EC MEA January 2016

N EW YEAR, N EW CHALLE NG ES I N SECU R ITY /06

PA G E S 5 2 VOLUME O3 | JANUARY 2016

ISSUE 06

WWW.ENTERPRISECHANNELSMEA.COM

2016

OPENING DOORS

TO ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES

INDIAECM012015

It would not be wrong to say that, the way the technology market will perform will have the greatest impact on how global economy would fare in 2016. /24

SCH N E I DE R E LECTR IC: A 360째 VI EW TO IOT /41

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EDITORIAL

Happy New Year 2016!

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

Happy New Year 2016 and hope everyone has an action packed year. This is for sure that the region is univocal on a point that infrastructure growth is what can actually drive the Juggernaut of economic growth. The dependence on Oil to drive the economy is being predicted to take back seat till the end of 2017. So, the objective of all governments in & around the region would be to create smart infrastructure and attract global investors to have operational presence.

So what does it translate to? It asks for all the government services to be smart and seamless. All resident centric services - including immigration to DEWA, police, transportation, parking, etc. will be smart. The telephony companies would have to rollout 4G/LTE on a pan region scale to enable the wireless and wired access seamlessly. In order for the Telcos to gain capacity and capability, they would keep on investing in modern technologies and resources that would be agile and elastic to accommodate demands from the customers.

Along with this, the enterprises, government and BFSI would also keep on investing in major technologies and solutions around software defined architecture so that the computing, storage, networking and security layers become flexible and agile; as a result of which the applications they need to run in order to serve the end customers can be possible and world class in standards.

So the technologies that would attract maximum of attention and investment would include technology automation, M2M, IOT, Social applications, mobility, analytics, cloud, digitization, etc.

As per IDC, the ICT spending in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) region will top $260 billion in 2016. Country specific predictions indicate that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is expected to invest the maximum ($14 billion), followed by Turkey ($13 billion); while the UAE is expected to invest $8 billion on IT in the same period. Investment on IOT only will attract 7.3 billion dollars in 2016 in the META region. IDC further predicts big influence of IOT on government, retail, transportation, manufacturing, and utilities verticals and security will be another key component of the digital transformation strategy. IDC predicts IT security spending across META to grow 12% year on year in 2016.

So while all these developments would happen in the background, the channel partners would continue to be the key designers of technology transformation and transcending beyond traditional value addition will be key to their success. The evolution of ISVs would be another trend because the core of the enterprises whatsoever in nature would be the applications, which will decide the nature of the technologies.

Wish you have a Wonderful Year Ahead! ĂŤ

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2016 CONTENTS

VOLUME 03 ISSUE 06 JANUARY 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

2016 COVER STORY

OPENING DOORS

TO ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES

It would not be wrong to say that, the way the technology market will perform will have the greatest impact on how global economy would fare in 2016. /24

GUEST TALK

/21

CUSTOMER CORELEARN IT, LOVE IT, LIVE IT

INNOVATIONS /49

NETSUPPORT DNA VERSION 4

LEENNA JAYACHAANDRAN COACH, MENTOR, CONSULTING PARTNER GENOME TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANTS (A MIDDLE EAST PARTNER- MHI GLOBAL) CIOS SPEAK

/40

DESIGNING A FUTURE-READY INFRASTRUCTURE MARIO FOSTER, GROUP CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, AL NABOODAH GROUP ENTERPRISES LLC GUEST TALK

/48

THE RISE OF THE RELATIONSHIPDRIVEN WORKPLACE GLYNN JONES, VP, EMEA CHANNELS AND ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY GROUP, POLYCOM

SPECIAL STORY 2016- Smart Technology -vs- Shaky Economy /46

Offering a complete IT Asset and Desktop Management solution, Netsupport DNA v4 effectively manages all hardware and software inventories within your organization

EDITORIAL :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 04 CHANNEL STREET ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 06 INTERNET OF THREATS:::::::::::::::::::::::::: 22 GUEST TALK: FINESSE ::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 23 TECH TRENDS IN 2016 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 30 GEC OPEN GRAND FINALE 2015 :::::::::: 32 INNOVATIONS :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 49

ADVERTISER INDEX: HELPAG 02, GFI 03, EMITAC 07, VCE 09, STARLINK 11, INFOR 13, FINESSE 15, PURE STORAGE 17, MHI 19, OXYGEN 35, UNIFY 51, DELL 52

JA N U A R Y 2016

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CHANNEL

STREET HID TO DEMONSTRATE MOBILE ACCESS INNOVATIONS AT INTERSEC 2016

HID Global, under the theme “Your Security Connected,” will demonstrate its latest mobile identity solution and the power to connect people, devices and applications using its broad Genuine HID portfolio of interoperable and future-proof secure identity solutions during Intersec 2016 in Dubai. “HID Global’s mobile access solution ensures the highest security without compromising on a seamless user experience,” said Wisam Yaghmour, Regional Sales Director MEA, with HID Global. “We look forward to demonstrating our wide range of identity and access management solutions at Intersec 2016, one of the region’s most prominent security exhibitions. It is an excellent platform to support our channel partners and interact with end-users and address their requirements first hand.”

“ALWAYS-ON BUSINESS” TO RULE 2016 Veeam sees acceleration of cloud adoption and growing customer expectations across the IT industry as the biggest catalysts for significant change through 2016. In 2016, the Internet of Things will bring availability to the fore. The rise of mobile and connected devices has demonstrated that there is zero tolerance for downtime. This year, companies will draw the line and migrate to the next generation of application technologies to keep up with competitors. It’s expected that 2016 will see increased adoption of virtual reality (Oculus, Microsoft HoloLens), motion-based interfaces, speech recognition and 3D printing as a means to manufacture. The operator interface will focus increasingly on automation and data lifecycle management. Veeam further predicts Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) to be a game changer in 2016.

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KEN XIE, FORTINET FOUNDER AND CEO

New Year, New Challenges in Security

FortiGuard Labs have made their annual predictions of the most significant trends in malware and network security going into 2016. FortiGuard also predicts the emergence of increasingly sophisticated evasion techniques that will push the boundaries of detection and forensic investigation as hackers face increasing pressure from law enforcement.

New Rules: The Evolving Threat Landscape in 2016 report is designed to reveal the new trends and strategies that FortiGuard researchers anticipate cyber criminals will employ in the year to come.

Fortinet researched these predictions to arm customers with the knowledge they need to maintain their advantage in the cybersecurity arms race and proactively change the way all businesses look at their security strategies going into the new year.

The top cybersecurity trends for 2016 include Increased M2M Attacks and Propagation Between Devices, Worms and Viruses Designed to Specifically Attack IoT Devices, Attacks On Cloud

and Virtualized Infrastructure, New Techniques That Thwart Forensic Investigations and Hide Evidence of Attacks, Malware That Can Evade Even Advanced Sandboxing Technologies.

As Derek Manky, global security strategist for Fortinet explained, “FortiGuard Labs was formed over a decade ago to monitor and detect the latest threats, zero days, and emerging malware to provide the best possible protection for our customers. We leverage our incredible visibility into the global threat landscape to develop actionable threat intelligence, allowing us to respond quickly to new threats.”

Ken Xie, Fortinet Founder and CEO, also noted that “As we look ahead at the threats associated with our increasing connectedness and the proliferation of new devices, Fortinet is committed to delivering uncompromising security and further enhancing our solutions to meet both the current and future needs of our customers.”

CHANNEL STREET

EMC Unveils Major Data Lake Advancements

MIRANTIS AND PALO ALTO BOOST NEXT-GENERATION SECURITY

IsilonSD Edge sacrifices EMC has unveiled the next none of the capabilities of generation of its EMC Isilon the OneFS operating system Scale-out NAS Data Lake, and will support OneFS’s data that allows enterprises to services and protocols while scale easily to edge locations scaling up to 36TB, seamlessly as well as to public clouds. replicating data and distributing The new products, — it from the core.

IsilonSD Edge, the next CJ Desai, President, Emerging generation of Isilon OneFS Technologies Division, EMC and Isilon CloudPools — said, “This trio of new EMC enhance the Data Lake by DESAI, PRESIDENT EMERGING Isilon solutions is designed to allowing unstructured data CJ TECHNOLOGIES DIVISION, EMC optimize every part of the data to be available at data center center, provide a seamless user experience and edge locations as well. Designed to offer a more create new economics as customers continue to efficient Data Lake, the new Isilon solutions wrangle mountains of data and evolve their Big consolidate multiple workloads and allow users Data strategies.” to access and analyze data from all locations.

Mirantis and Palo Alto Networks have signed a joint partnership and made available Palo Alto Networks nextgeneration security as a virtual network function (VNF) within Mirantis OpenStack, a production-grade OpenStack distribution. The combination protects applications from cyberthreats while taking advantage of the agility, cost savings, and innovation of the OpenStack cloud ecosystem.

“OpenStack cloud environments are an attractive choice for many organizations because these give them flexibility to accelerate innovation by rapidly deploying emerging technologies such as network function virtualization (NFV). We have teamed with Mirantis to give organizations next-generation security as a virtual network function (VNF) needed to operationalize OpenStack and effectively prevent successful cyber breaches”, said Marc Benoit, Vice President of technical business development, Palo Alto Networks.

“As enterprises make the transition to a cloud infrastructure model, they migrate from hardware-based network services to a software-based, virtualized approach. Integrating Mirantis OpenStack with Palo Alto Networks VM-Series next-generation firewall is a good example of helping accelerate and secure this transition,” said Kamesh Pemmaraju, Mirantis Vice President of product marketing.

NIXU & NOKIA COME TOGETHER FOR CYBERSECURITY Nixu and Nokia Networks have signed a collaboration agreement that makes it possible for Nixu’s comprehensive cybersecurity services to be included as part of Nokia’s client offering. This agreement gives Nokia’s network operator clients access to Nixu’s cybersecurity expertise through one partner.

“Nixu’s in-depth expertise and tested procedures guarantee Nokia’s customers easy access to the specialist services required for cybersecurity development and verification. For Nokia this is a flexible way to include strong specialist know-how in their full range of services,” states CEO of Nixu Corporation, Petri Kairinen. ”As specialists, we will be able to contribute at multiple points along the cybersecurity value chain and genuinely provide added value for our clients. Our expertise is of such high caliber that there is an international demand for it,” Petri Kairinen continues. “ The security consultants from Nixu enrich our service offerings with product and vendor agnostic expertise, which many of our customers appreciate,” states Nils Ahrlich from the Nokia Networks Security business area.

ARUBA EYES GROWTH IN JORDAN Aruba will focus its efforts and dedicate resources to grow its market share in Jordan, where the ICT industry is increasing at a rapid pace. Mr. Yehia Elamsy, Country Manager, Jordan at Hewlett Packard Enterprise says, “We will be making concerted efforts to expose our brand, enable our partners and engage closely with customers in Jordan in order to capitalize on the tremendous business potential in

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SHADI ALKHATIB, TERRITORY MANAGER, JORDAN AT ARUBAA HP ENTERPRISE COMPANY

JA N U A R Y 2016

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YEHIA ELAMSY, COUNTRY MANAGER, JORDAN AT HP ENTERPRISE

the country”. Mr. Shadi Alkhatib, Territory Manager, Jordan at Aruba says, “With the surge of IoT devices connecting to enterprise networks, conventional BYOD methods of securing access have been rendered inadequate. Enterprises in Jordan can safeguard their networks with Aruba’s unique mobility technologies to help ensure mobile devices communicate securely and efficiently across the network.”

CHANNEL STREET

6

IN PUBLIC

“Finance is well placed to become the rudder of modern business”

SECONDS

ARUN KHEHAR, REGIONAL VP, ORACLE APPLICATIONS

GULF AIR AWARDED 5 IT ISO

Help AG Partners with BeyondTrust Help AG has signed a new partnership agreement with BeyondTrust and will now offer the entire BeyondTrust portfolio to enterprises in the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

“Privileged Access Management (PAM) will form an integral part of the Help AG Cyber Security Blueprint and it is a solution set that we believe will be especially relevant to our

STEPHAN BERNER, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT HELP AG

customers from the government, banking and finance, and enterprise sectors”, said Stephan Berner, Managing Director at Help AG. Help AG will focus on increasing awareness around the vendor’s PowerBroker Privileged Account Management solutions which enforce and audit access control policies.

CERTIFICATIONS Gulf Air recently became the first airline in the world to be certified with Information Technology ISO certifications in the five areas of Quality Management, Environmental Management, Service Management, Information Security Management and Energy Management Systems. Gulf Air Director of IT, Dr. Jassim Haji commented: “We are pleased to achieve yet another ‘first’ in our IT offering and pleased to be recognized for our team’s work in further helping achieve customer satisfaction.”

PRINTING DEFINED BY IMAGINATION Canon has launched the flatbed UV Océ Arizona series, with a host of advanced applications, including new technologies, such as coating layers and white ink printing, as well as many other smart cutting accessories. The flatbed UV Océ Arizona series is ideal for high-

Casio Improves Cloud Access with A10 Casio Computer is using the A10 Thunder ADC solution to consolidate networking resources, improve application performance and enhance overall user experience. The A10 Thunder ADC not only offers Casio scalable cloud-networking services, but real-time health monitoring systems to maximize application uptime.

“With the A10 Thunder ADC solution, we consolidated six proxy servers and load balancers into two appliances. The load on proxy servers dropped from 100 percent to no more than 25 percent at any given time, improving applica-

tion performance and employee productivity”, said Koji Kawade, User Support Group, Casio Information Service. “We’re honored that Casio chose the A10 Thunder ADC solution to ensure trouble-free cloud access for 6,000 employees,” said Sanjay Kapoor, Vice President Global Marketing at A10 Networks. “We strive to improve our customers’ agility, scalability and security, and we’re pleased to help Casio access the cloud with no fear of disruption from network overload.”

The A10 Thunder ADC is a next-generation application delivery controller.

quality printing and for rigid and flexible media.

The Arizona series includes the Océ Arizona 460 GT. HONEYWELL ACQUIRES ELSTER BUSINES Honeywell has completed its acquisition of the Elster Division of Melrose Industries. Elster provides thermal gas solutions for commercial, industrial, and residential heating systems and gas, water, and electricity meters, including smart meters and software and data analytics solutions. “The acquisition of Elster adds outstanding technologies, strong well-recognized brands, energy efficiency know-how and a global presence to the Honeywell portfolio,” said Honeywell Chairman and CEO Dave Cote.

DEVOTED TO ENVIRONMENT, TRUE TO INVESTORS CDP has named Xerox as a leader in providing

INTEGRATING SECURITY WITH INTELLIGENCE

reliable information about carbon emissions and

Bit9 + Carbon Black has launched the Carbon Black App for IBM QRadar, which provides a turnkey solution for integrating the Carbon Black endpoint threat detection and response solution with IBM security intelligence technology. The new application will provide organizations with a single pane of glass to more quickly detect and respond to security alerts. “The Carbon Black App for IBM QRadar makes it easy for organizations to leverage Carbon Black’s powerful capabilities from inside the IBM QRadar console to detect and respond to threats and attacks against the biggest target in any organization, and the place where their most important information resides: their endpoints”, said Brian Hazard, vice president of technical alliances for Bit9 + Carbon Black.

place. “As the world looks beyond the Paris

energy use to investors and the global marketclimate change negotiations and prepares for a low carbon future, reliable information about how companies are responding to the transition will be ever more valuable,” said Paul Dickinson, executive chairman and co-founder of CDP, a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization that collects self-reported climate change, water and forest risk data.

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CHANNEL STREET

STME Invests in Diversified Economies STME is increasingly collaborating with organizations operating in the non-oil sector in the UAE. Global tumbled oil price doesn’t necessarily mean plunging economies. Mr. Ayman Al Bayaa, CEO of STME said “Our business operations are now less correlated to oil prices.

In this context the UAE government’s plans to increase the non-oil sector’s contribution to 80% of the GDP in the coming years is good news in the long run.” In the meantime, low oil prices has resulted in budgetary realignment in companies as well as governments. “Demand for SI products and services has shifted to new practices such

as virtualization and cloud computing, with an emphasis on efficient and cost effective technologies,” said Mr. Ayman when speaking on the effect of smaller budgets.

“Clearly cloud computing has become a pivotal game changer that is no longer limited to software applications but has gone beyond that to networking, security and hardware aspects in pursuit of value creation by accentuating spending effectiveness and collective resources pooling’’,commented Mohannad Amr, PMO IT Director, STME.

GLOBAL IT DATA BOOM TO HIT GCC IN 2016 The world’s exponential data growth will be felt in the GCC more strongly than ever in 2016, forcing organizations to more intelligently plan how they choose to keep and use their information.

Two trends for 2016 involving increasing data volumes are the growth of ‘dark data’ and the creation of the ‘databerg’, according to Condo Protego.

“We expect dark data management will be a top priority for GCC businesses in 2016, as ‘databergs’ grow to seemingly unmanageable levels, and we are counseling our customers to think longer term about what data they really need to keep, how they can better access it, and why it is so important for them to deploy business analytics to realize competitive advantage in their respective industries,” says Andrew Calthorpe, CEO of Condo Protego.

MPS TO MODERNIZE OPERATIONS WITH IFS MPS will implement IFS Applications to centralize operations to better manage and support the distribution of its dental and pharmaceutical products and enable real-time business decision-making.

By replacing its existing and unsupported system, MPS will implement IFS Applications as an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for its supply chain and warehousing operations, including supporting core business processes such as financials and reporting, human resources, payroll, after sales support, and customer relationship management (CRM).The solution will also provide a customer portal, enabling customers to follow up on orders.

DSG LEADS THE PATH OF CLOUD EXCELLENCE Dubai Smart Government Establishment (DSG) organized a visit for Dubai government delegates to its Unified Government Disaster Recovery Site (UGDRS) and Cloud One services, which is being managed in a secure location in Jebel Ali, Dubai in partnership with Etisalat. The DSG team was led by H.E Wesam Al Abbas Lootah, CEO of DSG

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and Matar Al Humairi, Director of Infrastructure Management Department at DSG. H.E Wesam Al Abbas Lootah, CEO of DSG said “We are confident that more partners will move their data to this world-class centre, which provides best in class practices and standards and leads to immense costs savings, when compared to government entities trying to

JA N U A R Y 2016

MEA

create their own data centres.”In his presentation, Matar Al Humairi, Director of Infrastructure Department at DSG, emphasized the cost saving benefits of having a unified UGDRS in a single location.

An in-depth feasibility study was made before choosing the UGDRS including identifying the location and operational costs.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR COLLABORATION & SHARING

Acronis has made available the Acronis Access Advanced 7.2 – the latest version of its mobile file access, sync and share solution for enterprises. The new Acronis Access Advanced enhances security and privacy functionality and is now integrated with Microsoft Intune Mobile Application Management (MAM). “Acronis Access Advanced meets the security, privacy and control requirements of IT with the most advanced Policy Engine in the market and on-premise data storage, while increasing employee productivity and collaboration with enterprise-class file sync and share”, said Derick Naef, General Manager of Mobility Solutions, Acronis. The solution gives employees secure and immediate mobile access to files and documents to help drive business and more quickly respond to customer needs.

“With the new Acronis Access Advanced, we can maintain greater control over our data with comprehensive security, granular policy management, and better ability to manage users, devices, apps, and data at all times,” said Corri Silveira, Technology Services Manager, Mid Valley IT, based in the US.

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CHANNEL STREET

Time for New Dimensions in CFOs’ Role

WEB CLIPS JORDANIAN DELEGATION VISITS DSG’S HEADQUARTERS A government delegation from Jordan’s

The Digital Finance Imperative, a new research from Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA), found that CFOs in Europe the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) can apply the discipline of management accounting to measuring the value of intangible assets.

The report, sponsored by Oracle, argues that CFOs can reduce bias in decision-making by applying professional objectivity to ensure good governance, and ensuring that decisions are made in line with the overall strategy and stakeholder interests.

“Finance is well placed to become the rudder of

modern business, but to do so it needs to be able to draw on relevant data from across the entire organization using modern, cloud-based ERP and performance management systems,” said Arun Khehar, Regional VP Oracle Applications.

Dr. Noel Tagoe, FCMA, CGMA, Executive Director of education at CIMA and one of the report’s authors commented: “It has the enterprise-wide overview and skill required to work with diverse internal stakeholders, ensuring that the business assembles, analyzes, and applies data to improve performance.”

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and Department of Lands & Survey visited the headquarters of Dubai Smart Government Establishment (DSG), where it was briefed on the experiences of both DSG and Dubai Land Department and the latest smart government services innovated by DSG to all categories of the society for Dubai to become the smartest city in the world. The delegation was given a presentation on DSG’s strategic plan 2014-2017.

RAYA LAUNCHES FIRST ORACLE ISTORE IN MEE Raya International Services has currently launched the first Oracle iStore reference across the Middle East and Europe at

BROADBAND EXPERIENCE REDEFINED Ooredoo Qatar and Nokia Networks have launched LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) three-band carrier aggregation technology on the Ooredoo Supernet. Nokia technology enables the operator to provide higher data speeds of up to 375 Mbps to its customers.

With this new technology, people using Category 9 (CAT 9)-capable handsets can benefit from data intensive services, including ultra high-definition video download, and upcoming trends, including virtual reality.

Petromin. Raya’s high-level of expertise, with more than 200 references in the Middle East and the successful 3-years business relationship with Petromin were some of the key factors for Petromin to choose Raya over other several Oracle Partners. Petromin is considered the first lubricant producer to implement Oracle iStore in the Gulf region, the Middle East and Europe.

ALTIBBI GETS GLOBAL INVESTMENT

MOVEMENTS JEFF WILLIAMS has been appointed by Apple as the chief operating officer

Wipro has named ABIDALI NEEMUCHWALA as its new Chief Executive Officer.

Canon Middle East has appointed WIM WYNANTS to the position of General Manager for its Qatar operations NextEV has appointed PADMASREE WARRIOR as U.S. chief executive officer and head of development for software and the user experience

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50 NUMBER GAME

percent

of Consumers in Mature Markets Will Use Mobile Payments by 2018.

BACKING Altibbi has secured AED 10 million worth of funding from leading regional investors to accelerate growth and strategically expand its brand offering. Altibbi has received investment funds from Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), DASH Ventures and from other investors in the USA, Australia, Europe, Lebanon and Jordan.

REDEFINING PRINTING CAPABILITIES Epson will launch its new Large Format Printers in signage and dye sublimation series at Sign & Graphic Imaging Middle East 2016 in Dubai. Epson will demonstrate how businesses can improve productivity, streamline workflow and reduce costs. According to Walid Abdulmoti, Marketing Manager, Epson Middle East: “The new SC-S series (40610, 60610 and 80610) is the result of market research and customer study to offer users a precise and accurate way to create impactful and beautiful signage and displays.”

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CHANNEL STREET

Pushing the Digital Transformation

VMware has made available the VMware vRealize Automation 7 and VMware vRealize Business Standard 7 to further empower IT teams to drive digital business transformation within their organizations.

The availabilities complete a comprehensive

update of the VMware vRealize Suite that addresses cloud management requirements across day one and day two operations for compute, storage, network and application level resources in heterogeneous, hybrid clouds.

According to a recent Forrester Research Total Economic Impact study, the VMware vRealize Suite can accelerate the application release process from weeks to less than one day and improve IT efficiency, resulting in a Return on Investment of 243 percent. VMware vRealize Automation 7 introduces unified service blueprint capabilities that enable IT and DevOps teams to simplify and accelerate the delivery of integrated multi-tier applications with application-centric networking and security across clouds.

MSI’S OPERATIONS GO ‘PREMIA’UM! Mitsui Sumitomo InsuranceCompany (MSI) have streamlined their operations for reporting and efficiency in process management with 3i-Infotech’s flagship General Insurance Product PREMIA .Premia 11 is the most recent version, specially designed to bring operational efficiency through faster turnaround times. It is scalable enough to cater to ever growing business volumes, tightly integrated with the finance module and state of art reporting. MSI recognized the team’s strength in the core insurance segment, comprising of all aspects of the insurance value chain along with their proven success in empowering reputed groups in the region in the past. MSI decided to opt for Premia in line with the trust 3i-Infotech’s team had instilled in the expected business outcomes. Right from the initiation stage, timelines were a major challenge, which was a daunting task for Premia’s implementation team. With a strategic plan in place, internal collaboration of their technical team and sales, a lot of research on deliverables expected as well as close communication with MSI’s team, Premia’s team accomplished the project within the targeted timeframe.

MSI’s management has already started to witness the expected benefits in terms of readily available automated reports, which were required by their group on timely basis. They are quite happy the way Premia handles the entire operational flow, reducing their workload heavily and consistently maximizing overall productivity. 3i-Infotech’s team is confident that with Premia’s tightly coupled modules, MSI will be able to earn a quick ROI and empower employee performance levels across the organization.

THE THREAT TECHNOLOGY CURVE

VINCENT WEAFER, VICE PRESIDENT, INTEL SECURITY’S MCAFEE LABS

Intel Security has released its McAfee Labs Threats Report that illustrates how poor mobile app coding practices, including the failure to follow back-end service provider guidance, can lead to the exposure of user data in the cloud.

This analysis also demonstrates how mobile banking customers have been compromised through such a scenario.

Macro malware increased from less than 10,000 new attacks in Q3 2015 to almost 45,000 this past quarter, a level not seen since 2009.

Finally, the report details how new platform capabilities and threat development innovation have created a new breed of fileless malware that trumps traditional threat detection.

“If nothing else, the third quarter of 2015 reminded us that while we must always innovate to stay ahead of the threat technology curve, we must never neglect common sense solutions such as best practices for secure app coding, and user education to counter everpresent tactics such as spearphishing”, says Vincent Weafer, Vice President, Intel Security’s McAfee Labs.

ENDPOINT SECURITY IS MORE SECURE NOW Sophos has acquired SurfRight to accelerate its Next-Generation endpoint protection leadership.

SurfRight’s real time anti-exploit technology focuses on detecting and preventing the memory manipulations and abuses that allow malicious code to run in the first place. Generic

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prevention of exploits at this early stage in the attack chain is a key enhancement to endpoint security mechanisms and can help thwart malicious code in the processor and memory. The portfolio also includes anti-espionage technology and enhanced protection against ransom ware

JA N U A R Y 2016

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attacks such as Crypto Locker.

“SurfRight’s products embody the same product vision we have at Sophos – that even the most advanced IT security products should be simple to deploy and manage by organizations of any size.” commented Kris Hagerman, CEO at Sophos

KRIS HAGERMAN, CEO AT SOPHOS

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Find out why, visit: purestorage.com/gartner

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Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays, Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid State Arrays June 2015. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

CHANNEL STREET

MulteFire Alliance Commences Operations The MulteFire Alliance has been formed, with founding members Nokia and Qualcomm Incorporated and members Ericsson and Intel, and issued a call for global industry participation through voluntary membership.

The Alliance is an independent organization dedicated to developing and promoting MulteFire – an LTE-based technology for small cells operating solely in unlicensed spectrum, such as the global 5 GHz unlicensed band. MulteFire is envisioned to deliver enhanced performance in

local area network deployments.

MulteFire expands the ecosystem of LTEbased technologies to new and established service providers. “By bringing the benefits of LTE technologies to unlicensed spectrum, MulteFire helps provide enhanced coverage, capacity and mobility. It can also improve the Quality of Experience and security in private network deployments”, said Stephan Litjens, Vice President, Portfolio Strategy & Analytics, Mobile Broadband, Nokia, and MulteFire Alliance board chair.

LOOK OUT FOR ‘SLEMBUNK’ FireEye has recently identified a series of Android Trojan apps that are designed to imitate the legitimate apps of 33 financial management institutions and service providers across the globe, including some of the biggest banks in the world. Known as “SlemBunk,” this family of Trojan apps has been observed covering North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region.

SlemBunk apps masquerade as common, popular applications and stay incognito after running for the first time. They have the ability to phish for and harvest authentication credentials when specified banking and other similar apps are launched.

TECHACCESS GETS COMMVAULT ON BOARD TechAccess has signed a distribution agreement with Commvault under TechAccess will utilise Commvault’s complete platform of integrated data management solutions to enable their customers across the Middle East, LEVANT & Pakistan, to maximize the value of their data.

“We are pleased to announce our partnership with Commvault as their best-in-class products complement our existing portfolio and add value to our data protection and information management offerings,” said Chris Cornelius, SVP Sales & Support – TechAccess. “By leveraging our strong channel network across the region, we aim to grow Commvault’s business and market share and expand its customer base across these markets.” TechAccess, will also identify and onboard partners while conducting focused channel development activities. “We are excited to work with TechAccess, as they integrate Commvault products into their diverse portfolio of solution providers. Commvault’s expertise coupled with TechAccess’ strong relationships will deliver exactly this to partners and customers in the region.” said Wael Mustafa, MESAT Channel Director, Commvault.

QUALYS AND SPLUNK COLLABORATE FOR ENHANCED SECURITY Qualys has signed a technology alliance with Splunk to help enterprises visualize and better protect their IT infrastructure from cyber attacks. The Qualys App for Splunk Enterprise provides customers with real-time threat intelligence and alerts in a single dashboard to more efficiently secure their IT infrastructure.

The Qualys Add-on for Splunk has been submitted for Splunk certification and enables visualizations of Qualys data within Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Enterprise Security.

“Now, customers can make Qualys’ data immediately actionable in Splunk Enterprise Security, further reinforcing Splunk’s role as the nerve center for our customers’ most demanding environments and security requirements”, said Haiyan Song, SVP of security markets, Splunk.

The Qualys Add-on and Qualys App for Splunk Enterprise are compliant with Splunk’s Common Information Model (CIM), allowing Qualys data to be easily ingested into Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Enterprise Security and correlated with other industry feeds.

Philippe Courtot, Chairman and CEO, Qualys, said, “Through this alliance with Splunk, we can now provide customers complete visibility into their IT systems in a Splunk-friendly format to quickly identify where vulnerabilities may exist along with contextual awareness so they can more effectively take action against potential threats.”

SAGE REGISTERS STRONG GROWTH IN KSA Sage Middle East has seen phenomenal growth in Saudi’s AED (SAR) 22.6bn valued IT services and software sales sector. Mr. Keith Fenner—Chief Sales Officer, Sage X3 International, Executive Director and Head of Sage Middle East— said, “Regardless of the company size or scope, Sage’s reputation, brand and brand awareness has

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grown remarkably. At present over 300 companies in Saudi Arabia use Sage products.”

Sage’s success in Saudi Arabia is a reflection of shifting business attitudes on ERP and other software solutions. The Arabization and localization of Sage products is an indicator of the company’s commitment and sensitivity to

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client requirements in Saudi. The localization of Sage products has resulted in clients implementing and integrating Sage 50, Sage 300, Sage X3 and in some cases Sage CRM, and Sage HRM systems into their workspace. “With the launch of HRM, Sage is one of the first software vendors to have full Business management solutions, full CRM

and full HRM solutions that is fully Arabized and localized in the KSA market,” elaborated Mr. Fenner Sage products reach the Saudi market through a distributary partnership between Interkey and KBW Investments in Saudi Arabia, and cut across all industries including manufacturing and distribution, services and financial services.

CHANNEL STREET

NETAPP TO ACQUIRE SOLIDFIRE

GEORGE KURIAN, CEO OF NETAPP

NetApp has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SolidFire for $870 million in cash.

George Kurian, CEO of NetApp said, “SolidFire combines the performance and economics of all-flash storage with a webscale architecture that radically simplifies data center operations and enables rapid deployments of new applications. We look forward to extending NetApp’s flash leadership with the SolidFire team, products and partner ecosystem, and to accelerating flash adoption through NetApp’s large partner and customer base.”

With SolidFire, NetApp will now have all-flash offerings that address each of the three largest All-Flash Array market segments. For the traditional enterprise infrastructure buyer, the award-winning NetApp All Flash FAS (AFF) product line delivers enterprise-grade features across flash, disk and cloud resources. For the application owner, the NetApp EF Series product line offers world-class SPC-1 benchmarks with consistent low-latency performance and proven 6x9’s reliability.

For the next-generation infrastructure buyer, SolidFire’s distributed, self-healing, webscale architecture delivers seamless scalability, white box economics, and radically simple management.

Personalized Connection Anywhere, Any Device Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise solutions has released the Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch Suite 2.1.1. The latest solution extends the unified communications experience to all employees and guests.

With more UC capabilities, OpenTouch creates a personalized connected experience to help improve overall corporate productivity.

The new features in OpenTouch extend UC with a new web client, new WebRTC conferencing capability, and a first of its kind innovative mobility solutions for the office. These enable the benefits of real-time collaboration across all users, anywhere, using their preferred device.

The new OpenTouch Contactless Call Shift with Near Field Communications technology brings innovative mobility options to the workplace. OpenTouch Conversation Web with embedded WebRTC extends conferencing so users inside and outside the business can collaborate via the web. OpenTouch Conversation One, a web-based application available on the OpenTouch suite, now comes at no additional cost to provide essential UC for all users - instant messaging, presence, document sharing and web presentation, directory lookup and most importantly control of the telephone.

SIMBANET BOOSTS BUSINESS WITH TATA COMMUNICATIONS SimbaNET will collaborate with Tata Communications in East Africa. The agreement will provide companies located in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda with access to enterprise solutions such as global network connectivity, direct public cloud access, unified communications and managed security services. It will also provide global businesses with connectivity to East Africa via Tata Communications’ global public IP backbone and SimbaNET’s regional IP network. Radwan Moussalli, SVP, Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, Tata Communications says, “This is an important milestone for the expansion of our business in East Africa. This collaboration will provide SimbaNET and its customers access to our international portfolio and vertical solutions as well as the ability to leverage Tata Communications’ global network.”

BT TO BOOST UP ADS SECURITIES INFRASTRUCTURE As part of its international growth plans, ADS Securities will leverage a range of Radianz Services and BT’s global partnership agreement with Equinix to create a new trading hub in Equinix’s Secaucus (New York) data centre campus. BT will host ADS Securities’ OREX trading system in the Secaucus campus. In addition to co-location services, BT will also provide hosted infrastructure such as high performance servers and switches, as well as managed connectivity to the platform on ADS Securities’ behalf. Ashish Gupta, President, global banking & financial markets, BT Global Services said: “By working with BT, the trading firm can now extend its client base and increase liquidity by leveraging an existing community of customers, both within the Equinix data centre ecosystem and in the BT Radianz Cloud.”

AVAYA PARTNER FORUM LOOKS INTO FUTURE POTENTIALS Avaya recently held its Avaya Partner Forum (APF) in Dubai.

The event was aimed at enabling Avaya’s channel partners to collaborate, engage, and leverage their collective market knowledge and expertise. Avaya also shared its strategic vision for 2016.

The APF event provided

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a collaborative platform for Avaya’s channel partners, which was particularly useful for the company after the consolidation of its Europe and Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa (AMEA) regions. Speaking at the event, Avaya’s executive leadership teams encouraged their channel partners

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to focus on business outcomes rather than on product functions, features, and price when building a value case for their customers.

Avaya also emphasized its Engagement Development Platform that allows business analysts, IT architects, and service providers to customize and build applica-

tions. Alongside its emphasis on this platform, Avaya discussed workflows with easy-to-use development tools and reusable snap-in architecture and automation features that can add enhanced communication capabilities such as real-time speech, work assignment, and context store.

GUEST TALK

GENOME CONSULTANTS – A MIDDLE EAST PARTNER (MHI GLOBAL)

Customer Core-Learn It, Love It, Live It Being customer-focused is a journey, not a destination. What satisfies in this environment today will not do so in the next few years as customers continue to evolve. Being customer-focused is not an item on a to-do list you can check off. We can’t say we’ve done it and we’re ready to move on to something else. Being the best at client services will result in long-term business relationships.

2016 is here - Are you Conversation Ready?

Being customer-focused is one of the critical factors that has helped organizations weather economic storms and endure even after decades in business. And being truly customer focused, as opposed to merely paying lip service, will be the same critical component that will help companies meet their growth plans this year and the years to come. Being customer-focused is a journey, not a destination. What satisfies in this environment today will not do so in the next few years as customers continue to evolve.

Being customer-focused is not an item on a to-do list you can check off. We can’t say we’ve done it and we’re ready to move on to something else. Being the best at client services will result in long-term business relationships. That comes from research and preparation and, out of that, come the right questions to ask, as well as the ability to listen to and truly hear the responses.

(While this sounds logical, for

many sales people, listening to the customer has become both an overlooked and underrated skill.)

What makes a World class organization stay up the ladder ?

The mark of success in any world-class organization is the ability to readily offer proven solutions and methodologies to clients and prospects that solve for customer needs and eliminate pain points or conversion hurdles.

MHI’s own research bears this out: 86 percent of World-Class Sales Performance organizations say they understand their customers’ issues before they propose a solution, compared to 51 percent of all others. These organizations recognize that for their solution to resonate with their customers, it must be connected to their issues.

And, their sales people have a solid understanding of their customers’ business needs, at a rate of 89 percent compared with 49 percent of all other organizations. Ultimately,

n W O R D S : L E E N N A J AYA C H A A N D R A N , C O A C H , M E N T O R , C O N S U LT I N G P A R T N E R , G E N O M E T E C H N O L O G Y C O N S U LTA N T S – A M I D D L E E A S T PARTNER (MHI GLOBAL)

sales professionals at these worldclass organizations know they must earn the right to propose a solution by understanding the customers’ concepts.

Focus on More CustomerFacing Time: Quantity vs.

Quality !

All sales organizations are relentlessly searching for ways to remove administrative and other nonproductive activities from their salespeople to free more customer time. For WorldClass Sales Performers, this means more than just increasing the frequency of customer interactions. Sales professionals must not only make the time to engage with their clients throughout the product life cycle, but they must also have compelling business reasons to meet.

The focused dialogues with the customer let them jointly evaluate the impact of their solutions on the customer’s business goals and objectives, as well as check customer satisfaction and detect

signs of possible customer defection. These conversations then lead to new opportunities to cross-sell/ upsell, introduce new products, or penetrate adjacent buying centers.

Such conversations can only occur when time has been invested to research before meeting with the client to be in the best possible position to understand the needs and challenges that the solution they ultimately propose will address and, ideally, solve for.

World-Class PerformanceWorld-class athletes know what it takes to achieve and sustain worldclass performance. Championship teams know they cannot just show up and expect to win. Every day, they practice the fundamentals and skills of their sport. They tirelessly monitor their performance metrics and prepare winning game strategies. World-class athletes hold themselves to a higher level of accountability, professionalism and performance than everyone else.

World-Class Sales Performers do the same. ë

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GUEST TALK

Internet of Threats?

OXYGEN MIDDLE EAST

As we enter into this “new world” of the Internet of Things (IoT), the risk of cyber threats and attacks grows exponentially.

As deployments progress, new vulnerabilities are surfacing. n WORDS: ROHAN DANIEL NAIR, S T R AT E G I C M A R K E T I N G M A N A G E R , M I D D L E E A S T A N D A F R I C A , O X Y G E N MIDDLE EAST

A report released last spring by Symantec analysed 50 smart home devices and claimed “none of the analysed devices provided mutual authentication between the client and the server.”

Earlier this summer, researchers demonstrated the ability to hack into a Jeep while it was driving on the highway, first controlling the radio, air conditioning, windshield wipers, and finally cutting the transmission.

Traditionally, toys, tools, appliance, and auto manufacturers have not had to protect against external threats. Manufacturers of medical devices, elevators, HVAC, electric, and plumbing infrastructure components (all of which are likely to be connected to the Internet in the coming years) have not always been security minded.

As we are all aware, it is difficult enough on a daily basis to secure PCs, phones, servers, and even the networks, which have been through significant security checking, reviews and assessments for years. How can you secure alarms, personal electronics, and home devices that seemingly come out daily?

To start, one must define and think about where the security platforms will be deployed – hardware, software, network, or all of the above?

Solutions such as Ziften listen to the network (from the device perspective) and use advanced machine-type learning to identify patterns and scan for anomalies. Ziften currently

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offers a global threat analytics platform (the ZiftenKnowledgeCloud), which has feeds from a variety of sources that enables review of tens of millions of endpoint, binary, MD5, etc. data today.

It will be a challenge to deploy software onto all IoT devices, many of which utilize FPGA and ASIC designs as the control platform(s). They are typically incorporated into anything from drones to cars to industrial and scada control systems. A large number of these devices run on solid-state chips without a running operating system or x86 type processor. With insufficient memory to support advanced software, many simply cannot support modern security software. In the world of IoT, additional customization creates risk and a vacuum that strains even the most robust solutions.

Solutions for the IoT space require a multipronged approach at the endpoint, which encompasses desktops, laptops, and servers currently combined with the network. Ziften, currently delivers collectors for Windows, Linux, and OS X, supporting the core desktop, server, and network infrastructure that contains the intellectual property and assets that the attackers seek to get access to. After all, the bad guys don’t really want any information from the company refrigerator, but merely want to use it as a conduit to where the valuable data resides.

“In the world of IoT, additional customization creates risk and a vacuum that strains even the most robust solutions.”

However, there is an additional approach that we deliver that can help alleviate many current concerns: scanning for anomalies at the network level. It’s believed that typically 30% of devices connected to a corporate network are unknown IP’s. IoT trends will likely double that number in the next 10 years. This is one of the reasons why connecting is not always an obvious choice.

As more devices are connected to the Internet, more attack surfaces will emerge, resulting in breaches that are far more damaging than those of email, financial, retail, and insurance – things that could even pose a risk to our way of life.

Securing the IoT needs to draw on lessons learned from traditional enterprise IT security – and offer multiple layers, integrated to provide end-to-end robustness, capable of preventing and detecting threats at every level of the emerging IoT value chain. Ziften can help from a multitude of angles today and in the future. ë

GUEST TALK

FINESSE

The New Face of CPM An optimal financial performance solution, is not a point solution to support financial planning, budgeting and reporting but a broad platform with built in intelligence and processes to support multiple inter related applications in the office of finance and beyond.

n W O R D S : H I R E N B H AT I A , S R . B U S I N E S S D E V E L O P M E N T M A N A G E R AT F I N E S S E G L O B A L n PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

Finance departments have come a long way from being isolated from major corporate decision making to be the main contributors in decision making. Similarly within an enterprise, the software used for CPM has moved from being used only for planning and budgeting by the finance heads to being full-fledged platforms with multiple purposes that can be used across the entire enterprise.

It is when top management decides to invest in CPM software that a lot of things need to be considered before a decision is taken to create or expand the current strategy.

The core principles of a good CPM solution are: Simplexity: Simplify the complexity that customers face from the business processes and from technical perspective.

Openness and Multi-platform: Giving the customer the freedom to select the technology platform of their choice to run the solution and the ability to easily integrate the solution with any other systems.

Innovation: There is no future for a product without innovation. Innovation without disruption of critical business processes is the way ahead. The three technologies that are bringing a

revolution in our personal as well as business life are InMemory changing the way we process data; Mobility - the way we access it and Cloud - the way we deploy and maintain it.

Some of the benefits which you get from a good CPM are:

l Link operational activities with business strategy without complex integration l Go beyond finance (i.e. use pervasive and detailed budgeting, planning & forecasting processes across even the largest enterprise) l Manage communication and collaboration across multiple finance processes l Link tasks and activities to both budget objectives and actual performance l Improve control and workflow of activities and processes across the enterprise l Unify consolidation, reporting, budgeting and forecasting processes l Gain flexibility to adapt to meet new business requirements quickly l Manage external compliance, disclosure and financial reporting from single source With deep knowledge of finance processes, regulatory requirements, performance management and the technologies to deliver financial intelligence, Finesse is uniquely qualified to help the Office of Finance and beyond and add value to SMEs and large enterprises. ĂŤ

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COVER STORY

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ICT

2016 -

Opening Doors to Endless Possibilities

It would not be wrong to say that, the way the technology market will perform will have the greatest impact on how global economy would fare in 2016. With Digitalization spreading across verticals, Big Data being the norm of everyday business, Security being the prime concern of verticals worldwide, IoT redefining the operations of day to day activities, technology is undoubtedly the spine of any modern day business.

As 2016 dawns,leading IT players in the Middle East and Africa region bring their crystal balls to the Enterprise Channels MEA table and read out their respective outlook of 2016. n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T

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n PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

COVER STORY

N

ever make predictions, especially for the Futureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, Mark Twain had once said. But little did he know that IT would be making the future so endearing that predictions will give way for possibilities. Future will not be predicted, but seen.

From NASA finding water on Mars to Dell acquiring EMC, 2015 has been quite an overwhelming year for the world. Now, it is time to take a close look and see how the year has been for the leading players in the field of ICT. A few flashbacks, a few prophesies, a few pieces of advice makes up the first cover story of the year. Let the ride begin.

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COVER STORY

SHAMS HASAN ENTERPRISE PRODUCT MANAGER, DELL MIDDLE EAST

MAYA ZAKHOUR CHANNEL DIRECTOR – MIDDLE EAST, FORTINET

NIRANJ SANGAL CEO, OMA EMIRATES – SOLUTION GULF

“This is a time of unprecedented opportunity in our region. You need an IT partner that can help you bridge the gap from IT potential to business outcomes. Dell has the right portfolio, expertise, and proven approach.”

“Fortinet is focused on ensuring that opportunities grow, if partners engage with us right from the start.”

“We understand that most organizations are looking at not just easing their processes through the use of technology, but are also looking at being able to migrate to new technology in simple ways and to bypass the use of complex technologies.”

Another remarkable step forward for Ruckus Wireless was a new technology alliance with Juniper Networks, that will deliver open, wired and wireless networking solutions for enterprise, government and education customer segments.

“The goal of this technology alliance is to deliver network flexibility and reduced total cost of ownership for its joint customers”, says MuetassemRaslan, Regional Sales Manager MENA, Ruckus Wireless.Ruckus Wireless also released

RAISING A TOAST FOR THE WINNING NOTES For Ruckus Wireless, some of the major winning notes in the past year were Ruckus Wireless being chosen as AccorHotel’s preferred Wi-Fi provider.

other technology providers today. This unique design

201 5 FLASHBACK

philosophy gives compelling benefits to Customers going

For Dell, the 2015’s macroeconomics trends have been very

The tremendous number of new initiatives introduced

favourable. IT leaders and their business stakeholders are recognizing and pushing for responsible, cost-effective, and agile technology investments. “Dell’s unique design philosophy — combining open and standards-based systems with modularity and a modern approach — sets us apart from all

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through economic roller coasters as well as Customers who generally want to make responsible investments — investment assurance, scalability on demand, and access to the latest innovations. These are the hallmarks of future-ready IT that transforms with you so you can transform your business”, says Shams Hasan, Enterprise Product Manager, Dell Middle East. by the government and other sectors has created many strong opportunities for OMA Emirates despite the fluctuating oil prices. NiranjSangal, CEO of OMA Emirates- Solutions Gulf says, “2015 was strategically used to build and invest in the services domain which has

COVER STORY

SAEED AGHA GENERAL MANAGER OF PALO ALTO NETWORKS MIDDLE EAST

“Awareness is important in determining the way forward, ensuring that leaders understand the landscape, ask the right questions, and assist in creating a culture where a mindset of prevention is at the core of security strategy” Ruckus UnleashedTM access points— which is a ground breaking launch for SME’s in the region and is intended to support new and existing start-ups with IT budget sensitivity.

For OMA Emirates, the greatest highlight for

2015 has been their expansion into the African market and the launch of several new product including, the OMA Retail Suite and Managed Services. Dell’s IoT portfolio and message connected strongly with Customers interested in digitalizing and bringing intelligence to all facets of business. “We rocketed past ALL competitors in Gartner’s Data Center Networking Magic Quadrant to the most Visionary vendor in the playing field”, says Shams Hasan, Enterprise Product Manager, Dell Middle East. With its growing Storage portfolio, Dell has become a top-four player in Gartner’s 2015 Magic Quadrant for General Purpose Disk Arrays.

Palo Alto has been making various strides with their channel partners. “In FY15, CDW grew their business with us more than 85%, while Dimension Data and close to 500 other channel partners all doubled their business, giving us the capacity needed to support our growth”, says Saeed Agha, GM of Palo Alto Networks Middle East In 2015, Sophos achieved a visible transition from product-centric sales and channel approach to solutions-driven business strategy.

“With this, we have also managed to augment and consolidate business and technology ecosystems of Sophos and Cyberoam, strengthening our presence in the region with expanded portfolio and channel reach”, says Harish Chib, VP MEA, Sophos.

Veeam recorded 25% growth in new customers in Q3’2015 over Q3’2014, totaling over 1400 customers in the Middle East. Veeam’s ongoing success in 2015 has been fueled by the strategic strengthening of its channel. One of the biggest channel initiatives was the launch of the VMCE certification training program that has enabled channel to fulfill end-to-end transactions with minimal support from the Veeam team.

FLASHFORWARD 2016: KEEPING AN EYE ON POSSIBILITIES The innumerous ways in which we have seen technology penetrating into every day business and the speed with which it is traversing, it is inevitable for vendors, customers or partners to keep up the pace. “For most Customers and Channel Partners, some important tends to watch out for in 2016 would be the growing adoption of Software-Defined, open, and hybrid technology solutions and platforms; careful considerations to initial forays into the Internet of Things; the rise in Private Cloud implementations; Customers taking on single-vendor strategies, and the consolidation of the technology market and players”, says Shams Hasan, Enterprise Product Manager, Dell Middle East.

According to Maya Zakhour, Channel Director – Middle East, Fortinet, “The GCC and the UAE in particular is a hub for economic activity.

We are also seeing good business from the Levant region, despite the ongoing challenges.”She also adds that the GCC is growing in-terms of infrastructure investment, various government initiatives, and is attracting top talent from around the world, while creating more opportunities for businesses. This gives rise to increase in IT investments to enable businesses to be on par with the rest of the developed world. IT security is foremost in investments and is therefore a golden opportunity for the channel.

Ruckus Wireless foresees a number of trends for the market in 2016 such as further access to Wi-Fi hotspots. BYOD-enabled enterprise networks will be easier and more secure through the use of Hotspot 2.0, which will become the de facto standard for public access and hospitality Wi-Fi. According to Sophos, third-platform technologies will witness greater adoption, reshaping business and

proved to be a valuable asset to the company and gives

increased mobile data traffic, BYOD and Internet of

concept becoming the new norm for the enterprise.

us an edge within our industry. Moreover, we have seen

Things and Smart Cities. According to IDC, sales for

Proving its case Veeam has reported an 18% increase

greater understanding and uptake for the potential that

802.11ac, the new emerging WLAN standard, will top

in year-on-year total revenue bookings in the third quar-

technology can deliver across customers in the retail,

$4.6 billion by 2017. While IoT connectivity will also

ter of 2015 in the UAE. With a 45% growth in number

aviation, hospitality, real estate and government sectors

peak as IDC predicts, the installed base of IoT units is

of new customers, the UAE remains Veeam`s largest

which open up project opportunities for us in these

slated to grow from 9.1 billion in 2013 to 28.1 billion

market in the Middle East. Globally the company serves

industries.”

in 2020.

168,000 customers across 200 countries, adding

Throughout 2015, Palo Alto Networks rapidly replaced

For Sophos, 2015 year was marked with several mile-

4,000 new customers each month.

existing security solutions and winning new opportuni-

stones. Sophos and Cyberoam are more integrated

The UAE’s e-commerce market was valued

ties in organizations around the world. “We are taking

and now they are on an accelerated growth path. With

at $2.3bn in 2014, according to a report by

market share with growth rates that significantly out-

combined portfolio that includes proven-in-the-field

Payfort. By 2020, the company estimates

pace the market and the competition”, says Saeed

Network Security, Endpoint Protection and Server Pro-

that e-commerce markets of both the Emir-

Agha, GM of Palo Alto Networks Middle East.

tection, they have begun entrenching their presence in

ates and Saudi Arabia will have a combined

Ruckus Wireless saw various developments in the

the Middle East.

value of $10bn.

region such as the increase in smartphone adoption,

Veeam has successfully bet on Always-On Business

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27

COVER STORY

Harish.

Veeam is evolving into a ‘non-touch business’.

“To that end we will continue to invest in our partner network and enable them to perform end to end sales. Veeam is a marketing engine and building brand awareness and educating enterprises will continue to be a focus for ROY 2016-17”, says Greg.

TECH TRENDS ALL SET TO ROCK THE 2016 FLOOR

MUETASSEM RASLAN REGIONAL SALES MANAGER MENA, RUCKUS WIRELESS.

“In 2016, Ruckus Wireless plans to focus on and conveys the smart city vision in MENA with Unleashed being its primary focus to enhance businesses with smart Wi-Fi solutions.”

technology ecosystems at organizations across verticals, primarily in government, education, healthcare, banking & finance and retail.

Thriving on change has become necessity. As a result, ICT trends that we have witnessed here in 2015 will gather further pace next year and continue to enable or disrupt business depending on how prepared decision-makers are for the emerging influences.

PLANS ON THE PLATTER According to a Deloitte study for 2016 IT market and landscape, Companies across the entire IT services landscape are changing how they deliver their offerings, shifting toward more consumption-based business models (CBBMs) that allow customers the flexibility to consume and pay for products and services based on need and usage.

Shams says, “In 2016 we will continue to grow our core lines of business with new and refreshed product portfolios, while also expanding our channel business and strategic partnerships.”

For Fortinet, the priority is to ensure that their partners have the necessary certifications in place.

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HARISH CHIB VP MEA, SOPHOS.

“We recommend all to think of security as a catalyst. Make sure security is never an after-thought. It pays to be proactive.”

“We have taken into consideration the challenges our partners face in terms of time and availability, and have made it easier for them to complete certifications in a timely manner, so they can maintain their partnership levels”, says Maya.

OMA Emirates’ big focus will be the expansion of the “INNOVATION LAB” which will enable them to work on R&D and the development of new technologies and solutions for 2016, especially for the retail, finance and exchange organizations.

On the other hand, for Ruckus Wireless, education, hospitality and healthcare sectors will remain focus areas in the Middle East. Ruckus is confident about the future of WiFi technology and will continue making a difference and leading this important area of any IT infrastructure.

Sophos recently launched the world’s first security heartbeat capability. “We delivered our synchronized security strategy for the changing times, and brought further credence to our contributions for the global IT security industry and contemporary security practices. We are going to take this revolution to the next level”, says

As we welcome 2016, the future appears standing at the next lane. So, there is no doubt that technologies, or to be precise, solutions and services that offer flexibility to adapt with future and scalability to fulfil the requirements of the future will be ruling the floors of 2016.

“There is no one killer technology as such but rather a wide and prominent focus on IT security”, says Maya. OMA Emirates looks at the way ahead with a huge focus and potential on mobile technology. “It will also be a time when technology will be increasingly used to heighten the customer experience and the use of NFC technology will play a very important role in this progress”, says Niranj.

Ruckus Wireless believes that the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard will continue to evolve in 2016.

Overly complex and expensive WiFi systems will have to step back, especially for Small Businesses and Retail spots.

Harish from Sophos says that IoT ecosystem

VERTICALS

TO WATCH OUT FOR

Technology has been penetrating each and every industry in its own ways. To get some facts and figures, Gartner reports say that Banking and securities companies in the Middle East and North Africa were proposed to spend approximately $12.9 billion USD on IT products and services in 2015. Healthcare providers in the Middle East and North Africa were also expected to spend US $2.86 billion on IT products and services in 2015. So, quite visibly, these 2 sectors would be keenly looking forward to more investments and can be a green pasture for the IT vendors and suppliers in the Middle East and Africa region.

COVER STORY

JAN LAWFORD EMEA CHANNEL DIRECTOR, VCE

“There’s been a lot of buzz around converged infrastructure and the opportunities it presents for the channel but 2016 will be the year businesses fully commit to putting it into practice.”

GREGG PETERSEN REGIONAL DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST AND SAARC AT VEEAM SOFTWARE

“Veeam is evolving into a ‘non-touch business’.

Veeam is a marketing engine and building brand awareness and educating enterprises will continue to be a focus for ROY 2016-17.”

SPOTLIGHT

ON THE CIOS The CIOs are soon running ahead the race of becoming the CEOs and CFOs, given the prime role that they would be playing as leaders of organizations in optimizing cost and executing projects and thus keeping the business ahead in the scale of global competitiveness. Now is the time for the tech providers and suppliers to travel with the CIOs and combine the best of both the worlds to provide an unmatched experience for the organizations. “As a company we are making headway into understanding the specific needs of the Middle East CIOs.. This is the foremost reason for our focus on investing into, and, strengthening our INNOVATION LAB which matches CIO requirements and enables them to plan their business process enhancements”, says Niranj.

“Unlike other hardware vendors in the industry, Dell is best positioned to provide CIOs a portfolio of end-to-end software and technology solutions ensuring we are able to look at problems holistically from a technology and business perspective”, says Shams. “Having partnered over 100, 000 customers in over 150 countries across a range of verticals, we can easily see how the role of a CIO has experienced a sea-change and it is again poised for further recast. Sophos continues to provide security as a catalyst of new opportunities, allowing CIOs to embrace bold initiatives securely”, says Harish.

As for Veeam, Veeam’s Availability Suite enables IT to immediately identify and address potential issues with the data center availability infrastructure .In this way, Veeam does what legacy disaster recovery and backup systems could never do: enable the Always-On Business.

will mature, which may alarm security concerns due to the fear of the unknown; Also, in the wake of Ashley Madison hack, many industry watch-dogs are hinting at rise in ransomware threats. Finally, on-premise solutions will lose steam and be seen as traditional deployments, gradually making way for cloud-based offerings.

Jan Lawford, VCE EMEA Channel Director says, “There’s been a lot of buzz around converged infrastructure and the opportunities it presents for the channel but 2016 will be the year businesses fully commit to putting it into practice. Why? Because it can help reduce the overall cost of deploying and managing IT infrastructure, while simplifying IT deployment, accelerating the development of applications and making businesses more agile.

Secondly, businesses will also be unsure how much of the old infrastructure they should keep and what additional applications need to be deployed when making the move to the converged world.”

2016: THE DOS AND NOT TO DOS Saeed Agha asserts that business leaders in the region would have to bring cybersecurity to mainstream of business strategy; Shift to a mindset of prevention; Invest in a proactive security strategy that is built for tomorrow, today; and Be prepared; Stop looking for solutions that clean up after the attack, but instead built capabilities to prevent it. Harish of Sophos says “We recommend all to think of security as a catalyst. It ties with key business and IT decisions. Our advice is to ensure that security invariably accompanies any bold ICT initiative taken to transform business. And for DONT’s, make sure security is never an after-thought. It pays to be proactive.”

The biggest message that goes out from Veeam to the world is ‘ Do not ignore the business cost of downtime’. Test recovery and bridging the availability gap should be the prime priorities for the organizations.

FINALLY The emergence of new technologies and the advancements of the current ones would not be slowing down, ever. It is time for the CIOs to flip legacy first to digital first. Vendors and partners have to work hand in hand to ensure value first and future first. Thought leaders have prophesized that 2016 would be putting an end to the turbulences created by the economic upheavals.

What would matter is the ‘Value Proposition’ brought along. The ground of opportunities is just boundless! ë

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2016 OUTLOOK

TECHNOLOGY IN 2016-

#WHAT’S TRENDING

#CYBER WARFARE ON THE RISE

#MOBILE PAYMENTS

#SMARTER IT

#DIGITAL BUSINESS

#HYBRID CLOUD

#NEW BREED OF CIOS WHO

#CYBER CRIME – A BIGGER THREAT

#GROWTH IN APPS

#SMARTER CARS

#CONVERGENCE OF LAPTOPS, DESKTOPS AND MOBILES

#SOFTWARE DEFINED NETWORKING

#4K RESOLUTION

#MACHINE LEARNING

#MOBILE WORKSPACES

ACTIVELY BRANDISH TECH TO DRIVE REVENUE

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2016 OUTLOOK

SOURCE- CERTES

#WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY #3D PRINTING

#VIRTUAL REALITY

#LTE TECHNOLOGY

#COLLABORATION

#BIG DATA & ANALYTICS

#IPV6

#CONNECTED DEVICES &IOT

#USER EXPERIENCE

#SMART HOMES

#DRONES

#IT SECURITY

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GEC GRAND FINALE BASH 20 15 9 DEC 2015 AL BADIA GOLF CLUB, DUBAI

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After an amazing journey of 3 months across six countries, the GEC Open 2015 finally drew curtains to its 2015 edition with some amazing moments, hits, and players who would definitely go into the pages of memories and history of GEC Open. The smiles, cheers and accolades just refused to cease as Nikolai Ushakov from UAE lifted the winning trophy. Blended with the theme of Christmas, the guest were all happy and cheering in their gorgeous red and white attires.

EC MEA also had some big announcements made at the finale bash. 2 new additions to the portfolio were revealed. Cyber Sentinels, the quarterly security focused supplement was unveiled by Sanjay Mohapatra, Editor, Enterprise Channels MEA and Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO of Spectrum Group. The Titans, a quarterly supplement that would cover the changemakers and trendsettersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; The CIOs was unveiled by Rolf Jorgan Strand, Head of IT Section for Qatar Vinyl Company and Sanjay Mohapatra.

The premium charity golf tournament raised some good amount of charity for its charity partners. The GEC Open Committee handed over the contributions for charity to Dubai Autism Center and KISS (Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences) thus realizing the vision of the entire journey.

With an overwhelming and beautiful end to the year 2015, Enterprise Channels MEA and Global Enterprise Connect is all set to rock the new year with some amazing plans and events for the IT fraternity and the humanity at large.

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GUEST TALK

EQUINIX

Predictions of Big Trends Impacting the Digital Economy From the Internet of Things to renewable energy principles, we’ll see our digital economy transforming before our eyes in 2016. Here are my predictions. n W O R D S : T O N Y B I S H O P, V P G L O B A L E N T E R P R I S E S T R AT E G Y A N D MARKETING, EQUINIX n PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

1. DIGITAL COMMERCE WILL BE TRANSFORMED. 2016 will see the players in the digital payments industry seeking fast, continuous availability of colocation services in a scalable, interconnected environment. These environments must supply real-time access to brokers, as well as to digital wallet and market data providers. They must also connect to hundreds of point-of-sale providers, digital commerce sites, financial institutions and mobile networks. We predict that 2016 will also see major digital payment players realize that the true value of the digital transaction is in the customer data it provides, such as on spending habits and shopping locations. They will redesign their networks to better handle and analyze these non-payment data elements.

2. IOT WILL DRAMATICALLY IMPACT IT NETWORKS We predict that in 2016, enterprises will work to more seamlessly combine networked intelligence with the data being processed by sensors and actuators. Enterprises can improve their agility in rapidly changing IoT environments by deploying infrastructure that enables direct and secure connections between the multiple components.

That kind of interconnection ensures employees, partners and customers can get the information they need, in the right context, using the devices,

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channels and services they prefer. Businesses will realize this, meaning robust interconnection will become a more prominent solution in this space in 2016, as an intersection point between IoT, clouds and the enterprise becomes increasingly necessary.

3. CONTENT PROVIDERS WILL INCREASINGLY BYPASS THE INTERNET TO MEET SURGING DEMAND FOR CAPACITY. To handle the looming capacity demands, in 2016 we’ll see more media companies follow Netflix’s lead by shifting workloads to the cloud and using interconnection to optimize Internet application performance.

4. THE INTERNET WILL GET GREENER In 2016, we’ll see more enterprises adopt renewable energy principles. Companies that rely on electricity to supply power to critical Internet infrastructure and maintain operational reliability will continue to reevaluate the energy efficiency of their data centers, adopt proven energy-saving techniques and evolve sustainability best practices.

5. THE ENTERPRISE WILL TURN TO MULTI-CLOUD

INTERCONNECTION STRATEGIES FOR COST SAVINGS. Multi-cloud strategies will be a huge part of the enterprise push in 2016 toward improving production workloads, achieving business agility, accelerating application performance and controlling costs. We believe enterprise adoption of multi-cloud interconnectivity will continue to increase, as organizations realize bypassing the public internet and directly and securely connecting to cloud providers eases corporate concerns.

6. CYBER-SECURITY WILL FUEL INCREASED ADOPTION OF INTERCONNECTION. In 2016, we’ll see more focus on reducing risks and minimizing exposure for corporate networks. Security in the cloud continues to be a growing concern for enterprises. As enterprises continue to evaluate their IT infrastructure options, direct connection will continue to prove to be a more consistent and secure tool for connecting organizations to each other and to the cloud.

7. INTERCONNECTION WILL REMOVE SIGNIFICANT BARRIERS TO IT GROWTH. 2016 will be a year that enterprises increasingly design interconnection-oriented infrastructures to enable direct and secure links to cloud and network providers and various other partners. In this interconnected era, companies will increasingly rely on instantaneous interconnection with each other to create value and succeed. ë

FEATURE

GROWTH OF SI MARKET

SIs-The Success Integrators and the Road Ahead Analysts forecast the global system integration market to grow at a CAGR of 6.29% over the period 2014-2019. As emerging technologies continue to change the landscape of modern business operations, every organization is on the lookout for value added system integrators who would not only cater to the solutions/services implementation but address the stringent Capex and Opex model as well. A close look into the plans and potentials of leading players in the market. n WORDS: ANUSHREE <ANUSHREE@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

O

rganizations in the Middle East have been surfing on the waves of innovative IT and emerging technologies. Though the dipping oil prices and a rickety economy did have a great impact on organizations spending and investment in IT, the System Integration market can be fairly seen as quite untouched, because implementing an emerging technology and keeping SIs at bay was never the answer, nor an option.

A CLOSE LOOK AT THE 2015 SI MARKET For Emitac Enterprise Solutions, 2015 has been a challenging year. While IT continues to be a driver from efficiency and innovation and the region continues to develop and mature, the facts of oil price slump and regional instability have affected the pace of the major spending force, the public sector. “We have seen a number of infrastructure projects getting delayed. However we have also seen our software solutions, cloud and managed services units exceeding the

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expectations and finalizing an excellent year”, says Miguel Angel Villalonga, CEO, EmitacEnterprise Solutions (EES). According to Sunil Paul, COO and Co Founder of Finesse, the increasing trend in the adoption of Big data, mobile, cloud, social and IoTs increased the adaption of solutions and services by enterprises.

Fujitsu has grown strongly in the Enterprise business especially in Data Center Business. “A strong channel structure growth is witnessed in the region as well within Enterprise Solutions. As a result, this year we have strongly engaged with our global alliances such as SAP, NetApp, Commvault, VMWare, Brocade, Intel, Microsoft, Red Hat and more.” says Mohamed Menakbi, Director of Channel Sales, Middle East & Pakistan, Fujitsu.

For Intertec Systems, 2015 brought new customers from large enterprises and government sectors. “We have consolidated our IT infrastructure business and have quicker response to complex and large infrastructure projects, cloud, DR, security and likewise opportunities.” comments Mr. Nikhil Kothari, Director – Application Services Group, Intertec Systems.

TASTING SUCCESS According to market analyses upcoming and advancing technologies like Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS), clinical integration, Cloud Service Brokerage (CSB), and Cyber Physical System (CPS) integration are expected to provide new avenues for market growth.

“Our software solutions, managed services and cloud offerings are the ones showing strongest growth. As we focus more on higher profile services, we decided to move our Dubai headquarters to new, more modern and larger premises, accommodating more than 100 highly skilled employees and a state of the art Network Operations Center”, says Miguel. On the other hand, Finesse has many success stories to its credentials and has acquired more than 25 new clients in the last 12 months. Finesse has signed up with many new clients including a leading healthcare group, an infrastructure manufacturing enterprise, a leading project management company, a global energy conglomerate, one of the world leaders in logistics, a few government institutions, and quite a few banking & financial institutions.

FEATURE

MIGUEL ANGEL VILLALONGA

MOHAMED MENAKBI

CEO, EMITACENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS (EES)

“We have just recently singed new partnership agreements with Pulse Secure, the leader in next generation secure access solutions for enterprises and service providers, and with Tenable, a leader in continuous network monitoring. This adds to partnerships with Bit9 + Carbon Black, Elastica, OPSWAT and SafeNet, and Beyond Trust that we signed through 2015.”

PARTNER TREE

HELPAG

“We put a great deal of focus on partner development for existing partners and by recruiting new partners to cover our growing solutions portfolio. Our sales force will focus on assisting partners to close business with products from its portfolio suited to meet end customer needs.”

MANAGING DIRECTOR, HELP AG

“Don’t focus on hardware delivery alone, competing on margins is a loss for everyone”

“Fujitsu will work with CIOs to reassure them of our stability, as well as our increasing expertise at helping customers navigate the fast paced IT world.”

“Emitac is known to be the pioneer when it comes to leading technologies.”

“We will continue being one of the top partners with most of our alliances. Some of our alliances include HP, Cisco, Infor, Microsoft, Oracle, F5, Fortinet, Websense, Landesk, Dell, Symantec, Nexthink, to name a few.”

STEPHAN BERNER

DIRECTOR OF CHANNEL SALES, MIDDLE EAST & PAKISTAN, FUJITSU

“We were the ones who got HP to the region followed by RIM. Our partnership portfolio comprises of HP, Microsoft, Oracle, Symantec, VMware, Nexthink,, etc… Recently we added Archive 360 – A leader in archive migration platform to optimize client adoption of cloudbased technology; signed a VAR agreement with AvePoint to enable comprehensive enterprise collaboration; and signed an agreement with Simarks to provide advanced infrastructure services and minimize security Risks.”

EMITAC “We have already brought in prestigious partnerships such as IBM, EMC, Salesforce, VCE to our partner ecosystem so far this year. We will be adding up a few more exciting names in the coming months. Finesse is in advanced stages of partnership discussions with several vendors in the areas of Enterprise Performance Management, IoT and Big Data Analytics.”

FINESSE INTERTEC

DELL FUJITSU

“We expect our Direct Partners (Select Expert) as well as other Value Added Resellers (VARs) who have signed up with Fujitsu to be supported by our increased channel team, as well as our VADs Global Distribution, TechAccess and Redington.”

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FEATURE

SUNIL PAUL

COO AND CO FOUNDER OF FINESSE

MR. NIKHIL KOTHARI

DIRECTOR – APPLICATION SERVICES GROUP, INTERTEC SYSTEMS

“Our services help “Work for your future, enterprises with a potential today. A “me too” approach competitive advantage by only makes it that much providing the ability to harder to sustain your rapidly out source, reduce business while you may operational costs and see some initial excitement ultimately increase profits” from early wins.”

With the help of Fujitsu Technology Solutions, one of the Middle East’s largest HPC Supercomputer was installed at King AbdulAziz University in Jeddah, KSA to support the university’s research capabilities. Fujitsu has launched major initiatives with Commvault for backup solutions in the Region and also launched its Hyper converged infrastructure with NetApp – V-Shape In 2014, Help AG saw its business grow by 70% and has maintained this momentum in 2015.

“Two of the big achievements for us were the introduction of our Managed Security Services (MSS) and the establishment of our local office in Saudi Arabia which marked our formal entry into the Kingdom.” says Stephan Berner, Managing Director of HelpAG Intertec says that its investments and strategic focus on managed services is paying off. “We have signed on new contracts in the space and successfully delivered on SLAs, process improvements, automation and budgets. We have also signed some large deals in the space of DR,

System Integration Market to Grow at 6.29% CAGR to 2019 With Trend of System Integration as a Service Catching Up

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security, cloud and networks. This is going to be direction for infrastructure business wherein our capabilities will add value” adds Nikhil.

MARKET INCLINATION Cloud has been redefining business and completely revamping the organization’s infrastructure, touting the SIs to bring more value added services in that space. On the other hand, leading technologies like Big Data, IoT and other M2M initiatives are also giving plenty of opportunity for growth.

“We expect some degree of uncertainty linked to the oil price and regional instability to play a role in 2016. Beyond these –the journey to cloud, sometimes in the form of datacentre consolidation projects, will continue to be present. And we also expect the global public cloud players to develop a stronger presence in the market, along with the telecom service providers”, says Miguel.

Sunil says,“Other demands that drive the increasing demand for SIs are the reforming regulatory regimes and the urgent need for industry growth in MEA. This, in turn, has encouraged the MEA governments to fasten the adoption of unified systems across their jurisdictions. Sectors such as transportation, energy, education, healthcare, telecom, financial services

SHAMS HASAN

ENTERPRISE PRODUCT MANAGER, DELL MIDDLE EAST

“ Dell’s end-to-end enterprise portfolio and c experience offers a huge advantage to SIs – it opens doors for them to wider arrays of opportunities.”

are the opportunity drivers for system integration vendors.”

According to Fujitsu, In light of the rapid advancement of technology, organisations have more options because they can afford the latest and greatest technology without having to find a large bucket of funds upfront to pay for it. Instead, they can focus on their core competencies and transition many of their CapEx investments to OpEx spending.

“With continued investment into IT systems, and the growing awareness about the security of these investments, Cyber & Information Security Services and Solutions will be in demand. Managed Security Services will also see a big uptake as long the provider is within the country and data logs are handled without leaving the customers’ premises”, adds Stephan.

MATCHING PACE WITH DEMANDS Stephan puts it across brilliantly, “Rather than having to match up with the pace, Help AG has long since been a leader in service excellence.

We realized a long time ago that competing on hardware margins alone and box moving were poor business strategies and we diversified our portfolio. Help AG has since evolved into an

FEATURE

TOGETHER TO SUCCESS

IN THIS SECTION WE BRING YOU FEW RESOLUTIONS THAT THE SI LEADERS HAVE TAKEN AND TIPS FROM THEM FOR THEIR COUNTERPARTS.

EMITAC: FOR SELF: Our resolution is to continue the journey towards a diversified, services led IT Solutions and Services organization, while continuing to provide our customers a flawless experience.

FOR PARTNERS: Continue the focus on customer experience and customer satisfaction. Don’t get influenced by the quarter-end pressure coming from the multinational vendors and keep the longterm customer success always in mind.

Retain your best talent and optimize the cost base.

FINESSE: FOR SELF: We will be expanding into to Africa, Europe & US markets by next year and our staff strength should cross 400..

We are expecting our revenues to touch 100 million USD in 5-7 years from now, so 2016 is a very important year for us to set forth on our path.

FOR PARTNERS: The SI Industry needs to gear up for the changing technologies.

Most enterprises customers are continuously looking for ROI on initiatives and the most successful System Integrators are those who deliver value and efficiency on time as committed

HELPAG: FOR SELF: Continue to listen, listen, listen.

FOR PARTNERS: Invest in developing the technical skill sets of your resource pool. This will enable better value addition and the delivery of services.

Don’t focus on hardware delivery alone, competing on margins is a loss for everyone

INTERTEC: FOR SELF: My resolution is ensure we grow our applications and managed services business by 100% and 40% respectively.

FOR PARTNERS: Don’t focus on short term wins and loose on long-term sustenance. Work for your future, today.

A “me too” approach only makes it that much harder to sustain your business while you may see some initial excitement from early wins.

organization with 3 different business units.”

Miguel states, “We have strengthened our delivery by developing expertise in areas such as Managed Services, Cloud computing, Converged infrastructure, Analytics, Enterprise Management and Mobile computing.” According to Finesse, their services help enterprises with a potential competitive advantage in the marketplace as it provides them with the ability to rapidly out source, reduce operational costs and ultimately increase profits.” Shams Hassan, Enterprise Product Manager, Dell Middle East says that Dell’s industry unique end-to-end enterprise portfolio and consequent experience offers a huge advantage to system integrators – it makes their job easier, allows them to focus on higher layers of the technology stack, and opens doors for them to wider arrays of opportunities.

While Fujitsu is actively investing in various countries like KSA, Qatar and Oman as well as redoubling efforts in building our partner ecosystem, Intertec claims that they have been ahead of the curve as they entered into managed services 8 years ago. “Our focus is to ensure 30% of our business is from “as a service” by 2017”, says Nikhil.

GOING TO THE MARKET IN A BRAND NEW YEAR So 2016 is here at last. Apart from making new resolutions, business would also need some new delivery roadmaps for the New Year. “We are constantly improving our delivery capabilities. As our business shifts more towards software solutions, managed services and cloud, so do our delivery capabilities and teams. We are investing in resources with expertise in those areas, and we are also strengthening our offshore resourcing centers.” Says Miguel.

Finesse provides a wide range of solutions to enable an omni-channel experience for clients including through Cloud, Mobile and Social Media. “We believe in delivering tangible value and build digital enterprises through Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Augmented Reality, Big data, IoT, Cloud-Ready Solutions, Mobile Devices and Social Media Platforms” says Sunil.

“Ever since we started, we have focused on information security services being delivered

by Information Security Experts. This has been our recipe for success and therefore our quality of service delivery and consultative approach will not change. We continue to strive to deliver above customer expectations and introduced our Project Management Office in 2015.” Claims Stephan. Talking about

changing delivery streams, we added Help AG Managed Security Services which has enabled organizations to avail of 24x7 Security Event Management and Incident Response Services run and operated through our local Cyber Security Operation Center in Dubai.

“We have consolidated our onshore and offshore delivery teams to improve the quality of service and improve competitiveness. We are also working like many IT majors on automation within our delivery methodologies. We have internally implemented systems and processes for service management, SFA, business support, employee collaboration and quality. We intend to do more to track effectiveness and efficiency of resources in managed services, projects delivery and support.” Says Nikhil.

CATERING TO THE CIOS As Miguel rightly puts it across,unlike earlier times, CIOs are now more aligned to their company’s business. “As a leading SI, we offer detailed business analysis, consulting, implementation, Project Management and Support services to assist businesses integrate new technologies, standardize business processes, and reduce complexity”, he adds.

“Dell is best positioned to provide CIOs holistic solutions and perspectives to technology problems, challenges, and aspirations: we are the only hardware tech company that offers a portfolio of end-to-end software and technology solutions ensuring we are able to look at problems holistically from a technology and business perspective”, says Shams.

“Most CIOs realise that they live in a dual paced environment – a slow one for maintenance of traditional IT systems, and a fast one for adoption of the latest technologies which also drives business. Holding an expertise in both domains, Fujitsu will work with CIOs to reassure them of our stability, as well as our increasing expertise at helping customers navigate the fast paced IT world.”says Mohamed.

According to Stephen, “With the Help AG Managed Security Services, we change the business model and take some of the heaviest burden away from the CIO. Help AG’s MSS offerings follow a 100% Opex based business model.Customers can pay as they grow with quarterly in advance payment terms.”

FINALLY With new technologies flooding the market, the crucial importance of SIs continues to grow exponentially. Competition winks while innovation smiles. ë

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CIOS SPEAK

who were able enjoy a better response from the system, hence, increasing their productivity. We have also completed planning for two possible major IT projects to start in 2016; one of those projects is a new Data Center, where (if approved), it will be a state of the art Data Center utilizing the latest available technology. As we speak, we are at the final stage of evaluating the options we have for a Data Center.

Flashforward 2016— Where do you see the IT market trending to in 2016?

I expect IT spending to stay flat for 2016 unless we see more political stability in the region. I also see more IT investments going towards enabling business for mobile devices. Technology devices are getting smarter day after day through the increased use of sensors, and I expect this to continue and increase in 2016. I expect information gathering technology to be one of the hot areas in 2016.

MARIO FOSTER,

GROUP CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, AL NABOODAH GROUP ENTERPRISES LLC

Designing a futureready infrastructure AS TECHNOLOGY GETS SMARTER A CIO SHOULDERS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BEING THE ‘SMARTEST’. AS 2016 DAWNS UPON THE REGION, EC MEA HAS A CHAT WITH MARIO FOSTER, GROUP CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, AL NABOODAH GROUP ENTERPRISES LLC WHO TALKS ABOUT HIS PLANS AND PREDICTIONS FOR THE YEAR AND THE ORGANIZATION THAT HE HEADS.

2015 Flashback— Overall, how good or bad was the year for your organization?

I believe it was a good year for business in general.

When it comes to IT, it has been an excellent year evaluating our current IT infrastructure and our existing ERP system and we have already started taking improvement steps at the infrastructure front.

On the technology forefront, how well did your organization perform?

What were the various projects that you undertook?

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On the technology front we have completed implementing Microsoft Lync, which improved business communications and collaboration between team members. On the infrastructure side, we have upgraded our infrastructure equipment in limited key locations to ensure network redundancy and high availability. We have spent a lot of time evaluating different technologies and we had several POCs for different hardware and software products in order to be able to plan in advance for 2016 projects. At the ERP applications front, we refreshed our Oracle JDE hardware with a new hardware, which has shown a direct positive impact on our business users

What are the various hiccups that you wish to tackle?

One of the key areas I would like to address is the shortage of skills required to handle several projects at the same time. The market has people with the “average knowledge”, but there is a major shortage in the Middle East when it comes to the “expert knowledge”, in addition to the fact that finding the right IT expertise is very expensive.

One of the other areas I need to keep an eye on during 2016 is the Shadow IT within the Group.

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

Carry forwards from 2015, we must complete our hardware servers’ consolidation, virtual servers’ consolidation, applications consolidation, infrastructure/network upgrade. As for 2016, we need to better address our current disaster recovery plan and solution, have a proper data center, refresh our ERP System, and invest in IT staff training on the latest technology that is needed for Al Naboodah Group.

Which technologies do you think will rule the floors of 2016? Which technologies would take a back seat?

Mobile technology in general will dominate the market more and more. 3D printing is a hot subject as well, but I don’t expect it to rule the floors in 2016 yet. I also expect several “younger” and “lighter” ERP Systems to start taking over some of the big names in this arena. ë

IOT

A 360° View to IoT

The recently held Cisco IoTWF laid out roadmaps for IoT deployments and focused on moving the industry forward quickly. As one of the integral parts of the event, Schneider Electric had its own success story to tell and future roadmap to showcase. 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 >

CYRIL PERDUCAT

EVP DIGITAL SERVICES AND IOT AT SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC.

“We are one of the very few partners who have a 360 degree view of the various sectors when it comes to IoT”

T

he Cisco IoTWF highlighted three key themes— Awaken, Activate and Accelerate the IoT. Being one of the premium sponsors of the event, Schneider Electric has been a part of the IoTWF since its inception. Though IoT is the latest buzzword, Schneider has a different story to tell.

“IoTWF is one of the critical events for IoT globally. Cisco is a major partner for us and we look at this event as coming back to the community and contributing to the developments happening around IoT. It is also a very good opportunity to meet customers who are supporting us in execution of the IoT solutions”, says Cyril Perducat, EVP Digital Services and IoT at Schneider Electric.

According to Cyril, IoT is a buzzword now but it is not a new topic at all. “We have been pioneer-

and oil and gas…..so we have plenty of application in this region.” He says that he is completely against the philosophy of the Middle East region coming late into the picture of IoT or being slow in deployment because the region does not have to fight the various legacies that other countries have to.

“Talent management can be termed as one of the biggest legacy in IoT implementation and maturity. Having the right talent and having the right kind of people who are trained to use the new technologies and having IT technologies that are specific to the IoT is a mandate”, says Cyril.

Schneider Electric has an end to end IoT story to tell. “We are present in so many sectors and not just in power solutions , so when we talk about M2M and smart cities, we are one of the very few partners that has a 360 degree view of the various sectors.” While people see connectivity as a major concern of security, Cyril feels that he has a different perception to Connection. According to him, Connectivity is an Opportunity to monitor operations and to detect fraudulence. “If it is not connected then it is not visible. Connectivity creates a positive balance.”

ACCELERATING IOT IN HEALTHCARE Globally, healthcare is one of the sectors wherein a lot of developments have been visible around IoT. Schneider feels that the Middle East region’s Healthcare sector is still at the threshold of development compared to the U.S and other counterparts where it is very much advanced in terms of adoption to IoT and other critical patient functions “We have already equipped a great number of hospitals in Kuwait, Qatar, etc with asset optimization; we have smart panels to make all equipment reliable and traceable. ing some solutions for the IoT since the past 20 or 30 years. It was called by a different name then and it is called by a different name now. We have been providing various solutions around connectivity, embedded control etc;we have been engaging in digital services and our portfolio also had various solutions for data centre and infrastructure much before IoT got popular. The fact is that all these solutions, their development and deployment have been accelerated with the gaining popularity of IoT.”

SOLUTIONS FOR THE REGION For the Middle East region, Schneider has been providing a lot of solutions for and around the IoT. “We have provided various solutions for the Smart city initiative like smart water, smart transportation, a lot of solutionss around utilities

THE ROAD AHEAD Schneider Electric has a lot of innovation coming under industrial automation as a part of IoT. “We have launched a completely new generation of controllers and automation architecture that use internet as the core backbone. In industrial automation, we have a lot of history for using proprietary protocols and very specific standards, we have developed a complete architecture that uses internet as the backbone and provides better cost efficiency , data transparency,scalability and a lot of advantages for the customers”, says Cyril.

3 KEY STRENGTHS: n Broadest Portfolio in the industry n Long History in IoT n Biggest and Strongest Network of Partners ë

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FEATURE

GROWTH OF DISTIE MARKET

DISTRIBUTION MARKET 2016 OUTLOOK-The Carriers of Growth Going by the surge in IT investments across the region, we can definitely see a ‘Tech market in transition’ in the making. The IT Distribution channel will be seen playing the ‘Atlas’ in shouldering the responsibility of catering to the overriding demands of new technologies and taking it to the market. Enterprise Channels MEA tries to take a sneak peek into the 2016 Distribution market. n WORDS: ANUSHREE <ANUSHREE@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

I

t is that time in time where distributors would be shouldering the increased responsibility of delivering business value for a digital workplace. With the region on the threshold of implementing and attracting some mega projects in line with the smart cities and M2Mmodels, right from the practicalities of implementing the IoT to engaging business in a mobile digital world, the IT Distribution market would be geared up for some challenging yet interesting projects. We take a close look into what show the leaders are going to put up for the year.

LOOKING BACK IN TIME While the economic, financial and political scenarios proved fatal for some organizations, some have decently reaped benefits from it and

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some have managed to do visibly well than the previous years. Bulwarks achieved around 40% growth in revenues. “We have launched two entities of distribution, Bulwark Distribution & Bulwark Technology. Bulwark Distribution is focusing on channel growth & development for fast moving Security products, while Bulwark Technology emphasizes on high end corporate security solutions through major System Integrators in the region. It was a year of adding major Security vendors & building a stronger Information Security product and solutions portfolio. We have been constantly investing on new & proven security technologies to provide world-class & best of the breed service to our partners & customers.” Says Jose Thomas Menacherry, Managing Director, at Bulwark Technologies. Mario M. Veljovic, VP Solutions MEA, Global Distribution

FZE says, “At Global we have put a lot of efforts to promote emerging technologies, such as Flash Storage, Converged IT Infrastructure and IP based CCTV (Physical Security), which allowed us to grow exponentially in 2015.”

“With the increasing number, and complexity of breaches that targeted the region, new Security opportunities and projects remained strong in 2015. Trends like IoT and smart cities have resounded positively for us, and frankly for the Security industry in general, as these bleedingedge technological advancements are typically hotbeds of security vulnerabilities due to the rapid pace of development that they go through to reach maturity.” Says Avinash Advani, Director, Business Strategy, StarLink Nehul Goradia, VP - Channel & Alliances at Optimus says, “We did get impacted by our

FEATURE

JOSE THOMAS MENACHERRY

MARIO M. VELJOVIC

VP SOLUTIONS MENA, GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION

MANAGING DIRECTOR, BULWARK TECHNOLOGIES

“A constant and continued focus on the emerging technologies and channel growth and development are a must for regional colleagues for 2016”

dependence on the banking ecosystem and hence the last quarter was especially hard for us.

However we are already on our way out of it, and we have already financially derisked outrselves and geographically consoliated all our operations

NEHUL GORADIA

VP - CHANNEL & ALLIANCES, OPTIMUS

“Global Distribution “I think we all need to FZE IT has become choose our methods well increasingly complex and and insure ourselves and Distributors, like Global, make sure that going are going the extra mile forward we are able to help and supporting its Partners the ecosystem overcome to stay competitive and these difficulties as a win more business with its whole.”

Customers.” to focus on high growth markets and high growth projects for 2016.“Pulse Secure was sold to Siris Capital in Oct 2014 but the sale was only finalized in Aug 2015 – in the last 5 months, we have seen tremendous growth in the business and will finish

KEY

2015 up 30% over 2014.” Says Abdul Rehman, Regional Manager at Pulse Secure

WINNING NOTES As the competitive market paves way for

PULSE SECURE

In terms of regions, our key focus will be in KSA, UAE and Turkey. As the Egyptian market matures, that will also be a focus for us in 2016.

MARKETS

BULWARKS

FOR

Bulwark works with a huge network of valueadded resellers and solution providers to offer comprehensive security solutions and targets the SMB, SME, enterprise and other segments of the market. Our key focus markets would be UAE and Qatar followed by KSA and Kuwait.

2016

GLOBAL STARLINK

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Egypt, South Africa, Turkey

The UAE’s and Qatar’s Economies are well diversified and should remain a key driver in 2016. We even see new Projects from Yemen, where the supporting Countries are helping to rebuild the Infrastructure.

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FEATURE

ABDUL REHMAN

AVINASH ADVANI

REGIONAL MANAGER, PULSE SECURE

DIRECTOR, BUSINESS STRATEGY, STARLINK

“At Pulse Secure, we see innovation as key to our growth and needless to say we have a robust product roadmap to help us position ourselves as the market leader for next generation secure access”

“As long as the threat landscape in the region continues to get more challenging, customers need to keep investing in the right Security tools to protect themselves and achieve compliance.”

redefined customer experiences, organizations are forced to build strategies around forming and providing new and more durable forms of competitive advantage.

Bulwark announced a major partnership with Varonis, specializing in Enterprise Data Governance Solutions at GITEX 2015, which concluded successfully for the organization.The leading value-added distributor has completed 15 years of demonstrating thought, innovation and leadership in delivering Security Technology to the region.Bulwark has also won the Best Security Distributor of the Year Award and the Best Pre-Sales Support Award this year, for providing and delivering value-added services, that include solutions pre-sales consulting, training, channel enablement programs, postsales implementation and technical support, and adding value at every stage of product life cycle.

For Pulse Secure, separating from Juniper Networks and operating as an independent entity was the biggest milestone. “Another big milestone was the rollout of our channel program; Connect Now.” Says Abdul.

Global has been pioneering “Solutions Distribution” in the Region, which is stressing the importance of more Partner Education and Training, providing alternative Financing Models and increase Service Opportunities.

Avinash of Starlink says, “From a revenue perspective, we have been on target quarteron-quarter, and will achieve close to 100%

GLOBAL

KEY

For Global, it will continue to be IP based Video Surveillance, Flash Storage and hyperconverged IT Infrastructures that will be a key driver. This are areas where we have built strong technical expertise and Channel understanding.

STRENGTHS

FOR

BULWARKS

We are constantly involved in enabling our channel partners by creating & executing wellcrafted channel programs. Through the recent launch of two entities, Bulwark Technology LLC and Bulwark Distribution FZCO, we are providing more focused and customer centric service to meet the ever-growing demands of our vendors, partners and customers.

2016

PULSE SECURE STARLINK

n Datacenter convergence n Next-generation threat protection n Security intelligence and analytics n SDN/NFV n APM/NPM

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I believe that BYOD, Cloud and IoT will dominate the conversation in 2016. While no one can dispute the benefits of these technologies, they add a layer of complexity when it comes to security. At Pulse Secure, we have solutions that address these security concerns, particularly when it comes to BYOD.

FEATURE

2016 RESOLUTIONS BULWARKS: FOR SELF: It is our continuous and ongoing effort to invest on channel initiatives which include long term partner growth plans, partner certification and reward programs and channel enablement sessions. Through the recent launch of two entities of Distribution, Bulwark Technology and Bulwark Distribution, we plan to provide more focused and worldclass customer service to meet the evergrowing demands of our vendors, partners and customers.

FOR COUNTERPARTS: A constant and continued focus on the emerging technologies and channel growth and development are a must for regional colleagues for 2016. An excellent and world-class service to your customers will enable you not to lose your customers and simultaneously enable in business growth and development through healthy margins and cash managements within the organization.

GLOBAL: FOR SELF: It’s important to continue reviewing your business model and adapt quickly.

FOR COUNTERPARTS: Analyze your Strength and focus on them. Don’t forget to understand your weakness, but don’t make the mistake to focus to much on them. Do what you are best in and more of it. Align your strength with the growth areas and again – stay laser focused on executing your strategy.

OPTIMUS: FOR SELF Resolution for Optimus is to consolidate itself as a lead value player in the markets we will focus on.

FOR COUNTERPARTS: I think we all need to choose our methods well and insure ouselves and make sure that going forward we are able to help the ecosystem overcome these difficulties as a whole.

PULSE SECURE: FOR SELF: Consistent quarter-on-quarter growth, building on our recent successes and adding new customers and better supporting our partner network

STARLINK: FOR SELF: Optimization in established markets, exponential growth in markets that have been incubated over the last couple of years, and investment into the US and Europe.

FOR COUNTERPARTS: Keep up with industry trends, Focus on adding incremental value to vendors and partners

year-on-year growth. The launch of our Datacenter & Cloud business unit, The release of the StarLink Vertical Security Trends Matrix”.

WHAT 2016 HAS TO OFFER According to Bulwarks, there is a huge demand and requirement of new frontiers of technologies like Social media, cloud, Big Data, mobile & IoT evolving in the market.

There would also be significant development in the areas of Storage and Security.

Mario says,“There are many new Technologies for the Channel that can offer attractive margin prospects, but not all of them fit everyone’s strategy. For Global, it will continue to be IP based Video Surveillance, Flash Storage and hyper-converged IT Infrastructures that will be a key driver.” Nehul says that where the market inclination will be more driven by the funding available for the projects. “Across the region we can see a scaling down of projects and this scaling will highly impact what will be bought and sold, especially from a value perspective since we are so project dependent.” “We believe that IoT, Analytics, Mobile, Cloud and Incident Response are key trends that will influence market decisions in 2016”, says Avinash.

BIG DATA AND IOT IMPACT With the world standing on the threshold of yet another decade, the Middle East region sees itself moving beyond the diminutive technology spreadsheets to accommodate the framework of big data. Big data – one of the most inevitable pre-requisite for the building of a smart city—has driven the development and evolution of hardware and software solutions that have redefined the ways in which technology can change and stimulate enterprises. “Both IoT and (Big Data) Analytics are fundamental to our portfolio enhancement strategy since they are key trends that influence Security and have driven us to create our Vertical Security Trends Matrix.” says Avinash.

Jose says that there is a greater demand for emerging technologies as new frontiers of technologies like Big Data & Internet of Things are evolving in the market. “As a security focused vendor, we know the battle is continuous and ongoing as new security breaches/discoveries emerge every moment and we are prepared to meet such challenges

with our latest technologies” he adds.

“We already have both IoT and Big Data products and services in our portfolio. And we look at targetting customers who could use these services to further enhance their understanding of the data that they collect from their cutomers” says Nehul.

“Our Portfolio today is able to ensure you have the IT Infrastructure to support IoT and Big Data, hence we feel well positioned to take maximum advantage of this key Trends.”

VENTURING INTO NEW DOMAINS With 2020 knocking the doors hardly, the possibilities are immense and opportunities are boundless. With various niche technologies all set to take the floor, the distribution channels have a green road ahead. Apart from Cloud, data analytics, Big Data and IoT, Wearable Electronics and Technology Market is Growing at 24.56% CAGR to 2020 with Consumer Applications Having The Largest Market Share, Self-Service Technology Market is Expected to Reach $31.75 Billion, Globally by 2020 - Allied Market Research .

“We provide tailor-made offerings to the verticals like Banking & Finance, Oil & Gas, Government, Manufacturing, Hospitality, Medical and Education among others” says Jose. Avinash says “We are primarily looking at the Datacenter & Cloud space, as well as, the endpoint next-generation threat protection space. In terms of new domains, we will be on the lookout for disruptive technologies that surround the key trends” “ At Pulse Secure, we see innovation as key to our growth and needless to say we have a robust product roadmap to help us position ourselves as the market leader for next generation secure access”, says Abdul.

FINALLY The game would just get hotter, the stakes would just get higher, and the battle would just get tougher and tougher as new challenges in security, connection or networking would emerge with each new technology and its vulnerable points. As distributors play the key role of a bridge between the vendors and customers, all they have to do is to follow the 3 Es- Empower, Educate and Enrich. Empowering the channel community, Educating the customers, and Enriching the Value is the road ahead, the only key to Excellence. ë

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SPECIAL FEATURE

2016- Smart Technology -vs- Shaky Economy Old habits die hard; so as the year on the calendar changes, it becomes kind of a ritual to analyze the present and try to predict the future. But then it would be lying to say that all the predictions are definitely going to come true. Enterprise Channels MEA is just making an attempt to bring to you the sentiments being echoed by leaders and analysts across the globe. n W O R D S : S O U M YA < S O U M YA @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

“The economy is a very sensitive organism.” ~Hjalmar Schacht

T

his quote of Schacht couldn’t be truer when one sits to dwell upon the current whirlwind in global economy. The jury is still indecisive regarding whether the economic growth in 2016 will be steady or there are fears of a possible recession striking again. The IMF expects the world overall to expand in 2016 by 3.6 percent inflation adjusted, up from previous year’s estimated 3.1 percent. But “a return to

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robust and synchronized global expansion remains elusive,” the IMF had said in its October 2015 outlook.

The growth of Chinese economy is expected to slow down to 6.3 percent. China being a crucial market; its economic winds shall be sure to affect the emerging markets across the world.

Talking of Europe, IMF predicts a moderate growth of 1.9 percent measured by GDP. The growth rate of North America might not be very different from the previous year. Interestingly, Asia is being considered the wild card for global economic outlook. As the figures show, the growth of economy might be slightly slower than the aforesaid figures given the pressure from Chinese economy and the extremely

volatile oil prices; howsoever, the growth rate in 2016 might not differ a big deal from 2015.

According to The Economist, emerging markets are slowly losing their grip over the global GDP growth. Economics in the MENA region were dominated in 2015 by the changes in oil prices and the uncertain geopolitical scenario in several areas. Growth is expected to be 2.7% this year, which might be the weakest since the financial crisis in 2009. Mostly it’s being predicted that the oil prices are expected to remain low next year, thereby exerting a dip in the region’s economic growth, especially in the oil-export-driven countries. Moreover, oil-reliant economies will have to follow welldesigned strategies to adjust the previous year’s budget deficits.

The possible reintegration of Iran into the global economy might indicate a remarkable increase in global oil supply and lower crude prices. Moreover, the lifting of the economic sanctions will increase Iran’s demand for goods and services hence creating a growth bed in the region for businesses.

In 2016, Qatar is expected to be the best performer in the MENA region, followed by Iran. Predictions suggest that Saudi Arabia will be the worst performer, followed by Algeria and then Kuwait. Among the other big economies in the region, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates will possibly grow the fastest, with anexpectedgrowthrate of 3.8% and 3.2%, respectively.

So, which regions in the MENA region are going to be most favorable for doing business?

According to the Doing Business 2016 Fact Sheet of World Bank Group, economies in the Middle East and North Africa have an average

SPECIAL FEATURE

ranking on the ease of doing business of 114.

The United Arab Emirates has the region’s highest ranking (31), followed by Bahrain (65) and Qatar (68).

How will technologies shape up in the midst of the economic dynamics? In 2016, and over the next three to five years, IDC predicts that enterprises will “flip the switch,” committing to a massive new scale of DX and 3rd Platform adoption, to stake out leadership positions in the “DX economy.”According to IDC Chief Analyst Frank Gens, “We’ll see massive upshifts in commitment to DX initiatives, 3rd Platform IT, the cloud, coders, data pipelines, the Internet of Things, cognitive services, industry cloud platforms, and customer numbers and connections. Looked at holistically, the guidance we’ve shared provides a clear blueprint for enterprises looking to thrive and lead in the DX economy.”

According to MarketsAnd Markets Research, System Integration services account for approxi-

mately 46% of the total professional IT services market in MEA region. Sectors such as transportation, power, water plants, and property constructions are the opportunity drivers for system integration vendors for projects such as ERP owing to the high investments aided by the government. MEA system integration services market is expected to grow from $6.30 billion in 2010 to $10.34 billion in 2016, registering a CAGR of 8.87% during 2011-2016.

“Technology is not only fueling major business transformation across industries, it’s also changing how technology enterprises sell their products and services, operate, and plan for future growth”, says Paul Sallomi, Global Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Industry leader, Deloitte. Enterprises are making plans for the next economy rising from today’s disruptive and unprecedented change.Technology businesses are beginning to think more strategically about modifying their business models

Economist.com

to create new revenue opportunities. The market offering is rapidly changing from solutions to services based upon a pay-as-you-use model.

2015 saw several mergers and acquisitions and endless partnerships. Similar trend is expected in the year 2016 as well. Collaboration seems to be the magic potion to rapid revenue growths. To adapt to the rapidly evolving market dynamics, provide a complete offering to the customers, generating revenues faster and enhance the adoption of technologies, companies are partnering with other companies which can provide complementarity to their strengths so that together they come across as a preferred provider for the market. Another kind of partnerships are also surfacing wherein technology businesses are partnering with customers in their preferred verticals in order to gain a better understanding of that sector and its demands and challenges.

The pace of technological change shows no signs to slow down anytime soon. It is essential that the technology sector as a whole must strive to facilitate seamless integration and communication between products, solutions and platforms. ë

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GUEST TALK

POLYCOM

The Rise of The RelationshipDriven Workplace

As workforces are becoming increasingly distributed, it becomes even more essential for organisations to ensure that their collaborators, experts, knowledge workers and others can work, communicate and collaborate regardless of location, network or device.

Organisations often view their workforce as an amalgamation of highly talented individuals bringing their own unique skills and experience to the table. As such when interviewing potential candidates, organisations tend to look out for attributes such as experience, knowledge and personality – as this collective IP will eventually come to define the calibre and competitive advantage of the company.

However, in today’s increasingly hyper-connected world, the focus has somewhat evolved. While knowledge is still key, the focus has shifted away from expertise in favour of ideation and innovation sparked by interactions amongst knowledge workers within the organisation. Ideation and innovation go on to transform the competitive advantage and profitability of companies. Ergo, the more relationships and conversations triggered, the better.

This begs the question – how best can organisations cultivate relationships among employees and bring out interactions that might otherwise not exist? How can companies tease workers into generative exchanges and creative connectivity?

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One possibility is to emulate Google’s approach. The company, which is known for its hip and playful work environment, also offers staff free gourmet meals at its office in Sydney. . Human nature suggests that people will talk whilst waiting; talking generates ideas, and ideas become projects.

Companies can also model the Hackathons held by tech-centric organisations, where employees from all over the world across varied backgrounds come together to collaborate intensively on projects.

However, if you’re not Google and Hackathons of scale are not within your reach, what options are there for cultivating employee engagement and innovation? The answer may simply lie in People, Technology and Space.

People – The power of human collaboration A company is like an organism and each employee is like a synapse whose strength lies in the collective, not as an individual acting alone. Organisations must take a collaboration-first approach and build it into every aspect of company life.

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n W O R D S : G LY N N J O N E S , V P, E M E A C H A N N E L S A N D A D VA N C E D T E C H N O L O G Y G R O U P AT P O LY C O M

Technology – Collaborating anywhere, with impact A team that has the capacity to share ideas and work together, no matter where they are physically located, is a team that holds value.

Technology is the great enabler in this constant shift – it empowers businesses to build a culture that’s suited for all working styles of the future.

The good news is that today’s collaboration tools make it easy for anyone to remain connected. One of the most effective collaboration tools is video. The ability to see, hear and share content in real-time with co-workers vastly increases engagement levels from employees, particularly those who work from home. In fact, a global study by Polycom and Redshift Research found that 52 per cent of business leaders and managers are expecting video to be the most preferred collaboration tool by 2016.

Space – from workplace to workspace By 2020, most organisations would support activity-based working environments . As the UAE continues to prepare for Expo 2020, communication technologies and

solutions will be vital in keeping the workforce and delegates always connected. In light of the upcoming Expo, Dubai has recently issued new laws to enhance the progress of the Smart City initiative and encourage innovation by fostering collaboration between the public and private sectors.

It is critical for organisations to recognise that one of the keys to successful workplace transformation lies in the ability to embed collaborative technologies into workspace designs. This transcends the open-office. It is all about how workspaces are thoughtfully designed to integrate both furniture and technology that intuitively lends itself to employee workflows throughout the day, encouraging them to be more productive and collaborative.

This on-going transformation of the workplace and the workforce brings interesting challenges for organisations and employees alike.

Whether the relationship-based workplace is here to stay remains to be seen. Nevertheless, it is clear that organisations need to rewrite the rules of collaboration and connectivity to cater to the new demands of the future. ë

INNOVATIONS

KEY CAPABILITIES n Software license management n Device auto-discovery n SNMP monitoring n Endpoint Security n Proactive alerts n Power management and print monitoring n Software Distribution n Enterprise Alerting n Internet Metering n Software Application Metering

Netsupport DNA version 4 Netsupport DNA is a suite of easy-touse tools for managing and supporting IT assets across a corporate network.

NetSupport DNA features a wealth of components including: automatic discovery of devices; hardware and software inventory; change tracking; and user and software licence management.

Building on the flexibility of a single solution, NetSupport DNA also includes as standard: energy

monitoring; power management; USB endpoint security; printer monitoring; application and internet metering; a flexible alerting suite; and an easy-to-use software distribution module. NetSupport also offers optional service desk and remote control modules.

NetSupport DNA is designed first and foremost to be easy to install and use.

Offering a complete IT Asset and Desktop Management solution, Netsupport DNA v4 effectively

manages all hardware and software inventories within your organization with its easy-to-read dashboards and custom views. Its new and existing features have been designed to save time, increase productivity, save money, save resources and add extra security to your organization.

Netsupport DNA version 4 is available in the Middle-East region.

Bulwark is the authorized and valueadded distributor for Netsupport products in the region.

PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK AT INFO@ ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

OMNISWITCH 6900-X72 The new Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch 6900-X72 is a high-density 10GbE/40GbE switch with embedded award winning Intelligent Fabric technology that helps automate IT operations and offers simplified physical to virtual internetworking.

The iFab technology, embedded in the entire OmniSwitch 6900 and OmniSwitch 10K family, provides for simpler network designs, easier interoperability, plug-n-play deployment and automatic reconfiguration with server/device/application moves/adds/changes.The Intelligent Fabric technology is supported in both the data center switching and the converged campus network solutions, enabling businesses to benefit from a single consistent approach for all network infrastructure needs.

The OmniSwitch 6900-X72 VXLAN technology allows IT to seamlessly interconnect the application infrastructure into both the physical and virtual worlds. Compatibility of the OmniSwitch 6900-X72 with other OmniSwitch 6900 platforms enables customers to mix and match switches to meet network needs adapting their environment.

KEY CAPABILITIES n Fixed 1RU form factor switch n 48x10G & 6x40G front accessible ports n Scalable to 72x10G n 1.44Tbps switching & 1.4Gpps throughput n VXLAN/NVGRE hardware gateway n Intelligent Fabric and full SDN programmability n Virtual Network Profile(VNP) support; n Compatibility with existing OmniSwitch 6900 models n Mix and match any model n Unified Management

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INNOVATIONS

Dell Latitude 5000 Series

Canon LX-MU700

Dell has unveiled Latitude 5000 Series, a fully-featured business-class notebook loaded with the new 6th generation Intel Quad Core processor for the highest level performance, plus industry-leading security and durability, all in a beautiful design.

Available in both 14-inch (E5470) and 15-inch (E5570) form factors, the newLatitude is up to 27% thinner and up to 18% lighter than the previous generation, making it ideal for mobile professionals.

As Dell’s commercial customers expect, the new Latitude 5000 Series still touts the world’s most secure, manageable and reliable features as those of its predecessors, with improvements and enhancements including The Latitude 5000 Series offers an additional credential storage layer with optional integrated smartcard and touch fingerprint readers that isolate secure operations through Dell ControlVault. With unique management capabilities built into the Latitude portfolio, IT can manipulate BIOS settings and configure systems with ample flexibility that organizational IT infrastructures require The Latitude 5000 Series will start at AED4, 220 in the Middle East, beginning January 2016.

The LX-MU700 is Canon’s brightest WUXGA installation projector to date, offering 7,500 lumens when both lamps are in use, ideal for environments such as large auditoriums where there are high levels of ambient light. In addition, dual lamp functionality offers higher levels of reliability as if one lamp fails, the projector can continue to operate in single lamp mode.

The new model is designed to meet the varying requirements of customers and integrators, particularly within the business and education environments, thanks to improved connectivity, high brightness and flexible installation capabilities.

Available from January 2016.

KEY CAPABILITIES n Built with enhanced carbon fibre reinforced polymer materials n Added scalability in performance and features across screen sizes n 6th gen Intel Core vPro quad core processors n USB Type-C cable docking for quick and efficient connectivity n Optional touch displays with Corning Gorilla Glass NBT n Ergonomic business-class ISO keyboard with backlit option n High density batteries for longer battery life n Flexible connectivity for at-the-desk productivity n E-family docking or Dell Wireless dock and Intel Pro WiDi n Purpose-built accessories for on-the-go, such as the Dell Power Companion n Designed with Windows 10 in mind – fast, smooth and more secure n Backed by basic warranty and Dell ProSupport Plus

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KEY CAPABILITIES n brightest WUXGA installation projector to date n Improved connectivity n 3 year warranty n Seven interchangeable lenses n Outstanding accuracy and installation flexibility n Six colour wheels optimized for brightness n Ten sets of focus, zoom and lens position settings

Connect.

Share.

Give.

Take.

Solve.

Save.

Smile.

Unify.

Introducing Unify.

Unifying business communications for the new way to work. unify.com

Copyright Š Unify GmbH & Co. KG, 2015

One company. One source. One focus.

With customer satisfaction and your profitability on the line, choosing a stable technology partner is a critical business decision. While other technology providers in the industry are splitting apart, Dell is committed to remaining a true source of end-to-end solutions. Certainty in an uncertain world â&#x20AC;&#x201D; now thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a choice you can make with confidence.

Sell with confidence. Sell with Dell.

To learn more, visit Dell.com/partner/yoursuccess

Š 2015 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell Emerging Markets (EMEA) Limited is registered in England and Wales. Company Registration No: 3266654. Registered address: Dell House, The Boulevard, Cain Road, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 1LF. Company details for other Dell UK entities can be found at www.dell.co.uk