Reseller Middle East June 2017 by Reseller Middle East

ISSUE 246 | JUNE 2017 www.tahawultech.com

STORAGE PROSPECTS BUILDING MARKETING SKILLS

PARTNER EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2017

A SAFE BET

F5 Networks aims to grow the security business by two-fold over the next 18 months

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STRATEGIC VAD PARTNER

CONTENTS A SAFE BET

ISSUE 246 // JUNE 2017

26 COVER FEATURE

F5 Networks aims to double the security business over the next year and half. HIGHLIGHTS

NEWS We help you catch up on all the major news and announcements in the regional channel community.

OPINION

64 REVIEW

SONY MDR-1000X HEADPHONE

20 SOARING TO THE CLOUDS

Richard McLeod from BlackBerry on how partners can thrive in the cloud-driven economy.

FEATURES

30 PARTNER EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2017

A recap of Reseller ME’s annual awards event.

54 CACHING IN

Reseller ME examines how partners can optimise storage opportunties.

58 MARKETING MATTERS

Experts discuss the benefits of possessing marketing skills.

VENDOR FOCUS

63 ENABLING DATA ACCESSIBILITY

Veeam’s Mike Resseler on how and why customers must reconsider their data protection strategies.

66 MICROSOFT UNVEILS HOT PRODUCTS

NEW SURFACE LAPTOP

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

Velop is a high-performing modular Wi-Fi mesh-system with Dynamic Tri-Band technology that sets up in minutes and delivers flawless, ultra-fast 100% seamless Wi-Fi throughout your home.

EDITORIAL Tie the knot

Janees Reghelini Editor

E-mail: janees.reghelini@ cpimediagroup.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ TahawulTech Twitter: @TahawulTech

FOUNDER, CPI MEDIA GROUP Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015) Publishing Director Natasha Pendleton natasha.pendleton@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9139

Published by

Registered at Dubai Production City, DCCA PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 © Copyright 2017 CPI All rights reserved While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

Any kind of partnership entails an elaborate process of evaluating how it can effectively aid a firm’s long-term goal. There should be necessary checks in place and one must thoroughly do the research before signing on the dotted line. Although it does take time and efforts for the selection process, partners might find it worthwhile to think about combining their strengths with those of another firm to be able to solve customers’ challenges in an efficient way. Collaboration itself is not an unknown concept, but what we need to explore is the coming together of non-traditional channel partners to seize the opportunities the new era of business presents. This will also help in retaining customers and creating a long-term relationship, thus adding on to the profitability. Increasingly, we are seeing regional enterprises opting for a services model, as it is cost-effective and allows them to be flexible to consume a technology as required.

An IDC report stated that the managed and data centre services markets in the UAE alone is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.8 percent between 2013 and 2018 to hit a total of $971.8 million by next year. With managed services gaining interest, partners should look at associating with telcos. Experts believe that such partnerships have the potential to put forward a compelling proposition for customers. What partners need to understand is that there is no disgrace in admitting to the strengths they lack and going forth to find alliances that will complement their offering. After all, we have seen the success large vendors have with their technology partnerships. This is definitely something to think about as we enter the quiet summer months. On that note, wish you all a blessed holy month of Ramadan.

EDITORIAL Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9129

ADVERTISING Group Sales Director Kausar Syed kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9130

Editor Janees Reghelini janees.reghelini@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9167

Sales Manager Merle Carrasco merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9147

Online Editor Adelle Geronimo adelle.geronimo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9135

CIRCULATION Database and Circulation Manager Rajeesh M rajeesh.nair@cpimediagroup.com +971 4440 9119

DESIGN Senior Designer Analou Balbero analou.balbero@cpimediagroup.com Designer Neha Kalvani neha.kalvani@cpimediagroup.com

PRODUCTION Production Manager James P Tharian james.tharian@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9159

Operations Manager Shweta Santosh shweta.santosh@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9107 DIGITAL SERVICES Web Developers Jefferson de Joya Abbas Madh Photographers Max Poriechkin Charls Thomas webmaster@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9100 DIGITAL www.resellerme.com Printed by Printwell Printing Press

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

HIGHLIGHTS

Emaar takes majority stake in Namshi, buys JadoPado

lobal Fashion Mohamed Alabbar, Group (GFG) Chairman of Emaar Malls and Emaar Malls and Emaar Properties, said, have formed a “The acquisition of a majority strategic partnership to stake in Namshi underlines further the growth of our digital-driven strategy Namshi, a Middle East to leverage the growing online fashion retailer. e-commerce market in the Mohamed Alabaar, Emaar As per the terms of the Middle East and North Africa partnership, Emaar Malls will Properties region. Namshi offers a acquire a 51 percent stake perfect fit for Emaar Malls in in Namshi for $151 million, which will accelerating its focus on multi-channel be an all-cash transaction and includes retailing, and creating long-term value for investment in the company for its future its stakeholders.” growth. GFG will retain the remaining 49 Namshi will continue to benefit from percent stake. GFG’s network, expertise in fashion Emaar Malls will provide the company e-commerce and shared resources, access to additional fashion brands, such as global brand acquisition and develop its logistics infrastructure and global IT development and innovation. expand its geographical footprint in Earlier in May, a technology fund adjacent countries. headed by Emaar Properties chairman

The acquisition of a majority stake in Namshi underlines our digitaldriven strategy to leverage the growing e-commerce market in the Middle East and North Africa region.” Mohamed Alabbar also bought JadoPado, the Dubai-based e-commerce and online marketplace portal. Omar Kassim, founder and chief executive officer, JadoPado, said, “The JadoPado team will be integrated into ongoing projects such as http://Noon. com and will also be involved in exciting new projects across the digital spectrum in areas such as marketplaces, food commerce, payments and logistics. regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Logicom launches e-commerce site for partners Logicom, a regional distributor of technology solutions and services, has launched an e-commerce Michael Papaeracleous, site, www. Logicom logicompartners. com, for partners in the UAE. The site, with its user-friendly and functional interface, has been rolled out successfully and is now live and ready to use for the distributor’s partners in the UAE, Romania, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Cyprus and Greece. According to the company, this launch is a part of its continuous efforts to improve and develop the services it offers to its partners as a Value-Added Distributor (VAD). The Logicom e-commerce site includes a gamut of features and

functionalities that will enhance its partners’ online experience. These include a search option for users to find products based on certain specifications, additional information on similar and related products, the option

We are pleased to have launched our e-commerce site in such a wide range of regions, and to provide a channel, which enables our partners to place their orders quickly and easily, as well as enjoy additional valuable feature.”

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

for users to create their own Favorites List and the access to order status and shipping information, including for orders not made via e-commerce. Partners also have the option to download their customer statements and payment information and can repeat previous orders with the option to download product serial numbers. “We are pleased to have launched our e-commerce site in such a wide range of regions, and to provide a channel, which enables our partners to place their orders quickly and easily, as well as enjoy additional valuable features,” said Michael Papaeracleous, executive director, Distribution, Logicom. “We will continue to enhance the functionality of our site throughout the year. This allows Logicom to continue its commitment to finding ways to go the extra mile to provide our new and existing partners with exceptional service and full support.”

HIGHLIGHTS

Sage partners with First BIT for UAE

we will be able to offer a new age has set of world-class business appointed First management solutions to BIT as an clients in a wide range of authorised industries. The power of partner for distribution of the the Sage portfolio is that Sage 300 business it offers flexible, integrated management solution and and scalable solutions for Sage 50 Accounting in UAE. organisations ranging from According to the Keith Fenner, Sage Enterprise Africa and start-ups to scale-ups, distributor, it helps Middle East to mid-sized and larger customers transform enterprises,” said Aleksandr business processes through Smolianinov, managing partner, First BIT. comprehensive business automation “We are excited to partner with solutions and a full range of IT-related services. Operating across five countries First BIT. Its wide-ranging experience in the deployment of business and in 42 cities, First Bit has been management solutions across the globe involved in over 150,000 successful and particularly in the UAE, in various automation projects around the world. industries will helps us reach new “Through our partnership with Sage,

We are excited to partner with First BIT. Its wideranging experience in the deployment of business management solutions across the globe and particularly in the UAE.” customers and serve the market even better,” said Keith Fenner, vice president, Sage Enterprise Africa and Middle East.

GBM: Cybersecurity key for GCC as millennials go digital Gulf Business Machines (GBM), a regional provider of IT solutions, has revealed that cybersecurity measures need to be increased Hani Nofal, GBM in companies across the GCC to cater to the digital habits of today’s workforce. GBM released its findings as part of its latest security survey, which was unveiled at the Gulf Information Security Expo & Conference (GISEC) 2017. The annual GBM Security Survey, now in its sixth year, polled over 1400 people based in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait. The survey individually targeted Generations X, Y and Z to understand the varying digital behaviour among these generations and subsequently, the capabilities of today’s companies to provide a secured and mobile work environment.

Since the last survey conducted in 2016, we have seen a 10 percent increase in trust among GCC executives in their companies’ ability to handle cyberattacks, which is encouraging.” Smartphones were voted as the most preferred device to be online among the three generations with over half of Generation Y choosing smartphones over tablets and laptops. This was also reflective

in the choice of operating system with 47 percent of Generation Y preferring Apple iOS to Microsoft Windows or Android. Organisational security is also another point of debate between the generations with 60 percent of Generation X confident that their companies have the tools to predict and prevent cyber-attacks while the same percentage of Generation Y stated the opposite. Hani Nofal, vice president, Intelligent Network Solutions, Security and Mobility, GBM said, “Since the last survey conducted in 2016, we have seen a 10 percent increase in trust among GCC executives in their companies’ ability to handle cyber-attacks, which is encouraging. However, there seems to be a general disconnect in the awareness of organisational security, which indicates the need to find the right channels to communicate with the different generations which make up the current workforce.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

HIGHLIGHTS

Commvault launches backup and recovery trial software

ommvault has launched its new VM Backup and Recovery trial software for customers and partners with significant enhancements on user experience, disaster recovery and cloud on-ramp. Commvault’s VM Backup and Recovery software expands the company’s leadership in enabling customers to build, protect and optimize VMs throughout their lifecycle and migrate data and VMs to the public cloud of their choice, including AWS,

machines with speed and enterprise scale. Commvault’s VM solution offers customers the simplicity and cost of down-market solutions while providing a far greater range of powerful capabilities and integration Microsoft Azure and with cloud and on-premises VMware. solutions than any VM-only Available as a free provider. download to customers “Large organisations directly on the Commvault are increasing their reliance Website, the VM Backup on backup and recovery and Recovery software solutions that will support provides users the full their enterprise-class experience of Commvault’s N. Robert Hammer, requirements, as well as best-in-class software Commvault leading technologies to to back up and recover fully exploit the cloud as a strategic virtual machines, structured and business initiative,” said N. Robert unstructured data, as well as physical Hammer, chairman, president and CEO, Commvault. “As data experts, we always want to be able to provide customers with data management solutions that scale as their business evolves and power their digital transformation to overcome complex data issues to drive value and insight out of their data.”

As data experts, we always want to be able to provide customers with data management solutions that scale as their business evolves and power their digital transformation...”

D-Link’s switch outperforms competitor in Tolly report D-Link Corporation has announced that the Tolly Group, a provider of third-party testing and validation Sakkeer Hussain, services for IT D-Link MEA products and services, has published a comparison report. It indicates that the D-Link DXS-3400-24TC 10GbE stackable managed switch performs better than the competitor switch. Both switches offer 24 ports of 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and performance tests measured L2 throughput, latency, and MAC address collision avoidance. The test results indicated that L2 throughput and latency were equivalent for

both the D-Link DXS-3400-24TC and the competitor switch. However, the vendor’s switch performed better than the competitor in the MAC address collision test.

D-Link is committed in bringing high quality products to ensure our customers are enjoying all the advantages and features of the latest technologies.”

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Sakkeer Hussain, director, Sales and Marketing, D-Link MEA, said, “D-Link is committed in bringing high quality products to ensure our customers are enjoying all the advantages and features of the latest technologies. This helps our business to be much ahead of our competitors.” The D-Link switch did not miss any addresses in the incremental MAC test, while the competitor switch missed 1,671 addresses. In the random test, the D-Link switch only missed 37 addresses, while the competitor switch missed 1,950 addresses. Additionally, the D-Link switch has superior highavailability features compared to its competitor. While the competitor has one modular power supply unit (PSU) and an embedded fixed fan, the D-Link DXS-3400-24TC has dual modular PSUs and hot-swappable modular fans.

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HIGHLIGHTS

DCG’s Business Symposium helps partners transform

DCG Board members: Ashok Kumar, Dharmendra Sawlani and Suchit Kumar (L-R)

Dubai Computer Group (DCG) hosted its fourth edition of Business Symposium and Networking series last week at W Dubai, Al Habtoor City. The event offered opportunities for the local business community to come together and network while also enhancing the scope through the activities set by DCG. In his opening note, Dharmendra Sawlani, president, DCG, said, “Over the last few editions, we have raised the bar and exceeded initial expectations.

Our focus is always on value addition to our members. Our events aim at educating the reseller community on how they can transform their businesses in the evolving market environment.” The event featured eminent personalities from various faculties such as Edris Ahmed Behzad, director, Client Management, Dubai Customs, Matein Khalid, chief investment officer, Asas Capital, DIFC and Reg Athwal, who is a well-known public speaker, author and angel investor. Athwal’s presentation revolved around how partners should look at taking their business to the next level. He said, “Being able to adopt new technologies and adapt to the

Fortinet honours Middle East channel partners at PartnerSync

Fortinet has announced the winners of its 2016 partner of the year awards for the Middle East region. The awards ceremony took place at the Fortinet Middle East PartnerSync Conference, which

hosted more than 100 channel partners from across the Middle East and Pakistan. Fortinet’s 2016 Partner of the Year awards recognise outstanding cybersecurity sales, customer experience, collaboration,

changing market conditions will define the success of a firm. How many of you have a plan in place to grow your business to other markets?” He explained the ‘pillars of four oceans’ concept, where the first one is all about being customer centric, the second one is getting out of the comfort zone and expanding your base to include customers in other markets, third is about ensuring value addition and the fourth ocean is when a firm reaches the stage of complete innovation. Moderated by Sawlani, the event also featured a panel discussion, which discussed key topics such as the vision and future of Dubai, how brands can support partners better, and what firms need to do to transform and grow their business. The Business Symposium was sponsored by AMD and Linksys. The Supporting Partners included XFX and New Trend Computers along with Learning Partners, Right Selection.

and marketing achievements from the company’s distributors and resellers across the region. Fortinet 2016 Partner of the Year Award Winners for the Middle East include Best Distributor of the Year – Exclusive Networks; Market Development Distributor of the Year – Redington Gulf; Emerging Distributor of the Year – Oxygen Middle East; and MSSP Partner of the Year – du among others. Alain Penel, regional vice president, Middle East, Fortinet. said, “Our partners have played an instrumental role towards our growth and towards delivering the very best cybersecurity solutions to help customers across the region defend their organisations against today’s increasingly advanced threat landscape. We are looking forward to another profitable year of working together with our channel community, and contributing to a secure digital future.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

HIGHLIGHTS

MENA e-commerce market to hit $6.7 billion in 2017 Online shoppers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is growing exponentially, bringing Ramesh Bulusu, MyUS the regional e-commerce market to unprecedented expansion, according to industry reports. An AT Kearney study highlighted that the Middle East’s e-commerce sector has skyrocketed by 1,500 per cent over the last 10 years with the GCC market leading this growth. A separate report by, online shipping facilitator MyUS, stated that this upward trend is projected to continue in 2017 with the regional market’s total value expected to hit the $6.7-billion mark this year, up from $4.8 billion the previous year. The firm mentioned that the industry stood at $3.8 billion in 2015. Excluding non-US direct retailers or spending on hospitality and e-services, the same report shows that American direct retailers have accounted for the largest percentage in the region’s e-commerce market over the recent years. “The Middle East, and the GCC region in particular, is expected to see continued aggressive e-commerce growth in the coming years, so it’s natural that many local and regional businesses are looking for ways to help their customers have access to American online retailers,” said Ramesh Bulusu, CEO, MyUS. “This is where we can help – our expertise in logistics and shipping hundreds of thousands of packages from the US to the region makes us a perfect partner for these local and regional players.”

Sophos recognises top performing partners across MEA Sophos awards six partners across the Middle East and Africa for their outstanding performance in FY 17 at its Partner Conference. Network and endpoint security provider Sophos presented awards to six of its top performing channel partners from the Middle East and Africa region at its EMEA Partner Conference, which was held in Lisbon, Portugal. “We would like to congratulate our winning partners and extend our gratitude to all our partners for their continuous support and commitment in embracing our complete IT security value proposition and recognising the benefits of delivering our award-winning, simple-to-use security solutions to their customers,” said Harish Chib, vice president, Middle East and Africa, Sophos. “As a 100 percent channel focused business, the success of our channel partners is vital to the success of Sophos and it’s an honour for us to work with some of the best channel partners in the Middle East and Africa in order

to provide to the products and the best customers service.” Partners with long standing relationships with Sophos as well as the more recent partners who have helped clients transform their business in line with the company’s focus were awarded in a series of categories. The top performing channel partners in the Middle East and Africa include: 2017 New Partner of the Year, NEEMEA – Batelco; 2017 Top Performer of the Year, NEEMEA – Obsequium; Top Regional Excellence Partner Middle East – Ansa Otomasyon Bilgisayar Muh. San. Tic. Ltd. Sti; Discovery Partner Middle East – Entelyst; Top Regional Excellence Partner Africa – Datategra; and Discovery Partner Africa –MTDS The conference brought together key channel partners from around the EMEA region to discuss their market strategy and to plan how to add value to customers as threat experts. It also included workshops, networking sessions, and meetings with Sophos experts.

Global Knowledge to provide Trend Micro training Trend Micro has appointed Global Knowledge to Ihab Moawad, provide training to Trend Micro all its partners and customers across Middle East and Africa. These training programmes and courses will be offered to industry professionals looking to maximising their knowledge and skills on all Trend Micro solutions. “We are committed to provide our partners and customers with the right training, so that they can maximize the benefits from their Trend Micro solutions. Working with Global Knowledge, our partners and end users now have a variety of locations, dates, and delivery formats to be trained on Trend Micro solutions. In Global Knowledge, we

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

have a company with the right requisites to offer very comprehensive training programs,” said Ihab Moawad, VP Mediterranean, Midlle East, Africa. Trend Micro training courses include hands-on and virtual practice labs featuring the relevant scenarios in server security, cloud security and small business content security. Global Knowledge’s hands-on training solutions will help organisations equip their IT and security professionals with the skills needed to protect end-users on any device. In addition, help optimise security for the modern data centre and secure networks against breaches from potential attacks. Global Knowledge will be running various training courses throughout 2017 including those in KSA, UAE, Qatar and Cairo.

HIGHLIGHTS

ManageEngine now WatchGuard Gold Technology Alliance Partner ManageEngine has announced that it has joined WatchGuard Technologies as a Gold Technology Alliance Partner. Dev Anand, WatchGuard ManageEngine Technologies’ firewall appliances and ManageEngine’s firewall reporting tool, Firewall Analyzer, now work together to allow small to midsize companies (SMBs) and distributed enterprises to effectively report, manage, and mitigate their exposure to security risks. Companies across the globe use Firewall Analyzer to get detailed insights

into the bandwidth and security related aspects of their network. Firewall Analyzer is agentless and web-based software built for traffic analysis, bandwidth monitoring, and firewall reporting. A core member of ITOM solutions, Firewall Analyzer is positioned for enterprise scalability and performs change management and compliance auditing. “Together, Firewall Analyzer and WatchGuard firewalls allow administrators to better mitigate threats through comprehensive network security reporting and visibility,” said Dev Anand, director of product management, ManageEngine. “In today’s rapidly changing security landscape, this level monitoring, analysis and reporting is essential.”

Synology hosts inaugural Solutions Day in Dubai

Synology brought together channel partners, resellers and systems integrators at its inaugural Solutions Day held in the UAE recently. The objective of the event was to provide a refreshed overview on the company’s solutions for storage, data backup and recovery. Around 70 attendees comprising channel partners and business endusers along with local distributors from Saudi, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran participated in the Solutions Day. Nick Jheng, Sales Account Manager, Synology, kicked started the event with information on how the company had evolved over the last few years and explained the features of its latest products.

He said, “The Middle East has immense potential for us as it is still in the early stages of NAS storage. We are a software company more than a hardware manufacturer. Over 80 percent of our workforce are software developers and we are focusing on smart storage solutions. Therefore, our partners and customers alike prefer Synology solutions.” The vendor’s portfolio boasts complete data backup and disaster recovery solutions that include endpoint protection and cloud gateways. The company also unveiled new products at the event such as 3U model RS4017xs+ and the petabyte storage solution RS18017xs+. Synology also showcased the recently launched 5 and 8 bay product NAS products: DS1517+ and DS1817+, which are dedicated for SMBs.

Symantec appoints StarLink as Middle East VAD

Nidal Othman, StarLink

StarLink has announced that it has been appointed as a VAD for Symantec in the

Middle East region. According to the distributor, its partner and customer base in the region will now have access to Symantec’s enterprise product range, including BlueCoat. Under the terms of the agreement, StarLink has the distribution rights for KSA, GCC, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen. As a platform-independent software company, Symantec helps customers and partners manage technologies with greater efficiency, on more platforms – even in virtual environments. “This exciting new business relationship is an organic one, with Symantec’s acquisition of BlueCoat. Following the success we previously achieved with Blue Coat, we are glad to be part of Symantec’s journey in establishing itself as the industry’s largest pure play cybersecurity company,” said Nidal Othman, managing director, StarLink. “We are committed to work together with our channel to help realise our collective goal of defining the future of cybersecurity.” StarLink is one of the largest value-added distributors of IT security solutions across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

HIGHLIGHTS

TP-Link MEA urges partners to develop SMB expertise TP-Link Technologies has urged its channel partners serving the SMB space to specialise and develop domain Dia Hamdan, TP-Link MEA expertise if they are to differentiate themselves in this market segment. The call was made at the second annual ConneXions Partner Meet 2017 held in April in Dubai, where the networking vendor outlined its SMB strategy and new products for channel partners serving small businesses in the Middle East and Africa. According to the vendor, the SMB segment is the most sought-after market in the Middle East and it’s important that

partners develop some domain know-how on how to serve customers in this space. The vendor said demand for high performing business networking solutions is increasing in the SMB sector across the Middle East. TP-Link’s SMB and business line products include JetStream Switches, Auranet Business WiFi, Pharos Wireless Broadband and SafeStream Router range.

The market conditions maybe challenging at the moment in the region, but the future of the regional networking industry is bright.”

Dia Hamdan, regional marketing manager, TP-Link MEA, said, “The market conditions maybe challenging at the moment in the region, but the future of the regional networking industry is bright.” According to Hamdan, SMBs in the various industries need to be supported with sound technology solutions and continuous business innovation for the regional economy to thrive. He added that TP-Link wants to see its channel partners in MEA take advantage of the many opportunities and business needs that small businesses seek in the networking and wireless LAN space to enhance connectivity and optimise their networks in order to boost productivity. “We believe we have the products, solutions and team to support the growth of our SMB offerings and to ensure that our partners thrive in the market with our solutions,” he said.

HIGHLIGHTS

Pulse Secure inks distribution partnership with Spectrami Mobile phone penetration rises in the UAE: TRA According to recent data from the UAE Telecommunications Regulations Authority (TRA), the mobile phone usage in the country has increased to 228.3 phones per 100 people in 2017. The increase in the use of mobile phones in the UAE also saw an increase in the number of telecom subscribers in March 2017, by more than 132,000 new subscriptions compared to February, said a report by national news agency WAM. The report further highlighted that this led to a jump in the total number of cumulative subscriptions to 19.835 million. The statistics revealed by the TRA showed the largest increase in subscriptions is in prepaid mobile phone services, which gained around 104,000 new subscriptions in March. On the other hand contract services increased by 28,000 subscriptions during the same period. A 2016 report by the World Economic Forum indicated that the UAE occupies the first position in the Arab region in terms of the readiness of its telecommunications networks and 26th position globally among 139 countries.

1,500% GROWTH OF MIDDLE EAST E-COMMERCE INDUSTRY OVER THE LAST 10 YEARS SOURCE: AT KEARNEY

Pulse Secure has signed a distribution deal with Spectrami, a UAE-based value-added distributor for security, storage, and mobility products. Under the terms of the agreement, Spectrami will Abdul Rehman Tariq, Pulse Secure and Anand offer its Vendor Extension Choudha, Spectrami Model (VEM) to serve a channel community of Middle East regional partners through a complete closely with partners to deliver multi-point engagement from prepromotional activities and educational sales, sales, marketing, delivery and programmes for end customers. channel fulfilment. “Spectrami has an expansive Leveraging local teams of security portfolio that offers a perfect sales and technical resources the complement to Pulse Secure and distributor will deliver the vendor’s has built a strong reputation as a true complete portfolio of products value-added distributor in the region,” across access control, SSL VPN, and said Abdul Rehman Tariq, regional mobile device security while working sales manager, Pulse Secure.

ArpuPlus to expand regional presence with A2P services Mobile value-added services (VAS) player in the MENA and Emerging Markets, ArpuPlus, is looking to expand its presence in the region with its application-to-person (A2P) services. A subsidiary of A15, an entrepreneurial company with interests in digital products and technology brands, ArpuPlus, specialises in mobile content and entertainment, connectivity, and marketing. Medhat Karam, CEO, ArpuPlus, said, “The gradual shift towards online and mobile technology has opened up infinite opportunities for A2P technology, with a recent study indicating that A2P SMS revenues will touch $50 billion by 2018. The scope is relatively high in the GCC where governments are rapidly transitioning towards ‘smart’ governance. We have extensive knowledge of the market as

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

well as rules and regulations for SMS business with 12 local offices across the MENA region. We are looking to further consolidate our presence in the region by adding value to our partners’ mobile operator base and offering them high-quality SMSbased services.” According to the company, it continues to position itself as a leader in in-house developed mobile marketing platforms, including for applicationto-person (A2P), Short Messaging Service (SMS), and Interactive Voice Response (IVR). With more than 13 years in the business of value-added services for the mobile market, the firm enables customers to avail of its services to order food, book tickets, pay bills, interact with government entities, and receive communication from their favourite brands.

Advanced Threat Intelligence

NOC/SOC

Client/ IoT

Cloud

Network Access

Application

Partner API

HIGHLIGHTS

PixAlert enters UAE via Ethos Technologies An established Ireland-based cybersecurity company, PixAlert is launching its business in Dubai by signing up Ethos Technologies as its authorised regional distributor. PixAlert has been protecting enterprise networks and safeguarding brand integrity through data discovery and illicit image detection and security products since 1999 operating in Ireland, UK, USA, Australia, Nigeria, New Zealand and India. The company’s software takes care of organisation’s cybersecurity and critical data whether they are located in Europe, USA, Australia or UAE. “The ethos at ‘Ethos’ is beyond conventional distribution by setting in a culture of channeling solutions and not merely products. We are always on the lookout for unique niche solutions and as such our partnership with PixAlert creates this exact synergy. We are confident that PixAlert will be extremely well received in this market,” said Sajin Yousuff Kutty, business head, Ethos Technologies. As part of the vendor’s expansion strategy, it participated in a technology roadshow event in conjunction with Ethos Technologies. The show’s agenda included meeting and greeting key executives, knowing more about the firm’s products through presentations, clearing doubts in the Q&A sessions and having the opportunity to win giveaways and prizes.

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CONNECTED HOME USERS IN THE UAE DON’T HAVE ANY PROTECTIVE MEASURES IN PLACE FOR THEIR DEVICES. SOURCE: NORTON BY SYMANTEC

EnGenius Networks organises Dubai Channel Workshop

EnGenius Networks, a provider of high-performance, versatile networking and telecommunications for small and medium businesses welcomed its channel partners to an enablement day in Dubai. The event introduced the company’s latest addition of 11ac access points with a new platform called the EnTurbo series. The new additions include seven enterprise-class 11ac wave 2 indoor, outdoor and tri-band access points. All the EnTurbo products include dualband MU-MIMO features which add

state-of-the-art speed and capabilities to the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of 11ac wireless solutions. The workshop aimed to gather key people from the networking industry including resellers, distributors and system integrators and covered a wide array of topics such as regional project implementations, the company’s product map of 2017, and hands-on training on a number of products. The workshop also included a live demonstration of the company, Neutron Switches. Van Hsiao, general manager, EnGenius Networks, said, “The introduction of our new EnTurbo Series to the UAE market will certainly benefit local SMBs by making this equipment which is very cost-effective, accessible to a wider group of people. We also hope this is the start of greater adoption of broadband and wireless technologies into the sector.”

Falcon Technologies, Verbatim sign ME distribution agreement Falcon Technologies International (FTI) has signed an exclusive agreement with Verbatim, owned by Mitsubishi Chemical Media, to distribute Verbatim products in the countries of Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. This agreement comes after several years of mutual collaboration between the two companies, and allows FTI to distribute the full range of Verbatim products as well as products from Freecom, a brand also owned by Mitsubishi Chemical Media that specialises in high-end external SSDs and hard drives. The deal was finalised and signed during the recent FTI Customer Seminar 2017, which was hosted in Ras Al Khaimah (UAE)

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

last month and was attended by many leading players within the global optical media industry. FTI’s CEO Michael Gutowski said, “FTI are both honoured and excited to have reached an agreement with Verbatim to exclusively distribute their brands within the Middle East. Our cooperation over recent years has been beneficial for both parties and has given us insight into the mutual emphasis and care that both our organisations place on innovation and quality, so we feel there is a strong synergy of values between FTI and Verbatim. We very much look forward to building upon our partnership and further developing the business footprint of both FTI and Verbatim within the Middle East”.

DISTREE MIDDLE EAST // INDUSTRY EVENT

What’s in store The thirteenth edition of DISTREE Middle East highlighted the region’s growth in the e-commerce space and had insights on what the future holds for online players.

he thirteenth annual consumer technology channel event, DISTREE Middle East, held recently at the Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, UAE, gathered more than 200 senior executives and buyers from the region’s leading consumer technology retailers and e-tailers under one roof. During the three-day event, exhibiting vendors and distributors held pre-scheduled one-on-one meetings with buyers from across the region. DISTREE Middle East 2017 was supported by Gold Sponsors Lime Concepts and TargetOne, plus Event Partners GfK, IE Singapore and Naghsh. Content Providers at this year’s event included Azur Digital, CONTEXT, GfK and Sixthfactor. Highlights of the event included keynote presentations on e-commerce and omnichannel by Stephane Paraiso, managing director, Azur Digital and Howard Davies, co-founder and CEO, Context, respectively. Giving insights on the evolution of omnichannel within the region, Davies said, “Customer purchase is now a

journey across both time and space. The rise of mobility and e-commerce are raising consumer expectations.” Touching upon several aspects of regional e-commerce business and expected growth within this segment, the event also featured an engaging panel discussion with panelists across retailers and analysts. One of the takeaways from the discussion was that the future of online retailing will be a hybrid model that includes both, a physical store and a robust e-commerce business. Another key takeaway was that in order to have a thriving e-tailing business, one must invest in developing a customer-centric platform. The popular ‘60 Seconds to Convince Award’ took place at the event, giving exhibitors the chance to deliver a one minute pitch for their latest product. Live voting determined the winners in three categories: Best Product Design, Best Product Innovation and Best Presentation. Promate picked up the Best Product Design award for its Hometree product, securing 34 percent of the final live vote. The Best Product Innovation award was a tie between IRIS and TargetOne, who both picked up 30 percent of the live

vote. IRIS presented the IRIScan Book 5 WiFi scanner, while distributor TargetOne showcased Urbanears connected speakers, which form part of its portfolio. The Best Presentation award went to Lime Concepts for its highly entertaining demonstration of the Minions Baby Cam product. Lime Concepts took home the presentation award with an impressive 50 percent share of the live vote. DISTREE Middle East 2017 hosted the third annual DISTREE Diamond Awards in the region. The recipients of DISTREE Diamond Awards were determined using on-site feedback from retailers at the event. The event also included the ‘Middle East Retail Academy (MERA): 2017 Awards’, which recognise the performance of outstanding retailers and distributors. “DISTREE Middle East offered all delegates a compelling mix of prescheduled meetings, keynote speeches, workshop sessions, awards and professional networking opportunities. Planning is already underway for DISTREE Middle East 2018,” said Christophe Painvin, executive director, DISTREE Events.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

APPOINTMENTS

INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS Seclore expands channel director’s role

Rohit Oberoi, Seclore

Seclore Technologies, a provider of Enterprise Digital Rights Management (EDRM) solutions, has announced the expansion of the role of its regional channel director to enhance its go-tomarket (GTM) strategy. Seclore is expanding its GCC presence and regional operations in response to increased demand for its solutions. The role of Rohit Oberoi as regional channel director for India and the Middle East has now been expanded to include the key Saudi Arabia and Africa territories, with the aim of developing the company’s markets with the support of a new team based at Seclore’s regional office in Dubai. Oberoi was previously director of channel sales in India and Rest of Middle East for the company. Amit Malhotra, VP, Sales India Middle East and Africa, Seclore, said, “Developing the channel is an integral part of our strategy for the India, Saudi Arabia, rest of Middle East, and Africa region; the channel director plays a key role in driving our expansion plans for the region as we continue to invest for growth, from our new regional base in Dubai.”

Microsoft names new general manager for Gulf Microsoft has appointed Sayed Hashish as the regional general manager for Gulf. In his new role, Hashish will be overseeing the company’s operations across the Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE. According to the company, he will be driving strategic planning and shaping growth initiatives to enable digital transformation across sectors in the region. Hashish takes over the reins from Samer Abu Ltaif who held the position for six years, and was recently appointed as president for Microsoft Middle East and Africa. “Technology can transform education, nurture community

innovation and create employment opportunities Sayed Hashish, that fuel a Microsoft Gulf sustained cycle of social and economic development,” said Hashish. “Digital transformation, applied strategically, can engage customers and citizens, empower employees, optimise operations and transform products and services. With Gulf governments marching forward with bold economic visions, this is an exciting time for us to play an important role in progressing Microsoft’s commitment to fuel growth and bring prosperity in the region by transforming businesses, societies and economies.”

SonicWALL appoints new senior channel director for Europe SonicWall has appointed Michael Berg as senior director of Channel Sales with a focus on Europe. As the Michael Berg, SonicWALL latest addition to SonicWALL’s worldwide Sales and Channel team, Berg will enhance the company’s strong relationships with the European channel and enable the company to deepen its relationships with distributors. As part of the Worldwide Sales and Channel team, Berg will drive sales and channel programmes in Europe and is based in Switzerland.

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

He will be responsible for executing on SonicWall’s 100 percent channel go-to-market strategies, partner recruitment and development, distribution partnerships and the full implementation of the SonicWall SecureFirst Partner Programme to drive mutual revenue growth with the channel. “The rush of partners to join the SonicWall SecureFirst Partner Programme demonstrates that the company enjoys partnerships with the channel that are unmatched in the industry,” said Berg. “I am excited to join SonicWall at a time when it’s seeing incredible traction with the channel worldwide, fueled by a mix of strong leadership, innovative solutions and channel enablement.”

An overview of the latest people movement within the IT channel business.

Spectrami appoints new Global Alliances director Spectrami has announced the appointment of Anas Handous as director of Global Alliances. Reporting directly to the firm’s managing director Anand Choudha, Handous is responsible for handling Spectrami’s Global Alliance Programme and Vendor Acquisition Strategies. Handous is industry recognised for his ability to drive next level

growth, with 12 years’ experience representing global distribution companies and vendors. As part of the senior management team, he will focus on acquiring new vendors and alliances in addition to evaluating the company’s overall portfolio to ensure next level growth. “I am excited for the opportunity to be part of taking Spectrami to the

In a short span of time, Spectrami has generated unprecedented momentum for its vendors and partners, establishing innovative new technologies within the region alongside driving net new growth for more established players.”

next level” said Handous. “In a short span of time, Spectrami has generated unprecedented momentum for its vendors Anas Handous, and partners, Spectrami establishing innovative new technologies within the region alongside driving net new growth for more established players. Choudha’s refusal to accept the status quo, to push highly disruptive strategies in a traditionally static market, make Spectrami stand out among its peers.”

Veeam names new co-CEOs

Andrei Baronov and Peter McKay, Veeam Software

Veeam Software has promoted cofounder, member of the Board of Directors and CTO, Andrei Baronov, and president and COO and member of the Board of Directors, Peter McKay, to the position of co-CEOs. Current CEO and member of the Board of Directors, William H. Largent, will take on a new role as chairman of the Finance and Compensation Committees. Veeam co-founder and Director, Ratmir Timashev, continues in his existing role. Announced during its Veeam On conference, the company noted that

these executive changes will add extra focus and strength to help the company continue its rapid expansion into the enterprise and cloud segments and enable it to

Our vision of enabling any business to deliver the digital life experience customers expect means that we need to continue to be aggressive and customer focused...”

accelerate growth into the Americas and APJ markets. Also, it reaffirms its goal of becoming $1 billion company by 2019. As co-CEOs, Baronov and McKay will focus on key functional competencies and they, along with Largent and Timashev as members of the Board of Directors, will be responsible for optimising the company’s growth potential. “Since starting operations in 2006, Veeam’s growth has been meteoric,” said Largent. “We have bold plans for Veeam’s future. Our vision of enabling any business to deliver the digital life experience customers expect means that we need to continue to be aggressive and customer focused, building on our growth trajectory. These new assignments will help to provide the foundation for continued expansion, and I am delighted that Baronov and McKay have accepted these new roles.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

OPINION // BLACKBERRY

Soaring to the clouds

Richard McLeod, global VP, Enterprise Software Channels, BlackBerry, explains how regional channel partners can thrive in the cloud-driven economy.

here is no stopping the continuous rise of the cloud economy. Analysts worldwide predicted that cloud computing services will increase annually by 25 percent and in a span of just four years - from 2013 to 2017 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; spending on this segment has touched $107 billion. According to industry projections, the Middle East and Africa region will have the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s highest cloud traffic growth rate of 41 percent by 2019. Seeing the huge potential that the cloud market presents, resellers and channel players must bank on their key strengths and value add services to ensure they stay appealing to their client base. The entire channel landscape has evolved from selling and installing physical products by ICT channels to cloud computing services. This trend and growing demand has also given rise to customers favouring software and cloud services over a hands-on environment wherein ICT channel

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.resellerme.com

partners are always on standby to manage onsite configuration changes, inspection, maintenance and updates. Customers today can easily go directly to the vendor’s website to get the products they are looking and maintenance can be carried out remotely without the need to even pick up the phone. Today, one of the biggest challenges for IT solutions providers and valueadded resellers entering the cloud economy is not simply to adapt and maintain revenue models, but how to remain relevant within a sales channel that has fundamentally shifted, with customers empowered to take far more control of their approach to ICT than ever before. They are increasingly likely to be sidelined if they cannot justify why a customer can benefit from their partnership as customers can easily bypass them by going directly to the download source for their software needs. So, what can solution providers and resellers do to fight back and maintain their position as a valued partner to their customer base? The key for the channel industry to continue to thrive in the cloud economy is specialised services. While jack-ofall-trades resellers may have had an advantage before, today, a focused area where resellers have genuine strength is a must. Solutions providers with their technical expertise must be coupled with time and money investment to ensure that their teams are fully upto-speed with their offerings and the impact these technologies have on customers. By knowing the technical aspects of their offerings, they will be able to develop sustainable relationships with their clients. Successfully carving out a niche in a crowded channel industry can ensure that a lifecycle is developed around the products offered. Companies should also take the opportunity to get ahead of the cloud

“The biggest challenges for partners entering the cloud economy is not simply to adapt and maintain revenue models, but how to remain relevant within a sales channel that has fundamentally shifted, with customers empowered to take far more control of their approach to ICT than ever before.” economy by providing large-scale cloud services such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Business-process-as-a-Service (BaaS). At the same time, solutions providers or value-added resellers in the cloud economy can advance their competitive attributes by playing a more holistic customer-facing role – from making recommendations or generating product awareness, billing aggregation including offering speed and cost savings, to delivering a wider range of professional and support services. Every reseller needs to create agile and responsive customer service designed from a customer-centric perspective. Another approach for solutions providers and value-added resellers to stay successful is to seek accreditation from key vendors. This could create a streamlined support system, higher level and easier access to functionality, and increased control over direct IT solutions. After all, in the cloud economy, many of the software vendor’s customers rely upon existing only in a virtual capacity. Such vendor accreditations, aside from a huge bonus in the eyes of customers, also strengthen customer relationships. Lastly, raising security credentials across software, hardware, device, sensors or other endpoints connected to the Internet, is another option for solutions providers and value-added resellers to stand out from their competitors.

The Enterprise of Things era means that the network of intelligent connections and endpoints within the enterprise enable products to move from sketch to scale. The channel industry should not only understand security issues but also address wider security concerns and proactively recommend solutions that correspond to new vulnerability points within the customers’ corporate network and infrastructure. This is a golden opportunity for the channel to recommend additional value-add services in security, authentication and cloud deployment. Currently, there are different strategies implemented by the channel industry with large solution providers offering generic network security solutions while boutique players provide customised and mobility/security-centric solutions. As customers continue to become increasingly agile and fully immerse themselves in the cloud economy and embrace enterprise mobility, the channel industry must evolve and adapt their business strategies so that they complement the needs of the cloud economy. This will ensure that solution providers and value-added resellers fully capitalise on the onset of the cloud economy, support their customers’ digital transformation as well as embrace the many new opportunities afforded by the Enterprise of Things.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

EVENT // YOUR VOICE: THE RISE OF E-COMMERCE

Bricks and clicks Reseller Middle East recently hosted Your Voice with Tahawul Tech’s second edition. Held at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers, the second outing of the series gathered e-commerce and retail specialists to look into the rapidly expanding and promising e-commerce industry in the region.

rom ride-hailing to ordering food, from buying the latest gadgets to purchasing pre-owned items, the comfort of being able to acquire an item or a service is increasingly becoming a lifestyle across the globe. According to a report by eMarketer, worldwide business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce sales is expected to increase hit a whopping $1.5 trillion, which proves the scale and reach of this fast-expanding industry. In the GCC alone, the e-commerce market is expected to reach $20 billion in the next three years, prompted by a surging consumer base, high disposable incomes and changing buying habits, among other factors. What’s more is that new developments such as the recent entry of Amazon.com in the region

and the imminent opening of Emaar Properties’ Mohamed Alabbar’s Noon.com are further fuelling the e-commerce bandwagon. “These activities definitely mark a huge turning point for the regional e-commerce space,” said Sarah Jones, founder and CEO, Sprii. com. “Furthermore, the arrival of a global leader like Amazon.com will definitely put us on the map as a strong e-commerce market for both consumers and investors.” However, even with the huge interest and vast opportunities surrounding this rising sector, it is not without any challenges. In a market dominated by popular brick-and-mortar stores and big shopping festivals, how far can e-commerce go? “Offline retail is strong in this part of the world,” said Mahesh Chotrani,

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

assistant VP, Jacky’s Electronics. “The reason behind this is the mall culture cultivated in the region and the presence of big shopping promotions like Dubai Summer Festival, Dubai Summer Surprises, GITEX and so on, are continuously drawing consumers to physical shops rather than online.” He added, “I doubt that online will surpass brick-and-mortar stores any time soon. But I believe that a combination of online and offline retail will be a very promising model for regional retail players.” Adveta Dwivedi, head, Digital Marketing Strategy, Whoopey.com, agreed, and said that for a retail brand to succeed in this region they cannot just operate online or offline alone. “I think retail players are increasingly becoming aware of this,” she said. “We can see that most brands who only initially have offline

business are moving towards building their online presence and online retailers are looking at having an omnichannel strategy to have a wider coverage.” However, for pure play companies like Sprii.com, Jones said she believes that having a physical presence or even owning a warehouse for stocking items is just not ideal. “The drop-ship approach has always been a more effective model for pure play stores like us,” she said. “We’ve seen that a number of e-commerce players who

security concerns that consumers typically have, chief among which, is online payments. “Even though the region has a high growth trend of Internet usage, consumers are sceptical when it comes to making online payment when purchasing a product,” said Venkat Reddy, COO, District 360. “Most people still opt to pay via cash on delivery. This emphasises the issues of security and trust that regional consumers have.”

(L-R) Venkat Reddy, District 360; Steve Currie, Taskgate; Adveta Dwivedi, Whoopey.com; Mahesh Chotrani, Jacky’s Electronics; James Dartnell, CNME editor; Sarah Jones, Sprii.com; Sahana Holla, Whoopey.com; and Alex Tchablakian, Letstango.com

have had their own physical space to store products have struggled when it comes to profitability. Taking inventory is quite an issue for e-commerce players due to the extra costs.” Among the other challenges discussed by the panellists are the

He added that people tend to have trust and security issues when putting their financial credentials online. “With wellestablished brands like Amazon coming into the picture, I believe that e-commerce consumers will be more receptive of online payments and the trust level will go up,” he

“I doubt that online will surpass brick-andmortar stores any time soon. But I believe that a combination of online and offline retail will be a very promising model for regional retail players.”

said. “But we need to continue working on new ways to ensure that the data of our customers are secure.” Moving on, the panellists delved into how pure play or hybrid e-commerce companies bring better customer experiences to ensure success. To this, all agreed that ‘personalisation’ is key. “There’s this notion in the industry that e-commerce is focused on automation,” said Alex Tchablakian, operations manager, Letstango.com. “However, a human touch is still very important even for online businesses. Consumers expect some level of ‘personalised’ experience such as assistance pre-, during and posttransactions. The use of platforms like WhatsApp, Twitter and so on also present opportunities for online players to give their customers a personal touch.” Steve Currie, general manager, Taskgate, said that online players should not rely purely on technology when it comes to customer satisfaction. “For us specifically, our focus is on recruitment and we utilise a variety of technologies in our operations,” he explained. “I believe there is no technology out there that can perfectly match a person to a certain job. That means a certain level of human element needs to be integrated into our processes for it to be successful and the I believe the same goes with e-commerce.” Throughout the discussions, it has been highlighted that apart from security and customer experience, speed of delivery is also an important aspect that e-commerce players need to look into. This is instrumental in ensuring the consumers’ loyalty to the marketplace or brand and will increase purchase conversion while limiting cancellations. It is clear that the e-commerce industry holds many opportunities for various retail brands inside and outside the region. While the systems and processes around it are still not perfect we can expect that it will continue to evolve and disrupt the way we sell and purchase goods and services.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

EVENTS // RESELLER MEET

Reseller MEet accelerates business associations The third edition of the enterprise partner event aimed to ignite regional partnerships in the channel business.

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.resellerme.com

“We were happy to see that the quality of the event was excellent and had an opportunity to connect with potential business partners from Oman. We look forward to future editions of the event where the focus will be extended to other GCC markets as well.”

eseller Middle East concluded the third edition of its enterprise channel event – Reseller MEet, at Conrad Hotel, Dubai, on a high note. Held on 11th May, the event hosted around 50 pre-determined dedicated meetings between vendors, solutions providers, resellers and distributors. The customised event provided a platform to converse with partners in a unique format that allows a mix of methods to interact – one-to-one meetings, company booths and private lunch. Sudhakar Raman, business development, account management, Synergy Software Systems, said, “With a unique format, Reseller MEet offers a platform for technology players to explore

the possibilities of collaborative approach for mutual organisational successes.” Manohar Chirakkal, deputy general manager, Managed Services, MEA, Ensure Services, “I had a good and long interaction with some premium vendors and resellers. The event added immense value to our business as Ensure is a systems integrator and services company.” Having a robust channel ecosystem in place is essential for a company to grow and develop in a specific market. Ensuring these relationships are sustained over long-term brings in additional benefits for organisations. Reseller MEet brought together relevant partners from across KSA, Oman and UAE markets who are looking

for innovative solutions, healthy margins and new ways to grow their business. Philippe de Mazieres, general manager, Gulf Software Distribution, said, “We were happy to see that the quality of the event was excellent and had an opportunity to connect with potential business partners from Oman. We look forward to future editions of the event where the focus will be extended to other GCC markets as well.” Reseller MEet was backed by several sponsors such as Strategic VAD Partner, Redington Value; Strategic Technology Partner, HPE; Strategic Innovation Partner, Mindware; Strategic Cloud Partner, Alibaba Cloud and Event Partners, Gulf Software Distribution and EnGenius.

www.resellerme.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

F5 NETWORKS // COVER STORY

A SAFE BET Taj El Khayat, regional director, Gulf, Levant and North Africa, F5 Networks, speaks to Janees Reghelini on the firm’s plans to double the business in the lucrative security space over the next year and half through a dedicated partner strategy.

mooth and seamless application performance equals to successful business continuity in today’s mobile and cloud-led environment. Recognising the prospects early on, F5 Networks had entered the space with its initial load balancer product and eventually evolved its offerings to be an application delivery networking solutions provider over the last two decades. The company is now working towards doubling its security revenues by

50 percent in the next 18 months in an attempt to be also known for its security portfolio. F5 Networks’ recently appointed regional director for Gulf, Levant and North Africa, Taj El Khayat, says, along with the security mandate, he is steering three other key transitions, streamlining the firm’s focus. “Over the next year and half, you will see us focusing on driving customer-first approach, pushing repeatable business and empowering our partners together with increasing our security revenues.”

“We work with our partners to help them consolidate their security vendors so that they are able to carry out more solution selling and leverage F5’s strong install base.”

El Khayat says in order to meet these objectives, it is vital for partners’ to take the centre stage. With security as one of its primary focuses, the firm has increased its footprint with several new products over the last few months. The aim is to strengthen relationships not only with networking managers but also with chief information security officers (CISOs). “This is because traditionally we did not focus on this profile of customers. We are now hoping to have productive conversations with CISOs.” The vendor is also looking to leverage its expertise that it has built around F5 Labs, which are centres hosting multi-technology and is an active means for the firm to stay ahead of evolving security threats. He adds, “We have security incident response teams and experts who ensure we react and protect users against threats in a proactive manner. We also have our own security operation centres around the world, where we analyse and

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

COVER STORY // F5 NETWORKS

understand developments from a security threat standpoint. “We also enable our customers to be one step ahead in terms of protecting their business. We want to make sure that as a part of our security selling transition, we position our security solutions appropriately.” With a minimum of 50 percent attach rate, the regional director is confident of doubling the security revenues by involving its distributors and partners, and aiding them to understand the value of its application security platform. “We work with our partners to help them consolidate their security vendors so that they are able to carry out more solution selling and leverage F5’s strong install base.” When it comes to its customerfirst focus, El Khayat believes partners can help by creating the “right level of honesty, integrity and partnership.” At the end of the day, it’s the partners who own customer relationships. The vendor is looking to create “mutual trust” so that its channel ecosystem can help it get closer to new as well as existing customers. He also adds that another way partners can help in forming consistent relationships with customers that the company don’t manage is through repeatable businesses. “The more subscription-based licensing that our channel partners sell, the more chances of these customers staying close to F5. Repeatable business will not be successful without the buy-in and adaptation of partners into these models.”

“The more subscription-based licensing that our channel partners sell, the more chances of these customers staying close to F5. Repeatable business will not be successful without the buy-in and adaptation of partners into these models.” Under its ‘empowering partners’ transition, the firm is aiming to increase the channel’s engagement into its account mapping and planning sessions. It is working towards ensuring the company’s offerings are embedded into partners’ standard solution architecture. El Khayat says, “Empowering partners is an area for improvement within F5. We are looking at ways in which we can leverage our application security platform into the way our partners go to market. Our efforts are also on enabling our channel community to deliver more professional services.” The firm also works closely with managed service providers and will continue driving this segment over the coming months. El Khayat believes regional partners can enhance their profitability and margins through several ways. He urges partners to explore prospects in the managed services space. “Partners should look at helping vendors create a services platform so that end-users have an easier way to purchase technologies in a cost-effective manner,” he says.

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

The channel also has a huge opportunity if they look at partnering with the telcos, he adds. “Telcos are increasingly becoming competitive and entering into the systems integration space as they can offer one-stop shop for customers’ connectivity requirements. Partners need to drive relationships with these telcos to ensure that there is a level of support on implementation and services to be able to do joint ventures. “Today customers are seeking agile and flexible players to work for them. However, not all systems integrators will have the means or infrastructures to create ‘as-a-service’ models so these partnerships work handin-hand to help SIs and telcos approach customers with the right propositions,” he says. As enterprises enter the digital era, application performance will dictate business longevity. “Partners need to make sure they are working on these abilities and expertise with security. Our goal is to be known as the trusted application security vendor,” adds El Khayat.

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Partner Excellence Awards

A gala affair Reseller Middle East hosted its annual Partner Excellence Awards, celebrating the accomplishments of the channel companies over the last year. Guests were treated to a remarkable evening filled with entertainment, gala dinner and networking opportunities.

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

320 30,000 Over

400

nominations

plus attendees

online votes

he eighth annual Reseller Middle East’s Partner Excellence Awards saw prominent players in the technology industry gather in the UAE to celebrate achievements from the Middle East’s channel sector over the past year. The awards ceremony and Vintage Circus-themed gala dinner took place last month at Conrad Dubai and was attended by more than 320 industry stalwarts. The event recognised 26 organisations and IT channel leaders during the course of the evening. Guests came dressed in their vintage best – ladies in 1920’s-inspired shimmery frocks and feather head pieces while the men came in tuxedos and homburg hats, transporting the setting to the roaring twenties. Attendees were treated to a number of entertaining performances such as the enthralling lady balancing on a huge circus ball, interesting tricks from a magician roaming within the crowd and the memorable opening aerial act with the artist dancing from a life-size hanging photo frame – all in line with the Vintage Circus theme. This year Reseller Middle East has revamped the process for the Partner Excellence Awards. Winners were chosen via public online voting by the publication’s valued readers from a list of

finalists selected by an esteemed panel of judges in a 10-day elaborate process. Reseller Middle East’s Readers’ Choice Partner Excellence Awards’ judging panel comprised of Ahmed Ramzy, general manager, Dynamics Smart Solution; Khaled Kamal, founding partner, MAHAM Consulting; Philip Hughes, managing director, Eventcloud DMCC; and Sudhir Nair, CEO, SOL Analytics. A record number of 400 nominations were received this year, with over 30,000 online votes. The Platinum Partner for the event was Dell EMC and Intel while Strategic Threat Detection and VAD Partners were Nanjgel and Redington Value respectively. Other sponsors included Gold Partners – TransSys Solutions, Gulf Software Distribution, OMA Emirates, Logitech, AlJammaz Distribution; Silver Partners – Check Point, Linksys, D-Link, AOC, Aptec-an Ingram Micro company, Barco, VAD Technologies, Exclusive Networks; and Supporting Partner – HTC. Throughout the evening, guests had an opportunity to win several spot prizes sponsored by HTC, Linksys and Touchmate.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

Judges’ corner

was honoured to be part of the Partner Excellence Awards 2017 judging panel, and I would like to thank the Reseller Middle East team for the massive effort they put in to make it a great success. The event was well-organised and well-managed with a fantastic theme of ‘vintage circus’. The nominations were of excellent quality, showing the real value of each nominee and fair competition measures, which was covering different aspects of the channel industry. The award programme featured vendors, distributors and resellers across hardware, software, security and cloud computing. Ahmed Ramzy general manager, Dynamics Smart Solution

t was a real pleasure contributing to the IT industry’s top awards event for the reseller community. Being a judge in this year’s awards was a challenge. The nominees were of top quality and the selection of one over the other was rather difficult, given the fact that all the competitors offered outstanding value and unique superiority. I am happy that all wins landed on deserving hands and the nominees themselves felt both excited and convinced that every winner sincerely deserved their trophy. Thank you, Reseller Middle East, keep up the great work.

Khaled Kamal founding partner, MAHAM Consulting

wo aspects that did stand out this year were the specialisation of some companies and implementation of new technology solutions in the region. The changes to payment solutions being offered, the technology in the radar cameras, the advance of cloud solutions all indicate a growing maturity away from the old days of ‘tender chasing’ and showed benefits to the channel companies that adopted them, even in supposedly difficult times. Philip Hughes managing director Eventcloud DMCC

he initiatives taken by various organisations and achievements made during the last financial year are commendable. The quality of nominations has increased compared to earlier occasions. Further, the selection of the winners through readers’ votes has ensured that popular choices are well reflected. I thoroughly enjoyed judging the nominations and being a part of the successful story of Reseller Middle East Partner Excellence Awards over the years.

Sudhir Nair chief executive officer, SOL Analytics

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

PRESENTS

ALIGNING INFORMATION SECURITY WITH BUSINESS Monday, 28th August 2017

Habtoor Grand, Dubai, UAE

WHY ATTEND: • Get direct access to information security knowledge and expertise from some of the industry’s security practitioners and thought leaders. • Gain new ideas, insights and actionable intelligence • Meet select exhibitors under one roof • Network with your peers and discuss the issues WHO SHOULD ATTEND: • C-level (CEO, CISO, CTO, CIO) • Board and director level • IT managers and GRC specialists

OFFICIAL CYBER SECURITY INNOVATION PARTNER

CATEGORY SPONSOR

For sponsorship enquiries Natasha Pendleton Publishing Director natasha.pendleton@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9139 / +971 56 787 4778 Kausar Syed Group Sales Director kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9130 / +971 50 758 6672

Merle Carrasco Sales Manager merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9147 / +971 55 118 1730

For agenda-related enquiries Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9129 / +971 56 415 6425 James Dartnell Editor james.dartnell@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9153 / +971 56 934 4776

MEDIA PARTNER

Adelle Geronimo Online Editor adelle.geronimo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9135 / +971 56 484 7564

ORGANISER

Best Partner Excellence Programme by a Distributor

Winner:

AlJammaz Distribution

Finalists: AlJammaz Distribution | emt Distribution | Mindware | Sale Advanced Co

he most prestigious category of the Readers’ Choice Partner Excellence Awards, this title reflects AlJammaz Distribution’s efforts in inspiring, enabling and empowering its channel community. The distributor has implemented several demand generation programmes and extensive training workshops to help partners offer comprehensive solutions. The Award further recognises the company’s initiatives in building partners’ technical skills to allow them to specialise in different verticals.

“We are honoured and happy to be recognised for our enablement programmes by Reseller Middle East. As a leading VAD, one of our core focuses is partner recruitment and enablement, especially in advance technologies such as cybersecurity, hyper-cloud, data centres, broadband connectivity and collaboration. Thank you for the lovely event, we were happy to attend and had the chance to meet many friends and partners.” Asim AlJammaz, chief executive officer, AlJammaz Technology Distribution

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Best Partner Excellence Programme by a Vendor

Winner:

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

Finalists: Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company | Avaya | Cisco | Sage | SAP

he most prestigious Award within the vendor categories, it distinguishes HPE Aruba’s endeavours to enable partners to capitalise on the growing enterprise mobility market and help ensure they stay ahead in today’s mobile-first world. The Award is a testimony to the effectiveness of its partner programme - Partner Ready for Networking (PRfN).

“This award was due to the rapid HPE Aruba channel growth in Middle East and Turkey region and creating corresponding channel team structure and strategy. This resulted in growing all channel segments with top gold and platinum partners as well as SMB. SMB growth came through strong distribution programmes accompanied by focused marketing strategy and execution.” Osama AlHaj-Issa, channel director, Middle East and Turkey, HPE Aruba

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

Vendor categories

Security Vendor “It is a period of celebration for ESET, not only were we able to proactively protect our customers from latest ransomware attacks related to EternalBlue exploit but we have also been recognised by an industry leading body such as Reseller Middle East in a great awards ceremony.” Dimitris Raekos, general manager, ESET Middle East Winner:

ESET Middle East Finalists: Cisco | ESET Middle East | FireEye Fortinet | Symantec

Peripherals and Accessories Vendor “We’re honoured that the professional jury and readers of Reseller Middle East proclaimed us the ‘Peripherals & Accessories Vendor of the Year’. We’re happy to learn that our ClickShare presentation system is appreciated in the IT sector, and it encourages us to keep dedicating ourselves to technical innovation and better AV user experiences.” Winner:

Barco

Eric Brouwers, VP Middle East and Africa, Barco

Finalists: Barco | OKI Europe Limited PNY Technologies ME | Touchmate – Quality Gulf

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

Vendor categories

Systems & Hardware Vendor “Winning the ‘Systems and Hardware Vendor of the Year Award’ at the Reseller Middle East Partner Excellence Awards 2017, validates Dell EMC’s approach towards defining a change in the market by offering best-in-class solutions designed for the success of our customers and partners. This award highlights our capabilities as industry’s most trusted advisor and our commitment to enable our customers and partners to embrace risk, change and make smart bets to ensure optimal business growth in digital Middle East.”

Winner:

Dell EMC Finalists:

Cisco | Dell EMC | Fluke Networks Hitachi Data Systems | NetApp| Oki Europe

Havier Haddad, senior channel director, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Dell EMC

SMB / Consumer Vendor “We are thrilled to be recognised by one of the leading IT publishers in the region. We have continuously strived to make an impact along with our channel in the SMB market successfully. We would like to thank all our partners for supporting us for more than 30 years.” Sakkeer Hussain, director, Sales and Marketing, D-Link Middle East and Africa

Winner:

D-Link Middle East and Africa Finalists:

Dell EMC (Dell Client Solutions) | D-Link Middle East and Africa | EnGenius Networks | Linksys Touchmate | TP-Link MEA

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

PRESENTS

29th August 2016

18:00 - 23:00

Habtoor Grand, Dubai, UAE

NOMINATE NOW www.securityadvisorme.com/awards/2017

For sponsorship enquiries Natasha Pendleton Publishing Director natasha.pendleton@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9139 / +971 56 787 4778

Kausar Syed Group Sales Director kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9130 / +971 50 758 6672

Merle Carrasco Sales Manager merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9147 / +971 55 118 1730

For agenda-related enquiries Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9129 / +971 56 415 6425

OFFICIAL SECURITY SOLUTIONS PARTNER

SILVER PARTNER

James Dartnell Editor james.dartnell@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9153 / +971 56 934 4776

OFFICIAL CYBER SECURITY INNOVATION PARTNER

MEDIA PARTNER

Adelle Geronimo Online Editor adelle.geronimo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9135 / +971 56 484 7564

STRATEGIC THREAT DETECTION PARTNER

ORGANISER

Vendor categories

Cloud Vendor “This win is a major recognition for VMware, signifying the success of our hybrid cloud and cross-cloud strategy in ME, and the strength of our channel partners in enabling digital transformation across key industry verticals. The Partner Excellence Awards is a key platform for networking with our partners and customers, and showcasing how VMware partners are driving the Middle East as a fast-growing region for adopting cloud and business mobility solutions.”

Winner:

VMware Finalists:

Avaya | Riverbed Technology | SAP VMware | WannaGo Cloud Services

Ossama Eldeeb, senior manager, MENA Partner Organisation, VMware

Reseller categories

SMB & Consumer Reseller “Reseller Middle East has always been the most objective and unbiased awards ceremony in our industry and I am indeed honoured and humbled by the votes received. I would like to thank all the voters and team at Reseller Middle East. Together, we are stronger.” Sachin Gehani, director, Accent Office Supplies Winner:

Accent Office Supplies Finalists:

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

REDEFINING technology transformation

+971 4 440 9100

@TahawulTech

info@cpimediagroup.com

www.tahawultech.com

Media City, Building 4 Office G-08, Dubai, UAE, PO Box 13700

Enterprise Reseller

Winner:

DataTAAG Technologies Middle East Finalists:

Almoayyed Computers | Alpha Data DataTAAG Technologies Middle East Intertec Systems | Raqmiyat

“We are honoured to accept this award and would like to thank our customers and vendors in believing in DataTAAG and giving us the opportunity to be partnered with them. The path of success is tough and those who are always ready to take challenges and have the courage to win over it, only then they are awarded for their achievements. I congratulate DataTAAG employees for their hard work, dedication and fearless spirit and making this happen within a short span of three years. A special thanks to the Reseller Middle East judges for shortlisting us and supported our nomination.” Najaf Ali, chief executive officer, DataTAAG Technologies ME

Solutions Provider “It was a great honour to receive this valuable award. A vote of confidence of the esteemed judging panel, customers and readers. In this occasion, I would like to extend my utmost gratitude for Reseller Middle East and CPI Media Group for orchestrating this amazing event, where we had the chance to meet our channel community and industry experts.” Amer Khreino, chief executive officer, Raqmiyat

Winner:

Raqmiyat Finalists:

DataTAAG Technologies Middle East Finesse | ISYX Technologies OMA Emirates | Raqmiyat

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Reseller categories

Security Reseller “Reseller Middle East has its finger on the pulse of the Middle East channel industry, which is why we are very proud to be recognised as the Security Reseller of the Year. 2017 marked the first time that the regional IT community and user-base picked the winner through the online voting system, which makes this win especially rewarding. We strive to set ourselves apart as a visionary and clearly our efforts have been noticed and appreciated by the industry.”

Winner:

Help AG Finalists:

Stephan Berner, chief executive officer, Help AG

Finalists:

“This award is very special, recognising us for a journey we embarked on recently. Cloud is the way forward and this recognition endorses that we are on the right track. Reseller ME has an excellent reach and I believe that this Award comes with a responsibility – we have to stay up to the expectations of our customers. We have to stay current in the dynamic landscape of technology business and work hard to win the recognition again. I thank Reseller ME for building a platform and a recognition format that motivates organisations belonging to the ICT industry to excel in their business.”

Help AG | Intertec Systems ISYX Technologies | Nanjgel Solutions

Cloud Reseller

Winner:

Almoayyed Computers Almoayyed Computers | Alpha Data Raqmiyat| TransSys Solutions

SM Hussaini, chief executive officer, Almoayyed Computers

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

Reseller categories

Systems Integrator “Being named Systems Integrator of the Year is a great honour for us at GBM. It gives us great pride to be recognised by respected industry voices like Reseller Middle East and that the judges see the value and expertise we bring to our clients. As we celebrate this great accolade, we look forward to providing the region with the most advanced technology solutions for years to come.”

Winner:

Gulf Business Machines

Andreas Weiss, vice president, Platform Solutions, GBM

Finalists:

Almoayyed Computers | Alpha Data Emitac Enterprise Solutions | Gulf Business Machines | Raqmiyat

Distributor categories

Volume Distributor

“I am extremely honoured to be receiving such an important award – the Volume Distributor of the Year. I am earnestly grateful for the recognition I have received for my work, because I am sure that every other nominee for this award was as capable, if not more, of winning this outstanding recognition. This award will positively influence and empower Niti group of companies to achieve greater successes. We are very grateful for this award.” Manoj Shroff, chairman and founder, Niti Group

Winner:

Niti Distribution Finalists:

ASBIS Middle East | FDC International Logicom Distribution | Mitsumi Distribution | Niti Distribution

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Distributor categories

Specialised Distributor “We are excited to win the award in this category and be recognised for our efforts in developing our channel market. This further encourages us to continue excelling in our business.” Hesham Tantawi, vice president, Asbis Middle East Winner:

ASBIS Middle East Finalists:

ASBIS Middle East | Bulwark Technologies Credence Security | Granteq Spectrami StorIT Distribution

Security Distributor “This award is an endorsement of the credibility we have built over the years and the trust our partners have in Exclusive Networks ME as a reliable Security VAD. We will continue to instill faith by offering breakthrough technologies through our vendors. Thank you once again for the ever-growing faith and support to the team!” Nathan Clements, managing director, Exclusive Networks ME

Winner:

Exclusive Networks ME Finalists:

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

Cloud Distributor

Winner:

Ingram Micro Finalists:

Ingram Micro | Logicom Redington Value Distribution

“This win means a lot to Ingram Micro as it endorses our efforts and vision in the regional cloud business. We are excited that the channel industry recognises cloud distribution playing an important role in the cloud business where Ingram is leading in the vision and execution of the strategy with its investment in platforms, people and channel development. This award gives the assurance to our vendors and channel partners that Ingram Micro is the right partner choice when it comes to their journey to the cloud.” Rahul Bhavsar, cloud director, META region, Ingram Micro

Value-added Distributor “Over the past decade, we have been recognised more than 100 times by vendors and various associations. But winning a media award is always an icing on the cake because it basically reaffirms the fact that we are definitely in the right direction. Therefore, it is an absolute honour.” Ramkumar Balakrishnan, president, Redington Gulf – Value Distribution

Winner:

Redington Value Distribution Finalists:

AlJammaz Distribution | Aptec - an Ingram Micro Company Exclusive Networks ME | Logicom Distribution | Mindware Redington Value Distribution | Westcon-Comstor

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Distributor categories

Emerging Distributor “JFK once famously said: As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. We, at Ethos, are extremely humbled by this recognition for our continued efforts to stand out in the market. Being told we are appreciated is one of the simplest and most uplifting things we can hear. We look forward to the future to support our vendors and nurture our channel partners through our partner programmes and constant push for excellence. ”

Winner:

Ethos Technologies Finalists:

Ashtel | Credence Security | Ethos Technologies | Gulf Software Distribution

Sajin Yousuff Kutty, business head, Ethos Technologies

KSA Distributor “We are delighted to receive this award from Reseller Middle East, as we are trying our best to duplicate our success in KSA across all countries of our territory. We would like to humbly thank our partners who have supported us.” Nirmal Menon, sales manager, MENA, Sariya IT Winner:

Sariya IT Distribution Finalists:

AlJammaz Distribution| Aptec Saudi Arabia Redington Value Distribution | Sale Advanced Co Sariya IT Distribution

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

Woman Executive

“I’m am so honoured and happy to have received this award and want to thank all the partners for believing in the Cisco partner strategy and execution. I’m looking forward to continuing our partnerships.” Winner: Frida Kleimert Knibbs, channel lead, East Region, Cisco Middle East

Finalists:

Ashu Verma, Think SS | Frida Kleimert Knibbs, Cisco UAE Nandini Sapru, EMT | Savita Bhasker, Condo Protego Sunita Bhatia, TSSC | Vivian Gevers, Credence Security

Outstanding Vendor Executive “I was delighted to win the Vendor Executive award from CPI’s Reseller Middle East and its readers. My association with CPI goes back almost 20 years to the days of Dom D’Souza and Dave Reeder, so I believe this award recognises what I have done for the channel within various vendors over the last two decades in the region, thank you.”

Winner: Graham Porter, manager of channels, Middle East Veeam Software

Finalists:

Amanulla Khan, Linksys | Graham Porter, Veeam Software Havier Haddad, Dell EMC | Hesham El Komy, Epicor Mohamed Khan, SAP | Osama AlHaj-Issa, HPE Aruba | Sakkeer Hussain, D-link

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Personality categories

Editor’s Choice Outstanding Channel Executive

“I am deeply honoured and humbled to receive this Award. To be recognised by my peers for work on something as important as leadership in our profession, is very special. A special thanks to my team and CPI Media Group.” Winner:

Jagat Shah,

Mitsumi Distribution

Editor’s Choice Partner Champion - Vendor

Winner:

Sakkeer Hussain, director, Sales and Marketing, D-Link Middle East and Africa

“I’m truly humbled to be bestowed with the Partner Champion of the year award by Reseller Middle East for the second time in a span of five years. Our success is only possible with the dedication from our partners and I have had the opportunity to work with some of the best ones. This Award is a testimony to our commitment to the partner business.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

Editor’s Choice Partner Champion - Distributor

Winner: Nicholas Argyrides, Chief of Sales and Deputy General Manager, Mindware

“It is, truly, an honour to be recognised with this award. At Mindware, however, it’s always about the team and not the individual. This is, therefore, a Mindware achievement and it is our amazing team that deserves full praise, never the front-man. My sincerest thanks to our remarkable people for their relentless efforts and their contagious energy.”

Editor’s Choice Managed Services Provider

Winner:

Emitac Enterprise Solutions

“I am extremely delighted to receive the ‘Managed Services provider of the Year 2017’ award from reseller ME. Being recognised by the industry is a great honour. It further cements our position as a leader in the Managed Services space for excelling, sustaining and driving services business despite challenging market circumstances. We are proud and will continue to strive and lead the space with innovative strategies and solutions.” Tony Alam, chief executive officer, Emitac Enterprise Solutions

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

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Services

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BUSINESS PROCESS

CACHING IN

Exponential amounts of data are created at a rapid rate as new technologies and devices enable quicker information capturing and sharing. Businesses are increasingly deploying storage solutions to manage data efficiently and securely. Reseller ME examines how channel partners can optimise the opportunities present in this sector.

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

PROSPECTS IN STORAGE // FEATURE

ne of the biggest challenges regional enterprises will face as they look at scaling into complete digital environments, will be deciding on which type of storage solutions to deploy to stow away their mounting data. The data storage market in the GCC is largely driven by the increasing adoption of Internet of Everything (IoE) and Big Data. According to a Future Market Insights report, the rise in number of consumers on social media networks, increase in broadband Internet penetration and proliferation of smartphones are factors that have led to a significant increase in cloud and data centre traffic in GCC countries such as UAE and Saudi Arabia. The report predicted the Middle East data storage market to register a CAGR of 14.4 percent from 2015 to 2025. Sanjay Ahuja, vice president, MEA, AGC Networks, says, “Rapid advancements in information technology is one of the key factors driving the adoption of data storage in the Middle East. With SMBs looking to leverage information from Big Data and IoT enabled devices, data storage vendors have started introducing hybrid cloud data protection solutions, in order to offer most cost-effective and affordable disaster recovery solutions.” This also means there is a huge opportunity for channel partners to enhance their offerings and develop new skillsets to help customers select the most ideal storage solution for their businesses. The challenge, however, is to stay updated on the number of new technologies that are born within the storage segment. How can partners differentiate their offerings and screen out the noise to be able to advise customers? The first step towards this is ensuring that they are aware about market trends. Nadine Welly, Channel Sales Lead, Dell EMC, says, “Two of the stand-out technologies gaining momentum in

Nadine Welly, Dell EMC

“Two of the standout technologies gaining momentum in the region are flash storage and hybrid cloud, and these also represent the most significant opportunity for the partner community.” the region are flash storage and hybrid cloud, and these also represent the most significant opportunity for the partner community.” Referring to a survey commissioned by Dell EMC and conducted by Dun & Bradstreet, she says that 51 percent of organisations across the region are already working on a storage transformation strategy powered by flash technologies for 2017. “In addition to this, hybrid-cloud offers partners an environment that uses a mixture of cloud services including onpremises, private cloud, and third-party, public cloud. This enables the customer and partner to devise the architecture that is most relevant to their business,

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

FEATURE // PROSPECTS IN STORAGE

taking into consideration scalability, future requirements, and much more,” she adds. According to Savitha Bhaskar, COO, Condo Protego, hyper-converged infrastructure has the biggest potential in the regional market. She says, “This is because it can lower total cost of ownership by 30 percent by cutting costs for IT infrastructure, and bring applications to market faster.” Agreeing with Bhaskar, Mohan Sundaram, senior pre-sales consultant, Enterprise Infrastructure, Emitac Enterprise Solutions, says, “The adoption of hyper-convergence as a technology has been increasing with certain customers deploying it for suitable applications and it is definitely a trend to look out for. Customers are increasingly adopting software-defined storage (SDS) in this sphere.” Pavel Tatarintsev, Regional Storage Sales Leader, Gulf Business Machines, believes because SDS runs on any hardware, “the challenge for partners is to be flexible and professional to be able

Ben Savage, Pure Storage

“Making sure they are commercially adept to sell all-flash solutions is important.” 56

to support such setups seamlessly.” “Most partners today do not have this experience as in the past the hardware was always fine-tuned and integrated with its functions,” he says. Pure Storage’s head of EMEA Channels and Alliances, Ben Savage, says the adoption to all-flash is definitely being recognised more and more today. He says, “The all-flash market is the fastest growing market within storage even in the Middle East. We are seeing purchasing of legacy infrastructure declining quarter on quarter significantly. There is more demand for dedicated flash solutions rather than hyperconverged ones.” The Future Market Insights report further revealed that the growth of the storage flash array sub-segment is a potential revenue opportunity in this market. This is largely because flashbased devices reduce data access time and increase an application’s performance speed. Savage adds that partners need to ensure they are focused and skilled technically to be able to optimise the opportunities. “Making sure they are commercially adept to sell all-flash solutions is important.” Nick Jheng,Sales Account Manager, Synology, says that as the enterprise storage market continues to evolve, channel partners need to constantly educate their end customers on the ROI and benefits of upgrading their enterprise storage infrastructures. “Channel partners should take advantage of storage solution workshops that are held by various storage vendors in the region. This gives them the perfect opportunity to get a refresher on new and upcoming enterprise storage solutions as well as exchange best practices and address customer concerns. The workshops also provide trainings from the vendor on how new storage solutions can be

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Mohan Sundaram, Emitac Enterprise Solutions

“The adoption of hyper-convergence as a technology has been increasing with certain customers deploying it for suitable applications and it is definitely a trend to look out for.” integrated with existing IT environments. Overall, having the complete product knowledge will enable them to recommend the right storage solutions for their customers.” Channel partners should look at investing in the latest within storage solutions and enhance their offering to become an expert in solving customers’ challenges. Also, partners will have to go beyond just deploying the solutions, they have to ensure customers can access, retain and backup their data in a secure manner. Resellers should first understand the technology thoroughly before setting out to successfully sell these solutions. While they can depend on support from their vendors and distributors, partners should also make it a point to take the responsibility to get adequately trained in this space.

FEATURE // BUILDING MARKETING SKILLS

Marketing matters Most reselling businesses are entrepreneurial in nature and lack dedicated resources for marketing. We speak to regional players across the channel ecosystem to learn how possessing marketing skills can transform a business.

‘

Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.’ Channel partners should keep in mind marketer Joe Chernov’s views when devising their marketing strategies. While meeting the revenue expectations is the primary objective for any reseller, many players discount how investing in their brand’s image can add to the business’ overall success. This results in pushing marketing initiatives to the bottom of the priority list. Noura Shihabi, marketing manager, GCC Region, Avaya, says, “As competition in the market continues

to intensify, effective channel partner marketing has proven to be vital for business growth. The differentiator for the business is a proactive approach in staying connected with existing and prospective customers through effective marketing initiatives, which will play a significant role in increasing visibility and demand.” AGC Networks’ vice president for Middle East and Africa, Sanjay Ahuja, says, for a business to be successful, the products and services they sell must be made known to potential buyers. “The success of your business is as good as its marketing efforts. A good business may offer the best

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

brands and products but without effective marketing, how will your potential customers know of what you are selling?” The only way to do this is by investing in the right market initiatives and research and simultaneously understand the customer’s requirements. “This will help resellers intensify their customer base and generate more revenue, while improving opportunities to win additional distribution channels,” he adds. Partners should remember that the sales and marketing roles are closely connected.

In fact, Yassine Regragui, marketing and communications manager, EnGenius Technologies, says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;One can easily argue that everything marketing does is for the purpose of facilitating sales.â&#x20AC;? Regragui believes that if resellers undertake marketing initiatives seriously, they will be able to not only find prospective customers but also persuade them to make the purchase. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Workshops and trainings allow resellers to constantly communicate with their customers and potential buyers. In doing so, they act as middlemen, providing the right information to the customer on behalf

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

FEATURE // BUILDING MARKETING SKILLS

of vendors. This also helps in demand generation,” he adds. Today the challenge is most reselling businesses have an entrepreneurial trait and lack the required resources, which means budgeting for marketing initiatives can be easier said than done. Fortinet’s regional channel manager, Zacky Vaz, says, “Channel partners are always under pressure to increase profitability. Due to severe budget cut in government and large enterprises, partners are compelled to work on thin margins, affecting marketing initiatives and other investments. Partners rely on distributor and vendor marketing activities to build the pipeline and generate new leads.”

Zacky Vaz, Fortinet

“Due to severe budget cut in government and large enterprises, partners are compelled to work on thin margins, affecting marketing initiatives and other investments.” 60

According to Regragui, another challenge is the lack of vendor control over marketing initiatives rolled out by partners, which results in inconsistent brand experiences and ineffective marketing at the local level. “As such, brands find it difficult to measure and prove ROI of channel programmes, which makes it difficult to run them continuously. The result is that resellers might get a marketing budget for a year but it becomes tough to get it for the following one. “In the SMB sector, there is definitely a lack of partner marketing skills as most of the resellers do not have dedicated personnel for the marketing function. This means that there is limited participation in channel marketing programmes from partners’ side. This then results in some vendors considering that focusing on channel marketing is wasted efforts and resources,” he adds. The way marketing initiatives are carried out has evolved over the years, presenting another problem for partners. From traditional B2B marketing campaigns, today businesses are expected to be well-versed with online and digital marketing tools. This is primarily because the manner in which customers consume information has drastically transformed over the years. Shihabi adds, “With the evolution of social media and content marketing, partners are faced with the challenge of limited tools to reach digital audiences effectively.” Therefore, she says it is essential for the vendor to step in to equip partners with these resources. “By providing easy access to everything from customisable print collateral to email templates and social media content to marketing plans, the vendor goes a long way in ensuring that the partner has all that is required to succeed.”

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Noura Shihabi, Avaya

“With the evolution of social media and content marketing, partners are faced with the challenge of limited tools to reach digital audiences effectively.” Fortinet’s Vaz is of the opinion that most large enterprise resellers have begun investing in marketing resources and work closely with vendors and distributors to drive related campaigns. “With digital marketing on the rise, partners rely on vendors to support them with latest marketing collaterals to support online campaigns.” Marketing is no longer a luxury that partners can do without. Today, it is a necessity and it is important for channel partners to dedicate time and resources for this function. They must build and advertise their brand in order to be better known within their customer base. “In today’s environment, which is marked by intense competition and different buying personas, resellers have no choice but to consider marketing strategies along with customer engagement. Although marketing strategies are expensive to begin with, it is certainly worthwhile,” Regragui adds.

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PARTNER WATCH // BULWARK TECHNOLOGIES

FRONT AND CENTRE

At GISEC 2017, value-added security distributor, Bulwark Technologies MD Jose Thomas, elaborates on the firm’s strategies for the second half of the year.

ulwark Technologies aims to continue its focus of bringing in niche security technologies into the region. Speaking to Tahawul Tech at GISEC 2017, Jose Thomas, managing director, Bulwark Technologies, says, “We have participated at GISEC since its inception, five years ago. We are displaying our latest vendor partnerships with Lastline, Radware and Mimecast at this year’s show. “As a security IT company, GISEC is an important event for us because there are many security-focused customers who attend the show. We have seen the latest reports on security breaches around the world and our customers depend on us to counter these attacks.”

The company boasts a wide range of vendors such as Sophos, Varonis, Syncplicity and Ara Networks among others. In 2016, the company separated its value business to be housed under Bulwark Technologies, while Bulwark Distribution had the fast-moving products with partners enabled to train on the job. “However,” he adds. “under the value business, we handhold the partner right from the beginning because to implement these solutions are a lot more complicated and time-consuming.” We will see the distributor continuing its focus on adding new products and features to its existing vendors over the second half of the year.

“We are committed to offering data security solutions and we will continue to bring the latest technologies addressing the regional customers’ concerns around this.” 62

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

The company has recently opened an office in Bangalore, India, where it plans to replicate its value business. Thomas adds, “We will be having regional representations from different Indian cities in this office. The country is also going through digitalisation process and security threats become even more imminent now.” According to the distributor, there is a huge shortage of security skills within the region. “Getting trained is a big challenge for partners. Timely training is important in order to be up to date with the market. Only then can they position the products and understand customers’ pain areas well. Along with our vendors, we provide regular training and certification programmes to enable our partners.” We can expect to see more vendor partnerships from the distributor by the end of this year. Thomas adds, “We are committed to offering data security solutions and we will continue to bring the latest technologies addressing the regional customers’ concerns around this. This is an on-going focus for us.”

VEEAM SOFTWARE // VENDOR FOCUS

Enabling data accessibility Reseller ME catches up with Mike Resseler, director, Product Management, Veeam Software, at the firm’s third edition of customer and partner conference, VeeamON 2017, to understand how and why customers must reconsider their data protection strategies.

hat has been Veeam Software’s priorities over the last few years? Our priority is to understand customers’ problems and what we believe will be business challenges in the future. Many new technologies and services are emerging and we see that organisations’ data are not located all on-premise. In the past, the challenge was that most information was stored in local laptops instead of data centres. Today data resides in the data centre and we believe that will continue for a long time. But what we need to realise is that data will also be with local service providers and other partners. The challenge of the future will be to keep that data available, know the location of different types of data and make it portable to move it to different sites. From a R&D vision, we believe we can be an enabler to keep that data available and be able to move it to which ever platform necessary. That is the long-term goal. Why is it not feasible today? Because the technology of the different required components is simply not there now. As we see the technologies enhancing, we believe this will be feasible in the future and we want to be enablers for business to be able to do that. Our goal is to provide data management solutions for all firms.

Do you think this will happen by the time the company touches $1.5 billion in 2020? Most probably not, because we don’t believe that the technology will be ready by then. However, by 2020, we would have certainly made great steps in enabling that story.

components of the complete strategy. Our solutions will be a few layers within that complete plan. We will never pretend that we are everything. Even SMBs, should think about this layered approach because they are going to have the same challenge – they need their data to be available 24/7.

Are enterprises thinking of data in this manner yet? Yes, they are. A part of my role is to talk to customers, from small firms to huge enterprises, and learn about their five-year strategy. Most enterprises have these types of strategies in place but smaller customers usually don’t. It is interesting to see that most challenges that they have and expect to have is around data and how they can ensure they have their data to continue, in case of a security breach or adversity. Data is so important for organisations across verticals.

Will this layered approach work for ransomware attacks? When it comes to new threats such as ransomware, one part of that strategy should be what we call ‘air gap’. Air gap essentially means you take your data and store it on a platform, and then there is air between that backup. Why is that? As ransomware attacks become much more sophisticated, what we have noticed is that eventually they end up reaching the backup server. Customers might think since they have backups, they have nothing to worry, however today we have ransomware that is intelligent enough to get to these backups and destroy it. We live by the 321 rule – three copies of data, stored on two different media such as tape, disk or cloud, and one being offsite. We prefer the one that is offsite to be air gaps so that there is no computer wire connected. Even if a customer’s entire firm is attacked by ransomware, they can be assured of their data being safe offsite.

How should enterprises change their disaster recovery strategies? Not just enterprises but firms of all sizes should think about a ‘layered concept’ in their disaster recovery strategy. To protect the most valuable data, customers must invest in a layer, which has clustering and synchronisation. Then, they should begin building up layers such as backup and replication, which will be

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

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REVIEW

SONY MDR-1000X HEADPHONE An intelligent piece of hardware for music lovers ony MDR-1000X headphone performs well and supports the High-Resolution Audio format, which the company promotes with most of its products. If you are an audiophile and have Hi-Res music files, you may want to get your hands on this new Bluetooth headphone from Sony. While Bose is considered an industry leader in Noise Cancellation headphones, Sony has come up with quite a competent product geared towards frequent travellers. The MDR1000X has microphones, not just on the outside to measure ambient noise but also on the inside. Sony calls this the Sense Engine feature, which takes into account the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personal characteristics and wearing style. For example, the shape of head and ears or if the user is wearing glasses or not. Essentially this means that the drivers and the ambient noise measuring microphones will adapt to the level of noise cancellation required to produce the ideal sound. The device comes with a convenient carrying case that lets you carry the USB charging cable, a 3.5 mm wire and an airplane adaptor. The device is bulkier and heavier than its direct competitor, the Bose QC35, but this is done in order to provide some nifty features. The right ear cup offers gesture controls like play, pause, forward and rewind. The MDR-1000X has a unique trick up its sleeves, place your hand over the right ear cup and the

noise cancellation is turned off allowing you to listen to your surroundings. This is particularly handy when having to listen to announcements while travelling or if someone comes up to say something to you. The music pauses and once you remove your hand it continues to play. On the left ear cup you have the physical buttons like to power on/off, the Noise Cancellation on/off and the ambient noise on/off. They are slightly difficult to find initially but over time you will remember their locations. The most important question everyone has with Bluetooth headphones is the battery life. The MDR-1000X exceeds expectations, offering up to 20 hours of wireless listening and if you use the physical

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.resellerme.com

cable you will get up to 40 hours. Charging from empty to full takes roughly four to five hours. Pairing with a cellphone is either via Bluetooth or NFC. The Sony MDR-1000X sounds excellent and offers one of the best noise cancellation features available in the market at the moment. Along with good battery life and nifty features like the Sense Engine, Sony has produced an intelligent piece of hardware for music lovers. RATING

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ANDROID CREATOR ANDY RUBIN UNVEILS ESSENTIAL PHONE Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, has launched a smartphone under his new company called Essential. Rubin left Google in 2014 to create Playground, a technology investment company. The incubator plans to raise $300 million to support startups globally. Essential is one of the companies it funds. According to Essential’s website, the new handset is powered by a Qualcomm Inc. processor and inlcudes USB-C port for charging. It is equipped with an 8 MP camera on the front and a 13 MP sensor on the rear. It also has a magnetic connector on the back to connect an additional 360-degree camera and a wireless charging hub. The sides of the phone are made with titanium, which the company claims it is impervious to scratches and dents. The device’s rear side is designed with

ceramic and comes in black, gray, white, and a gold-like color it calls “Ocean Depths.” The Essential Phone runs a version of the Android operating system with a customised user interface. The handset is available for pre-order and is priced at $699. The handset will be available only in the US when it launches; Essential hasn’t given any details if it would launch the phone to other countries as well and when it will ship or provide pricing for the home product.

EPSON LAUNCHES BUSINESS A3 MFP IN THE MIDDLE EAST Epson has launched its next generation of eco-efficient business inkjet printers, the WorkForce Enterprise, at a launch event in Dubai, which was attended by its business partners from the region. This ultra fast 100ipm departmental colour office A3 printer delivers the ecological benefits that only inkjet technology can offer, providing a low power solution with fewer supplies at the price of a departmental laser copier. The WorkForce Enterprise WF-C20590 is joined by a 75ipm version, the WFC17590, both designed to meet the needs of departmental office printing in corporates and SMEs. To further enhance the printer’s quality, Epson has incorporated a number of technology innovations, including a self-repairing printhead to eliminate banding and an electrostatic transport

belt to maintain quality at high speed. The new technology delivers a step-change in environmental performance, reducing power usage by up to a staggering 96 percent compared to the same speed laser printer without needing a specialist power supply. Jason Whiley, director of sales, Epson Middle East, said, “The WorkForce Enterprise cuts the environmental impact of print by providing a low power solution, with fewer supplies, while delivering remarkably fast print speeds at high quality. Having far fewer parts than equivalent laser-based MFDs, this series promises to deliver higher reliability and significantly increase printer uptime.

AXIS FLAUNTS NEW RANGE OF POSITIONING CAMERAS Axis has launched a new generation of positioning cameras, giving operators faster and more accurate pan and tilt capabilities to monitor large-scale sites, perimeters and borders in real-time and are able to respond instantly to security alerts and incidents. The new range of positioning cameras enables surveillance across vast sites with fewer cameras, with the potential for 360-degree unobstructed field of view and at all times, and 135-degree field of view from ground to sky. The new generation thermal, visual PTZ and bispectral PTZ positioning cameras enable rapid identification and incident response at large-scale sites. The features in the new positioning cameras include high speed and jerk-free PTZ movements with continuous pan; built-in electronic image stabilisation (EIS); and SFP slot for easy cable management, and quick and effective installation for fibre-optic connection over long distances.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

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HP INC ANNOUNCES NEW LINEUP OF PAVILION LAPTOPS

HP Inc. has announced a new lineup of Pavilion laptops with sophisticated designs, and features to inspire today’s students and tomorrow’s reinventors. The new Pavilion convertibles and laptops, according to HP, deliver a rich set of features and performance options previously reserved for higher-end products, including the addition of premium materials like 3D metal to help remove all visual seams, USB-C for more connectivity options and active pen support to bring Windows Ink to life on Pavilion x360s. The new Pavilion x360 gives customers mobility and flexibility in a convertible PC. The devices have features like 3D metal to help remove all visual seams, USB-C to enable more connectivity, and active pen support to bring Windows Ink to life. Windows Ink allows users to interact with content in new ways and quickly turn thoughts into action – create lists, sticky notes, and draw your ideas directly onto the screen. The 2017 Pavilion x360s are offered with an 11.6inch HD IPS display, or 14-inch or 15.6-inch diagonal screen options with HD or Full HD IPS.

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BOSE FLAUNTS NEW BLUETOOTH SPEAKERS Bose has launched what the company claims to be its best Bluetooth speakers ever — the new SoundLink Revolve and SoundLink Revolve+. According to the company, with omni-directional performance, and an new acoustic design, Revolve speakers spread sound in every direction — from a seamless aluminum design. “When SoundLink first hit the market, it took the industry by storm,” said Glenn Gomes-Casseres, director of products for Bose wireless speakers. “We didn’t want to make small improvements to the audio that made it famous. We wanted the difference to be so dramatic, that it would take just one song to hear the best sound you’ve ever heard from a little speaker — all over again.” Both new Revolve models feature

an IPX4-rating to withstand spills, rain, and pool splashes; and rugged durability to survive dings, drops, and bumps. A quarter-twenty thread on the bottom of each makes for easy mounting on a tri-pod for listening in the yard or an outdoor party. Revolve is 6-inch high x 3 ¼-inch deep, weighs a mere 1.5 pounds, and provides up to 12-hours of battery life. Revolve+ is slightly bigger for more performance at 7 ¼”-inch high x 4-inch deep, 2 pounds, and up to 16-hours of playtime. Both can pair through NFC, feature plain-language voice-prompts for fool-proof set-up, and integrate microphones to use as a speakerphone, or with Siri and Google Assistant.

MICROSOFT UNVEILS NEW SURFACE LAPTOP Microsoft has announced a set of educational products and services, inspired by teachers and students, including the new Surface Laptop. Surface Laptop is powered by Windows 10 S, and is equipped with a 7thgeneration Intel Core processor and up to 14.5 hours of battery life. The 13.5-inch PixelSense Display is optimised for touch and inking for an immersive experience, and the optically bonded Corning Gorilla Glass 3 makes it as durable as it is beautiful. The signature keyboard is covered in Alcantara material and features a quiet and responsive keyset, large precision trackpad, and soft palm rest for a new level of typing comfort.

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Surface Laptop is available in four rich toneon-tone colours: Platinum, Graphite Gold, Burgundy and Cobalt Blue. Surface Laptop starts at $999 and will be available starting June 15. Customers can preorder Surface Laptop starting today in the US and Austria, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom where available at Microsoft Store, microsoftstore.com and BestBuy.com. Surface Laptop will also be available in Canada and China later this year, and availability in other markets will be announced in the coming months.

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HONEYWELL LAUNCHES RUGGED MOBILE PRINTER Honeywell’s new RP Series mobile receipt printers offer rugged and reliable performance for route accounting, direct store delivery, citation printing, car rental return receipts and field service workers. “In the field, mobile printers have to endure frequent drops, vibration and exposure to dust and water,” said Edmond Mikhael, General Manager for Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META). “Our RP Series printers are designed to withstand these harsh conditions and give users years of reliable thermal receipt and label printing.” The RP Series mobile printers are built for the most rugged environments with a wide temperature spec and IP54 rating for dust and moisture ingress. They are optimized for all-day receipt printing at up to five inches-per-second and are designed for label printing as well. The RP Series comes in different print widths to match specific particular

WD EXPANDS NASOPTIMISED HD PORTFOLIO

applications, and each version can print a range of print widths as well. All versions come with a rechargeable battery that can be charged inside or outside the printer and was designed to last a full shift for most use cases. When a battery needs to be changed during a shift, it is hot-swappable. To enhance productivity, the printer can operate for 20–120 seconds – depending on wireless communications – without a battery and not lose connectivity or need to be restarted. The printer also tracks its health and provides analytics related to the battery age, print head condition and any unusual or extreme environmental conditions the printer has encountered. This allows customers to manage their fleet of printers with maximum uptime.

ALMOE DIGITAL INTRODUCES NEW EPSON LASER PROJECTORS UAE-based audio-visual and IT distributor and integrator Almoe Digital Solutions has launched a new line-up of Epson’s highend laser projectors targeted towards the region’s burgeoning entertainment and leisure sector. The new range, designed to provide large venues with state-ofthe-art projection capabilities for a truly immersive viewing experience, was showcased recently at an exclusive event for partners and customers at the H Hotel in Dubai, UAE. The new range consists of the Epson flagship Pro L25000U, which is a 3LCD

laser projector with 25,000 lumens and 4K enhancement; the EB-L1505U, which is a 12,000 lumens WUXGA 3LCD laser projector, and the L1405U laser projector, which delivers powerful, uncompromising images. Apart from these, the lineup features other models with brightness ranging from 6,000 to 25,000 Lumens. The line-up of laser projectors is available through Almoe’s distribution arm for UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman markets.

Western Digital has expanded its WD Red and WD Red Pro NAS hard drives lineup with the introduction of 10TB capacity models optimised for use in personal, home and small to medium business NAS systems. The WD Red line of NAS hard drives allow customers to scale up or down to meet their changing NAS storage needs. Introduced in 2012, WD Red hard drives address the unique environment of NAS and the growing demand for affordable, reliable and compatible storage that reduces customer total cost of ownership. Designed with Western Digital’s HelioSeal heliumtechnology, the WD Red 10TB hard drive provides higher capacity and performance to meet the increasing storage needs of always-on, singleto-8-bay NAS systems. The heliumbased design enables a 25 percent capacity increase from the WD Red 8TB NAS storage drive. With support for up to 16 bays in towerand rack-based systems, the WD Red Pro 10TB hard drive delivers the same high performance, reliability and capacity to systems operating in up to 16 bay NAS systems.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JUNE 2017

Tech talk

Reseller Middle East's Online Editor Adelle Geronimo shares her views on the regional tech scene.

Adelle Geronimo, Online Editor, Technology Division

All shapes and sizes From jewellery to furniture, buildings and even human organs and limbs, the disruptive influence of 3D-printing is growing layer by printed layer across the globe. While the concept of 3D-printed objects and infrastructure sounds futuristic the technology has been around for over three decades. The continuous maturity of technology and innovation has democratised 3D-printing bringing it within the reach of companies in nonmanufacturing fields like education, retail and healthcare. It even garnered mainstream attention when the hobbyist/ maker 3D printing market took off. Essentially, today, if you can think it, design it and build it, you can also 3D print it. The European Space Agency’s Amaze project aims to make it possible to use 3D printing to produce parts for the aerospace industry on an industrial scale.

Last year, the US has started testing a jet engine constructed from 3D-printed parts, a project headed General Electric. In Amsterdam, a 3D-printed bridge stretches 6.5-metres across a canal and should enter service in 2017. The region has also seen its share of innovative 3D-printed projects. The launch of Dubai 3D Printing Strategy has already seen the inauguration of the world’s first 3D-printed office building the emirate dubbed as the “Office of the Future” near Emirates Towers, which was built in just 17 days. The strategy is aimed at shaping the development of the technology in the city’s construction, consumer and healthcare sectors. It is part of a government push to make Dubai and the UAE a global hub for 3D printing technology by the year 2030. However, what I find to be the most compelling domain that the 3D-printing has reached is healthcare

JUNE 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

or biomedicine. Research is already taking place into the mass production of 3D items from surgical materials to printed teeth, hearing aids, prosthetics and implants. Last month, we ran a report about a Dubai resident receiving the first-ever fully 3D-printed prosthetic leg here in the region, an innovation that could soon slash prices of costly conventional prosthetics by half. Scientists across the globe are working on the realistic goal of printing human internal organs including a working human heart. This will mean that people who require lifesaving organ transplants will no longer have to wait for a suitable donor. Instead, the required organ can be printed out to meet their specifications. 3D-printing is still in its relative infancy but one thing is for sure the possibilities this technology can bring are truly endless.

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