Enterprise Channels MEA

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PA G E S 5 2 VOLUME O3 | ISSUE 08 MARCH 2016 WWW.ENTERPRISECHANNELSMEA.COM

TECHNOLOGY

A HEALTH

CHECK UP

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According to Gartner, the healthcare providers in the Middle East and North Africa spent US $2.73 billion on IT products and services in 2015. /24

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EDITORIAL

Welcome All OT Partners on Board

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

For the IT channel partners, things are becoming more competitive now. Earlier the competition used to be among themselves on various capability acquisitions’ front, but now with the emergence of IoT, Digitization, Social media integration, the competition is going on to a different level - with the OT players.

They are now aligning with the OT players and sharing revenue. But basically IT partners are losing momentum here. OT players used to be their customers earlier but with IP coming in every product, for example in cars or vehicles, lights, vending machines, traffic signals, household goods, so on and so forth, they are not only bringing out the IP enabled products but also entering into consulting and integration by just adding some expertise. So in Ideal situation, beyond the products,, the IT partners should be taking care of the creation of all other things till the final integration, including consulting. But fortunately or unfortunately the IT partners are missing the bus by not sensing the flow of the wind and giving the cherry to the OT players. And this momentum is just starting and it will become a trend. We will see a whole set of new partners coming into the market and we have to welcome them all.

This piece is not to criticize anyone but to make a fair assessment of the market. No one knows about the future but with some predictability around: as the technology is moving forward and things are getting connected, there will be a lot of crisscrossing of domain expertise, and the journey for fulfilling the landscape will be addressed by a complementary mode. Of course there are large partners who are capable enough to do a-to-z and about whom I do not have any opinion too as their number is too small and they know where to move. But certainly it is for the large number of small-tomedium size partners a matter of choice as to where they want to see themselves – whether to take a bigger role in the piece or will be contented with a smaller role - it all will depend on the partner’s appetite and preparedness - opportunity is galore.

Happy reading! It is a great issue this time. ë

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2016 CONTENTS

VOLUME 03 ISSUE 08 MARCH 2016 W W W. E N T E R P R I S E C H A N N E L S M E A . C O M

COVER STORY

TECHNOLOGY

A HEALTH CHECK UP According to Gartner, the healthcare providers in the Middle East and North Africa spent US $2.73 billion on IT products and services in 2015. /24

CIOS SPEAK /22

NURTURING AL FARAÁ WITH EMERGING TECHS MOHAMMED IMADUDDIN, GROUP CIO, AL FARA’A GROUP

GUEST TALK / 21

SECURITY ‘HEARTBEAT’— SOUND & SYNCHRONIZED

INNOVATIONS /49

VXRAIL

SPECIAL STORY Striking the Right Chords of Communication /30

EMC Corporation and VMware have unveiled the new VCE VxRail Appliance family, the only integrated and jointly engineered hyper-converged infrastructure appliances (HCIA) for VMware environments.

HARISH CHIB, VICE PRESIDENT MEA, SOPHOS GUEST TALK /46

NURTURING AN ‘EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT’ CULTURE ASHISH DASS, IT INDUSTRY VETERAN WITH OVER TWO DECADES OF PROVEN LEADERSHIP

EDITORIAL::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 04 CHANNEL STREET:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 06 FEATURE: CLOUD COMPUTING::::::::::::: 36 IDC STORIES::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 40 FOCUS QATAR::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 42 INNOVATIONS : ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 49

ADVERTISER INDEX: VCE 02, FUTURE IT SUMMIT 03, GFI 07, EMITAC 09, STARLINK 11, OMA EMIRATES 13, FINESSE 15, UNIFY 17, BULWARK 19, CATALYST 23, GISEC AD 35, PURESTORAGE 51, DELL 52

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CHANNEL

STREET FUTURE IT SUMMIT 2016- SPOTLIGHT ON GCC´S IT LANDSCAPE

The Future IT Summit 2016 is geared up for some amazing strides in this year´s edition as it is all set to present the Future ICT landscape of UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, KSA, Oman, Tureky and India. To be held on April 6-7, 2016 at the Armani Hotel, Burj Khalifa, Dubai, the event will explore the present and future roadmap of the region in cloud computing and IoT. For the UAE, Engineer Mohammed Abdulla Al Zaffin, Director of IT, Dubai Municipality will be participating in the summit to showase the Smart Services Innovation for a smart governance model.

Dubai Municipality will also showcase development and competitive edge of Dubai as a Smart City and the various projects that are in the Pipeline. The session will further emphasize the role of Dubai Municipality as a backbone of Dubai Smart City along with other GCC Countries. Shura Council of Bahrain, TRA of Oman, mGovernment of Turkey are expected to embellish the event.

DEWA FELICITATED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has won the Best m-Government Service Award in the environment category at the World Government Summit. DEWA also won the Smart Applications for official organisations and General Government organisations 2015, and Strategic Website Award in the category of government organisations, from the Academy Awards for Excellence in Arab Region. “At DEWA, we are committed to developing the strategies that contribute to achieving excellence and creativity in all the services that we provide to our customers so that they can complete their transactions in a smart andseamless way anytime, anywhere,” said Moza Al Akraf, CIO of DEWA.

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AJAY SINGH CHAUHAN, GROUP CEO, SPECTRUM GROUP

Standing Against the Storm- Untarnished Spectrum Group vendors and reseller partners took a breath of relief as, Ajay Singh Chauhan, Group CEO at Spectrum Group, the holding company for Comguard, Psilog and Spectrum Training rubbished the rumours of his alleged runaway after owing a lump sum credit to suppliers, Dubai-based banks and vendor partners.

The news that raged as a forest fire was put to rest when Ajay Singh Chauhan stated that his visit to India was strictly for medical reasons after he was diagnosed with a heart ailment. He said that the office was fully operational during his absence and a press conference was called to dismiss the rumours that were tarnishing the Comguard brand. “It is true that the investments made last year have not yielded the expected results, hence we are planning for a complete business restructuring and we are fairly optimistic about the support we expect from the banks and creditors. Probably we set some high

growth goals which are not realizable for this particular period, hence we are planning to stream our finances and have tighter controls on our spending and credit policies.” The group is geared up for some drastic company rightsizing in the next two months, in view of the current economic environment in the region.

The Group will focus on it’s principal strengths retaining the brands of Comguard, Psilog and Spectrum Training while moving away from other non-profit making business lines. Several delayed projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the region have been named to be the root cause of the slowdown. “I would be dishonest if I said the current business climate is booming for it’s not,” he said.

“In the same manner, I will be lying if I claimed that as a distribution group, we haven’t been affected by some of the recent reseller runaways that happened in the local IT channel.”

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CHANNEL STREET

More Security for the Most Secure off-device environment, Dell has made available users can be assured that the Dell Data Protection the post-boot image is not | Endpoint Security Suite compromised as the testEnterprise, which integrates ing takes place in a secure Cylance technology using cloud platform and not artificial intelligence on a potentially infected and machine learning device. The verification to proactively prevent helps extend security advanced persistent threats BRETT HANSEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DATA SECURITY SOLUTIONS, DELL throughout the entire and malware. As part of this device lifecycle and provides greater visibility for solution, Dell has also made available a new BIOS administrators wanting to stop malicious BIOS verification functionality that uses a secure cloud attacks. environment to compare and test an individual Brett Hansen, Executive Director, Data SecuBIOS image against the official measurements rity Solutions, Dell said, “Dell’s unique post-boot held in the Dell BIOS lab. The new BIOS verificaBIOS verification technology for its commercial tion functionality uses a secure cloud environPCs gives IT the assurance that employees’ ment to compare and test an individual BIOS systems are secure every time they use the device, image against the official measurements held in making them the most secure in the industry.” the Dell BIOS lab. By conducting this test in an

EMPOWERING TRANSFORMATION TO THE TELCO CLOUD Nokia is expanding its cloud wise services portfolio with the launch of three professional services, helping operators transform to the telco cloud and implement a data center infrastructure to run their cloud-based enterprise and telco functions.

Nokia Data Center services take a DevOps based holistic approach to agile service delivery for multivendor cloud environments. This lets operators take full advantage of cloud technology to launch services quickly. The second new service, Nokia Cloud Transformation Consulting, helps operators plan and execute a practical strategy for making the best use of telco cloud opportunities. Managed Cloud Operations is a managed service for hybrid operations across hardware, cloudware and application layer management.Igor Leprince, Executive Vice President, Global Services at Nokia, said “We offer the right telco expertise and are committed to being a trusted partner for operators as they look to adopt the telco cloud to help them create competitive advantages in terms of agility and costs.” To boost its Data Center services, Nokia is establishing a design center in the UK, supported by delivery centers across the globe. Nokia combines its network infrastructure with secure IoT connectivity, distributed cloud, as well as IoT platforms.

CRYPTZONE SECURES “GLOBAL” AS FIRST ME PARTNER Cryptzone has chosen Global Solutions Network FZCO as its first Middle East distribution partner. With this new partnership, Global will extensively elp Cryptzone to identify, recruit and train system integrators who have the potential and expertise to drive its business forward in the region.“We can help simplify security and streamline user access” stated Alex Pearson, Cryptzone General Manager for EMEA and Asia Pacific. “In 2015 our focus was primarily developing and enhancing our core products so they continue to deliver truly innovative technology.

In 2016, we plan to expand into new markets and recognise this includes investing in developing our partner programme in new regions. We are delighted to kick-start these ambitious plans in the Middle East and would like to welcome Global to our growing family of distributor partners.”

Speaking about the partnership, Mario M. Veljovic, Vice President of Solutions for Middle East and Africa, Global Solutions Network adds, “We pride ourselves on working with partners to develop strong relationships, an ethos shared by Cryptzone. Its solutions are very exciting and we know that our existing network of partners will tremendously benefit.” Cryptzone’s portfolio of solutions includes AppGate, offering dynamic, attribute-based controls that determine access across cloud, virtual and physical infrastructures.

SIMPLICITY MEETS KNOWLEDGE Sage has launched a version of Sage Live only available on iOS. As a new Apple mobility partner, this will be the first in a series of solutions that Apple and Sage are collaborating together on for small businesses.

The new Sage Live for iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch will deliver significant advances in real time business management and improve efficiency and effectiveness across

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the entire supply chain for small and medium business users. Sage Live will be sold through Apple’s ecosystem and Sage will work with Apple to help educate Small & Medium Sized businesses on the benefits of mobile technology.

Alan Laing, EVP Global Strategic Partnerships & Alliances, from Sage comments “iOS is the leading mobile platform for business

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users and we are deepening our commitment to iOS by delivering our new Sage Live solution for iOS that provides simple, insightful accounting and payment services to Small & Medium Sized businesses.”

Alan continues. “We see the future as mobile, and we’re excited to be an Apple mobility partner which will help us get our simple and powerful accounting solutions into the

hands of SMBs. In a time of seismic technological change and digital invention, we want to provide the smartest technology to reinvent and simplify business accounting.”

Millions of Small Businesses rely on iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch to run their businesses and Sage Live gives real-time access to their critical accounting information information held in Salesforce.

CHANNEL STREET IN PUBLIC

“2016 is the tipping point for ME telecoms to adopt the real-time Big Data analytics that will form the foundation for digitization” SHERIF HAMOUDAH, HEAD OF TELCO - MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA AND TURKEY, SAP

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SECONDS

PALADION WINS ENTERPRISE PARTNER OF THE YEAR AWARD

A ´Throne´ Untouched

Paladion was named Enterprise Partner of the

Gartner has once again named Sophos as a Leader in its 2016 Magic Quadrant report for Endpoint Protection Platforms1 (EPP), a position Sophos has held since 2007.Dan Schiappa, SVP & GM of Sophos Enduser Security Group said, “Our researchers at SophosLabs are seeing an increase in the sophistication of malware – polymorphism is becoming the norm and previously unknown malware is on the rise. These types of threats can only be detected by the integrated capabilities, such as exploit prevention, behavior analytics and pre-execution heuristics, that we have built into our products.

bank “ The project involved implementing Threat

Year 2015 by Kaspersky Lab. for its innovation and leadership qualities for winning an advanced security intelligence project from a leading UAE Intelligence Platform which will collect,collate, analyze and report the threat information from multiple sources aroundthe globe focusing on threatspertaining to the bank using Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Solution,” said Amit Roy, VP & RegionalSales Head-ME & Africa at Paladion.

SYNECHRON BECKONS GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION Synechron has unveiled its new brand identity, representing the significant steps the firm has

DAN SCHIAPPA, SVP AND GM OF SOPHOS ENDUSER GROUP

taken to increase the depth and breadth of its services. The rebrandingsignifies the evolution of the company and its vision for the future as

Progress Distribution and Entrust Datacard Join Hands Progress Distribution has signed a distribution agreement with Entrust Datacard to promote its Certificate Services in the Middle East. As per agreement, Progress will strengthen Entrust Datacard’s channel network and organize regular channel development activities such as training workshops, events and exhibitions to help increase its market share in the region.

“Entrust Datacard is a channel friendly company with a comprehensive range of certificates, software and services that support it and we felt they were a perfect match to our existing solutions portfolio,” said Gareth Morgan - Sales Director,

Progress Distribution.“We were looking for a reliable partner with the market knowledge, expertise and strong channel network and Progress Distribution was a perfect fit,” said Julie James, Channel Manager, EMEA for Entrust Datacard.

Through its channel program, Entrust Datacard will provide Progress’ channel network with the training, tools, and support they need to gain a competitive edge and grow their customer base.

Entrust is the latest vendor to join the company’s innovative technology brands, which includes vendors such as Censornet, Xangati, Plixer etc. me a few

it aims for $1 billion ofrevenue by the year 2020.

Along with the brand modernization, Synechron has launcheda new website that communicates thefirm’s new ’Power of 3’ strategy and value proposition: Digital, Business Consulting and Technology.

IMPRESSIVE SECURITY, THROUGHOUT Symantec Endpoint Protection was recently recognized for its consistently high security performance in 2015 and went on to win the AV-TEST’s “Best Protection2015 Award” for corporate users.“Symantec’s intelligent next generation endpoint protection uses advanced machine learning to immediately blockabnormal behaviors in real time and stop targeted attacks,” said AmitJasuja, Senior Vice President, productdevelopment, Symantec.

THE INSPIRING ´FORCE´ FOR RIVERBED PARTNERS Riverbed Technology hosted Riverbed FORCE

AL-FUTTAIM TECHNOLOGIES WINS ALE PARTNER AWARD

and Riverbed Partner Connect in Dubai on the

Al-Futtaim Technologies has won the award for Converged Partner of the Year at Alcatel Lucent Enterprise’s annual Partner Day held recently in Dubai.

Commenting on the award, Mr.VenkatRaghavan, General Manager, Al-Futtaim Technologies said, “We are extremely delighted to receive this recognition from our partner Alcatel Lucent Enterprise. This award is further testament to our commitment and ability to deliver best-in-class products and services to our customers.

followed a common theme of ‘Maximizing Appli-

22nd of February, 2016. The conference, targeted at end-users and the channel respectively, cation Performance’. The sessions addressed, from both business and technicalperspectives, how to manage the challenges of end-to-end optimization, visibility and control in hybrid IT networks. The emergingtrend of SD-WAN was also introduced during the event.

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CHANNEL STREET

A Powerful Gush of ´Ad´wind Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis Team has published an extensive research on the Adwind Remote Access Tool (RAT).

According to the results of the investigation, conducted between 2013 and 2016, different versions of the Adwind malware have been used in attacks against at least 443,000 private users, commercial and non-commercial organizations around the world including the UAE. The platform and the malware are still reported to be active. “The Adwind platform in its current state lowers significantly the minimum amount of professional knowledge required by a potential

NEW OFFERINGS FOR A DIGITAL WORLD

criminal looking to enter the area of cybercrime,” said AleksandrGostev, Chief Security Expert at Kaspersky Lab. “Despite multiple reports about different generations of this tool, the platform is still active and inhabited with criminals of all kinds. We’ve conducted this research in order to attract attention of the security community and to make the necessary steps in order to disrupt it completely,” - said Vitaly Kamluk, Director of Global Research & Analysis Team in APAC at Kaspersky Lab. During their investigation the Lab researchers were able to analyze nearly 200 examples of spear-phishing attacks .

SIMPLIFYING DESKTOP MANAGEMENT ManageEngine has extended key process automation and security enhancements to its client management suite, Desktop Central. The new features include an iOS mobile app for managing desktops and monitoring their performance on-the-go, a two-factor authentication login system for IT administrators, an HTML5 viewer for remote desktop control that requires no additional plugs or installation, and .EXE block for Windows. “The new updates will simplify their regular chores such as deploying commonly used software and troubleshooting, while focusing on providing maximum security,” said Mathivanan Venkatachalam, Director of Product Management for Desktop Central at ManageEngine.

The new updates will simplify regular chores while focusing on providing maximum security.

GSMA UNVEILS SECURITY GUIDELINES FOR IOT The GSMA has put forth new guidelines designed to promote the secure development and deployment of services in the growing IoT market. The document, ‘The GSMA IoT Security Guidelines’, has been developed in consultation with the mobile industry and offers IoT service providers and the wider IoT eco system practical advice on tackling common cybersecurity threats, as well as data privacy issues associated with IoT services.

“A proven and robust approach to security will create trusted, reliable services that scale as the market grows,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer, GSMA.

SANJAY POONEN, GENERAL MANAGER AND EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, END-USER COMPUTING, VMWARE.

VMware has unveiled Workspace ONE to deliver digital workspaces with consumer simplicity and enterprise security which is a new platform for delivering secure digital workspaces for flexible work styles and bring your own device (BYOD). Using the principles of consumer simple and enterprise secure, the digital workspace delivered by VMware will address the end user and enterprise IT business mobility needs by aggregating all devices, applications and services while securely managing them through unified common access and identity. This solution will deliver options for all types of users from those with BYOD to corporate fully-managed devices. Sanjay Poonen, Executive VP & GM, End-User Computing at VMware said, “We are proud to be the first to bring together identity, device management and application delivery on a single integrated platform so business can be conducted by mobile endusers regardless of platform, location, device or application.” VMware has also enabled the industry’s fastest, easiest and most affordable application and desktop delivery with VMware Horizon 7 and VMware Horizon Air.

REDEFINING CUSTOMER VALUE & ROI Xerox Emirates and SKYTECH have supplied Al Ain National Printing Press (AANPP), with a front-rank Xerox Versant 80 production colour press. The installation enables AANPP to streamline workflow, improve business operations and increase ROI significantly in 2016. The acquisition also helps the company boost business offerings and take on high-quality, on-demand printing capabilities

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in an increasingly competitive commercial print sector.

“Xerox Emirates aims to support its customers in streamlining work processes, allowing them to focus on their core business. AANPP is now able to widen its business proposition with the new cutting-edge Versant 80 press, Their investment opens up new business opportunities for the company. It enables them to satisfy varied customer

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requirements in a cost effective manner without compromising quality and creativity” said Andrew Horne, General Manager, Xerox Emirates.. Feras Fenari, AANPP Owner and Managing Director said “The team spent considerable time understanding our business. We’re certain that with this investment, we’ll be able to widen our scope of services and expand business in the UAE.”

ANDREW HORNE, GENERAL MANAGER, XEROX EMIRATES..

CHANNEL STREET

Education on the Cloud The UAE’s Advanced National Research and Education Network, Ankabut has deployed Citrix app and desktop virtualization technologies to provide staff and students in schools and universities across the UAE with on-demand access to their apps and data, on any device, anytime.

The organization has deployed an application and desktop virtualization solution based on Citrix NetScaler, XenApp and XenDesktop providing staff and students with the freedom to access curriculums and learning materials anywhere, on any device. This flexible e-learning environment is available to 1,600 users, with intention to expand user base to 10,000 by end of 2016.

Fahem Al Nuaimi, CEO of Ankabut said, “This

has also helped us in providing advanced learning management tools that allow universities to collaborate globally and is in line with the UAEgovernment’s commitment to driving innovation and progress.” Johnny Karam, Regional Vice President, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Citrix, added, “With smart learning programmes and technology a key focus for the UAE government, Ankabut has truly embraced this vision, ensuring that students, parents and teachers have a safe and secure e-learning experience - significantly improving education outcomes in the future.”

Ankabut has also centralized the management and delivery of graphically intensive apps required for subjects such as engineering or architecture.

WEB CLIPS FORTIFYING CYBER DEFENSE STRATEGIES Ixtel is now a premium Qualys partner in the UAE. Ixtel will offer the Qualys Cloud Platform and integrated suite of security solutions.

Becoming a strategic business partner of Qualys enables Ixtel to expand it’s offering to include cloud security, vulnerability management and compliance cloud solutions.Mehdi Quraishi, Managing Director and CEO of Ixtel said, “The partnership with Qualys is a strong testament to a growing need forsecurity against an ever-changing landscape of potential threats and the drive towards protectingorganizations most valuable IT assets.”

AXIOM RESPONDS TO EVOLVING CUSTOMER DEMANDS

LEVERAGING THE CAPABILITIES OF ´FUTURE READY´ SCHOOLS

axiom care continues to expand its offering

Mohammed Bin Rashid Smart Learning Program (MBRSLP) has successfully completed infrastructure and provision of all associated hardware and software for the academic year 20152016. A key element of the completion has been the adoption of Microsoft’s Surface Devices - the 12-inch multi-touch screen tablet that can replace a laptop with reliable Windows and updated Microsoft Office365 solutions along with its integrated kickstand and surface “pro pen” that makeslearning easier. MBRSLP has continued to provide the academic sector with all necessary hardware and software to ensure the best use of the Program to enhance creativity among students.

to these recent customer demands, axiom

amid a growing demand for quality post-sales support among customers. In response care is reaffirming its commitment to quality after-sales assistance by offering a range of comprehensive services – from software and hardwareservices, to express repairs, extended warranty, damage insurance, pick-up anddelivery, and much more across its more than 25 service points in theregion, which include 8 in theUAE, and 17 in KSA.

MOVEMENTS COLIN SUMMERS has been appointed by Epicor as New Regional VP to lead MEA and India

Vmware welcomes HENRI VAN DER VAEREN as New VP for Southern Europe and MEA

PHIL HARRIS takes charge as SVP & CSO of Riverbed

Emitac Enterprise Solutions names TONY ALAM as new CEO

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2.4 NUMBER GAME

percent

MENA banking and securities firms IT Spending to grow by 2.4% in 2016 according to Gartner.

OOREDOO FORTIFIES PARTNERSHIP WITH CISCO Ooredoo& Cisco sign2 new significant agreements at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. With the first agreement, enterprise customers willnow be able to lease Cisco technology from Ooredoo, providing them with accessto cutting-edge technology.

Through the second agreement,Ooredoo will be able to bring Cisco’sVirtual-ManagedServices (VMS) suite to the Qatarmarket.

HONEYWELL & PALO ALTO BOOST CYBER SECURITY CAPABILITIES Honeywell’s Industrial Cyber Security business is now offering the Palo Alto Networks NextGeneration Security Platform to industrial customers. The collaboration enables customers to better prevent cyberattacks against their Process Control Networks (PCN) and Operational Technology (OT) environments in order to protect their assets and maximize production uptime and safety.

CHANNEL STREET

Know the Unknown with Fortinet CTAP Fortinet has unveiled its new Cyber Threat Assessment Program (CTAP) designed to provide organizations a detailed look into the type and amount of cyber threats posing risks to their networks, yet are going undetected by their existing security solutions. This new offering is part of a broader effort by Fortinet and its FortiGuard Labs threat research team to integrate risk and advisory capabilities with its end-to-end security platform to provide customers greater insight into dynamically changing cyber risks that threaten their businesses. Fortinet is offering its threat assessment program to organizations free-of-charge.

JOHN MADDISON, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF PRODUCTS & SOLUTIONS FOR FORTINET.

AMD & HP ACCELERATE MOMENTUM FOR 6TH GEN PROCESSORS The 6th Generation AMD PRO A-Series processors will now power two new HP 600 series ProBooks. Jim Anderson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Computing and Graphics Business Group at AMD said, “We’ve seen positive consumer and commercial response to our 6th Generation A-Series processors and the recent announcements by HP, along with AMD technology adoption by global companies and the popularity of AMD systems during the holiday season, help confirm the strength of our product.”

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IS KEY TO DIGITALIZATION UAE SMEs need to adopt high-performance information management over the next 5 years in order to succeed in the Digital Economy, according to industry experts. “The Digital Economy presents new opportunities for the UAE’s SMEs, but they are often daunted by data’s size, diversity, and growth. By focusing on real-time management of high-value data, SMEs can gain new business models, diversified revenue, and efficient and intelligent operations,” said Andrew Calthorpe, CEO of IT consultancy Condo Protego. XtremIO can store 6 times more data than traditional systems, and can reduce costs by up to 80 percent over three years. Fortune 100 companies use it to future-proof their competitive edge.

INTEL AND SAMSUNG REDEFINE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Intel Security and Samsung are ensuring that the Galaxy S7 customers can enjoy its mobile security solution designed to help keep them safe from a growing number of mobile threats.

Samsung Galaxy S7 and GalaxyS7 edge will come pre-installed with McAfee VirusScan. With this collaboration, Samsung customers will be better protected with anti-malware technology that is already helping to provide a more secure mobile experience to more than 40 million Samsung Galaxy users globally. According to Intel Security’s Mobile Threat Report, 3 million devices were affected by malware solely through mobile app stores over the past six months. Intel Security found that in Q4 2015 mobile malware samples increased 24 percent . “Intel Security is combatting growing mobile threats by collaborating with consumer brands like Samsung to help keep customer’s mobile devices more secure so they can experience the connected world with confidence,” said John Giamatteo, Corporate Vice President at Intel Security.

“Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge users can feel more comfortable in navigating the digital world with enhanced protection by latest anti-malware solution that Samsung offers,” said Henry Lee, Vice President of Mobile Security Technologies of Samsung Mobile. “It is important that we provide our users with a high level of protection designed to help keep their personal data safe in their Samsung device.”

ARE YOUR ´UNTOUCHED FILES´ EATING YOUR BUDGET? In its inaugural Data Genomics Index, Veritas Technologies released the industry’s first accurate view of the composition of enterprise data. This real-time view of today’s corporate data reveals that over 40% of files have remained untouched for three years, creating an opportunity for businesses to positively impact their bottom line

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costs. The Data Genomics Index is the first step towards benchmarking enterprise data environments to catalyze interest and action in this growing challenge.“By aggregating Veritas’ unique understanding of key metadata characteristics we can surface an accurate representation of the average data environment.

These insights will change the crip-

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pling growth dynamic enterprises are faced with today,” said Steve Vranyes, CTO, Veritas.

The Index reveals that images, developer files and compressed files take up almost one third of the total environment. Developer files from a file count perspective are a massive 20% of the total number.

When we look at trends over the

past 10 years, relative to other file types, presentations have declined 500%. Finally we are trending away from death by PowerPoint.

With the exception of regulatory or compliance requirements, three years is a general standard for when data goes from potentially relevant to stale. Incredibly, 41% of the average environment is stale.

Connect.

Share.

Give.

Take.

Solve.

Save.

Smile.

Unify.

Introducing Unify.

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

Copyright Š Unify Software and Solutions GmbH & Co. KG 2016

13481_Unify_Ad_Channel Arabic_275x240_v1.indd 1

25/01/2016 14:09

CHANNEL STREET

Towards 5G with New Partners Brocade has introduced new technology partnerships in its open mobile networking ecosystem that will accelerate the development of New IP solutions and prepare mobile operators with an open network for the demands of 5G. Brocade’s new partnerships enable solutions that leverage software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), and mobile edge computing (MEC) to help mobile network operators (MNOs) and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) innovate faster, improve service agility, and identify new revenue streams.

“As part of the Brocade Partner Network, the open mobile partner ecosystem provides access

to best-in-class networking solutions that enable choice, reduce vendor lock-in, and increase network flexibility.” said Kevin Shatzkamer, Chief Technology Officer of Mobile Networking, Brocade. “Brocade is committed to working with partners in our open mobile networking ecosystem, in order to bring new innovations that put mobile operators on the path to delivering 5G services enabled by New IP infrastructures.”

The Brocade open mobile networking ecosystem also includes partners that extend the company’s solutions for network visibility and wireless networking. Brocade is collaborating with Metaswitch and Openet to deliver pre-integrated NFV solutions that can be deployed immediately.

FUJITSU AT CEBIT 2016 Fujitsu document capture solutions were in line with this year’s CeBIT digital economy theme: join – create – succeed. PFU exhibited Fujitsu document scanners and showcased its line of solutions that help businesses meet today’s growing business challenge – converting paper-based information into digital content. Fujitsu partners like Accantum, Ephesoft and Silex Technology Europe used this platform to present their scan solutions for a range of applications and industries.

“In order to keep up with today’s increasingly digital world, organisations from private businesses to government agencies are all looking for ways to implement electronic file management across their business processes,” said Mike Nelson, Vice President at Fujitsu subsidiary PFU (EMEA). “Our line of professional document scanners continue to support and enable companies to remain competitive in the current fast-paced economic climate.” The new models will feature the tried and tested PaperStream software to kick-start digital transformation, converting all scans into high-quality images and significantly accelerating OCR. PaperStream Capture offers organisations a versatile solution for the entire capture process, featuring an intuitive user interface to enhance the information feed into their organisation’s digital workflow. Another highlight at the booth are the Software Development Kits (SDK) for ScanSnap, fi Series and network scanners.

These SDKs provide the tools that Independent Software Vendors and software developers need to build integrated applications and create tailored document scanning solutions for customers. Additionally, the 2016 CeBIT scanner presentation focused on the Fujitsu SP Series scanner range; the solution of choice for first time enterprise use, helping businesses raise productivity.

SMARTPHONES DRIVE MCOMMERCE IN MIDDLE EAST Criteo has released its Q4 2015 State of Mobile Commerce Report, which examines mCommerce trends on a quarterly basis and provides insight into online shopping behavior as consumers’ path to purchase continues to evolve. Criteo’s dive into 1.4 billion online transactions finds that four in 10 purchases occur across multiple devices or channels globally. Of that figure, close to one-third are completed on a mobile device, indicating that consumers are using numerous devices along their path to purchase and are regularly buying on mobile.

“Criteo’s quarterly Mobile Commerce Report demonstrates that mobile is an essential component of commerce today,” said Jonathan Wolf, Chief Product Officer, Criteo said, “In order to better understand this digitally-savvy consumer, marketers need to stop looking at each device on its own, and start understanding the user behind them. Multi-device behavior is the new normal. Criteo’s new Universal Match solution enables advertisers to zero in on shoppers at the time they are most likely topurchase, with a targeted message across all of their devices.” The proliferation of mCommerce is further fueling the desire for more personalized brand experiences from consumers.

Digital marketers can no longer look at device use alone to identify and convert consumers into buyers. Criteo’s Universal Match solution processes more than 35 billion browsing events daily to understand cross-device behavior.

CLIENT EXPERIENCE REDEFINED WITH IBM STUDIO - DUBAI IBM has launched the IBM Studio - Dubai, a new center of experience design and digital expertise to help clients transform. The Studio extends the footprint of IBM Interactive Experience, blending experience design with the full spectrum of business transformation capabilities, from industry and strategy consulting through systems

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integration. The IBM Studio Dubai was inaugurated by His Excellency Abdulla Abdul Rahman Al Shaibani, Secretary General of the Executive Council of Dubai.

“Today’s most successful companies have design embedded in their DNA,” said His Excellency Abdulla Abdul Rahman Al Shaibani, “We support and encourage compa-

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nies such as IBM that value the importance of design, bringing it into the heart of what they do.”

“Creating customer experiences for Dubai citizens, business customers and our own employees that are meaningful and consistent across digital and physical channels is at the top of our business agenda.

“Creating customer experiences for

Dubai citizens, business customers and our own employees that are meaningful and consistent across digital and physical channels is at the top of our business agenda.” said Eng. Mohammed AlZaffin, IT Director, Dubai Municipality. “We have partnered with IBM to help us deliver these experiences with solutions designed for users.”

CHANNEL STREET

BACKUP THE VANITY, RESTORE THE SANITY

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

2016 Veeam Availability report illustrates that despite numerous high-profile incidents in the last year, global enterprises are still not paying enough attention to the needs of their users. The report showedthat 84% of senior IT decisionsmakers across the globe admit to suffering an ‘Availability Gap’ (the gap between what IT can deliver and what users demand).

This costs businesses up to $16 million a year in lost revenue and productivity, in addition to the negative impact on customer confidence and brand integrity.

UAE enterprises were surveyed as part of the global report and the corresponding cost of application downtime for UAE businesses is US$ 5.5 million a year.Gregg Petersen, Regional Director, Middle East and SAARC, Veeam Software says,” We are seeing enterprises starting to realize the importance of availability solutions and, in particular, the role cloud and cloud-based services such as Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) can play.

Enterprises appreciate the need for an Always-On, always-available operation and I am confident that users will see this become a reality sooner rather than later.”

UAE Gears Up for ISNR The 7th edition of the International Exhibition for National Security and Resilience (ISNR) will be the largest and most comprehensive to date, being held from 15-17 March 2016 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC).

There will be a total net space 20,000 sqm at ADNEC, to cater 5 exhibitions, 2 specialised conferences, 10+ live featured events and simulation demonstrations on emergency preparedness and disaster prevention, 10 workshop sessions, 60+ seminars, plus 911 World Firefighter Challenge and the MoI Excellence Award. The event expects 500+ exhibitors coming from 45+ countries to join the 2016 edition. 3Apart from that there will also be a 3-day program covering

Cloud Security, Risk and Governance from certified organization ISC2 and 30+ seminars from industry leaders.

MoI Excellence Award, promoting 6 selected innovations from local students’ initiatives would be held in conjunction with the conference. Yet another attraction this year is the addition of 10 new countries- Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Jordan, Czech Republic, Ivory Coast, Russia, Poland, Latvia and Austria and 1 new Pavilion for the United States of America. The 6th International Cyber Crime Conference will kick off on 16 March 2016 and is aligned with the UAE Ministry of Interior framework in delivering best practices in strengthening security.

CISCO UNVEILS NEW NFVI The new NFV Infrastructure complements existing virtualization solutions like the Cisco Virtualized Packet Core (VPC), which provides network functions as virtualized services. It combines all mobile packet core services for 4G, 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi, and small cell networks into a single solution. “This solution is another step in delivering on our strategy for an open, modular and expandable network architecture,” said Kelly Ahuja, SVP, Cisco Service Provider business, products and solutions. “We are committed to helping our service provider customers embrace the network transformation toward virtualization with the right foundation to successfully deploy virtualized network functions.”

´SECURITY EVERYWHERE´ Cisco has geared up to participate in the Gulf Information Security Expo & Conference (GISEC 2016) which will be held at Dubai World Trade Centre from March 29-31, 2016 with the aim of showcasing and delivering its strategy of Security Everywhere – from the cloud, network and endpoints with new security products and features and a threat awareness service as organizations execute on their digital transformation.“Our customers are asking for a true security architecture where advanced security solutions are a part of an integrated portfolio that shares information and capabilities across the entire platform,” saidRabihDabboussi, Managing Director, Cisco UAE.

DAFZA LAUNCHES SMART MIR’AH Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA) has launched a new mobile platform called ‘SMART Mir’ah (‘Mirror’)’ to enable its leadership to access the Freezone’s Key Performance Indicator Results, Strategic Initiatives, Operational Performance, Processes, Policies, Survey and

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Benchmarking Reports on the go via their mobile devices. The platform will also significantly enhance DAFZA’s strategy execution and performance management capabilities, ushering in a new era of greater transparency and continuous feedback for the Freezone. , It complements the

Organizational Excellence Model by having all approaches clearly defined in Policies and Initiatives that are then deployed through Processes and effectively assessed and reviewed through an effective Performance Management System (RADAR Model). The new userfriendly platform uses technology

to monitor DAFZA’s operational processes and link them with performance indicators. This step will support DAFZA’s vision of strengthening its position as a main contributor to economic development and a gateway for leading companies seeking business opportunities..

MY VIEWS

of companies without a dedicated IT security team.

Tell us about the Sophos Security Heartbeat.

Synchronized security allows next generation endpoint and network security solutions to continuously share meaningful information about suspicious and confirmed bad behaviour across an entire organization’s extended IT ecosystem.

Leveraging a direct and secure connection called the Sophos Security Heartbeat, endpoint and network protection act as one integrated system, enabling organizations to prevent, detect, investigate, and remediate threats in near real time, without adding any staff.

HARISH CHIB,

VICE PRESIDENT MEA, SOPHOS

Security ‘Heartbeat’— Sound & Synchronized AS THE WORLD ENTERS AN M2M ERA, SOPHOS ENSURES THAT THE END TO END COMMUNICATIONS ARE SECURE AND SYNCHRONIZED. THE NEW SERVICE OFFERINGS FROM SOPHOS IS ALL SET TO PROVE THAT ‘SIMPLIFIED SECURITY’ IS NOT JUST A CATCHPHRASE, BUT A REALITY.

Time and again there have been discussions around network and endpoint security but the idea to link the both has been put into action by Sophos- what has been the driving factor and how do you think this would help in making security simpler for enterprises worldwide?

Sophos believes that security should be comprehensive, that it should work as a system, and that it should be made simple to use. This was the driving factor that went into innovating a new security strategy with Sophos Security Heartbeat. And as the outcome has it, we have successfully delivered cyber security capability that was previously beyond the reach

What kind of partner initiatives are being actively taken by Sophos in the MEA region? Are there new programs and events on the radar?

Sophos is a 100% channel driven IT security company. We continue to expand partner ecosystem in the region. Sophos’ distribution presence covers 45 countries in the MEA region and we have a team of 40 plus people working hand-inhand with more than 2000 channel partners. Our partner base comprises of distributors, resellers and VARs. Sophos invests heavily in training and certification programs for its partners. We are committed to maximize business growth for partners. Our regional partners now have access to revolutionary security solutions from Sophos that include the next generation XG firewall with Security Heartbeat, Sophos Cloud, Sophos Enduser Protection, SafeGuard Encryption, Sophos Mobile Security and Server Protection.

What are the prime security concerns for enterprises in 2016 according to Sophos and what should be the counter strategy?

High profile data breaches will continue to make headlines in 2016 with advanced persistent threats becoming more frequent. While there are point solutions available to address specific cyber threats, the main challenge is to make these solutions work in tandem.

GISEC 2016 is coming up. Will Sophos be a part and if yes, what’s going to be the prime focus of Sophos out there?

We are going to showcase a wide range of our next generation endpoint and network security solutions our entire security range with major spotlight on Sophos Security Heartbeat. ë

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CIOS SPEAK

mation and incorporating new age technology in the business and operations. With Al Fara’a Group and with the enormous support of the management, we have implemented countless projects of various ranges and categories for each company in the Group. The recent project that has positively impacted the business the most was the Construction Cost Control and Budgets Management system. It features strict controls in project budgets, material issues as per the cost codes to plan and monitor the project costs effectively.

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

In 2016, all the giants and big software companies will be moving towards mobile technology and will be converting all their applications to mobile platform. Also, the IT market in 2016 will venture and head towards cloud computing, big data and business analytics.

MR. MOHAMMED IMADUDDIN,

GROUP CIO, AL FARA’A GROUP

Nurturing Al Fara’a with Emerging Techs AL FARA’A GROUP HAS BEEN PICKING THE RIGHT PIECES OF TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE AN ADAPTIVE ORGANIZATION. MR. MOHAMMED IMADUDDIN, GROUP CIO OF AL FARA’A GROUP SHARES INSIGHT ON THE CHANGING WORKPLACE AND HOW A CIO HAS TO EMBARK ON A ROLE CHANGING JOURNEY.

How do you see 2016 coming along in terms of market trajectory?

Either we admit it or not, IT is part of our blood now. 2016’s IT market will be focused on Data Security, Business Analytics, conversion of all business applications to Mobile Apps and Virtualization of Database and Infrastructure.

These trends will be the centre of investments for most organizations and businesses.

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

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2015? What were the various projects that you undertook?

In 2015, we have recently overhauled and reengineered our construction ERP system for the group implementing tight controls, streamlined workflows and processes that will ease the flow of our day to day operations in both our project sites and offices.

Which technology has revolutionized your business of late?

Al Fara’a Group is by far, very inclined into auto-

What are the various hiccups that you wish to tackle?

One of the challenges I would want to tackle and shed some light on to businesses and organizations is that despite budget constraints or economic pressures, IT should not be compromised. Though the cost of investing in good technology is quite a pocket shaker, the benefits to the business can actually aid in business growth and security as new era businesses cannot move without latest technology.

How should a CIO resume look like in 2016?

A CIO’s resume should not be caged in pure technical aspects, rather, it should be equal to what a CEO’s resume looks like. A CIO of today should have experience in Business Strategy and Corporate Compliance that allows a CIO to see the business and operations in a different aspect.

Its time again for GISEC, Big Data and IoTX to hit the floors. As a CIO, what are your expectations from the show this year?

This year I expect to see a lot of innovation and new improvements in Consumer Technology (Touch Commerce), Mobile and Marketing Technologies and of course there is your Big Data and Analytics. Also, Virtual and Augmented Reality is a very big hit this first quarter and I am sure we are going to see a lot of improvements and similar technologies presented in these technology exhibits. ë

COVER STORY

HEALTHCARE

Technology

A Health Check Up

According to Gartner, the healthcare providers in the Middle East and North Africa spent US $2.73 billion on IT products and services in 2015. Combined with major demographic shifts over the coming decades, this will open up vast opportunities for healthcare and IT providers to combine the best of both the worlds to impact global health. 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 > â&#x20AC;&#x192; n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K

T

he booming medical tourism market has laid the foundation for the Middle East, especially the UAE, healthcare industry to project itself as a cost effective and world class destination for healthcare. A sustainable healthcare infrastructureis entirely being redefined by the consumers, providers and payers alike.

In 2015, GCC healthcare IT spending grew to over $550 million, with technologies such as e-health and mobile health tools and Gartner predicts healthcare spending on IT

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products and services in the Middle East and Africa to touch USD 3 billion.

HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY- THE TREND The highly rampant urban lifestyle, extended life expectancy and a rapidly growing population has been the driving factors for the Middle East government to revise the government expenditure to cater to the highly ambitious medical infrastructure projects. The Accenture Healthcare IT Vision 2015 reveals five key trends: The

Internet of Me, Outcome Economy, Platform (R)evolution, Intelligent Enterprise and Workforce Reimagined. These trends clearly prove that digital is dramatically influencing the industry today, and it will continue to do so for decades to come.

Healthcare providers are now leveraging cloud to address environmental, operational, security and storage needs.

Additionally, local regulations are prompting healthcare service providers to use modern IT delivery mechanisms to support their customers.

COVER STORY

6 APRIL 2016

ENTERPRISE ON THE CLOUD MYTH OR REALITY?

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COVER STORY

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

““Our vision is a Connected Health ecosystem that helps to shape a world of health without boundaries.”

JALIL ALLABADI FOUNDER AND CEO AT ALTIBBI

“With the growth of the populations, working with the same facility based model is not going to be sustainable within a decade and that’s why technologies focusing on allowing doctors to help more people more efficiently are the talk of the town.”

THE HOSPITAL OF TOMORROW

MOBILITY TO DRIVE A RADICAL SHIFT IN HOSPITALS BY 2025

Source: Al Masah Capital

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SAEED AGHA GENERAL MANAGER, PALO ALTO NETWORKS MIDDLE EAST

“2016 will be a year of further IT innovation in healthcare as they will definitely try to implement new technologies, such as remote patient monitoring and video studies.”

“Despite the considerable progress in improving healthcare access and quality in the Middle East, the future of the sector will depend heavily on co-operation between Governments and the private sector to provide healthcare services which can be delivered more efficiently and cost effectively. As part of this evolution, we are witnessing public-private partnerships in the region extending across the healthcare spectrum to include pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, training, providing and insurance coverage,” says ZiadSalameh, Managing Director & General Manager Gulf, Levant & Pakistan and Middle East Services Leader, Cisco Systems.

Ziad Youssef, Vice President IT Business – UAE & Gulf Countries, Schneider Electric says With innovations such as UPS, cooling mechanisms, DCIM, access, temperature and security control, water and gas metering and BMS with presence detection systems, the company adheres to local green regulations to create

COVER STORY

PENETRATION OF TECHNOLOGY

QUICK $46mn In 2015, GCC healthcare IT spending grew to over $550 million, with technologies such as e-health and mobile health tools.

$3bn Gartner predicts healthcare spending on IT products and services in the Middle East and Africa to touch USD 3 billion.

79%

$39.4mn Overall healthcare expenditure across the GCC is set to grow from USD 39.4 billion in 2013 to reach USD 69.4 billion by 2018 according to Alpen Capital.

Outpatient and inpatient markets are expected to account for 79% and 21%, respectively, of the overall market size.

POLYCOM

THE ALTIBBI APP

Polycom RealPresence Mobile app Polycom Immersive Telepresence Solutions Polycom RealPresence Platform

Altibbilaunched a new service allowing anyone in the 4 Arab countries to call a doctor anytime 24/7 within seconds through Altibbi App for $5 only.

CLOVERLEAF Infor´s Cloverleaf product facilitates interoperability of medical information within and among all healthcare providers and their systems. Cloverleaf offers a reliable interoperability platform that allows clinicians to provide care using a patient’s entire medical record. This improves quality and lowers costs by providing clinicians with up to date patient information and reducing duplicate testing.

HEALTHY SOLUTIONS SCHNEIDER With Schneider Electric’s StruxureWare, decision-makers can stay informed about their facilities by monitoring real time energy usage, building temperature and access control systems.

Building Management solutions (BMS) provide facility-wide transparency and monitoring options, including access to critical data to assist hospital staff in providing security and safety.

CISCO Cisco Connected Health solutions enable care team collaboration and business efficiency while promoting a higher quality of care. Through Cisco’s HealthPresence solution, patients at rural Al Mafraq Governmental Hospital can see specialist physicians at Prince Hamzah Hospital in Amman, the Jordanian capital. By using information and communications technology (ICT), the Jordan Healthcare Initiative has the potential to improve healthcare for all Jordanians and provide equal access for rural citizens.

READ

In a recent HIMSSsurvey, 90 percent of responders in the healthcare industry said they maintain mobile devices to engage patients in their organizations. Mobile devices in hospitals are often used to connect to EMRs and view Protected Health Information (PHI), which introduces a slew of risks, most notably: 1) The ability to connect to unsecured public Wi-fi allows eavesdropping, and 2) Normally benign mobile apps can be poisoned with malicious code, such as the recent discovery of XCodeGhost

by Unit 42, Palo Alto Networks threat intelligence team. This threat allows the attacker to phish passwords and URLs through infected iPhone apps.

a safer, cleaner and more dependable ecosystem for patients and doctors.”

“The deployment of electronic health record (EHR) systems, the proliferation of digital medical devices, and the daily use of mobile devices by practitioners, have significantly increased exposure to cyberthreats in the healthcare space,” says Saeed Agha, General Manager, Palo Alto Networks Middle East. “Although private sector participation in healthcare is increasing, it’s not yet closing the gap between demand and supply of services and much of private sector participation is in the traditional domain (insurance and facilities) and not in the technology side,” says JalilAllabadi – Founder and CEO at Altibbi Dr. Barry Chaiken, Chief Medical Information Officer at Infor believes that the first investment needed to be in infrastructure – hospitals, clinics, imaging centers, etc. Next came an investment in medical technology such as advanced imaging equipment, high-tech operating theatres, telemetry, and latest technology intensive care units. Obtaining the technology is relatively easy compared to securing the clinical and technical expertise to make good use of the technology.”

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COVER STORY

AHMED SOUSA REGIONAL MANAGER, SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT, MEA AND TURKEY, POLYCOM

“CIOs have realised the potential cost savings of implementing video collaboration technologies that can improve the speed in which the services are delivered to patients.

DR. BARRY CHAIKEN CHIEF MEDICAL INFORMATION OFFICER AT INFOR

“With medical knowledge becoming too vast for a single human to manage, information technology is crucial to processing that knowledge and assisting clinicians it is application. ”

DOMINATION TECHNOLOGIES OF 2016

THE PALO ALTO ADVICE Conduct regular end-user security training to reduce successful phishing.

Enforce a robust threat and vulnerability management program to identify risks Deploy advanced integrated security architecture to prevent cyberattacks on the network, on the endpoint, and in the cloud.

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According to a new report from MarketResearch. com, the healthcare Internet of Things market segment is poised to hit $117 billion by 2020.

The IoT revolution will take off in the healthcare industry, Healthcare organizations will begin to move critical applications and infrastructure to the cloud and Attackers will look to mobile devices as the next best vector into healthcare networks as seen by Palo Alto.

“This year, video will become a more increasingly preferred means of communication between doctors and their patients” says Ahmed Sousa, Regional Manager, Solutions Architect, MEA and Turkey.

HEALTH ON YOUR FINGERTIPS According to Cisco, Instant information changes expectations and redefines what’s possible.

ZIAD YOUSSEF VICE PRESIDENT IT BUSINESS – UAE & GULF COUNTRIES, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

“The main areas of focus for CIOs in healthcare this year will be security, optimization to prepare for value-based care and innovation to help health systems compete for patients”

Traditional boundaries in care and delivery are disappearing. As IoT transforms healthcare, providers must innovate in order to remain competitive Barry comments that it is too soon to predict how wearable tech will impact care delivery. Both researchers and clinicians will struggle with the reliability of wearable technology. Currently these technologies vary in results across both vendors and patients, therefore it is hard to discern what is real and what is an artefact in the collected data.

THE THINK TANK TIME Science and technology are always kept on the same pedestal. Nowadays technology is complementing science and its advancement by accelerating its delivery patterns. With many technologies like the wearables, heart and pulse rate monitors, and other apps, Would ‘Prevention’ and ‘Observation’ avoid cure?

Cisco believes that wearable technology puts a patient’s real-time personal health data in their

COVER STORY

ALIASGAR BOHARI,

UNNI MENON,

DIRECTOR IT AT ZULEKHA HOSPITAL

HEAD OF IT AT AL ZAHRA HOSPITAL

Zulekha Healthcare Group is providing several highvalue technology tools and gaining a stronger foothold in hospitals that can be used to improve flow and quality of experience and care. Zulekha IT is pioneering new technology, and has been constantly recognized and honored.

Presently, Zulekha IT has taken an initiative in providing strategic consulting, road mapping and implementing BI and analytics platform aimed at empowering the senior management with actionable insights. This comprehensive platform will cover all aspects of Zulekha's business operations and the required KPIs, dashboards and reports.

Single Electronic Medical Records (EMR) for a patient across the country is the dream of UAE Government to achieve. Government is very near to achieve this goal in Government hospitals. However, a huge portion of the local population depends on Private facilities. The EMR between the private facilities are not yet integrated. This is a major challenge to the CIOs in public and private sectors. Software upgrade was one of the important investments done in the recent past.

WHAT THE CIO SAYS

CHALLENGES FOR THE CIOS SECURITY

LACK OF PRO-ACTIVE AND PREVENTIVE APPROACH

BIG DATA ALANYTICS

HACKERS AND THE RISE OF “HACKTIVISM”

MOBILITY & DATA ACESS

THE ADOPTION OF CLOUD AND MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IN HEALTHCARE

DATA INTEROPERABILITY

DEPLOY THE EMR TO TRULY IMPACT PATIENT CARE

IMAGING

KEEP CLOSE TABS ON THE FHIR STANDARD

BEING NIMBLE

CYBERSECURITY INVESTMENT

own hands. Ten or 15 years ago, patients relied solely on a doctor’s professional opinion for feedback on treatment and health. Barry says that technology offers a very valuable tool that can act as a surveillance device warning for both the patient and clinician when closer scrutiny of the patient’s condition is warranted. That said, nothing will ever replace the personal interaction inherent in a face to face clinical encounter.

FINALLY It is an exciting time in the phase of healthcare.

The way in which Cloud, ERPs, Wearables, Big Data and IoT have changed the way one looks into the human anatomy is something that would just get interesting with each day. A doctor´s technology medical kit and a hospital´s medical infrastructure cannot be missing the basic or first aid solutions like interoperability and Cybersecurity investment. As BYOD, enterprise communications and virtualization has redefined the concept of ´Workplace´, the hospital or the healthcare infrastructure is also no more just beds and stethoscopes— healthcare walks with you! ë

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SPECIAL STORY

ENTERPRISE COMMUNICATION

Striking the Right Chords of Communication From Desk to Hands to the Cloud, the journey of enterprise communications has been crucially driven by the proliferation of mobile devices and the emergence of cloud based solutions.

With IoT rapidly redefining the ways of modern enterprises communications, it would not just be a world of M2M, but E2E (Employee to Employee)too. n W O R D S : A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

A

s organizations wake up to an era of digitalization and CIOs are urged to take that leap to digitalization, enterprise communication technologies stand as the catalyst in this test of time.

Hyperconnectiwvity to the internet, the mammoth influx of data into organizations and the rapid pace of business operations are the crucial factors driving the enterprise communication market.

THE 2016 MARKET OUTLOOK Going by the popular beliefs, BYOD is surely a technology to look forward to as it has been evolving with time and adapting to the growing employee demands. Mobile devices have usurped the desk phones and communication tools are increasingly becoming web based.

UCaaS is increasingly becoming the trend and culture of organizations in the Middle East as Unified

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Communication as a service market is all set to be worth 24.88 Billion USD by 2020. Audio and video collaboration solutions, file sharing and email have evolved to a very mature statges. According to a report in Apps tech news, Combining the mobile, web-based, and unified communications trends, a further trend to look out for is the rise of WebRTC as a business communications platform.

WebRTC is an open standard for peer-to-peer unified communications that enables businesses to easily embed rich communications in apps and websites without plug-ins, hardware or proprietary technology.

CHANGING WAYS OF UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS “A key trend that we are noticing is enterprises adopting UCaas, which allows software to be licensed on a subscription basis and centrally hosted,” says Ashish

SPECIAL STORY

Saxena – Presales Director, Middle East, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. “The move to UCaas will show cost conversion from CAPEX to OPEX, which in turn will give the organization viability to implement a “pay as you grow” model (PAYG), and will allow them to reduce on upfront investment. Additionally, scalability will not be an issue when using UCaas as it will not be necessary to change the entire hardware when looking to change or upgrade features,” he adds.

THE 2016 CIO AGENDA As BYOD gains more traction and starts becoming an integral part of every workplace, the CIOs are in a crucial

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SPECIAL STORY

200mn 200 Billion IoT Devices by 2020

state to ensure that the BYOD policies are in alignment with the organization´s infrastructure capabilities.

The increased tug of war between BYOD and CYOD has also given rise to polarised opinions among decision makers. The dilemma between bringing your own device and choosing you own device maintains its own share of security, flexibility and productivity aspects.

According to a report by pascom, the BYOD Vs CYOD leaderboard looks like this;

CHANGING WORLD OF IOT

9% 9% IP Video Bandwidth Growth between 2014-2019

1.5 1,5 to 2 times- Growth rate of non premise consumption UC models

Frost & Sullivan estimates that the IoT will grow to 80 billion connected devices by the end of 2020, while International Data Corp. expects IoT spending to increase from $698.6 billion in 2015 to $1.3 trillion in 2019. IoT has also been propelling the Omni Channel experience to a great extent. By combining Internet of Things systems with smart network connectivity and real-time communication services (e.g., mobile phone, VoIP, location intelligence based WiFi, elastic bandwidth and Smart Power based Ethernet, audio and video conferencing, user location and identification features) and non-real-time services (e.g., voicemail, SMS), communication solution providers are enabling organizations in different verticals to take a step towards more effective and integrated communication with customers with a complete omni-channel experience that harnesses online, mobile and analytics solutions.

WORKPLACE EVOLUTION The term workPLACE is gradually becoming an abstract term. You no more go to a workplace, but your workplace travels with you. Important meetings and decisions are made over a conference call or Skype. In the Middle East, companies of every size, industry, and geography are investing in UC and video solutions to enhance productivity and IT costs, and there is a tremendous opportunity for the “as a service” model in the region. It is estimated that more than 70 percent of IT security breaches are caused by corporate network vulnerabilities usually caused by loose networking protections in order to enable BYOD and IoT. According to Ashish, there are three

Source: Transparency Market Research

B ROU G HT BY

GLOBAL ENTERPRISE CONNECT

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ORGAN ISE D BY

FOR MORE

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SPECIAL STORY

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MR.JIVIN

ASHISH SAXENA

INFRA AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER AT FINESSE

PRESALES DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST, ALCATEL-LUCENT ENTERPRISE

“We have been investing heavily in learning, development and testing, and working closely with our partners to create the ecosystem of “connected world” and to deliver Unified Communications.”

“We are one of the major players in the region that offer both voice and data networking and communications solutions, making it easier for partners to deal with one vendor instead of multiple.”

As per a report on PostBeyond, Lines are blurring between business and personal. This means that you’ll need to pay attention to Mobile first communications, Secure access to files from anywhere, Single sign-on into tools with your legacy systems, Communications through email, push notification, apps, content, SMS, etc., Empower employees on social media.As more digital natives enter the workforce, the less time you have to adapt. If you’re not considering this omni-channel employee experience in 2016, you’re already behind.

important keys to consider for any UC solution deployment and they are plan, assess, and deploy.

“Imagine a single communications environment where users can collaborate using any device, wherever they are. With UC&C, enterprises can quickly gain a competitive advantage by breaking down silos to create the modern, mobile, multidevice and multi-media environment that users demand. Our UC&C solution offers a smooth evolution and a rich user experience with the freedom to integrate with your current systems or simply start from scratch.”

FINALLY....

As UC and BYOD finally dawn as business veracities, security awareness and measures are buckled up. According to Memoori, only 1% of all devices today are connected. This will be the real challenge for the IT and OT partners and customers to provide the connectivity that is truly needed to ensure that they can maximise the value that the IoT and enterprise communications can bring collectively. ë

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MY VIEWS

JAMES PHILLIPS,

ALFRED MANHART,

CORPORATE VICE PRESIDENT, GM, MICROSOFT BAPI

HEAD OF EMEA CHANNEL AT NETAPP

Ruling the Channels in 2016 What will NetApp’s main areas of focus be in 2016?

Two of NetApp’s main areas of focus and investment in the coming year will be in flash and hybrid cloud. But the most interesting conversations are not only focused on solutions. They revolve around service-based value creation and how we enable channel partners in the “as-a-service” world.

How can one create a difference?

Storage, compute, virtualization – these things are already heavily commoditized. To differentiate themselves, channel partners need to offer verticalized services. . In 2016 and beyond this will be the way channel partners deliver value to their customers. The underlying solutions are just means to an end.

How will NetApp’s Data Fabric vision work for the channel in 2016?

Today’s workloads and IT environments are flash enabled and stretch across a variation of clouds. The challenge for the channel is ensuring a common management platform exists,

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such as the NetApp Data Fabric. This fabric acts as a single management pane across flash, disk, object storage, and different types of clouds for backup, hyperscale, or other services.

What could NetApp’s acquisition of SolidFire mean for the channel?

We see the acquisition of SolidFire as a huge opportunity for NetApp and our channel in the coming year, especially with SP and advanced enterprise customers. It really is a next-gen solution that benefits current and future channel partners looking to offer “webscale cloud provider”-type services.

How will NetApp further enable channel partners to achieve their goals in 2016?

At a foundational level we are continuing with technical and services enablement for cloud and flash. The challenge is to bring in partners and enable them to deliver value and contribute revenue in a time of increasing project complexity. We want to lead this behavioural change towards the modern way of doing channel business. ë

´Cloud´ for a Connected World Microsoft recently held its Cloud Roadshow 2016 that reiterated the cloud presence in the market by hosting two-day trainings held by Microsoft experts who shared valuable techniques and sound practices that allow organizations and individuals to leverage the most suitable technology solutions for their needs.

James Philips, Corporate Vice President, Business Intelligence Group, highlighted the essence of cloud computing and imparted basic tips on how leveraging modern cloud technology can lead to organizations reinventing themselves.

He said “The cloud is a global phenomenon and we are seeing an increased adoption of it in the region, including Microsoft Azure, Office 365 etc.

We are also investing heavily in the Azure public cloud to ensure that data that is stored there is private, encrypted and customers have the keys to it. Our interests are completely aligned with the customers requirement. It is a business critical reality for us and our absolute commitment to security and privacy.”

“At the core of Microsoft cloud strategies is Data. We really are a data company at the core.

The cloud exists by and large as we go forward to be a place where trillions of devices can store and process and analyse and get data and then go back and provide better experiences through all these devices that are providing data. Azure IoT suites are designed specifically to support everything that has software and connectivity at its core,” he adds.

OFFICIAL TECHNOLOGY MEDIA PARTNER

FEATURE

CLOUD

It is Raining ‘Cloud’

According to the Cisco Global Cloud Index (2013 – 2018), the Middle East and Africa are projected to have the world’s highest cloud traffic growth rate, growing more than 8-fold between 2013 and 2018. The day since ´Cloud´ no more stood for a sheer harbinger of rain, ICT has been showering flexibility and agility to business like never before. n W O R D S : A N U S H R E E < A N U S H R E E @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

T

he rise of Cloud hosting has an interesting history behind it, dating back to the 60´s when John McCarthy prophesied that computing would one day be structured as a public service. The evolution and revolution that followed is a history!

The worldwide market for public cloud systems is projected to hit $204 billion this year, a 16.5% increase over the $175 billion market in 2015, according to Gartner. Organizations are keen to shed off the CAPEX models and shift to OPEX. The Middle East organizations, though was a late entity to enter the cloud market, has been making some significant strides shifting their data centres to IaaS models. The Future IT Summit 2016, to be organized by Enterprise Channels MEA, will also put forth some interesting use cases and successful implementation stories of Cloud and its maturity in the Middle East region.

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ENTERPRISE IAAS ADOPTION According to IT industry trends, 2016 is the year of Enterprise IaaSadoption . It is also predicted to be the highest growth areas within the IT segment. Today, enterprises are aware of the advantages of utilising IaaS, PaaS, SaaS in a hybrid IT strategy as opposed to building their own on premise solutions. “However, they are still cautious as they do not have many options for recognised cloud services provider in the region. eHDF, however, is one of the few companies in the UAE and amongst the first to offer cloud services with different flavours such as Hosted Private (Unmanaged and Managed) and Public Cloud offerings,” says Yasser Zeineldin, CEO, eHostingDataFort.

INFRASTRUCTURE READINESS Storage tops the infrastructure checklist in

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30 of the 50 CIOs of top organizations who attended the recent CIO Summit in Qatar affirmed that cloud computing featured in their long-term planning horizons.

While 25% said they had considered or had already adopted public cloud services such as Salesforce.com or Google Apps, another 20% rated on-premise private cloud options as their first step.

FEATURE

modern enterprises, thanks to Big Data! So how ´Infrastructure Ready´ are the Middle East organizations ? Organizations are increasingly advised to utilize a cloud readiness assessment

and carefully choose a cloud ready partner. But the challenge that lies ahead is that every business and every data center is unique. The availability of local service providers are not that many as

of now, but increasing steadily. “The challenges are predominantly in the area of services, in regards to migration to cloud. Compliance with international standards and pricing are also

IT MAN OF THE YEAR UAE, KSA, QATAR, BAHRAIN, OMAN, KUWAIT

7 APRIL 2016

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FEATURE

YASSER ZEINELDIN CEO, EHOSTING DATAFORT

“In five years’ time, one word which might aptly describe cloud infrastructure services is - “everywhere”

SAEED AGHA GENERAL MANAGER, PALO ALTO NETWORKS MIDDLE EAST

“Enterprises should treat their public cloud deployment as a greenfield opportunity to implement the tightest security possible.”

ADVICE TO THE CIOS

38

eHDF to the CIOs

Pinnacle Computer Systems to CIOs

Before implementing the cloud CIOs need toAssess the company’s long-term business and infrastructure needs Establish realistic goals and priorities, Conduct an internal review with business heads to identify which data can be moved to the cloud.While choosing a cloud vendor,it is important for CIOs to review and evaluate their security standards, policies and governance models CIOs need to ensure that their organizations have effective data recovery and backup management tools in place in case of any loss during data synchronization

Cloud is not a decision that can be deferred any longer, CIOs need to get cloud strategy in place soon.

CIOs need to communicate to management, tackle the false notions they have about Cloud and convince management about the business implications

Palo Alto to CIOs

KOENIG to CIOs

CIOs are advised to avoid status quo approaches like; l Lack of focus on preventing successful breaches l Belief that security is simply an IT problem l Reliance on point security products l Too many manual steps and cycles.

4 disruptive forces need to be taken into consideration; l Rising server to admin ratios l IT becomes a variable cost l End-user auto provisioning l Infrastructure becoming a commodity

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Transys Solutions to CIOs CIO should look at evaluating their IT landscape and identify their noncore areas to move to the cloud.

CIO should consider moving their computing infrastructure locked in for Development and Testing to the Cloud.

GEORGE K THOMAS CEO OF PINNACLE

“Cloud is not a decision that can be deferred any longer, CIOs need to get cloud strategy in place soon.”

current concerns,” says George K Thomas, CEO of Pinnacle.

As eHDF sees it, some challenges that lie ahead are; Security concerns for the data on cloud; Compliance complications not allowing data to be hosted outside the region; Lack of adequate skill sets. “Among all Cloud services, infrastructure readiness in terms of IaaS is only next to SaaS in the region. Shortage of localized offerings for the region from the mainstream vendors, lack of mature adoption process are some of the challenges,” says Ranjith Kaippada, Sales Director, StorIT Distribution Stephen Fernandes, Executive Vice President - TransSys Solutions says, “Privacy and security of data has been one of the biggest barriers for companies contemplating to adopt to the cloud.

Users purchasing unauthorised cloud services and storage are creating a problem of shadow IT for their organizations.”

“While the Middle East is no stranger to IT, the concept of cloud computing may be challenging to implement in the region as proven by the number of companies who have attempted to run their data centers in the region, only to realize that it’s very expensive and frustrating as it’s usually much cheaper to use a co-location facility in order to connect back to an overseas data center, than to directly connect with a cus-

FEATURE

RANJITH KAIPPADA SALES DIRECTOR, STORIT DISTRIBUTION

STEPHEN FERNANDES EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT TRANSSYS SOLUTIONS

“Cloud security is an “Companies need to drive evergreen field of growth improved latency time, & continuous process of stringent security layers, facing new challenges, robust data encryption and managing and remediating high availability.” those challenges.”

CLOUD IN NUMBERS

35%

18%

33%

cloud delivery in Saudi Arabia to increase by 34.86 per cent Year-on-Year (YoY)

Worldwide, spending on cloud services will grow 17.7 percentthrough 2016.

IaaS market will grow by 32.8 per cent to USD 16.5 billion TO 2016

tomer a few miles away, and where the electrical grid has the nasty habit of being unavailable for hour or even days at a time” says Saurabh Bhattacharya, Technology Evangelist, Koenig.

CLOUD SECURITY The market for security products and services is growing globally and demand for cloud-based security is leading the charge. The Cloud Security Market report by MarketsandMarkets predicts the market size at nearly $9 billion by 2019.

According to Koenig, Data center security stands on the pillars of the following.

“Contrary to popular belief, partnering with a

SAURABH BHATTACHARYA

TECHNOLOGY EVANGELIST, KOENIG.

“The key drivers of success is a company’s ability to pay attention to the needs of users on a local level.”

BETWEEN SECURITY AND NETWORKING COMPANIES

46mn

$

Overall MEA PaaS marketplace expected to exceed USD 46 million by 2016.

reliable cloud services provider is far more secure than in-house server hosting,” says Yasser.

Recognizing these changing requirements, Palo Alto Networks had partnered with VMware to deliver an integrated solution that combines the Palo Alto Networks VM-Series virtualized nextgeneration security platform with the VMware NSX network virtualization platform. With this joint solution, customers are able to unify nextgeneration network security across their physical and virtual environments with a single point of management.

PARTNERSHIPS

Analysts and researches are urging for increased partnership between traditional security vendors and networking companies and cloud providers to initiate more cohesive cloud security strategies.

According to Saeed Agha, Palo Alto´s interaction with customers has shown that public cloud projects may be driven by groups that fall outside of traditionally-defined networking and security teams. Examples we have seen include Cloud, DevOps, Infrastructure, and Virtualization. As public cloud initiatives accelerate, the concept of security first will expand beyond the security team into the other groups, thereby expanding the working relationships and resources focused on the task of network and data protection.

FINALLY

The era of the digital transformation has been driven by the growing adoption of 3rd platform technologies. Waking up to the new reality business from verticals such as retail, wholesale and manufacturing are relatively open to public cloud platforms. Virtualization as a key catalyst to cloud computing is accelerating the transformation of Data centres to private cloud. The landscape is rich, the opportunities are immense and the future is ……… already HERE. ë

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SPOTLIGHT IDC CIO SUMMIT

DELL

Making End to End Security, A Reality

aftermath—security capability is something that is discussed during the initial stages of IoT,” says Shams Hasan, Enterprise Product Manager, Dell Middle East.

“When we talk about mission critical plans and projects in IoT, you don’t want to be stitching together different security solutions that you have to babysit later,” he adds.

Shams says that Digital transformation is an aspiration in IT strategy, it is something that you want to achieve. “You not only need an aspiration for digital transformation, you need to have a path to reach there. That is called Future Ready IT and that is Dell.

A

t the IDC CIO Summit, Dell showcased how it is best positioned to deliver Future Ready IT solutions and why Dell believes so much in the whole concept of end to end security. “End to end security is not a myth, but a possibility. It is all about being positive about it. By definition you are in IoT and smart city and these are adding technologies to those areas where it did not exist earlier. By doing so we are creating an opportunity, hopefully that is positive,that is in very sensitive areas governing people´s lives, hence it is very important to ensure that security is accounted for.

You don’t want to bolt on security as an

5 GATEWAYS TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION.

SHAMS HASAN,

ENTERPRISE PRODUCT MANAGER, DELL MIDDLE EAST.

n Investing in simplicity n Embracing open standards n Thinking Software first n Building end to end security n Automation ë

DARKMATTER

Security ´Matters´

D

arkMatter reinforced the overarching importance of cyber security at the IDC CIO Summit.

“DarkMatter has been operating in the Middle East and Africa market since 2014 and have been actively involved with the Emirati government in resolving various cyber security issues that the government has been facing. The region has seen some major attacks from major hackers.

The challenge that the region faces is of maturity. The region is becoming more aware of the threats and the security postures are being increased.

Organizations need to have a strict maturity model, understand the vulnerabilities and mitigate the risks

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ERIC EIFERT,

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT MANAGED SECURITY SERVICES

and have visibility against that threat,” says EricEifert - Senior Vice President - Managed Security Services. Eric says that the CIOs are entering into a very interesting phase where they can truly understand the business environment and how technology is feeding into the business environment. “From our side, we help the CIOs in realizing that cyber security is an important piece in this whole framework. “ According to Eric, the legacies that the region faces is, lack of governance and compliance, user adoption, and most predominantly- talent management.

“Dark Matter is very CIO friendly. Our Manged Security Services provides the organizations with an expert team and best breed technologies and talent to cater to the security challenges. We also have a large network of cyber threat intelligence that identifies threat vectors of various organizations providing them more visible threat analytics.” comments Eric. ë

SPOTLIGHT IDC CIO SUMMIT

EMC

Walking with the CFOs

C

ontinuing its successful legacy of 8 years, EMC once again participated at the IDC CIO Summit 2016. EMC joined as the CFO partner this year, lending its expertise to the CFO workshop that is aimed at enabling both IT and finance leaders optimize budgets and leverage intelligence driven solutions to fuel the business.

Elliott Young, Head of Transformation Work Group, EMAE at EMC, in an exclusive interview with EC MEA, said that the Gulf countries and specially the Middle East have been on a very advantageous platform as the region had shown great pace in leaping forward to 3rd platform technologies and disregarding the traditional IT

ELLIOTT YOUNG,

HEAD OF TRANSFORMATION WORK GROUP, EMEA

Models.

“There is a delicate balancing that the CIO has to do. They have to be relevant to the CFOs to demonstrate how they can reduce the costs and improve the margins of the operations,” sais Elliott. The best way to achieve this balance is to embrace ITaaS (IT as a Service). By using ITaaS you can start to move operations to the hybrid cloud model and hence save some cost by disregarding the traditional applications and spend them on new revenue generation applications. So, CIOs are increasingly becoming the most trusted partners for the business.”

Elliott also presented a session at the summit that focused on enabling CFOs to uncover the new Digital Transformation investment cycle expected for 2016 and the key drivers behind emerging business models that enterprises and business units may need to adopt and turn around to achieve a sustained competitive advantage. ë

FORTINET

All Security, No Compromise

F

ortinet, at the recently held IDC CIO Summit, justified their position as a market leader in security by upholding its novel approach to security— “Security without Compromise”. .

Standard approaches to security are no longer effective, and businesses need to look beyond complexity, compliance and best-of-breed solutions,” said Nader Baghdadi, Regional Enterprise Director –South Gulf & Pakistan at Fortinet. Following the theme of the digital transformation, Fortinet pitched their booth in support of the various government organizations that have already embarked on the journey of digitalization, especially in the wake

NADER BAGHDAD,

REGIONAL ENTERPRISE DIRECTOR –SOUTH GULF & PAKISTAN AT FORTINET.

of IoT. There are about 3.2-billion internet users, 1.3-billion active smartphone users, and some 3-billion new devices that will make their way to the market by 2020, and this will result in a dramatic increase in cyber threats .

“The key message that we wish to convey to our end users is that— the more devices you have in your premises, the more enemies you invite. As we welcome a M2M world, we will have a billion machines talking to each other in a billion languages and what we need is an essential security solution that understands the behaviour of these varied devices and enables the devices to work in a communicative harmony,” adds Nader.

So what makes Fortinet CIO-friendly?

“We are global, we are secure, and we are time tested” comments Nader. ë

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FEATURE

FOCUS QATAR

Qatar Calls Qatar being one of the fastest growing economy of the GCC has not just Oil and Gas in its kitty, the advanced nation prospers in the fields like infrastructure, construction and ICT development owing to its strong macroeconomic fundamentals. The FIFA 2022 has been a major catalyst to change the face of this Arab gem. Qatarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s progressive 2030 plan and e-governance makes it an ideal nation for many nations in the vicinity. Reports suggest Qatar has been evolving and has shown a upward trend in all major sectors. n W O R D S : S O N A L < S O N A L @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >â&#x20AC;&#x192;

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FEATURE

QATAR ICT UNDER THE LENS

T

he high income economy of Qatar holds a pivotal place in the world map due to its increasing development in IT and infrastructure market. The land of Qatar is blessed with the world’s third largest natural gas and oil reserves, which makes it a strong competitor in the petroleum market. Being one of the most advanced Arab states, its policies revolve around technological advancement and efficient use of innovative techniques. Qatar’s vision for 2030 is based on economic, social, human and environment development thus making it a state with vision and expansion.

The ICT market is seeing a boom in this region owing to the various infrastructure projects across healthcare, transportation, housing and education. IDC predicts that the total ICT spending in Qatar will increase by 7.4% a year, to QAR 17.1 billion by 2018. “With its booming economy and ambitious ICT investment programme, Qatar is expected to be the fastest growing IT market in the Gulf region over BMI’s prediction until 2017.” BMI said, also the reports clearly states the growth in hardware, software and IT service sales.

Businesses in Qatar have majorly improved their IT systems during the years, the penetration of cloud has increased as service offerings have increased, costs have been competitive and usage is readily adopted. Though concepts like Big data and IoTX are still evolving as volumes of data increased and development in various corporate sectors is achieved. Business sectors are moving to digitalization. With an increase use of technology Qatar has established a dedicated Qatar- Computer Emergency Response Team (Q-CERT) to address the security needs and

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FEATURE

ICTQATAR NATIONAL ICT PLAN 2015

Advancing the Digital Agenda The plan is aligned with Qatar’s National Vision 2030, and its specific programmes are aligned with Qatar’s National Development Strategy 2011-2016.

The National ICT Plan 2015 is organized into five strategic thrusts, which are considered the critical components needed to create a sustainable digital future. Each of the five thrusts is broken down into specific programs, with the entire plan covering 11 programmes.

The National ICT Plan builds on the first ICT master plan created in 2005 and takes into account research and analysis of Qatar’s current ICT landscape, as well as regional and international benchmarks. ictQATAR spearheaded the creation of the plan, which includes inputs from key stakeholder groups across the country.

Investment in various programmes to support incubation of small technology startups and other educational and knowledge related facilities

MOHAMMAD HAMMOUDI

MUBARIK HUSSAIN

“Cisco’s unique value is derived from its visibility in the network on a global scale and its ability to tie it all together – people, process and technology”

“The ICT landscape for 2016 is positive for Qatar, ICT solutions will deliver innovation, efficiency and cost control for companies in the country”

safeguard citizens and businesses from cyber security risks. Cisco has integrated ‘Security Everywhere’ throughout the extended network and through cloud-delivered services, and helps protect against a wider array of attack vectors.

This also provides enterprises and service providers with the confidence that they have the continuous and retrospective visibility and control to support new technologies and business opportunities in the Internet of Everything and the Digital Economy. ictQATAR’s ‘ICT Landscape 2014’ report notes that almost 100% of the population in the majority of the segments have access to computers and mobile phones, with the exception of blue collar workers living in shared accommodations who lag behind in computer and smartphone penetration. Over 98% Qataris have a smartphone and 92% households have a smartphone.

development especially in transport, water, electricity and sewage, along with many road expansion projects. Qatar National Broadband Network was specially launched to look into growing and future communication needs.

Providing high-speed fibre optic broadband infrastructure, the enhanced services have far reaching effects on cost reduction while also providing improved sustainability. It is also aligned with Qatar’s National Vision 2030 in its effort to help develop a knowledge based ICT economy and lay the foundation for future generations.

Qatar is focused on assuring safety and security in this technological era and has placed cyber safety and security as one of the key programmes in the national ICT Plan 2015: Advancing the Digital Era.

billion is also allocated for the development of sports infrastructure including the construction of new stadiums. Qatar will have a total of 12 stadiums; 9 of which will be newly made and 3 renovated.

Mohammad Hammoudi, General Manager, Cisco Qatar said, “Hi-tech solutions like Cisco Connected Stadium Wi-Fi will help in real-time access, superior wifi connectivity, Cisco Connected Stadium will provide a highly scalable, secure network with a focused design for sports and entertainment venues, Cisco Connected Safety and Security Solution will unify incident management to improve threat detection, assessment and response times.”

SCORING A PERFECT ´GOAL´

Lusail city project is one of the most talked about project worldwide, aiming at being a ‘smart city’ using modernized solutions. Technology partner Ooredoo has successfully completed the Smart Metering trial for Lusail city, it also aims at providing a host of smart services as part of its growing next-generation portfolio.

Other solutions currently being developed at Ooredoo’s OASIS Lab include Smart Home Automation, Out of Country Disaster Recovery,

GENERAL MANAGER, CISCO QATAR

INFRASTRUCTURE SCENARIO Qatar has projected a plan in advance for 2030, which clearly emphasizes on development and making Qatar an advanced nation sustaining its development and raising the standard of living.

Recently the Qatar government announced spending of QR261 billion on infrastructure

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HEAD OF IT, PETROSERV

Qatar is the first Arab nation to host the FIFA Worldcup—An achievement that speaks volumes about the infrastructure readiness of Qatar. In the lead up to the 2022 FIFA World cup, Doha is gearing to become a ‘smart city’ by deploying intelligent solutions to make its citizens and visitors comfortable in an environmentally friendly, safe and energy efficient city. An amount of QR24

THE ‘SMART CITY’ CONCEPT

FEATURE

KEY DRIVERS FOR IT GROWTH IN QATAR GROWTH OF SMES

E-GOV 2020 One of the largest programs undertaken by Qatar is the e-Government 2020 which aims to serve individuals, business and government entities better by bringing all government services online. This will create efficiency in government administration through automated functions, state of the art applications and common ICT infrastructure that saves money, increases security and enhances user experience, all while supporting Qatar’s efforts to develop a more open government that enhances citizens’ participation to drive innovation forward and help diversify the economy. In 2015, 331 government digital services were launched and now Qatar has a total of 547 online government services benefiting the public.

Cloud Security, Cloud Email Security Solutions, Smart Healthcare Solutions, Smart Cloud Marketplace, Internet of Things (IoT), Smart City Platform and M2M Solutions. Ooredoo Qatar had also reported achieving a 100% success rate in communicating meter reading data through an IP network. The achievement stands witness to the great strides that the country is bringing to make the concept of ‘smart city’ a reality with Lusail city.”

EDUCATION On the education front, Qatar has an e-learning program that has been launched by the Supreme Education Council (SEC) to achieve and maintain the highest levels of education standards in Qatar. Tumuha TEC is another initiative that

CLOUD BASED SOLUTIONS

is working in close collaboration with schools, universities and employees to raise opportunities within IT sector to build a well-informed IT workforce in Qatar..

HURDLES FOR THE HERO Mubarik Hussain, Head of IT, Petroserv said “Infrastructure challenges that exist within companies from legacy environments limit the capability of the companies and do not fully support the staff and business objectives. There are a lot of new solutions, which are quickly and easily be deployed giving competitive advantage in a short space of time, we have personally built greenfield future ready IT environments that

QATAR NATIONAL VISION 2030

E-GOVERNANCE FIFA 2022

utilize the latest technologies and are dynamic and flexible rather than trying to remediate the legacy technology environments.” ictQatar has identified three main areas which require additional attention, they include connectivity, IT skills and business environment. It also noted that Qatar lacks the business environment required to nurture a vibrant ICT industry in Qatar.

Slow rate of adoption of latest technologies has been witnessed due to the not so matured IT market. There is a constant need to modernize policies and regulations to protect the interest of end users.

FINALLY Qatar undoubtedly emerges as one of the key GCC country, having a conservative budget which enables them to concentrate on other sectors along with Oil and Gas. A major focus on construction and development on infrastructure makes Qatar an important ICT hub. The well planned model aimed at sustainable economic growth, promoting a high standard of living, conservation of culture and environment protection makes Qatar a stable nation in terms of functioning and growth. ë

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GUEST TALK

3I INFOTECH

Nurturing an ‘Employee Empowerment’ Culture

The advancement of technology does not vouch for the case that employee empowerment must be compromised at any step. Ashish Dass, IT Industry Veteran with over 2 decades of proven leadership, articulates his thoughts on why establishing an organization on the foundation of employees’ trust and commitment should be more of a culture than a strategy. n WORDS: ASHISH DASS, IT INDUSTRY VETERAN WITH OVER TWO DECADES OF PROVEN LEADERSHIP

We are living in a mobile world where every individual walks a mile per minute. In this scenario, organizations are always on the go to keep up to this pace.

2016 has stepped in and decision makers have once again put their best foot forward in developing strategies to cope with the rapid and emerging trends. There is no denial to the fact that the prime objective behind having a business strategy and continuously tracking the performances of the employees is to --sustain profits. But have you ever thought who are the backbones of a successful organization? The answer is— Employees.

The modern era is all about Marketing versus Innovation.

Hence, organizations need to shift focus internally as well, by develop-

ing an employee centric strategy that focuses on their empowerment.

We are progressing in terms of a technology transformation, but the pillars that would propel this transition are the employees themselves.

It is the convincing skills & positioning of ‘self ’ that benefit nowadays rather than the core product. Innovation automatically follows when an employee is empowered to take decisions. Of course, established brands have an edge; however it is all about the way things are sold. Sales professionals crack their heads on Marketing their own selves that eventually proves to be an add-on to their pitch. Finance professionals also are projecting smart scenarios to negotiate the best possible credit terms. Every employee, be it any

department, is facing competition not just externally but internally too.

It is the age of survival of the fittest within organizations, which is why Marketing & Innovation are playing a major role, the results of which are deeply dependent on employee empowerment.

When employees are ‘empowered’, they have the complete independence to take decisions which makes them more accountable in the long run. This creates a culture where employees begin to work not just for personal benefits but also towards organizational goals. At the end of the day, an organization is all about people & unless every employee is given the trust, there will always be a gap in their commitment. The commitment and

dedication that an employee shows is directly proportional to the trust bestowed by the organization on the employee. Inculcating an employee empowerment culture involves a lot of efforts from every leader’s end. Role clarity, team objectives, granting sufficient authority towards decision making, boosting confidence & employee morale are some techniques to build such an environment. Encouraging cross learning across the organization also brings out unimaginable creativity sometimes.

A business strategy is successful only if its implementers are strong, hence having an employee empowerment strategy is imperative to the success of any business strategy.

Are you ready to set this foundation? ë

7 APRIL 2016

IOT

ALL SMOKE… OR FIRE TOO?

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M A R C H 2016

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GUEST TALK

ARUBA

6 ‘Mobile-First’ Ways for ME Retailers to Keep Shoppers in their Stores Smart Phones are increasingly becoming a part of ´Consumer behavior and trends´ in retail. Aruba Networks, with the help of a survey, explores the powerful role played by mobile phones in in store shopping experience.

During the National Retail Federation Retail’s BIG Show 2016, Aruba surveyed 500+ global consumers including those from Middle East and Turkey in to determine how mobile usage has impacted shopping in traditional stores. Based on the results, it is clear that mobile phones have a powerful role in in-store shopping experience.

Below are the biggest takeaways that will give retailers in the Middle East an insight into what they need to do to attract and retain customers: RETAIL MOBILE APPS CAN BE ADDICTIVE We discovered a staggering 83% of respondents use a retail mobile app, and 26% use them up to five times per week. (If you think that’s impressive, we discovered that one in ten shoppers use retail mobile apps more than 10 times a week).

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MOVE OVER SALES ASSOCIATE. HELLO TRUSTY MOBILE PHONE Do you find sales associates uninformed about products or sometimes too aggressive to make a sale? Many respondents of this survey have the same feeling, too. When asked about how they would prefer to peruse products in a store, 38% of

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n WORDS: MANISH BHARDWAJ, SR. MARKETING MANAGER, MIDDLE EAST AND T U R K E Y AT A R U B A .

respondents would rather pass up human interaction with a sales associate and turn to their mobile phones to continue their shopping experience.

RETAIL LOYALTY APPS KEEP CUSTOMERS COMING BACK When respondents were presented with the option of shopping at a nearby competitor’s store versus a similar store where they are a loyalty member, less than nine percent would actually go with the competitive store. While 10% admitted to being indifferent to the option, a whopping 50% would select the store they were a loyalty member over other options.

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IN-STORE NAVIGATION GETS TOP BILLING A retail mobile app should not be built just for basic catalog purposes or to give store information.Consumers want to be engaged by the retailer and that’s being accomplished through real-time, location-based information. As part of this study we discovered that in-store maps and indoor navigation is considered a top incentive for downloading retail mobile apps, making real-time locationto products a key selling point

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for both the shopper and the store.

IN-STORE INCENTIVES YIELD A HIGH CONVERSION RATE One of the main drivers for retailers to create mobile apps is to encourage their customers to purchase more with special in-store incentives.

But do these incentive really yield results? Do shoppers actually take stores up on their offer?

According to the study they do. A hefty 63% said they are likely to take advantage of an in-store offer if it’s presented to them.

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FOR SHOPPERS, WI-FI IS KING Mobile data coverage is ubiquitous in most populated areas. However, once inside the walls of large stores, coverage can quickly degrade and bandwidth becomes unpredictable. Given the fact that the modern shopper is tethered to their mobile phone to facilitate in-store purchases, providing easy-to-access Wi-Fi is key for retailers.

In fact, when respondents were asked what they used their mobile phones for most inside stores, connecting to in-store Wi-Fi came in number one. ë

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6-7 APRIL 2016

THE FUTURE IS WAITING HERE M A R C H 2 016

MEA

47

GUEST TALK

FINESSE

Finesse and Salesforce Unleash the Potential of Cloud CRM

CRM has always been an essential element which helps organizations deliver against business objectives while bridging the gap between the sales, marketing & service efforts. CRM is more of practice which eases you to keep track of your customer interactions.

In the present market trend, Cloud computing seems to have touched and transformed almost every aspect of modern business, be it software deployment, mobility, more recently wearable technology and IoT. Research indicates cloud applications and platforms will be at the top of IT spending by end of 2016, with half of all enterprises implementing cloud solutions by 2017.

Customer relationship management (CRM) software markets are among the foremost to connect with the cloud. With more and more businesses getting into the cloud, business agility calls for IT agility and in this matter cloud computing is not only a technology, it is a part of an overarching responsive business strategy. The availability and rise of Cloud CRM allows organizations to think about alternative options to traditional on-site solutions. Also because of trends moving toward cloud technologies, firms no longer have to create a fixed, physical IT infrastructure and network.

In other words, Cloud CRM allows all of the company data to be saved, stored, and accessed via the Internet; enabled using a single server or distributed servers across multiple devices.

The advantages of traditional CRM software are well known. Tracking sales interactions and identifying patterns can increase profits leading to a better and more personalized experience for the customer. The biggest benefits of cloud computing are the low upfront cost. SaaS solutions are subscription-based, and usually charge per month with no need to purchase licenses and hardware, and can decrease maintenance costs.

Updates are also taken care of. These decreased IT infrastructure costs leads to savings that can be tapped into to access new markets.

Cloud based CRMs can be up and running in a matter of hours as they require no local installation. With that start improved productivity, and the sales teams working remotely adds to it.

Accessibility of data which is hosted in the cloud means sales and marketing teams can work anywhere, anytime. . It gives a competitive edge with the ability to give employees the access to information which helps in speeding up projects.

Meanwhile, when projects finish more quickly, it allows for employees to skill up in other areas of the business thus providing increased business

n W O R D S : M A L L I K A M S , S E N I O R C R M C O N S U LTA N T AT F I N E S S E

value. Resources can be deployed and reprovisioned in real-time in line with appropriate workloads thus aiding proper resourcing.

Cloud CRM solutions sync in real time, provides an up-to-date picture of customer data, invoices, email and other third applications. It provides for businesses intelligence through unified company information allowing businesses to organize data and gain accurate insights about inventory, customer leads, and profitability.

The advanced analytics collates information from multiple sources through data sharing and collaboration uses data visualization or predictive modeling to aid better, faster and informed decisions.

Benefits of Cloud CRMs are undoubtedly numerous, benefiting companies of all sizes. It can be used to forecast trends, improve efficiency, and increase the bottom line. Cloud computing offers a scalable and affordable CRM solution that enables mobility, real time insights, and better decision making. The business benefits of a cloud-based CRM could be just the competitive advantage a company needs to stay abreast with the speed at which businesses change. â&#x20AC;&#x201A; ĂŤ

HONOURING THE TRAILBLAZERS 7 APRIL 2016

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M A R C H 2016

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INNOVATIONS

KEY CAPABILITIES n Simple and proven turnkey VCE Appliance Family n Incorporates software from EMC/VCE and VMware n Scales to match a variety of workloads with a range of configurations n Seamlessly integrates with existing VMware ecosystem n Integrated VCE VxRail Manager for deep element management and monitoring n Deduplication, compression, replication and backup services from EMC and VMware

VCE VxRail Appliances EMC Corporation and VMware have unveiled the new VCE VxRail Appliance family, the only integrated and jointly engineered hyper-converged infrastructure appliances (HCIA) for VMware environments. Hybrid storage or all-flash VxRail Appliances extend and simplify VMware customer environments and deliver key performance and capacity advantages in a simple, turnkey and easily scalable HCIA. The new hyper-converged VCE VxRail Appliances extend the hallmark benefits of VCE converged infrastructure - increased agility, simplified operations

and lower risk – to small businesses, medium-sized enterprises, and department or regional offices for virtualization and end-user computing use cases. VCE VxRail Appliances tightly integrate virtualization, compute, storage and data protection in one system with a single point of support. Organizations can start small, with a couple of virtual machines (VMs), and easily and non-disruptively scale to thousands of VMs with a predictable, “pay-as-you-grow” approach.

VxRail Appliances are available in a broad set of configurations and scale points.

PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK AT INFO@ ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

MAX STREAM EA7500 KEY CAPABILITIES n MU-MIMO Technology n Next-Gen AC Wi-Fi for uninterrupted Wi-Fi connections n Smart Wi-Fi app n Combined speeds up to 1.9Gbps. n Dual-Core CPU 1.4 Ghz processor n Four Gigabit Ethernet ports n Advanced WPA/ WPA2 encryption and SPI firewall

Linksys Max Stream Routers provides uninterrupted simultaneous Wi-Fi connections to multiple devices such as HD streaming media players, 4K TVs, tablets, and game consoles. All your devices receive high-speed Wi-Fi at the same time and same speed. AN entire family can access the Internet at the same time without experiencing lag or buffering--at up to 2 times the speed of a non-MU-MIMO router.

Delivering speeds up to 2x the speed of current routers, the Next-Gen Max-Stream AC1900 can connect as many as 12 devices at the same time to your Wi-Fi, including 6 screens streaming 4K video. Smart Wi-Fi technology makes it easy to set up.

M A R C H 2 016

MEA

49

INNOVATIONS

SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC UHS-II SanDisk Corporation has introduced the world’s fastest microSD card. The SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC UHS-II card enables action camera, drone and smartphone users to offload huge video files at unprecedented speeds.

The card specifically addresses consumers’ needs for a faster solution when transferring massive files – and now, with nearly 3x the speed of the fastest microSD UHS-I card, this new offering dramatically reduces time spent transferring content. As the demand for higher quality content such as Full HD and 4K video increases, the need for higher capacity, faster storage solutions grows exponentially. The Extreme PRO microSDXC UHS-II card is at the forefront of delivering solutions that meet these evolving needs.

KEY CAPABILITIES n Available in 64GB and 128GB capacities n Delivers transfer speeds of up to 275MB/s2 n Shockproof, temperature-proof, waterproof, and X-ray-proof n Backwards-compatible with UHS-I host devices

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M A R C H 2016

MEA

TP-LINK PHAROS SERIES TP-LINK has introduced Pharos series, a high performance enterprise class outdoor wireless solution, designed for WISP (Wireless Internet Service Provider), Wireless Surveillance and outdoor Wi-Fi coverage solutions. Pharos series products use flexible and costeffective wireless connection to replace the expensive fixed wired connections for outdoor networking applications, including CPEs, Base Stations, various types of MIMO antennas, and a centralized management software.

TP-LINK’s Pharos series develops proprietary MAXtream TDMA Technology to improve wireless performance of large scale network in complex wireless environments.

KEY CAPABILITIES n System-level optimization long range wireless transmission n Free Centralized Management System - Pharos Control n Passive PoE Adapter supports up to 60 meters (200 feet) power over Ethernet deployment and Outdoor stabilized enclosure with IP65 water and dust proof certification n Dual Ethernet ports and grounding terminal integrated n 6KV Lightning Protection, 15KV ESD Protection n Provides WEP, WPA/WPA2, WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK Radius MAC Authentication security n Adjustable transmission power by 1dBm n Selectable bandwidth of 5/10/20/40MHz n Provides Throughput Monitor, Spectrum Analyzer, Speed Test and Ping tools n Easy antenna alignment with wireless signal quality indicators via Web interface

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