and it is important to review all service level agreements. We should ensure that the agreement is in line with current requirements and future requirements.

The current economic conditions will add performance pressures on customers and vendors. It is a good time to renegotiate large contracts. If an organisation is facing negative cashflow conditions, we should negotiate with service provider for an additional year on current contract period. Now is the time to prepare for the 2021 trends in technologies.

The pandemic has reshaped technology priorities for 95% of companies. As a CIO we need to be on top of budgets, which are shrinking due to the current situation. As spending gets reduced, we must adopt new style of buying technology resources. Enterprises at this point are focusing on operational task and return on investment, but there has been an increase in spending on remote work and cloud adoption The sudden shift to remote work has accelerated digital transformation strategies to accommodate flexible ways of working and prompting IT leaders to consider downsizing physical infrastructure and transitioning to a cloud model. CIOs should have skills in transformation, team development, strategic thinking, transparency, and partnership capabilities to face the post pandemic challenges.

CIOs should be team-builders on an enterprise level to be effective leaders. Today’s successful CIOs stand out for other skills, including communication, building bridges between groups, and ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

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Dimension Data launches two Jacky’s Business managed services centres, in Solutions appoints Saasz as strategic reseller in UAE and Saudi Arabia Gulf region Dimension Data, a global technology integrator and managed services provider, has announced the expansion of its next-generation Managed Services to help clients streamline operational efficiencies and drive business outcomes across the Middle East. As the economy rebounds from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dimension Data has expanded its Managed Services capability across Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates to support businesses as they recover and reinforce their digital transformation efforts.

Dimension Data’s global Managed Services platform offers data-driven insights and real-time reporting, managing over 9,000 IP networks and supporting over 13 million users across the globe. The Managed Services centres in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates complement Dimension Data’s global Managed Services platform and operate in accordance with local in-country data sovereignty laws.

Dimension Data’s goal is to allow organisations to focus on their main core business while leaving their day to day IT and Security operational tasks to the subject matter experts. Dimension Data has the expertise in understanding clients pain points, thus pushing the organisation to provide tailored solutions through the rich portfolio which includes different flavours of managed services, like 24 by 7 proactive support, reactive support, on-site interventions, managed client platforms or used Dimension Data platforms in addition to application managed services.

MOHAMMED HEJAZI, MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR DIMENSION DATA MIDDLE EAST.

Jacky’s Business Solutions, a graphics solutions partner for HP, has appointed Saasz Solutionsas a Strategic Reseller for promoting HP’s low volume and mid volume Latex printers in the countries that are covered by the partnership agreement between Jacky’s and HP. Jacky’s will support the sales channels that Saasz develops, particularly in the Print Service Provider segments.

Under the agreement, Saasz will work with PSP’s to unlock opportunities for growth in this sector, particularly during the current challenges. Where most PSP’s in the region traditionally focused on retail, MICE and vehicle graphics, Saasz will help them to explore emerging opportunities in new sectors including interior decoration and pandemic signage. Saasz will also provide consultancy support to help PSP’s in pivoting their business while monitoring their operational expenses better.

(LEFT TO RIGHT) ASHISH PANJABI, COO AT JACKY’S BUSINESS SOLUTIONS AND P VISWANATHAN, CEO OF SAASZ SOLUTIONS.

(LEFT TO RIGHT) NARESH KUMAR, DIRECTOR, REGIONAL SALES DEVELOPMENT AT EMT META; AND KEVIN ABELA, VP OF GLOBAL CHANNEL DEVELOPMENT AT INVICTI SECURITY.

emt to distribute Acunetix and Netsparker security solutions in India

emt Distribution, a specialty IT and IT security product distributor focusing on security, IT Management, and analytic solutions, has announced the expansion of partnership with Acunetix and Netsparker. emt will now distribute these solutions in India. Acunetix is a global web security provider. As the first company to build a fully dedicated and fully automated web vulnerability scanner, Acunetix carries unparalleled experience in the field.

The Acunetix web vulnerability scanner is trusted by customers from the most demanding sectors, including many Fortune 500 companies.

Netsparker is an enterprise DAST solution, and the only product that delivers automatic verification of vulnerabilities with exclusive pre-scan automation and Proof-Based Scanning technology. Netsparker scans any type of web application, provides actionable results, and integrates with company workflow tools to close the loop between IT and developers.

It identifies vulnerabilities from the early stages of application development through production.

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CHANNEL NEWS

Mohamed Abdin, Co-Founder and Managing Director for Egypt at CorporateStack.

CorporateStack opens office in Cairo to cater to Egypt’s growing SME market CorporateStack, a software company specialising in developing cloud, onpremise, and mobile solutions, have announced the launch of their presence in Egypt by setting up an office in Cairo. The office is being established as a base of its sales operations for the booming Egyptian market. CorporateStack decided to enter Egypt to service the huge demand generating from the small and medium enterprises, SME, sector in the country. SME is one of the fastest growing sectors in the country and according to Egypt’s fifth economic census, there are nearly 1.7 million SMEs in the country with a workforce of 5.8 million employees.

In a statement, Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics stated that SMEs in the Egyptian market operate their business with EGP 77.1 billion worth of capital. The new office in Cairo will be the headquarters for Egypt as well as facilitate company’s ambitious expansion plans to grow across Africa. The office equipped with a world class facility will help company create more jobs in Egypt in the coming months. With an initial headcount of 5, the company intends to strengthen this to 25 in the short term, with the head count expecting to touch 100 by mid-2022.

Egypt is a potential market for digital transformation in general. Following governmental initiatives across all sectors, including banking, trading, industrial and construction, majority of SMEs are now looking for the right partner for their digitisation process. This has further been fast tracked due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Xerox Emirates, IMMJ Systems, Ideal Middle East partner on document management system

Xerox Emirates, IMMJ Systems and Ideal Middle East have come together in a strategic partnership to create an all-in-one solution for the medical industry, MediViewer; the next generation Electronic Document Management System in the UAE. Specifically designed for patient records to deliver a paperless healthcare environment, MediViewer provides clinicians and relevant hospital staff with a powerful, intuitive and user-friendly solution to view a patient’s digitised paper and electronic records. This simple yet sophisticated platform facilitates rapid access to clinical content providing a 360 degree view of a patient’s record at the point of care.

The partnership between Xerox Emirates, IMMJ Systems and Ideal Middle East provides a strong foundation to implement MediViewer across the medical industry in the UAE. Xerox Emirates and Ideal Middle East’s experience coupled with a configurable, intuitive system serves to ease and simplify the transition from paper to digital records thereby increasing rapid user adoption and introducing all the advantages of fully digital patient records. MediViewer is built around the needs of clinicians on the front line, working as they work rather than expecting them to fit the technology consequently delivering clinical and operational benefits.

MediViewer also offers a revolutionary integrated scanning and document classification module that drastically reduces the time and costs historically associated with scanning and indexing records bringing seamless and unrivalled benefits to the scanning process and ingestion of the digital imagery into MediViewer. This is especially important considering the mandatory requirements to connect to Health Information Exchanges across the region.

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MiLTEC named Veeam Accredited Service Partner for the Middle East

MiLTEC, a professional services and manpower provider in a variety of IT solutions, has joined the ProPartner Network of Veeam Software, attaining the Veeam Accredited Service Partner status for the Middle East. As a VASP partner, MiLTEC is pleased to offer its customers Veeampowered solutions and services to deliver Cloud Data Management. Becoming a member of the ProPartner Network is also a recognition of MiLTEC’s capabilities to support service-related business that base on Veeam software solutions and ensure customer success and satisfaction.

As a specialist security related consultant and services provider, MiLTEC designs industry-specific IT solutions to help its clients take advantage of new market opportunities and adapt to the new challenges of a changing world. The company’s solutions include network, data and information security. As a Veeam VASP, it will now also provide Cloud Data Management solutions.

As part of the Veeam Professional Service Partners programme, MiLTEC has dedicated technical staff trained and certified on Veeam solutions. The company now has two Veeam Certified Engineers and one specialised Veeam Certified Architect.

MOHAMMAD YAGHMOUR, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT MILTEC.

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Credence Security brings Color Tokens’ security solutions to MEA, India

Credence Security has announced its partnership with ColorTokens. Under the agreement, Credence Security will offer ColorTokens’ Xshield and Xprotect products to customers across the Middle East, Africa and India region. As targeted attacks and insider threats become more common across the region, protecting the corporate perimeter is no longer sufficient. ColorTokens has adopted a Zero Trust approach designed to protect enterprise environments of all scale from careless, compromised, or even criminal users. Such an approach drastically reduces the risk of unauthorised access to critical applications and data.

ColorTokens’ award-winning Xshield provides full visibility and security of workloads from the data centre to the cloud. It allows security teams to improve their security posture with granular drill downs and software-defined micro-segmentation that is unchained from the network. Xprotect provides advanced, proactive endpoint security, insulating devices from breaches, malware,

(left to right) Garreth Scott, Managing Director, Credence Security; and Lee Ealey-Newman, VP Channel, EMEA and APAC, ColorTokens.

ransomware and zero-day attacks with an easy to deploy, cloud-based approach that only grants permissions to company-sanctioned applications.

Xshield and Xprotect are part of ColorTokens’ Xtended ZeroTrust Platform. Together they deliver real-time visualisation and segmentation of an entire technology stack.

Both seamlessly integrate with legacy security tools, allowing organisations to have tighter control over their environments and respond more effectively to threats.

Nutanix appoints Fast Lane as its authorised Training Centre Partner Nutanix has announced that Fast Lane, an IT consultancy and training centre, has been appointed as an Authorised Training Centre Partner. It has been approved to deliver training on behalf of the company across the GCC, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Pakistan. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Dubai, Fast Lane has presence throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa. The team consists of highly qualified consultants and instructors who not only hold a wide range of certification and various specialisations, but also possess in-depth practical experience. This team of multinational experts provide customers with the latest technology updates.

Fast Lane has gone through the necessary steps to fulfil Nutanix’s training partner requirements, with two of the company’s existing highly skilled technical trainers. This included attending Enterprise Cloud Administration training, achieving Nutanix Certified Professional certification and participating in a teach back event.

With state-of-the-art facilities, the company will deliver both, classroom as well as virtual

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(left to right) Bassam Al Masri, Director of Channel, Distribution and OEM, METI at Nutanix with Josef Miskulnig, CEO and President at Fast Lane.

instructor-led training on Nutanix technologies. Equipped with the latest devices and technologies, Fast Lane’s high-end labs provide first-rate service and raise the bar for training quality. It has already adapted its facilities in the light of Covid-19 to help ensure that trainees attending courses feel safe. It will run two to three sessions per quarter, which will be open to Nutanix channel partners as well as end-customers. Besides training, Fast Lane, with the support of Nutanix, will also focus on demand generation activities via technical webinars and marketing events.

CHANNEL NEWS

Deep Secure, CNS partner to offer zero-trust threat removal across GCC Deep Secure has announced Gold Partnership agreement with CNS. Under the terms of the agreement, CNS will integrate Deep Secure’s Threat Removal technology into the portfolio, across the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait. The Deep Secure Threat Removal platform protects users from any cybersecurity threats, both known and unknown, enabling businesses to enjoy 100% risk-free data, in real-time.

CNS, a trusted digital innovation and enterprise technology company operating

HATEM HARIRI, CNS MANAGING DIRECTOR.

in the Gulf Region since 1987, defines how effectively latest technologies can be deployed and managed in every industry they operate.

By seeking out the most cutting-edge digital solutions to support the future of enterprise development, CNS thrives to deliver worldclass software and hardware solutions that support clients in their digital journey. In fact, offering Deep Secure Threat Removal technology further strengthens CNS position as the regional leader in Cyber Security.

Organisations are realising that they must move beyond traditional cyber security detection techniques to combat ever more sophisticated cyberattacks. The Deep Secure Threat Removal platform is a zero-trust data solution that delivers 100% threat-free data, in real-time, while delivering the lowest antimalware carbon footprint and an unsurpassed ROI. Teaming with CNS gives Deep Secure the opportunity to address the market-need with a unique solution, backed by top local knowledge and expertise.

Qualys, Ivanti partner to enhance patch remediation process Veeam Software has announced its top 50 Veeam Accredited Service Partners, VASP, as well as additional enhancements to the Veeam ProPartner Programme for VASPs. Veeam will collaborate closely with selected partners who are delivering a broader range of professional services and technical implementations to better serve Cloud Data Management requirements and drive high customer satisfaction. The VASP distinction has been issued only to partners with the highest level of expertise and knowledge of Veeam solutions.

The Veeam 2020 Data Protection Trends Report found that EMEA businesses have been prevented from moving forward with Digital Transformation due to barriers such as a lack of IT staff skills, 47%, and restrictions caused by legacy technology systems, 39%. Yet as the IT industry continues to grow at a relentless pace and with Digital Transformation spending expected to approach $7.4 trillion between 2020 and 2023, Veeam recognises the increasing demand for experts that can deliver increasingly complex deployments, adapt to changing business needs and build strategic partnerships with businesses of all sizes.

The select VASPs will receive exclusive access to resources and tools, as well as Veeam Subject Matter Experts for professional guidance on project validations, architecture and design review. Furthermore, the VASPs will enjoy greater visibility to Veeam customers looking for service partners and receive dedicated training opportunities such as free VMCE courses based on a minimum number of service delivery engagements per half year.

To help businesses deliver their digital transformation initiatives, partners are broadening their portfolios to deliver the benefits of Cloud Data Management and becoming the strategic digital advisors customers need to succeed. Veeam will work alongside its VASP community, as well as its broader ecosystem of partners, to help achieve this.

All 50 VASPs meet mandatory requirements on technical expertise and Veeam certifications, dedicated professional services staff and history of successful Veeam implementations. Each VASP is assigned a dedicated Veeam Technical Leader to help maintain the required skills and capabilities.

DANIEL FRIED, GM AND SVP, EMEA AND WORLDWIDE CHANNELS, VEEAM.

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CHANNEL NEWS

(left to right): Eng Marwan Bin Haider, Vice Chairman of Moro Hub; and HE Wesam Lootah, CEO of the Smart Dubai Government Establishment.

Moro Hub, Smart Dubai collaborate on Dubai Government Information Network

Moro Hub, a wholly-owned subsidiary of DEWA, has announced its collaboration with Smart Dubai for the provision of a high-end node at Moro Hub to accelerate the digital transformation initiatives of Dubai Government entities and avail latest digital services.

Dubai Government Information Network, GIN, is the internet-working infrastructure, providing the information backbone between Dubai Government entities and the Internet.

GIN serves as the cornerstone of the electronic

infrastructure connecting government systems that effectively transfers information and handles transactions. The network comprises of secure and highly robust mesh infrastructure connecting all government offices by using state-of-the-art multi-service networking technology.

In line with the digital adoption in Dubai and the implementation of the Dubai Paperless Strategy, the collaboration agreement was signed digitally by both parties through the

secured UAE pass that embodies the digital transformation evolution in Dubai and UAE. The collaboration with Smart Dubai brings value-added offerings to government entities. To this effect, Smart Dubai has hosted a high-end node in Moro Hub Data Centre to cater to the GIN connectivity requirements of the government entities. This will enable Dubai government entities hosted in Moro Hub to connect seamlessly to GIN without any additional investments.

Midis SI acquires MAGNOOS to boost capabilities as a digital system integrator

SAMI ABI ESBER, PRESIDENT, MIDIS SI.

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Midis SI Group have announced that in line with their strategy to strengthen their offerings and capabilities as a digital system integrator, they have completed acquisition of MAGNOOS Information Systems, a Value Added Reseller and technology implementation company specialising in the data management and analytics, service management and automation software solutions.

MAGNOOS is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE but operates across the Middle East and Africa, with a presence in Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt and Athens. The Company was founded and managed by Michael Halas, who will be joining the Midis SI family as a Managing Partner of MAGNOOS. MANGOOS will be working closely with MDS AP and other Midis SI affiliates to improve their market reach and help them expand their offerings and strengthening MAGNOOS’s presence in the region especially in UAE and Saudi Arabia.

MAGNOOS specialises in: l Data Management and Analytics, big data, ML and AI l Digital Service Management and operations, building the Autonomous Digital Enterprise l Digital Business Automation and Robotic Process Automation

CHANNEL NEWS

ESET Middle East inks partnership with Credence Security

ESET Middle East, has signed a new partnership with Credence Security, a regional distributor of specialised solutions for cybersecurity, digital forensics and GRC. According to ESET Middle East, the partnership with Credence Security will open doors to new opportunities and allow larger reach of their solutions to customers across the region. Credence Security’s complimentary portfolio and their technical expertise combined with extensive channel network and strong regional customer base will help further strengthen ESET’s stronghold and market dominance in the endpoint security space.

Given some of the industry-specific vulnerabilities and risks across financial services, healthcare and utilities sectors that need to be bridged with the surge in Covid-19 related scams, Credence Security will work closely with the ESET local team and existing partners to address these security gaps with the ESET Business Product Suite. In parallel, the company will also look to drive sales of other key ESET solutions such as Cloud Sandboxing, Threat Intelligence and Endpoint Detection and Response.

DEMES STROUTHOS, GENERAL MANAGER, ESET MIDDLE EAST.

Cohesity, AWS partner to deliver scalable data management Cohesity has announced that it has formed a strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services, AWS, to address the growing customer need for data management that is flexible, available, scalable, and reliable.

Together, both companies are bringing to market a modern Data Management as a Service, DMaaS, offering unlike any other on the market today. The DMaaS solution is designed to provide enterprise and mid-size customers with a radically simple way to back up, secure, govern, and analyse their data, all managed directly by Cohesity and hosted on AWS. As data continues to grow exponentially, many organisations are looking to manage data in ways that allow their IT teams to focus on policy versus infrastructure, provide consumption-based pricing, accelerate the move to the cloud, make it easy to derive value from data, remove data infrastructure silos, and support multiple use cases — including data backup and archiving, disaster recovery, file and object services, copy data management, and analytics.

As part of the strategic collaboration, Cohesity and the AWS Partner Network are investing in resources to design the DMaaS solution on AWS and to engage in joint go-

to-market activities. Additionally, Amazon has made an equity investment in Cohesity.

COHESITY HELIOS

The foundation for this new DMaaS solution is Cohesity Helios, a proven SaaS-based data platform that currently serves more than 1,500 customers. Today, Helios empowers customers to see, manage, and act on their data globally across environments which they manage. Moving forward, customers will also have the option to use Helios to do the same for data that resides in a Cohesitymanaged environment. Through this offering, customers will be able to benefit from: l A unique, comprehensive set of data management services: Within the DMaaS solution, customers will be able to subscribe to discrete data management offerings addressing a wide range of use cases, all from one provider. Accessing each of these capabilities through Cohesity, versus selecting one provider for backup, another for disaster recovery, and yet others for file and object services, copy data management, data security and governance — reduces infrastructure silos and addresses mass data fragmentation. l Advanced security and ransomware

MOHIT ARON, CEO AND FOUNDER, COHESITY.

detection: Helios currently analyses over 400,000 events daily and uses machine learning to detect anomalies that could signal a ransomware attack in progress. DMaaS customers can use these capabilities to detect, respond, and rapidly recover from such an attack. l Data management made simple: Customers will have the ability to easily and seamlessly manage their existing on-premises and cloud environments, as well as the policies for their data in the new Cohesity-managed environment all through Cohesity Helios. l A shift to predictability and simplicity: Consumption-based pricing provides cost predictability and eliminates over-provisioning. The DMaaS solution also removes equipment procurement headaches and reduces operating expenses and administrative overhead.

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CLOUD NEWS

Nutanix finds orgs believe hybrid cloud model is ideal, but struggle to adopt it Nutanix has announced findings of a new report analysing key challenges and opportunities with hybrid cloud adoption. While most see hybrid cloud as the ideal IT model, the report showed that many struggle to adopt it, with 70% of organisations believing that their transformation is taking longer than expected.

However, the goal is clear: nearly all respondents, 95%, think their organisation would benefit from an optimal hybrid implementation providing consistent IT constructs and operations across multiple clouds, eliminating many of the challenges they currently face ranging from operational silos to staffing shortages.

As businesses everywhere struggle to adapt to a new reality, one thing is becoming even clearer: flexibility is crucial to business success.

Whether enterprises need to leverage public cloud to deliver remote desktops quickly, consolidate disaster recovery sites, move workloads to a private cloud to stave off public cloud capacity concerns, or take advantage of on-demand capacity bursting, the current global situation has emphasised the need for an adaptable IT infrastructure for many businesses.

But flexibility no longer means using both

public and private clouds, it means having a consistent experience, tooling and operational practices across multiple clouds to dramatically simplify the ability to move applications and data to the most appropriate cloud environment.

The report, commissioned by Nutanix and created by independent market research firm Vanson Bourne, analysed key challenges businesses are currently facing when managing both public and private cloud infrastructures.

The company surveyed 650 IT decisionmakers from multiple industries, business sizes and geographies in EMEA and APJ regions.

Additional findings include: l Public cloud alone is not always the answer. Public cloud revolutionised the IT industry, offering more agility and operational efficiency. And while it’s ideal for some applications and workloads, it’s not for others, leading businesses to embrace a hybrid infrastructure.

According to the research, the majority of respondents have concerns about running business-critical applications, those most vital to their business, on public cloud, specifically around reliability, 75%, portability, 73%, and cost, 72%. Additionally, some are simply unable to move their business-critical applications,

AARON WHITE, REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST AT NUTANIX.

due to complexity or cost. For example, the need to re-architect or re-platform applications, 75%, and the complexity of the migration, 71%, are top concerns preventing respondents from porting applications. l Hybrid widens the IT skills gap. Although many businesses struggle to find enough qualified IT talent, the issue grows when looking for professionals who can manage both a public and a private cloud infrastructure, as currently the two environments require different skill sets. Most organisations, 88%, are facing challenges in ensuring their IT staff has the necessary skills to manage a hybrid IT infrastructure, and over half, 53%, see this as a top concern.

Bespin Global becomes Google Cloud Platform, Google Workspace reseller in MEA Bespin Global MEA, a cloud technology company and a Google Cloud Platform Premier Partner, is now a Google Cloud Platform and Google Workspace reseller in the Middle East and Africa. With this global strategic partnership, Bespin Global clients will benefit from exclusive offers from a local Google Cloud certified service delivery team. The GCP reseller status means that Bespin Global MEA can offer exclusive discounts and offers on Google Cloud Platform and Google Workspace. It also gives Bespin Global MEA the ability to provide local invoicing and billing to make payments simplified and provides cost-saving on international transfers. In addition to all, clients will also have access to local technical and consulting support from certified Google Cloud experts through Bespin Global.

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Moreover, Bespin Global MEA’s clients will now have access to Bespin Global’s SaaS cloud management platform, OpsNow, for cost and resource management in multicloud environments, which means they’ll be able to manage all of their public clouds in one place, and it can help solve various cloud needs promptly and efficiently.

Google Workspace is a set of tools based on cloud computing that helps users to collaborate and be productive remotely from any device. The tools include familiar communication tools like Gmail, Hangouts, Calendar and Google +; collaboration tools like Docs, Sheets, Slides and Sites, and storage and management tools like Drive, Administration Console and Vaults.

Google Cloud Platform is a set of cloudbased and modular services that allow users to develop any project, from a simple

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website to complex applications.

Bespin Global has recently achieved AWS DevOps Competency Status, recognised as an Authorised AWS Solution Provider and a Consulting Partner and Solution Provider Private Offers and has raised $75M in Series-C Funding to develop a 5G cloud-integrated and multi-hybrid management platform.

CLOUD NEWS

Aruba finds 61% of UAE orgs are actively using edge technologies for new outcomes The ability of organisations to realise business value from data increasingly depends on their capacity to collect, process, store and analyse it at the edge, new research from Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, suggests. As networks become increasingly congested with huge volumes of data generated from user and IoT devices, IT leaders are recognising that analysing real-time data nearer to the edge yields greater efficiencies and insights, which results in improved business outcomes.

According to the UAE results of a global study of 2,400 IT decision-makers, 61% of UAE enterprises are already actively using edge technologies to deliver new outcomes, with another 14% planning to do so in the next year. There is also a growing recognition, 86%, of the urgency around the need to implement integrated systems to handle data at the edge.

The survey findings form part of a report entitled, At the Edge of Change: Navigating the New Data Era, that assesses the implications of the shift in data processing from cloud to edge, how IT Decision Makers, ITDMs, are responding to this trend, the

SAKKEER HUSSAIN, SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR AT D-LINK MEA.

opportunities the edge presents for a number of major industries and the critical role networking plays in this transformation. Key findings reveal:

EDGE AS A SOLUTION

The benefits of edge technologies are becoming increasingly important as ITDMs grapple with the growing amounts of data generated within their networks and look towards the cost and latency advantages of storing and processing it at the edge. l 47% of ITDMs in UAE said that there is too much data for our systems to handle and 43% stated that we cannot process the data quickly enough to take action. l Over a third also highlighted problems with complying with data regulation, 37%, and an inability to integrate so many different data formats, 33%. Other challenges included lack of budget to analyse the data or build and deploy analytical models, 28%, and poor quality of data, 26%

CREATING NEW EXPERIENCES

ITDMs cite a variety of benefits from capturing and analysing data at the edge,

JACOB CHACKO, REGIONAL BUSINESS HEAD, MESA AT HPE ARUBA.

from operational efficiencies to the opportunity to create new products, services and revenue streams. l 58% of ITDMs in UAE highlighted improving operational efficiency and costs as one of the biggest benefits of capturing and acting upon data from user devices and 50% cited increase in security. l In parallel, 46% of respondents in the country believe the data increases workforce productivity, 44% cited the opportunity to create new differentiated products, services, revenue streams and business models and 43% said it optimised maintenance costs and scheduling.

D-Link Middle East caters to increased cloud adoption in the UAE

D-Link, a provider of connectivity solutions for small, medium and large enterprise business networking, has announced that it is well-positioned to cater to the increasing adoption of cloud technologies by regional enterprises. Businesses across the globe from all sectors are accelerating their cloud objectives and evolving into digital-first enterprises, especially in the wake of the ongoing pandemic.

D-Link Middle East is a pioneer in cloud solutions and services in the region. In the cloud solutions space, it offers an elaborate portfolio of indoor and outdoor mydlink cameras, Nuclias Managed Wireless Networking Solution portfolio, Wi-Fi 6 routers, including two of flagship products, DIR-X6060 EXO AX AX6000 and DIR-X5460 EXO AX AX5400.

D-Link’s Nuclias Managed Wireless Networking Solution portfolio has experienced a wide adoption in the regional market, especially as it was introduced during the peak of Covid-19 lockdowns. Regional businesses were able to implement solutions from Nuclias Cloud portfolio effortlessly to connect to company networks as the installation process demanded a minimal need for in-house IT skills. Customers can manage their networks from the cloud with this solution, which boasts benefits around control and convenience.

Earlier this year, D-Link had also announced latest intelligent cameras, which included its flagship product, mydlink DCS-8630LH Full HD Outdoor Wi-Fi Spotlight Camera with Built-in Smart Home Hub. These new cameras are equipped with edge-based person detection with AI technology, allowing for more intelligent and personal automation and surveillance for every smart home. The cameras are interoperable with other devices in the mydlink ecosystem, and also work with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, as well as conform to the ONVIF standard.

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CLOUD NEWS

Pure Storage, VMware expand partnership to accelerate hybrid cloud adoption Pure Storage has announced a spectrum of enhancements to its hybrid cloud solutions across the VMware portfolio, enabling any enterprise to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure. With a partnership built up over a decade, Pure has invested in VMware solutions since its inception. Together, the two companies deliver the platforms that customers need to virtualise their environments, quickly consolidate workloads, host missioncritical applications, and accelerate application modernisation with persistent storage for containers on-premises or in the cloud.

This partnership is expanding and enabling Pure to accelerate hybrid cloud deployments as a leading VMware Design Partner on key technologies including vSphere Virtual Volumes with VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware Site Recovery Manager, Cloud Native Storage for Kubernetes on VMware, and NVMe over Fabric.

New solution enhancements from Pure help enterprises maximise their VMware investments, delivering agility and efficiency for modern applications across on-premises and cloud environments. Customers will have

improved availability of their data services, enabling them to meet demanding Servicelevel Agreements.

Solutions designed to accelerate hybrid cloud deployments and optimise customers’ VMware investments include: vSphere Virtual Volumes as principal storage for VMware Cloud Foundation. VMware and Pure enable vSphere Virtual Volumes as Principal storage for VMware Cloud Foundation. Customers can now realise the value of Pure Storage and vSphere Virtual Volumes natively within VMware Cloud Foundation.

FlashStack delivers the performance, availability, and economics required for a VMware Cloud Foundation hybrid cloud in a single architecture, with the simplicity of integrated application to infrastructure management.

Support for vSphere Virtual Volumes storage with Site Recovery Manager. Modern data protection is a critical component for any VMware deployment including those leveraging vSphere Virtual Volumes on Pure.

For VMware infrastructure, VMware Site Recovery Manager provides an enterprise solution for automated disaster recovery. As the leader in vSphere Virtual Volumes storage, Pure co-engineered the integration of vSphere Virtual Volumes with SRM. This allows enterprises to consume vSphere Virtual Volumes on Pure while protecting their mission critical applications from disaster.

Red Hat, Samsung partner on Kubernetesbased networking to boost 5G adoption Red Hat has announced collaboration with Samsung to deliver 5G network solutions built on Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s most comprehensive enterprise Kubernetes platform, and will help service providers make 5G a reality across use cases, including 5G core, edge computing, IoT, machine learning and more. It is important for telecommunications service providers to adopt a consistent horizontal cloud-native platform hardened for their environments.

This telco cloud enables them to use the same infrastructure for multiple use cases and reduce management and operational expenses. According to a Red Hat-sponsored report from ACG Research, open horizontal platforms can lower total cost ownership up to 30% when compared to siloed vertically integrated deployments of virtualised radio access networks. By taking this horizontal

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approach, customers have access to more choice and better service.

This collaboration will utilise Red Hat’s proven hybrid cloud portfolio including Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat OpenStack Platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage. In addition, this collaboration will also utilise Samsung’s 5G vRAN, vCore, MEC and management and analytics to help service providers extend 5G-based use cases, such as edge computing that can positively impact the customer experience.

With this solution, service providers will be able to capitalise on the benefits of edge economics and vRAN. The Red Hat-sponsored ACG report found that using a common horizontal infrastructure in both 5G core and edge computing can enable operators to extend TCO benefits they gain in horizontal designs

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CHRIS WRIGHT, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, RED HAT.

in the core throughout their infrastructure.

Additionally, deploying horizontal clouds to vRAN sites enables operators to support new applications and services based on location awareness, reduced latency and scalability achievable in the distributed cloud.

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SECURITY NEWS

Kaspersky Industrial Cybersecurity for Networks bags IEC certification Kaspersky Industrial Cybersecurity for Networks has achieved certification against international standard IEC 62443-4-1 for the secure software development lifecycle of industrial enterprise solutions, following independent assessment by TĂœV AUSTRIA. The certification is awarded to those software products which meet a number of high-level

requirements for protecting industrial process control systems in modern production facilities.

The needs and expectations of the industrial sector when it comes to cybersecurity are understandably high, with the smooth and efficient running of production lines and manufacturing operations hugely disrupted

Kaspersky sees growing interest in PS5 among cybercriminals

Kaspersky experts has recently detected a growing interest among phishers and scammers in the popular game console PlayStation, the new version of which is going to be launched in November. In the period of July to September 2020, there was discovered almost 150 suspicious web resources around the world with the word playstation in their names. So far in September alone, Kaspersky experts has found more than 60 such sites. However, in reality there may be a lot more.

The phishing websites were mainly offering the chance to pre-order PlayStation 5 by leaving a prepayment or personal information. On some sites it was supposedly even possible to purchase a console at a reduced price. There were also resources where the previous version of the console, PlayStation 4, was on offer for much lower prices, with the major discounts attributed to the release of PS5.

Kaspersky Lab experts advise the following tips to protect against phishing threats: l Always double-check the URLs of links shared in unexpected messages or those from an unknown sender, to make sure that they genuine and do not cover another hyperlink that leads to a malicious page or download. l If you are not sure that a website is genuine and secure, never enter your credentials or personal information. If you think that you have may have entered your login and password on a fake page, immediately change your password and call your bank or other payment provider if you think your card details may have been compromised. l Always use a secure Wi-Fi connection, especially when visiting sensitive websites. Do not use public Wi-Fi without password If you are using an insecure connection, cybercriminals can redirect you to phishing pages without your knowledge. For added security, use VPN solutions that encrypt your traffic, such as Kaspersky Secure Connection. l Use a security solution with behaviour-based anti-phishing technologies, which will warn you if you are trying to visit a phishing web page. l

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if mission critical systems are affected by cyber threats. A reliable and robust cybersecurity solution is crucial, and part 4-1 of the IEC 62443 standard is designed to give manufacturers, integrators and plant operators across the globe confidence that the software measures they put in place to mitigate risk within industrial environments are based on the highest levels of product design, quality, safety, implementation and decommission.

To gain certification, Kaspersky Industrial Cybersecurity for Networks underwent an independent audit conducted by TĂœV AUSTRIA, which reviewed the entire lifecycle of the product and the secure and structured approach taken to software development.

The assessment was based on more than four dozen metrics which determined the level of maturity awarded to the solution.

The criteria covered design, implementation according to guidelines, testing and Kaspersky Industrial Cybersecurity for Networks confidently achieved the Third Maturity Level for secure development processes, demonstrating documented processes that are repeatable and consistently followed. The solution did however also tick many of the boxes associated with level four attributes which relate to the improvement of processes.

COVER STORY

BIG DATA

MA STREAM OR GO G NICHE With emphasis on cloud adoption for post pandemic survival; analytics, ML, RPA for productivity, big data appears to be moving into specialized backgrounds.

Antoine Harb, Team Leader, Middle East and North Africa, Kingston Technology l Dr Ryad Soobhany, Director of MSc Projects, School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot-Watt University Dubai l Khaled AlShami, Director Solution Consulting, Middle East and Africa, Infor l Shafiq Ur Rehman, Head of Cyber Security, Injazat l Tarek Abbas, Systems Engineering Director, Palo Alto Networks, Middle East and Africa l Walid Issa, Senior Manager Presales and System Engineer, Middle East, NetApp l Yangqing Jia, Vice President Alibaba Group, Senior Researcher Alibaba Cloud Computing Platform Division (Left to right)

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COVER STORY

KINGSTON

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO WITH YOUR BIG DATA With accelerating ability to calculate data due to tomorrows technology it still comes down to the same question, what would you like to do with the data.

D

igital infrastructure has never been so important to the world economy. The associated uptake in usage of digital applications in video calling, telehealth, e-commerce and e-learning, alongside those for entertainment as we all spend more time indoors, is causing a surge in need for data capacities.

Social media, streaming services and cloud storage are market segments that have seen rapid adoption. We live in an era of digital-ondemand with the Netflix addiction to prove it.

With data being devoured like never before, satisfying this hunger requires data centers.

By 2025, it is predicted that UK data centers will be storing data worth just over £102bn annually. 5G is the gateway through which IoT will finally take off because it provides the necessary infrastructure to carry huge data loads for a smarter, more connected world.

Experts predicted that 75 billion IoT endpoints will be connected by 2025.

The omnipresent question when it comes to big data, data lakes and storage remains: what data would you like to extract and for what reason? Imagine a large research with Yottabytes of data. Very often so-called super

5G is the gateway through which IoT will finally take off

computers are used for calculations. You need hardware and software to digest and calculate this data. Essentially, people are restricted by the limitations of today’s latest technology.

However, even with the exponentially accelerating ability to calculate data due to tomorrows technology it still comes down to the same question: What would you like to do with the data?

With such huge resources of data now available and the growing ability to process the data effectively it becomes increasingly valuable from government to healthcare, education to media and entertainment.

The use of Big Data is now so widespread as to have an impact on all aspects of society, enabling vast amounts of data to be processed to drive scientific research, predict or analyse behaviour, fight disease or crime, win sporting events or drive business success. The ability to use data to identify hidden patterns or emerging trends offers advantage to any kind or organisation.

Kingston server memory and enterprisegrade SSDs help to manage workloads such as AI, machine learning, big data analytics, cloud computing, operational databases, database applications, and data warehousing. To deliver in all required tasks it is essential for Kingston’s storage and memory solutions to secure data while also keeping it quickly accessible.

Kingston server SSD and memory products directly support the global demand to store, manage and instantly access large volumes of data. Organisations require predictable performance as they deliver on product solutions and service level agreements with requirements OF up to 99.9999%. Mission-critical servers are also required to provide uptime levels that meet or exceed an enterprise’s Qual-

ANTOINE HARB,

Team Leader, Middle East and North Africa, Kingston Technology.

By 2025, it is predicted that UK data centers will be storing data worth £102bn annually

ity of Service policies.

Kingston helps corporations to meet these requirements with consistent, rigorously tested, encrypted solid-state drives, selfencrypting drives and encrypted USB flash, providing an important layer of protection against costly data breaches, in and outside their firewall. ë

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COVER STORY

HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY

DATA LAKES MAY BE MORE LIKE DATA DUMPS TODAY Data analysis needs to concentrate on extracting relevant information so that organisations can focus on their main business goals and projects.

D

ue to the interconnectivity and tech-savviness of the modern world, a massive amount of big data is being generated. Research firm International Data Corporation IDC has forecasted that the data generated yearly worldwide will grow from 33 ZB or 33 trillion Gigabytes in 2018 through to 59 ZB in 2020 to 175 ZB by 2025. The data can be generated from media, web, IoT, financial and medical sources.

The data can be stored in data lakes in unstructured raw format. Organisations need effective data storage management for the storage and handling of their growing data.

Data analytics and visualisation techniques are used to extract knowledge from the data and present useful information to end users.

Healthcare and life sciences, banking and finance, IT and telecommunication, manufacturing, energy and utilities, media and entertainment, and government are some of the key sectors currently investing in big data technologies and data lakes.

The investment by the healthcare and life sciences segment is likely to grow exponentially during the next five years in an effort to collate patient data more effectively, improve overall patient experience, and enable datadriven, actionable analytics.

In the banking sector, predictive data analytics is already transforming entities helping them strengthen their risk assessment and optimise their operations.

The data analysis needs to concentrate on extracting and presenting relevant information so that organisations can focus on their main business intelligence goals and projects. The data in the data lake is not pre-cleaned, and

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users could be receiving data that triggers more questions than answers.

Moreover, lack of conformed dimensions in data lakes requires the need for data scientists to apply advanced analytics, machine learning and visualisation. Since the data dumped into a data lake is undefined, it is not known whether the data is actually useful until big data analytics are applied.

Millions of ad dollars are lost in running inefficient marketing campaigns, but now many brand and agencies have started to leverage big data to derive useful insights on customer behaviour that help them run more targeted and impactful campaigns.

Netflix is one such example of a large global brand that utilizes big data analytics for targeted advertising, which has helped them cement a top position in the online, on-demand entertainment space.

Healthcare providers are collaborating with smartwatches manufacturers IoT to monitor the health and securely share data of patients.

An example is Apple’s ResearchKit and CareKit frameworks. Í

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DR RYAD SOOBHANY,

Director of MSc Projects, School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot-Watt University Dubai.

Millions of ad dollars are lost in running inefficient marketing campaigns

Healthcare, life sciences, banking, telecommunication, utilities, media, government are key sectors investing in big data

COVER STORY

INFOR

WHY THE ROI FROM BIG DATA HAS A HUMAN ELEMENT A company can have the best data analytics available, but it still requires a degree of human interpretation from people within the organisation.

M

ost organisations generate vast amounts of data, which can add immense value to the organisation if it is captured, stored and analysed in the right way. For example, a company involved in the logistics industry generates data around aspects of the business including supplies, orders, time taken for distribution, and issues in the supply chain, to name just a few.

Using the right type of software, the organisation can capture, store and analyse this data. With the right analytics they can gain invaluable insights into their operation, helping teams to decide where to focus attention to increase value.

All industries have benefitted from big data, data lakes and storage management, but there are a few specific sectors in the region that are realising huge gains, including oil and gas, retail, logistics and manufacturing. These sectors are heavily dependent on intelligence to remain competitive, and advances in big data and data analytics are increasingly able to help provide this type of intelligence.

Big data and data analytics are at a nascent stage in their development, even though they are already adding immense value to organisations across industry verticals. As with any relatively new technology, there are limitations and constraints. At present, the constraints are primarily related to culture and training.

A company can have the best data analytics solution available, but it still requires a degree of human interpretation from people within the organisation, after which the organisation will also need to execute a course of action based on its interpretation of the data.

These are two areas that could potentially

limit the potential of big data and data analytics. Thankfully, both challenges can be remedied through training and by efforts to implement best practice within the organisation.

Data analytics tends to give better results when greater amounts of data are gathered and analysed. This opens-up the opportunity for organisations within different sectors to share a certain amount of anonymised data to gain even greater insights about their industry. For example, companies involved in hospitality can use shared data to gain a greater understanding about demand peaks and optimal room rates at different times of year.

Infor is working with large organisations across sectors including utilities, real estate, oil and gas, manufacturing, retail, leasing, distribution and healthcare. Customers in these sectors are using solutions that rely on big data and data analytics.

Infor is working with Saudi Bugshan, a major diversified business group in Saudi Arabia; Supertech Group, an industrial supply company based in Dubai; and major utilities including Ras Al Khaimah Wastewater Agency and Samra, Jordan’s leading wastewater treatment plant.

All of Infor’s cloud-based solutions – whether in Enterprise Asset Management EAM, Enterprise Resource Planning ERP or Supply Chain Planning – make extensive use of big data, in that they enable organisations to collect, aggregate and analyse their data and help them better understand their business and sector, and make better informed choices.

Data lake capabilities are built into all of Infor’s cloud-based solutions. Infor Data Lake, a scalable unified repository for capturing

KHALED ALSHAMI,

Director Solution Consulting, Middle East and Africa, Infor.

Organisations need to execute a course of action based on their interpretation of data an organisation’s enterprise data, is built into Infor’s cloud operating platform Infor OS. Among Infor’s solutions that benefit from big data and data analytics capabilities are: Infor M3, an ERP tool designed for medium to large global manufacturers, distributors and after sales service providers; Infor EAM, an enterprise asset management solution; and Infor CRM, which helps to give a full view of customer interactions. Other solutions that use big data include Dynamic Enterprise Performance Management and Infor LN. ë

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COVER STORY

INJAZAT

WITHOUT A DATA STRATEGY YOUR BIG DATA MAY BE WORTHLESS Once the foundation of data repositories is established, it can provide unlimited competitive advantage to the organisations, with a 360-degree view.

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ata is the backbone of the digital economy and depends on clean data and large volumes. Smart Cities can only function if they are interconnected through millions of devices.

Devices that create immense amounts of data that need to be stored, processed, and analysed for the data to provide value and insights to the organisation.

Without designing a proper data storage strategy, data can literally become worthless.

The enterprise big data warehouse manages and retrieves the data and is allowed to perform tasks efficiently on large and complex datasets.

Secure storage and the management of data and critical IT assets cannot be overestimated.

Today, breaches to sensitive user data can not only cause immediate and irreversible damage to a business but cause reputational issues for years to come.

Handling great amounts of data, in which ever form, comes with great responsibilities.

Breaches to sensitive user data can cause real challenges to organisations and currently remains one of the greatest limitations.

Once the foundation of the data repositories is established, it can then provide unlimited competitive advantage to the organisations, that is a 360-degree view of the organisation, sales forecasting, abnormal patterns detection, machine learning and for business process optimisation.

Accelerated by the pandemic and the UAE Government’s vision to become a leader in the digital economy, Injazat see positive developments in sectors like healthcare, education, smart cities, and energy and utilities.

Since a number of years Injazat seeks

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to drive the development of those sectors.

Through the launch of successful projects, such as Malaffi and Hassantuk, Injazat was able to create digital platforms that help drive some of those sectors, creating value for the communities.

Yet another example of Injazat’s work is its recent partnership with the Department of Health, Abu Dhabi. Jointly Injazat has developed a remote care application that helps track Covid-19 cases and offers remote advice to patients across Abu Dhabi and UAE. In financial sector, big data can help create 360-degree view of a customers by pulling data from multiple sources and enabling users to receive near real-time data and perform analysis to identify opportunities of crossselling and even detect fraud. Another example would be the management and processing of real time streaming data for analytics, mainly used by the telecommunications industry.

Injazat, supports its customers in mitigating those risks, through a Tier IV Datacentre in Abu Dhabi, offering the highest levels of uptime, resilience and security. Injazat operates a Tier III+ Datacentre in Dubai.

Along with offering an extensive range of cloud, enterprise applications and managed services to clients in the UAE and across the region, its Datacentre allows Injazat to provide colocation services, for organisations that prefer or are required to use their own servers.

Injazat offers customers a number of solutions that enable them to minimise those limitations. The Managed Cyber Defense service for example provides vigilance 24x7 for clients, offering robust defense mechanisms and monitoring services. While Managed Security services provide clients with the

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SHAFIQ UR REHMAN,

Head of Cyber Security, Injazat.

Without designing a proper data storage strategy, data can literally become worthless option to manage their own infrastructure or provide it externally.

The Cyber Security Advisory and Consultancy services are a specialised offering for organisation’s senior managers and IT professionals to receive a holistic assessment of their IT architecture, which will then inform their digital strategies in line with the organisations business objectives. ë

COVER STORY

PALO ALTO NETWORKS

USING AI TO SECURE BIG DATA AND DATA LAKES Cortex from Palo Alto is an artificial intelligence-based security platform that allows customers to secure, store and analyse large amounts of data.

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ybersecurity is one of the major use cases for Big Data and data lakes. Cybersecurity vendors need to store and analyse data rapidly and at scale, and data lakes and Big Data provide the arena in which to do this. Artificial intelligence-powered solutions analyse this data at speeds unimaginable just a few years ago.

There are several industries including the telecommunications, healthcare, and transportation, to name just a few, that have adopted Big Data and witnessed a positive outcome.

Moreover, during the past few months due to the pandemic, businesses have had to transform their strategies, accelerating their shift to data lakes and storage management as they seek to boost efficiency through scale.

Many businesses in the UAE, from SMEs to multinationals, have adopted this to support digital transformation initiatives in industries such as retail, healthcare, and education.

In the Middle East region, with the strong government leadership and initiatives, the opportunities around Big Data and storage management have been highlighted and recognised immensely, as it is key to further innovation and transformation of economies.

Many organisations lack awareness of the potential opportunities and positive outcomes that can be gained from using Big Data, data lakes and storage management. Big data and data lake technology are relatively new fields and are developing rapidly, as processing power continues to grow and artificial intelligence algorithms are refined.

Rather than talking about limitations, it is more a case of breaking established limitations by adopting these technologies. It is also

equally important for customers to understand the measures we take to protect their data and address their concerns by making sure they are more informed.

In today’s time, it is important to advance and harness the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning, as this will transform how security is managed in the future. Introduced in 2019, Cortex is Palo Alto Network’s integrated, artificial intelligence-based continuous security platform and is enabled by the Cortex Data Lake.

This not only allows customers to secure and privately store and analyse large amounts of data, but it normalises advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning - finding threats and preparing responses at a rate that is far quicker than would be possible without artificial intelligence.

Cortex also includes Cortex XDR, the first-of-its-kind detection, investigation, and response product that natively integrates network, endpoint, and cloud data - stopping attacks before any damage is done through tight integration with existing enforcement points. ĂŤ

TAREK ABBAS,

Systems Engineering Director, Palo Alto Networks, Middle East and Africa.

Big data and data lake technology are relatively new fields and are developing rapidly

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COVER STORY

NETAPP

ACCELERATING BIG DATA ANALYTICS AND MOVEMENT OF DATA NetApp’s Big Data analytics delivers twice the performance, moving data and workloads to cloud or wherever needed, ensuring data is backed up.

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ig data applications are being used today by data scientists, predictive modelers, statisticians, and other analytics professionals to analyse growing volumes of structured transaction data. Plus, a mix of semi-structured and unstructured data such as Internet clickstream data, web server logs, social media content, survey responses and machine data captured by sensors connected to the Internet of Things IoT. Gaining insights from data is crucial to capitalising on opportunities, improving profits, and better managing risk. This ability requires enterprise-grade data management capabilities to cope with the vast datasets.

With business and IT leaders appreciating the value and impact of data to identify business opportunities, drive decisions and design the right products, industries started adopting the use of data in real time to enhance customer experience, help in cost reduction, more effective products marketing and therefore making existing processes more efficient.

This includes industries and segments in Telco, healthcare, financial, oil and gas, and public safety. Their use of data to drive and leverage predictive analytics had a significant business benefit and positive ROI. There has been exponential growth in data over the past decade, and enterprises are challenged with analysing huge amounts of data within a reasonable time. Enterprises face several technical challenges when deploying Big Data and analytics solutions, specifically in the areas of cluster availability, operations, and scaling.

NetApp is a vendor for modernising and simplifying storage environments. From

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shared NAS and SAN environments to arrays built for high-bandwidth applications like data analytics, the industry-specific data storage solutions, enhanced by strategic partnerships, address critical business challenges. With the Big Data analytics platform, NetApp can accelerate 50% throughput and response times.

NetApp’s Big Data analytics platform delivers up to twice the performance, securely moving data and workloads to the cloud or wherever needed and making sure that data is always backed up, secure, and available.

NetApp has developed validated reference architectures with the relevant technology partners to deliver a solution that overcomes these challenges and limitations so that businesses can ingest, store, and manage Big Data with greater reliability and scalability, and with minimal time spent on operations and maintenance.

With these reference architectures and solutions, customers decrease the overall cost of ownership and gain enhanced data security, increased flexibility, and simple scalability. ĂŤ

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WALID ISSA,

Senior Manager Presales and System Engineer, Middle East, NetApp.

Enterprises are challenged with analysing huge amounts of data within a reasonable time

With business leaders appreciating the impact of data, industries started adopting real time data to enhance customer experience

COVER STORY

ALIBABA GROUP

BUILDING DATA LAKES AND BIG DATA USING PUBLIC CLOUD Flexibility of a data lake can help save resources and avoid data-island problems, while the best way to improve elasticity is to move to the public cloud.

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ustomers in industries spanning audio and video production, social media, gaming, e-commerce, content information and fintech have rapidly adopted Big Data and data lakes.

Alibaba Cloud solutions support varied customer needs for a large-scale data analytics and data intelligence service.

Through data lakes, customers can build a Big Data platform for analysis and machine learning. The flexibility of a data lake can help customers save on resources, reduce the cost of data storage and avoid data-island problems.

Machine learning is helping customers to enhance their growth and optimise their business processes including manufacturing, customer service, supply chain management and marketing. In addition, it improves employee engagement and enhances customer satisfaction.

Companies building their own Big Data platforms will usually encounter scalability and elasticity challenges. The best way to improve elasticity while reducing resource waste is to move to the public cloud.

Secondly, the performance of Big Data computing is directly related to the cost of computing resources. The higher the performance, the lower the cost. And cloud providers usually invest more on optimisation thus have better performance.

Setup and maintenance cost are also a concern. Companies need to hire several technical personnel to improve performance of a self-built platform on a continuous basis.

This requirement places a heavy burden on companies and usually takes a long time to get operational.

For SMEs, the most effective and cost-effi-

cient solution is to work with a cloud provider to runs a Big Data platform.

There has been a rise in demand from customers in the Middle East keen to implement digital transformation across their organisations. This trend has accelerated due to the pandemic. Companies of all sizes need to use a secure, reliable and stable Big Data platform.

A fintech customer in the UAE utilises Alibaba Cloud’s Big Data solution suite to build its data warehouse to store and process accumulating structured and unstructured data. The client uses analytics to generate value from data for commercial use, case design and decision making. Big data has led to improved efficiency, enhanced customer experience, and increased the company’s loyalty towards our products and services.

Alibaba Cloud offers Big Data products and solutions. These include: MaxCompute, a fully managed, general purpose data store, processing platform for large-scale data warehousing with multiple computing engines for various computing models.

MC-Hologres, a real-time computing engine, data warehouse for serving and analytics E-MapReduce, an all-in-one enterpriseready Big Data platform based on Apache Hadoop with enhancements Flink, a distributed streaming processing engine based on Apache Flink with enhancements DataWorks, a unified data development and management platform Machine Learning Platform for AI PAI, an end-to-end platform that provides various machine learning algorithms for data mining

YANGQING JIA,

Vice President Alibaba Group, Senior Researcher Alibaba Cloud Computing Platform Division.

For SMEs, an effective solution is to work with a cloud provider that runs a Big Data platform and analysis requirements Alibaba Cloud has developed a data lake computing and analysis solution based on EMR that combines EMR and OSS Object Storage Service to form a data lake computing and analysis solution.

Big Data platform has now become essential for modern industries. Customers can use Alibaba Cloud’s Big Data solutions to set up and manage data processing pipeline for many scenarios, including Reporting, Customer Study, Advertisement, Social Media Analysis, Search Recommendation, Risk Control, Trend behavior predications. ë

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Distance is NO BARRIER

Introducing D-Link Smart Wireless Solution for Point-to-Point Deployment

ESD Surge Protection

DAP-F3711-I Range: Upto 5 Kms Antenna Gain: 15 dBi High-Power Wireless 5Ghz 11ac Bridge

2x2 MIMO

ü

IP 65/66 Complied

Point to Point or Multipoint Application

Centrally Managed

TDMA+Polling Avoiding collision/ Interference between channels

DAP-F3704-I Range: Up to 5 Kms Antenna Gain: 10 dBi High-Power Wireless 5Ghz 11n Bridge

ACK Timeout adjustment Improves long distance Transmission

DAP-F3705-N Range: Up to 10 Kms Antenna Gain: 23 dBi High-Power Wireless 5Ghz 11n Bridge DAP-F3712-N Range: Up to 20 Kms Antenna Gain: 23 dBi High-Power Wireless 5Ghz 11ac Bridge

Intelligent Rate Control Improving stability of Bandwidth

Self Healing Useful in extreme noisy area

Connect to more |

INNOVATION

INNOVATIONS IN INFRASTRUCTURE AND SMART INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS Titanic amounts of data, noisy IT equipment and unsafe cable management are some of the loose ends that pose a huge threat to major industries, explains Malco Technologies’ Huzaifa N Kanorwala.

M

alco Technologies believes in providing companies with infrastructure solutions that focus and caters to customers’ requirements. With our specialised team of technology experts and wealth of industry knowledge from multiple business sectors, we work with our clients to ensure that they have the best choice of infrastructure solutions for their business requirements.

Manufacturing industries and factories around the world have copious amounts of data that need to be stored and secured. Titanic amounts of data, noisy IT equipment, unsafe cable management, and other issues are the problems these industries face and these loose ends pose a huge threat to major industries.

Understanding these issues, Malco Tech-

nologies provide the perfect solution for data security and storage. We not only distribute a variety of products like server/ network rack and accessories, but also provide an array of services that serve to store, secure, integrate and systemise passive and active network components.

We distribute smart infrastructure cabling solutions that gives visibility of the physical network by automatically mapping, locating, reporting and alerting on any network event whether this is the logical connection/ disconnection of a device or a physical change to the infrastructure. For real time monitoring of complex operations there are web-based application softwares that can be accessed on tablets, smart phones and laptops for providing 100% accurate records.

At Malco Technologies, we also distribute PDU’s and ATS that monitor the real time power consumption by an individual equipment installed within data centres and help with Environmental Monitoring System and proper air sealing for cold aisle containment in order to drastically reduce the power consumption used for cooling. The high density open and closed racks from Netrack are specially designed to meet the challenges of high-density cable management due to increase of cable volume and more due to introduction of angular jack panel. These also ensures that there is no cable damage.

With today’s increasing demand for high technology power management solutions, a complete rack PDU solution and the associated software allow data centre managers to make key decisions regarding the most

HUZAIFA N KANORWALA,

General Manager, Malco Technologies.

efficient use of power. The demand of intelligent PDUs with comprehensive features is increasing in data centre field. We distribute Austin Hughes’s intelligent PDU’s to meet these demands. With any rack mount device or in-cabinet PDU, one of the largest challenges is to integrate the device into the data centre environment without simply building up additional connectivity, cable run, patch panel, or network related costs.

Patented PDU IP Dongle from Austin Hughes provides IP remote access to the PDUs by a true network IP address chain. Only one PDU IP Dongle allows access to all PDUs in a single daisy chain, which is a highly efficient application for saving not only the IP remote accessories cost, but also the true IP addresses required on the PDU management.

As the technologies of the Internet of Things become increasingly prolific, we can soon expect to see smart cities relying on it to improve the way we live, work and travel.

A Fibre To The Office solution from Nexans can help with challenges, avoiding the need to provide power outlets for individual devices, while ensuring vast bandwidth reserves as well as flexibility and providing the ability to scale up easily and cost-effectively. Ethernet switch ensures intelligent media conversion from copper to fibre. Gigabit speeds can be realised while at the same time PoE is supported.

Copper cables supporting PoE over standard RJ45 interfaces allow a single network cable to be used to provide data connection as well as electric power.

Whenever building layout changes, devices can simply be re-patched or added. They are immediately powered up and connected to the network. No floor distributor is required, which saves a considerable amount of space per floor. Thick cable bundles are avoided, thanks to the use of pre-terminated fibre, optimised for fast and easy installation. Heat buildup and flammability are also avoided in this way, as well as by smart cable design. ë

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INNOVATION

MOST BUSINESSES PAY MORE THAN THEY SHOULD FOR BACKUPS, HERE’S WHY Synology’s Active Backup provides an integrated backup and restore solution that works well for all types of OS, on-site and in the cloud as well.

An all-in-one, backup solution is recommended for business continuity in post-COVID world [EC] WITH MANY EMPLOYEES STILL WORKING FROM HOME, DATA MANAGEMENT IS A MAJOR ISSUE FOR COMPANIES. HOW WOULD YOU SUGGEST COMPANIES MANAGE THEIR DATA IN THE POST-COVID WORKPLACE?

Companies around the globe have been forced to embrace work from home (WFH). WFH brings the potential risks of employees’ scattered endpoints protection or any unsecured cyber threats. Businesses are advised to look for solutions that can overcome the most common challenges.

We think the number one challenge is data scattered across various devices and platforms.

This is forcing IT administrators to integrate from multiple software and hardware platforms from separate vendors, which costs time and money. That is why we provide a centralised backup solution.

What we are offering with our backup solution is global deduplication technology that can help reduce storage consumption.

System and application files can be reduced to unique file blocks to allow efficient storage consumption.

Backup does not complete the whole protection process, how restoration works is also a key point of a successful strategy. Should a file or folder get accidentally deleted, how can

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employees get the file back to stay productive?

With many businesses adapting to WFH, this could add extra burden to IT administrators more than ever.

A self-restore service would be a nice way to go. IT administrators can enable permitted employees to navigate the timeline to restore the data themselves. An all-in-one, consolidated backup solution is recommended for business continuity in the post-COVID world.

[EC] WHAT ARE THE PAIN POINTS OF END-USERS THAT CAN BE REMOVED BY THE ACTIVE BACKUP SOLUTION?

Active Backup solution resolves the two major pain points that commonly occur when implementing business backup solutions manpower and cost.

A 2016 Spiceworks survey found that organisations use an average of 4.1 backup solutions, which means IT administrators need to spend 4 times of effort and time to accommodate multiple solutions provided by different vendors.

Active Backup solution offers a unified solution that consolidates backup tasks for physical and virtual environments, maximise backup efficiency, and rapidly restore files, entire machines, or VMs in one simple console.

This simple and centralised management

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JOANNE WENG,

SENIOR SALES MANAGER, SYNOLOGY.

system means that IT administrators no longer have to worry about failing to take care of any latest updates, nor do they have to constantly juggle between different windows when monitoring backup tasks.

Moreover, many companies are still inclined to purchase their storage servers and backup software separately when setting up their IT infrastructure. Apart from the separate hardware and software purchase, long-term maintenance costs and recurring license fees may result in high total cost of ownership.

With the one-time purchase and one-stop support, Active Backup solution not only decreases the time and expense of procurement, but it also allows end-users to have lower management effort and learning curve of the deployment.

[EC] SHOULD COMPANIES GO FOR HYBRID SOLUTIONS WHEN IT COMES TO DATA BACKUP. HOW DOES ACTIVE BACKUP SUPPORT AN END-USER USING HYBRID CLOUD ENVIRONMENT?

We see that hybrid solution has been a trend for not only storage but also backup solutions.

We encourage users to go for hybrid as it leverages the benefits of both local and cloud backup. However, building hybrid environments may meet challenges such as inefficient

INNOVATION

This modernised backup solution will benefit budgetconstrained businesses with one-off hardware cost

management as business workloads are scattered in on-sites and cloud environments.

This is why Synology has integrated modern backup software features onto the Synology NAS, completely free of licenses. This means you get unified support service by complementing hardware with software, gain access to Active Backup free of charge, and benefit from Active Backup through the one-off purchase of a Synology NAS. To take the protection even further, you are also recommended to create copies of the data of Active Backup for Business. With backup packages on DSM, Snapshot Replication, and Hyper Backup, you can create copies of the data and task settings of Active Backup for Business with the benefits of Active Backup for Business global deduplication technology.

Snapshot Replication allows you to constantly replicate your data to another Synology NAS and helps you resume normal services when an IT disaster strikes. As for Hyper Backup, it allows you to back up your data to another storage media or public clouds when you have only one Synology NAS. As a private cloud vendor, Synology integrates SaaS providers such as Amazon Drive, BackBlaze B2, Dropbox, Google Cloud Storage, Microsoft Azure, OpenStack Swift, and our own public cloud

service, Synology C2. The goal is to offer customers an optimised hybrid cloud user experience.

[EC] HOW DO CHANNEL PARTNER SELL THE ACTIVE BACKUP SOLUTION AND WHAT ARE THEIR BENEFITS?

When considering a modern backup solution, it often requires purchasing software licenses and storage servers separately. One of the major benefits of Active Backup solution is that it only requires a single point of contact. With the integration of modern backup software onto Synology NAS, partners are able to avoid spending time across different hardware & software vendors when contacting support.

This integrated and modernised backup solution will benefit budget-constrained businesses with just a one-off hardware cost. We are confident that our users will be able to protect their workloads more efficiently with a lower barrier to entry.

[EC] WHAT ARE THE REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES USE CASES THAT CAN BE PROVIDED BY THE ACTIVE BACKUP SOLUTION?

Shiseido Taiwan had adopted several well-known backup software after falling victim to a ransom-

ware attack in 2017, but the third-party backup software turned out to be costly, ineffective, and user-unfriendly. After knowing that Active Backup for Business as an integrated backup and recovery appliance with one-time NAS cost, Shiseido Taiwan joined the beta program for a 3-month trial as of June 2018.

After tests from our IT team, we found Active Backup for Business has incredible backup speeds and works wonders on deleting duplicate data — it only took up 28TB out of the total 58TB on the server.

On the desktop client, after backup tests with 25 PCs and laptops, data was reduced from 6.5TB to 2.1TB. The overall results were satisfactory.

Therefore, Shiseido Taiwan plans to purchase high-performance Synology storage devices in 2019 and use Synology Active Backup for Business to form a desktop client backup mechanism for 500 employees and up to 600GB daily changed data in the headquarters.

[EC] HOW DOES THE ACTIVE BACKUP SOLUTION INTEGRATE WITH VENDOR SYSTEMS AND NETWORKING ARCHITECTURES?

Active Backup solution is built for the existing IT environments by integrating into mainstream vendor systems and networking architectures. It supports commonly used platforms from mainstream protocols and platforms such as SMB and rsync server, Windows endpoints, VM on vSphere and Hyper-V, to SaaS applications - Microsoft 365, and G Suite.

In addition, with Synology NAS and the Active Backup suite, it seamlessly complements hardware with software by providing an integrated backup and recovery appliance. This turnkey solution centralises your data administration and streamlines acquisition, deployment, and technical support. ĂŤ

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INNOVATION

ZEROFOX

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION DRIVING DIGITAL IMPERSONATION Legacy security is blind to dangers beyond the organisation’s network perimeter, exposing members to a new breed of digital impersonation risks.

I

n today’s digital-first world, nearly every business uses third-party digital platforms like social media sites, onlinecollaboration tools, or SaaS applications to conduct business and connect with customers.

Meanwhile, alongside masses of legitimate users, predators use these same platforms to target and wreak havoc upon an endless supply of potential victims.

Since costs and technical requirements are low, cybercriminals have ample room to impersonate brands, employees, websites, and domain names to conduct scams, steal or disclose private data, phish individuals, and undermine consumer trust.

Threats like these comprise the category referred to as digital risk. Since legacy security

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tools are typically blind to dangers hosted beyond the perimeter, organisations are often left blind, exposing their members and community to a wide range of unchecked cyber-attacks and destruction.

POST PANDEMIC ACTIVITY Cyber attackers are opportunistic, andlike clockwork, during every major holiday, geopolitical event, or widespread crisis, bad actors target potential victims. The pandemic is no exception to the rule, and despite a global recession, scams and phishing attacks are booming. The ZeroFOX Alpha Team previously reported an increase of more than 60% in phishing, fraud, and data leakage attacks in the first four months of 2020.

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Much like the coronavirus itself, virusrelated scams, and the scammers behind them, will not be disappearing soon. Misinformation campaigns and digital scams are incredibly popular at the moment as adversaries are easily able to prey on the large, captivated audiences of social media communities who are following social distancing guidelines at home.

Because most modern businesses rely in some part on Internet services or platforms, digital risks have the potential to endanger nearly any organisation with no particular regard for classification, designation, or categorisation.

Even so, cybercriminals are most often motivated by greed, meaning that businesses with assets of direct or indirect value are more

INNOVATION

SOLUTIONS FROM ZEROFOX

GABE GOLDHIRSH,

Vice President, MEA and APAC Sales, ZeroFOX.

ZeroFOX recently acquired Cyveillance, a threat intelligence provider likely to attract the attention and focus of attackers. For this reason, companies in the Global 2000, financial services organisations, and online commerce merchants are especially susceptible to attack.

ZeroFOX is directly engaged by Chief Security Officers or Heads of SOCs looking to establish or upgrade their external threat protection programme with Digital Risk Protection Services and Threat Intelligence.

ZeroFOX recently acquired Cyveillance, a threat intelligence provider.

ZeroFOX provides digital risk protection combining visibility, artificial intelligence-driven analysis, and remediation to find and disrupt threats. The solutions safeguard organisations from attacks and threats residing across vast landscape of the surface, deep, and dark web.

With the aid of artificial intelligence and automation, the ZeroFOX platform evaluates data from across the Internet at scale to identify and mitigate malicious attacks such as account takeovers, corporate, brand, and individual impersonations, or cyber-attacksbefore they cause irreparable harm.

The ZeroFOX OnWatch Managed Services Team begins by configuring entities. In ZeroFOX-speak, entities are holistic digital forensics of the organisations, agencies, companies, brands, products, and executives we protect.

By having this representation and leveraging heuristics which range from keyword-based to conditional testing to machine-learning to artificial intelligence, we can monitor permutations that are out of character with messaging, structure, or business objectives of that particular entity on the open, deep, or dark web.

We achieve these results in near real-time as ZeroFOX platform is integrated to hundreds of data sources via APIs, giving us consistent visibility and consistent frequency of access.

CHANNEL PROGRAMME ZeroFOX channel partners are successful because their teams possess security consultants and there is an interesting duality. First, it is important to think like a customer. We have to understand what keeps them up at night, what is relevant, and how they prioritise the various threats ZeroFOX platform detects across the deep, dark, an open web.

Second, the ZeroFOX Channel Partner is inculcated from early-on to have an appreciation for the malicious tradecraft of ZeroFOX adversaries. By possessing the qualitative awareness, we are able to train security consultants on how to configure, administrate, exploit, remediate, and extend ZeroFOX platform.

Years ago, enterprise security was a buyer beware market. Today, it is a be aware of buyer market. ZeroFOX has established

commercial models that often teased as being overly generous to ZeroFOX channel partners.

It is important to understand that ZeroFOX believes the procurement process of enterprise SaaS should not be a black box. Just as we share all the data sources ZeroFOX platform offers; we extend the same level of transparency to ZeroFOX commercials.

As such, we share ZeroFOX pricing with ZeroFOX prospects very early-on in the sales process. More importantly, we offer it in a sushilike menu fashion. This empowers ZeroFOX prospects to quickly assemble precisely what they need and as their budgets can afford.

The Middle East has been ZeroFOX number one region in revenue and transactions for the past three years. ZeroFOX simple, straightforward channel-led sales process along with ZeroFOX best in class product offering is the right approach globally. ĂŤ

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INNOVATION

PREVENT, DETECT AND RESPOND QUICKLY TO RANSOMWARE ATTACKS Ransomware attacks are becoming more sophisticated, while new remote workspaces have made organisations more exposed to security threats. Khalid Mashayek from VERSOS explains what to do about it.

What are the key reasons why ransomware is increasing in the region?

Are certain GCC and Middle East countries more targeted than others?

Ransomware is a serious threat. And there are so many types. These attacks evolve and are becoming more and more sophisticated.

Indeed, it’s no longer about if, but when an attack will occur. And more importantly, how quickly organisations can recover their data and business applications from such an attack.

Yes, Saudi Arabia has witnessed series of cyberattacks in the past few years, due to its economic and political positions. Saudi Arabia was attacked by Shamoon and others.

What are the weaknesses in an organisation’s cyber security practices that lead to successful incidents of ransomware?

KHALID MASHAYEKH,

IT Infrastructure Department Manager, VERSOS.

Ransomware attacks are becoming more sophisticated and cybersecurity professionals are taking action. With the right tools, you can prevent, detect and respond quickly to ransomware attacks threatening your organisation. The majority of ransomware is propagated through user-initiated actions such as clicking on a malicious link in a spam e-mail or visiting a malicious or compromised website.

In other instances, malware is disseminated through malvertising and drive-by downloads, which do not require user engagement for the infection to be successful.

EC: What are the available statistics on the incidence of ransomware in the region?

Are there any specific types of organisations that are more targeted than others?

Khalid: In the past year, 92% of organisations reported that their organisation have seen ransomware delivered via email attachments.

And nearly 30% of organisations have seen business operations impacted by ransomware.

Any organisation, large or small, is the target for a ransomware attack. However, many are not ready for ransomware as they lack effective prevention, a plan for zero downtime, or a process to recover quickly.

Yes of course, large governments and enterprise customers are more targeted than other entities for different reasons such as: l Damage to brand and reputation l Erosion of customer loyalty l Theft of intellectual property l Loss of business l Regulatory penalties l Impaired security for your business or governments and states l Increased potential for future attacks

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Has the pandemic exposed organisations to more incidents of ransomware?

Yes, adopting the new remote workspaces, which become the new normal now, has made organisations more exposed for the security threats and attacks.

What are your recommendations as an expert security solution provider to mitigate ransomware?

I can summarise the recommendations and solutions as following: l Backups are critical, using mature backup solutions such as Veritas NetBackup that allows multiple iterations of the backups to be saved, in case a copy of the backups includes encrypted or infected files.

Also routinely test backups for data integrity and to ensure it is operational. l Having an an incident response plan: what organisation supposed to do during ransomware attack. l Keep all systems patched, including all hardware, including mobile devices, operating systems, software, and applications, including cloud locations and content management systems. l Restrict Internet access. Use a proxy server for Internet access and consider ad-blocking software. Restrict access to common ransomware entry points, such as personal email accounts and social networking websites. ë

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PRODUCT NEWS

Shure adds portable units to MXC Digital Conference System In addition to the new MXC customisation programme, Shure has extended the MXC Digital Conference System to include new delegate units for straightforward conference and discussion applications. Available globally now, the MXC605 portable conference units are ideal for local city councils, board meetings, and other structured events. These units have a simple feature set, interpretation capability, scalability up to 3,800 units, and compatibility with the full range of MXC components and software.

Designed to keep meetings on course, the MXC Digital Conference System provides an efficient, effective experience for leaders and participants alike. Powerful functionality like agenda control, interpretation, and identity verification ensure every meeting is successfully managed.

The MXC605 portable unit can operate in Chair, Delegate, Interpreter, or Ambient modes. With best-in-class audio, robust software, and seamless integration, end-users get a system to match nearly every situation,

meeting format, or purpose.

Shure also offers additional overlay options, including: l MXC605-ACC-SPK+FUN: Speak and function button overlay for MXC605 with volume control and channel selector l MXC605-ACC-SPK: Speak button overlay for MXC605 with volume control and channel selector l MXC605-ACC-INT: Interpreter control overlay for MXC605 with speak and function buttons, volume control and channel selector for interpreter The MXC605 is part of the complete MXC Digital Conference System, which offers several benefits, including: l Integrates anywhere: With a variety of portable, flush-mounted, and modular conference units, installation is easy, no matter the location. l Scalable solution: For the largest conferences with thousands of delegates to smaller configurations in boardrooms or council chambers, it provides sound quality and control for nearly every type of event. l Capacity: Designed for formal meetings with up to 3,800 participants. l Control: Microphones can be controlled by users or by a designated chairperson. Allows voting, agenda, identity verification, speech time control, and more. l Global access: Supports up to 31 interpretation channels for multi-lingual conferences.

Forcepoint launches cloud-native user activity and insider threat monitoring tool Forcepoint has announced the introduction of Dynamic User Protection that redefines modern user activity monitoring and insider threat protection with the industry’s first cloud-native solution to deliver out-of-the-box functionality with no policy configuration.

Through this capability, security teams are now empowered with real-time visibility into true risk behaviours of compromised and malicious users within hybrid cloud environments.

All security begins with visibility and the massive shift to remote work created blind spots into user activities with critical data and intellectual property in unmanaged home environments. Attackers have actively exploited this vulnerability with a 400% increase in cyberattacks in 2020, according to the FBI. Coupled with the reality that 95% of cybersecurity breaches are the result of compromised user credentials and human

error, it is a competitive imperative today that businesses gain needed visibility to mitigate a data breach in real-time.

With Dynamic User Protection, user activity monitoring not only becomes easy-to-deploy it also brings mainstream enterprise access to continuous risk assessment across security control points. For example, utilising Dynamic User Protection’s risk scores transforms the traditional audit-only mode Data Loss Prevention deployment to become intelligent DLP by automating policy response based on level of risk while significantly reducing false positives. This ability to understand user risk in real-time across all control points becomes a cybersecurity game-changer for security teams, allowing global enterprises for the first time to seamlessly implement core Zero Trust and CARTA frameworks.

Dynamic User Protection utilises Indicators

NICO POPP, CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER AT FORCEPOINT.

of Behaviour as the real-time analytics engine to determine the overall risk of an entity. These IoBs deliver security teams context around behaviours and by combining multiple behaviours determines true risk scores that assess overall risk of an entity as good and/or bad. With this capability, enterprises can now prioritise observed risk in real-time to move left of breach while also reducing security friction.

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2 >> Murugesan Vaithilingam, Service

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REAL LIFE NEWS

RAK National Printing Press installs advanced Xerox system to drive new business

Xerox Emirates has announced a new partnership with Ras Al Khaimah National Printing Press to deliver its range of state-of-the-art print and digital production capabilities to customers in the Northern Emirates and beyond.

One of the oldest printing firms operating in the UAE, Ras Al Khaimah National Printing Press’ link up with Xerox Emirates has seen the company significantly upgrade its business offering through an investment in the advanced Xerox Iridesse Digital Production Press. It came as the company was actively seeking to strengthen its ability to deliver more jobs at a faster pace, whilst still maintaining high-quality results and consistent productivity.

The Xerox Iridesse systems gives RAK National Printing Press a sizeable and far-reaching advantage over its competitors and elevates its service and business offering to a new level of efficiency, productivity and excellence through the adoption of the world’s most exciting new print and digital production technologies.

The advanced Xerox Iridesse system, exclusively provided and installed by Xerox Emirates, allows RAK National Printing Press to deliver a superior range of services to its diverse and expansive customer base. Among the benefits of Xerox Iridesse is the option to incorporate sophisticated special effect features to digital print productions, including gold, metallic, clear and white effects as well

as greatly improved sheet size options delivered with an exceptional digital print quality.

As the go-to printing service in Ras Al Khaimah and the North Emirates since 1976, RAK National Printing Press enjoys a unique, trusted and ongoing relationship with a variety of highprofile clients including government entities and ministers, VIP customers and the RAK Rulers Court. The company’s reputation for exceptionally high standards and speedy delivery is greatly enhanced by its investment in Xerox Iridesse, with the system’s capacity to create a range of high-quality madeto-order boxes and custom-made print requests of particular interest to its esteemed clients seeking unique, special occasion orders.

The Xerox Iridesse system means RAK National Printing Press has boosted its creative capacity and production facilities to not only meet the most demanding requests from its client base, but also to exceed their expectations with the speed and quality of the work it can deliver.

RAK National Printing Press is one of the first printing presses in the UAE to invest in the Xerox Iridesse system and its high speed, six station colour press process that combines colour printing with up to two speciality dry inks in one single pass to deliver new media capabilities and production-level application opportunities.

UAE’s Alpha Data to deploy RPA, automate Tokio Marine’s key operations

Alpha Data, a UAE-based digital transformation solutions provider, has been selected by Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Company to propel its digital transformation journey. This will be done through the use of Robotic Process Automation, RPA, technologies. The company, which provides insurance services under the umbrella of its head office in Tokyo, contracted the services of Alpha Data to help automate its operations across key areas using RPA technologies.

Tokio Marine, which has been operating in the UAE since 1976, offers a diverse portfolio of insurance services such as motor insurance, property insurance and medical insurance. Alpha Data’s technical team assembled a robust RPA solution and demonstrated the value of RPA through detailed Proof-of-Concepts and multiple workshops.

According to a recent report by Grand View Research, the global RPA market size is expected to reach $25.66 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 40.6%. In line with this, the increasing demand for automating processes to save time and reduce operational cost is driving the market growth over the forecast period.

MURUGESAN VAITHILINGAM, SERVICE DIRECTOR, ALPHA DATA.

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GUEST COLUMN

FIRAS GHANEM,

Regional Director, Middle East and Pakistan, ThreatQuotient.

MITRE ATT&CK FRAMEWORK AND THREAT INTELLIGENCE Being a consumer begins with narrowing the threat landscape to specific groups of cybercriminals or other threat actors, explains ThreatQuotient’s Firas Ghanem.

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he MITRE ATT&CK framework is being used in more and more areas of cyber security, including the identification of threat actors, their techniques and behaviour. Companies need a knowledge base to identify who they are dealing with at an early stage. Information about the actions of future attackers, based

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on observations of security incidents in other companies, is ultimately of interest and relevance to all organisations.

The mapping of this data, summarised as threat information, is ultimately one of the main activities that IT security departments should undertake. There are two ways to use this data for threat intelligence; as consumers

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and as producers. Being a consumer of the data means using the data already created to improve threat intelligence decision-making.

The second method is to use this information and build on it as a producer of additional information. Security departments that have the appropriate skills and capacities should also engage internationally in this way.

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The final step is to test and continuously review the MITRE ATT&CK framework, which is enriched with the threat intelligence information

Information about the actions of future attackers is ultimately of interest and relevance to all organisations

Being a consumer begins with narrowing the threat landscape to specific groups of cybercriminals or other threat actors. Because then a company can assume that they have an interest in its data, assets or resources. To reduce the threat landscape, previous attacks on similar organisations should be investigated and the groups suspected of being involved in these attacks identified. Once the threat groups that are of interest have been identified, the security department can use a data set to view the tactics, techniques and procedures for those groups. While some techniques may not overlap, it is very likely that others do. Once the responsible parties have looked at the TTPs common to the identified groups, they can begin to establish a prioritised list of detection and prevention capabilities that the Security Operations team must have. This is a basic use of data already created by other MITRE teams, and is highly recommended for small teams.

AUGMENT DATA In addition, it is recommended that further threat information be created over and above

the existing threat information. This mainly refers to own data that can be added to a complete data set. For this activity, organisations must give analysts the time and training they need to analyse available incident response reports to extract data and match it with ATT&CK metrics. In practice, this means reading these reports line by line, highlighting tools, techniques, tactics, and group names, and extracting the data to further feed the information the team has about the suspected attackers. To do this, the makers of MITRE are developing the new Threat Report Attacks Mapper tool, which helps analysts to partially automate this process. The additional information should improve decision making once the analysis of the attackers’ TTPs has been passed through the organisation’s “context filter”.

While the use of the ATT&CK matrix for Cyber Threat Intelligence mapping focuses on external threats, the next common step is inward. First, all techniques are listed with information on how security departments identify, detect and contain them. Extracting this information is an excellent way for security departments to better understand their own ability to defend and prioritise. The first step in this process is the programmatic extraction of data source information. There are several ways to do this using the APIs provided by MITRE or other open-source tools on GitHub. Once completed, comparing the data sources that the security experts have had access to and the groups of users and systems that have access to those data sources can reveal important gaps in coverage and visibility.

CLOSE KNOWLEDGE GAPS If none of these data sources are available to the security department, or if they are only available on a subset of the IT systems, the next logical step should be to fix this problem. It doesn’t matter whether they capture these new sources of information through built-in operating system logging or by adding new security tools like network monitoring, network

discovery and response and host-based IDS. It is important that identification of the most important missing data has taken place. If this information can be clearly communicated, this can help justify the additional effort and potential costs associated with implementing the new data collection.

While the collection of the required data sources is already an important milestone, it is only the first step in the process. Once the data has been collected and sent to a central memory of threat, the next step is to find a suitable analysis tool. Finally, it must be emphasised when an attacker actually uses this technique. MITRE facilitates this step for many hacker techniques with its prebuilt Cyber Analytics Repository and even provides open-source analysis options such as the BZAR-project, which includes a set of Zeek/ Bro scripts for detecting some ATT&CK techniques.

CONCLUSION With this collected information, security departments can identify priorities for attack groups and techniques that can be used against their own organisation. They can also supplement this information with their own internal data. This provides the security department with the best possible knowledge of what techniques and tactics the attackers have and are likely to use against the organisation.

After assessing the threat level, the security experts can then use the integrated data source information to get an idea of the potential defence capabilities. Where key information is missing, they must work together to collect the data and implement analysis for these techniques. Tools such as ATT&CK Navigator can facilitate the visualisation of requirements.

Open source and other vendors of security appliances and software can help accelerate the process of matching the required data against the data they actually collect and run against the analyses. The final step is to test and continuously review the MITRE ATT&CK framework, which is enriched with the threat intelligence information. ë

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GUEST COLUMN

One way brains conserve energy is to use mental shortcuts or heuristics.

MARGARET CUNNINGHAM,

Principal Research Scientist, Forcepoint.

MINIMISING COGNITIVE BIAS IN CYBERSECURITY The impact of cognitive biases has no boundaries, and cybersecurity decisions at all levels of an organisation are impacted by bias, notes Forcepoint’s Margaret Cunningham.

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t is 7am, and ten minutes into the morning you have already dismissed the first round of notifications littering your screen.

Respond, dismiss, delete, save, and keep going. It is impossible to escape the endless stream of decisions required to get through the day. While some people try to minimise unnecessary decision-making it is exception-

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ally difficult to succeed. For instance, research shows that the average person faces upwards of 200 decisions about food alone every single day. Choosing an outfit and deciding on an entrĂŠe are not life changing decisions, but the mental energy to make these selections comes from the same finite reservoir as the energy needed to make much larger, more important

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decisions.

The human brain has many different goals and purposes, one of which is to conserve energy. One way brains conserve energy is to use mental shortcuts or heuristics. These rules of thumb allow people to do many complex tasks, but when we take a closer look at how they impact our decisions, we find that taking

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To address the impact of cognitive bias, we must focus on understanding people and how people make decisions at the individual and organisational level

Availability bias impacts what agency leaders and cybersecurity experts perceive as high priority threats

shortcuts can lead to cognitive bias and reasoning errors.

The impact of cognitive biases has no boundaries, and cybersecurity decisions at all levels of an organisation are impacted by bias.

Let’s look at three common cognitive biases, explore how they impact different areas of cybersecurity decision making, and finally identify strategies for mitigating the negative impact of cognitive bias.

PRIORITIES, PEOPLE, AND PURCHASES Building a strategy to protect against cyber threats requires understanding and prioritising efforts to address existing or potential threats.

Availability bias impacts what agency leaders and cybersecurity experts perceive as high priority threats. The more often someone encounters specific information, the more readily accessible it is in their memory. If the news is full of privacy breaches carried out by foreign adversaries, that type of threat will be top-of-mind, which may drive leaders to overestimate the likelihood of being targeted

with such an attack. In reality, reports seen on the news may not even apply to their industry or may be an extreme outlier, and hence their newsworthiness. Still, availability bias may lead them to hone in on potential outside threats, perhaps at the expense of more urgent internal ones.

Another challenge for cybersecurity professionals is identifying user characteristics that pose the greatest risk to an organisation’s information system. Grouping people together based on specific characteristics or attributes can be both convenient and effective, but it also introduces the risk of representativeness bias. Representativeness bias occurs when we erroneously group people together based on qualities that are considered normal or typical for that group. For instance, if you made the statement, older people are riskier users because they are less technologically savvy than their younger counterparts, you would likely observe affirmative nods from around the room. However, when we take a closer look at the numbers in current research, we find that younger people are actually far more likely to share passwords and they often reuse the same ones across domains. If sharing a streaming service log-in is ultimately sharing banking information or corporate information due to reusing credentials, the younger user is far riskier than the older user.

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt also impact decision making, and as an industry, cybersecurity thrives on using negative language that highlights risk or loss in marketing materials.

This works because the way information is presented, or framed, shapes our purchasing decisions. Framing effect is a type of cognitive bias impacted by how a choice is worded.

People are biased towards selecting outcomes that focus on positive, or sure thing, outcomes.

They are also more willing to choose riskier, or more expensive, options if they are faced with a potential loss. The outcome of the framing effect in the cybersecurity industry is that decision-makers may choose overkill solutions that address specific, low-probability risks.

While all-or-nothing security may seem like

a sure thing, and a way to avoid risks, bloated solutions can negatively impact employees’ ability to actually do their jobs. People are their most resilient and creative when faced with barriers or security friction, and imaginative security workarounds to poorly selected security solutions may end up being riskier than the original perceived threat.

MINIMISING BIAS These biases are only a small sample of how the cybersecurity industry is shaped by human decision making. To address the impact of cognitive bias, we must focus on understanding people and how people make decisions at the individual and organisational level in the cybersecurity industry. This means raising awareness of common cognitive biases across agencies and within our security teams to better identify situations where critical decisions are susceptible to the negative impact of mental shortcuts.

Beyond awareness, analytics can also help remedy some cognitive biases and their accompanying concerns. For instance, instead of relying on anecdotal or stereotypical assumptions that certain user groups are riskier than others, use of behavioural analytics can help by building a data-driven understanding of human behaviour and risk.

The ability to apply security controls without relying on broad, inflexible rules, whether for a specific group, or for an entire agency, also solves the problem of overkill cyber solutions that may seem appealing due to availability bias and framing effects.

The bottom line is that cognitive biases shape our cybersecurity decisions from the keyboard to the boardroom, and these decisions ultimately determine the effectiveness of our cybersecurity solutions. By improving our understanding of biases, it becomes easier to identify and mitigate the impact of flawed reasoning and decision-making conventions.

More tangibly, understanding user behaviour at the individual level can also help minimise the degree to which cognitive biases drive an agency’s security posture. ë

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Application controls stops users, threat actors, and other applications from executing any inappropriate commands.

KARL LANKFORD,

Director, Solutions Engineering, BeyondTrust.

THE 5 CRITICAL STEPS IN ENDPOINT SECURITY STRATEGY Without the right team and time commitment, EDR products can amass data and alerts, which can in turn increase your resource costs, warns BeyondTrust’s Karl Lankford.

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hreats to endpoints can come in the form of external attacks as well as insider threats, which may be either malicious or unintentional in nature.

A compromised endpoint can give an attacker a foothold within an environment, enabling them to launch further attacks on systems to access data and compromise additional endpoints via lateral movement.

And with 70% of successful breaches starting at the endpoint, its imperative that security teams take a comprehensive, preventative

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approach to protecting all of the endpoints in the organisation:

STEP 1: ANTIVIRUS Typically, antivirus software is the first endpoint security tool deployed as it defends against common and known threats and is a generally well-accepted and pervasive toolset.

However, AV is clearly not bulletproof with upwards of 60% of attacks missed by antivirus, due to unknown threats, or evasive techniques that exploit trusted applications. Therefore,

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based on regulatory compliance and welldefined security best practices, antivirus should be considered as just one component of a more complete endpoint security strategy.

STEP 2: ENDPOINT PRIVILEGE MANAGEMENT With perimeter security now stronger than ever, end user devices are heavily targeted by threat actors. Most users have unrestricted access through web browsers and can be manipulated through email, making it easy

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Endpoint security is not just one solution, it is an ecosystem that should have prevention as a foundational element privilege, giving users just enough rights to do their jobs.

Antivirus should be considered as just one component of a more complete endpoint security strategy

for a hacker to lure them in using social engineering techniques. If the user has local admin rights when they open an infected attachment or link, the payload can execute with their privileges, giving the hacker control of the machine by silently installing backdoors and reconfiguring or disabling other security controls.

By removing admin rights, the user can no longer download or execute malicious software that triggers ransomware or malware attacks. This dramatically reduces the attack surface and severely limits what threat actors that bypass AV can do, the vast majority of exploits and payloads will fail. With no infection present, they do not have the ability to move laterally to compromise sensitive data. For example, removing admin rights would have mitigated 77% of Microsoft vulnerabilities.

With least privilege management, users can perform admin tasks without using root or administrator credentials, giving the privileges themselves to the application, and not the user.

This passwordless administration approach allows organisations to implement true least

STEP 3: ENDPOINT PRIVILEGE MANAGEMENT Not all endpoint attacks need to leverage privileges to compromise a machine, and this is where application control steps in. Application controls stops users, threat actors, and other applications from executing any inappropriate commands or applications on an endpoint.

Traditionally, Application Control is seen as difficult and was reserved only for the most static of environments. However, by layering Application Control on top of Privilege Management, critical functionality in the operating system is trusted by default. Users without privilege cannot introduce new code to directories like Program Files, Windows, System32, or Drivers. This makes it a pragmatic approach because it only needs to be applied to specific directories and files, where threat actors typically ‘drop’ and execute their payloads.

Using an Endpoint Privilege Management solution as the second and third layer of endpoint security provides not only a model for least privilege, but also for robust application control. The combined result is a drastic reduction in the endpoint risk surface.

Additionally, application control is a requirement of a number of compliance mandates and frameworks.

STEP 4: ENDPOINT DETECTION AND RESPONSE Since every risk will not be mitigated by antivirus, removing administrative rights or application control, it is also important to have endpoint security detection and response.

Endpoint Detection and Response solutions are designed to help organisations identify and react to threats that have bypassed their other defences. EDR runs locally on user workstations or servers to monitor processes, scheduled tasks, applications, logged in users and, more importantly, to determine if malicious or

unauthorised activity is present on the system.

This compliments EPM by acknowledging and alerting of possible attacker activity on a system outside of EPM’s scope as a privilege management tool. EDR alerting can include network related activity, known malicious applications, attempts to use built in programmes maliciously, and other activity. And, if EDR does detect an event, the confidence of the attack is much higher because privileges and potentially malicious applications have had their execution mitigated by EPM. The number of false positives will decrease, reducing the time needed to review event data and anomalies.

It is important to remember that an EDR solution alone does not give your organisation complete monitoring capabilities. Well trained security professionals and sound processes are needed to maximise your EDR investment and truly improve your security. Without the right team and time commitment, EDR products can amass data and alerts, which can in turn increase your resource costs.

STEP 5: OTHER ENDPOINT SECURITY TOOLS Endpoint security strategies are not all one-size-fits-all. After your organisation has implemented Steps 1-4, it’s imperative to review specific use cases and evaluate other endpoint solutions based on needs. Some types of endpoint security tools to consider include log monitoring and security information and event management solutions, Endpoint Protection Platforms and Web and Email Filtering applications, Data Loss Prevention, Encryption, Endpoint Hardening, Patch Management, Secure Configuration, Remote Access, and Web Proxy to name just a few.

Endpoint security solutions has evolved considerably over the last several decades, from simple, signature-based antivirus software to solutions like EPM and EDR. That being said, what most organisations fail to realise is that endpoint security is not just one solution, it is an ecosystem that should have prevention as a foundational element rather than only on reactive remediation. ë

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GUEST COLUMN

SERGEJ EPP,

Chief Security Officer, Central Europe, Palo Alto Networks.

ADAPTING TO A NEW NORMAL IN CYBERSECURITY The new normal in work is precipitating a new normal in cybersecurity.

Organisations will have to embrace new tools, processes and strategies, says Palo Alto Networks’ Sergej Epp.

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he Covid-19 pandemic has been a shock to our systems. It has forced societies, governments, businesses and individuals to abruptly rethink long-held practices and processes, including in basic areas such as how and where we work, teach, learn, live and interact.

In our lifetimes it is difficult to think of a singular event that has caused as much

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disruption as in such a compressed time. And the impact continues to evolve, with things moving so quickly that we can’t always predict or control events.

Our digital world has been front and centre in absorbing and mitigating the shock waves.

Connected digital technologies have enabled organisations to rapidly shift to work-fromhome models and been crucial in shaping

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responses in healthcare, science, supply chain, education and virtually every aspect of life during these challenging times. Many of the changes will likely be with us for the foreseeable future and beyond, creating a new normal.

In different parts of the world, some workplaces have tried to reopen or want to reopen.

But in this pandemic time, organisations have to navigate through uncertainties, while ensur-

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ing business continuity and safety.

Let’s prepare for a long haul of working remotely and the security challenges that come with that. This is just the beginning. The new normal in work is precipitating a new normal in cybersecurity. Organisations will have to embrace new tools, processes and strategies, and be far more agile than ever before.

As always, threat actors are opportunistic and early adopters in exploiting new vulnerabilities in human behaviour and technology.

With millions of people working from home, hackers are taking advantage of this pandemic to launch new cyber attacks. So what can be done?

CYBER HYGIENE STRESS TEST Organizations are quickly trying to adapt IT to the new normal. For an average business, it means scaling up its existing network and endpoint security for a remote workforce that has grown from 30% to about 90%. This means adjusting policies in applications to be accessible remotely or to secure them with two-factor authentication.

At the same time, according to the latest Fortune 500 CEO survey, more than 75% of CEOs said Covid-19 will accelerate digital transformation and introduce new technologies. The impact on cybersecurity will be profound.

More pressure on IT and development teams to deliver digitalisation will result in more bugs and vulnerabilities and a higher exposure to being compromised.

Cybersecurity professionals understand that cyber hygiene, such as patching, is essential

We should take enough time to prepare for bigger and more frequent cyber incidents

to security. It’s like wearing a mask; it does not always feel and look good and is therefore often ignored or forgotten. With digital acceleration, it will get worse before it gets better. To counter that, we should take enough time to prepare for bigger and more frequent cyber incidents, and learn how to manage potential crises.

THE AGE OF PLATFORMS Established organisations tend to approach cybersecurity in a siloed and event-driven way.

As a result, we often see highly fragmented, almost Frankenstein-like technology environments: Dozens of unintegrated security controls across network, endpoint and server environments.

One may argue that security information and event management systems were the glue to provide the bridge between all the controls.

But, let’s be honest. How much do they really help when it comes to business support of new applications or technologies? Or responding faster to incidents?

When onboarding a new technology, you have to do everything from detection to response from scratch: training your staff, integrating the tool, writing processes, etc.

Applying the highest level of defence everywhere by point products is the main

Our digital world has been front and centre in absorbing and mitigating the shock waves from the Covid-19 pandemic

inhibitor for automation, speed and agility, the three factors that count most when it comes to competition in a digital world. To achieve this, cybersecurity platforms adopt an approach that follows the following key principles: l A wide portfolio of sensors and control capabilities across all technology environments l Integrated detection and response capabilities l Centralised, identity-focused policy framework l Cloud delivery The benefits of a platform are obvious: The time to secure technologies is dramatically faster, the response speed to incidents is lower and the cost of a platform is often half the cost in a fragmented environment.

However, adopting a platform model has always been a hard task to achieve when it comes to cybersecurity. Silos-thinking, diffused technology budgets, lack of digital culture, there has always been an excuse why it would not work.

Why will it be different in a post-Covid world? The reason is simple. The digital acceleration is existential for most organisations and individuals. Platforms will become the “new normal” considering their cost effectiveness as well as their agility to secure new technologies. Markets have already embraced this evolution of new categories of cloud-based platforms across network, cloud and security, or across security operations centres.

REMOTE INCIDENT RESPONSE Like all of us, IT and cybersecurity teams must also work remotely and support a wide range of users across many devices and locations.

Today the question is: Does an organisation have the capability to do this type of intervention remotely? Is remote access part of the corporate culture? Can IT teams identify potential threats and breaches through remote forensics? Even if it is a BYOD device? What about incident response and forensics in public clouds?

Most organisations are not set up for this from an operational, compliance and data privacy standpoint. However, that will have to change, requiring a shift in technology as well as corporate culture at a very radical pace.

Brace yourself: The new normal is here to stay. It will have a strong impact on how we secure our data and assets in our increasingly digital world, which means there will be a new normal in cybersecurity as well. ë

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PEOPLE

CAREER MOVES Huawei UAE names cybersecurity veteran Aloysius Cheang as Chief Security Officer Huawei has announced the appointment of Aloysius Cheang as Chief Security Officer of Huawei UAE, effective immediately. The creation of a CSO role amplifies Huawei’s commitment to serving customers better by addressing their governance, risk and compliance requirements, privacy and security concerns in a rapidly changing and increasingly digital world. As a globally recognised cybersecurity expert, Cheang has two decades of international experience in managing and delivering multi-million dollar cybersecurity programs.

Citrix appoints Mohammed Kiki as Country Manager in Saudi Arabia Citrix Systems has announced the appointment of Mohammed Kiki as Country Manager in Saudi Arabia. With almost two decades experience in sales management, business development, and strategic planning within Saudi Arabia, he will drive the acceleration to cloud of customer environments in the country to enable both business continuity and business transformation to new work models, such as remote working. He reports to Taj El-Khayat, Regional Director, Middle East and North Africa at Citrix and will be based in Riyadh.

Alteryx appoints Mark Anderson as CEO to accelerate automation agenda Alteryx has announced that Mark Anderson, a current member of Alteryx’s Board of Directors, has been appointed to succeed Dean Stoecker, Alteryx’s Co-founder, Chairman and current Chief Executive Officer, as Alteryx’s CEO. Anderson has a proven track record guiding enterprise technology organisations as they grow and scale, including as President of Palo Alto Networks. Stoecker has been appointed as Alteryx’s Executive Chairman and will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Barco appoints Erdem Soyal as Vice President of MEA operations Global technology company Barco named Erdem Soyal as the new Vice President of its Middle East and Africa, MEA, operations. Bringing to his role over 15 years of experience, Erdem is responsible for developing and strengthening Barco’s enterprise, entertainment and healthcare client bases. In this capacity, he is mandated to accelerate Barco’s growth in the region through creating synergies across the MEA markets to offer more convenient solutions to its customers. Earlier in his career, Erdem held several leadership roles in sales, business development and general management in companies such as Philips, General Electric and Honeywell.

Sophos appoints Kevin Isaac as Senior Vice President of Sales for EMEA Sophos has announced a new appointment to its senior EMEA sales leadership team.Kevin Isaac has joined Sophos as Senior Vice President Of Sales for EMEA. Isaac brings more than 25 years of cybersecurity sales leadership to Sophos, and most recently served as Chief Revenue Officer at Forcepoint.

He is known for inspiring and managing high-performing teams, and has considerable experience in driving business growth, operational excellence and year-over-year results, particularly in EMEA. Isaac is based in the UK.

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