The Grid Issue 08

October | Issue 08 - GITEX 2016

TheGrid

IN SYNC

TRANSFORMING BUSINESS OPERATIONS AND SPEARHEAD THE MARKET EVOLUTION

CONTENTS

www.mindware.ae

Published by

04

Management speak

08

RES

11

Arcserve

12

Citrix

14

Dell EMC

16

Eaton

18

Intel Security

20

Pulse Secure

22

Riverbed

24

Unify

26

Veritas

October 2016 Issue 08 | TheGrid

3

Introduction

Mindware @ GITEX

M

indware’s extensive portfolio includes a selection of leading hardware, networking, security and storage solution brands. As a part of its value-added distribution strategy, Mindware also offers services to its reseller partners, which include presales consultancy, marketing tools, and regional technical support.

At GITEX 2016, Mindware is – as every year - showcasing its elite vendor portfolio and stateof-the-art offerings.This year, the Company is excited to also highlight its new, customerfocused distribution strategies by means of its redesigned booth.

The main objective for participating at GITEX this year is to create awareness around our newly added products and services, to highlight our commitment to the Middle East reseller community and to further-strengthen our business relationships with both our customers and our vendors, be it existing or prospective.

Spokeperson: Gilbert Lacroix, General Manager, Mindware

Expansion strategies

M

Spokeperson: Nicholas Argyrides, Chief of Sales and Deputy GM, Mindware

4

TheGrid | Issue 08 October 2016

indware is one of the oldest and most reputable IT value-added distributors in the Middle East with a rich product portfolio coming from the finest multinational vendors such as Dell, EMC, Juniper, Symantec, Microsoft, and Intel. Our technically proficient team of professionals has been serving thousands of reseller partners across the region since 1991.

The recent anaemic business climate in the region has, undoubtedly, contributed to the surfacing of some significant commercial opportunities and, at Mindware, we certainly have our radars focused on a number of such prospects.

Over the following months, we have both horizontal expansion (based on geography) and vertical expansion (based on technologies and vendor portfolio) plans. We also have projects such as our Cloud Marketplace and Client Services, which are running in parallel.

At Mindware, we understand the necessity and strive to add value to our partners’ business both in the traditional way – decades of commitment in the region, multi-geographical presence, efficient logistics, proficient team, ethics and compliance - and also in a more modern way, which includes executing IT distribution via proactivity, reactivity, and adaptability – all being necessary qualities for a distributor in the new era of IoT, Services, and the Cloud.

Our recommendation to the reseller community is to continually keep themselves updated and capitalize on the opportunities in the market today. We constantly advise our partners to explore new options, be it commercially or technologically. We all are, after all, part of the most dynamic of industries out there.

Furthermore, the spectrum of technological verticals a reseller can focus on are, literally, endless.

If one spends some valuable time studying their options, they will realize that there is room for everyone to do business. Agility and appetite to learn are, however, imperative for accomplishing a successful change.

www.mindware.ae

www.mindware.ae

October 2016 Issue 08 | TheGrid

5

RES

Husni Hammoud, General Manager, RES

Partner for success

Husni Hammoud, General Manager, RES, elaborates on its foray into the Middle East region through partnership with Midis Group and how it aims to reach out to the market through Mindware, its regional distributor.

8

TheGrid | Issue 08 October 2016

M

idis Group partnership As a part of its expansion strategy, the leader in enabling, automating and securing the digital workspace, RES, has entered the Middle East region through a partnership with Midis Group, a privately-owned group of IT companies.

Husni Hammoud, General Manager, RES, says, the partnership is ideal as it is in sync with Midis Group’s mission – ‘to be a high-integrity partner, providing world-class technology brands and solutions into emerging markets and focusing on customer satisfaction.’ www.mindware.ae

He adds, “RES technology solutions are world-class and ideal in most markets including healthcare, finance, travel, government, public sector, transportation and more. Midis Group is well positioned to work as our partner in the Middle East with decades of operational expertise that will facilitate rapid growth.”

RES expects the partnership to drive its growth and strengthen its distribution channels in the region. As per the terms of the partnership, Midis Group will work as a direct extension of the vendor’s existing sales and marketing resources. “In answering what is the advantage and benefit of partnering with the Midis Group, this relationship will accelerate our strategy of building a highlyexperienced team to implement innovative solutions that provide new areas of opportunity for channel partnerships to meet the needs of our joint customers,” adds Hammoud.

RES continues to contribute extensively in the user centric security era through its RES ONE Security solution. RES re-imagines the workspace, empowering IT to make digital workspaces secure, automated and people-centric for easy adoption and use. We give IT the tools to design, build, deliver and control every aspect of the worker’s business journey with intuitive self service and security that adapt at each step along the way.

According to Hammoud, the company aims to transform the delivery of IT services by aligning executive strategies and objectives with its “nowadays IT services”. It expedites time-tomarket and delivers services and applications through secured IT platforms.

He adds, “Since RES is more like an orchestrator, rather than www.mindware.ae

“THE INTEGRATION AND AUTOMATION IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF ANY SUCCESSFUL DEPLOYMENT. AT THE END OF THE DAY, RES PARTNERS CAN DEFINITELY INCREASE THEIR INTEGRATED SOLUTION’S ADDED-VALUE AND PROFITABILITY WITH THE RES OFFERING.” standard application, it leverages the platforms and company investments to deliver the right experience across organizations. Therefore, our solution is platform agnostic.”

While the opportunities and potential of the region is high, Hammoud says, the maturity level of each market will vary and RES will invest in enablement, education and building experience across the different levels from End Users, Channel Partners, SI and Distributors.

“Organizations should look at our solutions thoroughly as they are clearly essential and complement their existing infrastructure to reach a seamless and monitored operation and ensures information security.”

Mindware partnership Hammoud says, “Mindware is a well-established distributor in the region, boasting a large number of well-known vendors and a successful track record. Through strategic partnerships, Mindware is able to concentrate on bringing effective

solutions to the market and value added distribution to all channels.

Its coverage spans across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Cyprus and North Africa. Mindware is best suited for our solutions.”

Mindware will be distributing all RES solutions and services including its RES ONE Suite that encompasses RES ONE Security, RES ONE Workspace, RES ONE Automation, and RES ONE Service Store, a self-service portal solution to its channel partners in the region.

“Partners have a tremendous opportunity with our RES ONE solutions as they complement all physical, virtual and hybrid environments across multiple sectors. This means SIs and resellers will see value in our solutions, which they can add to their offerings. Partners working in the virtualization, security and converged space will immediately see the added advantage that our solutions bring.”

He says, “Partners have the benefit, not only around licensing sales but also around professional services and consultancy. The integration and automation is an essential part of any successful deployment. At the end of the day, RES partners can definitely increase their integrated solution’s added-value and profitability with the RES offering.”

The RES partner program for the region will be in sync with its global program, but also customizing and localizing per each market’s unique requirements.

“We encourage partners to explore our offerings as RES is a good player and offers a great opportunity that needs to be looked into thoroughly to add profitability,” adds Hammoud.

October 2016 Issue 08 | TheGrid

9

Arcserve

Committed to channel Rami Nasser, Regional Sales Director, EMEA, Growth and Emerging Markets, Arcserve, elaborates on the company’s channel plans for the region. includes a dedicated portal that is a partner specific repository of tools and materials to help our partners promote, market and sell our solutions. Our local sales team is also on hand to work closely with our partners to unearth, develop and close sales opportunities.

We have also started to run a regular program of onsite technical training in order to better equip channel sales people to position and promote our offerings to the market. Additionally, our product portfolio is such that it enables our partners to pursue a broad range of data protection opportunities that cover physical, virtual and cloud based environments from a single vendor, thus making their and the end-users’ lives easier.

Rami Nasser, Regional Sales Director, EMEA Growth and Emerging Markets, Arcserve

www.mindware.ae

hat’s been Arcserve’s focus and business strategy for the Middle East channel in 2016?

As a company, and unlike some of our competitors, we continue to be dedicated to our channel partners and this is no different in the Middle East. Our strategy has been to support our partners, such as Mindware, with our own highly skilled local sales team, thus creating an ideal mix of resources to expand our footprint and grow our business across the region.

What channel initiatives is Arcserve rolling out in the Middle East this year?

We continue to evolve our partner program and will be making further enhancements to our portal, which will enrich the tools and materials that our partners can use. As stated above, we have increased our program of onsite technical training, which have been very wellattended. We are also looking to implement some focused marketing activities that will help to identify larger sales opportunities for our channel partners.

How is Arcserve helping its channel partners to take advantage of the improving business climate in the Middle East?

Arcserve continues to help our channel partners in a multitude of ways. We have a comprehensive partner program, which also

What is the state of the Middle East IT reseller channel in terms of business opportunities and potential for Arcserve’s solutions in the market?

The IT reseller channel is different compared to the USA and Western Europe, and also across the region

W

itself. For example, the UAE IT channel is different in terms of size and makeup as say compared to some other GCC countries.

We work very closely with our authorized distribution partners to identify and support VARs, SIs and so on to sell our solutions. There are many resellers who have different skill sets and strengths, some may be strong in certain verticals for example, others in selling certain types of solutions, so our approach is to support and align with those partners through a combined sales and marketing effort to target the end-user community.

What role are your distribution partners such as Mindware and reseller partners expected to play?

We see the likes of Mindware as being the regional experts in many ways and we expect to work closely with them to really educate, support and drive their reseller base in order to grow our business together. We view our distribution partners as adding value to our sales and marketing efforts to raise our awareness across the reseller base and be a driving force forward.

What will be Arcserve’s highlight at GITEX Technology Week 2016?

We will be announcing a major new product launch during GITEX 2016. Watch this space to know more.

What can your channel partners expect from ARCSERVE in the next 12 months in the region?

From a corporate perspective, we will continue to strive forward from a technology standpoint, which bodes well for the Middle East. At a regional level, we see the next 12 months as being the next phase in our growth plans for the region as technology adoption, particularly around the clear need to implement robust data protection solutions, continues to accelerate.

October 2016 Issue 08 | TheGrid

11

Citrix

Onwards and upwards With over 280 partners spread across the Middle East and Africa region, Citrix continues to stay committed to bringing new growth opportunities to its fast-growing channel network.

P

artner progress Citrix has increased its commitment to the channel through the Citrix Partner Growth Plan – a multi-year initiative delivering significant incremental opportunity and profit to committed partners in markets whose technology focus is on virtualization, mobility and/or networking.

The Citrix channel program consists of Citrix Solution Advisors (CSA), who are classified into Platinum, Gold and Partner ranges, depending on their levels of specialization in technology. This helps companies focus on developing specific expertise in hardware and software and possess a thorough knowledge of the vertical markets in which they operate in In the region, we have 280-plus partners, who are fully enrolled into our program and a fast growing community of specialized partners who are benefiting from greater rewards and are able to establish a competitive advantage across various markets.

In the Middle East and Africa region, we have been heavily expanding our channel base and aim to have a wider partner network that will deliver value and partner differentiation to improve market reach, revenue and scale. We will also continue investing in partner training programs where we have created new tools and resources that will help increase productivity and enable partners to compete more effectively in the region, with our growing mobile workplace solutions portfolio.

A new initiative that has been introduced this year is the ‘Net New Partner Source,’ which is designed to further incentivize partners to find new customers. Citrix is offering a seven percent upfront discount 12

TheGrid | Issue 08 October 2016

Eyad Al Shami, Senior Channel Manager, META, Citrix

for resellers in the Citrix Solution Advisors (CSA) program, as well as for systems integrators that bring in firsttime customers, specifically among mid-market companies, a key sector for Citrix in the next few years.

New avenues for growth Workplace transformation remains a critically important phenomenon across all industries in the Middle East. This has led to many industry decision-makers focusing on adopting new technologies to improve business operations by addressing developments such as the convergence of social, mobile, cloud and Big Data. With these trends, channel partners need to be fully equipped with the tools, knowledge and skills they need to cater to the individually unique demand of our customers in the region.

We are constantly making significant investments in our training programs to ensure that our partners are able to educate regional businesses on the importance of adopting business mobility strategies.

Future plans Through the intensive training programs that Citrix offers, most of our channel partners are selfsufficient when it comes to their business. Once the partners are already well-versed in the technologies and products we offer, we focus on providing them with technical support to help them further grow their business. For instance, we work closely with them to draft and respond to RFPs where necessary.

Vendors and distributors can help by ensuring that customers’ needs are kept in mind while proposing the infrastructure rather than taking a one size fits all approach. This will help plan capacity accurately.

In line with this, among the key objectives we have for the next twelve months include growing the number of specialized partners we have in the region; introducing new offerings in partnership with our SIs, where they can offer a variety of on premise/cloud solutions that address ever-changing and growing customer demands; and continuing to work closely with our global partners like Microsoft and create combined offerings in the market.

As for the IT industry as a whole, we see the rapid emergence of new devices and app platforms, cloud, mobility and BYOD initiatives.

Organizations in the Middle East must find a way to manage and secure the diversity of today’s IT environments.

This means that today, businesses will increasingly look for technology solutions that address all of their enterprise mobility needs, ranging from device management to native mobile apps for e-mail, web access, collaboration and data sharing, as well as desktop virtualization for seamless access to Windows apps and desktops. www.mindware.ae

App Virtualization and VDI Give employees the freedom to work from anywhere while cutting IT costs. Securely deliver Windows, Linux, web and SaaS apps plus full virtual desktops to any device.

citrix.com

DELL EMC

Dell EMC shares regional plans DELL EMC executives discuss the key role the newly formed company will play in enabling the success of Middle East businesses in the age of digital transformation.

S

enior executives from Dell EMC, part of Dell Technologies, the newly combined entity of Dell and EMC has recently met with customers and channel partners and discuss their roadmaps to transform the UAE’s business and economic landscapes.

The executives, customers, and partners looked at how a digital future aligns to the UAE’s national aspirations, transforming the way every business in every industry operates. Customers charted steps to modernise and automate the technology infrastructure and services to deliver the maximum performance and availability as efficiently as possible. Regional leaders also discussed the importance of protecting organisations’ most crucial asset in a digital economy –information.

Dell EMC discussed how the newlycombined company is built to help customers thrive in the digital era and resolve the region’s most pressing business challenges including cloud, converged infrastructure, security, and mobility in the public, financial services, energy, education, and SME sectors.

Aongus Hegarty, President, Dell EMC, EMEA, outlined the insights he had earlier shared with some of the company’s largest enterprise clients in the UAE, “This region and the UAE specifically has the opportunity to make a quantum leap in using technology solutions to resolve pressing business issues – the lack of outdated infrastructure combined with the public and private sectors’ focus on creating employment opportunities and forging a digital transformation in education, financial services, government and other key sectors providing tremendous opportunity for collaborative problemsolving with Dell Technologies.”

During meetings with key stakeholders in the UAE, Dell EMC 14

TheGrid | Issue 08 October 2016

“WITH DELL-EMC COMING TOGETHER, OUR CUSTOMERS AND PARTNERS CAN NOW LEVERAGE A TRUSTED ADVISOR WHO HAS A RICH UNDERSTANDING OF THIS REGION, EXTENDS AN UNMATCHED PORTFOLIO OF SOLUTIONS TO MEET DIVERSE NEEDS AND OFFERS BEST IN CLASS EXPERTISE.” (L to R) Mohammed Amin, EMC; Aongus Hegarty, Dell EMC; and Driss el Ougmani, Dell

executives highlighted ways in which the merged company will support the government’s strategy to develop a knowledge-based economy and enhance service delivery for residents in line with Vision 2021.

“As the UAE prepares to stand at the forefront of emerging markets powered on Vision 2021, there is a growing interest to facilitate innovation across every aspect of industry and human life. With Dell-EMC coming together, our customers and partners can now leverage a trusted advisor who has a rich understanding of this region, extends an unmatched portfolio of solutions to meet diverse needs and offers best in class expertise. We look forward to bringing the power of our combined investment in R&D – more than $12.7 billion over the last three years to extend the industry’s most complete set of capabilities,” said Mohammed Amin, Senior Vice President, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Africa and Middle East, EMC. According to the newly combined company, its offerings provide the foundation to enable enterprise

customers’ digital transformation through their trusted hybrid cloud and Big Data solutions, built upon a modern data centre infrastructure that incorporates industryleading converged infrastructure, servers, storage, and cybersecurity technologies. Dell EMC noted that it has longstanding customer and channel partner relationships across the region, having enabled companies to become more customer-centric, efficient and secure; leveraging their most critical information-based assets; and reduce operational costs through technology innovation.

“Dell EMC brings together the expertise of operating in 180 countries with a 140,000-strong team, serving 98 percent of Fortune 500. This global scope, combined with our longstanding presence in the region, means that we are well positioned in the UAE to enable customers to embrace the digital future in alignment with the country’s aspirations,” commented Driss el Ougmani, Vice President, MEA, Dell. www.mindware.ae

Eaton

Partner advantage Karim Refas, Regional Channel Manager, Eaton, discusses the various business opportunities presented to channel partners in the Middle East region, and the recent appointment of Mindware as Eaton’s distributor for the GCC. users to look for trusted advisors, and this means more opportunities for the channel partners who acquire these competencies. It is imperative that they have our full backing, as this in turn increases Eaton’s own established presence in the market.

Karim Refas, Regional Channel Manager, Eaton

M

iddle East strategy To enable us to meet our commitment to the region, we embarked on a strong partner recruitment drive at the beginning of the year. We recently appointed Mindware as a distributor for the GCC (excluding Saudi). As an established partner, with strong relationships and experience with regional vendors, Mindware will play a pivotal role in supporting Eaton’s growth.

Competitive edge Eaton is leading the development of innovative solutions to bridge the gap between the physical and the virtual infrastructure. We sell these solutions exclusively through the channel, and we aim to give our partners all the support they need and help each stakeholder to make key decisions that are right for their business. We encourage our partners to expand their portfolio and seek selling opportunities, as these complex environments push the end-

16

TheGrid | Issue 08 October 2016

Channel initiatives Eaton has recently updated its Power Advantage Partner Programme. The programme is designed to help solution providers grow their business through power quality and UPS solutions. In addition to the programme, Mindware is running a reseller promotion until October. The scheme rewards partners who resell Eaton products throughout the region.

Regional business opportunities The Middle East offers a major opportunity for Eaton to establish itself in the UPS market. Eaton is still currently under-distributed in the market place, as opposed to our competitors, but this creates an opportunity for resellers who can choose to buy a quality product that offers a differentiated offering. It is important for channel partners and resellers to work ahead of the industry and offer solutions that solve challenges, current and future. The rapid adoption of the cloud, and the software defined data centre may be raising more complexities but the power infrastructure needs to follow and this is raising opportunities for partners to explore the market and target the correct customer.

Role of distribution partners Our distributor partners are central

and critical for our business strategy in the region. With the current business climate in the region, it is a fantastic opportunity to convince more resellers to be part of this success story.

Mindware’s local knowledge, technical skills and access to distribution networks across the GCC, give us more potential to target a bigger reseller base. We expect them to play an important part in helping us achieve our ambitions and targets.

GITEX Technology Week 2016 Eaton will showcase its integration capabilities with alliance partners that include Cisco, VMware or EMC and on how companies can leverage advancements in power management technology, integrated with the latest infrastructure management solutions to improve control over and improve availability of vital IT resources.

GITEX gives us the base to connect with new customers, form new alliances with partners and share knowledge on the latest trends in the market. The event is important for us to continue to raise brand visibility, and gives us the ability to be better prepared for future trends as key decision makers in the industry.

Business trends Everything is moving towards converged and hyper-converged infrastructure and a software-defined datacentre. Auto-adaptive intelligent power architecture will be key to ensure improved continuity and resiliency for the entire business. Software integration should not simply be about creating a lot of data, but having the intelligence to manage its dependence on power.

Future plans As an organisation, we have made major investments worldwide and we will continue to do so if we want to demonstrate our commitment to our partners. We have a range of tools and marketing promotional material to continue partners’ success. We want to reassure our partners that we will be investing on all levels to achieve our goal of becoming the number one player in the region. www.mindware.ae

Intel Security

Dynamic defences Raj Samani, VP & CTO, EMEA, Intel Security, discusses how you can ensure that your data is not taken hostage and gives insights on different ransomware remediation strategies.

A

ccording to the June 2016 McAfee Labs Threats Report, total ransomware grew 116% year-over-year for the period ending March 31. Total ransomware rose 26% from Q4 2015 to Q1 2016 as lucrative returns continued to draw relatively low-skilled criminals.

This spurt in ransomware attacks can be attributed to three key reasons. The first driver is the syndication of the activity into ransom as a service with offers of revenue sharing to operatives facing the target recipients. Second is the development of polymorphism in ransomware generating a unique threat signature for each attack. Lastly, there’s the increasing sophistication within the malware, widening the scope of damages.

Ransomware attacks occur in five stages – distribution, infection, communication, encryption and demand.

So, it is only logical that there should be prevention and remediation strategies for each of these stages.

Distribution stage Build a “human firewall”: The biggest threat is users who let the ransomware on their endpoints. Organizations need to make sure that all employees understand how ransomware works and the ramifications of an attack Stop ransomware before the endpoint: The most-proactive method of protecting 18

TheGrid | Issue 08 October 2016

Raj Samani, VP & CTO, EMEA, Intel Security

a network from ransomware attack (other than the human firewall) is to keep ransomware from reaching the endpoint in the first place.

Apply all current operating system and application patches: Having the latest operating system and application versions and patches will reduce the attack surface to a minimum.

Spam filtering and web gateway filtering: These are great ways to stop ransomware that tries to reach the endpoint through malicious IPs, URLs, and email spam.

Allow only whitelisted items to execute: Use an “application control” method that offers centrally administered whitelisting to block unauthorized executables on servers, corporate desktops, and fixed-function devices, thus dramatically reducing the attack surface for most ransomware Limit privileges for unknown processes: This can be done easily by writing rules for host intrusion prevention systems or access protection rules Infection Stage Don’t turn on macros unless you know what’s happening: In general, do not enable macros in documents received via email. Office macros are a popular way for ransomware to infect your machine, so if a document “asks” you to enable macros, don’t do it.

Make yourself “weaker” when working: Don’t give yourself more login power than you need. If you allow yourself administrator rights during normal usage, consider restricting this.

Surfing the web, opening applications and documents, and generally doing a lot of work while logged in with administrative rights is very dangerous.

Use access protection rules on software installs: Write access control rules against targeted file extensions that deny writes by unapproved applications. This complements host

intrusion prevention systems rules with a similar strategy.

Use sandboxing for suspicious processes: If a process is flagged as suspicious, that process should be sent to a security sandboxing appliance for further study.

Block “unapproved” processes from changing files: Block these by writing rules for host intrusion prevention systems or access protection.

Communication stage Firewall rules can block known malicious domains: Writing rules to block malicious domains is a standard capability of network firewalls.

Proxy/gateway scanner signatures for known traffic: For those with proxy and gateway appliances, these technologies can be configured to scan for known ransomware control server traffic and block it.

Encryption stage Back-up and restore files locally: By creating a storage volume and running archival differential-based file backups to that storage volume, remediation is as easy as removing the ransomware.

This can be done today by network administrators who could either use external storage volumes with a good archival backup utility or partition a local drive and run the backup utility against that.

Limit shared file activities: Many ransomware variants will look for access to files on storage other than the boot volume—such as file servers and additional volumes —and will encrypt everything they can find to inflict maximum damage. Consider limiting operations allowed on shared volumes Ransom demand stage Restore from backup, keep a recent backup offsite and “air gapped”: Store a set of multiple, complete backups and assume an attack. An “air-gapped” backup is not connected to the computer or the network anywhere.

Consider using a “bare metal backup” utility, which not only backs up your user files, but also lets you erase all storage volumes (in case the machine is stolen) and get you back to a usable state with all your applications and data restored. www.mindware.ae

Pulse Secure

Secure strategy As the IT landscape continues to grow, focus on security has become more important than ever. Abdul Rehman Tariq Butt, Regional Manager, Channel and Sales, Pulse Secure, shares how the company is ensuring its channel partners meet the growing security demands of their customers in the region. existing as well as new channel partners. In addition, we have provided out channel partners with a number of tools to ensure they can seamlessly demonstrate Secure Access to their customers. For example, our ‘NAC Ignite Program’ is targeted at enabling partners with the ample know-how on our network access control (NAC) offering, which differentiates us from other NAC vendors in the market.

This, bundled with our BYOD and SSL offering, provides a unique competitive edge to all channel partners.

Abdul Rehman Tariq Butt, Regional Manager, Channel and Sales, Pulse Secure

20

C

hannel opportunities The channel is a major part and bloodline for Pulse Secure. Our focus has been on ensuring that all our channel partners are aware of the business opportunity they have in the Secure Access market.

We believe that with the right enablement activities and by providing amazing content in our partner portals, we are able to share the right information with our partners.

Our channel strategy is centred on transparency. Whatever content we share internally we also share with our partners. We make sure that they are kept up to date with the latest market trends, and solutions and initiatives that we have.

Along with our regular enablement plans for the channel partners, we are rolling out new technology specific partner programs, to motivate our

TheGrid | Issue 08 October 2016

An eye on security The business climate in the last year has been very slow and gloomy. This is now in an improving state, and more customers are now becoming more open to evaluating and improving the security side of their current IT setups.

As a security vendor, we enable our partners with a future-proof SecureAccess offering that includes all tools for them to be successful in offering the latest security solutions to their customers. The close collaboration between Pulse Secure and its channel partners focus on ensuring that both the company’s current and potential customers are equipped with secured IT environments.

Role of regional distributors Distributors have always played a major role in the development of the channel in this region. Most vendors here have a small setup, which means they need the support and reach of the distribution to engage with as many relevant channel resellers as possible.

From partner enablement activities to participation in events such as

GITEX, distributors play a key role in helping vendors extend their reach to channel resellers and even end-users.

Pulse Secure at GITEX GITEX is a key event in the IT calendar, with a lot of vendors showcasing their offerings to a huge set of customers.

We think the event provides us with a great opportunity to meet some highend decision-makers and will help us get both short- and long-term leads.

During the event, we plan to showcase our Secure Access suite to all customers and channel partners.

We plan to demonstrate how we combine Remote Access via our Connect Secure portfolio, NAC via our Policy Secure and BYOD via Pulse Workspace to provide a seamless Secure Access user experience.

Moreover, with new additions to our suite in the form Cloud Secure, we are geared up to provide secure access on any platform at any time on any medium.

Looking forward Pulse Secure is at an exciting phase, with a lot of focus on R&D leading to some innovative solutions and products. Our channel partners can expect us to put more effort to partner enablement and in-region awareness.

We aim to introduce some new channel plans that will benefit our existing partners and attract potential ones. We believe that our Connect Now Partner program is one of the best channel programs in the market and we are working towards enhancing it even further.

As for our product offering, we will continue to grow our Secure Access market and see how we can add value to our customers in this space. Unlike other vendors, we don’t sell multiple solutions or services where security is only a small feature. We believe IT security is key for the health of any IT environment in today’s world. Pulse Secure’s focus has always been about offering the ‘best-of-breed’ solution model, which enables us to collaborate with a huge set of complementary vendors across the IT landscape. www.mindware.ae

Riverbed

The value offering With its regional business 100 percent channel-driven, Riverbed appreciates the importance of strong local partnerships. The firm also has several announcements on the horizon for GITEX Technology Week.

M

iddle East Our focus in recent years has been to help partners expand across three key areas: building an embedded solution and services program; driving joint engagement; and accelerating repeatable revenue.

We want to enable partners to integrate the Riverbed Application Performance Platform into their solution architectures. Our intention is for partners to create value addition around our solution offerings so that they can benefit from better margins.

Strategy Riverbed adopts a 100 percent channeldriven model in the META region, so the role of our distributors and resellers in our success cannot be overstated.

We are particularly dependent on our distributor partners like Mindware, as they are key to driving our penetration in emerging markets. We have been serving these markets remotely. As a vendor, it is not really viable to establish a local presence in every market due to a number of factors.

So our approach has been to leverage value added distributors that have the footprint and financial stability to meet payments terms, manage logistics and serve the market remotely.

One of our key initiatives this year has been the update of the Riverbed Performance Partner Program to drive greater incentives and investment for partners and enable them to expand. We have added a new track to the partner program for managed services, as well as focusing investment and refinement to our value-added distributor program.

In order to meet the evolving buying needs of customers, we intend to launch 22

TheGrid | Issue 08 October 2016

Ramzi Itani, Regional Channel Director, Riverbed Technology

pilot programs for managed services sold via the channel with subscription licensing and pricing. We are also in the process of launching an authorised consulting partner track to enable key partners to better support customers by delivering Riverbed franchise professional services.

2017 objectives The next 18 months will be an interesting time for the IT industry, as organisations begin to embark on their digital transformation journeys.

In doing so, they will need to become hybrid enterprises that leverage a mix of public cloud for innovation, with onpremise data centres/private clouds for mission-critical applications.

Going hybrid, however, can cause massive disruption in the business-critical areas of agility,

visibility, performance, and efficiency.

Riverbed will therefore utilise this as an opportunity to help businesses understand how our Application Performance Platform helps simplify, optimise, protect, and orchestrate applications and data across the hybrid enterprise by delivering visibility, optimisation, and control.

GITEX 2016 Business in the META region is very relationship-driven and GITEX is extremely well attended by key players and decision-makers in the industry. It therefore acts as a single platform for us to meet and engage with a number of customers and partners.

In line with the theme ‘experience the future of networking’, we intend to unveil our latest SteelConnect, SteelCentral, and SteelFusion solutions for the hybrid enterprise and raise awareness of these in the market.

SteelConnect is the industry’s first and only product to unify network connectivity and orchestration of application delivery across hybrid WANs, remote LANs and cloud networks. SteelConnect 2.0, which will be launched at GITEX includes new platform integrations, native dynamic routing, and support for large-scale deployments.

The new SteelCentral release delivers greater integration with our SD-WAN solution, extends monitoring to any endpoint, and is now available as a service from the cloud. Thanks to our acquisition of Aternity earlier this year, we have also been able to add end-user experience monitoring to the already impressive set of capabilities that SteelCentral brings to organisations.

Finally, with its latest update, SteelFusion, our industry-leading hyperconverged branch IT solution, will be offered in two new deployment options to give customers greater flexibility in how they transform distributed infrastructure into a software-defined Edge that is agile, secure, and costeffective.

Also, through our collaboration with Microsoft, we will showcase our solutions for optimisation and visibility for the highly popular Office 365, SharePoint and Azure platforms. www.mindware.ae

www.mindware.ae

October 2016 Issue 08 | TheGrid

23

Unify

Dynamic progress Feras Zeidan, Vice President, Unify MEA, discusses the company’s channel-centric strategy and future plans in the Middle East.

Feras Zeidan, Vice President, Unify MEA

24

M

iddle East strategy In the past year, Unify’s partner base has more than doubled in size to over 2,000 partners in more than 50 countries, along with 13 new distributors. We plan to continue on having an aggressive channel growth plan and conduct 50% of our product sales through its Middle East partners.

We aim to further increase our reach across the region and be the partner of choice in the communications and collaboration industry. In this regard, Unify plans to put in more efforts toward building our brand and continue supporting the channel. We have also made a number of improvements in key areas, including streamlining and simplifying the on-boarding process and experience, making it easier to do business with the company.

We believe that our channel-first model, product portfolio and brand strength provides partners with growth opportunities that bring real value to their business.

TheGrid | Issue 08 October 2016

Channel opportunities Among the initiatives we are currently on for our channel partners are channel recruitment workshops, lead generation, certification boot camps, promotion and pricing support, vertical-based focus training sessions, product demonstrations and the likes. Our team has always been consistently working towards knowledge transfer and creating opportunities for our partners to enable them to easily do business with us. We want partners in the small and mid-market, and large enterprise to have ample knowledge and expertise on the different offerings Unify has.

What’s more is that our partners can expect us to actively work on spreading brand awareness here in the region in the next 12 months.

As part of this plan, we will put more focus on end-user branding activities, new product launches, bringing higher partner margins, aggressive bundles, conducting software and services oriented activities, technical trainings, introducing easier design and configuration tools and more.

Role of distribution partners We believe that the role of distribution partners like Mindware is very important to our business.

They enable us to benefit from their value-added channel services like seamless on boarding, UC battle cards, sales support, training implementations and more.

These kinds of services are at the core of our vendor to distributor go-to-market alignment. With our aggressive focus on new growth markets and selling through education, training and support, Unify expects our distributors to be committed to providing engineering

and labor support to uphold its reputation as a trusted consultative advisor to channel players.

In addition, we also strongly believe that the role of systems integrators is very important to our business. SIs are no longer just simply deploying solutions they are now increasingly becoming consultants for their customers.

Customers generally want to work with SIs as their partners. Hence, SI’s need to go deep into their technical skill sets across various platforms to be the partner of the choice.

Unify at GITEX GITEX Technology Week is an excellent platform to meet both our channel partners and customers across the region under one umbrella. At the same time, it’s the apt venue to showcase the different technologies we have to the regional IT market.

Our participation at GITEX will see the launch of our flexible SMB bundle propositions. We will also conduct live demonstrations of a number of our product offerings, which include OpenScape Business, our healthcarefocused solution – Hi-Med, and our collaboration tool for service providers – Circuit.

Future plans Driven by the rise of the anywhere worker and the shift to the ondemand economy, Unify believes that businesses in 2016 will increasingly leverage actionable data, streamlined social media content and re-imagined consumption models to drive customer engagement. The “New Way to Work” from Unify is increasingly influencing customer engagement and driving demand for technology tools and data that enable businesses to better understand and serve their customers. We believe that 2016 will see a critical shift in the way that businesses communicate – both among employees and with customers – that will provide greater flexibility, knowledge and productivity. www.mindware.ae

Veritas

Needle in the haystack Veritas is geared up to manage and make sense of exponential data growth at this year’s GITEX Technology Week.

What is the state of the Middle East IT reseller channel in terms of business opportunities and potential for Veritas’ solutions in the market?

Veritas’ solutions have a huge amount of potential within the Middle East. Our recent research has highlighted that only 40 percent of organisations are high performers when it comes to information governance. This is a huge opening for Veritas to pitch its solutions as we can help those other 60 percent drastically improve their business in relation to their information governance while also offering the ability to scale to those who are already performing – where many other products cannot.

W

hat’s been Veritas’ focus and business strategy for the Middle East channel in 2016?

Our focus here at Veritas has been on information, and how information is used to improve business decisions. We view data as an organisation’s digital currency and critical in guiding any company’s direction and improvement. Our mission is to position ourselves as a thought leader in the information management markets in the UAE and GCC. What are the channel initiatives that Veritas is rolling out in the Middle East this year?

We have initiated a new channel partner program in order to support, resource and reward channel in the Middle East with sustainable profitable growth. We will also be expanding our GCC channel program.

26

TheGrid | Issue 08 October 2016

Mario Gay, Regional Channel Director, EMEA Emerging Region, Veritas Technologies

What role are your distribution partners such as Mindware and reseller partners expected to play?

Through distribution partners we can reach far more customers on a larger scale. We are a leader in the global market because we have robust local partnerships. It is important that we work alongside those who know the regional market well, our strong partnership with Mindware gives us this local expertise. We are committed to supporting and developing the Middle East as a growth market.

What is the importance of participating in a technology trade fair such as GITEX Technology Week?

We offer a unique insight into information management and how businesses can control their data.

GITEX Technology Week offers us a fantastic opportunity to not only show off our solutions, but actually highlight many of the challenges

“WE HAVE INITIATED A NEW CHANNEL PARTNER PROGRAM IN ORDER TO SUPPORT, RESOURCE AND REWARD CHANNEL IN THE MIDDLE EAST WITH SUSTAINABLE PROFITABLE GROWTH.” that companies can face with the exponential growth of their data. We will do this by highlighting things such as our Databerg study and how it relates to each of the business representatives at the event.

What can your channel partners (distributors and resellers) expect from Veritas in the next 12 months in the region?

Investment. We are growing our team in the region to fill our new office.

What technology or business trend is Veritas tracking in the next 18 months?

We are looking at the expansion of data within companies and the ways in which they manage it. We are looking into what data constitutes value and what information businesses are using to inform their decisions. As such, we will be releasing new offerings to support our customers achieve their business goals. www.mindware.ae