EC MEA May 2016 Issue

M ICROSOFT HAR N ESSES TH E POTE NTIAL OF DATA /18

PA G E S 5 2 VOLUME O3 | ISSUE 10 M AY 2 0 1 6 WWW.ENTERPRISECHANNELSMEA.COM

BEING

THE

CHANGE

RETAIL SUITES, BAZAAR, OR POS HEARTBEAT— CONVENTIONAL PAYMENT MODEL WAS NEVER THE MODUS OPERANDI FOR OMA EMIRATES GROUP. /30

NIRANJ SANGAL,

INDIAECM052016

GROUP CEO OF OMA EMIRATES GROUP

EDITORIAL

Thank You!

S A N J AY M O H A PAT R A S A N J AY @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to all who participated at Enterprise Channels MEA event on Cloud Computing and IOT under the banner of Future IT Summit 2016. Held at The Armani Hotel on April 6-7, 2016, the event witnessed some of the finest analysis and presentations from the industry leaders.

I would also like to thank the partners of the event; Platinum sponsor – Dell; Gold sponsor- Veeam; Networking partner- Intertec and HP Enterprise; Government supporting partner- Consulate General of India, Dubai Municipality, University of Ha’il, KSA, Ministry of Community Development, TRA Oman; Strategic partner- Finesse; Supporting Partner- Microsoft and Fortinet; Event PartnerCisco, Rittal, Aruba, Emitac Enterprise Solutions, Pure Storage, Oxygen, VCE, OMA Emirates, Spectrami, Unify; Official Airline Partner- Gulf Air; Hospitality Partner- Hyatt Group.

I would also like to thank all the Catalysts 2016 who have accepted the recognition from us. All these people, many of whom remain in the background but ensure that the projects are accomplished without any hitch and hassles. They are the actual unsung heroes and prefer to be unnoticed but we are happy to have recognized their skillsets and wish them to go many a miles helping their organization rise to enviable heights.

This event not only did bring out delegates from UAE but from the entire region including Saudi, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, India, Egypt, etc. and deliberated on the growth opportunity and challenges of cloud computing and IOT. These are two concepts or technologies, which are going to change the future very soon. It is a proven fact that the industry in the region cannot grow consistently as it has its ups and downs like that of the rest of the world. Therefore, the organizations need to think a sustainable alternative to their data centers and services. These days the top management is concerned about investment on technology vis-à-vis the business outcome. So, the IT team has to keep a rabbit in their hats. The organizations have to leave their original stand and embrace the new stand soon because privacy and security are taken into consideration well in advance. At the same time digitization and IOT are the two components they have to go for seriously in order to be in the pace with the global market and I personally believe the organizations have started doing the same.

Very interestingly, we are bringing out very focused content this month. We are bringing the market opportunity in the retail sector where the technology is being heavily used these days. Similarly, we are also covering the opinions on UAE as a market for investment and BI & Analytics as a technology.

Hope you will enjoy reading this issue. ë

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FROM THE ADVISORY BOARD

DR. JASSIM HAJI DIRECTOR IT, GULF AIR

Greetings to all readers!

It gives me great pleasure to interact with you through this platform.

We have seen technology changing dynamically and touching each sector in a way of its own. This issue is delving into the dynamics of retail and the way digitization has redefined customer expectations and purchase behaviour.

Several new technologies are being deployed in retail in order to capture more customers and increase sales, such technologies aim to reach wider base of customers and make them aware of new products or services that can be hidden in a world full of millions of different products.

Data resulting from online searches by customers, historical sales and purchases can be analysed using Big Data technologies to predict what other products each particular customer will be interested in. This unique targeted marketing is already in use by major international retailers like Amazon and Target, however, in this region, this is not yet taking pace, perhaps because online retailing is not popular or wide spread. Mobile as a point of sale is growing in popularity, the idea is to make it easy for the customers to use their mobile to perform online services or shopping, this increases the sales simply because of convenience provided to the customers. And in this region, numerous companies have realized this and they are providing their services with focus on mobile reach, even governmental services are provided on mobiles. Geolocation marketing

is offering unique opportunities as well, either by using Bluetooth-based beacons or the normal location services on the smart phones, retailers can target customers based on their actual locations to customize and personalize services, special offers and other discounts. These technologies are yet to gain momentum, either globally or in this region, but the benefit is certainly undeniable. Such geolocation technologies can be used within a store itself, like empowering customers to request for assistance through their mobiles in any part of a big departmental store, or alerting the customer of discounted items as they approach the row or shelf of those items. Major initiative is beacon deployment in airports are underway and this will provide many features to that the airlines and airports authorities can use, like directing passengers to their gates, sales and offers part of the duty free shopping. Another powerful tool that is increasing the reach of retails is the social media. Not only can you market your products and services in the social media with other customers’ feedback and reviews, but you can also provide the ability to the customers to buy items through the social media directly instead of forcing them to go another online portal to complete the purchase. Even though the usage of social media for marketing is widely used in this region, empowering direct purchases has not yet been used.

I hope you enjoy and benefit from this issue of EC MEA!

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CONTENTS VOLUME 03 ISSUE 10 M AY 2 0 1 6 W W W. E N T E R P R I S E C H A N N E L S M E A . C O M

2016

COVER STORY

RETAILWALKING DOWN THE DIGITAL AISLE A growing shopping savvy population, booming eCommerce, cashless payments etc have been fuelling the GCC retail sector which is all set to touch the benchmark of US$ 285 billion by 2018. /24

CIO SPEAK /22

TOUCHING THE ´SKIES´ OF EFFICIENCY MOHAMMED JAMEELUDDIN, IT MANAGER, GCAA

MY VIEWS /29

THE ´GRAVITY´OF SECURITY MR ZIAD NASR, REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR MEA, BITDEFENDER

GUEST ARTICLE /39

´VEEAM´ING UP THE GLOBAL MARKETS DOUG HAZELMAN VEEAM VP OF PRODUCT STRATEGY, NEW PRODUCT CAPABILITIES

INNOVATIONS /49

DIRECT-TO-CARD (DTC) FARGO DTC5500LMX ID CARD PRINTER/ ENCODER

SPECIAL STORY Overcoming the Skill Shortage Barrier /47

HID Global unveiled its latest Direct-toCard (DTC)FARGO DTC5500LMX ID Card Printer/Encoder designed to meet the high-volume....

EDITORIAL::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 04 ADVISORY BOARD::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 05 CHANNEL STREET:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 08 FEATURE: BIG DATA:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 40 FEATURE: FOCUS UAE :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 44 INNOVATIONS : ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 49

ADVERTISER INDEX: FINESSE 02, EMITAC 03, INTERTEC 07, BITDEFENDER 09, RITTAL 11, OMA EMIRATES 13, STARLINK 15, UNIFY 17, ESET 19, HID 35, CARDS & PAYMENT 36, MHI 51, DELL 52

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CHANNEL

STREET VEEAM CLIMBS THE GROWTH CURVE

Veeam Software registered a 24 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in total bookings revenue for Q1 2016, further demonstrating the industry’s growing appetite for Availability. Veeam continues to see impressive growth in the cloud, especially as the demand for Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) intensifies. Celebrating its sixth year, the Veeam Cloud & Service Provider (VCSP) program, which offers ready-made opportunities for service providers to acquire new customers and grow recurring revenue, reported an increase of 82 percent in the number of transactions year-overyear. Ratmir Timashev, CEO, Veeam said, “The state of backup is not going to get any better. What’s needed and demanded is Availability. Veeam continues to help enterprises solve this challenge, and our Q1 results show that demand for Veeam Availability solutions continues to accelerate rapidly and we fully expect this growth to continue at a similar pace for the rest of 2016.”

MAKING WAY FOR A SECURE DIGITAL WORLD HID Global has introduced a mobility initiative that includes solutions, services, investments and alliances that expand the capabilities of trusted IDs on mobile devices across a growing range of access control, authentication and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. A highlight of the initiative is the company’s latest mobility solutions unveiled at ISC West 2016, including the new HID goID platform for mobile IDs which makes it possible to carry a driver license and other citizen IDs on smartphones, and new enhancements to HID Mobile Access that now enable the use of smartwatches and tablets, in addition to smartphones, for secure access to buildings.

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FUTURE IT SUMMIT 2016

Future IT Summit 2016 Sets Yet another Benchmark The Future IT Summit 2016, organized by Enterprise Channels MEA and brought to you by Global Enterprise Connect, concluded on a high note at the Armani Hotel, Burj Khalifa. The two-day summit stood witness to some amazing presentations and discussions on Cloud and IoT by the keynote speakers and panelists as they engaged in some ice breaking sessions throughout the 2 days.

The event hosted the top government organizations, ministries, business conglomerates and leading organizations from various verticals in the 2 days.

Setting a very non-conventional tone, the summit presented the audience the Future IT landscape of GCC countries with some thought provoking and technology rich presentations. The sponsors for the FITS2016 were; platinum sponsor – Dell; gold sponsor- Veeam; networking partnerIntertec and HP Enterprise; Government support-

ing partner- Consulate General of India, Dubai Municipality, University of Ha’il, KSA, Ministry of Community Development, TRA Oman; Strategic partner- Finesse; Supporting Partner- Microsoft and Fortinet; Event Partner- Cisco, Rittal, Aruba, Emitac, Pure Storage, Oxygen, VCE, OMA Emirates, Spectrami, Unify; Official Airline Partner- Gulf Air; Hospitality Partner- Hyatt Group.

Tushar Sahoo, Managing Director, Enterprise Channels MEA said, “Such events make us more confident and clear about the level of trust the IT market has in us, aim to bring to limelight various aspects of ICT and scrutinize them with professionals. I would say Future IT Summit is a good learning platform and Catalyst Awards is a way to award talents who explore and put to use IT solutions in the best of their organization’s interest.”

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CHANNEL STREET

A Step Ahead of the Cybercriminals Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report, Volume 21, revealed an organizational shift by cybercriminals: They are adopting corporate best practices and establishing professional businesses in order to increase the efficiency of their attacks against enterprises and consumers. This new class of professional cybercriminal spans the entire ecosystem of attackers, extending the reach of enterprise and consumer threats and fueling the growth of online crime.

“Advanced criminal attack groups now echo the skill sets of nation-state attackers.

They have extensive resources and highlyskilled technical staff that operate with such efficiency that they maintain normal business hours and even take the weekends and holidays off,” said Hassam Sidani, Regional Manager for Gulf, Symantec.

The UAE’s 2015 Internet Security Threat Profile has dramatically jumped in world ranking from 49 in 2014 to 41 in 2015. This shift indicates a higher global percentage of source-based security threats, including malicious code, spam, phishing hosts, web

HASSAM SIDANI, REGIONAL MANAGER FOR GULF, SYMANTEC

and network attacks, and bots from the country. Ransomware also continued to evolve in 2015, with the more damaging style of crypto-ransomware attacks growing by 35 percent.

POOL OF KNOWLEDGE Gulf Air and the Information & eGovernment Authority (IGA) recently conducted a knowledge sharing session at the Gulf Airways, Muharraq headquarters in order to raise awareness and facilitate understanding of the protection of state information and documents, in line with the State Secrets law. Gulf Air A/Chief Executive Officer Mr. Maher Salman Al Musallam said, “It is of critical importance that Gulf Air’s management team and the airline’s entire workforce, have the capabilities and knowledge to collect, classify and maintain information securely and responsibly – protecting and securing the airline’s information in all its forms to ensure there is no misuse. Such knowledge sharing sessions help us work together to secure all Gulf Air information and ensure the airline’s compliance with information handling requirements.” The session was conducted by Mr. Ahmed Jaber Aldoseri, IGA’s Act. Director General of Information Security. Topics of discussion included recommendations and best practices on classification of information and documents and the various levels of protection that need to be applied throughout any information or document’s life cycle.

Mr. Ahmed Jaber Al Doseri, Director General of Information Security, IGA said “Gulf Air is poised to have an exemplary implementation of the law’s requirements in protecting sensitive information, as it has exceptional senior-level awareness of prevalent security issues, and boasts a highly skilled team”.

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CHANNEL STREET IN PUBLIC

“Entrepreneurship is a focus area within our smart economy dimension” H.E. DR. AISHA BIN BISHR, DIRECTOR GENERAL, SMART DUBAI OFFICE,

6

SECONDS

´Fin´is ín´for Cloud Operations Misys launched Misys FinCloud, a new range of

Fortifying IoT Security

Cloud solutions and global Cloud environment

Fortinet unveiled its Security Fabric, an integrated, collaborative, and adaptive architecture designed to deliver distributed security for global enterprises providing protections against threats from IoT and remote devices, through the infrastructure core, and into the cloud. Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Fortinet. “Unlike platforms loosely coupled at the management level, the security fabric weaves together highly sophisticated hardware and software, enabling direct communication between solutions for a unified and rapid response to threats.

industry. The Misys FinCloud incorporates

offering Misys clients the highest standards of security, performance and operating excellence in Cloud operations in the financial services a highly secure, trusted Cloud environment, representing the highest levels of security, performance and operating excellence for Cloud operations in the financial services industry.

INITIATING A ‘SMART’ EDUCATION SCHEME FOR LEADERS Mohammed Bin Rashid Smart Learning Program has a massive rollout mission of a Professional Development scheme for all

KEN XIE, FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD AND CEO OF FORTINET

principals and deputy principals across all of its educational institutions. The underpinning objective of the new programme, tailored specifically for education leaders in UAE schools,

‘FinTech’ in KSA to Redefine Banking and Finance The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s financial sector is likely to encounter significant disruption from new financial technologies in the coming years, but could emerge stronger and more streamlined, according to experts gathering for the Euromoney Saudi Arabia Conference this May. Financial technology – or “FinTech” – is generating huge opportunities for banks, investors and new start-up companies around the world, but is also generating a new range of risks for central banks and financial institutions. Progress on implementing FinTech in the Kingdom has been relatively slow until recently, but new initiatives designed to enhance the

business environment, reform regulatory support and provide access to capital are helping to create a positive ecosystem for FinTech deployment in Saudi Arabia.

Mamdooh Al Sedairy, Chief Information Officer of Tadawul, will bring his experience in implementing and managing one of the world’s most sophisticated trading systems for the Saudi Stock Exchange.“The financial service industry is reaching its ‘Uber moment’,” said Frans van Eersel, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dopay International. “Banking as we know it today will never be the same again,”

is to improve the outcomes for learners and the community through effective strategic leadership of ICT. As part of the training, MBRSLP has launched a unique initiative “Smart School Transformation Framework”, after a successful trial period in 2015.

GROWTH, PROFIT AND PREDICTABILITY FOR PARTNERS Citrix has announced updates to its partner program and incentive portfolio. Citrix is delineating its partner incentives to reward distinct sales activities. Specifically, Citrix is introducing a new suggested upfront discount for partner-identified and qualified opportunities, clarifying existing incentives to focus rewards on objective activities, and expanding its marketing development funds to fuel partner growth.

EMPOWERING THE EMIRATE’S INNOVATION ENVIRONMENT Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry in cooperation with IBM recently launched the

ERA OF THE DIGITAL CIO

DubaiStartupHub an online platform on IBM

BT launched “The Digital Possible”, a global initiative aimed at empowering CIOs to better embrace ambitious digital transformation agendas for large organizations all over the world. BT’s initiative will bring to market a wide range of new digital services, building on insight from its most recent research, “The BT CIO report 2016 – the digital CIO”. “The pace of digital change is creating new opportunities for our customers and those opportunities require quick responses. The role of the digital CIO is one of the most demanding in business. They need to be strategic, creative, growth-minded and cost conscious,” said Luis Alvarez, CEO of Global Services.

up ecosystem. The newly-launched DubaiSt-

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Cloud to support Dubai’s technology and startartupHub connects start-up, entrepreneurs, developers, venture capitalists and students to establish new connections, learn about new opportunities and create new partnerships to help accelerate innovation and stimulate the local economy.

CHANNEL STREET

‘Smart’world in Middle East Smartworld, an Etisalat and Dubai South joint venture company, has deployed the Cisco Digital Ceiling framework to create a smart, highly secure and connected indoor space at its new headquarters in Dubai South. The implementation brings together Cisco’s secure IT network with an advanced LED connected lighting system from Philips Lighting to enable Smartworld to deliver a more connected, comfortable and intelligent working environment for both employees and guests.

“The potential of the Digital Ceiling goes beyond optimizing building systems and creates a

STORIT & COMMVAULT JOIN HANDS

platform for a new ecosystem of building applications and services. It gives us new opportunities for transformational applications, analytics and business intelligence, and delivers the essential capabilities needed to make cost savings a reality.” said Abdulqader Obaid Ali, Chief Executive Officer, Smartworld.

“Smartworld will improve efficiency and sustainability at its headquarters while delivering highly personalized user experiences that improve productivity, safety and comfort of building occupants,” said Frida Kleimert, Head of Channel and Commercial Sales, Cisco UAE.

TREND MICRO’S BLOCKING ACT Globally 74% of all targeted attack attempts use email vectors, even as business emails are estimated to reach 139.4 billion per day by 2017. Trend Micro on average blocks 50 billion email spam-sending IP addresses. “Attackers disguise these emails to make it look like its coming from a legitimate source, a colleague, a new updated from the HR team or something work related. The attackers will have done their homework, so the target is not suspicious of the incoming email, a few clicks and the criminals have been successful in infiltration the system. Email is the most common form of business communication, and one of the easiest way for attackers to get into a company’s network,” commented Ihab Moawad, VP Mediterranean, Mid. East, Africa, Russia & CIS at Trend Micro.

REVAMPING THE PRINTING EXPERIENCE Xerox has upgraded its new and existing Xerox Impika Compact, Reference and Evolution Inkjet Presses. The firmware enables providers to capture business growth by increasing press volume and productivity, and most customers will not need to make any additional hardware investments. Very High Quality mode – available on the Evolution press or monochrome-only configurations – delivers new levels of image quality equivalent to 1200 dpi visual resolution multi-drop and enables very efficient ink usage with a larger gamut.

WAEL MUSTAFA, CHANNEL DIRECTOR MESAT, COMMVAULT AND SUREN VEDANTHAM, MANAGING DIRECTOR, STORIT DISTRIBUTION FZCO

StorIT will promote and distribute Commvault’s complete range of solutions for data protection, backup and recovery; cloud and infrastructure management; and retention and compliance through its extensive channel network of value-added resellers and systems integrators across the region. “This partnership will be one of the key drivers in our constant pursuit to offer cutting-edge technology solutions and services that not only enable our reseller partners to compete at the highest level in the rapidly evolving enterprise IT market segment but also create new business opportunities for them,” said Suren Vedantham , Managing Director, StorIT Distribution fzco. StorIT will help Commvault identify and onboard systems integrators and resellers, provide valueadded services and conduct focused channel development and enablement activities such as training, certifications, systems design and architecture, implementation support and services to name some. It will further enhance Commvault’s offerings through its dedicated channel network which will be supported by the distributor throughout the entire cycle of sales and technical support.

DARKMATTER & SYMANTEC JOIN HANDS FOR NEXT-GEN CYBER SECURITY DarkMatter has partnered with Symantec Corporation to provide security solutions and services to help customers navigate the complex world of threats and cyber-crime. DarkMatter will enable customers to leverage business opportunities, reduce costs and improve productivity through the combination of its industry expertise and Symantec’s security technologies. Organisations will

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benefit from a comprehensive portfolio of unified cyber security services, including consultation, in the areas of Information & Threat Protection; Governance, Risk and Compliance; and Threat Intelligence & Cyber Security.

Commenting on the agreement, DarkMatter Chief Executive Officer, Faisal Al Bannai said, “DarkMatter and Symantec are collaborating to empower businesses

and government agencies with strategic solutions that will help them transform their operations to reduce risk, cost, complexity as well as overcome compliance challenges.”

Michael A, Brown, Symantec President and CEO said, “This relationship with DarkMatter will deliver local enterprises an unmatched combination of technology, intelligence and expertise.”

FAISAL AL BANNAI, CEO, DARKMATTER

CHANNEL STREET

Empowering CI EMC unveiled the findings of an EMEA wide survey that spoke to 2741 C-suite and frontline employees in both IT and business roles in companies with 50 to 1,000 or more employees, representing different sectors in 13 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (including UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar). The research sees a concern among CIOs that their current IT infrastructure and the skills of their IT professionals may not be enough to meet long-term needs as technology becomes embedded across the business. Said Akar, Regional Director at VCE, the Converged Platforms Division of EMC Turkey, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Middle East Region said, “A powerful infrastructure will deliver the high performance, scalability and agility the business needs. Too much effort is still

WEB CLIPS DEVICE42 JOINS HANDS WITH METABYTE Device42 has signed a partnership deal with Meta Byte Technologies under which Meta Byte Technologies will be a distributor in providing sales and support services in the Middle East and Africa region for Device42’s data center management software solution. We are delighted to partner with Device42 to provide companies in the region with the expertise that enables them

SAID AKAR, REGIONAL DIRECTOR VCE

spent simply keeping the operational lights on, when the business needs to focus on developing and releasing new, value-added products and services.”

to easily and effectively manage their complex IT infrastructure using Device42’s comprehensive, automated, unified solution capabilities.” said Mohamed Zakir Hussain, Vice President of sales at Meta Byte Technologies.

NOKIA AND OOREDOO QATAR SIGN THREE-YEAR NETWORK EXPANSION

STC’S DRIVES CUSTOMER SATISFACTION WITH TERADATA

AGREEMENT

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) of Saudi Arabia has selected the Teradata Aster Big Data Analytics Appliance as well as Teradata Hadoop to leverage customer insights and drive business efficiency. In aiming to better understand its customers, STC deployed Teradata Aster, Teradata Hadoop appliance to capture and analyze social media data, as well as to manage and collect customer feedback data. The Teradata Aster solution will improve business decision-making by increasing the accuracy and speed of data-driven business insights, and by delivering measurable improvements in organizational performance and productivity. This will allow STC to deliver customized consumer campaigns and ultimately provide a unique customer experience.

network technologies and services expertise. This

Under the new agreement, Nokia will deploy its leading 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, LTE-A radio and core will allow Ooredoo Qatar to expand the Supernet service across the country and deliver the highest speeds and quality to a growing customer base.

XEROX LAUNCHES AFFORDABLE DUPLEX SCANNER FOR MOBILE USERS Xerox introduces its new Duplex Travel Scanner that is designed for bringing easy document scanning to users that are constantly on the go.

It offers several benefits for its mobile users; it is

MOVEMENTS Rabih Dabboussi is Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing & Business Developmen at DarkMatter

Giovanni Di Filippo joins as Vice President Channel Sales, EMEA, at Riverbed

PCCI Group appoints JUAN BEZON AS CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER

ANDREW HIRD is the VP and GM of Honeywell´s new Digital Transformation Unit

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NUMBER GAME

51% organizations in the region to deploy flash storage by 2017, according to an EMC Survey

capable of scanning two-sided documents in a single pass, being portable and weighs in at just one pound. It is bundled with various software for creating, organizing, and sharing searchable PDF document and allows for fast set up for first time use.

HONEYWELL EMPOWERS INDUSTRIAL IOT Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) has established a new business unit to help Middle Eastern manufacturers harness the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and more rapidly deploy technologies that will allow them to better manage and analyze data, making their operations safer, more reliable and more efficient. HPS’s IIoT solutions utilize Honeywell’s patented software infrastructure that gives customers a secure and simple method to capture their big industrial data in a secure portal to meet the varied needs of single-site or enterprise-wide operations.

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CHANNEL STREET

Harnessing the Potential of Data Microsoft Gulf invited UAE businesses to delve deeper into their data and harness its potential like never before, with SQL Server 2016, the latest version of the company’s flagship database and analytics platform.

Microsoft held a special event called Data Driven on 27 April in Dubai to introduce IT and business decision makers, and technology professionals, to the transformation of the database. Necip Ozyucel, Cloud and Enterprise Business Group Lead Microsoft Gulf said, “It can inform and inspire; it can bring insights that help companies outmaneuver competitors; it has the potential to disrupt entire industries.”

NECIP OZYUCEL, CLOUD AND ENTERPRISE BUSINESS GROUP LEAD MICROSOFT GULF

CSC KUWAIT EMBRACES EMC FOR A TRANSFORMATIONAL JOURNEY Civil Services Commission (CSC) of Kuwait has selected EMC’s Data Protection and Availability Division to effectively accelerate the organization’s IT transformation journey. CSC has selected EMC Avamar and EMC Data Domain to create an efficient and reliable backup infrastructure that provides cost-effective continuous data protection and disaster recovery . “The entity has selected EMC Data Protection and Availability division to create an end to end backup and recovery environment that allows the team to drive service levels improve storage utilization and avail new efficiencies.” said Habib Mahakian, Vice President, Gulf and Pakistan at EMC Corporation.

SD-WAN SOLUTION FOR A CLOUD-CENTRIC WORLD Riverbed has launched the SteelConnect, an SD-WAN solution that offers a radically new approach to networking in a cloud-centric world. Riverbed is delivering an application-defined approach to networking, with SteelConnect uniquely designed to enable business-intent policies for applications to provide the performance and agility enterprises need today. SteelConnect is the industry’s first and only product to unify network connectivity and orchestration of application delivery across hybrid WANs, remote LANs and cloud networks such as AWS and Microsoft Azure. SteelConnect dramatically simplifies the process of designing, deploying and managing distributed networks, enabling organizations to modernize their network architecture to realize the full potential of digital transformation.

SESAME AND IBM COLLABORATE FOR ADVANCED LEARNING Sesame Workshop and IBM collaborate to use IBM Watson’s cognitive computing technology and Sesame’s early childhood expertise to help advance preschool education around the world.

As part of a three-year agreement, Sesame Workshop and IBM will collaborate to develop educational platforms and products that will be designed to adapt to the learning preferences and aptitude levels of individual preschoolers. Research shows that a significant extent of brain development occurs in the first five years of a child’s life1, making this window critical for learning and development.

The alliance will draw from Sesame Workshop’s deep educational content expertise garnered from over 45 years of research, and more than 1,000 studies on how young children learn best. This expertise will combine with Watson’s natural language processing, pattern recognition, and other cognitive computing technologies to create highly personalized learning experiences intended to complement the roles that parents and teachers play in early development. Harriet Green, IBM’s General Manager for Watson IoT, Commerce and Education. “Working together with Sesame Workshop, we aim to transform the way in which children learn and teachers teach, and envision having an impact on the lives and education of millions of children.”

TRANSLATING IOT INTO MEANINGFUL DECISIONS SAS Analytics for IoT is a new package of proven software products that applies SAS’ core expertise of analyzing massive amounts of data to IoT connected sensors and devices. SAS Analytics for IoT helps organizations interpret rapidly moving and accumulating data, and confidently make decisions based on that data. The result-

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ing gains – such as improved safety and reduced injuries or enhanced product quality – translate into healthier profits.

Shukri Dabaghi, Regional Director for the Middle East and Francophone Africa, SAS said, “The region is waking up to the ways in which IoT and data analysis provide innovative methods

to serve their business’ customers in an increasingly enhanced way.

Data analysis and its appropriation for enterprise is a strategic tool for companies’ decision makers to glimpse the future and act accordingly to meet customer needs and expectations.”

Dan Vesset, IDC Group Vice President for Analytics and Infor-

mation Management said, “To meet the needs of enterprises engaged in creating sensor data, it’s important to keep analytics front and center.

Without predictive analytics at the edge and in the enterprise network, it will be difficult for any organization to realize the full potential represented by the IoT. ”

DO MORE

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CHANNEL STREET

Veeam Expands Storage Integration Veeam Software will expand existing storage integration to include Nimble Storage as part of the new Veeam Availability Suite version 9.5 to be released later this year. The cost and consequences of downtime and lost data pose a significant challenge to meeting modern service level agreements (SLAs) for the Availability of applications and data.

In addition to existing integrations with enterprise storage offerings from HPE, NetApp and EMC, Veeam will add integration with Nimble Storage in Veeam Availability Suite version 9.5, resulting in increased Availability and improved operational performance for all Nimble Storage users. Ratmir Timashev,

CEO of Veeam said “Veeam and Nimble have a strong partnership that already demonstrates success, and further integration between the two technologies will enable our mutual partners and customers to experience more than just backup and storage. Veeam and Nimble Storage’s integration opens up the Availability conversation to a much wider ecosystem and I am excited at what we can achieve together.” Suresh Vasudevan, CEO, Nimble Storage said, “The Nimble-Veeam integration expands the value of the Nimble Unified Flash Fabric, which enables replication from All-flash to Adaptive (hybrid) flash arrays at one-third the cost of backing up to competitive all-flash arrays.

UNIFYING PARTNERS WITH CONNECT360 NETSCOUT SYSTEMS launched its unified global enterprise channel partner program. CONNECT360 which is a channel-friendly, multi-tiered program that enables global and regional partners to market NETSCOUT’s entire enterprise product portfolio spanning service assurance solutions and portable network analysis and troubleshooting tools. This channel partner program is designed to drive top-line revenue and profitability for both partners and NETSCOUT alike.

“The introduction of the CONNECT360 channel partner program is a momentous occasion for NETSCOUT because it unifies previously separate channel strategies across our enterprise network product lines and provides a strong foundation for building stronger relationships with our most valued partners. As a result of NETSCOUT’s acquisition of the Danaher Communications business in mid-2015, we now have an even broader range of market-leading products and technologies that we can offer to our customers through our extensive channel network.” said Gary Staley, Vice President of World-Wide Channel Sales for NETSCOUT. Andreas Schlechter, Owner and GM for Telonic GmbH said, “The program allows us to partner with a world-class company and provides extraordinary value to our customer base. By combining our unique channel skills and NETSCOUT’s industry-leading products, we’re able to connect customers to the right solutions, giving them critical insights into their network performance.” “The CONNECT360 multi-tier program is channel-friendly and offers the flexibility and incentives channel partners need to grow their business faster and more profitably,” said Eric Kohl, Executive Director, Advanced Solutions, Ingram Micro.

QATAR’S ADVANCING ACTS Digital transformation can double Qatar’s commercial output to over USD 4 billion by 2019, leading organizations agreed at a major technology event.

At the SAP Qatar Forum, Qatar’s energy, public sector, transport, healthcare, and construction leaders emphasized the role of real-time insights in the Internet of Things era and Digital Economy.

“In an era of lower oil and gas prices, now is the time for Qatar’s oil and gas companies to invest in the next wave of technology. Real-time analytics are helping Nakilat to transform our supply chain, while fuelling research and development to ensure Qatar remains a world hub for energy innovation,” said Hamad Rashid Suwaid, Information Technology Manager, Nakilat. “Qatar’s organizations are amongst global leaders in using a digital core to transform in today’s Digital Economy. The Digital Transformation of their organizations is a catalyst for diversified economic growth, which is aligned with Qatar National Vision 2030.

Visionary CEOs are using cloud-based real-time insights to make quick, decisive actions, expand services, and drive omni-business models. This results in a simpler, agile organization, which delivers new levels of customer engagement,” said Steve Tzikakis, Senior Vice President and General Manager, SAP South Europe, Middle East, and Africa. At the Qatar Forum, SAP also demonstrated the power of the next-generation SAP S/4HANA business suite, the real-time SAP HANA platform. SAP S/4HANA can help organizations to gain full visibility on their business processes and drive digital transformation.

THE CONVERGED MOVE! Zaker Trading chose a costeffective and easy-to-use converged communications and network solution from ALE for its new headquarters in Dubai Investment Park in the UAE. Through system integrator Al Futtaim Technologies, Zaker deployed a mix of AlcatelLucent Enterprise networking and unified communications

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products and solutions, including the Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess 5850 Enterprise Services Router, OmniPCX Enterprise Communication Server, OmniSwitch LAN switches and OmniAccess wireless LAN access points. Charles Jesudason, Group General Manager at Zaker Trading said, “The architecture in our previous office

was old, expensive to maintain and limited us from basic IT services like easy communication between our offices. From our past experience with Al Futtaim Technologies and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s great reputation in the industry, we chose a converged communications and network solution that met our specific needs and proved

to be cost-effective.” Baher Ezzat, Regional Director Middle East, ALE said, “Working closely with our partner Al Futtaim Technologies, our converged communications and network solution was chosen as it met Zaker’s growing IT needs and infrastructure requirements, while also supporting its future growth.”

CASE STUDY

BITDEFENDER

Securing 11,000 Endpoints Means Signiftcant Freedom for Kuwait’s Top University endpoints. In addition, the college operates in a Workgroup environment, so deploying endpoint security required a significant amount of resources and labor to ensure full coverage. Given the complexity of the IT environment, PAAET needed a comprehensive endpoint security solution, which could be deployed in its unique environment and one that provided the control and protection over sensitive data such as student records, curriculum and financial information.

THE SOLUTION

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) is a seat of higher learning that serves more than 50,000 students and about 5,000 teaching and non- teaching staff across 25 colleges and institutes. The school prides itself on facilitating the educational process with state-ofthe-art technologies, and employs about 200 IT professionals.

THE CHALLENGE PAAET is the largest higher education institution in Kuwait. It is government-run, and its colleges

are spread across the country, while its IT operations are centralized. The university provides wired and wireless Internet access for its students on a BYOD (bring-your-own-device) basis. It is also expanding its long-distance and e-learning programs. With the scale and numbers of individuals interacting with the colleges at any given time, one issue the IT staff faces is understanding what devices are gaining access to the network at any given time. The university had used other security solutions and tools before Bitdefender, but the other solutions did not provide the control IT operations needed for campus-wide application and visibility over thousands of

RAJIV PRAKASH,

FROM THE PAAET’S COMPUTER AND INFORMATION CENTER.

“WITH SO MANY DEVICES AND ENDPOINTS ACCESSING THE NETWORK, SUPPORT SOURPOLICIES MUST WORK WELL WITHIN OUR COMPLEX AND SPECIALIZEDENVIRONMENT”

In 2010, the university tested Bitdefender on a proof-of-concept basis, which Prakash says, “Worked very well.” Soon after, PAAET selected Bitdefender to provide On-premise v3.5 to protect 11 thousand endpoints, based on the successful proof-of-concept and through a comprehensive and transparent bidding process.

One of the key factors in making the decision was the significant customized support offered

by Bitdefender, and the level of involvement in deploying the On-Premise v3.5 product. PAAET was also pleased with the personalized service from the Bitdefender Support Team. “It’s very important that the product is backed up by good service,” added Prakash. “Competing products can be good, but service is key because there are very few head offices of software companies in Kuwait.

THE RESULT Not only has Bitdefender’s technology been a good fit for PAAET’s IT environment needs, but so has the service that goes along with it. Particularly, the technical administers have been pleased with the professional support and personal interest Bitdefender has provided in integrating software updates into the overall system. With 11 thousand endpoints protected, the IT team at PAAET has comprehensive control and visibility for network access and security policies. ë

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CIO SPEAK

technologies would take a back seat?

With the smart city initiatives we look forward to harness technology to benefit the aviation industry such as “Real Augmented Reality”. Currently with the onset of Internet of Everything,the industry is looking at areas that it can be implemented to benefit the better reporting and enhance safety. We believe that the Internet of Everything offers a sustainable competitive advantage and the ability to better serve constituents.

What are the key plans that you have in store? What are the various ‘Carry Forwards’ from 2015 that you wish to implement in 2016?

NESA , SAI , TRA have been continuously guiding us in providing the best security for the authority and our focus will be aligned to the strategic objectives of the authority by standardizing, modernizing and mobilizing services to achieve exceptional success in the field of Information Technology.

MOHAMMED JAMEELUDDIN,

IT MANAGER, GCAA

Touching the ´Skies´ of Efficiency GCAA BELIEVES THAT GREEN IT IS THE WAY FORWARD WITH REDUCED INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIREMENTS. MOHAMMED JAMEELUDDIN, IT MANAGER OF GCAA TALKS ABOUT THE PENETRATION OF TECHNOLOGY IN AVIATION AND HOW GCAA HAS BEEN SECURING THE SKIES WITH THE CORRECT TECHNOLOGIES IN PLACE.

What would top the 2016 agenda for GCAA? How does the regional market look like?

Information security is the main focus for the industry at large. The Information Technology at GCAA is driven by the authority’s strategic objectives to provide services as per the standards of quality, efficiency and transparency. As a government authority we are inclined to all the government level initiatives that lead to a smart

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government. Spending on research and development, acquiring technologies that provided protection of information assets, conducting benchmarking visits with other government organizations that have adopted sophisticated technology are essential for moving ahead together in the government sector.

Which technologies do you think will rule the floors of 2016? Which

How should a CIO resume look like in 2016?

CIO’s resume should always look at simplifying the complicated world of technology thus harnessing the best. In addition, the Information Technology department lead should guide his organization towards being compliant with all the guidelines provided by the government regulators like NESA, State Audit, TRA. In a nutshell— what is your 2016 resolution?

The aviation industry is very critical and dynamic in nature, hence it is necessary to be aware of current trends and innovations to cater to the evolving needs of the organization. As an authority we always have to be up to date with innovation and latest technologies.With a strong team at GCAA, we have been able to achieve highest standard by adopting the latest technology and IT infrastructure with a grounded focus on Green data centers, Cloud solutions, Network optimization and Mobile applications.

In a nutshell— 2016 Dos and Don’ts for your regional colleagues.

We all need to focus on securing the environment and infrastructure. Regional regulatory authorities are in continuous process of providing information and guidance to protect all the information technology services. With UAE moving faster towards the 2020 Expo, we are looking forward to get the best technologies in the market. ë

GUEST TALK

ARUBA

Risky business: Why #GenMobile’s Mobile Lifestyles can Ruin Security for Your Organisation “#GenMobile are productive. They get work done and they do it well, using all the tools they can get their hands on. Their innate familiarity with tech means they are self-empowered to power through their to-do lists.”

#GenMobile is the term that’s used to describe a generation of people who have shaped their personal and working lives around mobile devices. Today’s younger employees, the mobile-natives, are changing the way companies operate by behaving in ways that have far-reaching implications for corporate network security.

But this shift is much more than just a case of ‘we’re always connected’. It’s about the availability of new (and often free) web-based tools and apps that rival the functionality and power of anything your company can provide. It’s a complete behavioural and attitudinal change of direction.

You might be a #GenMobile’r yourself — you might have adapted, consciously or not, to dipping in and out of work comms at pretty much any time of the day and paying less and less attention to the old 9-to-5 edict. But to younger generations, this isn’t something new — it’s business as usual.

This is where Aruba Network’s report helpspaint a picture of #GenMobile — who they are, how they behave and how their three most striking working habits could affect your business.

1. Super-productive, super-effective Let’s start with the positives: the survey found that #GenMobile are productive. Their innate familiarity with tech means they are self-empowered to power through their to-do lists. Consumer tech is driving this change: 51% say that mobile technologies enable them to be more productive and engaged at work.

2. Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration A huge part of this uptick in productivity is a new culture of sharing and collaboration. #GenMobile arereally good at this. There’s a chance your company already has some kind of collaboration tool in place or in development, so you

n S A B A H AT N A S I M , C H A N N E L S A L E S M A N A G E R – G U L F AT A R U B A , A H E W L E T T PA C K A R D E N T E R P R I S E C O M PA N Y

don’t need to be reminded how useful sharing and working together can be.

3. Passwords? Don’t even…

Yet this is where the story takes a darker turn. This self-empowered, ‘get things done’ attitude means security concerns take a backseat.

A fact illustrated by rising levels of security agnosticism: security ranked a lowly fifth in workplace tech priorities for the #GenMobile workforce.

4. Risky business Creativity, collaboration and sharing all bring valuable advantages, but there’s clear evidence it breeds risk. Six out of ten of those asked are happy to let others regularly (at least once a month) use their work smartphones, while a fifth don’t have passwords on their mobile devices at all.

5. Managing #GenMobile Given #GenMobile’s benefits,

accepting some small degree of risk is good – but only if you and your organisation can understand and plan for the security risks these behaviours bring with them.

6. Great mobile security starts in the air A good place to start is to put in place a secure, yet adaptable, wireless network within the workplace. Here are a few things to consider: l Deploy flexible security policies that are capable of analysing – and acting on - the context of how the employee is using the mobile device. l Regulate Wi-Fi traffic with intelligent policy firewalls that can keep track of app usage. This ensures that different apps are classified according to its security rating based on the role of the employee within the organization. l Make sure that all communications over the air are encrypted and sent over secure channels. ë

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COVER STORY

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COVER STORY

Retail

Walking down the Digital Aisle A growing shopping savvy population, booming eCommerce, cashless payments etc have been fuelling the GCC retail sector which is all set to touch the benchmark of US$ 285 billion by 2018.

n WORDS: ANUSHREE DIXIT <ANUSHREE@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

T

he retail sector contributes 12% of the region´s GDP, according to a global retail development index report. GCC has one of the highest GDP per capita in the world which is strongly fuelled by a growing brand savvy population, rising purchasing power and four GCC countries ranked as most attractive retail destinations.

With the Expo 2020 and FIFA 2022, the road ahead for the retail sector is definitely bright, though not rosy. What the retailers have to focus is; to thrust technology deep down the veins of their organizational infrastructure, empower more omnichannel experience for the customers, bring down business downtime and last but not the least— be agile and flexible.

the Middle East is projected to grow from approximately $996 billion in 2015 to nearly $1.05 trillion in 2016. Based on Kantar Retail’s market forecasts, the expectation for the growth in the Middle East’s retail market between 2015 and 2020 is 7.7 per cent CAGR, down from 9.8 per cent CAGR experienced between 2010 and 2015.

The probable introduction of VAT in 2018 would also be painting a new picture of the GCC on the retail canvas. According to Younis Al Khouri, undersecretary at the UAE’s Ministry of Finance, the UAE is expected to generate around Dh10 billion to Dh12 billion as a result of introducing VAT in the first year of implementation alone.

2016 RETAIL MARKET OUTLOOK

As the region gears up for the 2020 and 2022 grand affair the retailers are making sure that the tourist and customer flow flows uninterrupted. The growing penetration of smart phones and eCommerce has set new heights and benchmarks for increased investment in emerging technologies.

Safeer Group has recently invested in Oracle E-Business suite to integrate its business operations and improve decision making. The Enterprise Mobility driven Oracle Applications provides Al Safeer,

Industry analysts are seeing a polarized situation in the retail market. On one hand, the rising popularity of eCommerce is opening new doors of opportunities while on the other hand the shadow of the recession has still not cleared the air of doubts around investment in retail expansion and technology. According to figures released

by Euromonitor International, the overall retail sector – both online and in-store – in

INVESTMENT IN TECHNOLOGY

a single platform, replacing Al Safeer’s legacy disparate systems, to consolidate all financial and operational information and deliver extensive benefits across the business. In addition to the Oracle Retail merchandising, stores and corporate administration applications. According to George Thomas -Managing Director, Pinnacle Smart Technologies, “Omni Channel, being present in all channels to create convenience to customers is going to grow and continue. Retailers need to be flexible as it is key to create great customer experience.

Apart from that, mobile apps for creating customer experience off the store or even in instore purchases would be other key area of investment in giving access, flexibility, information, comparison and analytics are helping them make an informed purchase.

Mr. Rami Kichli - Vice President - Software AG - UAE, Gulf & Levant, says “Retailers will continue to invest in technologies to help them digitize and hence differentiate and drive efficiencies within their businesses. This will focus on customer-centric initiatives such as ensuring online and ecommerce processes work efficiently but also maximizing the value of store networks.

This translates into investment in things like real-time inventory visibility, process orchestration around omni-channel orders

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COVER STORY

GEORGE THOMAS MANAGING DIRECTOR, PINNACLE SMART TECHNOLOGIES

“In supporting the CIOs, we engineer value and not just the systems.”

and in-store technologies that leverage the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in order to drive store productivity and increase sales. “ As online shopping and sales gained traction, so did the concerns of fraudulent pay and online payment security. The BFSI sectors are actively

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“Riverbed’s technology enables CIOs to simplify store & distribution center IT and significantly lower the TCO of operating stores and distribution centers”

involved in ensuring secure payments .Mashreq has announced the launch of biometric security for mobile banking in Qatar, allowing its customers to use their fingertips as password.

Similarly, payment technology company Visa, through mobile phone location, seeks to deter-

6-8% 4.7%

The UAE is expected to be valued at USD 53.7 billion in 2016, up 7 per cent over 2015, per the data released by consultancy Euromonitor International.

26

TAJ ELKHAYAT REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA AT RIVERBED TECHNOLOGY

Oman´s non-oil sector’s contribution to the economy grew by 4.7% to reach RO 14.1 billion at the end of September 2015. Retail trade picked up by 3%.

Saudi retail sector set to grow 6-8% in 2016. The volume of retail market in the Kingdom is exceeding SR370 billion.

MR. RAMI KICHLI VICE PRESIDENT - SOFTWARE AG - UAE, GULF & LEVANT

“Retail is about surprise, delight, enticement, wonder, and discovery.

At the end of the day, this is an art more than a science but big data is delivering some big results for retailers” mine the location of client at the point of sale, make use to chip technology, use biometrics among other new methods to ensure safety of transactions. “eCommerce market is a segment that is growing rapidly and industry analysts expect double digit growth of this vertical well into 2020. As more consumers become comfortable with the ideal of shopping on line, the race to provide user friendly applications that offer the best retail experience will become more hotly contested,” says TajElKhayat, Regional Vice President, Middle East and Africa at Riverbed Technology.

BIG DATA IN RETAIL Consumer behaviour and purchase patterns have been evolving dynamically. The huge influx of online shopping and increased number of web footprints on eMalls has created an altogether different world of structures and unstructured data, forcing the retailers to adopt a data-first strategy in order to understand the customer, their taste and purchase behaviour.

COVER STORY

IOT IN RETAIL l Internet of Things (IoT) in Retail Market worth 35.64 Billion USD by 2020. l The global IoT in retail market is expected to grow from USD 14,280.0 Million in 2015 to USD 35,640.0 Million by 2020 l Components: Gateway, RFID, and sensor, NFC, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), ZigBee, and Wi-Fi.

ROBOTICS IN RETAIL l Spending on robots worldwide is expected to jump to about $67 billion by 2025. l As customers adapt to the dynamic evolution of technology, robotics as a service is rising up to demand and popularity. l Components: Robots, drones etc

VIRTUAL REALITY l VR technologyis all set to become an $80 billion industry by 2025 l Transforming the way how consumers live, play and shop l Components: Augmented reality, virtual tour, virtual trial etc.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE l Artificial intelligence market to grow from USD 419.7 Million in 2014 to USD 5.05 Billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 53.65% from 2015 to 2020 l The rising demand of intelligent systems will drive the retail market l Components: Machine learning, expert systems, etc

SOLUTIONS PINNACLE SMART TECHNOLOGIES Pinnacle Smart Technologies´ ´Wondersoft’s suite of Retail solutions offer end-to-end solutions for Pharmacies and Health care, Clothing & Apparel, Supermarket & Grocery, Salon &SPA, Food & Grocery, Electrical & Electronics, Lifestyle & Fashion and is quickly adaptable to emerging innovative verticals RIVERBED Riverbed SteelCentral. A completeperformance management and control suite that uniquely provides unified visibility across all aspects of user experience, application, and network performance. l Riverbed SteelHead. The industry’s #1 WAN optimization solution for accelerating delivery of all applications across the hybrid enterprise. l RiverbedSteelFusion. The first and only hyper-converged infrastructure solution designed to enable a software-defined edge, with zero IT at the branch and 100% of branch data l

SOFTWARE AG

Smart Signage - Using anonymous audience analytics and other real-time inputs to provide a contextual response or advert in real time. l Location Based Marketing - Generating a context-driven marketing message based on location of the recipient. l Location Analytics - Real time insight and actions based on where your customers and staff are within a given area. l Omni-Channel Orchestration - Orchestrating the process of delivering against a customer order irrespective of where the order is taken and how it is to be fulfilled. l Smart Store Monitoring - Smart Store Monitoring - Real-time store monitoring/insight/ actions of all sensors/data feeds in a store (traffic counters, shelf sensors POS feeds, RFID, BLE, etc) l Real-Time Inventory Visibility - Real-time insight as to current inventory levels for every product in every location right now. l Ecommerce Acceleration - Ensuring website speed and stability to avoid abandoned baskets and website crashes during peak trading. l

QUICK

READ

Forecasts from the IMF indicate that the UAE’s non-oil economy will grow by 3.4% in 2015 and 4.6% by 2020, outperforming many countries around the globe, while population, on the other hand, is expected to grow by 20% by 2020.

Big data has penetrated every aspect of the retail sector, right from predicting trends to understanding where the future is heading to optimizing prices to pull maximum number of customers. As Rami says,“Companies that put data at the center of the sales and marketing decisions improved their marketing return on investment by 15 to 20 percent.Big data is seen as a strong contributing factor in boosting the department store’s sales by 10 percent. To optimize its benefits, speed is crucial to make sure relevant offers are sent to the customers at the right time.

“Our Riverbed SteelFusion solution does exactly this. By storing data at the consolidated data center rather than at the individual branches, it not only enhances security, but also makes it possible for organizations to have all the information they need at one single location,” says Taj. According to George, it’s all about understanding the customer using the data around customer profile, buying patterns and there by forecasting purchase patterns or even designing new products to create an edge to other competitors is going to be key. Effective use of Big Data and analytics can create edge for manufacturers and thereby for the retailers.

DIGITALIZATION IN RETAIL As digitalization crept in the bricks and mortars, the in-store experience is no more the same.

Retail organizations are spending a fortune in making sure that customers are not only attracted to their store, but are also retained. From digital

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COVER STORY

VENKATESH MAHADEVAN,

KUMAR PRASOON,

HEAD OF IT AT DUBAI INVESTMENTS PJSC

GROUP CIO AT SAFEER GROUP

CIOs have always been facing several technological challenges over the last few years. Question going forward is: l How often can they walk the shop floor or Retail floor l How often can they talk to consumers l Have they visited competitors stores l Have they stood in the shoes of a sales guy / girl in a strore and sold anything to a customer These are challenges that the CIO needs to overcome. Since, it is imperative that consumer experience needs to be the backbone of heart of any digitization that will happen in the Retail environment.

With enhanced visibility to its retail operations through Enterprise Mobility, Al Safeer aims to collaborate more effectively with suppliers, improve tracking of inventory to reduce stock levels in stores and warehouses and improve profitability.

The Enterprise Mobility driven Oracle E-Business Suite along with Oracle Retail help us integrate and automate best practices to provide timely and relevant information that will drive effective and faster decision-making around enterprise resource and supply chain management.

signage to augmented reality, digitalization has been redefining the term of brand loyalty.

Venkatesh Mahadevan, Head of IT at Dubai Investments PJSC believes that Consumer centric digitization is the key to success. “Over the next few years, we will see the growth of specific consumer centric applications or digitization

WHAT THE CIO SAYS

initiatives that will get rolled out and seamlessly integrated to the company’s backend. While it is nice to digitize every part of the Retail Story, I believe CIOs will now function on focusing on the important and impactful areas and digitize them.” He also adds that, while overall Digitization or Computerization has happened in a lot

ONLINE SHOPPING

73.8%

Internet sales in the UAE account for 3.9 per cent of the total sales in 2015 and is forecast to reach 4.6 per cent in 2016

UAE is ranked no.1 in global smartphone penetration with 73.8% of mobile consumers

$5bn

$15bn

The e-commerce industry in the Middle East and North Africa is set to rise by 11 percent by 2019to more than $5 billion

e-commerce sales in the Middle East valued at $15 billion in 2015— Payfort

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of cases, “Impactful digitization” will be the key going forward.

THE CIO CHALLENGE

According to industry experts and reports, the retail CIOs should: l Be aware of the need to align technology interventions with their organization’s strategies and operations. l Concentrate more on establishing customer-centric innovation l Look for alternate models to allow spending more on the things that propel the business forward l Be in sync with business goals at hand l Help create a transparent enterprise and embracing new technology.

FINALLY There is no denying to the fact that the store at the corner of the road will still be a favourite hangout among the folks. But as data takes centre stage, it is becoming increasingly difficult to satiate the customer needs within the ´square foot´ limit of a physical infrastructure. Modern day retail is not just about digital signage, mobile wallets, augmented reality, customer experience, omni channel or data structuring….. it is about all of them! ë

MY VIEWS

when enforcing security is a giant leap in security technology – one that Bitdefender has already made.

Can you please tell us in depth about GravityZone Technology?

The GravityZone architecture is comprised of three security services tailored for distinct operational areas in your organization. These services are: Security for Virtualized Environments, Security for Endpoints, and Security for Mobile Devices. Organizations have the flexibility to deploy any or all of the three security services, depending on whether they have a mobility program or not or if their infrastructure is partially virtualized. For endpoints, GravityZone provides a unified installer that is environmentaware and that configures itself accordingly. This feature reduces the time required to manage and maintain security operations and further streamlines security management workflows.

For virtualized environments, GravityZone SVE provides antimalware protection using virtual appliances (Security Server) functioning as centralized points of antimalware intelligence, without a traditional security agent installed in each VM.

MR ZIAD NASR,

REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR MEA, BITDEFENDER

The ´Gravity´of Security AHEAD OF THE MOBILE SHOW 2016, BITDEFENDER TALKS ABOUT THEIR STRATEGY TO PUT THEIR TECHNOLOGY INTO THE SECURITY DECISION MAKERS HANDS AND HOW ´GRAVITYZONE´ WOULD BE A KEY SECURITY TOOL AND A GAME CHANGER IN REDEFINING NEXT GENERATION SECURITY MODELS.

The security market has evolved over the years and continues to grow, what is your perception of the regional security landscape and what are the potential opportunities that you are looking into?

Virtualization will play a critical role in any organization, that’s interested in expanding and optimizing their financial costs. Having the security technologies that were specifi-

cally designed to tackle both performance and protection challenges, while keeping costs at their minimum, gives Bitdefender a competitive edge against its competition. The current cybersecurity landscape requires that organizations need to have greater visibility into their infrastructure. A unified security management console that’s able to bring together all threat information and allow organizations to both manage and take informed decisions

What makes the GravityZone architecture top the performance and protection bar. How does enable business to be more agile?

GravityZone is a platform that unifies our security solutions for businesses, enterprises and data centers. Unlike traditional solutions which require intense efforts to protect larger number of endpoints, GravityZone can be scaled with ease thanks to its virtual container architecture.

The GravityZone scanning appliance is delivered in a virtual container that can be imported in all major virtualization environments. This extremely comprehensive security architecture can be configured, customized and maintained from a single management console, regardless of whether the customer is virtual, physical or hybrid infrastructures.

What would be Bitdefender’s focus in the upcoming Mobile Show 2016?

Being a ‘mobile first’ company is no longer a differentiator, but rather an essential strategy for any business who wants to survive in this digital age.

Bitdefender’s focus for Mobile Show Middle East 2016 will be to put our technology in the security decision makers’ hands and help the Managed Services Providers to provide the required security to their customers in this mobility age. ë

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COVER FEATURE

NIRANJ SANGAL,

GROUP CEO OF OMA EMIRATES GROUP

“We are here in the market to bring a change. For us, Trust drives Technology”

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COVER FEATURE

OMA EMIRATES

Being the´Change´ Retail Suites, Bazaar, or POS Heartbeat— conventional payment model was never the modus operandi for OMA Emirates Group. As the market gradually abandoned its product baggage and moved on, OMA Emirates made sure that what you want is what you get and ´Services ´is the way ahead. n WORDS: ANUSHREE DIXIT <ANUSHREE@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

—MAHATMA GANDHI

T

he three recurring motifs of the OMA Emirates narrative is; ´Ease´, ´Trust´and ´Change´. A belief that is decentralized into the nervous system of OMA Emirates operations, as Niranj Sangal, Group CEO of OMA Emirates Group explains.

THE EVOLUTION Niranj repudiates the whole jargon of the market being ´slow´. He believes that people would never stop investing in technology.

The trends may change but the demand would never go down. Started as a paper and ATM rolls distribution company in 1991 by

three visionary brothers— Omran Al Owais, Mohamed Al Owais, Abdullah Al Owais.— the company started its journey into the world of IT in 1997. After it entered into the chip card printing in 2002, there has been no looking back. 2011 was the year when OMA Emirates strategized Services to its portfolio and today, 5 years down the lane the company portfolio has increased by 40% with the service models.

“Product prices are going down and depreciation is eternal. So service has become the backbone of any IT company. Today, companies who don’t keep up the pace will be left out of the race. The banks provide you with cards; they do not charge you for the card, but for the services.

In the next 2 years we will be seeing a good 50% companies moving from CAPEX to OPEX

models.”

FROM SERVICES TO MANAGED SERVICES In the 2015 Cards and Payment event, OMA Emirates launched its Managed services for the banks. “It was a time in market when everybody was talking about services but nobody spoke about managing those services.” 2015 was a very popular year for managed services whereas we as a company initiated the conversation in 2014. Taking the case of the banks, Niranjsays, “We have around 7000ATMs, 4000 kiosks and 120000 POS terminals running in the country.

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COVER FEATURE

THE OMA EMIRATES ROADMAP TO EXCELLENCE:

THE 2016-2018 PLAN n n n n n n n n n n

Cost reduction program with improved steering instruments Strategy process for clear positioning of the bank in the market Implementation of process and quality management Modernization of sales channel Realization of regulatory requirement Image campaign to highlight new services Outsourcing of banking process Mergers and acquisitions Modernization of IT infrastructure Implementation of innovative management

Nobody is actually capitalizing on the resources.

Banks are in dire need for services and are in constant lookout for service providers. So we started designing products and services based on those requirements. Earlier we were providing the services, and now we will be managing those services. The whole idea behind this is to offer a one stop shop solution for the customers.” In 2016, the focus of the company would be on industry solutions. “With this, industry would

not have to go looking for customized services.”

So what was the key mantra that the company adopted in getting customers on board for managed services? Niranj says, “We understood the pulse of what people want. From our observation, one of the biggest pain point that customers faced was their data going out of their premises. The question was, if I manage your data, what is the amout of risk that the company is willing to take?

So we started designing products and services

THE SOLUTIONS PORTFOLIO BANKING AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

INSURANCE eHealth, eInsurance

Issuance, Acquiring, Switch

32

RETAIL

TELECOM

ECR Integration, e-Wallet Solution, Loyalty Application

eVocuher, eRemittance, ePay, mPay

OIL AND GAS

GOVERNMENT

RFID, ePayment Systems

EID

M AY 2016

MEA

based on the clients´ requirement. We manage the services for the client within their premises and that was a key point that turned the customers in our favor. We understood the pain and this welcomed a lot of clients.”

According to Niranj, one of the biggest differentiator that sets OMA Emirates apart is their capability to provide an end to end suite. “We build all the products, license it and test it so that companies can insource or outsource it. With our managed service portfolio, we are planning to link every industry to the same service model. We want this platform to be used by everybody, from a grocery to retail to oil and gas. Anyone can walk in and out of the platform at any point of time and lease, buy, resell and become a partner of it. Our main focus is to extend services at a very minimal cost.”

THE FUTURE OF CARDS AND PAYMENT In Cards and Payment Show 2016, OMA Emirates would be focusing majorly on the Bazaar Loyalty program, Retail Suite and POS Heartbeat.

Kiosk and Tablet payment solutions would be other key focus. Niranj says, “Card is a physical entity which might get virtual but the word card will always remain, what is evolving is the term ´Payment´. From phone authorization to physical authorization to POS terminal authorization, we are getting into the Mobile authorization arena. This is where the payment industry is heading on to. As business mandates are getting better, we would be seeing a tremendous change in the payment industry. Cards and payment are no longer restricted to the banking industry alone. It is a part of all sectors now.” According to Niranj, the eradication of magnetic strips in cards would be a major step in the evolution of cards.

Qatar is all set to become a pioneering country in this action plan.

IDENTIFYING THE CHALLENGES Niranj believes that technology is not the challenge that organizations face. Everybody has the access to information but they don’t have the right tool to use it to the maximum level. “Customers always want to go for a top vendor when it comes to a product launch and they are ready to pay the cost for it. Seldom does the customer actually understand his ecosystem and its requirements.

This is where we make the difference. We personally go out and meet the customer and help them understand what the technology is and how the technology would best fit into their ecosystem.

We don’t believe in selling a product. We believe in making the customer believe in the product

COVER FEATURE

SOLUTIONS FOR A ´CHANGE THE BAZAAR LOYALTY PROGRAM: The market place solution allows consumers to use accumulated points for paying fines, parking, utilities payments etc. It is also an open platform that allows any financial institution, government or retail company to be associated with the program. This allows them to increase their portfolio over larger markets and points of acceptance. The solution has features like Partner management, Program management, etc. that not only allows merchants, but also offers these merchants the option to extend the platform to their partners who can benefit from the solution.

THE RETAIL SUITE: The OMA ‘RETAIL SUITE’ provides technology to retailers using any CRM with customer data and linking its services and providing a mobile friendly application to work around it by using social media.

POS HEARTBEAT: It is a solution which monitors inventory of POS and your assets. It is an online monitoring tool like a CRM solution.

first. When you understand the technology, your life is easier. We cover end to end solutions. Our solutions like Bazaar, Retail suite and other wallet based solutions and custom made according to the requirements of the customers. The whole idea is enabling payment for every industry and making lives easier and simpler.”

SECURED PAYMENT: WALKING SMOOTHLY ON THE TOUGH PATH We do not have a big vault like a bank wherein I can preserve my solutions. We follow certain standards and compliances and we mandate them every year and that is how it works.” Now with the overgrowing challenges of Big Data and IoT, the

road ahead is definitely not rosy. Niranj says, “It is data that runs the operations and not the technology. We simplify the data for the people. The Retail Suite is the biggest example for this. While IoT as a platform is getting better for people to use, I still believe that we are a bit behind for this. Be it big data or IoT, without security every thing is useless. Compliance therefore is very important.”

“Trust is the biggest factor that works here.

Trust is what drives the technology.”

HELPING THE ´WORLD´ PAY SMARTLY With an action plan to map new territories, OMA Emirates has expanded business to North Africa

THE TOP YEILDING MARKET FOR OMA EMIRATES 45%

UAE

50%

OMAN

15%

BAHRAIN

18%

KUWAIT

60%

WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN IS WHAT YOU GET

QATAR

80%

YEMEN

20%

NEPAL

by investing in Morocco based Business Rules Solutions. With this investment, the company will be tapping a major share in the NA market and BRS will be empowering its overall payment suite. “We are moving steadily and we majorly target only those countries where we can see ample growth opportunities. But this doesn’t mean that we are leaving behind other countries.

Our channel partners are actively involved in taking us to different countries and striking opportunities there.” The company believes in having a personal touch when it comes to interacting with the client. “Channel partners act as the facilitators in building new relationships. But we always make sure that we have a direct relationship with the client. Partners are important to us but we never give away the personal touch.”

“Signing a deal can be done by anyone, but we believe in building and nurturing a relationship.”

OMA Emirates is present in over 12 countries and are in the process of adding 3 more countries to its kitty.

20%

KSA

1%

MOROCCO

According to Niranj, implementing a technology is not enough— having trust in that technology is the most important factor. “We have always believed in ourselves. We are not just a payment solution provider. We are here in the market to bring a change and we have been doing it and keeping pace. We don’t see the market slowing down, all you have to do is to be a little more adaptive and be willing to take risks.

“The three pillars that fortify our infrastructure is Innovation, Adaption, and belief in Change.”

“We see the industry changing dynamically, and we are here to empower that ´Change´.” ë

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FEATURE

CARDS & PAYMENT

Payment Processed!

Innovation, Disruption and Opportunity— the three key themes at the 17th Annual Cards and Payments Middle East 2016 would be scrutinizing some new horizons in the payment industry. As NFCs, cashless and contactless payment models gain pace, it is not just the wallet that is being rediscovered; the entire BFSI landscape is. n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

T

he smile on the faces of the famous people on various currencies has been fading as the paper money took a back seat. The plastic money has also given way to the mobile wallet as mobile devices started penetrating the commercial market like never before. The e-commerce market in the GCC has climbed from USD 3.3 billion in 2010 to USD 15 billion in 2015, according to a report by AT Kearney.

A new wave in the financial technology— ´FinTech´— has also opened an entire new world of possibilities and innovation for the banking and finance sectors.

The 17th Annual Cards an d Payment Middle East would be delving into key themes of analytics of security and connected payment devices and its penetration in the MEA market.

The market is seeing a polarized situation in the payment platform. On one hand we have the ultra-connected customer for whom mobile is the ultimate platform for any transaction or payment, while on the other hand we have a good share of people who still like to keep the tradition of having bank as a physical infrastructure to ´Go to´. For the former set of people, the banks and payment service providers have been on toes to bring in disruptive payment solutions, while for the latter set, inducing the level of confidence in the banks and secure payment solutions have been the prime most concern. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2019, 25% of retail banks will use startup providers to replace legacy online and mobile banking systems. In an attempt to encourage more online and cashless payments, leading countries like India have approved the

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ONLINE PAYMENT GROWTH IN THE ARAB WORLD The middle east is expericneing rapid growth across several ecommerce sectors. We studied the transactions of the regions largest industries to better understnd where that growth is coming from and what you can expect in the next 5 years.

withdrawal of surcharge, service charge and convenience fee on cards and digital payments.

Big data analytics and omni channel services are the mandate for the modern banking and financial institutions Though Big data is creating big opportunities for enhanced customer experience, it has also created an equal world of risk for the banking and financial sector to provide competitive payment solutions. This has given

way to the emergence of Managed services. Banks are increasingly opting for managed services which can take the pain off from the organizations brow in managing an end to end secured payment service portfolio. The demand for this is also fuelled, owing to the rising concerns of the CoT (Commerce of things) that is opening up a new horizon of beacons, tokenization, cloud and other connected devices. ë

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GISEC COVERAGE

NICOLAI SOLLING, DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY SERVICES, HELP AG

HELPAG

REDEFINING MSS Talking about the regional security market, Nicolai says that over the past 3 years the consumerization of IT has gained pace. “There is more focus on risk and compliance as well as governance. We shall also be concentrating on these areas in 2016.Managed Security Service is a big investment.We specialize in MSS and we provide data storage within the customers’ premises. This ensures confidentiality of data and tries to eliminate security threats. Operating an IT environment in real time is becoming more and more important and that’s where we see opportunities.” Talking about the digital transformation and being CIO friendly, he adds, “We are extremely CIO friendly, since we deal with compliance, governance and risk which is typically CIO driven. Each and every product of ours is trying to deal with specific issue that we believe are risky to an organization. We help organizations deal with risk and provide them measures specific to them and potentially helping them from the compliance perspective that they are aligned with. We deliver a 360-degree approach to how we deal with security and information, cyber security risk and many other issues. We focus on solutions and not just pushing products.”

SPECTRAMI

SPECTRAMI 2.0

FINESSE

POWERING UP THE BIG DATA MR SUNIL PAUL, CO-FOUNDER AND COO, FINESSE GLOBAL

The fusion of Big Data, GISEC and GEMEC at the Future Tech Week proved to be a happy one for Finesse as it could embrace a wider audience. The key focus of Finesse was the implementation of Terracotta Enterprise Suite that is designed for any business and industry with high data volume, and a need for distributed in-memory management for performance and availability at scale.

We have 46 plus clients in Middle East on varied BI. For IoT, Finesse has brought in some cutting edge solutions, specially for the healthcare. “One of our prime motive is to showcase our Big Data, BI and IoT solutions to the customer community and to connect with the ecosystem to look for partners with whom we can work as SI partners.” Talking about the advent of Big Data in the region, Sunil Paul says, “I think the region is in its first stage, first of all the data accumulation itself has its challenges; one in terms of storage, second in terms of security; third in terms of making real insights. Today digitalization is happening, the integration of SMAC, the moment that happens then big data will take shape.”

ANAND CHOUDHA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, SPECTRAMI

After it’s much talked about rebranding in GITEX 2015, Spectrami has been expanding its vision to go beyond the Middle East. A wider geographical presence, unparalleled vendor extension model and 360 degree security is what the Spectrami 2.0 is all about.

“After the rebranding of Spectrami, we have achieved effective growth in the market. During Gitex, we signed 3 new partners.We are all set to make some interesting noise in the coming quarter as well.

We have opened a local office in KSA for our local invoicing also. As I have been saying, we are no more a start-up, we are a young company and have a very focused channel team. Our vision has always been to go beyond the Middle East to Europe and we have been moving positively in that direction.”

With Red Hat, Pure Storage and Exabeam on board, Spectrami is flaunting it´s collective strength in security. “ The way security is marching ahead, it is not just about prevention, but deception.”

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GISEC COVERAGE

DIETRICH BENJES VP, UK, IRELAND AND ME, VARONIS SYSTEMS

VARONIS

HAWK EYE ON THREATS

The threat and security landscape in the MEA region is no different to those faced around the world. All of the major security issues faced by organizations, for example Insider Threats such as data breaches, Ransomware, and malvertising, are not limited to certain countries. Companies in the MEA region should also be training employees about social engineering attacks and phishing emails, as it’s important that IT is equipped with the right technology to prevent attacks that the human eye can’t see, no matter where they are in the world. As attackers have become more sophisticated, more organisations are leveling up their security stack to include User Behaviour Analytics software, which monitors activity and creates baselines for each user so that when suspicious activity occurs, IT is alerted and the threat can be mitigated and future threats prevented.Talking about the journey with Bulwarks and new solutions on board, Dietrich Benjes, VP UK Ireland and Middles East, Varonis Systems says, “ Our journey with Bulwarks has been great. It has allowed us to gain real traction the region.”One of the most common underlying causes of data breaches is previously undetected insider access and unusual behaviour, such as the compromise of user accounts and their resulting abuse. The emergence of User Behaviour Analytics reinforces the need to protect and monitor unstructured data -- the largest, most valuable and most sensitive type of data in an organisation and therefore the target of most cyberattacks. Varonis’ customers are finding great success with DatAlert and its UBA threat models, which analyse behaviour and detect threats throughout the lifecycle of a breach. “We believe the capabilities in DatAlert represent the most advanced analytics and predictive threat monitoring available to help organisations stem the rise in data breaches. From spotting signs of ransomware activity, like Cryptolocker, to catching unusual employee activity on sensitive data, DatAlert has helped to stop numerous breaches”.

WALLIX

SECURITY ´RE-GENERATION´ Wallix launched the WallixAdminBastion Suite at the Gisec 2016. WallixAdminBastionSuite, integrates password management, access management, monitoring and comprehensive session recording into a single platform available via a web portal. Designed on a non-intrusive architecture, the company believes that the new WAB Suite is the easiest solution to implement, use and manage in the market today and can be installed within a day, making it three times faster to implement than its nearest competitor.

“I would describe Wallix as Fastest Route to security and pragmatic. When it comes to the verticals, our main target is Oil and Gas, Banks and Government. We have 22 resellers spread across GCC. Re-generation is our main focus.Our customers include Dana Gas, Gulf Air, TDICA and many others, we have more than 25 major customers using our products and we have many prospects too. Our product is simple and easy to install and very scalable”.

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MR DOMINIQUE MEURISSE, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, WALLIX

MY VIEWS

we have also released our Veeam Manage Backup and that’s geared to our partners, what we are trying to do is give our partners a technology that allows them to get into managed services and even cloud services. Partners can build all this within their infrastructure, they can build Veeam Powered Service for cloud connect or they can use something like deploying with Azure, they don’t have to build it themselves.

How do you deal with skills shortage?

We offer Veeam certified training in the region,nwith this course we ensure they are certified Veeam solution architects. Looking at it from the ROI perspective, if the partner is going to a customer and the customer and talks about limited budget, our ROI calculator shows deploying in some of the technologies you can reduce reliance and need for another personnel.

It is cost saving.

Can you tell us about Veeam Availability Orchestrator?

It’s based on planning your Disaster Recovery.

Creating, testing and keeping your data documented is what it does. One of the great things about it is that it is policy based, so you can regulate what happens to which tier and define different SLAs. It’s the version one so we are focusing on DR but definitely aim to have more things orchestrated within the availability aspect.

DOUG HAZELMAN,

VEEAM VP OF PRODUCT STRATEGY: NEW PRODUCT CAPABILITIES

‘Veeam’ingUp The Global Markets ‘VEEAMUP’ IS AN INTERNATIONAL EVENT AIMED AT SHOWCASING VEEAM’S SOLUTIONS AND CREATING A PLATFORM TO ENSURE PARTNERS, CUSTOMERS AND POTENTIAL CLIENTS INTERACTION. WITH THE INNOVATE VEEAM ORCHESTRATOR APPLICATION, NEW PARTNERS ON BOARD, FUTURE ROADMAP, ALWAYS-ON-ENTERPRISE APPROACH AND ACHIEVING A 54% YOY GROWTH IN

Scalability and reliability of Veeam Availability Orchestrator would be?

Our scalability is the fact that we have a distributed architecture, you can download it and install it on one server, but you can also add components across the infrastructure and balance it, across multiple different aspects so we can support hundreds or thousands of hosts. When it comes to reliability we can say over 80% customers consider our solutions reliable. Even our channel partners are satisfied with our solution.

MIDDLE EAST AND A GLOBAL REVENUE OF $474 MILLION IN FY 2015, THERE SEEMS TO BE NO LOOKING BACK FOR VEEAM.

What was the main focus of VeeamON Forum?

The idea of this forum is to bring our partners, prospects, customers together and showcase some of our partner solutions. We want to keep our focus on regions so we had VeeamON forum in Tokyo last week, also Warsaw, Germany, France, London, so we are doing it all over. It’s not

aimed to anyone specifically, it’s bringing together everyone and talking about solutions that Veeam offers.

What is your roadmap for partners in 2016?

We will continue with our back up as a service and DR as a service through cloud connect and

Describe Veeam Availability Orchestrator in 3 words?

Build. Test. Document.

What is the major challenge for CIOs or CIXOs face when adopting a new solution?

Every CIO or CIXO are getting hit by new technologies each day, it is difficult to make a decision and think about what should be adopted. Our survey shows that it is extremely hard for them to meet the expectations of the customers. ë

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FEATURE

BIG DATA

Go ‘Big’ or Go Home:

Exploring the depths of big data

The intricate world of enterprises requires a systematic approach when it comes to ‘Big Data’, as the markets prosper and work in real-time, the need to address the vast data pool has evolved. Smart Decision making as well as obtaining a competitive edge when it comes to big data is acute for organizations. Peeling the multiple layers of this substantial information is the need of the hour. n W O R D S : S O N A L L U N A W AT < S O N A L @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

T

he word ‘data’ definitely isn’t just a word for the enterprises. It has become one of the major concerns for every organization be it midsized or large scale. The generation of tonnes of data in real time makes it a key factor to ensure the viable storage, curation, back up, transfer, sharing, virtualization and privacy of this

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complex data. Ever wondered what a data breach can cause to an organization? Loss of data doesn’t only imply the misuse of vital information; it comes with an added stake of tarnishing organizations’ reputation. The big data technology and services market globally will reach $41.5 billion by 2018 (26.4% compound annual growth rate).

Between 2015 and 2019, spending on cloud-

based big data and analytics will grow three times faster than spending for on premise solutions. By 2019, 100% of large organizations will purchase data, compared to 70% in 2014 as per IDC.

CHANGING WAVE OF BIG DATA IN MEA The MEA markets haven’t reached a state of

FEATURE

73% 73% of organizations have invested or plan to invest in big data by the end of 2016, up from 64% in 2013 (Gartner)

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FEATURE

MAJOR VERTICALS IN MEA HAVE STARTED USING BIG DATA. GOVERNMENT Heavy use of big data in terms citizen database, election data, smart city initiatives, better governance and other government offices use big data to maintain records eg; eOman in Oman, KSA has recently launched a new open data portal, Dubai Electricity and water authority etc. Atos, SAP, Ooredoo, HP, Cisco, Hadoop are some organizations catering to big data solutions in this sector.

JEREON SCHLOSSER

HEALTHCARE Healthcare sector has been investing in Big data to ensure maintenance of patient record, automated internal and external reporting of patients, standardized medical terms, prescriptive analysis, waste and care variability management etc. Organizations who provide solutions for healthcare include SAS, HP, Cisco, GE, IBM, Infor, Ascom, Honeywell, Oracle and many others. Data Breach Industry Forecast by Experian Data Breach Resolution predicts healthcare sector will be the most affected by hacks and small breaches.

OIL AND GAS The companies are struggling with huge volume of data, growing sources and increased velocity of data. As a result, it has become of utmost importance that this sector invests in big data models to avoid struggling with the excessive data and waste time analyzing data. IDC Energy Insights believes that the oil and gas industry is still at the beginning of its Big Data journey. Organizations like EMC, Oracle, SAP, MapR Technologies, Hitachi, HP, Cloudera and others provide solutions pertaining to this sector.

MANAGING DIRECTOR, EQUINIX MENA

“Big Data can place exceptional demands on an organization’s resources, data security requirements and computing capacity.”

RETAIL Big data solutions have acted like a blessing to this sector. Every stage of the retail process is backed by big data to make sure the players receive a competitive advantage. Retailers take business driven and pragmatic approach to big data. Combining web data, existing consumer records, industry prediction, optimizing pricing and promotions etc are few chief aspects where big data comes in forefront. eBay, Groupon, Amazon, Netflix, agoda.com are few enterprises who have adopted big data.

BFSI Resourceful use of Big data can result in better customer experience, risk analytics, detect fraud faster and accurately and operational efficiency. 26% increase in big data spends is estimated for the banking and financial institutions. MapR, SAP, Cloudera, HP, IBM and many others provide solutions for BFSI sectors.

maturity when it comes to adopting and adapting to big data. “Storage and application architecture need to be re-evaluated often to ensure the enterprises are able to make the best use of this data.

Same data needs to be looked at from multiple angles for newer insights and decision making.” said Pramod Kurian - Chief Operating Officer, Pinnacle Smart Technologies.

Business Intelligence is another technology driven process for analyzing data and presenting actionable information to help in informed and

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smart decision making, BI has been growing over the years as it provides more structured user experience. There have been various applications introduced in the market to help organizations analyze raw data and make it genuine and useful rather than just an unwanted chunk of information. The Middle East Big Data, business intelligence, and analytics market is projected to grow from USD 5.09 billion in 2015 to USD 12.38 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 19.4% from 2015 to 2020. Demonstrating the growth of Big

Data in the Middle East, the Arabian Gulf is a global leader in overall mobile traffic growth of 11-fold to 2019, outpacing the global growth rate of 10-fold, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast: 2014-2019. Since the organizations in the contemporary world deal not just with structured data but also unstructured data like videos, audios, records, files, web page and many others it is mandatory to maintain a secured data base which will provide backup and storage along with privacy and security. Big data, business intelligence, and analytics are increasingly being employed to create successful business predictions and develop smarter business model framework. Every enterprise has different needs and therefore solutions like HPE Arcsight by Alpha Data for security information and event management or SIEM, Equinix Data hub for data management, Cisco connected analytics for IoT portfolio that brings analytics to data regardless of its location and many others organizations offer solutions based on the business requirements. “Middle East has been embracing the big data wave, and this can be seen with the many ‘Smart City’ initiatives that are being implemented in the region and big data can offer

FEATURE

SWAPNIL GUPTE

SOLUTION ARCHITECT - ENTERPRISE COMPUTING SYSTEM AT ALPHA DATA

“We are focusing on solutions for pipeline forecasting, profitability analysis, future marketing campaigns that cover all sizes of business.”

solutions that can build intelligent infrastructure frameworks for cities, and also can build predictive data modelling to assess future big data needs.” commented Sunil Paul, Co-Founder and

SUNIL PAUL CO-FOUNDER AND COO, FINESSE

“The region needs to go a long way in the entire cycle of data accumulation, data storage and getting actionable insights towards Big data.”

COO of Finesse.

BARRIERS FOR BIG DATA l

Complex data storage itself poses a threat of

PRAMOD KURIAN

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, PINNACLE SMART TECHNOLOGIES

“Big Data involves huge amount of data from different business verticals and will lead to crucial business decisions.”

hacking, mismanagement, loss of data, lack of secrecy and downtime. l Repurcussions of data security and governance. l Meeting the need of real time data creation. l Single approach used by organizations for back up.

“Instead of addressing all business issues in one go, we prefer to let customers clearly identify their priorities and from there address their concerns accordingly,” said Swapnil Gupte - Solution Architect - Enterprise Computing System at Alpha Data.

FINALLY Enterprises will continue investing in data protection technology which will include encryption and crypto management services.

Organizations will also emphasize on user access control and strong authentication.

Since the companies are developing their IT structure in real time data protection and recoverability are serious concerns. To operate a 24-hour infrastructure, the main influence of decision makers will be on comprehensive backup and data protection. ë

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FEATURE

U A E

NITED IN VISION GILE IN TECHNOLOGY MPOWERING IN NATURE

The Land of Opportunities UAE has always been an enticing market for investors across the globe. From eGovernment to mGovernment to sGovernment, the growth has been massive. With Expo 2020 knocking at the doors, the wait is just worth it! n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

U

AE has been successfully moving on the track to become a non-oil economy, with the contribution of oil falling to nearly 30% to the GDP. According to the reports issued by the ministry of economy, UAE is all set to be positioned as knowledge based economy that would be empowered by the key infrastructure sectors like energy, telecom, healthcare, transportation, education etc.

INVESTMENT IN TECHNOLOGY According to a WAM report, the UAE will invest over Dhs 300bn on the adoption of a new science, technology and innovation higher policy which will include 100 national initiatives. The UAE Vision 2021 National Agenda outlines the aim for the nation to be among the best in the world when it comes to the quality of its infrastructure, and this includes specifically positioning the UAE as a forerunner in the provision of secure smart services. With high aspirations of building a seamless infrastructure, the Cloud Computing, Big Data and Mobility remain the biggest trends

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in ICT in 2016. The private sector has always been receptive to the ICT sector development but to watch the public sector and government implement these solutions shows that UAE is headed to a whole new level of change and growth. The UAE will continue to invest in user friendly and simple technological solutions throughout 2016.

Mohamed AnisChemli, Director GCC & Levant at Gemalto believes that the UAE has made large investments into technological advancements.

For example, as of 2015 more than 95% of Dubai’s most important government services were made available on mobile devices. By the beginning of this year, all 408 traffic signals in Dubai had been wirelessly connected, allowing for optimisation of traffic light sequences based on traffic volume. By 2018, a total of 250,000 smart meters, which will allow consumers to monitor and tailor electricity consumption, will be installed in residential and commercial areas.”

According to Nader Baghdadi, Regional Enterprise Director – South Gulf and Pakistan, Fortinet, “The are many components that will drive success to Expo 2020 from an ICT viewpoint, an example would be – service providers

FEATURE

MOHAMED ANIS CHEMLI

AYMAN ALBAYAA

MICHAEL WINTERSON

DIRECTOR GCC & LEVANT AT GEMALTO

CEO. OF STME

MD EQUINIX SERVICES, EMEA

“Digital platforms need to be made future proof by basing them on international standards and ensuring they are agnostic to other tech bricks .”

12.7%

UAE healthcare market to grow 12.7% to Dh71.56bn by 2020: Alpen Capital

UAE aviation industry to contribute $53b by 2020

$52b

$53b

UAE retail sales expected to surpass $52bn by 2020

The UAE Higher Education market is expected to grow from 110,000 student enrolments in 2012 to 208,000 in 2020, at a CAGR of 8.3 per cent.

8.3%

“The consumer section has “At Equinix, we are created a critical mass that helping organizations both the UAE government choose the ‘right’ cloud to and business in the understand their future organizations can utilize to Cloud requirements.” promote services.”

in UAE have laid an excellent communication foundation, by deploying millions of kilometers of cable across the country to provide and ensure the best broadband experience for the enterprise as well as the home user.” As per Ayman AlBayaa, CEO. of STME, as the region develops, so too will the organizations and government sectors that contribute to that growth. The development in the region will contribute to global development too, and as such, threats in cyber security and data protection will affect the region and its constituents. “We at STME, are currently prepared to meet these threats that we have today, and we are focusing on developing competencies for the future.”

GEARING UP FOR THE BIG DREAM: EXPO 2020 With the ambitious Expo 2020 around the corner, it is not just the investments or plans; it is the dream of an entire region that is at stake.

According to BassamHamdan, Area VP, Commvault, “With the UAE’s various initiatives focusing on innovation and mobility we can expect the technology industry to play a key part.

The Expo 2020 is expected to attract millions of visitors, thus IT will play a vital part in terms

of the security measures to be adopted. These include facial recognition, electronic crowd tracking devices from the technology aspect to support the plain clothes officers. Innovation will be at the heart of Expo 2020 as the event will showcase future technologies and cutting edge inventions.

The retail sector would definitely be a sector that would be booming under this vision, regardless of the brick and mortar or eCommerce.

Gemalto’s solutions now extend far beyond payment cards. The Mobile Wallet represents an essential element of today’s relevant digital banking offer, with the capability to digitise numerous payment cards on one handset, alongside a range of value added features such as loyalty and reward programmes.

THE ´CLOUDY´SKY OF UAE The GCC’s tripling cloud market will drive the UAE’s innovation economy, according to comments from Mubadala and SAP.Frost& Sullivan predict the GCC’s cloud market to grow from USD 58 million in 2013 to USD 216 million in 2020, with the UAE taking a leading role in cloud security.

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FEATURE

NADER BAGHDADI

REGIONAL ENTERPRISE DIRECTOR SOUTH GULF AND PAKISTAN, FORTINET

MARC HANNE

BASSAM HAMDAN,

DIRECTOR OF SALES DACH, CEE, AND ME, IDENTITY ASSURANCE AT HID GLOBAL

AREA VP, COMMVAULT

“Great companies turn “The industry is rapidly “We are collaborating with data insight into business moving from securityour customers and partners foresight and that’s what we driven to being experienceto “Get ahead of threats”. will help organizations in driven. “ the region do.”

STRENGTH & CHALLENGES n Backing of the Government to make smart services across all industries a reality n Education, exposure and diverse experience make the UAE one of the strongest countries across the EMEA n Investments from the government to shape and develop the UAE as a core hub for new innovations n Advanced ICT infrastructure and high mobile penetration. n economy diversification policy

n Digital platforms need to be made future proof by basing them on international standards n Streamlining security is a top agenda item in the industry n New forms of security breaches and cyber attacks. n Very few indigenous ICT companies have a significant presence in the market

FINALLY Working towards a common goal of smart city, UAE has already been investing in key technology aspects, right from smart government services to unparalleled infrastructure growth.

Not every country has a Ministry of Happiness and we all would be unanimous in this fact. With several ´No 1s´to its kitty, the country is all set to set some new benchmarks enroute its journey to 2020 and as the supreme leaderships of the country say, the Expo 2020 would be just be the beginning and not the goal. ë

INVESTMENTS FOR EXPO 2020

Dh16.6bn

Dh5bn

Dh13bn

$2bn

UAE increased its provision for infrastructure, transport and economics to Dh16.6 billion in 2016

Dubai Municipality will spend Dh5 billion in expo-related projects to cover setting up infrastructure, drainage, new buildings and making the city greener.

Al Habtoor Group will spend Dh13 billion in the property, transport and hospitality sectors for the expo

RTA is seeking more than $2 billion to finance a 15-kilometre extension of its aboveground metro train line to the World Expo site

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Dh60bn Dewa to invest Dh60b in utility projects until 2020

SPECIAL STORY

Overcoming the Skill Shortage Barrier GCC´s reliance on foreign skilled labor has been evident since the past few decades. With localizations plans climbing up the agenda of the regional business organizations, it is inevitable to bridge the skill shortage gap among the different generation of workers and better align the industry requirements. n W O R D S : A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

T

he year 2015 (and the first half of 2016) saw the entire UAE market turning upside down on the human capital side. From top level executives to 3rd and 4th line leaders, we saw a good number of exits and entries in various organizations. The rumour mills and market put blame on increased costing, organizational requirement, need for a change and the lack of adequate skill for the movements.

The IT fraternity, going by various studies, has been the biggest victim of the ´Skill Shortage´ situation. As technology advanced,

the way business was imagined, understood and operated changed dynamically. The young generation, who were born tech savvies, found their way into these organizations and let behind were the people of that generation who had the knowledge of the modern technology but did not understand it.

SKILL SHORTAGE: THE OVERALL SITUATION According to the findings of the INSEAD Business School’s Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2014 co-authored by Cisco, the IT skills gap in the UAE is increasing at a compound

annual growth rate of 32%, which meant that by the end of 2015 it had increased to 45% and in Saudi Arabia the IT skills gap stood at 78%. On the global front, according the Cisco Annual Security Report 2016, there is currently a deficit of 1 million security practitioners, increasing to 1.5 million by 2019. Organizations are facing critical staffing shortages and expertise shortages. Globally, 26% of organizations are facing staffing shortages, and 35% are facing expertise shortages. Security jobs are growing at 12 times the rate of the overall job market, and 3 times the rate of general IT. Specific programs and targeted policies are needed to expand the total

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SPECIAL STORY

SHUKRIEID

STEPHAN BERNER

ROHIT AGGARWAL

KOENIG SOLUTIONS LIMITED

MIKE HOFF

SENIOR DIRECTOR, COUNTRY DIGITIZATION FOR MEA, RUSSIA & CIS AT CISCO

MANAGING DIRECTOR AT HELPAG

REASONS

REASONS

REASONS

REASONS

Lack of an entrepreneurial ecosystem that encourages and fosters innovation

End user organizations typically have smaller IT teams that are already stretched with having to wear multiple hats such as system administration, trouble shooting, innovation etc.

“The gap is the credibility of their claimed skill set and that is primarily due to lack of certification to verify the same”

SMEs who do not have the luxury of having multiple departments and large headcounts to spread the workload across.

SOLUTION Ability of private entities to cooperate with public institutions and civil society to deliver impactful capacity-building initiatives in the region

SOLUTION Managed services are now a very viable option for organizations to gain access to top-notch technical expertise without breaking the bank

CERTIFIED GAZELLES INTERNATIONAL COACH AND FOUNDER & CEO OF MIKE HOFF CONSULTING

SOLUTION “Assessment of what you have versus what you need; identification of high performers and best practices; necessary training and the measurement of results”

SOLUTION The company needs to put in place an employee personal development plan to keep the skills knowledge of their team members up to date so that they remain with the company during the company growth years ahead.

pool of qualified people in the Middle East.

BRIDGING THE SHORTAGE

WHAT SHOULD ORGANIZATIONS DO?

CISCO

According to Stephan Berner, Managing Director of HelpAG, “Paying employees sufficiently and ensuring that they are content in their jobs can go a long way in addressing the problem of lack of skills.”Saurabh Bhattacharya of Koenig believes that the HR or Strategic planning teams of today’s businesses and organizations need to establish a general skills framework to promote a balanced development, and ensure that at every stage of a career, a professional is building a blend of technical, business, and leadership skills. These departments should also regularly re-assesses skill needs, and every year focuses these efforts on areas where it anticipates changes to be especially imminent. ë

Cisco Networking Academy, our largest CSR program, identifies and develops the skills people and businesses need to thrive in a changing economy by working with educators, employers, and technology experts to create courses that prepare students for the future.

More than 5.5 million people have joined the Networking Academy and become a force for change in the global economy since 1997.

MHC

We pride ourselves on business education, ready to provide our clients with practical and useful business education, you need to have working knowledge of many situations to help bring suggestions and ideas to the education table.

KOENIG

Koenig offers a diverse portfolio of courses in IT. These program offerings are led by the best instructors in the industry to teach and guide you—even giving One-to-One training so that you get undivided attention of the instructor to help you learn better

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INNOVATIONS

Direct-to-Card (DTC) FARGO

DTC5500LMX ID Card Printer/Encoder HID Global unveiled its latest Direct-to-Card (DTC) FARGO DTC5500LMX ID Card Printer/Encoderdesigned to meet the high-volume, cardissuance demands of large government agencies, universities, healthcare facilities and other large enterprises. The company also unveiled its new FARGO HDP5600 ID Card Printer/ Encoder that builds upon its high definition printing (HDP) solutions for retail stores, recreation facilities, governments and other organizations focused on brand Bulwark Co-Branded Ad (with prinPage 1 03/05/2016 10:50:22 image and/or visual security.

HID Global’s eco-friendly DTC5500LMX ID card personalization solution includes the company’s “wasteless” lamination technology that significantly lowers card issuance costs. The new feature enables cost-consciousorganizations to routinely issue secure, durable cards in high volumes without sacrificing quality.DTC5500LMXFeaturesiON technology that allows printer / laminator to heat up and initiate lamination in just 45 seconds, saving users up to 80 percent of the time typically needed to print the first card.

KEY CAPABILITIES n Innovative wasteless lamination technology completely eliminates traditional carrier-film waste n Offers 40 percent savings in consumables costs n World’s first Green Circle certified wasteless lamination printer with 60 percent savings in energy consumption. n New iONTM technology allows printer / laminator to heat up and initiate lamination in just 45 seconds, saving users up to 80 percent of the time typically needed to print the first card. n Rugged, durable and robust construction that withstands the harshest environments n Provides the highest card protection and warranty in the industry.

PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK AT INFO@ ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

Authenticate your way: proceed to the next level!

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No More Hardware Tokens!

Two Factor Solutions For Web, VPN, Password Reset and Encrypted Email

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OneSwipe Online Push Notifications

OneSwipe Online Smart Watch Integration

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For further details, please contact: Bulwark Technologies LLC 710,IT Plaza, Dubai Silicon Oasis Dubai | United Arab Emirates Phone : 04 333 5040 |E-mail : info@bulwark.biz www.bulwark.biz

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INNOVATIONS

Fujitsu PRIMERGY Servers Fujitsu unveiled its PRIMERGY dual-socket server line up from tower servers to nodes for high performance computing clusters, delivering new levels of performance combined with greater energy savings than ever before.The new PRIMERGY line-up includes classical towers, racks, blades and slimline nodes for clusters, and dedicated rack models for service providers and hosters. The broad line-up provides a flexible enough choice to meet the needs of businesses large and small, across all vertical markets.

Refreshed with newly released Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 product family processors with DDR4 memory technology with up to 2,400 MHz frequency, Fujitsu’s new-generation PRIMERGY dual-socket servers remain at the forefront of performance, boasting approximately 20 percent more system performance in comparison to the previous generation. Fujitsu PRIMERGY customers also enjoy reduced energy costs for system cooling thanks to Fujitsu’s Cool-safe Advanced Thermal Design, with the threshold for safe operation raised from 40°C to 45°C for most available rack, tower and scaleout systems. The Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 option means IT infrastructure is further protected against attack, since the system is able to verify communication and manage encryption of data.In support of the new-generation servers, Fujitsu has produced a video highlighting how the broad PRIMERGY server portfolio.

KEY CAPABILITIES n New line-up of PRIMERGY servers provide approximately 20 percent more performancewithIntel Xeon E5-2600 v4 processors n Support for DDR4 memory technology n New rack server model PRIMERGY RX2510 M2 designed for service providers and hosters n Fujitsu Cool-safe Advanced Thermal Design and Trusted Platform Module 2.0 features save cooling costs and increase security

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HONEYWELL Wi-Fi ‘SMART’ THERMOSTAT Honeywell launched Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat that delivers the ultimate in convenience and control, while facilitating energy management in homes across the UAE and wider region. The new thermostat is available at Apple Retail Stores in the UAE and at the Apple Online Store.

The touchscreen thermostat allows residents to remotely monitor and manage their comfort settings anytime, anywhere from their smart devices. The thermostat can be easily managed with Honeywell’s Total Connect Comfort app for iOS, available now on the App Store. The app enables homeowners to view and change air conditioning system settings and gives them the ability to monitor, manage and schedule home comfort on-the-go, all while being kept uptodate with regular temperature alerts either via the app or through email.

Following professional installation of the Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat

by Honeywell certified installers, Honeywell will provide aftercare services that includes maintenance and support for ongoing queries.

The Honeywell WiFi Smart Thermostat has been specially designed to support air conditioning systems usually found in villas and lowrise apartment buildings. The thermostat does not currently support systems usually found in high-rise residential buildings.

KEY CAPABILITIES n Users can manage home comfort and energy efficiency anywhere, anytime from their smart devices n New thermostat increases convenience and can help manage energy costs n Indoor and outdoor temperature readings, humidity levels displayed on the home screen n Keeps time during power failures n Comes with a one-year warrantybacked by the most trusted brand in the industry

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