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PA G E S 5 2 VOLUME O4 | ISSUE 09 APRIL 2017 WWW.EC-MEA.COM

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Unigulf recognized the need for an optimal cloud solution that will not just accelerate business efficiencies but help them focus on their core business competencies, keeping IT pain points at bay /32

INDIAECM012017

PRAKASH CHABLANI, MANAGING DIRECTOR, UNIGULF GROUP OF COMPANIES

2017 CONTENTS

VOLUME 04 ISSUE 09 APRIL 2017 W W W. E C - M E A . C O M

COVER STORY

FLIGHT DIGITIZATION ARRIVED!

MY VIEW /22

FORTIFYING CHANNEL GROWTH SHADI KHUFFASH, REGIONAL SALES MANAGER, CARRIERS & ISP’S, FORTINET GUEST ARTICLE /28

EXPLORING MULTIPLE FACETS OF BLOCKCHAIN NIRANJ SANGAL, GROUP CEO, OMA EMIRATES GROUP

VALUE ADDED PARTNER /30

REDEFINING COMMUNICATIONS WITH A ‘KOOL’ STRATEGY

INNOVATIONS /49

2GETTHERE GRT SYSTEM

SPECIAL STORY THE FUTURE IN A WORLD OF SOFTWARE DEFINED EVERYTHING /46

Dutch technology firm 2getthere is awarded the contract to deliver a new automated vehicle system in Dubai that will link new waterfront lifestyle destination Bluewaters with the city’s network of metro stations.

EDITORIAL::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 04 CHANNEL STREET : ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 06 FOCUS STORY “FOCUS OMAN”::::::::::::::: 42 INNOVATIONS : ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 49

ADVERTISER INDEX: VEEAM 02, GBM 03, SOPHOS 07, STORIT 09, OMA 11, EMITAC 13, FINESSE 15, ISYX 17, TCIF AD 2017 19, RITTAL 21, GISEC 23, HID 29, MESSA 45, GEC OPEN 2017 51, DELL 52

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Unless you know your risks, you can’t mitigate them

GBM continues to innovative and provide next-generation cybersecurity services

Know your risks and mitigate them today! • Cyber Security Assurance • Information Security Strategy and Roadmap • Integrated Compliance (ISO, NESA, BCP) • SCADA/IOT Risk Assessments • SOC Consulting

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EDITORIAL

Make hay while the sun shines!

ANUSHREE DIXIT A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M

The market has never been so ‘innovation ready’ as it is now. Traditional industry boundaries are blurring and giving way for innovation to breathe in new processes. After oil prices picked up in the early weeks of 2017, it has ignited some upward trends in the economic data, according to reports. This is a great time for the decision makers who have invested in technology to make best use of the scenarios. The Future IT Summit 2017, held by Enterprise Channels MEA saw a strong inclination of the market towards a cloud-based architecture, specially the government sector. Till recently, the market was abuzz with promises on cloud that was tailed by cases of sovereignty and silos. 2016 and 2017 saw some serious investments on Cloud that was evident from the case studies presented during the summit. Organizations around the world are expected to triple the adoption of modern, automated networks over the next two years. As the more novel 3rd platform technologies creep in, the agility required to enhance core technology service delivery depends on the cloud implementation architecture and the investment patterns. IDC has named three key challenges for the CIOs in 2017 which are Innovation through IT, measuring the return on IT investments and managing expectations. But as they say, make hay while the sun shines. The market and the region, both are ready for a complete overhaul. Going against predictions, we can see some serious investments and leap of faiths that CIOs are taking in swimming against the tide. ë

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STREET Future IT Summit 2017 Closes on an Overwhelming Note The Future IT Summit 2017, held at the Burj Al Arab Hotel on 14th March opened doors to an overwhelming crowd in its third edition. A great line-up of speakers, country driven case studies and presentations, the Titans Badge of Honor and the Catalyst awards summed up to help the Future IT Summit 2017 create a niche benchmark in the region. The summit witnessed incredible presentations and striking discussions on innumerable opportunities and possibilities that the cloud is bringing into the region to change the way

IT would redefine business.The event hosted the top government organizations, ministries, business conglomerates and leading organizations from various verticals. On the unique note, the Summit presented the audience with the Future IT landscape of GCC countries with spectacular presentations. The key Speakers and panelists of the 2017 edition were; Kevin Ashby, from Microsoft, Abdullah Hamood Al Barwani from ITA Oman, Hani Alzaid, ICT Counselor, from The Shura Council, Ibrahim Yaqoob Ali Naseer from Dubai Municipality, Gregg Petersen, from

HID GLOBAL IDENTIFIES A NEW ‘CONNECTED’ ERA IN HEALTHCARE The new focus on ID technology is changing how institutions operate, how they manage access to patients, data and equipment, how they protect patient privacy, and how they improve billing accuracy — all without compromising the quality of care. “Healthcare organizations are increasingly seeking to improve the physician, staff and patient experience by employing a combination of strong authentication and new IoT applications to address their challenges,” said Sheila Loy, Director, Healthcare Industry with HID Global. The healthcare industry is embracing new ways to establish, create, manage and use trusted identities.

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Veeam Software, Mirza Asrar Baig, from CTM 360, Hamad Suwaid from Qatar Gas Transportation Company, Ahmad El Soufi from ArubaHPE, Shaikh Salman Bin Mohamed AlKhalifa from Information and eGovernment Authority, Bahrain, Mazen Abou Najm, from Cisco Systems; Yezdi Dara Rabadi –from GBM, Ashith Piriyattiath, from Al Masah Capital Management, Hussain Khalsan from Commercial Bank of Dubai, Venkatesh Mahadevan from Dubai Investments PJSC, and Aliasgar Bohari from Zulekha Hospitals.

DELL EMC LAUNCHES CLOUD ECOSYSTEM HUB Dell EMC and Intel have launched a new web-based Cloud Ecosystem Hub to provide EMEA Cloud Service Providers and end users with an online one stop site to unify and simplify access to Dell EMC’s cloud proposition and resources. The hub will connect customers with SPs to help establish stronger marketing efforts, enabling digital transformation and significantly growing long term Cloud business. “Historically, vendors have failed to support Service Providers in their campaigns and the Dell EMC Cloud Ecosystem represents a game-changing development for both Service Providers and customers alike,” said Eric Velfre, senior vice president, Compute and Networking Sales Dell EMC EMEA. This new unified platform demonstrates Dell EMC’s commitment to providing choice and unique solutions to every customer and removing obstacles to cloud adoption through hosting an online cloud portal for Dell EMC Technology.

INTERCEPT A completely new approach to endpoint security.

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CHANNEL STREET

Fortinet Fortifies Fabric Ready Partner Program

JOHN MADDISON, SVP OF PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS AT FORTINET.

“A rapid and coordinated response is critical to defend against today’s threats. The Fortinet Security Fabric has the breadth to scale across the entire enterprise infrastructure and enables tight integration with other security vendors’ solutions through our Fabric-Ready Partner Program,” said John Maddison, senior vice president of products and solutions at Fortinet. The Fortinet Security Fabric enables customers to maximize their existing technology investments through the Fabric-Ready Partner Program.

SAGE UNVEILS THE ‘FUTURE OF WORK’ Sage highlighted technologies taking business builders to a future of invisible accounting at the Sage Summit Tour in Johannesburg.The summit held from 7-9 March 2017 explored and facilitated the learning of new technologies, digital transformation and the future of work. “Business builders and entrepreneurs don’t go into business because they want to wrestle with red-tape and manage admin. Our vision is to make those tasks invisible by 2020 by automating the back-office functions so we can free business builders up to follow their dreams,” said Sage CEO, Stephen Kelly.

ENDGAME AND SPIRE TO LEVERAGE ENDPOINT PROTECTION & THREAT HUNTING IN ME Endgame and Spire Solutions partners to utilize Endgame’s endpoint protection platform to stop nation state level attackers in time to prevent damage and loss. This partnership leverages Endgame’s recently-announced platform enhancements that provide continuous prevention and detection of zero days, malwareless attacks, and ransomware in time to stop information theft. Endgame’s endpoint security platform combines full stack prevention, detection, and threat hunting in a single dissolvable sensor to eliminate new and already-entrenched adversaries without prior threat intelligence. Spire’s purpose-built services offer clients the best possible solutions, consultation, support, and training designed to help security teams streamline operations and stop attackers faster than ever before. “Our partnership with Spire will allow enterprises across the Middle East to access the technology necessary to disrupt the attack lifecycle prior to data theft or damage.” said Nate Fick, CEO at Endgame. “Delivering one service that combines the power of Spire’s analysts with Endgame’s best-inclass EDR platform will help security teams close protection gap and stop advanced attacks at the earliest possible moment.” said Sanjeev Walia, CEO of Spire Solutions.

JUNIPER SURVEY REVEALS ADVANTAGES OF DIGITAL COHESION Juniper Networks revealed the results of extensive global market research into business and consumer attitudes towards the readiness for an era of Digital Cohesion, where predictive, automated, network-based mega-

services adapt to user behavior, enabling better decision-making and enriching personal and business lives. U.A.E. consumers anticipate it will bring certain advantages, ranging from improved community infrastructure with more

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responsive, effective emergency services to more efficient use of personal time, improved education and learning capabilities, lower living costs such as greater home energy efficiency and more informed decision-makin

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CHANNEL STREET IN PUBLIC

“We aim to create smart solutions and applications to enhance government services’’ H.E. ENG. SULTAN BIN SAEED AL MANSOORI, MINISTER OF ECONOMY

SECONDS

GEMALTO’S HSM PROVIDES FULL CONTROL OF ENCRYPTION KEYS TO CUSTOMERS

Menlo security partners with Help AG to enter Middle East

Microsoft Azure Information Protection customers can now take advantage of the new “Hold Your Own Key” (HYOK) functionality using Gemalto’s SafeNet Luna Hardware Security Modules (HSMs). The integration allows organizations in highly regulated scenarios to manage, own and store their encryption keys in on-premises HSMs and securely share data with complete control over their keys. With this solution, enterprises can easily align data protection policies and business processes without compromising the integrity and security of their data. VIVA AND INTEL SECURITY BUILD BAHRAIN’S FIRST CDC As a step to enhance the nation’s cyber defence capabilities, VIVA joined forces with Intel Security to establish Bahrain’s first worldclass Cyber Defence Centre. The partnership will see Managed Security Services (MSS)

STEPHAN BERNER HELP AG

added to VIVA’s extensive Cloud services portfolio providing enterprises of Bahrain a one-stop-shop for all communication and data security requirements based on Intel Security technology.

Help AG signed a reseller agreement with Menlo Security to provide consulting, implementation and support services for the vendor’s Menlo Security Isolation Platform to businesses in the Middle East. The partnership aims to address the constant threat of web-based malware that organizations face without impacting end-user experience. “We conducted a thorough analysis of the solutions available to businesses in the Middle East and realised that what they require simply

wasn’t available. We have therefore partnered to introduce Menlo Security in the region and are excited to present customers with this innovative solution” explained Stephan Berner, CEO at Help AG. Amir Ben-Efraim, CEO, Menlo Security commented, “As a newly certified Menlo Security partner, Help AG has demonstrated an in-depth knowledge of isolation technology in the fight against malware and phishing, and we look forward to helping our mutual customers.”

TERADATA DEBUTS KYLO TO QUICKLY BUILD, MANAGE DATA PIPELINES Teradata is introducing Kylo, a data lake management software platform built using the latest open source capabilities such as Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark and Apache NiFi. With substantive experience creating business value from data lakes, Teradata is contributing Kylo to help organizations address the most common challenges they face in data lake implementation efforts DELL EMC HOSTS FIRST META EXECU-

BT POWERS MICHELIN’S DIGITAL STRATEGY

TIVE PARTNER SUMMIT 2017 Simple, Predictable and Profitable — the new

BT has delivered the first milestones of its contract with Michelin. The contract was signed late 2016 and is now in deployment phase. Under the terms of this five-year contract, BT is to provide Michelin with managed network services for 216 sites in 43 countries across all continents. Managed from France, the services covered by the contract are set to play an important role in delivering Michelin’s strategic IT transformation programme. Agnès Mauffrey, Group CIO of Michelin, said: “Our aim is to create a platform for digital innovation which will give our people around the world high performance access to cloud-based services, allowing them to collaborate more effectively. This is being done in a secure and reliable environment over which we have complete control.”

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integrated program establishes one extraordinary new program that addresses the needs of partners today and into the future. Designed to reaffirm Dell EMC’s commitment to the channel, the new program includes new tiers – Gold, Platinum and Titanium, as well as an exclusive invitation only Titanium Black status within the Titanium tier

CHANNEL STREET

OMA Emirates Supports QIIB’s Issuance Activities

NIRANJ SANGAL, GROUP CEO, OMA EMIRATES GROUP

OMA Emirates Group will provide an in-house centralized card issuance solution to QIIB, a leading bank in Qatar. The deployment will entail a state-of-the-art EMV chip card issuance system with top of the range hardware and supported with the OMA Emirates’ suite of software solutions to ensure a seamless launch for QIIB’s in-house issuance activity. “While migrating to an in-house EMV chip cards centralized solution, QIIB had increased its emphasis on the importance of the solution and OMA Emirates has taken upmost care to ensure that these requirements are well met. Moreover, as a 360 degrees’ solution provider, OMA Emirates is well positioned to provide the

bank with an end-to-end system that includes hardware and EMV personalization software,” said, Niranj Sangal, Group CEO, OMA Emirates Group. Mr. Jamal AbdAllah Al-Jamal, QIIB’s Deputy CEO said, “QIIB vision is to go beyond our valued customers expectations, and we have taken strategic steps towards best innovative solutions that would result achieving this vision, and cooperating with OMA is one of these decisions due to their wide local and international experience for the card personalization”. The central issuance embosser that is supported by the OMA Emirates Nano-Perso, a personalization solution which supports batch printing and encoding will increase the bank’s efficiency

SYMANTEC & NORTON SECURITY SOLUTIONS WIN AV-TEST AWARD AV-TESTevaluates the efficacy of endpoint security solutions against advanced attacks throughout the year. Security solutions are subjected to more than 1,000 live zero-day attacks delivered via infected websites and e-mail to measure a product’s complete protection ability. In addition, AV-TEST measures the security solution’s detection of more than 100,000 current and widespread threats. Symantec is the first company to win this prestigious award in both the Business and Consumer categories two years in a row. “For the second consecutive year, Symantec has achieved the highest protection scores simultaneously in both the business and consumer protection categories -a feat no other company has accomplished,” said Andreas Marx, CEO, AV-TEST. “Symantec Endpoint Protection and Norton Security demonstrated impressive security protection in the 2016 testing series, particularly in comparison to competing solutions. Our rigorous testing resulted in Symantec coming out on top with the most secure solutions for both organizations and consumers.”“As the pace and sophistication of cybercriminals advance, its Symantec’s number one priority to continually innovate our solutions,” said Adam Bromwich, vice president, Symantec Security Technology and Response, Symantec. “Combined with the artificial intelligence capabilities of our big data telemetry network, our solutions make it nearly impossible for attackers to penetrate the endpoints we protect, helping to ensure our consumer and business customers stay safe.”

NEC SHOWCASES THE AIRPORT OF THE FUTURE AT EXPO 2017 NEC Display Solutions Europe exhibited its advanced display solutions for airports at Passenger Terminal EXPO (PTE) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. NEC also presented how seamless integration of digital surfaces into architectural spaces allows for greater creativity for advertisers, operators and

retailers. By using fully modular digital display surfaces for maximum flexibility, NEC is transforming the way digital media is used at the airport. Architects and designers can now explore different shapes and sizes of surfaces and turn these into digital screens to completely change how visual information

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at the airport can be presented. Richard Wilks, Global Aviation Business Development Manager at NEC Display Solutions, commented: “Airports are constantly challenged to attract more passengers, ensure a smooth and memorable experience whilst driving new revenue streams. The key element of achieving this

balance is creating an efficient visual journey throughout the airport. Through innovative display solutions and the concept of mediatecture on show at PTE we’re helping airport operators reduce anxiety for travellers, instead making air travel an engaging and intuitive experience.”

CHANNEL STREET

UAE Marks its Superiority in FTTH

WEB CLIPS MANAGEENGINE LAUNCHES AUTOMATIC PATCHING FOR WINDOWS

Saleh Al Abdooli, CEO, Etisalat Group, said: “This achievement was only possible due to the long-term vision of the UAE leadership of development and modernization. Etisalat has worked in line with this strategy investing more than AED 28 billion in the network infrastructure. This has led to the launch of innovative services meeting the growing demand and changing requirements of our customers across the country and making the capital the first city globally to be covered with a fiber optic network.”

ManageEngine launched Patch Manager Plus, it’s simple and effective patch management software. Patch Manger Plus provides a single interface for automating all patch management tasks, from detecting missing patches to deploying patches, for Windows, Mac, Linux and third-party applications from a single interface. AERODYNAMIC SKIN TO TRANSFORM THE FUTURE OF AVIATION A new five-year research project to develop SALEH AL ABDOOLI, CEO, ETISALAT GROUP

tiny hair-like sensors for use on the surface of aircraft is set to improve the control and sustainability of future aviation.Professor

DAIMLER AG EMBRACES CITRIX SHAREFILE

Christoph Bruecker recently became the

Daimler AG embraces Citrix Sharefile for an improved, flexible and secure solution to exchange large files for its 280,000-employee global workforce. ShareFile provides a solution that can scale to the company’s needs to reach all of its 280,000 employees while giving them the ability to maintain a local in-country control plane for security and compliance. By adopting ShareFile, the company will be able to reduce the support required for legacy systems, reduce the risk of data loss via sharing through email, and create a self-service tool that gives employees, and in many cases outside vendors, the ability to securely collaborate on files across their global workforce. By implementing ShareFile, the company is enabling their global workforce to easily and securely exchange large files, further increasing their employee productivity” said Greg Lissy, Vice President, Enterprise Product Management, Citrix

and Flow Control for Sustainable Transport

Research Chair in Nature-Inspired Sensing at City University, London. Supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering and BAE Systems, the research aims to develop an aerodynamic ‘skin’ that can be evaluated for use on future aircraft. RETROFITTING – AN ANSWER FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY Existing buildings, as opposed to new construction, account for the vast majority of energy consumption in the residential and commercial sector. But a building doesn’t

MOVEMENTS ALEX SETON IS VP of Business & Corporate Development at Digital Shadows

need to be new to be energy efficient. Even in a city such as Dubai, where many of the buildings are under 20 years old, there is still a strong case to retrofit for energy savings CIENA DRIVES BI INTO CUSTOMER

NETWORK TRANSFORMATION

ANDY ELDER is SVP Sales EMEA for Riverbed

Billion

overall strategy to enable fully autonomous

the ability to visualize and identify trends

Centrify appointed JOHN ANDREWS as its new EMEA Channel

AIM software market to surpass $27 billion in 2017, acc to Gartner

Epicor Appoints MONZER TOHME as Regional VP for MEA

Director

NUMBER GAME

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EFFORTS Ciena’s new addition to the Blue Planet portfolio, Blue Planet Analytics generates deep network insights through big data to help network operators make smarter, data-driven business decisions. As part of the networking via Blue Planet, the new capability and related applications gives operators in order to create more profitable services, better predict capacity requirements, and anticipate potential network and service disruptions before they take place.

CHANNEL STREET

Ministry of Economy launches Smart Online App

PURE’ EVERGREEN STORAGE EMPOWERS OPEX SAVVY ENTERPRISES Pure Storage drives continued customer innovation for Software-as-a-Service companies with the modern platform needed to reach new customers and industries with improved service level agreements and faster time to market, as well as significantly reduce operational expense through Evergreen Storage program.

HID Global forecasts a shift in the use of identity technology that will lead to increased adoption of mobile devices and the latest smart card technology, a greater emphasis and reliance on the cloud, and a radical new way of thinking of trust in smart environments and Internet of Things (IoT). Stefan Widing, President and CEO of HID Global, said “2017 will mark an important phase in the industry, as organizations seek to use the broadest range of smart devices ever.” Stronger adoption of mobile devices and

advanced smart cards underscores the need for trusted identities; Greater emphasis on the cloud through “hybrid” solutions that combine on-premises and the cloud to create common management platforms for digital IDs; Emerging IoT uses cases to connect, more people, places and things, increasing the need to ensure the Internet of Trusted Things (IoTT); Embedding trusted identities more deeply in everyday activities for businesses and consumers

LINKSYS LAUNCHES VELOP – A MODULAR MESH WI-FI SYSTEM Linksys, launched Velop, its premier Whole Home Wi-Fi product in the Middle East. Whole Wi-Fi Mesh systems will drive growth and dominate the networking market. According to research conducted by Linksys, Whole Home Wi-Fi Modular Mesh systems are set to grow to 20 percent of the Wi-Fi market by 2018. Linksys projects a 7 percent growth in the wireless networking market. Velop is the first Tri-Band modular Wi-Fi system that can be installed in various mesh configurations providing fast and reliable Wi-Fi to the edge of a home network.

Pure Storage allows SaaS providers to commit to SLAs that beat the competition, with confidence. Matt Kixmoeller, VP of Product, Pure Storage said, “For modern SaaS providers, performance is key, and an all-flash infrastructure represents a major competitive advantage”. Pure Storage provides proven six nines reliability and non-disruptive upgrades via Evergreen Storage for resilient and scalable operations, as well as consistently high sub-millisecond latency across mixed block sizes. Always-on security with dataat-rest encryption, IPv6 and FIPS provide the tools necessary for compliance-ready SLAs. “Pure enables us to own and differentiate our SLAs and capabilities with confidence,” said Greg Mersberger, Senior Director, Cloud for JDA. Pure Storage technology for SaaS includes thousands of instant, performance and capacity-free snapshots for accelerate testing, development, quality assurance and rapid data recovery, as well as Restful APIs and SDKs for Python, PowerShell and JAVA for agile, automated DevOps.

NO COMPROMISE ON CONNECTIVITY Brocade launched the Brocade G610, a no-compromise storage switch for always-on connectivity to the all-flash data centre. This breakthrough switch leverages the power of Brocade Gen 6 Fibre Channel technology, providing up to 32 Gbps performance, unmatched simplicity

and enterprise-class functionality that helps organizations adapt to dynamic workloads and new demands for always-on business operations. To meet the modern infrastructure needs that can optimize application performance like digital transformation, the rapid adoption of flash

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storage and the emergence of Non-Volatile Memory Express, Gen 6 Fibre Channel SAN solutions are designed to provide digital enterprises with superior performance, non-stop availability and built-in NVMe capabilities for all-flash data centers.

“The Brocade G610 switch and VM Insight reinforce Brocade’s continued commitment to Fibre Channel innovation to help customers derive more value from their applications and infrastructure,” said Jack Rondoni, SVP of storage networking at Brocade.

ORMATIO INF URIT N Y SEC

IN F R

TIONS ICA PL AP

AGED N MA RVICES SE

ASTRUCT U RE

ISYX Technologies, 18th Floor, Marina Plaza, Dubai Marina, Dubai, UAE T +971 4 452 8885 F +971 4 452 8886 E info@isyxtech.com W www.isyxtech.com MIDDLE EAST | AFRICA | UK | INDIA

CHANNEL STREET

Sophos Study Finds Greater Need for Integrated Security Sophos released the findings of a regional study indicating that majority of organizations in Middle East & Africa are recognizing the benefits of integrated security especially the concept of linking network firewall and endpoint security for better insights. However, the report revealed that although MEA organizations were unlikely to increase the number of vendors they interact with, they were likely to increase the number of products in use, which highlights that organizations in the region currently do not tend to follow an integrated strategy when

it comes to security. The Sophos-sponsored InfoBrief Synchronized Security Market Analysis – Middle East &Africa, developed by International Data Corporation (IDC), revealed that the MEA countries represented a total security solutions market potential of nearly $1.89 billion in 2015, which is expected to increase at a CAGR of 9.3% to a total of $2.94billion in 2020 as per the IDC Worldwide Security Spending Guide, H12016. Close to 42% of organizations in the MEA felt ‘highly confident’ of their security posture.

BULWARK EXPANDS OPERATIONS IN INDIA Bulwark Technologies is expanding plans in the Indian sub-continent region. The expansion plans is in response to the company’s growing business, robust partner network and strong demand for IT Security Solutions in India. Over the last few years, Bulwark has seen a significant growth and a strong demand for our security solutions in the region. We are very pleased to launch our new office in the Indian sub-continent region. Bulwark Technologies brings on board, immense experience, wide partner network and regional expertise to provide continuous and excellent value-added services to our channel partners and customers. Our aim is to have a good penetration across different verticals and across different market segments in India, ’says Jose Thomas Menacherry, Managing Director, Bulwark Technologies. Bulwark’s India office will help the company to better serve the needs of a robust partner network and its growing customer base in India. The company is investing in new talent and has recruited a strong team to drive sales and offer on ground technical support and services. In addition to this, the company is planning to invest in training programs for channel partners to enable them to sell and distribute its wide array of products better.

MICROSOFT LAUNCHES NEW ASSISTIVE LEARNING TOOLS IN ARABIC Microsoft Gulf makes available new assistive Learning Tools in Arabic language. The tools designed for students with unique learning needs will now be available in Word Online and OneNote Online, creating Immersive reading features through Text-to-speech; on any device to improve their reading skills and stay focused in and outside the classroom.Dyslexia is estimated to impact one in five people, while 72 percent of classrooms have special education students, and 73 percent of classrooms have readers that span four or more grade levels. Understanding this classroom reality is what led engineering teams at Microsoft to design Office 365, and its inclusive classroom technology like Learning Tools, with accessible learning experiences in mind. The Immersive features help skill up reading for users, including those with dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, emerging readers or a combination of the broad range of unique student abilities. “At Microsoft, we understand the effort of teaching a classroom of students with different abilities, and it is challenging to find and maintain the assistive technologies that teachers need for students to succeed” said Ahmed Ameen Ashour, Education Director, Microsoft Gulf. “The Learning Tools in Arabic will help students with learning differences from the region to improve their reading and writing skills.” By integrating into a tool such as OneNote that is already used in the classroom, the Learning Tools make it easy for teachers to improve learning outcomes for all students, with less disruption or lost instructional time..

TEJARI UNLOCKS THE POWER OF PROCUREMENT Tejari has unveiled the latest version of BravoAdvantage 17. Tejari operates as an integral part of the BravoSolution network with an exclusive focus on the Middle East and North Africa. The launch of BravoAdvantage 17 comes a month after Gartner positioned BravoSolution in its 2017

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Gartner Magic Quadrant for Strategic Sourcing Application Suites. “Hundreds of customers and thousands of procurement practitioners rely on BravoAdvantage to unlock business value every day. Whether you are looking to uncover bottom-line savings, foster supplier innovation, reduce risk or automate

and digitize critical procurement processes – BravoAdvantage puts procurement in a position to thrive,” said Jim Wetekamp, CEO of BravoSolution. “This release marks the largest update to the BravoAdvantage suite ever, and represents our commitment to taking a great product, listening to our customers

and making it even more powerful, fully-functional and easier to use than ever before.” Dan Quinn, SVP, BravoSolution MENA / Tejari, added: “The solution allows customers in the UAE to make better strategic decisions through more informed spend measurement.

THE CRITICAL

INFRASTRUCTURE FORUM 2017 DEC 2017

THE NEXUS OF GCC COUNTRIES FOR FUTURE ECONOMY Unveiling the investments, roadmap, technolgies and key infrastructure pillars that put GCC on the map of global competitiveness

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The Catalyst Award 2017 Raises the Bar

Catalysts Awards 2017 held at the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai on March 14, 2017. truly raised the bar with talent-studded recognitions. The Catalyst attempts to recognize and honor the trailblazers in the industry who have been uplifting the brand and reputation of their respective organizations in the market and truly acting as ‘CATALYSTS’ in the ever-changing

market landscape. This year, once again, EC MEA recognized the force that creates the Catalyst of our Industry - The Organization. The Catalyst CIO 2017 Awards recognized path breaking CIOs from the Middle East and Africa region who have mastered the art of innovation and emerged as true business enablers of modern organizations.

TREND MICRO REPORTS 752% INCREASE IN RANSOMWARE Trend Micro released its annual security roundup report, “2016 Security Roundup: A Record Year for Enterprise Threats,” which proves 2016 was truly the year of online extortion. Cyber threats reached an all-time high in 2016, with ransomware and Business Email Compromise scams gaining increased popularity among cybercriminals looking to extort enterprises. A 752% increase in new ransomware families ultimately resulted in $1 billion in losses for enterprises worldwide.

EMEA ORGANIZATIONS TAKE 106 DAYS TO DEAL WITH ATTACKS; FIREEYE REPORT FireEye released its annual M-Trends report which found that attackers are present in EMEA organisations’ networks a median of 3.5 months before being detected. The key findings of the report states that the median dwell time in EMEA has decreased significantly from the previous M-Trends report, standing at less than a quarter of the 469 days that were recorded in 2015. In 2016, the several German politicians who were targeted by Russian groups will continue as cyber-attacks are increasingly seen as a way of influencing European politics. Cyber threat groups could target European industrial control systems for potentially disruptive or destructive operations. Threat hunting is now among the most commonly sought skills in defensive security, and the associated training and education markets are shifting to meet this demand. “In 2016 we saw cyber-attacks spread widely and publicly into areas such as elections and attackers became more sophisticated. “In 2016 we saw cyber-attacks spread widely and publicly into areas such as elections and attackers became more sophisticated. By looking at the dropping levels of dwell time we can see that organisations are improving, but there is still much to do as attackers only need a few days to complete their objectives,” said Stuart McKenzie, Vice President of Mandiant at FireEye.

EMIRATES TALENT ASSOCIATION AWARDS EMIRATI YOUTHS H.E. Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Deputy Chairman of Police and General Security in Dubai, Chairman of Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University’s Board of Governors and Chairman of the Emirates Talent Association, awarded 99 Emirati talented with certificates of ‘Introduction to Computer

Programming’ and ‘Digital Games and Applications Development.’ The certificates were awarded to those who successfully achieved the first two levels of ‘Emirati Programmer’ program, a supportive step in harnessing the potential of local human capital in line with the goals of UAE Vision 2021. H.E. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim

A P R I L 2017

MEA

said that the ‘Emirati Programmer’ promotes optimal investment of promising talents in programming and builds national competencies armed with knowledge, innovation, leadership, and ability to achieve competitive knowledgebased economy. imagination and ambitions in order to instill creativity and innovation among

youths in various fields to make the UAE on the top of world’s countries in innovation by 2021.” Dr. Mansoor Al Awar, Chancellor of HBMSU, said: “We are proud of HBMSU’s leading position as an incubator for talented and creative Emirati youth who would become future leaders of the nation”.

MY OPINION

protect their networks. So, the growth is very good and we continue to see that. .

SHADI KHUFFASH,

REGIONAL SALES MANAGER, CARRIERS & ISP’S, FORTINET

FORTIFYING CHANNEL GROWTH

SHADI KHUFFASH, REGIONAL SALES MANAGER, CARRIERS & ISP’S AT FORTINET IN AN EXCLUSIVE CONVERSATION WITH AISHA KHAN ON FORTINET’S MSSP PROGRAM OFFERING FOR THE CHANNEL PARTNERS AND HOW THEY ARE FOCUSING ON THE KEY DOMAINS OF TRAINING, EXPERTISE, TOOLS AND SUPPORT.

How was 2016 for Fortinet and what kind of growth could you see in the security market? Managing your security infrastructure is becoming a bottle neck. And I believe we will continue to see this exponentially increasing as we go year after year as the threat and complexity of attacks are becoming higher. Cloud, IoT and virtualization are further

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MEA

propelling this. The complexities are one of the key reasons for the continued growth in our security business and we have seen it grow in the past 3 to 4 years on a double-digit score. As Fortinet, we have one of the highest market share in the Middle East. We have invested a lot in our technology, in our partners and in our customers to make sure that they are educated and aware of what we can offer and how we can

Tell us about your MSSP partner program? Traditionally our MSSPs were treated as a normal reseller and Fortinet has a large reseller base. We are segregating that channel model to the traditional one and to the managed security services because the MSSP has a different need and different customers and different value proposition so we wanted to align with that new model. So, the new program basically adds tools, expertise, training, and support because we offer back to back support services to our MSSPs so we have to ensure that they are able to fulfill their SLAs, provide customization, and provide effective security as well. So, these are things that we are modifying in our partner program but, now we are being more selective. We want 2 MSSPs that have the next level capabilities such security operations center, so MSSPs have to have a sock in order to be able to serve their customers have monitor their security that they offer some additional services than a traditional partner such as compliance service, penetration testing. You know an additional added value services that not a traditional partner can offer. So, this segregation has made us more focused and able to serve them better as we continue to grow in that side of the business. What key benefits will the MSSP partner program bring to the partners? Training, expertise, tools and support—these are key domains that we are focusing on. We are giving partners the access to internal tools of Fortinet that we don’t usually offer. Now we are opening that to our MSSPs such as the developer network. So, this is a network basically where people from the engineering community and R&D they share practices and tools and APIs to customize and optimize and automate services to their customers. So were enabling our MSSPs which is part of our tools. We are also offering them a portal as part of this program. Instead of building their own portal, now they can acquire readymade customizable portal that they can offer to their customers so that they can log in, they can manage their equipment, they can have visibility to their equipment. Other benefits are free and thorough education of our solutions and carving joint marketing plans with the partners Experts from Fortinet will teach partners to best model their business, package and price their business to have a mutual knowledge of what we can offer to our MSSPs. ë

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COVER STORY

OPPORTUNITIES AND GROWTH IN AVIATION

Flight Digitization

ARRIVED!

It is not only the arrival/ departure schedule of the flights that passengers will be tuning in to. There is a chain of progressive fronts that are differentiating global airports from one another. As the UAE bucks up to play host to a massive expo that the world has ever seen, the aviation sector is actively adapting to make sure that visitors don’t just ‘arrive’ on time….. But arrive SMART!

n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M > n PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

s soon as the remote control of satisfaction and happiness landed in the customer’s hand, the aviation sector has evolved and revolutionized in ways more than a few. Digitization has undoubtedly been the pioneering force of all the changes that put the customer at the heart of all operations and development. As one of the fastest growing sectors in the Middle East, airlines have been adding novel services that are playing a key role in personalizing a customer’sjourney. Wright brothers would be smiling from up the sky seeing the massive transformation that their creation has undergone and the way it has contributed in building the global economy, completing 100 years of the commercial flight.

THE FLIGHT OF THE REGION The GCC aviation industry’s growth has always been testimonial to the fact that a favorable demographics and strong infrastructure are the key drivers of the sector’s growth. The GCC aviation industry has grown steadily over the past few decades and outpaced. From digital displays to sensory beacons, from on-board Wi-Fi to NFC integrations, the regional airlines have adapted some of the world leading cutting edge smart technologies that are forcing IT solution providers to rethink customer satisfaction on a daily basis. Luis Ortega, Managing Director, MEASA, at IFS says, “We at IFS are helping companies take real advantage of these new technologies. We recently unveiled the IoT Business Connector to help airlines and MRO operators to make the most of this data by running predictive and prescriptive maintenance. In the future, it

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won’t be a bunch of engineers telling you how and when to repair an asset, but the asset itself. Predictive and prescriptive capabilities are still in the early stages of adoption, but watch this space as the technology starts to mature.”

DIGITIZING THE JOURNEY! Digitization has touched every part and step of passengers journey, the biggest stride is on the distribution front for online reach to perform reservations, flight check in and the sale of ancillary services. Further, the complex processes of sales of tickets and other services, accounting for the revenue and handling complicated itineraries involving multiple airlines are simplified with digital transactions. According to Rehan Khan, Regional Consulting Director for the Middle

East and North Africa, BT it is vital to decide how much intelligence should reside in the cloud and how much in the product or on-premise; find more economical means to transmit data when on the ground away from the hub and when airborne; and implement the right cyber defence to protect the brand and passenger data. “Cisco has been working very closely with regional airports and has deployed solutions which allow them to tackle process change through new tools and information, improved services for passengers and airlines and has also been focused on providing airport security solutions across the region,” saysFady Younes, Deputy Managing Director and Operations Director – East Region, Cisco Middle East. The public is becoming increasingly concerned about how airport noise affects their lives. Effec-

tive noise monitoring, reporting and abatement has become the need and is also mandated by GCAA. “Emitac Enterprise Solutions has IoT (Internet Of Things) based solutions to effectively capture and report real-time noise levels at airport perimeter and inside. The IoT system monitors real-time sound levels of all arriving and departing aircrafts and surrounding noise pollution to know your noise impact 24/7. This with our Airport Analytics Engine gives you graphical plot of noise range against Allowable Noise Levels (dbA) that helps in designing noise abatement programs complying with GCAA requirements,” says Arun Sridhar, Regional Service Delivery Manager, Managed Services and Outsourcing, EES. IFS touches upon a niche area; 3D printing is poised to become the next big disruptor in the industry. A number of airlines have been looking

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COVER STORY

WHAT SAYS THE CIO?

“We would suggest that to prioritize investments, aviation leaders must start by clarifying how their organisation intends to compete in the digital economy.” -REHAN KHAN, REGIONAL CONSULTING DIRECTOR FOR THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA, BT

“Cisco’s IoT solutions for the aviation industry follows systematic staging cycles and is validated with stringent testing procedures to meet the sensitive and harsh requirements of this sector.” -FADY YOUNES,

DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR AND OPERATIONS DIRECTOR – EAST REGION, CISCO MIDDLE EAST

Airlines stand to lose anything between $10,000 and $150,000 USD for just a couple of hours of downtime

Dubai Expo 2020 is expected to bring together more than 180 nations and an international audience of 25 million visitors

25mn

10,000 50%

7.3bn

(IATA) released its first 20-year passenger growth forecast, projecting passenger numbers to rise to 7.3 billion by 2034.

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During the Expo2020, visitor traffic at Dubai’s airports is expected to increase between 30 and 50 percent

220bn

Every CIO must get into these initiatives and reap their benefits. However, the important thing is that the CIO must first demonstrate tangible returns and benefits from implementing such initiatives and to show how the business and operations will improve as a result.

DR. JASSIM HAJI, DIRECTOR IT, GULF AIR

Besides, the use of internet and smartphone penetration among customers has forced all industries to work on a digital customer experience. We, as an airline, have commodity IT systems such as reservation and booking system, flight operations, revenue management and inventory systems and so on, but today we all need to add a digital layer on top of these systems.

-MR. ALI SERDAR YAKUT,

Al Maktoum International Airport supports over 220 million passengers a year, making it the world’s biggest

CHIEF INFORMATION AND TRANSFORMATION OFFICER, TURKISH AIRLINES

COVER STORY

“Digital transformation is no longer just a trend, it’s a core business approach at the heart of enterprise strategies in the aviation sector.” -LUIS ORTEGA,

“Airport Analytics Engine gives you graphical plot of noise range against Allowable Noise Levels (dbA) that helps in designing noise abatement programs complying with GCAA requirements.” -ARUN SRIDHAR,

MANAGING DIRECTOR, MEASA, AT IFS

REGIONAL SERVICE DELIVERY MANAGER, MANAGED SERVICES AND OUTSOURCING, EES

FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS CIOS

CIOs we speak with in the aviation sector are clear on the three most disruptive technology trends – cloud, mobility & collaboration, and data

Tools and technology need to be complemented by proactive threat intelligence,

Security must be addressed as part of the aircraft design, and a process must be put in place for ongoing security maintenance and management. CIOs will need innovative solutions to overcome downtimes Airline operators need an endto-end solution with a view of entire security operations in order to efficiently monitor and react to attacks

Need to increase productivity, deliver more value and create better experiences for customers and end users

Keeping operational costs low to improve profit margins

Breaking through silos with a more holistic and connected architecture

CIOs need to think about the assets, the people and the processes

Maintain optimum utilization of fleet, fixed and mobile resources

Maintain public and financial security

into the technology for some years now, but it’s only recently that we’ve seen 3D printed products being installed onto aircraft. Airbus recently created THOR, a miniature aircraft made entirely using 3D printing, proving the potential opportunities of this technology are real. But the big opportunity will be when airlines start to 3D print spare parts in-house – a development that will completely reshape the relationship between contractors and manufacturers. Tier 2/3 suppliers will need to jump on the 3D bandwagon fast, or risk losing out on new revenue streams.

HANDLING THE EXPO 2020 TRAFFIC According to Cisco, Re-architecting the passenger experience will not come easily. It will require discipline, investment, and a deeper understanding of passengers, in terms of demographics, behaviours, attitudes, and needs. “Deeper collaboration among airlines and airports could create a stronger, more complete value proposition for passengers, spanning the entire journey rather than being confined to an airport’s boundaries,” says Fady. BT says that, Technologies like social, mobile, analytics, cloud, and the Internet of Things— which together we refer to as SMACIT—are disrupting businesses. Its important airlines and airports note that it’s not any single technology that is causing the disruption. Rather, it’s the confluence of these technologies, compounded by the steady arrival of other powerful and readily accessible technologies (e.g., voice recognition, artificial intelligence, and biometrics). According to Mr. Ali Serdar YAKUT , Chief Information and Transformation Officer, Turkish Airlines. There needs to be a strong collaboration with all stakeholders in order to increase security at travel. The first thing is to share data, but sharing data should not be limited at your own hub. There should be a standard data set and all parties should communicate with each other in the same language. “There are also new technologies like block chain in order to create a digital identity which can be traceable, safe and secure. We all need to embrace technology in order to make travel safer without scarifying experience”.

FINALLY Though technology in aviation is flying high, CIOs need to have well-grounded plans . Globalization has made the world a small place to go around, but has brought increased challenges in covering this distance. In order to make sure that the journey is safe and steady, CIOs need to add that additional layer of digital strategy to the enterprise architecture. ë

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MY VIEWS

EXPLORING MULTIPLE FACETS OF BLOCKCHAIN The worldwide spread of Blockchain supports the fact that it is extremely tamper proof and has served well for Bitcoin transactions. However, it is also now being effectively used to record loans, stock transfers, contracts, healthcare data and even votes.

NIRANJ SANGAL,

GROUP CEO, OMA EMIRATES GROUP

n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M >

lockchain makes up the technology that powers Bitcoin digital currency and is a decentralized public ledger that is not controlled by any single person or company. However, each user can have access to the entire Blockchain where every single transfer of funds between accounts is recorded. These records are secured and verifiable with mathematical techniques that are used in cryptography.. Benefits of blockchain technology: * As a public ledger system, blockchain records and validate each and every transaction made, which makes it secure and reliable. * All the transactions made are authorized by miners, which makes the transactions immutable and prevent it from the threat of hacking. * Blockchain technology discards the need of any third-party or central authority for peer-topeer transactions and reduces the Cost of such Transactions. * Decentralization of the technology.

REDEFINING LANDSCAPES The interest of financial institutions on block-

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chain is quite evident considering that Santander Bank has identified 20 to 25 use cases for the technology. Other banks such as UBS have set up a blockchain research lab in London, Goldman Sachs has invested in bitcoin startup Circle, and NASDAQ is also experimenting with the technology.Analysts at Santander InnoVentures, for example, have estimated that by 2022, Blockchain technology could save banks more $20 billion annually in costs. In other instances IT giants, such as Google, Microsoft and IBM have Blockchain projects. They look at it from the prospect of tackling privacy and security issues that are creating havoc in Internet commerce and to lower infrastructure and transaction costs while also reducing the time for cross border remittances.

BLOCKCHAIN EFFECT IN THE UAE The UAE is the sixth largest originator of remittances in the world, sending approximately $19bn a year. Many initiatives have been started to implement Blockchain among the most noted are, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi which is the first bank in the UAE to introduce real-time

cross border payments using Ripple technology. Another example is the ICICI Bank and Emirates NBD teaming up to implement transactions in international trade finance and remittances with the use of Blockchain technology. There are also other large organizations who have adopted the technology including Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange which has launched a blockchain-based voting system and the Dubai government is looking at the technology for its Smart City thrust. Clearly these are indicators where many noteworthy organizations have given Blockchain a serious thought.

OMA EMIRATES SOLUTIONS As a payment solution provider, largely for the financial sector and with the increasing interest in Blockchain by these organizations, OMA Emirates is exploring the combined effects that Blockchain has for faster remittances while also being able to reduce the remittance cost. We are also aiming to look at the possibilities of using the technology for our P2P transfers. The opportunities are endless for us and we have already begun working towards them. ĂŤ

Print a card. Any card.

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or registered trademarks of HID Global or its licensor(s)/supplier(s) in the US and other countries and may not be used without permission. © 2016 HID Global Corporation/ASSA ABLOY AB. All rights reserved. HID, HID Global, the HID Blue Brick logo, and the Chain Design are trademarks

YOUR SECURITY. CONNECTED

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HID Global is leading the industry with the most robust portfolio of secure ID issuance HID Globalinis the leading the industry with most robust portfolio provide of secure ID issuance solutions world. Our FARGO® linethe of printers and encoders governments, solutions in the world. Our FARGO® line of printers and encoders provide governments, financial institutions and businesses of all sizes fast, efficient and reliable solutions that financial institutions are as secure as theyand arebusinesses affordable. of all sizes fast, efficient and reliable solutions that are as secure as they are affordable. You’ll call it innovation on demand. We call it, “your security connected.” You’ll call it innovation on demand. We call it, “your security connected.” YOUR SECURITY. CONNECTED YOUR SECURITY. CONNECTED

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© 2016 HID Global Corporation/ASSA ABLOY AB. All rights reserved. HID, HID Global, the HID Blue Brick logo, and the Chain Design are trademarks or registered trademarks of HID Global or its licensor(s)/supplier(s) in the US and other countries and may not be used without permission. © 2016 HID Global Corporation/ASSA ABLOY AB. All rights reserved. HID, HID Global, the HID Blue Brick logo, and the Chain Design are trademarks or registered trademarks of HID Global or its licensor(s)/supplier(s) in the US and other countries and may not be used without permission.

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VALUE ADDED PARTNER

EMITAC

Redefining Communications with a ‘Kool’ Strategy At a time when IoT and increased mobility are at loggerheads with secure communications, Emitac is taking a step further in rethinking enterprise communication on a novel platform. KoolSpan, its latest value addition is a new offering to the modern enterprises, that boasts of robust and end-to-end encrypted mobile communications. n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M >

entralized technology management and administration in enterprise communication need not be an alienated dream for the CIOs. This is the promise the newly formed partnership between Emitac Enterprise Solutions and KoolSpan is bringing to the modern enterprises. This partnership will enable more organizations to provide encrypted communications to their employees, business partners and supply chains and ensure the protection of sensitive calls and messages from global surveillance threats As a secure voice and messaging solution provider for the enterprises, KoolSpan spans over 60 countries and provides end-to-end encrypted calling and messaging solutions that gives maximum flexibility in providing infrastructure as a hosted service. “We have a growing base of regionally focused partners and we are very excited about our partnership with Emitacthat will expand

A P R I L 2017

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ourpresence in the region,” says Nigel Jones, CEO of KoolSpan.“KoolSpan brings with them an immense amount of expertise in this industry and we are certain that through this collaboration, we will provide our clients with nothing but top-notch secure communication solutions “ saysTony Alam, CEO, Emitac Enterprise Solutions

END-TO-END SECURITY—FACT OR FICTION? As the modern enterprises embark on the IoT trip, end-to-end security seems to be a misfit term to the ears. KoolSpan reinforces the claim with the KoolSpan Trust Call solution that lays emphasis on complete control of the data and the meta data and the encryption keys. “The choice is left to the customers, whether they want the infrastructure as a service where they can have complete control over the cryptographic keys, their data and the meta data or they want to integrate their existing back-end

systems with our administrative platform. When we claim that we are providing endto-end secure communication we are making sure that the cryptographic keys are with the customer and the customer has absolute control over the data and the meta data.” Shuaib, Director Service Excellence, EES says that, primarily it is very important to understandwhat the customers are looking for. Partnering with KoolSpan facilitates us to provide comprehensive security solutions for customers. Security is probably one of the biggest challenges that government and private organizations are facing. There is a significant concern around security, wiretapping, eavesdropping, interception etc. KoolSpan solutions provide very secure level of communication between entities and ensures outright control of cryptographic keys. “If the customer wants the most readily deployable solution on premise, we have theTrustCall direct. In TrustCall global service, KoolSpan has the encryption keys and the data

VALUE ADDED PARTNER

BEING THE DIFFERENCE

TrustCall sounds better than a regular phone call

HD quality audio

Resilient & performs well across a range of work environment

Superior quality voice communication while also providing robust security

& meta data. But in a scenario where the customer wants to have a complete lockdown, they can go with TrustCall Direct.”

TAPPING INTO NEW HORIZONS WITH EMITAC What attracted KoolSpan to Emitac is the legacy that SI stands for. The level of training, expertise, brand value and skilled leadership team that could help KoolSpan establish their foot in the market was one of the most exciting phases of the partnership. “Emitac has had an extensive relationship in the region for over 40 years. Even from the executive standpoint, the relationships which we have had built over the years through our careers exist today. We are leveraging those extensive relationships with our partners, with our sales force, with our own internal teams, to actually bring this to market. And by generating that interest, we overcome these challenges by leveraging the strong connections of channel partners within these countries. Ultimately, it is based on trust.”

ENHANCING THE EES PORTFOLIO The addition of KoolSpan to Emitac’s portfolio is further re-emphasizing the SI’s position as an endto-end service provider. From cloud to infrastructure to managed services and all the way to secure voice communications, the Emitac portfolio stands robust. “With KoolSpan in our portfolio, we are now able to provide customers with a total packaged solution of services. The driving factors for this partnership were obviously the expertise that they brought, their product is top in the market and we have a great team in their leadership. I would also say that the chemistry between the teams has contributed to that as well,” adds Shuaib.

Choice of control of data and meta data

Providing APIs to integrate with back end systems

THE 2017 ROADMAP “Going forward, we are focused on becoming more feature rich. We are broadening the footprint, so you will see more types of collaboration capabilities in our platform as well as extending our platform beyond mobile devices to include, for example, a desktop client,” concludes Nigel. ë

Proven high performance on low bandwidth

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COVER FEATURE

PRAKASH CHABLANI, MANAGING DIRECTOR, UNIGULF GROUP OF COMPANIES.

“We never shut doors to innovation, neither were we afraid to embrace change….this has helped us go from strength to strength.”

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COVER FEATURE

UNIGULF

An Entrepreneurial Switch to the Cloud

Growing in sync with the sciences that co-exist in the ecosystem, Unigulf recognized the need for an optimal cloud solution that will not just accelerate their business efficiencies but will help them focus on their core business competencies, keeping IT pain points at bay. Their search finished with Emitac Enterprise Solutions and the result was a tight-knit cloud solution that is proactively running and satiating the OPEX appetite of Unigulf.

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 @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M >

or someone who is an ardent believer in science, progress is never a far-fetched dream. Prakash Chablani, Managing Director of Unigulf group of Companies has been leading his companies to success by walking hand in hand with the sciences that were breathing in his entrepreneurial ecosystem. Founded in 1986, the organization has evolved and so has its ICT infrastructure that has organically made its way into the mainstream enterprise.

Expanded polystyrene, ducting accessories, cladding systems, coatings/ adhesives/sealants, refrigerants and range of refrigeration tools/accessories. Keeping in mind the labor intensive nature of the business, ironically, it was a challenge as well an opportunity for ICT to penetrate the organization. “Technology has truly been a business enabler for Unigulf. Our vision has always been to deliver cutting edge products to the customers while creating partnerships that are in sync with –technologies prevailing at that time,” says Chablani.

JOURNEY IN THE MARKET

ICT MAKES WAY

Unigulf group of companies was established in 1986 to cater to the needs of MEP contractors. Since then the company has come a long way and has become one of the leading manufacturer and trusted supplier of HVAC&R products and accessories to the contractors in the UAE and MENA region. The range of products comprises Elastomeric foam insulation, Fiberglass, Rockwool, Polyolefin, Extruded/

“With the help of technology we are able to grow our business. In old days there would be a need which would be instantaneous to the demand and the expectation would be another instantaneous delivery. There was nothing that you could plan and it is a fact that without a plan you cannot grow. So technology has actuallyhelped us to grow rapidly bringing more and more planning to it. For example,

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COVER FEATURE

awareness has become easier than before. Web seminars allow us to reach out to our customers faster and we are able to expand to new markets. The nature of our business is very labor centric, but opposed to that we looked into how technology can actually breathe ease into the heavy operations. We introduced various machineries and processes that minimized the labor hours drastically and improved business efficiencies,” says Chablani. The introduction of ERP was one of the primary encounter of Unigulf with ICT which worked wonders for them in cutting down the hours of ledger and journal work. “The introduction of ERP took our business to a different level. We could process our business very innovatively. 20 years back, it was the need for speed that drove the need for ERP;increasing speed in manual processes. We had a focus on automating things. Gradually we have moved on from that stage and we have outsourced our IT department to have a better pool of talent. Being a SME business, as we are progressing, IT is also progressing. This gives us ample time to focus on our core competencies. We have improved our efficiency in ERP as well. The app is ready to move to a higher level by fusion or to go on the cloud. We are ready for a global growth and the partnership with Emitac is further propelling this step.”

NEED FOR THE CLOUD

As the company grew, the need for a strong infrastructure and a better environment was a mandate. “I am an extensive traveler and I have seen how Digitization has actually been a turnkey factor in transforming enterprises. I used to draw various examples from the global counterparts to see how ICT can actually increase my business efficiency while keeping my operational costs low. My search ended with Emitac Enterprise Solutions and the solution that they came up with has made a huge difference to my business operations and truly helped in going from CAPEX and OPEX. Saeed Khan, Regional Sales Manager – Managed & Cloud Services, Emitac Enterprise Solutions said, “When Chablani came to us with the vision of improving his business efficiency while reducing costs, we carefully assessed their requirement, designed and offered a cost effective, customized managed services solution to fit their requirement. Emitac designed, built and proposed a solution comprising of consolidation of Unigulf ’s applications beginning with migration and hosting of major office productivity applications such as Exchange, File servers and DMS to Emitac Managed Cloud. This was followed by migrating the primary business application, Omega ERP with its associate services from current offices in Rashidiya to the new offices at DIP. . Some of the ERP which is critical to the

Managed Services contract with Emitac for 3 years Omega is mission critical application and the success of Unigulf’s business highly depends on Omega.

In progress DR solution for Unigulf Omega ERP application.

PROJECT AT A GLANCE

Migration and hosting of major office productivity applications such as Exchange, File servers and DMS to Emitac Managed Cloud

Migrating primary business application, Omega ERP with its associate services from old office to new

business were to be kept onsite. We also designed a DR at the production site and made a solution where all the application and all infrastructure and users are safe and secure and managed under a tight service level agreement. The evolutions started in the month of January and by mid of February we were ready with the solutions. The cloud is up and running and simultaneously we are also working on some other projects as well. So the whole mission now is to make IT their business enabler without affecting their operations and core competencies. “The beauty of the relation is that a customer’s core competency is their business and our core competency is our IT services so we will help you focus on your business and we will focus on our talent. So whatever cost is saved in the operations can enable the business’s profit and especially at a stage when Unigulf is going global, this would definitely help them.” “The Emitac cloud and the production DR is monitored and managed 24/7, through state of art Emitac NoC facility making the whole managed service proactive than reactive and the result is we haven’t faced any reactive issues in the last one or one and a half month,” adds Saeed.

THE MARRIAGE WITH EMITAC According to Chablani, one of the most valuable aspect that drew him into this partnership was Emitac’s local presence. “The vast experience and deep resources that they have was one of the most important factor. Who would want to call a Singapore office when I have the opportunity to have a local service provider to serve us 24/7,” says Chablani. “I don’t have to listen to IT headaches anymore. Emitac has very deep resources and qualified people and their experience is known to us. We can start taking more challenges now” adds Chablani. Saeed remarks that as true value added partners, Emitac always sees how we can provide the customer with services that best fits their business models. We do not force the customer to take all the solutions from us. Irrespective of the solution they choose, we can and will manage it for them,” he adds.

FINALLY Emitac’s state of art NoC facility with on-site resource support consisting of L0, L1 and L2 support services.

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Emitac Managed services to cover 24/7 monitoring and management

Prakash Chablani says that he doesn’t believe in failure or disappointment when it comes to business. It is all about finding out the positivity. The Emitac Cloud has also brought a silver lining with it as the HVAC and MEP industry’s leader is set to walk on some unconventional paths and get ready for mapping global footprints. ë

MY OPINION

workloads and cloud integration. Customers can dramatically shrink data center footprint, power and cooling costs due to the extreme flash density and industry-leading storage efficiencies. Similarly, the latest version of NetApp SolidFire Element OS storage software lets customers respond to business demands quickly with dynamic adjustments. This centerpiece of the next-generation data center lets users accommodate mixed workloads on a single storage system, adding capacity and performance with seamless granularity. Additionally, our industry-leading portfolio of ONTAP-powered all-flash and hybrid arrays provides customers with unrivaled scale, speed, and data services as they transform their IT. Simplification is a key enabler for today’s digital transformation, ONTAP software and flash systems give customers a way to bridge existing and emerging IT architectures as they build and evolve their hybrid cloud.

FADI KANAFANI,

REGIONAL DIRECTOR MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA, NETAPP

STORAGE— SIMPLIFIED & COMPACT

SUCCESSFUL IT TRANSFORMATIONS INTEGRATE DATA SILOES, AUTOMATE PROCESSES TO SPEED RESULTS AND REMOVE BARRIERS TO SCALE THAT LIMIT GROWTH. IT ALSO ENABLES SIMPLIFICATION AND AUTOMATION OF PROCESSES, WHICH IN TURNS FREES UP TIME SPENT ON DATA MANAGEMENT. NETAPP FACILITATES DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION BY DELIVERING UNIFIED DATA MANAGEMENT ACROSS CLOUDS.

How was the Gartner 2017 experience for NetApp? NetApp’s participation at this year’s Gartner Symposium was very successful. We showcased our latest innovations around digital transformation and created awareness amongst our customers and partners around topics like data sovereignty, security and management. What new solutions could the cus-

tomers see from NetApp this year? We shared the latest advancements in our portfolio of flash, cloud, and next-generation data center solutions. These products and solutions help businesses with digital transformation and meet the ever-changing data management needs. The new NetApp All Flash FAS (AFF) A700s array, for instance, delivers breakthrough performance in a compact form factor to modernize IT for demanding enterprise applications, analytic

Based on your conversations with the customers at the event, what were their expectations from a Cloud Storage vendor? What were the challenges that they were facing? In addition to budget limitations and resistance to change, security and privacy of their data is a primary concern for most of the organisations both in the region and across the world. NetApp’s vision is to modernize data protection by providing solutions that enable business continuity and that are integrated, efficient, and easily managed.Our unified architecture with built-in data protection allows agile operations. This leads to lower opex and gives customers the peace of mind that their data is securely stored. How is NetApp fitting perfectly with the requirements of the modern Opexsavvy enterprises? The days of extortionate storage hardware prices combined with software licenses forever bound to a specific piece of hardware are over. Customers in the MENA region want a fundamentally more flexible and fair way to procure storage. In response to the evolving demand for modern Opex-savvy enterprises, NetApp has introduced a consumption model with SolidFire. NetApp’s FlashForward capacity licensing, creates significant flexibility and investment protection for customers to purchase storage infrastructure in alignment with the dynamic and growing nature of their businesses.It actually delivers our customers a more agile, cost-effective and future-proofed approach to buying storage relative to the unnecessary burdens imposed by legacy storage purchasing models. ë

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FEATURE STORY

Talking ‘Smart’ Through time there has been a revolution in enterprise communications. The enterprise communications market has prominently shifted away from on-premises systems to hosted/cloud solutions. With this shift, large businesses don’t need to spend time and effort on planning out their systems as new dashboard-based systems come up. At the same time enterprises need to rapidly adapt and integrate the latest communication technologies into their solutions so that they can produce a strategic business advantage over their competitors.

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FEATURE STORY

n W O R D S : A I S H A N I Z A M U D D I N < A I S H A @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M > n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K

rom IoT, big data, AI and machine learning to conversational commerce and chatbots, there are abundant opportunities for enterprises to refine the customer experience and as well reduce cost. A successful enterprise now needs to integrate with the existing systems - whether it’s VoIP system or employees’ mobile phones.It is estimated that UCaaS will be worth 24.88 Billion USD by 2020. With the growth of BYOD, enterprises aim to increase productivity and reduced costs. However, implications of this increasing trend can undermine IT security and put a company’s sensitive business systems at risk.

THE MARKET INCLINATION Enterprise Communications market will be very dynamic in 2017 as providers look to modernize their offerings, spread their reach and appeal to large enterprises and small businesses alike. “Hybrid cloud deployments are the main driver in our region due to telecom regulations and will become more commonplace, particularly among large enterprises with complex communications needs. Hosted or cloud-based solutions will dominate 2017 due to the fact that on-premise solutions lack the scalability, and agility to adapt,” saidEvren Aker, Channel Manager, Middle East at Genesys. The enterprise communications is market driven by the foundationprinciples of mobility, agility, innovation and efficiency which is continuously changing demands due to the digital transformation. This is because enterprises continue to capitalize in innovative approaches and models to

534.1bn

By 2020, enterprise communications spending in fixed and mobile services will reach $534.1 billion in current U.S. dollars

meet the demands of the new generation of hyper connected participants. “As a result, we are witnessing a shift in enterprise communications as organizations drive the demand for solutions that are designed to empower 24/7 agile business environments, enable a mobile workforce and enhance borderless collaboration while also delivering new cost efficiencies. As enterprises continue to extend real time insights and services to both internal and external audiences, the need for the right enterprise grade communications platforms accelerates further,” said Moussa Zaghdoud, Leader -Rainbow, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. “This year, we will be seeing significant advancements in team collaboration solutions drawing the benefits of content, video and messaging enhancements into intuitive, easy to use and deploy solutions which will in turn drive greater adoption, more effective working and tangible business outcomes,” said Ahmed SousaRegional Manager & Solutions Architect META, Polycom

THE ROAD AHEAD FOR THE CIOS CIOs who previously chose to build private clouds could be switching to public cloud as this would be less time-consuming and less-costly to operate. “Based on the Private or Government sectors, CIOs would decide on more Internet bandwidth operations rather than local MPLS deployments, which is a major cost factor. If an existing investment is in place, we’d advise them to monitor their private connection consumptions vs cost, and seek any alternatives of shifting to Native Cloud based operations. There are some ready tools that could help on this from AWS, Cloudability and others,” said Evren. “Given the changing needs of the business, we believe that CIO agenda should remain focused on solutions that are designed to provide emphasis on communication, heightened productivity

155.8bn

IT spending in (MENA) is projected to reach $155.8 billion in 2017, a 2.4% increase from 2016.

17% Key vertical segments driving IT spending growth: communications, media and services, banking and securities, manufacturing and utilities markets.

The devices segment will embody closely 17 per cent of total IT spending in 2017. This market to grow 4% this year

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FEATURE STORY

“ALE is committed to extending network infrastructure products that address the forces of both Mobility and Internet of Things (IoT).” -MOUSSA ZAGHDOUD,

LEADER -RAINBOW, ALCATELLUCENT ENTERPRISE.

“Polycom’s ability to embed technology within the end users’ workflow gives it a competitive advantage and raises Polycom’s UC product offerings from its competitors.” -AHMED SOUSA, REGIONAL MANAGER & SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT META, POLYCOM

UC Forecast: 7 Trends that Will Drive the Market in 2017

Many organizations will initially struggle to adopt cloud UC.

Automation will become mandatory for managed services providers (MSPs) to achieve ROI.

Slack, Google, Atlassian, Facebook, and others will become real players in the UC market.

UC-enabled apps will dramatically improve the customer experience.

The demise of the single-vendor UC strategy will drive demand for interoperability management.

Digital assistants and bots will enter the UC market.

Compliance will be king.

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“Our solutions embrace Mobility, so BYOD would help to increase employee productivity. And Unified Communications is one of the critical components of BYOD policies.” -EVREN AKER, CHANNEL MANAGER, MIDDLE EAST AT GENESYS

and cross platform, cross border collaboration,” said Moussa Zaghdoud, Leader -Rainbow, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. As organizations empower real-time communications to a wider workflow, Persistent Collaboration Spaces permit users to interact before, during, and after a meeting or event, allowing an intuitive means to structure and organize collaborative communications – often including search functionality, persistent file sharing, and audio, video and web collaboration. PCS solutions are usually applied at a team level then, expand virally within the enterprise as users find value in the new solutions. Moreover, emergence of Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) is a natural progression of IT’s role into that of an internal service provider. CPaaSallows CIOs and IT teams to develop and deploy value add communications features to existing business applications without the complications and costs which are related to building backend infrastructure or framework.

BORDERLESS WORKPLACE With the innovative collaborative techniques, location and remote office concepts are redesigned. With the emergence of increasing Mobile Workforce on the ground, workspaces began to adapt to this change. The office of the future will comprise of very networked, shared, multipurpose spaces that improve workers’ performance. This will require the engagements of urban planners and municipal governments. It won’t be an easy task and it will require collecting much more data to inform new design and management principles while engaging urban planners and municipal governments. Companies are beginning to see organizations adopt more “hotdesk” and “remote” working models across high pressure environments, allowing employees the flexibility to connect anytime, anywhere while driving flexibility and productivity. In the future, experts predict that organizations will follow the approaches of the emerging “gig economy.” These workplaces of

FEATURE STORY

“Our partnership with Huawei allows us to offer connectivity-focused ICT solutions that create value in telco, government, transportation, finance, energy, medical sectors.” -SUNIL PAUL,

“With Citrix solutions, you can give employees and third parties secure access to sensitive business information wherever they are.” - ARTHUR DELL,

now and the future, need flexible, collaborative and mobile technologies that allow borderless collaboration and connectivity. “At ALE, we are investing in solutions that empower a digital workplace that permits a mobile workforce and enables real time communication and collaboration. With solutions like Alcatel-Lucent Rainbow, IT leaders can enable their organization’s transition to new agile working environment, to attract, retain and leverage the right talent, at the right time through the right channels, without adding complexity or costs to the existing business models.” Moussa Zaghdoud, Leader -Rainbow, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. With the advancement of cloud computing, Big Data, and mobility, the IoT has started toboom and became an important driver of innovation amongst economic sectors. Connectivity-focused ICT technologies are unleashing unprecedented potential and accelerating global digitization. “Our partnership with Huawei allows us to offer these ICT products and solutions that boost efficiency and create value not just in the telecommunications sector, but also in the government, transportation, finance, energy, and medical sectors,” said Sunil Paul, Co-Founder and Coo of Finesse. In the past, the unified communications market took generic communications products and turned them into industry and niche-market

solutions, while claiming to be vertically focused. “This is what Alcatel-Lucent Rainbow brings to the table, it doesn’t just provide another cloud UC solution or an “Instant Messaging” application but it has a component of each, it is a broader relationship management machine, which connects different company ecosystems. The platform allows organizations to benefit from new cloud services, while retaining existing systems and technologies from other vendors. It is an advanced system for linking unique identities such as users, PBXs, telephone terminals or other objects connected via dynamic links. These links are used to convey services and data. The Identities-Relationships Services scheme remains the same regardless of the topology and services involved, which is a true differentiator.” Moussa Zaghdoud, Leader -Rainbow, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. Moreover, Polycom also has competitive UC offerings which aids the end users save time and money and. “Polycom integrates with other unified communication vendor technologies used by the customer as part of their collaboration strategy. This enables the customer to have their voice, video and collaboration engines tightly integrated.” Ahmed Sousa- Regional Manager & Solutions Architect META, Polycom

CO-FOUNDER AND COO OF FINESSE

DIRECTOR, TECHNOLOGY, AND SERVICE, MEA, CITRIX

SECURE MOBILE WORKFORCE

The mobile workforce trend increases the need to assimilate security in every aspect of the technology architecture. Employees work 24/7 in remote locations across the world and require access to central resources anytime, anywhere, and from many devices. Mobility has increased CAPEX and OPEX for IT departments and with the increase of cellular costs and BYOD, network managers have been burdened as devices on the network consume bandwidth and drain management resources. Therefore, it is vital to have a stable and secure enterprise communication operations. “Finesse has developed effective emergency response systems so that we can rapidly restore our customers’ networks when a crisis hits. Users can then access stable communications services, which can help protect life and property.” Sunil Paul, Co-Founder and Coo of Finesse For local businesses, SMBs, and individual users, security is the most important factor to consider with communication on confidential information. The need has never been greater for a dynamic, scalable, reliable video collaboration platform whichdelivers seamless interoperability while decreasing cost and complexity with the highest level of security. “In this light, Polycom Desktop and Mobile RealPresence solutions are exactly what businesses are looking to expand their flexible working initiatives’ need, since they can be installed and used by employees on their computers and laptops on the go via their tablets and mobiles. Because of our focus on interoperability, our RealPresence Platform transforms islands of fragmented communications systems into a seamless culture of collaboration, with enterprise-grade video easily and securely accessible to all authorised personnel whether they’re mobile, remote, or on-site.” Ahmed Sousa- Regional Manager & Solutions Architect META, Polycom.

FINALLY Analyst firm ZK Research sized the CPaaS market at over $400 million in 2015; it is now forecasted to reach $8.1 billion by 2019. With this in mind, the enterprise communications market is experiencing rapid growth with personal cloud services, smartphones, tablets and laptops. Enterprises need to adapt fast with this emerging change. As enterprises look for affordability, ease of use, mobility, efficiency, the cloud, security in their solutions today, they want to be able to adapt to these changes by easily climbing a bridge between the old and new. The deployment and shift to cloud solutions to improve the overall user experience to connect any application on any network using any device is the focus of all enterprises today while also reducing their costs. ë

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FEATURE

FOCUS OMAN

OMAN LOOKS BEYOND OIL The Sultanate of Oman which was once heavily dependent on depleting oil resources has been actively pursuing a development plan focusing on the infrastructure diversification and privatization. Oman offers appreciation for free markets, a good investment condition, security, good health care, easy access to global markets through a modern infrastructure network. The IT market in Oman is growing at a brisk, supported by its increasing population and government initiatives. The Sultanate will resume investing in other key sectors despite the drop in the oil prices. n B Y: D I V S H A B H AT < D I V S H A @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M > n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K

manâ€™s economic vision has remained stable and focused on two main goals; nurturing the private sector to eventually to taking on a leading role and placing the Omani workforce in centre of that transformation. The country is continuing to implement its plans and develop supportive poli-

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cies. While the necessary increase in spending in recent years to support these objectives has been remarkable, the countryâ€™s budget has remained strong. In terms of technology, spends in building ICT infrastructure could continue at the same pace that it has been moving towards over the last 5 years. The Oman government is focusing on the non-oil sector as part of its economic diversifica-

tion programme, which is evident from the Ninth Five-Year Plan.

FOCUS ON NON-OIL SECTOR A lesser oil-dependent Oman is rising from the plan as the oil contribution to the gross domestic product is expected to decline from 44% in the

FEATURE

“An increase in tourism means investment in e-government technologies and technologies that benefit hospitality and retail sectors” -JASON WHILEY, DIRECTOR OF SALES, EPSON MIDDLE EAST

“There are tremendous opportunities for companies such as OMA Emirates who are involved in the payment industry to provide new and advanced technologies which can facilitate ease of operations” -NIRANJ SANGAL, GROUP CEO, OMA EMIRATES GROUP

BENEFITS OF G-CLOUD • IT resources within Government entities are transformed to a centrally managed IT infrastructure • Insure a common infrastructure and data ownership for the cloud tenants • Simple and integrated management of resources for the customers • Reduced IT budget load for Government Authorities. • Fast and easy provisioning of e-Services. • Improved Security for the Government IT environments.

Eight Five Year Plan to 33% in the Ninthfive-year plan which is from 2016-2020. The government agency is targeting sectors such as BFSI, transport, tourism, manufacturing, fisheries and mining. Reports say that transport sector’s contribution is estimated to rise from 6.2 per cent to 6.8 per cent by 2020. The BFSI sector has been more adaptive to changes and is to continue in

the coming years. The market size for payments has also grown within the BFSI segment. Simultaneously, payments have now become a new phrase with many other industries tapping into the advantages of payment technology. “The Government sector is adopting new technologies, as the infrastructure is dependent on technology. I believe that the private sector should follow the lead of the public sector to offer online services to its customers” said Fadi Yehia, Territory ManagerOman, Fortinet.

TOURISM & MINING SECTOR The Ministry of Tourism, Oman disclosed its 2040 tourism strategy which will see investments of OMR 20 billion, thereby, creating half a million jobs. According to the Ministry of tourism, this sector’s direct contribution to GDP is expected to increase from 2% to 5% by 2020 and it expects at least 11.7 million international and domestic tourists in 2040. The new mining law shall ease the procedures and attract more investments in the sector. Further, the discovery of sizeable reserves of minerals such as gold, copper shall

boost the growth in the coming years.

DIGITIZATION The progress in digitalization, in today’s world, has given the customer, the independence and choice to travel rather than adopting methods like using physical guidebooks or travel agendas. “Interactive mobile apps displaying places of interest to tourists could be viable opportunities along with mobile apps that can enable tourists to be guided within Oman” said Niranj Sangal, CEO, OMA Emirates. Venkatesan S, Sr. Sales Manager, New Business Development, Intertec Systems said, “Digitalization and mobility will be key in technology drive for Oman Tourism sector. Hospitality sector is focusing on enhancing Customer Experience through digitization and mobility”.

FOCUS ON INFRASTRUCTURE The Sultanate has made a great move in building up its technological infrastructure within government and private sector. Oman, most evidently, has one of the world’s more advanced e-government programs, developing the admin-

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FEATURE

“There is a good partner ecosystem chain in the country, where companies are offering end to end solutions. We find a good level of competent professionals within the partner community in Oman” -FADI YEHIA,

TERRITORY MANAGER – OMAN, FORTINET

istration’s efficiency while creating services closer to citizens. The G-Cloud project was featured to setup a shared infrastructure including server, network, storage, applications where all government entities IT infrastructure requirements are met. Having G-Cloud in place, ministries can focus on their core business, reducing the IT budget, increasing their agility and providing the public e-Services at higher efficiency.“In terms of technology, spends in building ICT infrastructure could continue at the same pace that it has been moving towards over the last 5 years. For example, data centre budgets are inherently dependent on parent projects. As in the case of the airport expansion project, the government investment in strengthening the IT infrastructure for the new construction will continue” said Niranj. Considering, the Sultanate’s telecom sector, it is also witnessing rapid growth and attracting latest technologies. The Government is contributing in building a digital society and positioning Oman amongst advanced countries.

OMANIZATION Omanization as a national objective is governed in the public sector and recently in the private

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“Intertec Systems in Oman is looking at doubling our revenue in 2017 and we are expanding our team in Oman. We continue to focus on digital assets transformation practice with our strong customer base in Oman” -VENKATESAN S,

“Despite the economic doldrums, Oman’s ICT wheel is still in overdrive” -YAHYA AL MAWALI,

sector as well. The governmenthas initiated training and development programs in various industry sectors to enhance the skills of nationals and to promote the employment for nationals in the private sector. “Tanfeedh” is a government initiative launched in 2016 aimed at creating and implementing initiatives to diversify the Oman economy.The 8-phase initiative includes various phases such as brainstorming labs, implementation, and audit.The first phase of this has created 121 initiatives, which the government intends to further explore. Initial estimates are that these initiatives could increase GDP by more than OMR 1.7bn, and could create more than 30,000 jobs for Omani nationals.

smart nation. Smart cities leverage technology to improve public services, transport, traffic flows, power, water supply, waste management, security and more. Oman plans to boost the infrastructure of Muttrah city. E-services, digital infrastructure and resource management will be developed inthe aging traditional and business hub of Muscat, which has played the most significant role in developing the Sultanate’s economy.

ICT ADVISOR, TRA, OMAN

SR. SALES MANAGER, NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, INTERTEC SYSTEMS

SMART CITY SUMMIT Smart City Summit is an event dedicated to exploring the benefits and possibilities of cities built on technology in Oman.It will make a significant contribution to the accomplishment of new cities, developments and re-developments. The Sultanate has a stable ICT infrastructure because of the digital strategy of ITA. The country addresses the ambition of building smart cities and working towards making the Sultanate a

FINALLY In a middle sized, open economy in which the massive production so far had been oil, managing the development to a more transforming economy is challenging. The Sultanate’s government has taken a number of measures in terms of profitable economic planning and to materialize social development initiatives that have contributed to the booming of the Omani economy. Moreover, the Government has been planning for a constant gain in expenditure in the coming years specially with a large-scale infrastructure programs. As a result, Oman’s economy is set on the right path of increase in growth, development and diversification. ë

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SPECIAL STORY

THE

FUTURE

IN A WORLD OF SOFTWARE

DEFINED 46

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EVERYTHING

SPECIAL STORY

Software Defined Networking (SDN) has quickly developed in its own terminology. SDN reduces the organization’s cost by accelerating application deployment and delivery through policy enabled workflow automation. SDN achieves these business objectives by merging the application services and management of network into extensible orchestration platforms that can automate the configuration of the entire infrastructure. SDN is expected to see an increased uptake in 2017 from service providers and enterprises. Customers no longer want to buy a series of boxes and are looking to vendors to deliver end-to-end systems. CIOs are expecting simple, flexible, automated, and agile infrastructure, so SDN is definitely going to be here for the long haul. n B Y: D I V S H A B H AT < D I V S H A @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M > n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K

ccording to the IDC forecast, the global SDN market, which comprises physical network infrastructure, virtualization, SDN applications, and professional services will be worth nearly $12.5 billion in 2020 with a compound annual growth rate of 53.9% from 2014 to 2020. The Middle East & Africa SDN market is estimated to grow from $5.1 million in 2013 to $118.0 million by 2019 at a CAGR of 77.3% according to a report by the Micro Market Monitor.

THE GAME CHANGER OF MODERN NETWORKING INFRASTRUCTURE Cloud computing is one of the main drivers of the growing demand in the region for faster connectivity. In addition to having the highest number of mobile devices per user in the world, the region is experiencing the highest cloud traffic growth rate in the world, with 8x growth projected between 2013 and 2018. The radical connectivity is undergoing a major shift, from hardware-bound to software-defined. The rapid growth of cloud and virtualization has made enterprises rethink servers, storage, and applications on a new platform. The router-heavy, hardcoded, inflexible networks of the past simply cannot support digital services, nor the

mobility of the masses, nor the rapid rise of data in today’s hyper-complex IT environments. “Organizations that have embraced Cloud or virtualization in their data center environment or have started the journey down that path are the ones that benefit most from SDN, as it gives the customers the promise of achieving in their network what virtualization has given them in the data center” said MohannadAbuissa, Head of Sales Engineering, East Region, Cisco Middle East.

SDN TO TRANSFORM TELECOM SECTOR Digitization is offering service providers and telecom operators a unique opportunity for growing their revenue and business allowing them to provide the platform for developing the digital markets. However, this opportunity is full of challenges and forces the service providers to transform their delivery and operation models using the business agility and applying flexible technologies in their infrastructure. In the Middle East, the Telecoms sector is leading the way when it comes to verticals and it is the networking vendors when it comes to the IT sector.“We have seen in Middle East region that customers have different business problem to solve automation of new services to scale the multi-tenancy environment. Deep programmability or network overlay may be interesting to

support application mobility. For Service Providers that have invested heavily on the WAN infrastructure and head end Data Centers, what important is to have deep network programmability to monetize the current infrastructure” said Abuissa. According to Research and Markets – Increasing demand for high speed data connectivity has forced telecom providers to innovate their product offerings to be able to completely transforming the traditional network infrastructure and address the growing needs of the customers. Current NFV deployments have enabled Service Providers to provision new services and consolidate branch footprint, but have been challenged to deliver on the true agility that Service Providers require in order to improve customer satisfaction and grow their business.

EMERGENCE OF HYPER-SCALE CLOUD NETWORKING The cloud has changed everything, except networking! Organizations that have embraced Cloud or virtualization in their data centre environment or have started the journey down that path are the ones that benefit most from SDN, as it gives the customers the promise of achieving in their network what virtualization has given them in the data centre.The increased emphasis on cloud computing is placing new demands

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SPECIAL STORY

“Cisco SDN solutions and Cisco NFVi stack provide our customers an end to end architecture for their future network to deliver agility and business outcomes” -MOHANNAD ABUISSA,

“Riverbed’s SD-WAN solution brings new levels of agility to the business, accelerating the delivery of all applications and steering them over the best network for ultimate performance” -CHARBEL KHNEISSER,

HEAD OF SALES ENGINEERING, EAST REGION, CISCO MIDDLE EAST

REGIONAL PRE-SALES CONSULTANT MANAGER, METNA, RIVERBED TECHNOLOGY.

SDN SPECIFIC THREAT Data forging

Flooding Attack

Traffic Diversion

Side Channel Attack

Identity spoofing

Remote Application Exploitation

Memory scraping

118.0mn

Middle East & Africa SDN market is estimated to grow to $118.0 million by 2019

integrates emerging software approaches with the underlying physical infrastructure, in order to centralize network management with real-time end-to-end solutions.

SDN TO DRIVE THE EXPANSION OF IOT As the number of people, devices, machines and sensors are coming online, Middle East organizations require new capabilities to lead in the delivery of value-added, cloud-based services and applications. Digitization through the IoT is transforming the world. However, an intelligent network and a strong IoT platform are required to connect things securely, to analyze data and to deliver business value. Software Defined Network provides cost effective means of managing the Internet of Things and also maximizes the performance of applications. It simplifies and allows for the centralized management of networks that can be remotely managed with providers configuring and reconfiguring the devices across the globe. “The flexibility brought by SDN allows the various types of IoT devices to communicate over the Internet while being routed over the most reliable, under-utilized network path” said CharbelKhneisser, Regional Pre-Sales Consultant Manager, METNA, Riverbed Technology.

FINALLY Software exploits

on the network. For cloud services to be seamless, the underlying network must be intelligent, carrier-class and virtualized. SDN is rapidly changing the way that organiza-

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tions view and operate networks, and seeks to address the lack of agility found in existing networks. SDN offers businesses adaptability, simplicity, flexibility, and agility and tightly

Software Defined Networking is developing rapidly. SDN enables companies to grow their network to meet demands and to scale back if and when necessary. Software Defined Network promises to transform today’s networks into programmable platforms. The advantages of SDN are undeniable and it is on the way to become the new approach in the world of networking. ë

INNOVATIONS

KEY CAPABILITIES n Will feature 24 driverless Group Rapid Transit (GRT) vehicles capable of carrying 24 passengers each n Connecting stations on the island and Nakheel Harbour and Tower Metro Station 2.5 km apart n Initial capacity 3,350 people per hour per direction, with the possibility to increase to 5,000 people per hour per direction n Trip time approx. 4.5 minutes n Guided transit modes with driverless operation, featuring computer- controlled vehicles. n Rechargeable battery technology, the quiet, emissionsfree vehicle represents a commitment to sustainable electric transport. n Navigates on virtual routes, using odometry and artificial landmarks for calibration through a guidance control system. n On-board collision avoidance systems detect all surrounding obstacles and adjust vehicle velocity and acceleration accordingly.

2getthere GRT System Dutch technology firm 2getthere is awarded the contract to deliver a new automated vehicle system in Dubai that will link new waterfront lifestyle destination Bluewaters with the city’s network of metro stations. The innovative new transport system will have a capacity of 5,000 people per hour per direction, with the automated vehicle con-

nection between Bluewaters and the metro set to become the largest of its kind in the world and is considered an example of the future of autonomous transport solutions. The awarded automatic transport system fits Dubai’s objective to have 25% of all trips completed by automated systems by 2035.

PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK AT INFO@ GECMEDIAGROUP.COM

POLYCOM EAGLEEYE DIRECTOR II Polycom unveiled Polycom EagleEye Director II. The latest EagleEye Director II camera, with advanced video production features will make virtual meetings feel more in-person than ever. The Polycom EagleEye Director II camera changes your video conferencing experience from the awkward and distant “bowling alley” view to a professionally produced video meeting when combined with Polycom Group Series video room systems. Without the need to manually adjust or to use a remote, the camera automatically zooms in on and frames the active speaker from an industry-leading 32 feet in less than three seconds, panning out when the discussion includes more than one person. A unique picture-in-picture display of the room means you see the reactions and body language of everyone in the room while you’re focused on the speaker. The camera runs on the new Polycom RealPresence Group Series 6.1 release, the engine that drives Polycom’s industry-leading voice and video technology.

KEY CAPABILITIES n Advanced video production features n Virtual meetings will feel more in-person n No need to manually adjust or use a remote n Automatic camera zoom in on and frames the active speaker from 32 feet in less than 3 seconds, panning out when discussion includes more than one person n A unique picture-in-picture display of the room will allow to see reactions and body language of everyone in the room while focuses on speaker n Camera runs on the new Polycom RealPresence Group Series 6.1 n Industry-leading voice and video technology

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AMD “Naples” AMD’s new high-performance CPU for servers, codenamed “Naples” delivers the highly regarded “Zen” x86 processing engine in industryleading configurations of up to 32 cores. Superior memory bandwidth and the number of high-speed input / output channels in a single-chip further differentiate “Naples” from anything else in the server market today. The first processors are scheduled to be available in Q2 2017, with volume availability building in the second half of the year through OEM and channel partners. The new AMD server processor exceeds today’s top competitive offering on critical parameters, with 45% more cores, 60% more input / output capacity (I/O)2, and 122% more memory bandwidth

KEY CAPABILITIES n highly scalable, 32-core System on Chip (SoC) design, with support for two high-performance threads per core n Industry-leading memory bandwidth, with 8-channels of memory per “Naples” device. In a 2-socket server, support for up to 32 DIMMS of DDR4 on 16 memory channels, delivering up to 4 terabytes of total memory capacity. n The processor is a complete SoC with fully integrated, high-speed I/O supporting 128 lanes of PCIe® 34, negating the need for a separate chip-set n A highly-optimized cache structure for high-performance, energy efficient compute n AMD Infinity Fabric coherent interconnect for two “Naples” CPUs in a 2-socket system n Dedicated security hardware

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R&M’s OM5 solution In a bid to simplify network infrastructure while accommodating the increased demand for bandwidth, R&M unveiled its new OM5 fibre solution in the Middle East. The vendor’s lime green OM5 solutions support duplex transmission up to future 200G requirements, thereby eliminating all the cabling complexity associated with MPO polarity management. The new OM5 solution enables 40G and 100G on an LC-duplex and offers customers the ability to further increase capacity to 200G per fibre in the future. It is available with R&M’s innovative push-pull LC-QR patch cords that boast the smallest cable diameter cable and this minimizes the cabling bulk. As per specifications of the OM5 standard, the solution supports all legacy applications as well as OM4, and is fully compatible and intermateable with both OM3 and OM4 cabling. The solution also integrates with R&M’s Netscale, which is the industry’s highest-density fibre cable management solution.

KEY CAPABILITIES n Simplifies network cabling n Enables sending four wavelengths over a single multimode fibre n Is available with R&M’s innovative push-pull LC-QR patch cords that boast the smallest cable diameter cable and this minimizes the cabling bulk n Support duplex transmission up to future 200G requirements n Solution supports all legacy applications as well as OM4 n Compatible and intermateable with both OM3 and OM4 cabling n Integrates with R&M’s Netscale

DellEMC_Gitex_Ad_HR.pdf

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