Enterprise Channels MEA April 2016

R ETH I N KI NG DIG ITAL TRANSFOR MATION WITH VXRAI L /46

PA G E S 5 2 VOLUME O3 | ISSUE 09 APRIL 2016 WWW.ENTERPRISECHANNELSMEA.COM

MAKING THE RIGHT

MOVE

INDIAECM042016

TONY ALAM walks on to the aisle of Emitac Enterprise Solutions at a crucial period in the organization´s history as it celebrates 40 years of success and excellence in the region and is all geared up for the launch of its new ´Cloud´ offering. /24

EDITORIAL

Enterprise Mobility: Growth is in Double Digit

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

Today, people are talking about taking the data centre to the edge, which used to be just opposite earlier. For example, in an oil exploration company, the real-time data that gets generated at the edge or at the oil rigs comes to the core or the data centre and again goes to various edges or the users to be applied for functional decisions.

Similarly, every industry – be it Oil & Gas, Hospitality, Heath Care, BFSI, Retail, Aviation, Education – you name it, today, irrespective of their size, are adopting mobility for quick and better resolution of everything. And it is going to grow in the future times.

At the back end, the core technologies including the servers and networking, security, and even the connected applications are becoming so robust, agile and granular that organizations are not getting scared to invest in these technologies.

All the sectors, mentioned above and many other, are using mobile devices for the easier resolution of cases.

Banks do not need the customers to come to the branches and stand in queues to open their accounts and withdraw money or do any remittance. Aviation sector do not want the guest starting from booking tickets to checking in to come to the counters in the airports.

Even if they come for baggage drop they should be dealt by mobile check in officers/ executives for all formalities. Similarly, in the health care industry, doctors or any medical experts do not need to go to the data centres or verify documents before giving any treatment to the patient. These are all happening and real. This is a connected world and using their mobile devices, they are able to resolve the solutions of the citizens.

So, enterprise mobility is real and growing faster as the concept of IOT. Both the technology are inter connected with each other. But what is need to be seen or to be taken care of is the impact of security, which to me has been taken care of so far and it will remain as chores for the CIOs and CISOs. Besides, other major conduits of mobility including cloud computing and networking, these are all getting built up and offering huge opportunity for the technology players including partners and integrators to play.

Looking at the potential of the region, IDC has put out a figure of $185 billion by 2019 in terms of annual spend on mobility across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META), which is 10.2% of worldwide enterprise and consumer spending on mobile devices, software, and services, which is forecast to total $1.8 trillion in 2019. It is a very big number!

So, everything is hunky-dory now, only thing which can deter the growth is the market slowdown; but let us hope for the best. ë

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2016 CONTENTS

VOLUME 03 ISSUE 09 APRIL 2016 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

COVER STORY

TECHNOLOGY..... BOARDING! GCC airports are expected to handle 450 million passengers by 2020. The need of the hour is unmatched customer experience. A close look at how the emerging technologies in aviation are giving ´wings´ to every aspects of the Wright Brothers´ dream machine. /24

CIOS SPEAK /22

SMART MOBILITY WITH ORACLE RETAIL KUMAR PRASOON GROUP CIO AT CENTURY MALLS— SAFEER GROUP

EMITAC CEO STORY / 36

MAKING THE RIGHT ´MOVE´ TONY ALAMS CEO, EMITAC ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS

GUEST ARTICLE /38

THE POWER OF CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE IN A WORLD OF DIGITAL DIVERSITY BARRY CASHMAN, VP, EMEA, VCE

INNOVATIONS /49

AXIS CAMERA STATION 5

SPECIAL STORY Running Through the Veins of the Modern Enterprise /30

Axis Camera Station 5, the latest version of its VMS offering for mid-size installations.

The new version introduces hardware decoding, integration of third-party IP cameras and Axis Optimized Rendering for high-definition identification....

EDITORIAL::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 04 CHANNEL STREET:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 06 GARTNER STORIES ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 40 FEATURE: FOCUS OMAN::::::::::::::::::::::::: 42 GUEST ARTICLE: GARTNER ::::::::::::::::::: 48 INNOVATIONS : ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 49

ADVERTISER INDEX: VCE 02, EMITAC 03, ESET 07, FUTURE IT SUMMIT 09, STARLINK 11, OMA EMIRATES 13, FINESSE 15, UNIFY 17, RITTAL 19, CATALYST 23, CARDS PAYMENT 35, GEC OPEN 41, PURESTORAGE 51, DELL 52

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CHANNEL

STREET A RECOMMENDED, END-TO-END CYBERSECURITY PLATFORM

NSS Lab’s NGFW real-world testing revealed that Fortinet provided the highest protection, blocking 99.97% of exploits used by threat actors in active campaigns during continuous live testing from December 1, 2015 through January 31, 2016. “Validation from organizations like NSS Labs plays a critical role to help cut through the noise customers face today. Third-party testing holds vendors to the product specifications and their performance claims so customers can make truly informed decisions instead of discovering real-world performance after they deploy a solution in their network, ” says John Maddison, SVP of product and solutions marketing, Fortinet. Vikram Phatak, CEO of NSS Labs said, “Fortinet has consistently submitted products to our various testing programs and is a great example of a security vendor that embraces transparency and puts their customers first.”

INTEL SECURITY WALKS FURTHER MILES Intel Security has taken major strategic initiatives, from the expansion of the Intel Security Innovation Alliance to collaborations with Siemens and BT. As part of the key technologies that form the foundation of the Intel Security Innovation Alliance program, McAfee Data Exchange Layer is an underlying communications fabric technology that not only connects Intel Security products, but also connects products from other vendor New partners that have joined the Intel Security Innovation Alliance this quarter include Aruba, A Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Brocade, Check Point, Forcepoint, Identity Finder, MobileIron , Rapid 7, VMware Airwatch, Proofpoint.

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ANAND CHOUDHA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, SPECTRAMI

Partnership in Redefining Storage Spectrami has become a certified member of the Pure Storage Partner Program (P3) and will now provide Pure Storage’s all-flash enterprise storage solution to its customers in the GCC.“Pure Storage will not only form a key part of our portfolio but will also complement our existing product portfolio of next generation storage solutions,” said Anand Choudha, Managing Director, Spectrami. “Enterprises in the region are beginning to recognize the advantages that All-Flash storage offers over traditional spinning disks and I am confident that Pure Storage has the solutions to significantly simplify storage while improving performance and efficiency.”

“Spectrami is a standout solutions provider with extensive experience and an excellent reputation in information security, storage, data centre infrastructure, and data communication networks,”

said Christian Putz, Director Emerging Markets, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Pure Storage. “We are delighted that they have joined our network of valued partners. Strong partners like Spectrami help us achieve our mission to make flash storage the storage medium of choice for IT environments of all sizes. Together, we will expand the footprint of flash in the data center and enable customers across industries to realize new levels of storage efficiency.”

P3 provides partners with the tools, training and support they need to be successful, which includes: a best-in-class incentive framework; a demo purchase program featuring significant discounts on products differentiated by partner tier; and a Pure Storage sponsored headcount incentive, which Platinum level partners can leverage to accelerate the development of their all-flash storage practice.

CHANNEL STREET

Finesse Opens Doors to New Horizons Finesse has opened their new Process Excellence Centre. The opening will mark Finesse’s second regional operating office in UAE. Finesse’s office in the Central Business District area will function as a Banking Process Excellence and BPO Centre to service their existing client base and further expand to new customers in the Middle East region. It will provide its customers in UAE, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain with professional managed services, training and project, and technology support. With existing head office in Business Bay, Dubai; the centre in the CBD area will mark Finesse’s second regional operating office in UAE. Sunil Paul,

Co-Founder and COO for Finesse, said, “We are supporting the local financial industry with the technology support and services which enable our clients to automate their business processes, implement tighter risk management practices, and meet required regulatory demands while reducing costs.” Raju Ramesh, Co-Founder and CEO for Finesse, said, “We are very excited about our strategic investment and look forward to offering our customers a more efficient, competitive and industry aligned service delivery centre.” Finesse’s Process Excellence Centre will be located in the Zainal Mohebi Building, CBD area, Dubai, UAE.

UNLEASHING THE WOMEN POWER IN IT Cisco organized the ‘Women of Impact 2016 Conference’ – a full day conference devoted to the development and advancement of women in the technology industry. Themed ‘Be Unstoppable’, the annual event was held on March 10th, 2016 at multiple Cisco sites globally and virtually where several eminent women business leaders and entrepreneurs from the region shared their experiences with attendees. “Cisco has always been at the forefront of efforts to hire, nurture, promote and support women, especially in technical fields and leadership roles. We will continue to invest and promote opportunities for women to learn from one another and build connections that cultivate continuous career development and learning,” said Mike Weston, Vice President, Cisco Middle East. “This conference is a powerful reminder of the power of diversity in our business,” added Frida Kleimert, Head of Channel and Commercial Sales, Cisco UAE, and member of Cisco’s Connected Women network. The Dubai edition of Women of Impact 2016 featured presentations by eminent women speakers including thought leaders and entrepreneurs from the fields of education, business, IT and sports.

GET TREND MICRO CERTIFIED WITH REDINGTON Redington Gulf trainers are now able to offer courses to industry professionals looking to be Trend Micro Certified on Office Scan, Deep Discovery, and Deep Security products. Redington Gulf has a new state-of-the-art training facility in their new office in Dubai, where majority of the training will be taking place. The company also has certified trainers in other countries ensuring that Trend Micro certification can be locally achieved.

“Working with Redington Gulf, we are now able to offer our partners and end-users a more flexible timeframe to be Trend Micro certified. We are confident that industry professionals will quickly benefit from this new channel initiative. In Redington Gulf we have a trusted distributor who has all the right requisites to offer a robust training program.” commented Ihab Moawad, VP Mediterranean, Mid. East, Africa, Russia & CIS at Trend Micro..

“We are extremely proud to be the first Authorized Training Center here in the region to be able to provide Trend Micro certification. We have a new dedicated facility, and our trainers are highly skilled. As a distributor we are always looking to enhance our relation with our Vendors, and in Trend Micro we have an industry heavyweight.” said Ramkumar Balakrishnan, President, Redington Gulf Value Distribution.

ACCELERATING THE MOVE TO DIGITAL WORKPLACE Aruba has launched a new suite of integrated networking software and hardware solutions that enable enterprises to address the digital workplace requirements of GenMobile, today’s mobile-savvy workforce, and the escalating connectivity demands of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The new portfolio enables IT teams to anticipate and resolve connectiv-

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ity problems, and create secure policies to build digital workplaces that are optimized to boost employee productivity. Aruba’s new set of networking solutions and software-powered approach advance its offering beyond fixed, hardware-focused networking solutions. The new, integrated wired and wireless portfolio, combined with innovations in

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network management and security, allow IT organizations to design and augment their networks for the digital workplace. The new portfolio includes, Aruba Clarity, a new software module for Aruba AirWave network management, delivers powerful and intuitive forensics so that IT teams can anticipate and quickly resolve connectivity problems before the

user is affected; The new Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager 6.6 release that allows security operations teams to create policies that adapt to BYOD growth and the emerging challenges surrounding IoT adoption; The new Aruba 3810 Switch Series incorporates HPE Smart Rate technology, allowing enterprises to deliver data rates from 1 / 2.5 / 5 / 10Gbps.

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CHANNEL STREET IN PUBLIC

“The Smart Dubai blueprint will define smart city transformation,” YOUNUS NASSER, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR GENERAL, DUBAI SMART GOVERNMENT OFFICE,

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SECONDS

SECURITY CHECK! DarkMatter participated at the ISS world Middle

Fighting the Insider Threat

East. Senior Management representative,

DarkMatter participated at the Future Technology Week where the CEO of DarkMatter, Faisal Al Bannai was a keynote speaker at GISEC. Faisal Al Bannai, Chief Executive Officer, DarkMatter said, “DarkMatter is underpinning the importance of cyber security across government and enterprise, both now and even more importantly, into the future. The events are an important opportunity for the company to share its perspective on the critical and expanding role cyber security plays in allowing successful nations and enterprises to thrive, and we are looking forward to having many productive interactions.”

in his presentation. Senior Management

Harshul Joshi explored the latest trends and ways in which cyber regulations and laws can help in increasingly connected environments representative Stephen Brennan’s presentation showcase d ways in which organisations can achieve measurable gains in their security posture through deeply embedding highly specialised teams of trained cyber counter-intelligence experts within the hackers’ trust zone.

A JOURNEY TO THE VIRTUAL WORLD OF ‘INFINITI’ Arabian Automobiles Company, exclusive dealer

FAISAL AL BANNAI, CEO OF DARKMATTER

for Infiniti in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, is all set to launch its new Infiniti Virtual Showroom on Google Maps powered by Street View Technology, the first-of-its-kind digital facility in

StarLink & Veracode Redefine Application Security StarLink has signed a distribution agreement with Veracode that enables StarLink to provide partners and customers the opportunity to benefit from application security solution. Through this agreement, StarLink partners and customers will have access to Veracode’s platform, providing centralized policies, metrics and reports while simplifying information sharing across global teams.

The offerings provide solutions for: Secure Web Application Development, Web Perimeter Security, Software Supply Chain and Security, Mobile Application Security. “Information

security must transform to meet the needs of a user- and application-driven world. Today’s enterprises are beginning to realize that applications are not created with security in mind, resulting in a major area of risk. This partnership enables StarLink to provide access to the world’s leading application security solution.

The Veracode solution is simple, scalable and provides organizations a way to secure web, mobile and third-party applications across the software development lifecycle.” Nidal Othman, Managing Director, StarLink.

the Middle East. The Virtual Showroom brings the premium Infiniti Centre experience, offering customers unprecedented ease of access, convenience and comfort as they browse the array of Infiniti vehicles.

STORAGE NETWORKING REDEFINED Brocade launched the BROCADE G620- Gen 6 Fibre Channel switch for storage networking.

The new purpose-built and high-density SAN switch delivers performance and scalability designed to support data growth and demanding workloads from mission-critical applications.

Gen 6 will enable organizations to address performance, reliability and scalability requirements for hyper scale virtualization, new data center architectures and next-generation storage technologies.

NEED FOR SPEED Linksys has expanded its MU-MIMO portfolio, for the connected homes. The range extenders

BREATHING ÉXELLENCE INTO IT MONITORING

are built with spot finder technology and a seam-

ManageEngine has launched the OpManager Plus, the latest edition of its network management platform. OpManager Plus sets a new standard for unified IT monitoring with the industry’s first EXE-level integration of five network management functions. With OpManager Plus, users get one application for NetFlow monitoring, configuration management, firewall log analysis and compliance, IP address management, and switch port management. The single OpManager Plus console provides in-depth visibility and control of all aspects of network management for faster troubleshooting.

automatically to the range extender providing

less roaming feature that connect smart devices uninterrupted connectivity. Smart Wi-Fi Routers and the latest WRT routers. Another upcoming consumer trend, observed by Linksys is the migrations to a Smart Home, where consumers can remotely access their home appliance through apps.

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DO MORE

WITH YOUR I.T. SECURED BY ESET

Whether you’re managing your business, or overseeing your company’s IT, ESET’s security products are fast, easy to use, and deliver market-leading detection. We deliver the protection that allows you to DO MORE. Find out more at ESET.COM/ME/BUSINESS

Dubai Internet City Bldg 2, Off 305 Dubai United Arab Emirates Tel +971 4 4332630 - Fax +971 4 4290967 www.eset.com/me - sales@esetme.com

CHANNEL STREET

Network on Demand ALE has introduced a new cloud managed network infrastructure service designed and delivered by its business partners.

The new Alcatel-Lucent Network on Demand service enables businesses to enjoy the latest networking technology on a pay-per-use basis.

This new consumption model offers companies an alternative to capital expenditure, enabling them to focus their investment in key business priorities and to link infrastructure operational spending with changes in their business requirements.

Businesses are challenged to afford the

INFOR POSES WITH A WINNING SMILE frequent changes in networking technology and are seeking a better way to match technology expenses with business needs. They also find it difficult to acquire the skills to support and operate new technologies.

To relieve these challenges, IDC stated that by 2020, 80% of IT infrastructure will be on a payas-you-go basis. Stephane Robineau, EVP and General Manager, Networking Business division, ALE said, “Designed with our partners, Network on Demand changes the game by making it possible to offer Opex consumption based, unified, on demand LAN and WiFi managed services.”

REACHING OUT TO THE CLOUD KINGDOM Riverbed SteelFusion is extending its reach to cloud environments with support for Azure through Microsoft StorSimple and Amazon Web Services through AWS Storage Gateway. Customers will now have more flexibility and choice for cloud-based data storage across remote locations and can leverage the cloud as a secondary storage tier for added capacity, backup, or for tiering in conjunction with private data center storage assets. Paul O’Farrell, Senior Vice President and General Manager of SteelHead, SteelFusion and SD-WAN solutions at Riverbed said, “Now with access to cloud-based storage and backup capabilities with SteelFusion, our customers can easily leverage the cloud as a secondary storage tier without any impact to users at the edge.”

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.

MONZER TOHME, COUNTRY MANAGER, MIDDLE EAST AT INFOR

Infor was recently recognized as a Leader in the Gartner 2016 Magic Quadrant for Marketing Resource Management (MRM). This is the fifth consecutive year Infor Marketing Resource Management (MRM) has been positioned in the Leaders quadrant.

Infor MRM, part of the Infor Customer Experience suite, is a powerful tool that is designed to help organizations better plan, execute, and monitor multi-channel marketing operations.

With tools designed for digital asset management, resource management, project management, budget and cost tracking, creative approval processing, capacity planning, and analytics, this product aims to help organizations get programs, campaigns, and activities to market faster.

Monzer Tohme, Country Manager, Infor, Middle East said, “At Infor, we are focused on delivering innovative, scalable applications with industry-specific capabilities that can be utilized in the cloud, and we believe this recognition for the fifth year in a row

by Gartner is a testament to our success in that area.”.

COMGUARD OPENS ME DOORS TO CENTRIFY ComGuard welcomed on board Centrify as its new ´partner in security´. “We are happy to announce that we have partnered with Centrify and we would be the proud and sole Value Added Distributor of Centrify for the Middle East market,” said Jaydevan K. (Vice President – Operations & Vendor Management, ComGuard).

With GISEC around the corner, the partnership is all set to make

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some noise in the regional security market.

“One of the reasons we chose ComGuard is their experience in IT security. We were impressed by their expertise in the Privilege Identity Management area and are totally excited with this affiliation. We look forward to a bright future with ComGuard.” Says Dr. Kamel Heus, (Regional Sales Manager | MEA & Indian sc). Centrify is increasing

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the level of activities in the region, and is committed to its partners and customers in the Middle East.

“Having recently established a local presence in Dubai Internet City, with a dedicated local team, we are closer to our customers and partner to engage in more strategic relationships. With massive data breaches making headlines every day, increasing security awareness will be high in our agenda.”

JAYDEVAN AND KAMEL JOIN HANDS

CHANNEL STREET

‘Cloud’burst in MEA Cisco Global Cloud Index (2014-2019) is seeing an unprecedented growth in the cloud traffic that is all set to grow 4 times in the Middle East and Africa market by 2019.

According to Cisco, the major drivers for this cloud outburst are the personal cloud demands of an increasing number of mobile devices; the rapid growth in popularity of public cloud services for business, and the increased degree of virtualization in private clouds which is increasing the density of those workloads.

The growth of machine-to-machine (M2M) connections also has the potential to drive more cloud traffic in the future. “The Cisco Cloud Index highlights the fact that cloud is moving well beyond a regional trend to becoming a

mainstream solution, with cloud traffic expected to grow more than 30 percent in every worldwide region over the next five years. Middle East enterprise and government organizations are moving from test cloud environments to trusting clouds with their mission-critical workloads. At the same time, consumers continue to expect on-demand, anytime access to their content and services nearly everywhere.” Mike Weston, Vice President, Cisco Middle East.

In addition to the rapid growth of cloud traffic, Cisco predicts that the Internet of Everything (IoE)—the connection of people, processes, data and things will have a significant impact on data center and cloud traffic growth.

WEB CLIPS EXPANDING HORIZONS Kodak Alaris has acquired Integrated Document Solutions – Capturing Systems Germany division of Swiss Post Solutions. The acquisition marks an important step for Kodak Alaris as it rolls out a wider solutions strategy and significantly increases its capacity to sell ibml scanners to the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) markets. The move will see SPS employees join the Kodak Alaris Information Management division. Existing SPS customers will be added to Kodak Alaris’ base of Input Management Solutions customers.

THE MOBILE UPRISE Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic forecast (2015 to 2020) predicted that by 2020, there will be 5.5 billion mobile

OMA EMIRATES EXPANDS FOOTPRINT IN NA

users, representing 70 percent of the global

OMA Emirates invested in Morocco based Business Rules Solutions (BRS). The move supports OMA Emirate’s global expansions plans and will now have a stronger presence in the North African markets. It will also provide a base for research and development projects that will enhance the overall offerings of the company. “The business opportunities that are available in North Africa within the payments solutions are immense. While we have a long history of providing these services in the Middle East, BRS has been at the forefront of developing specific payment system products in Morocco. The synergy that we have with BRS is one of the prime reasons for our investment in the company.” said, Niranj Sangal, Group CEO, OMA Emirates – Solutions Gulf.

increased mobile coverage, and demand for

population. The adoption of mobile devices, mobile content are driving user growth two times faster than the global population over the next five years.

META BYTE & THOUGHTONOMY JOIN HANDS Meta Byte Technologies has entered into a strategic partnership with Thoughtonomy, whose Virtual Workforce platform will provide end to end automation of IT and Business support processes to the enterprises in

MOVEMENTS ALE appointed Matthieu Destot as the new EVP, GM for the ALE Communication Business Division Qualys has appointed MR. SHAIL KHIYARA as CMO to lead worldwide marketing and branding campaigns

SALEH ABDULLAH AL ABDOOLI appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of Etisalat

SCOTT REA is SVP for Public Key Infrastructure at DarkMatter

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NUMBER GAME

13.43 billion USD

MEA cybersecurity sector to reach 13.43 billion by 2016 as per Cybersecurity Ventures Report

Middle East. The Thoughtonomy Virtual Workforce is a highly flexible as-a-service automation platform. It uses software to replicate the way people use business systems and technology, the processes they follow and decisions they make, in order to automate a wide range of operational and support processes quickly, cost effectively and reliably NETAPP ADVANCES DATA ANALYTICS PERFORMANCE NetApp offers a new software for its NetApp EF-Series all-flash and E-Series storage arrays that dramatically boost the performance and value of data analytics applications. New generations of business intelligence applications such as Splunk, Hadoop, and NoSQL are becoming key tools for data-powered digital enterprise. Increase the performance of data analytics applications by more than 50%.

CHANNEL STREET

CIO Knowledge Club Encourages Innovation The CIO Knowledge Club held a round table discussion between its members and other prominent CIOs from different organizations in Bahrain, during which Dr. Jassim Haji, Director IT, Gulf Air presented case studies on the latest trends in technology such as Internet of Things, Mobility, Business Intelligence Dashboards, Big Data and Cloud computing to the audience. CIO Knowledge Club is an exclusive forum where experienced and carefully selected CIOs and IT executives from the public and private sector on Bahrain gather to share their valuable experience, knowledge and insights in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

DR. JASSIM HAJI, DIRECTOR OF IT, GULF AIR

SHINING LIKE A ´STAR´ STME has been appointed as a Star Partner by NetApp. The company achieved the Star Partner status for successfully integrating NetApp’s data storage and management solutions to deliver unparalleled solutions to the customers. STME is the first company in the UAE and the third in the Middle East region to have been recognized as a Star Partner. “Becoming a NetApp Star Partner required hard work and commitment as well as establishing relationships with key companies in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt. We are delighted to receive this recognition and accolade from NetApp. It is a big achievement which is a testament to our professionalism and technical knowledge,’’ said Mr. Ayman Al Bayaa, CEO of STME.

A BOOST FOR THE RESELLERS Ingram Micro has enhanced Cisco XCHANGE program for reseller partners in EMEA region. The program offers greater discounts across all Cisco architectures, comprising routing, switching, wireless, security, collaboration and data center. The streamlined process does not require deal registration or approval. Working with Ingram Micro, resellers are able to deliver life cycle solutions and capture incremental business as they refresh existing customer product with Cisco-certified solutions through the XCHANGE program. XCHANGE supports the environment and contributes to the circular economy by rewarding, with discounts, the removal and destruction of old products from Cisco and other selected networking vendors in an environmentally-friendly way and in line with local requirements.

ESENTIRE AND CREDENCE SECURE MID SIZE ENTERPRISES eSentire has partnered with Credence Security to provide mid-sized enterprises in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa regions, with advanced cybersecurity capabilities and threat protection. The partnership follows eSentire’s recent launch of its new global channel partner program, which spans North America, EMEA, and Asia Pacific. “As a value-added distributor, Credence Security has the pre-requisites to help us ‘tell the eSentire story’ and work with us to deliver best-in-class cybersecurity solutions to mid-sized enterprises in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa,” said Mark Adams, Vice President of Channels, eSentire. Partnering with Credence Security allows eSentire to gain market presence and access to a key part of the EMEA market, connecting its service capabilities to partners and customers in that region.

By partnering with eSentire, Credence Security can further strengthen its portfolio of complementary security solutions, creating opportunities for growing its business with existing accounts, and adding new customers. Garreth Scott, Director of Sales, Credence Security said, “Backed by eSentire’s best-in-class technology solutions, skilled security analysts, threat intelligence team, and global network of sensors, we can now offer mid-sized enterprises in the Middle East the most advanced cybersecurity-as-a-service available, ultimately helping them stay one step ahead of the attackers.”

COLLABORATION FOR NEXT GEN SECURITY BT and Palo Alto Networks have decided to come together for next generation cloud services which will integrate Palo Alto Networks Security Platform into BT’s global portfolio of security services.

This combination will benefit BT customers globally as the combination of Palo Alto Networks breach prevention focused platform

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with the international reach and scale of BT’s security services.

BT’s Assure Managed Firewall service will now integrate WildFire cloud-based malware prevention, which is a key component of the Palo Alto Networks NextGeneration Security Platform. It will be used to further secure the access to cloud-based applications,

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enabling enterprise customers to reap increased benefits from BT’s Cloud of Clouds. Mark Hughes, CEO of BT Security said, “Palo Alto Networks provides intelligent security monitoring, management and efficacy. Integrating that breach prevention capability into the BT Assure portfolio of security services will be a big step forward

in securing the cloud strategy of an organization.” Mark McLaughlin, President and Chief Executive Officer at Palo Alto Networks said, “We are delighted to join forces with BT to help organisations safely enable business operations and protect their most valuable assets, managing both their risk and their security budgets. ”

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CHANNEL STREET

´Restore´ Simply Veeam software launched Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure which is pre-configured Azure appliance in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace that delivers cloud restore for Veeam Backup & Replication and Veeam Endpoint Backup. This new solution enables users to take on-premises workloads and restore or migrate them to the cloud using an automated physical-to-virtual or virtual-to-virtual conversion process.

“The flexible, scalable and cost-effective nature of the hybrid cloud is becoming more compelling to IT administrators, and Azure continues to seize strong market penetration and momentum,” said Ratmir Timashev, CEO of Veeam Software.

In order to meet the new challenges posed by

THE WORLD IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT accelerating cloud adoption, with Direct Restore to Azure users can quickly restore Windowsbased VMs, physical servers or endpoints to Azure to minimize business disruption. The new feature also enables users to execute planned workload migrations from on-site to the cloud to reduce on-site resource constraints. Azure-based test environments can easily be created for testing backup reliability as well as for patches and critical updates to mitigate risks associated with application deployment. Veeam already enables organizations to store backups in Azure with Veeam Cloud Connect (VCC) for the Enterprise (VCC-E), which is also available in the Azure Marketplace..

SENNHEISER TO ´SOUND UP´ LUSAIL STADIUM Lusail Stadium Qatar has successfully implemented wireless microphone solutions from Sennheiser. Qatar is all set to host the FIFA 2022 and this state-of-the-art infrastructure and technologies for the stadium will represent Qatar in a more advanced and futuristic light. Sennheiser, also supplied microphones for the football stadiums in Brazil. “With several hundred million TV viewers watching live, there is no room for error. Thrilling commentaries, pitch-side reports, the roar of the audience and sounds of all the on-field action are essential parts of the viewing experience. Poor audio quality or technical difficulties can hamper this and undermine the tremendous effort that goes into hosting such events. The Qatar Olympic Committee realises that high-quality images and high-quality sound go hand in hand. This is reflected in their selection and usage of our most advanced wireless microphone systems said Mig Cardamone, Director of Sales and Marketing at Sennheiser Middle East. A total of 16 channels of Sennheiser’s wireless microphone and receiver systems from the flagship Digital 9000 range have been utilized as well the EW 300-IEM Series in-ear monitors. Along with the handheld microphones, presenters will be mic’ed up using Sennheiser’s EarSet 1 headmics and the SK-9000 transmitter. Commenting on the implementation, Prem Kumar, Projects Manager at Darwish Holding, the contractor for the audio portion of the deployment said, “The positive impact of the installed system was instantly noticeable. We managed to get it up and running in time for the Men’s Handball World Championship and the excellent sound quality was highly praised. This gives us the confidence that it will meet the high expectations set by the Qatar Olympic Committee for the 2022 Football Tournament.”

Bin Farooq PGE Innovations unveiled “Loud steps” which is World’s First Indoor Navigation for Visually Impaired in UAE in support with Rashid Centre for Disabled People. H.H. Sheikh Juma Bin Maktoum Bin Juma Al Maktoum inaugurated and launched world’s first Indoor Navigation Solution for Visually Impaired People at Rashid Centre for Disabled People, in Dubai. “We are together bringing a significant amount of cross-sector technology experience. Our team offers the right expertise to help you develop the products and services that are essential for growth in a highly competitive economy. We are creating & converting ideas into new technological Innovative products and services.” said

by Mr. Ali Faisal Farooq, Founder and CEO of the company. ‘Loud Steps’ is a collective effort by Mr Sarper Silaoglu, CEO of Boni and Mr. Hardik Soni, Co-founded & CTO of Bin Farooq PGE Innovations. This application aims at making life for visually impaired simpler, in a way where they can reach their desired destination particularly in an unknown indoor environment using specially designed BFPGE’ network devices and wireless signal. “Expo Centers, Airports, Schools, Malls, University Campuses, Large complicated buildings and complexes, Museums, Palaces, Parks, Convention Centers are the ideal places where we need ‘Loud Steps’.” Said Bhavna Mangal, Co-Founder and CMO of Bin Farooq PGE Innovations. At the moment, “Loud Steps” Innovative App is used in associations of Visually Impaired in UAE, Spain, USA, India, UK, Germany and Turkey.

ERADICATING COMMUNICATION BARRIERS Polycom and Microsoft plan to expand the reach of Skype for business meetings so Polycom customers of all sizes will be able to leverage their existing video investments as they move to Microsoft Office 365 and Skype for business environments. In addition, Microsoft customers new to video collaboration will have the option

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to use Polycom’s proven technologies in their new deployments.

Polycom’s RealPresence Group Series in-room video conferencing solutions will be qualified on Skype for business server and supported on Office 365. A familiar Skype for business-like user-interface on the Polycom RealPresence touch will make it even easier for Skype for

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Business users to integrate video conferencing into current workflows. Peter Leav, Chief Executive Officer, Polycom. “Our customers have told us that they rely on our combined solutions to reach the highest level of productivity and efficiency. Together, we equip our customers of all sizes with cloud-ready solutions that will help

them realise the powerful benefits of collaboration in the workplace of the future.” “Uniting Skype for Business in Office 365 with Polycom’s high-quality audio and video solutions gives customers the most complete collaboration toolkit for the modern workplace,” said Zig Serafin, Corporate Vice President, Skype for Business. .

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CHANNEL STREET

NEW DIMENSIONS OF AVAYA PARTNER PROGRAM

FADI MOUBARAK, CHANNEL DIRECTOR – MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA, AND APAC, AVAYA

Avaya is all set for the next evolution of the company’s channel partner program, with new incentives to break new ground in key markets, a greater focus on selling solutions, and a reduction in administrative requirements. Changes in the Avaya Connect partner program include a focus on All New Growth Bets – a new growth program tailored to those Avaya channel partners willing to break new ground in five specific areas of market opportunity: Midmarket, Cloud, Contact Center, Fabric Networking, and Modernize the Customer Base.

The evolved program also encourages partners to take a solution-led approach, rather than product-led, with a comprehensive training program addressing all stages of the sales lifecycle, including preand post-sales support. “Avaya Channel Partners start from a position of strength.

We are making that position even stronger with new program elements that will bolster their capabilities and reach as we streamline how we work together.” said Fadi Moubarak, Channel Director – Middle East, Africa, and APAC, Avaya

A Healthy Wave Of Security FireEye launched Mandiant ICS HealthCheck service, a minimally-invasive cyber security assessment for operators of mission-critical ICS. ICS HealthCheck was specifically designed to meet the needs of asset owners concerned about the operational risk associated with softwarebased agents, network scanning or other security evaluation techniques.

This unique methodology bridges IT security and operational technology (OT) by enabling IT security teams and the engineering staff who manage ICS infrastructure to help create and identify joint solutions to identified vulnerabilities. Dan Scali, Senior Manager, ICS Security Consulting, FireEye said, “The ICS HealthCheck

is a critical service offering for any organization running ICS infrastructure, and, as part of the FireEye platform, allows customers to benefit from our intelligence on ICS-specific threats, strategically address risks, and reduce their time to detect and respond to threats.”

Mandiant ICS HealthCheck customers receive tools like Threat Model Diagram, ICS HealthCheck report, Technical & Strategic Recommendations. modeling network architecture and dataflows, using nation-state grade intelligence to simulate possible attacks, and prioritizing controls, organizations are able to better detect and respond to the unique threats their ICS environments face.

MALWAREBYTES TO COMMENCE UAE OPERATIONS The firm’s strategy in the Middle East will be strongly channel focused and it will announce distribution partners in the coming months. To coincide with the expansion, Malwarebytes will exhibit at the GISEC. At the show, the company will showcase its Endpoint Security solution that blocks unknown and known malware and ransomware threats, before they deliver malicious code that can compromise business networks. Anthony O’Mara, Vice President, Malwarebytes, EMEA said, “Our mission is to create the best disinfection and protection software to combat the world’s extremely harmful threats and ensure that organisations across the Middle East benefit from a malware free existence.

EXPANDING THE VR ECOSYSTEM AMD is all set to underscore its dominance of the global virtual reality systems market. It revealed new advances in hardware and software to further the reach of VR, and revealed its new GPU certified program that simplifies adoption of VR technology for consumers and content creators. Raja Koduri, Senior VP and Chief Architect, Radeon Technologies Group, AMD said, “We’re bringing the technology to more people around the world through our efforts to expand the VR ecosystem with VR i-Cafés in China, new Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets, and a wide variety of content partners in gaming, entertainment, education, science, medicine, journalism and several other exciting fields.”

NEW CLOUD IN THE HORIZON Interactive Intelligence Group has made available a new customer engagement cloud service for businesses throughout the Middle East. The PureCloud Engage architecture, along with its advanced functionality, fast deployment and simple month to month subscription terms

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offers contact centers accelerated business impact, more consistent outcomes, and the most innovative customer and agent experience. Shaheen Haque, Territory Manager, Middle East & Turkey, Interactive Intelligence said, “Each and every service in our new PureCloud platform

leverages the power of the first cloud platform to use microservice architecture built on top of scalable AWS (Amazon Web Services) infrastructure, providing our customers with amazing resilience, 99.999 uptime and unparalleled feature choices that can be tailored to their particular needs.”

PureCloud Engage is architected as a set of stateless, independently load-balanced microservices running atop the scalable Amazon Web Services Cloud and includes comprehensive feature-set, including omnichannel routing, speech-enabled interactive voice response (IVR) etc.

MARKET WATCH

Mapping New Territories OMA Emirates´ hands are full for 2016. With major investment in Morocco and expansion plans in North Africa, the company has some cutting edge solutions in its kitty and has set eyes for some great growth numbers.

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 >

NIRANJ SANGAL

CEO, OMA EMIRATES- SOLUTIONS GULF.

Payment show would be an ideal platform for us to showcase our new capabilities in mobile payment. Apart from mobile, we would also showcase our tablet and kiosk payment solutions.

In the kiosk payment, we have replaced the PC with the tablet that would bring down the cost from almost USD$6000 to USD$ 2000.

EXPANDING TO NORTH AFRICAN MARKET

2016 AGENDA OMA Emirates is set to make some great noise in the payment industry in 2016. With double the growth from 2015 and anticipating 80% to 100% growth in 2016, the opportunities are endless and the company is vying for nothing but a journey up the growth curve.

“The market appeared to be slow moving when the year kicked off but now the pace is set and we are looking forward to achieving our targets.

Our recruitment figure is aligned to 30% and we are positively looking forward to keep the process steady,” said NiranjSangal, CEO of OMA Emirates.

PAYMENT TECHNOLOGIES TO WATCH OUT The banking industry has been evolving with the various emerging technologies and payment procedures have been disrupted like never before.

As UAE gears up for its annual Cards and Payment show in May, Niranj is very optimistic that the solutions will be chartbusters on customer list. “Contactless NFC would be our major focus this year,” says Niranj. “Mobile payment is a technology that has enabled the diverse sectors to rethink customer experience and purchase behaviours. Mobile banking has been gradually usurping traditional banking and the Cards and

OMA Emirates has invested in Morocco based Business Rules Solutions (BRS), an IT consulting firm that specializes in software development in advanced fields. The move supports OMA Emirate’s global expansions plans and will now have a stronger presence in the North African markets. It will also provide a base for research and development projects that will enhance the overall offerings of the company.

With Morocco operations now in place, OMA Emirates is all set to address the needs of the North African market with BRS as the regional office. The local presence paves the way for OMA Emirates to begin services in French speaking countries and North Africanmarkets thus provide sales and support functionalities to our clients.

“Our investment in BRS as a majority stake holder strengthens our Morocco operations and will help focus on our expansion plans in North Africa and will provide us the platform to have BRS as our RnD centre. Our tie-up has also initiated the development of several new products such as Mobile Banking, Core banking modules, etc,” Mr.Sangal added.” ë

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CIO SPEAK

Smart Mobility

with Oracle Retail Safeer Group´s Mobile retail innovations paradigm— Developing customer electromagnetics with fuzzy retail astrophysics. 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 >

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l Safeer Group has selected Oracle Retail applications and the Oracle E-Business Suite to integrate its business operations, improve decision-making and optimize inventory and customer service levels integrated with Oracle Mobile Store Inventory Management (MSIM). The Enterprise Mobility driven Oracle provides the most comprehensive suite of integrated, global business applications offering Al Safeer the breadth of functionality and level of data it requires to leverage visibility and improve business performance.

The core challenge had been about migrating data from the legacy Database to the Oracle Retail Database with a Fuzzy Logic and Artificial Intelligence approach to considerable retail business data sets being characterized by vast volumes, high velocities, a large variety and unknown veracity, so that these properties impart significant challenges to real time business domains when collected, managed and processed and thereby constituting a dramatic strategic innovation development in both business transformation and consumer research at large, bolstered by emerging technologies , consumer behavior and multifarious business models.

OBJECTIVE To yield Smart Infrastructure for future Smart Governance System: A Global BirdEyeView Perspective leveraging BigData Quantum Mechanics and Customer Electromagnetics.

SYNOPSIS The Enterprise Mobility driven Retail Business Transformation is possible by harmonic integration of infrastructure, citizen and administration.

Retail Big Data Modeling, IoT, Heuristics,

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OPERATIONS n The Enterprise Mobility Framework automated solution for Oracle Retail that is validated and recommended by Oracle as Mobile Store Inventory Management n The Enterprise Mobility Framework automated solution for Out-of-the-box best practice templates reduce Oracle Retail batch implementation time to a matter of days rather than months n The Enterprise Mobility Framework automated solution from Oracle’s best practice schedules forOracle Retail batch processes n The Enterprise Mobility Framework automated solution data automation capabilities allow POS / Store data transfers to be coordinated with Oracle Retail processing n The Enterprise Mobility Framework automated solution for Single point of control for business processes n The Enterprise Mobility Framework automated solution for Integration with Oracle Retail and other applications n The Enterprise Mobility Framework automated solution for improving the effectiveness and speed ofOracle Retail processing and reduces errors n The Enterprise Mobility Framework automated solution for ensuring process completion in accordance with both business and IT standards

FROM THE CUSTOMER SIDE

KUMAR PRASOON

GROUP CIO AT CENTURY MALLS— SAFEER GROUP

Quantum Mechanics, Predictive Modeling with Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Analytics had been the core of the Smart Retail – Smart Infrastructure Project to “Enhance Customer Value”, “Optimize TCO” and “Accelerate Operations Efficiency”. 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. ë

l Customer Centricity Analytics comparing physical and digital behavior. l Aligning Best Industry Practices along with Oracle Backend and Oracle Business Intelligence l The Enterprise Mobility Framework automated solution for Calculus based Promotions Optimization Schema for Products for various departments l The Enterprise Mobility Framework automated solution for Data driven intelligence for Fuzzy Retailing to make Smart Operational Decisions l The Enterprise Mobility Framework automated solution for B2B / B2C Marketing and Branding Strategy with Oracle Backend and Front end CRM Systems; and many more ….

This will create a new The Enterprise Mobility Framework Loyalty Metamorphosis in the Retail Space.

In short the mission is to mature Oracle Retail Analytics with heavy-duty quantitative modeling as the OXYGEN for the Retail Arena through the Enterprise Mobility driven OracleFramework.

COVER STORY

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AVIATION

TECHNOLOGY…..

BOARDING!

GCC airports are expected to handle 450 million passengers by 2020.

The need of the hour is unmatched customer experience. A close look at how the emerging technologies in aviation are giving ´wings´ to every aspects of the Wright Brothers´ dream machine.

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 > n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K

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s technology is growing increasingly mobile, even sky cannot be the limit. Right from visiting a travel website to booking ticket and all the way to reaching your destination, technology is empowering and ruling every aspect of aviation. On-Flight experience is altogether a different arena where technology has been dominating and redefining the customer experience.

DEPTH OF TECHNOLOGY IN AVIATION Recently, Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing the aviation industry in different aspect. A prominent area is the new generation of aircrafts where every equipment and device on the aircraft is compatible with IoT and equipped with sensors. Staying connected throughout a journey is yet another aspect that has been demanding technology to be omnipresent.

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COVER STORY

FADY YOUNES REGIONAL MANAGER ENTERPRISE SECTOR, CISCO

“To support the aviation industry Cisco has specific ruggedized solutions to meet the harsh conditions in the Middle East while complying with industry standards.”

JEFF PIKE HEAD OF STRATEGY & MARKETING, AEROSPACE &DEFENCE CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE, IFS

“IFS has built solutions with capabilities that cover all aspects of the lifecycle of aircraft, engines and components – reducing risk and operating costs by streamlining maintenance processes.”

SALIL DIGHE FOUNDER AND CEO AT META BYTE TECHNOLOGIES

“we are working with one of the largest Airlines in the world by enabling them to redefine incidents, customer care, safety audits, and quality assurances among others.”

INVESTMENT IN AVIATION Middle East smart airports investment to cross US$850 million in next 3 years

$63.2bn

$2.5bn $13.3bn $4.6bn

The commercial aviation MRO market value will be $63.2 billion in 2016,

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Global passenger number to exceed 7.3 billion by 2034

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Global market for smart airport to reach $13 billion by 2019

Air traffic in the Middle East will grow 6 per cent between 2015 and 2034

7.4% Investment of AED 100 million towards Smart Gates initiative at Dubai International Airport

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COVER STORY

AMADEUS By the end of the next decade, some people will purchase and consume travel experiences almost entirely on the basis of how shareable they are, or how much ‘capital’ they generate, via social networks. Another group of travellers will demand total simplicity and freedom from having to arrange their own travel by 2030, wanting as much as possible to be done remotely, by third parties

PRABU BALASUBRAMANYAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, TRANSSYS SOLUTIONS

“Airlines have realised they can use CXM and data analytics effectively to understand their revenue and costs patterns and to gauge route profitability.”

FLYING WITH TECHNOLOGY According to SITA IT Airport Survey, with 81 per cent of airports investing in beacons and other sensors over the next three years, passengers can look forward to a more comfortable and predictable journey through the airports. “At Amadeus we work very closely with the regional travel industry to ensure we provide advanced technology solutions to empower travel businesses to stay ahead of the game in an increasingly competitive environment. Our clientele spans travel agencies, airlines, hotels, airports, leisure providers, and even corporate clients who offer a travel desk internally for employees,” says Antoine Medawar, Vice President, Amadeus MENA. “We work on complete suite of software platform that enables aviation industry to manage and monitor multiple regulations, compliance issues, incident management, quality audits as well as product and service management. This can be applied in multiple areas of airlines and associated

METABYTE Demand for travelling is going to increase multifold worldwide. Aviation industry needs to gear up to cater to the demanding passengers.

Not all airlines would be able to adjust to market pressures and swell their bottom line. Only a few who can build a strategy, service, change according to the requirements will survive.

TRANSYS The future of the aviation industry looks bright. With the fall in oil prices, most airlines have started improving their profitability margins.

Even airlines in the US, which were struggling earlier, have now become profitable. The biggest challenge for the aviation industry earlier was the high fuel prices.

FUTURE AVIATION GULF AIR Transparency and ease of comparison between the offers of different airlines will have tremendous impact on the customers. Now with few clicks a customer can find out how much each airline are charging for a specific ticket and of course the winning airline will be the one with the cheapest fare. That’s why it is very crucial for airlines to differentiate themselves, not only with additional services, but also with their core products, the seats, meals on boards, insurance for punctuality and other products like tours, hotels. It is no longer about just selling a seat.

QUICK

READ

Japan Airlines, recently trialled Google Glass in the maintenance process. Glasses are worn by engineers working around the aircraft on the tarmac which send images of the aircraft are to maintenance specialists for assessment.

operations, be it ground handling, technical maintenance, audits, quality, catering, product and customer management, Crisis management and so on,” says SalilDighe, founder and CEO at Meta Byte Technologies.

“In aviation for example, besides ATC, cargo handling, etc, the Internet of things (IoT) has been making a strong impact on other aspects of the aviation management including security, passenger experiences, medical rescue, etc.” says FadyYounes, Regional Manager Enterprise Sector, Cisco. Better aviation systems increases mobility and improve safety of millions of people in an environmentally conscious way.

Using location intelligence from wi-fi and mobile services, airlines can increase efficiency with passenger location tracking, and boost satisfaction with location-enabled mobile applications.

“3D printing, or additive manufacturing (AM), is quickly becoming a ‘must have’ for aviation manufacturers - Boeing and Airbus have been using the process to manufacture components

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COVER STORY

FUTURE TRAVELLER

TRIBES 2030 Social Capital Seekers will structure their holidays almost exclusively with online audiences in mind, relying heavily on peer reviews and recommendations to validate their decisions. A whole new market may open up based on “Kloutboosting breaks”, filled with consciously feed-friendly moments

ANTOINE MEDAWAR VICE PRESIDENT, AMADEUS MENA

Cultural Purists will look at holiday-making as a chance to immerse oneself in an alien - even uncomfortably so - culture, where enjoyment of the break depends on the authenticity of the experience

Ethical Travellers will make travel plans based on moral grounds, for example decreasing their carbon footprint or improving the lives of others. They will often improvise or add some element of volunteering, community development or ecosustainable activity to their holidays

Simplicity Searchers will prefer bundled offers, seeking to avoid managing too many trip details themselves. Holidays for this tribe represent a rare time in life to pamper oneself with the assurance of their safety and enjoyment

Obligation Meeters will be driven by a specific purpose for travel, whether business or leisure, and thus have constraints on time and budget; they will seek smart algorithm based technology that is able to remove the hassle of travel

“At Amadeus we work very closely with the regional travel industry to ensure we provide advanced technology solutions to empower travel businesses to stay ahead of the game in an increasingly competitive environment” for over two years now. Instead of ordering in parts from any given corner of the globe, 3D printing could allow A&D enterprises to access the design electronically and manufacture the required part quickly, cost-efficiently and crucially, on-site,” says Jeff Pike, Head of Strategy & Marketing, Aerospace & Defence Centre of Excellence, IFS. “Airlines have realised they can use CXM and data analytics effectively to understand their revenue and costs patterns and to gauge route profitability,” says PrabuBalasubramanyan, Executive Director, TransSys Solutions

BIG DATA IN AVIATION

Reward Hunters are only interested in indulgent travel. Many have come to crave something that represents an extraordinary reward or ‘must have’ premium experience, a return on their hard earned investment of time and energy in their

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Big data is definitely a game changer for the aviation industry. It is providing new dimensions to the way customers are served by offering them the best rates, destinations and experiences possible.

Amadeus believes, big data will require the industry to address a number of challenges: Technology complexity; data accuracy and rights

COVER STORY

KEY TECHNOLOGIES DRIVING GROWTH IN AVIATION Amadeus Mobile Traveller, Amadeus e-Travel Management, Amadeus Ticket Changer and Amadeus Content Store´

WHAT THE CIO SAYS

IFS also recently brought out IFS Streams on Apple Watch – notifications can actively alert workers when changes happen in business objects, workflow tasks, conversations, and business events that relate to their work.

JASSIM HAJI,

DIRECTOR OF IT, GULF AIR

One of the most important initiatives is implementing mobility at different touch points of the passenger journey.

It starts with utilizing mobiles as a direct sales channel for the airline in order to have wider reaches. Then using tablets by the cabin crew during the flights to offer unique and personalized services to the passengers where the crew can know in advance their passengers profiles, their seat assignments, special meal requests, and other important information to make the passenger feel known and at home. Pilots can use tablets as Electronic Flight Bags in order to replace the heavy paper- based manuals, such solutions improves the operations, provides accurate performance calculations (take-off and landing) and increases on time performance. Even in backend functions like aircraft maintenance and engineering can leverage tablets to carry their field tasks instead of relying on filling forms, filing them and distributing them.

of use; business and technological alignment; the need for data specialists. Antonie remarks, “At Amadeus, we are committed to understanding better the impact of major trends in our industry and to facilitate discussion on those issues most likely to deliver change.Big data can provide insights that help deliver a more intelligent travel experience than has ever been possible before.

There is an equally important opportunity to ‘put the fun back into travel’, which at its very heart is about improving the passenger experience.”

“We’ve been collecting Big Data for some time - each Boeing 787 is said to collect 500GB worth of data during every flight – it’s what you do with the data that matters and we are able to scale data collection down to a point where we are able to actually use these large pools of information,” says Jeff. “By analysing the Big Data, airlines are able to understand customer behaviour and are able to offer them the best rates, destinations and experiences possible. From tracking bags to boosting customer loyalty to personalizing offers and optimizing operations, Big Data analytics

IFS has worked with XM Realityto help to broaden the capabilities of maintenance ngineers on the ground.

can do it all,” says Prabhu.

THE ROAD AHEAD FOR THE CIOS As competition sets the stage in fire for the airlines, CIOs are facing increased challenge in bringing down the costs while optimizing service.

As Meta Byte believes, Newer and challenging technologies like robotics and autonomic software’s can help CIO’s to automate many of the manual and mundane processes.

Some of these are even evolving and possibly in future, airlines industry needs to invest in innovating with these small and upcoming technology companies.Cisco is helping airlines and airport operators remain competitive by, Integrating old and new wireless networks to protect IT investments, Providing integrated IP video surveillance for greater safety and efficiency, Offering value added services for passengers, employees, and airport tenants, Providing new business models for airlines, airport operators, and retailers, Delivering

TransSys: Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution leveraging Oracle’s Cloud applications, called PACE (Pre-Configured Airline Cloud ERP),

greater mobility and collaboration.

“IFS has developed, Enterprise Operational Intelligence (EOI), a solution which provides CIOs with an ERP solution that gives them a 360 degree view of their entire business operations, processes and performance aligned with the business strategy. EOI software provides endusers with a complete understanding of which functions deliver customer value, those that are less effective and those that waste both time and resources” says Jeff.

FINALLY Technology will be able to personalize and streamline traveller experience like never before.

While drafting this story, I had casually asked our experts about the possibility of a ´Pilotless Plane´in the near future, given the fact that we already have driverless cars and driverless metro in place. For obvious reasons, No´s exceeded the Yes. But technology can be put to test and as I mentioned earlier, when it comes to technology, even Sky is not the limit. Just let it ´Fly High´. ë

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MOBILITY

Running Through the Veins of the Modern Enterprise The global BYOD & Enterprise mobility market is estimated to reach USD 360.07 billion by 2020, at a CAGR 27.6 % from 2015 to 2020.

The framework is set, the policies are clear! Now it is all about seeing how diverse verticals and enterprises are putting the pieces of the security puzzles together in creating a Secure Mobile Enterprise.

n WORDS: ANUSHREE <ANUSHREE@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

“We are no longer in a mobile first world; we are in a mobile only world” —LARRY PAGE

CO-FOUNDER OF GOOGLE, CEO OF ALPHABET.

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s the suffix ´Place´ slowly gets eradicated from the term Workplace, there is a whole new world of opportunities lying there that is booming with emerging technologies in mobility that satiates the demands of an anywhere/anytime work environment.

What matters at the end of the day is that,

if implemented in silos, no approach to mobility will meet the increasing demands of organizations that are grappling with an ‘anywhere workforce’.

TRANSFORMING ENTERPRISE EFFECIENCY In the new digital economy and hyperconnected era, trends such as IoT, digital transformation, cloud, social media, big data and mobility will transform enterprise efficiency businesses. Over the years, we have seen mobile devices not only keeping us connected to our workplace and colleagues, they are also increasingly becoming symbolic to our identity and has been securing our data. As Marc Hanne, Director of Sales, DACH, CEE, and Middle East, Identity Assurance with HID Global

states, “We’ve begun to turn phones into ID cards, keys and computer logon tokens while plugging security holes that mobility had initially introduced. Moving forward, continuing advancements will enable a new, more secure identity lifestyle built around the convenience and ubiquity of our ever-present mobile devices.”

SECURING THE WORKPLACE A mobile enterprise and a secure enterprise may seem paradoxical. But groundbreaking innovations have removed the OR from the picture and made this a reality. . Using encryption, containerization, app-wrapping and BlackBerry’s secure global infrastructure, BES12 is a cross platform EMM solution that locks down critical data both on the device and in transit,” says Nader

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SPECIAL STORY

NADER HENEIN

REGIONAL DIRECTOR, ADVANCED SECURITY SOLUTIONS – ADVISORY DIVISION, BLACKBERRY

ARTHUR DELL

MARC HANNE

DIRECTOR, TECHNOLOGY & SERVICES, MIDDLE EAST, TURKEY AND AFRICA, CITRIX

DIRECTOR OF SALES, DACH, CEE, AND MIDDLE EAST, IDENTITY ASSURANCE, HID GLOBAL

“A diverse workforce with experience in many other markets around the world also require organizations to stay abreast of the latest security, productivity and mobility advances to ensure the best work environment”

“Citrix solutions are designed to benefit customers of any industry and we ensure that a customer adopts the best solution for them that not only enhances their experience with IT but also improves business performance.”

“Continuing advancements will enable a new, more secure identity lifestyle built around the convenience and ubiquity of our everpresent mobile devices.”

DATA CONNECTIVITY PRIVACY AND COMPLIANCE

ENTERPRISE SYSTEM INTEGRATION

PERSISTANT CHALLENGES

DATA SECURITY

BEING INTACT WITH TECHNOLOGY

According to Radixweb, the following are the key challenges in enterprise mobility.

Henein, Regional Director, Advanced Security Solutions – Advisory Division, BlackBerry. One of the best ways to manage security is with an identity management solution, which offers mobile support, and two-factor authentication.

“From a HID Global perspective, organisations will get the best user experience, and security, by

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investing in ActivID Tap Authentication, which offers two-factor authentication” says Marc.

“Our Mobile Workspace Suite, provides enterprise-grade security to ensure data and applications remain secure and compliant. The tool minimizes loss of intellectual property and sensitive private information through the

centralization of apps and desktops in the data center, elsewhere it can secure data directly on the device. With Mobile Workspace, employees have secure access to all of their content wherever they are, on any device, whilst remaining productive,” says Arthur Dell, Director, Technology & Services, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Citrix.

While embracing new technological trends such as BYOD, it’s better to have some guidelines based on employee roles, IT requirements for device usage, permission to access resources, etc. As Mathivanan Venkatachalam, Director of Product Management, ManageEngine says, “All enterprise policies on employee-owned hardware usage need to be thoroughly reviewed and where necessary, updated and extended. And, it doesn’t stop with enforcing policies.”

BEING A CIO´S BEST BUDDY BYOD and COPE have introduced the modern enterprises and the CIOs with an uphill task of babysitting the applications embedded on to the network. Putting up a robust security frame-

SPECIAL STORY

THE ROBUST SOLUTIONS PORTFOLIO BLACKBERRY

MATHIVANAN VENKATACHALAM DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT, MANAGEENGINE

DAN SMITH HEAD OF INTEGRATED MARKETING FOR THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA REGION OF XEROX’S DEVELOPING MARKETS OPERATIONS

“Criteria such as employee “Xerox has been designation, performance, consistently working on frequency of travel, or providing a seamless whether an individual mobile print experience requires offline access to and to address the evolving sensitive data can be taken needs of the mobile worker” into account to determine who can bring their own devices.” work becomes the mandate. “The BlackBerry platform is purpose built for security and to address these challenges by providing the best protection for content across operating systems.” says Nader. As Arthur says, when meeting customers, Citrix understands the different business requirements and potential challenges facing today’s CIO. Citrix solutions are designed to benefit customers of any industry and we ensure that a customer adopts the best solution for them that not only enhances their experience with IT but also improves business performance.

BEST IN CLASS ENTERPRISES VS THE LAGGARDS At the end of the day it is not just about having a mobile strategy. As Larry Page truly mentioned, we are no more in a mobile first world, but a mobile only word. Hence the enterprises have to differentiate themselves by defining their clear goals and policies and having a futuristic and long term planning for the same. As Nader puts

it across, “It is definitely an advantage to ensure that the EMM solution is capable of supporting different workloads and roles in the organization as well as corporate and personally owned device deployments. Here in the region, the trend has always been about early adoption, and we also have an extremely innovative and technologysavvy public sector that is often at the forefront.

A diverse workforce with experience in many other markets around the world also require organizations to stay abreast of the latest security, productivity and mobility advances to ensure the best work environment – within and outside the premises.

FINALLY Going by the wave, there is no stop to the BYOD or CYOD trends. In fact, these have increasedly become an enterprise architecture that the business has to adapt to and modify its parameters accordingly. The collective forces of technology providers and users have created a platform where mobility is running through the veins of the servers and networking as well. ë

n Good Secure EMM Suites by BlackBerry, which is a comprehensive set of mobile security, management, productivity and collaboration offerings. n WatchDox centralizes mobilizing and securing content, users can confidently access, share and collaborate on even the most sensitive files, on all devices, across all interfaces. n AtHoc is BlackBerry´s secure network crisis communication solution

CITRIX

n XenDesktop - securely delivers virtual Windows desktops & apps on any device n XenApp - mobilises and secures Windows apps on any device n XenMobile - manages and secures mobile, web and software as service apps and mobile devices n Netscaler - provides secure remote access to apps and data from any device. n Sharefile – enables to sync and share enterprise files securely n Mobile Workspaces Suite - a complete, integrated mobility solution for helping people and business become more productive with an on-demand mobile workspace

HID

n HID Global’s ActivID Tap Authentication for multi-factor authentication to networks, cloud apps and web services n HID Mobile Access supports Bluetooth Smart and NFC to securely open doors with smartphones and other smart devices

ManageEngine

n Mobile Device Manager Plus is a strategic response to the unrelenting growth of enterprise mobility and the ensurng rise of mobile-centric organizations.

XEROX

Xerox Mobile Access App n This application helps to remotely access a Xerox multifunctional peripheral (MFP) from a tablet.

Xerox Mobile Link App n This application helps to leverage the mobile device interface and resources to streamline workflows.

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and protect them and revanish for them as we get approved responsiveness and better overall efficiency and customer experience when they can put more intelligence in the branch level.

What should be the roadmap of CIOs to enable this transformation, what do you advise them, what are the points where they are lagging in?

The first thing on road map is east west traffic management micro segmentation, often done through virtual appliances which we have got a4 featured implementation for all hypervisors. And if they plan to use hardware based appliances integrated with software for networking then we have a product called the FortiCore, thatprovides the ability to scale network-based securitysolutions to meet the performance demands of emerging cloud anddata center architectures.

When it comes to the smart branches, as they refresh their branches and refresh the edge gateways, then that’s an opportunity for them to look at Fortinet as a device and not only access the road but as a security element for their branch.

TYSON MACAULAY,

CHIEF SECURITY STRATEGIST AND VP SECURITY SERVICES, FORTINET.

Securing IoT AT THE RECENTLY HELD GARTNER IOTXSYMPOSIUM, TYSON MACAULAY, CHIEF SECURITY STRATEGIST AND VP SECURITY SERVICES FROM FORTINET SPOKE ON ‘RIOT CONTROL: MANAGING RISK AND THE INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT)’. OUR EXCLUSIVE CONVERSATION REVEALS RIOT DETERMINANTS AND

Being a security vendor IoT is a land of opportunity, what are the key challenges you see ahead?

IoT is an area of intense interest to us, we have got a book coming out in 3 months on this topic. The key challenge is that, in most IoT devices, that have been entering the market of late, security is an afterthought. Devices are made quickly and cheaply, but security is compromised. Todeploy IoT in a secured manner you need to have capabilities inside the networking and inside the gateway to make up for lack of security in IoT devices.The first reasonable control point in the enterprise network is going to be gateways or networks and data centers and this is where Fortinet will offer solutions because we have fully scalable network capabilities from small branches to big carriers of data centres.

THE ROADMAP AHEAD.

How is Fortinet helping enterprises to rise up to the challenges in digital transformation?

The greatest challenges for the CIOs are virtualization, increased adoption of cloud, and the rise of smart offices and centralized infrastructure. Fortinet has an excellent line up of products at the appliance level for operating on the perimeter of the data centers which can scale up further in terms of speed and capacity.

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Using micro segmentation, we have fully virtualized the east west traffic coming inside the data center and implemented multiple firewalls and walls of security for the DC based users. For the hybrid users and smart branches here in Middle East, we have a full range of appliances scaled down to the branch level which can provide excellent security out of the remote sites for a lot of these businesses allowing them to put more valuable assets out there

Is end-to-end security a reality?

For me end to end security means that at every point of your design or your model, you’ve got some type of capabilities that you can use to bounce off a weakness in another part. In most IoT architectures you have end points, gateways, networks, data centers etc andif you can have a security capability at each of those points then you can turn them up and down and bounce them according to the threat or risk and that’s very effective rather than relying on every single perimeter based security and letting traffic just flow uninterrupted. ë

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CORPORATE STORY

MAKING THE RIGHT ´MOVE´

Tony Alam walks on to the aisle of Emitac Enterprise Solutions at a crucial period in the organization´s history as it celebrates 40 years of success and excellence in the region and is all geared up for the launch of its new ´Cloud´ offering. Anushree Dixit of Enterprise Channels MEA had a candid conversation with the new CEO who is all set to architect the future of EES n B Y: A N U S H R E E < 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 >

“You cant stop the waves, but you can learn to surf ” —JOHN KABAT-ZIN

T

he UAE Ministry of Happiness, in yet another novel initiative, is putting forward a proposal to have a CEO of Happiness on board the private sectors. A new wave of change is all set to touch the regional enterprise´s shores.

Embodying a major transition, Emitac Enterprise Solutions welcomed on board their new CEO, Tony Alam amidst the celebrations of EES´s 40 years in the region. Having completed 4 successful decades of service excellence in the region, EES is repositioning and redefining its core values with the unveiling of the new logo— symbolizing and embodying the transition that the organization has embarked on.

A NEW FACE FOR A NEW PHASE “Emitac Enterprise Solutions has a rich history and strong legacy. The transition is to set a new path for the years to come by leveraging the legacy,” said Tony Alams, CEO of Emitac Enterprise Solutions. According to Tony, the Middle East, especially Dubai, is poised for some strong momentum on the enterprise services market, which sets the stage for EES to go to the market with some new aces up its sleeve.

As the newest member of the family, Tony feels

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DOWN THE CAREER LANE Tony is a proven leader and seasoned executive with more than 30 years of experience in the Middle East market. Before being named the CEO of EES, Tony Alam held several leadership positions in IT and Investment business in the region.

As a Managing Director of CNS for more than 10 years, he made the company grow significantly, leading transformation from a traditional reseller to a system integrator and managed services provider. Before joining EES, Tony served as the COO of Aban Investments, shouldering the responsibility of overseeing 6 operating companies.

that he has a challenging journey ahead, given the industry dynamics. “Mobility is changing the life of people and business alike. IT has seen major transitions in the last 2 years and we are working to be on top of this transition and offer our customers, solutions and services which will help them in responding to their client´s increasing and changing demand. Tony adds that he has been a part of the group for a few decades now and that it was a mandate by the board of Emitac to have him as the new face of EES. “We are in a continuous development and progress mode and I am pleased to be a part of this success journey”.

A SYNERGY OF FAVOURABLE SITUATIONS “The slackening of oil prices has been the talk of town since a long time now. But, the UAE in general is not affected by this turmoil as the govern-

ment has made this an Oil independent economy.

IT is a true business enabler; hence I see a lot of potential in the 2016 market. The market has been inclining towards the services area since a long time now and this is a perfect opportunity for Emitac to grab the game. Organizations are looking for holistic services that can reduce their cost as well as optimize their operations. IoT and Big Data have put a humungous amount of data on the enterprises dashboards and have been changing the whole framework of IT, further creating opportunities for us.” He adds that the modern customers want tailored solutions. They want to focus more on the core operations, hence paving way for other services to be outsourced.

“Emitac comes to the picture as the ´Partner of Choice´ here by eliminating the headache and empowering the business to focus on their core business operations.”

2016- GET SET GO Tony says that the 2016 market is filled with opportunities, wherein customers would look for reduced costs and optimized services. “More and more solutions and services will be moved to the cloud. That is where our expertise would benefit them. We help the customers move their critical assets to the cloud so that they need not carry the burden of having a number of technicians to babysit the solutions.”

THE ROAD TO TRANSITION “The opportunity ahead for Emitac is vast, but to seize it, we must focus, move fast and continue

CORPORATE STORY

TONY ALAM

CEO, EMITAC ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS

“Change is the only constant factor. It is all about understanding the past and reading the future.” to transform. A big part of my job is to accelerate our ability to deliver a wide range of innovative technology solutions and services to our customers.” As a part of the transition, Emitac would also be unveiling their new logo—A logo that would symbolize the rise of the legacy that Emitac has proudly carried over the decades.

EES—5 YEARS DOWN THE LANE As Tony brilliantly puts it across— “To be a good leader, you have to understand the past and read

the future.” Whenever a new member comes on board an organization, a very general question that is put across is— Where do you see yourself 5 years down the lane? So where does the CEO see his company standing 5 years down the lane? A smile flashes across his face as he humbly replies to the question, “I see Emitac Enterprise Solution 3 times bigger by 2020 and we would be the No 1 Partner of Choice for our regional clients in both the managed services and cloud offerings. It is all about scrutinizing the change, understanding it and adapting to the change.”

THE CEO AGENDA FOR 2016 1.

EXPAND OUR MANAGED SERVICE PORTFOLIO AND OFFERINGS

2.

EXPAND AND ACCELERATE OUR CLOUD OFFERINGS

3.

BE THE PARTNER OF CHOICE FOR OUR EXISTING AND NEW CLIENTS

MESSAGE TO THE REGIONAL COLLEAGUES Always compete on adding value rather than price. At the end of the day all that matters is ´Value´.

THE HAPPY CEO So, as we started— The Happy CEOs will soon be seen playing a crucial role in empowering their organizations and colleagues alike. Tony shares with us his ´Happy Mantra´. “The main objective of a CEO is to keep all stakeholders happy. For shareholders, he has to give them a good return on their investment, and increase constantly the reputation and the value of the company. For clients, he has to ensure that clients are getting the best solutions, service and support to help them meet their everchanging needs. While for the company’s staff, the main objective of the CEO is to create a healthy, transparent, and lively environment, where employees feel that they are a vital part of the company’s success, their contribution is valued and rewarded, their career development is clear, their ambitions are considered.

An environment of equality, fairness, positive challenge and reward. If you take care of your employees you will never need to worry about your business. ë

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GUEST TALK

VCE

The Power of Converged Infrastructure in a World of Digital Diversity Barry Cashman divulges into the added value that employees can offer when an agile application is delivered to them that reduces the time and money spent on system maintenance.

Regardless of their size, sector or geography, most businesses have very similar goals. To enhance productivity, increase sales, create and launch new products and services, and enter new markets. The technology that enables them to achieve these goals weaves through the business in a complex, interdependent web of mobile devices, virtualised environments, CRM processes, networks and storage capability.

Companies,and their IT teams in particular face a number of challenges when trying to optimise the way this internal digital web works.

Compute, network and storage systems need to be able to accommodate simultaneously the demands of all these different digital technologies and applicationsas well as vast volumes of structured and unstructured data. In this environment the weaknesses of legacy or fragmented IT infrastructures soon reveal themselves.

We believe passionately that business success in today’s digital economy requires an IT infrastructure that is flexible, scalable, predictable and manageable. This can sometimes be challenging to achieve, but the integration of compute, network and storage into a single converged infrastructure makes a significant difference.

WHAT A BUSINESS REALLY NEEDS FROM IT The list is a simple one: technology that

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n W O R D S : B A R R Y C A S H M A N , V P, E M E A , V C E

lets employees do their jobs effectively and securely, wherever they may be; that enables fast, high-performancebusiness operations; and that ensures everything works the way it needs to, regardless of what else is going on at the time.

A converged infrastructure system helps a business to achieve all of this. It makesIT more agile, reduces the time and money spent on system maintenance and increases overall IT performance. Further, it makes IT staff more efficient andfrees up their expertiseto add value elsewhere.

THE NEED FOR SPEED As companies change, their underlyingIT infrastructure needs to change as well. It has to become more flexible, scalable, and adaptable – and to be able to introduce changes quickly and effectively. IT departments need to accelerate their ability to deliver new applications, add new features and functionality, and to scale capability quickly — both up and down — as demands change.

The IDC study confirmed thatthese needs can be met comprehensively by a converged infrastructuresystemthat embraces the cloud.

The cloud connection is particularly valuable as it enables integrationwith othercloud services such as databases and applications. This offers an

extremely effective springboard for new business innovation.

NO MORE MUNDANE MONDAYS Converged infrastructures can resemble IT services more than hardware systems and for many professionals working in infrastructure that represents quite a change. The transition towards a new way of working should be seen as a valuable and welcome chance to upskill and bring professional careers up to date.

IT INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS CONVERGE TO SUPPORT A WORLD THAT DIVERGING Converged infrastructure is here to stay. IDC predicts that IT departments will spend more than $10 billion this year on converged infrastructure systems,and up to $14.3 billion in 2018. This is hardly surprising at a time when the powerful forces of mobile, cloud, social and big data are hammering at the door of every business.

The good news is that, with a converged infrastructure in place it doesn’t matter how many servers, applications, virtual desktops, operating systems, PCs, tablets, smartphones or customer traffic your business deals with; all roads lead to home: your secure, centrally managed, capable converged infrastructure. ë

MANAGED SERVICES

EMITAC ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS

Reaping the Benefits of Managed Services As Muhammad Salman, Head of Managed Services, Emitac Enterprise Solutions, poses for the lens, one can see a mixed hue of pride, confidence and success. With some hard hitting value propositions and new services for a region with a mature cloud appetite, EES is all set to reap the benefits of the managed service harvest which has turned a new page in the calendar as well as Emitac history.

´As you sow, so shall you reap´ - AN OLD SAYING.

In 2014, when the market was abuzz with the ´Cloud´ buzzword, Emitac Enterprise Solutions decided to walk an extra mile and play an ace card— Managed Services.

Well, let us term it as a risk worth taking, whose benefits EES is reaping now.

THE JOURNEY As Salman puts it across, from an ice cube to a snowball, the journey of EES on the path of Managed Services has been fantastic. “During the course, we learnt a lot, tweaked a lot of our solutions and got on board a good number of customers who have been the result of a right value proposition.”

Salman says that, for EES, the development of managed services has been inorganic since they entered late to the market. “But the way we have developed ourselves has been commendable and I see a very bright future for Emitac.” EES´ focus for 2016-17 would be primarily on two things; growing their data center managed services and bringing to the market new capabilities in ´Cloud as a Service”. “For cloud services the market is in the maturity phase but the competition is tough.

Those who bring this service the fastest will win

the game.” Emitac targets to have a good number of customers before Ramadan. “This year will see a Cloud Stabilization and we will see the cloud being used for different platforms,” says Salman.

“Customers can have VPC´s but the brand that we are debuting is the Ínfinet Cloud¨.”

INFINET CLOUD INFINET Cloud stands for Infinite Infrastructure on the network. “We call it an a ´la carte model.

There is no fixed billing, no minimum commitments, the customers can come onboard and use it as they want. There are a couple of services which the customers can use it for Hosted Infrastructure as a Service, DRaaS, Backup as a service, Desktop as a service etc. The cloud has matured

extensively in the Middle East market and a lot of governments are also embracing it. So, the time is just right! Yet another offering on the cloud space is the Business Cloud for SMB markets. “It con-

nMUHAMMAD SALMAN, HEAD OF MANAGED SERVICES, EES.

“IT will always be a business enabler and never a decision maker. It is the instincts of the customers that will drive the change”

flicts with our major idea of Enterprise solutions but we are seeing a great potential in the UAE for SMBs. As SMBs would be more interested in having a watch over their budget, the business cloud would come as a true business enabler that hosts the entire workplace, right from emailing to erp, on the cloud. The configuration is customized as per the requirement, thus immensely flexible 2016 OPPORTUNITIES From 0 resources last year to 60 odd resources placed with different customers, the managed service saga is self explanaotory. Growing from 30% services to 40%, the EES cloud and service are completely geared to be a CIOs best friend with immense flexibility and increased trust. “For 2016 our agenda is to convert threat into opportunities.

If we provide the right value proposition, we will survive. What the CIOs have to bear in mind is that, business has to be independent of the term ´control´. Managed services is the future and being dynamic is the mandate.” ë

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HAYDARFURGAC,

SALES DIRECTOR, MENA, ARKADIN

Workplace Reimagined Tanvir Osama, VP Middle East, PRYSM What is PRYSM in a nutshell?

We are a California based organization specializing in Visual Workplace Solution. The solutionallows the users to carry their data/content, presentations and store it in the cloud and access it anywhere on a connected screen or any mobile device, desktop, tablet PC which is connected to the internet using a browser interface. So it gives you the power to collaborate with teams whether it is across single room or multiple rooms or multiple sites or anywhere with the mobile platform.

Another important concept is bimodal enterprise.What are the legacy solutions that have to be retained and what are the emerging technologies enterprises must adapt to?

As far as Prysm solutions are concerned we are platform agnostic, so it could be mode one kind of operation in which they have significant infrastructure already,. For mode 2 companies we give them the option to start with one or two rooms, experiment the whole thing, take couple of user licenses to experiment with the mobile and as they get comfortable with it they can expand as per their company growth, objective and plan. So it fits in exactly with mode one and mode two kind of concept.

How does the workplace of tomorrow look like to you?

Today work is not a place, it is an activity which we are performing all the time and we are connected 24/7, so it is either by email or any other form of interaction. So the whole idea of workplace has changed, there is no concept of workplace. If you visit our website, you will see the entire concept of visual workplace, that’s our objective how to educate people and show them what we can do so they can leverage it if it falls in their scheme of things. ë

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Empowering Workplace Communications Describe your organization in brief We are a collaboration service provider and we are only working on cloud based solutions. We are providing to our enterprise customers audio conferencing solutions, web conferencing solutions and video conferencing solutions.

How CIO friendly are your solutions?

Most of our services is working on the license basis, so it means there is a very fast return on investment so this is a very good IT environment to show the benefit of the service to all the CIOs because this is the topic that all the keynote speakers have been talking about; the change and how are we going to make the change and how we are going to reinforce the power of communication.

How do you as an organization define Transformation?

Let’s say a decade ago or 5-7 years ago we were able to fly from one location to another and to talk or meet. But today we are living in a more global world, every single day you wake up to a more digitalized world, means that everything is going on a fast pace, and everything is more human dependent, so this is the issue that we are trying to solve meaning fast communication whenever you want and anytime, anywhere. This is what we are doing.

IoT is the latest buzz word, how do you see this whole trend coming up?

It is going to be more intensive. Transformation will be a mandate because the world is changing.Technology will take center stage and we have to compile with it and play with the rules. ë

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FEATURE

OMAN

Beckoning a Digital Wave

The Arabian Peninsula of Oman is a mid-sized economy which is largely dependent on oil and gas. The visionary stand and proactive government initiatives are changing the face of the region. The extensive use of ICT mechanisms and developing civic monitoring using advanced solutions has been a striking feature of this â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Pearl of Arabiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Vision 2020 has laid emphasis on the development of various sectors, encouraging investments, fostering innovative techniques and developing ICT understanding through training. The declining petroleum prices has led to several changes proposed in the General Budget 2016.

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FEATURE

n W O R D S : S O N A L < S O N A L @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

O

man adopted a forward looking strategy a decade ago which opens doors for a progressive ICT infrastructure and growth in the fiscal environment.

The technological landscape is a promising one leading to innovative outlook in both government and private sectors. The Business Monitor predicts the IT market to recover over the medium term and register a CAGR of 5.1% for 2016-2019, with considerably stronger growth forecast for 2018 and 2019, an overall growth of 28% is highlighted between 2012-2018 due to rising IT investments. The major revenue of

the region is earned from the petroleum market, however owing to the fluctuating oil prices the economy has suffered largely, but concentration has been shifted on infrastructure and development of other sectors in Oman. There have been large amounts of flow of capital seen in this region due to the foreword thinking attitude and extremely modernized solutions adopted by the Information Technological Authority (ITA).

The major developments in the Sultanate is due to the ICT landscape which is fast evolving and appropriately materialized. The ICT penetration is growing horizontally across all sectors.

Domestic infrastructure is a key component

of Oman’s expanding ICT industry. “In Oman the government has always been one of the key investors in terms of IT and IT security, and that trend will continue in 2016. Owing to reduced oil prices, investments are being made at a moderate pace, and the same can be said of Oman’s private sector. The latter has, generally speaking, always

GLOBAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY REPORT 2015, (WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM) RANKED THE SULTANATE OF OMAN 44TH FOR “NETWORKED READINESS”

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FEATURE

invested in IT at a moderate pace.” said Fadi Yehia, Territory Manager, Fortinet.

PIONEERING A MODERN DAY SULTANATE

ZIAD SALAMEH

MANAGING DIRECTOR & GENERAL MANAGER GULF, LEVANT & PAKISTAN AND MIDDLE EAST SERVICES LEADER, CISCO

FADI YEHIA TERRITORY MANAGER, FORTINET

“Oman is still in the phase of building its “Security constitutes a infrastructure, and key pillar in the eOman investments in traditional initiative, where data IT will continue for the is a vital ingredient of foreseeable future at a a successful ‘Smart’ economy in which billions reasonable pace. We see of sensors, smart devices, investments in data centers, networking and security, social websites and video servers and storage.” cameras are generating staggering amounts of new ‘big data’.”

TRA FIGURES FOR THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2015 FOR FIXED BROADBAND CONNECTION SUBSCRIBERS Less than 1Mbps, 0.40%

1Mbps to 2Mbps, 2.40%

2Mbps to 10Mbps, 94%

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‘A ruler with a vision can sculpt the future of a nation’, this holds true in case of Oman. His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s idea of e-Governance led to the starting of an initiative called e.oman, a portal built for effective flow of communication between government and citizens, thus building a government-community-citizen infrastructure and promoting knowledge-based society. The Omani government has been the backbone of IT development making the country modernized with IT solutions. The government organizations have adopted technologies like cloud computing and communication, constant emphasis is given on improving exchange of information and storing information. Government is building a platform which can be used to share information via middleware. “A connected and unified e-Government IT infrastructure and enhanced e-Government services for individuals and businesses are some of the projects which provide the base for a greater uptake of ICT and which will positively impact all other sectors of the economy.” said Ziad Salameh, Managing Director & General Manager Gulf, Levant & Pakistan and Middle East Services Leader, Cisco.

There has been emphasis on various eGovernment activities like ePassport, Mobile ID, eSignatures to name a few. Royal Oman Police operates a management system with a single unified registration platform for all identity documents used in Oman, this definitely makes the back office operations more fluid. Oman Vision

‘G-Cloud’ won GITEX award in 2014 for Best Virtualization Solution Implementation

of 2020 also has laid a foundation of a forward thinking development plan. Modern solutions like Cisco Smart+Connected City Parking solution provides citizens with real-time information about available parking. The solution gathers and delivers data by combining the foundational Smart+Connected City Wi-Fi infrastructure with IP cameras, sensors, and smartphone apps, Cisco Connected Health solutions and services enables new levels of communication and collaboration between patients, providers, payers and life science organizations. These updated and useful solutions are acting as catalysts to improve the region and help in making it a ‘Smart Country’.

FEATURE

and security for better situational awareness.

With onboard Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G connectivity it enhances the passenger experience.There is a new service to deploy biometric border management system as well which consists of risk management for traveler’s data from air and cruise lines which will be used as check points. eVisa is another mechanism for centralized visitor information system.

‘G’ CLOUD

OMAN VISION 2020 n Educating and inculcating ICT understanding among the citizens as well as professionals to enhance the ICT infrastructure and promote IT landscape. n

Developing the private sector for optimum utilization of natural as well as human resources.

n

Promoting the idea and importance of development among citizens.

n Reduce dependence on oil sector’s contribution and create more employment opportunities by concentrating on other verticals. n

Changing the role of government in the economy and broadening private sector participation.

n

Diversifying the economic base and sources of national income.

n

Globalizing the Omani economy.

OBSTACLES FOR OMAN

IDENTITY ON-THE-GO One of the major IT development was the introduction of Mobile ID which was developed by the government in collaboration with Finland’s Valimo. This revolutionary electronic ID enables the citizens to use electronically embedded ID card on their mobile phones, this also allows holders to sign legally binding documents and access official service. The mobile ID application is tied in with the national ID system and Oman’s civil register. BankDhofar has entered into an agreement with the Information Technology Authority (ITA) to use the authority’s Mobile ID service for its Internet banking services. The mobile ID is citizen friendly and uses simple technology to ensure user friendliness.

MAJOR ITA eOMAN PROJECTS

Oman saw the advent of G-Cloud in 2013, which is an Oman government initiative for serving Omani government entities. The cloud works on shared IT infrastructure established to serve ITA and other government departments. This online portal helps in agility and has a significant impact on IT spends. The range of service includes IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, BPaaS. This technology was adopted to make a strategic use of cloud technology and advance the government operation. Specialized open source training for better understanding and smooth functioning of G-cloud is provided.

n n n n n n n n n n n n

CHANGING THE WAY OF TRAVELING On 15th January 2015 Royal Oman Police launched the new digital passport for Oman.

The new ePassport incorporates microchip, containing information of the holder along with biometric identity, digital image and signature.

Gemalto has provided end-to-end solution to the ROP for this digital passport. ePassport makes the process of border control more efficient and cross referenced with electronic ID which improves security and the possibility of coordinating with global authorities.Cisco Connected Transportation solution helps by converging multiple single-purpose proprietary systems into a single, powerful IT network. It also improves safety

eGovernment Transformation Plan The government cloud Oman eGovernance Framework The official eGovernment Services Portal e.oman awareness Oman CERT Sas centre for virtual reality National ePayment gateway Sas for entrepreneurship eLegislation National IT training and awareness Oman Government network

The General Budget of 2016 projects 3.3 billion Omani riyals (Dh 31.47 billion) in deficit spending in 2016. The budget projects a conservative outlook due to the fluctuating oil prices, this has led to cutting down on subsidies and tax exemptions. To boost the revenue, the government has raised income tax rates. This acts like a hurdle to foreign investors who have been keen on investing in this market owing to the lower tax rate.

The ICT environment also faces a hurdle when it comes to IT infrastructure readiness. There is a lack of understanding and professional training for ICT related education and therefore it is problematic to hire, train and retain the professionals, this surely becomes a limitation when it comes to IT development.

From Oil and Gas being the major source of revenue, attention has been shifted to other sectors as well which is extremely challenging. There is also limited funding allotted to ICT projects due to other national priorities.

FINALLY A blend of liberal technological use by the government on one hand as well as lack of ICT expertise in other sectors is a contrasting scenario when Oman’s ICT infrastructure is scrutinized.

The petroleum fluctuation has greatly influenced the fiscal policies leading to newer reforms which is challenging for the economy.However, one cannot overlook the advanced technologies introduced by the government which acts like a catalyst to boost the ICT landscape. ë

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MY OPINION

Rethinking Digital Transformation with VxRail The skillset and culture of your IT infrastructure team could make or break your company’s chances of becoming a successful digital enterprise. Nigel Moulton, VCE Global CTO shares his thought on the transformational journey and how VCE is empowering the future IT.

NIGEL MOULTON GLOBAL CTO OF VCE

A

t the recently held Gartner IoTX Symposium, VCE emphasized on the 2 sides of an enterprise coin— Technology and Skillset.

“On the technology side, VCE brings in its capabilities of the converged and hyperconverged infrastructure. These are technologies that we manufacture to allow organizations to build a modern data center with both the mode 1 and mode 2 appliances.” Says Nigel Moulton, Global CTO of VCE.When you put VCE technology into your data center both converged and Hyperconverged systems can support both of those worlds. VCEVscalewhich sits on both blocks and racksallows to move workloads between those two environments. On the skillsets side, Vblock harness the power of storage, networking, computing and virtualization. In most of the enterprise IT organizations there are four separate tables for these 4 areas and hence there is always a lack of communication.

So, Vblock brings all these entities together and they end up managing your cloud infrastructure.

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CHANGING THE GAME WITH VXRAIL VxRail basically allows us to extend the data centric experience out into remote offices, branch offices of large enterprises and parts of the world where access to remote data is expensive or difficult, but you still have to deliver a set of corporate IT services. We advocate that you replace that legacy IT with a simple appliance.

What our appliance allows you to do is run a set of workloads or applications and VDI’s are the ones that we see being popular and it has a much physically smaller footprint, it is controlled and managed centrally and if the customer has already invested in VMware then the very same tools they already used in their data centre can be extended out into the branch office. So Rail allows us to take the experience and push it further into an enterprise organization.

VXRAIL— UPGRADE OR TRANSFORMATION Nigel says that VxRail is both an updated as well

as a transformative product. “This is the first time when VMware has taken their software setvCenter, vSphere—and tightly integrated it with a hardware product. It has taken the best of EMC, VMware and VCE, giving customers the added benefit of quicker deployment. “Digital business is the heart of what we do. People in remote areas will have a local experience by using the application as it will enhance their experience. If you are transforming your IT to support different business functions, you take that and push it out to the most remote part of your business, so you have the same experience that everyone has, so it gives a way of standardizing that delivery.

WHAT IS THE KIND OF FLEXIBILITY YOU WILL PROVIDE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS? “VX Rail is a uniquely tied VMware and you can stack it to a cluster that can have maximum of 16 appliances.When you do that you generate a significant amount of computer power and in some instances it can act as a data center to run multiple applications and support users. This also fits in mid-market companies. Companies which are mid-sized and still want technologies like large enterprises can use VxRail.”

MODERN ENTERPRISES: ZOO OR A SAFARI PARK A modern enterprises that resembles a safari park has no boundaries or walls. The resources that I have access to are software defined. It gives me the freedom to experiment on my resources.

In an enterprise that resembles a zoo, you are just given a ticket and you hop on from one segment to another without the freedom to explore technologies. So VCE gives the power to enable the technologies to coexist. ë

MY VIEWS

Microsoft’s core ambition around the reinvention of productivity and business process. With outstanding Office 365 and Skype interoperability, users have the best productivity and collaboration tools to help them be as effective as they can be. Matching how people need and want to work, scenarios seamlessly flow across Dynamics AX, Office 365 and Skype for Business. The new solution also introduces a powerful new concept called “Workspaces,” where users in various roles not only get a different lens on the data, tasks, and activities tailored to their role in the organization, but also an even more focused experience in the application with additional context bringing together all the data, all the processes and everything they need to get a task done.

KARIM TALHOUK,

MICROSOFT BUSINESS SOLUTIONS DIRECTOR. MICROSOFT GULF.

Reinventing Productivity, Rethinking Business WITH THE LAUNCH OF MICROSOFT DYNAMICS AX AND DYNAMICS CRM 2016 MICROSOFT MOVES BEYOND TRADITIONAL BUSINESS RESOURCES AND BRINGS TOGETHER ERP, BI, INFRASTRUCTURE AND DATABASE SERVICES IN A SINGLE OFFERING.

What is Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2016 all about?

Microsoft Dynamics AX is the Microsoft’s business solution for enterprises that enables people to make smarter decisions quickly with access to real-time insights and intelligence on nearly any device, anywhere. It drives business transformation by organizations to redesign their business processes faster so they can innovate and get quick time to

value to stay ahead of the competition. It also gives businesses the flexibility to grow at their pace through the choice and flexibility of the cloud, allowing them to scale their operations globally to meet business needs. Microsoft’s flagship ERP product for the enterprise, is available in 137 markets and in 40 languages.

What benefits can the modern enterprises avail from it?

The new Dynamics AX is at the centre of

Dubai silicon oasis has Authority adopted Microsoft Dynamics AX and CRM to manage their field resources and workforce by availability, logistics, skill level, workload and automated scheduling.

ENOC ENOC planned to rollout Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to its complete retail business starting from Zoom Brand (Dry Stock) and petroleum products (Wet Stock).

By implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 ENOC vision is to automate its end to end retail operations, bring centralization and introduce more controls.

SUCCESS STORIES LOCAL

GLOBAL

How Cloud friendly are these new launches?

Microsoft Dynamics AX is available on the public Microsoft cloud and private cloud with Microsoft Azure Stack, implemented and managed by partners and/or customers. To augment this cloud solution, Microsoft significantly enhanced the cloud-powered application, lifecycle services (LCS), to further simplify end-to-end business application lifecycle through discovery, design, develop and operate phases. Dynamics AX also provides developer management capabilities for development, test, staging, and production with Visual Studio and TFS. Dynamics AX combines the capabilities of the hybrid cloud which, simply put, is a cloud platform that can be deployed in a fully consistent manner across multiple locations i.e. private, hosted, or public cloud environments.

A hybrid cloud platform has a standardized architecture regardless of deployment modality.

This enables customers to use a single set of services and write their apps to a consistent set of APIs that spans multiple environments. It delivers an architecture that harnesses the best of what the Azure cloud can offer. This offers the potential to harness the power and elasticity of the cloud for our customers – and being a showcase for what an enterprise application can deliver utilizing the full range of Azure platform services. ë

Microsoft Dynamics AX early-adopter Hagler Systems is an engineering and manufacturing company specializing in dredging and mining equipment.

UmbraGroup adopted the new Dynamics AX to utilize the cloud, so they could have a trusted, single source of truth that provides all people in the organization with access to the right data, while simplifying IT infrastructure and reducing IT costs.

Renault Sport Formula One Team were able to divert valuable resources from IT to work that would make their cars faster

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GUEST TALK

GARTNER

Focus on Resources for Transformation in Uncertain Environments Organization-wide initiatives for digitalization, virtualization and diversification depend significantly on people resources and organizational culture.

Managing them well with a long term perspective is crucial for telecom service providers, while they seek to change themselves.

Telecom service providers are in the midst of uncertainties from multiple fronts. Key ones include an uncertain future of traditionally profitable products, uncertainty of success inadjacent markets, policies and spectrum availability (at least in India). These uncertainties are compounded due tosome of the traditional partners scaling up to compete in new digital business opportunities (such as cloud and the Internet of Things).It is now well accepted by most telecom service providers that they need a competitive response for the market. Responses to the environment can be many; on the scale of ‘resistant to change’ to ‘embracing change’ for new possibilities. Selecting and executing an appropriate response is heavily dependent on organizational resources and competence.

However, it is also understood that networked industries can’t function appropriately without a regulatory framework. So where does the challenge lie? Studies highlight two key points: (i) The firm’s engagement with external entities (ii) Engagement of various functions of the firm among each-other Effectiveness of both lie largely on the firm’s own competence and resources. This usually stands correct with most uncertainties and challenges, not just regulatory. That’s why studies also suggest that firms need to critically review their resources and scale it up on an ongoing basis.

To deal with uncertainties effectively,firms need to pre-empt or sense a likely change; adapt

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to it and respond appropriately. Ability to do so is a competitive strength in itself. Therefore, each of these steps (sensing, adapting and responding) requires definite resources and competence. These resources and competence are in the form of knowledge assets to be able to connect the dots and craft a response. However, more than anything else, it demands a fluid information architecture across the organizational structure.

Studies onleading telecom service providers highlight a very fluid information flow across various functions. These flows are multi-directionalcompared to hierarchical, objective instead of directive andinformal yet organized. They are facilitated with an objective to seek innovative ideas and solutions from people in diverse functions and capture them.

Information flow across these functions contribute to sensing opportunities and challenges, as well as identifying potential solutions systematically. Some telecom service providers have laid out systems and architecture to facilitate such information flows. They have enabled organization-wide mobility to facilitate collaboration across the boundaries of departments, skills and geographies. At the same time, they also moderate the information flow to capture potential intellectual property.

With such a framework, telecom service providers are able to sense faster, develop greater and faster mindshare with partners (on joint programs) and with regulators (on policy imple-

n AMRESH NANDAN, RESEARCH DIRECTOR GARTNER.

mentation). This in turn, provides them with knowledge of the gaps in their operations and helps them scale-up their resources for adapting and responding.

An effective information flow across organizational functions is contingent on people, their skills and organizational culture.

Thus in recent times, leading telecom service providers across the globe have been investing significantly on these areas. Skill development programs are targeted towards understanding the larger spectrum of the communication services industry (e.g. challenges from OTTs and others in the ecosystem) and cross training people on varioustechnologies (e.g. virtualization, cloud, new models of software development). At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear that technology skills are not enough to manage innovation. Therefore,these programs are aimed at facilitatingbehavioral change in people: l to be able to leverage knowledge and skills of various functions (e.g. network and IT) l to be effective with partners for joint solutions development l to be able to help vertical (e.g. IoT) businesses, as well as draw practices, from other industries Transformation programs are usually complex.

Digital services and operations in a virtualized network demand far greater understanding of quality and utilization/optimization of organizational resources. ë

INNOVATIONS

KEY CAPABILITIES n VMS for mid-size installations comprises from 4 to 50 IP cameras. n Axis Optimized Rendering for high-definition identification and smooth videos with resolutions up to three 4K video streams. n A free mobile viewing app available for Android- and iOS-based mobile devices allows users to view live video from cameras as well as recorded video footage. n Support for hardware decoding and Axis Optimized Rendering. n 360º overview recording. n Advanced camera-based video motion detection. n Integration of third-party IP cameras and Axis Optimized Rendering for high-definition identification and smooth videos with resolutions up to three 4K video streams.

Axis Camera Station 5 Axis Camera Station 5, the latest version of its VMS offering for mid-size installations. The new version introduces hardware decoding, integration of third-party IP cameras and Axis Optimized Rendering for high-definition identification and smooth videos with resolutions up to three 4K video streams. A new mobile viewing app allows for easy remote monitoring.

The user interface of AXIS Camera Station has been designed for ease of use. The ’Operator Mode’ provides a dedicated interface for efficient operation that meets the requirements of the occasional user as well as the more active user in installations such as larger retail stores,

schools and manufacturing facilities. Axis Camera Station 5 introduces support for hardware decoding and Axis Optimized Rendering. The new ‘Scrubbing’ function allows users to quickly search through video footage from multiple cameras at the same time.AXIS Camera Station 5 allows users to take full advantage of Axis’ wide range of video surveillance cameras and technologies. It supports 360º overview recording, H.264 compression, multi-view streaming, Axis’ Corridor Format, Axis’ Zipstream technology and advanced camera-based video motion detection.

Additional functionality can easily be added with ACAP applications.

PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK AT INFO@ ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

XEROX CONNECT KEY ENABLED I-SERIES MFP Xerox expanded what multifunction printers (MFPs) can do in the workplace through advancements to its ConnectKey technology.

The 14 Xerox ConnectKey-enabled i-Series MFPs are equipped with ready-to-use apps to speed up paper-dependent business processes and make it easier for users to collaborate and work more effectively. MFPs built on the ConnectKey platformis a combination of technology and software which providea critical advantage to small and medium-sized businesses and enterprises.ConnectKey-enabled i-Series MFPs adapt to the way businesses work on-the-go, virtually and through the cloud allowing companies to meet today’s business trends, challenges and opportunities.

Xerox ConnectKey technology offers real-time protection from internal and external threats with secure print and scan encryption, and print job deletion at power up, companies can ensure documents remain confidential, protecting themselves from data breaches.

KEY CAPABILITIES n Equipped with ready-to-use apps to speed up paper-dependent business processes. n MFP that can translate a document into more than 35 languages, or be customized and built to meet customers’ particular business needs. n Adapts to the way businesses work. n Let’s users scan a document through their MFP, snap a photo from their phone or upload it to a web portal. n Xerox App Studio 3.0 allows channel partners to build and tailor MFPs using simple templates.

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INNOVATIONS

Lenovo Tab3 Series Lenovo’s new launch includes TAB3 10 Business, an Android tablet engineered for business use, and TAB3 7 and TAB3 8, Lenovo’s first series of family-friendly tablets. The TAB3 10 Business is designed as the smart company-ready, employee-friendly choice, pairing the power and versatility of Android 6.0 with the optimization and services that matters most to business professionals. Offering full support for Android For Work, the tablet also boasts an array of security and encryption options to help users keep these devices and the work-related data on them safe and secure.

The TAB3 10 Business is optimized for business mobility, supporting personnel who need to be constantly on the move while on the job. The tablet features Android for Work, which provides dedicated profiles for business content and affords higher security and manageability. It’s also pre-loaded with productive Android for Work apps, Google Play for Work, and a Kiosk Mode that allows users to set up their TAB3 10 Business as an interactive kiosk. The tablet also supports industry solutions for classroom management, point-of-sale management and e-Health management.

KEY CAPABILITIES n TAB3 10 Business optimizes business-critical hardware and softwareand harnesses the power and versatility of Android 6 n Fully supports Android for Work, the TAB3 10 Business is optimized for enterprise mobility and vertical integration. n TAB3 10 Business uses geotechnology, which allows businesses to track devices and even create geofences. n The 1.3GHz Quad-core processor gives users quick and powerful multi-tasking and multi-window support to TAB3 10. n TAB3 10 is more durable than most tablets with a P2i water-repellent coating protecting it from the inside out, and scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass panels n TAB3 7 and TAB3 8 designed to seamlessly pass from the hands of parents to kids with multi-user and kid’s modes and Adaptive Display technology.

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WIRELESS AC1900 MU-MIMO ROUTER Linksys has launched its latest Linksys Max-Stream AC1900 MU-MIMO Gigabit Wi-Fi Router (EA7500) The Max-Stream uses technology optimized to provide 4K and HD TV streaming to multiple devices, as well as play video games, listen to music, check email, shop, and more – all at the same time. The new Linksys AC1900 MU-MIMO router leverages the 802.11ac Wave 2 MU-MIMO (Multi-User, Multiple Input, Multiple Output) technology, which helps ensure uninterrupted Wi-Fi connectivity to multiple devices in the home, and functions as if multiple devices have their own dedicated router. The Next-Gen Max-Stream AC1900 can provide users with combined speeds up to 1.9 Gbps and the range they need to connect all their devices in the home and at the same time. Also included is Smart Wi-Fi technology which makes it easy to set up and control your home Wi-Fi from anywhere using the Smart Wi-Fi app on your mobile device.

KEY CAPABILITIES n Qualcomm IPQ 1.4GHz Dual Core Processor. n Dual-band AC1900 Wireless speeds up to 1300 Mbps 5 GHz + 600 Mbps 2.4GHz, which is a combined speed up to 1.9 Gbps. n Four Gigabit LAN Ethernet ports One Gigabit WAN for wired speeds up to 10x faster than fast Ethernet. n One USB 3.0 and One USB 2.0 ports for connecting printers, storage and more. n Three external and adjustable antennas for maximum coverage. n Manage and monitor your network and easily control Wi-Fi devices remotely on a smart phone with the LinksysSmart Wi-Fi app. n Advanced WPA/WPA2 encryption and SPI firewall helps keep the network safe.

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