The Link Issue 02

Issue 02 | June 2013

Meeting demand Accommodating the region’s growth with the very best in next-gen technology

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ComputerLinks Authorized Training Center For

THE

LINK from the MANAGEMENT

Lee Reynolds and Tim Martin (Managing Directors), Gareth Morgan (Director of Sales), and John Andrews (Marketing Director) Computerlinks Middle East, India and APAC

Welcome all to our second edition of The Link.

2013 seems to be flying by and we’re already heading into the second half of the year.

In this issue, we’ve tried to bring you an insight into our internal product teams, their visions on the technologies they represent and an in-depth look at how they foresee the coming months for those vendors.

This plays off nicely against our last issue, in which our content was mainly driven by the local vendor management, and it should hopefully demonstrate our alignment with some common strategies and goals.

The resounding message for us is that our market is certainly seeing continued growth despite regional issues and, of course,

the tough months ahead during the quieter summer season.

The number of data centre and infrastructure projects that our Professional Services operation has engaged on is at a record high, and, in this issue, we’ve made a special effort to introduce you to that team and the services they can provide.

Value-add is a term which has been coming up, again, quite frequently in recent discussions and in the press. And we’re always very keen to stress that our concept of that term is very different from other players in our market.

Around two years ago, the Computerlinks Group worldwide dropped the “value-add” tag line and adopted our current motto— ”Next Generation Distribution”.

That wasn’t because we didn’t offer value-add, but because we found that most of the common attributes which earned the VAD tag were services or facilities that we at Computerlinks were offering as our standard platform to market.

Financial terms and flexibility; efficient, cost-effective and punctual logistics; Professional Services including consultancy, security testing, design, deployment and project management; training; and outsourced marketing, to name just a few, are all benefits that you can leverage when working with our team.

But what is “next generation” about Computerlinks?

Funnily enough, we touched on this in the previous issue with reference to new technologies and vendors being brought to the market—something we continue to do and plan to execute on in the coming months.

Creative and ground-breaking sales and marketing to support our channel and vendors’ go-to-market in new ways and identify more opportunities.

If you look up next generation, its definition is: “Adjective (used before a noun, the noun being distribution in this case)—used to describe a product that has been developed using the latest technology and will probably replace an existing product.”

That, for us, is as clear as it can be—probably replacing an existing product, which is valueadded distribution. All distribution should be value-added, and so we’re looking ahead to the next distribution product that will lead the way in how we do business with our partners.

So it only remains for us to wish you happy and safe holiday travels this summer, Ramadan Kareem and much prosperity in all your business endeavors.

We hope you enjoy our second issue and look forward to welcoming you back for the cooler temperatures of October.

The management.

www.computerlinks.com

June 2013 | The Link

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JOHN’s BLOG

contents 06 To attend or not to attend?

Scanning through my private email over the past week, I noticed that I had been invited to more than 75 events, summits, roundtables, exhibitions, seminars and conferences—all connected to the IT industry.

It occurred to me that, although I am hugely popular, I’m probably not alone when it comes to this deluge of invitations.

As it works out, if I attended every one of the events for which I received an invite then I wouldn’t be back in my office until late August.

So the question is… how do we decide which events to attend? For me the basic rules to score a “yes” are as follows: 1. Is the event well presented? It’s surprising how many invitations I get which aren’t personalised, look immediately like bulk mail or spam, don’t have any striking or catchy information or, in so many cases, are so badly written that it’s hard to even understand the initial messaging.

2. Can you get more value from your attendance? In many cases, speaking to the organisers can offer you a host of additional opportunities to gain extra value. Speaking slots or pre-arranged meetings with people important to your business goals are all things that any “competent” event planner should be able to offer.

3. Is the content relevant to my business goals? If you’re personally interested in a particular subject then clearly that’s a great motivator to attend an event or function. It’s even more useful, though, if this event is going to add value and vision to your particular business goals. For example, if you are heavily embedded in consultancy for Big Data projects then an event on storage with a great content spread would give a great platform to build your knowledge.

4. Is the event going to help you grow? For me, this is the most important. A common business saying states, “Be interested, not interesting.” I really hate hearing this—BE BOTH! There’s nothing a customer or partner likes more than to have a conversation with someone who’s able to listen to opinions and discussions around technology and add factual and interesting content themselves.

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04 John’s Blog 06 Interview: Computerlinks’ John Hathaway on McAfee’s push into the SMB sphere 08 Insight: Gigamon’s Visibility Fabric architecture 12 Insight: How F5 is moving with the times 14 Interview: Computerlinks’ Amir Akhtar on the distributor’s Professional Services arm 16 Updates: The latest news from Computerlinks and its vendor partners

BECAUSE THE BAD GUYS NEVER SLEEP, WE NEVER SLEEP. Ah, the thrill of the hunt. Eradicating the dangers before they get dangerous. Inventing new security measures before they become necessary.

At McAfee, we live and breathe digital security. Our job is to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. It’s because we never sleep, that you can sleep better.

©2013 McAfee, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.mcafee.com/smarter

interview | McAfee

Taking on the SMB The Middle East’s SMB segment is on fire, and McAfee wants in on the action.

Computerlinks’ John Hathaway explains how the security vendor’s range of products is being specifically targeted at the region’s rapidly expanding number of SMBs. In May 2012, McAfee announced that it wanted to put more focus on the small and medium business (SMB) market, showing off a number of products tailored especially to the segment.

The idea of offering products and services specifically to the SMB market has gained significant traction over the past

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few years, particularly in the Middle East. Back in 2007, IBM affirmed its support for the SMB market by splitting its regional sales group into enterprise and SMB. More recently, Microsoft launched the SMB Technology Makeover Campaign in 2012, and UAE-based telco Etisalat launched a number of new mobile

www.computerlinks.com

packages designed for SMBs in May 2013.

There’s a reason why vendors are going after the region’s SMB segment. In the UAE alone, estimates say that SMBs make up anywhere between 40 and 60 percent of the nation’s GDP. And similar numbers are being heard across the GCC.

The region’s SMB market is booming. And according to John Hathaway, Regional Manager for McAfee, MENA, Computerlinks, the time is ripe for vendors such as McAfee to involve themselves—after all, these businesses are suddenly finding that they’re in need of highquality, low-cost security solutions.

“According to AMI Research, the worldwide market opportunity for security solutions in the SMB segment exceeded $19 billion in 2011, and is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of more than 10 percent,” he says.

“McAfee offers SMBs the same level of protection as enterprises in an easy-to-manage solution that is tailored for the needs of costconstrained SMB budgets.”

McAfee is currently targeting three solutions at the SMB market: McAfee Endpoint Protection Suite (EPS), McAfee Endpoint and Email Protection Suite (EPA), and McAfee Total Protection Suite (TPE).

According to Hathaway, the base version, EPS, defends the devices on the network on all attack routes with an all-in-one flexible security protection that gives SMB customers the freedom to deploy security on their terms.

EPA, meanwhile, adds protection from malicious email content before it enters the network, while also ensuring uninterrupted access to email.

TPE adds email encryption and pre-built compliance libraries to protect sensitive data and meet compliance requirements.

It also offers cloud-based Web filtering for anti-virus, anti-malware and category filtering, ensuring unwanted content never makes it into the network.

Hathaway says that these solutions come as part of a ‘good, better and best’ approach. The EPS, then, is good, while the TPE is best. He adds that the solutions offer enterprise-class protection for SMBs without the complexity and cost.

For example, everything is managed and maintained as a single, integrated solution.

What’s more, extra functionality is provided in the suites to provide scheduling flexibility when downloading crucial security

updates. This means that the updates can be completed during off-peak hours.

“McAfee understands SMB constraints and has developed the most comprehensive security solutions in the industry,” Hathaway explains. “McAfee business security software delivers complete anti-virus, antimalware, email protection, and other critical security designed for the SMB customer.”

What’s more, Hathaway adds, the solutions are built to be scalable, meaning that any rapidly expanding SMB can scale out quickly if needs be. “This includes clients with huge numbers of users and endpoints, or clients with multiple business locations,” he says.

But why do SMBs need to invest in security solutions at all?

An SMB owner could be forgiven for assuming that cyber-criminals are only after big, enterprisesized networks, and won’t take much interest in regional SMBS. However, though it is probably the last thing that an SMB owner wants to hear, Hathaway says that security is a concern for any business, no matter its size.

“These are challenging times for SMBs, even without the added complications of cyber-crime,” he says. “In an economy struggling to gain momentum, many SMBs are operating on razor-thin margins, with as few employees as possible, waiting for an upturn in consumer demand or at least a downturn in economic uncertainty.

In this context, the news that SMBs are increasingly targeted by cyber-criminals can feel like adding fuel to a burning fire.”

However, he adds, SMBs do need to wake up to this fact, as they “represent a sweet spot for cyber-criminals”. He says that this is down to two factors: The fact that SMBs generally have larger

cash piles than consumers do, and the fact that they likely have limited security resources deployed.

“An SMB is likely to have more money in its bank accounts than a consumer, and more likely to be moving money around—think wire transfers, vendor payments and customer payments,” Hathaway explains. “While there might not be a lot of profit left at the end of the month, the amount of money circulating through an SMB is greater than for the average consumer.”

And cyber-criminals can take

John Hathaway, Regional Manager for McAfee, MENA, Computerlinks

“According to AMI Research, the worldwide market opportunity for security solutions in the SMB segment exceeded $19 billion in 2011, and is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of more than 10 percent.” advantage of these comparatively larger cash piles by targeting SMBs with little no security in place.

Hathaway says, “An SMB is likely to have fewer security resources to protect its networks and systems than a large enterprise, increasing the chance of a successful attack and lessening the chance of criminals being detected, identified and prosecuted.”

When SMB owners realise this, Hathaway says, they’ll be in need of McAfee’s SMB-targeted suites. To sign up, they’ll have to go through one of McAfee’s or Computerlinks’ partners. The goto-market strategy is 100-percent channel driven, and is being done through McAfee’s SMB Specialisation Programme, which is designed to help its partners sell these security solutions.

“The McAfee SMB

Specialisation Programme allows partners to take advantage of a full range of profitability programmes, enablement tools, turn-key marketing kits, dedicated resources and much more—it’s all designed to help partners succeed in the SMB market,” Hathaway says.

The programme isn’t only designed with channel partners in mind, however. Hathaway says that this go-to-market strategy means that the solutions are tailor-made to a local market. After all, no-one knows the local market better than the regional partners servicing it.

This means that customers will be able to get the best out of whichever solution they need.

“The good, better, and best approach has bundled all of the protection you need for SMB clients,” Hathaway says.

www.computerlinks.com

June 2013 | The Link

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Insight | Gigamon

Unified visibility Having pledged to develop its Visibility Fabric architecture into a unified solution, Gigamon has made headlines with its new Visibility Fabric node, among other new releases.

Network visibility solution vendor Gigamon recently announced that it had made available a new Visibility Fabric node, the GigaVUE-HB1, for branch offices, and implemented a new user interface for its H Series product line.

The vendor has been pushing its Visibility Fabric architecture hard in recent months, following a pledge to develop a unified Visibility Fabric architecture that would ultimately deliver orchestrated visibility across

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www.computerlinks.com

physical, virtual and softwaredefined networks (SDN).

Gigamon says that there’s a need for a new approach in terms of network availability.

As the networking landscape changes with emerging technologies like virtualisation, cloud computing, mobility and big data, organisations are looking to traffic visibility as an essential component in managing, analysing and securing their networks, the vendor says.

However, according to Gigamon, legacy approaches offer limited traffic visibility with limited filtering capabilities; are difficult and costly to scale and manage; and often require change orders or network downtime in order to adapt to the evolving network.

To justify these claims, the vendor points to its Enterprise Strategy Group Report, which highlights a variety of drivers that both identify the shortcomings of current alternatives and explain the need for a new approach.

Have greater visibility and control woven into the fabric of your network Traffic Visibility Fabric™ from Gigamon visibilityfabric.eu

Insight | Gigamon

The report found that 36 percent of respondents cannot provision, mirror or SPAN ports fast enough, and 38 percent have monitoring or security tools that cannot keep up. What’s more, the report said that 48 percent of businesses have tools that need too many connection ports, and 40 percent do not have enough mirror or SPAN ports for their tools.

This is where the Visibility Fabric architecture comes in, Gigamon says. Sitting between the IT infrastructure and the tools that need access to the traffic traversing the network, the Visibility Fabric architecture is comprised of the GigaVUE family of fabric nodes and patented, advanced-level intelligence that can aggregate, filter, replicate or modify traffic to centralised management, analysis and security tools.

Gigamon says that the Visibility Fabric architecture is modular and extensible, making it suitable for a variety of networks of different sizes and scales, from 1Gb connectivity to 2.4Tb chassisbased solutions. The vendor also claims that dynamic changes can be made easily without impacting the production network, so organisations can be agile and responsive to threats, events or anomalies on the network.

The idea is sound, then, but the new releases take the Visibility Fabric architecture to a new level, Gigamon says. Gigamon claims that it is now providing ease of use and configurability for simplified management and provisioning of monitoring policies.

The GigaVUE-HB1 Visibility Fabric node, then, builds on Gigamon’s Unified Visibility Fabric architecture within the services layer and comes

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with GigaSMART technology.

GigaSMART offers the ability to normalise traffic and perform VXLAN decapsulation for monitoring virtualised network overlays, ERSPAN termination, packet de-duplication, packet masking and packet slicing, Gigamon says.

What’s more, the GigaVUEHB1 enables remote network monitoring by tunneling monitored data back to a central site for tool centralisation and

as well as continuing to work on in-house applications.

The last big announcement from Gigamon came with the H Series 3.0 OS Software release for the management layer, which provides a brand new, workflowbased Web 2.0 graphical user interface and simplified provisioning of monitoring policies. The 3.0 Software release also enables customers to utilise Gigamon’s GigaPORT-C01 100Gb blade for visibility into full line-

current portfolio in the context of Gigamon’s recently articulated four-layer architecture to offer orchestrated, centralised and policy-driven visibility as a service.”

Bob Laliberte of the Enterprise Strategy Group, says that Gigamon is really stepping up its game to help enterprises with remote or branch offices with the release of the GigaVUE-HB1.

“By offering network traffic optimisation, normalisation and tunneling in a smaller form factor,

“By offering network traffic optimisation, normalisation and tunneling in a smaller form factor, Gigamon is enabling enterprises with remote or branch offices to abstract data from those remote office networks, prepare that traffic and return it to a centralised data centre for analysis.” consolidation through a unified Visibility Fabric architecture.

Meanwhile, FlowVUE, upon release, will help tame Big Data and allow for the ability to intelligently correlate network traffic for tool optimisation, Gigamon says.

FlowVUE will join the session-aware flow deduplication application as the second visibility application to be developed by Gigamon in the applications layer. These applications offer flow-based correlation services to tools, ensuring optimal tool utilisation and performance by making network-based Big Data more manageable, Gigamon says.

When it announced FlowVUE, the vendor added that it will continue to work with technology partners and other third parties to develop additional applications

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rate 100Gb Ethernet connections, Gigamon says.

It’s all part of the unified vision that the vendor has for the architecture. Indeed, Gigamon demonstrated the Unified Visibility Fabric architecture at Interop Las Vegas 2013 earlier in May, garnering plenty of headlines as a result.

“Gigamon recently announced a vision for a Unified Visibility Fabric architecture that builds on the principles of SDN that will deliver centralised and programmable visibility services across physical, virtual and software-defined networks,” said Huy Nguyen, Senior Director of Product Management, Gigamon, upon the announcement of the new releases.

“These three new additions were developed with those goals in mind and join our

Gigamon is enabling enterprises with remote or branch offices to abstract data from those remote office networks, prepare that traffic and return it to a centralised data centre for analysis,” he said.

Laliberte also praised FlowVUE, saying that it will help customers with dynamic networks to retain a degree of control over what are normally highly unpredictable environments.

“The addition of FlowVUE in the applications layer will further enhance data centre efficiency by offering flow-based correlation services that will help to ensure optimal tool utilisation and performance,” he said.

“Gigamon’s unified architecture and rapid innovation delivery empowers its customers to achieve greater levels of visibility and control for highly dynamic network environments.”

Insight | f5 Networks

Moving with the times Though it made its name as an application traffic optimisation vendor, F5 Networks is now looking to take on additional segments in order to increase its market share.

F5 Networks is a well-known player in the high-end application traffic optimisation sphere. Indeed, it’s arguably the industry leader in this market, having increased its annual revenue growth from $525 million to $1.3 billion since 2007.

However, not one to be complacent, F5 is now making

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a greater push into the software space, having invested heavily in Layer-7 networking services and software-as-a-service (SaaS), as well as partnering with Web filtering company Websense.

It’s not all about the wires at F5 anymore; the vendor is taking the enterprise security market headon. And this makes perfect sense,

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according to Andre Kindness, Analyst, Forrester Research.

“People aren’t just throwing in boxes anymore—security is really becoming embedded across the network,” he told Network World in February this year.

Partnering with Websense The most notable dive that F5 has

made into a new type of security has been the planned partnership with Websense. With this, the vendor’s plan is to add another security layer to its offerings.

The idea is to combine the two companies’ expertise into one integrated solution. Therefore, a customer could get Websense’s malware protection and content

go. If F5 can offer more with its appliances in the form of Websense’s tried and tested filtering solutions, it will stop customers looking elsewhere for, perhaps cheaper, point solution alternatives.

inspection system coupled with F5’s hardware firewall and access controls. So far, F5 offers interoperability on its BIGIP platform with Websense’s V-Series appliances, though more integration offerings are in the pipeline.

And according to Kindness, this is exactly the right way to

The foray into SDN That said, F5’s plans cover much more than a deal with Websense.

For example, the company recently announced that it was purchasing LineRate Systems to extend the reach of its softwaredefined networking capabilities and improve application performance.

LineRate was a privately held company based in Colorado, USA. F5 was interested in its technology, intellectual property and engineering talent.

When F5 acquired LineRate, LineRate highlighted that, in its current form, SDN has a number of problems—for instance, that it is difficult to scale up performance to carry out application-level functions such as load balancing, security, fault tolerance and isolation. One of F5’s aims is to examine how such problems might be solved by enabling application-layer SDN service for software-defined data centres.

According to analysts, the decision to buy LineRate—just 10 months after it released its first product—was a good one.

“Certainly, F5 can now check the SDN box,” Jim Frey, Managing Research Director, Enterprise Asset Management Associates, told Network World after the acquisition was announced.

“There is an intriguing potential future role for ADCs [application delivery controllers] in the SDN world—most likely as SDN applications but quite possibly as federated controllers themselves.

This acquisition does put F5 in a position to go either way.”

At the same time, Rohit

Mehra, Vice President and Network Management Expert, IDC, said, “F5, like some of the other players in the data centre networking space, have been quite aware of the landscape evolving quickly when it comes to SDN.” BYOD and beyond Meanwhile, F5 has anticipated the growth BYOD uptake across the enterprise, having announced earlier this year a mobile app manager product for simplifying the integration of personal smartphones into corporate networks.

The product, called Mobile

The mobile app is available for both Android and iOS. While the product sounds great for the enterprise, though, F5 stressed that employees would also feel comfortable with having Mobile App Manager installed on their personal devices.

“Employees are more comfortable knowing that their personal content is completely inaccessible to IT, won’t be automatically wiped in the event a device is lost or stolen, and that device functionality (such as the camera) cannot be restricted,” the vendor said.

These various forays into

“People aren’t just throwing in boxes anymore—security is really becoming embedded across the network.”

Application Manager, is a SaaS offering, though it can also work with F5’s existing data centre hardware. When working with the hardware, F5 says that the product can provide applevel VPN access to computing resources remotely.

Another feature allows enterprise employees to copy information from their personal apps into corporate apps.

However, as a security failsafe, the same cannot be done the other way around. Meanwhile, personal information and calendar data can be synced from company sources on employees’ mobile devices automatically.

Mobile App Manager also encrypts any enterprise apps and information stored on the device, F5 said in the product press statement, as well as providing dedicated corporate email and app stores and a secure browser.

various segments of the security sphere have been pursued so that F5 can position itself as something more than a nuts-andbolts network hardware vendor, according to network blogger John Oltsik.

“Remember that many people still perceive F5 as the load balancer company, so for F5 to succeed, it must first demonstrate its network security chops,” he wrote. “This means convincing its customers that it is committed to network security and that its product is as strong on security protection as it is on performance.”

Initial feedback from analysts suggests that F5 is doing just that—the new announcements have garnered praise from the likes of Forrester and IDC. Only time will tell whether customers will take the bait, but for the moment, it looks like F5 is moving fast with the times.

www.computerlinks.com

June 2013 | The Link

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Interview | professional services

Going pro Through its Professional Services arm, Computerlinks aims to provide an allencompassing, value-added purchase experience.

Value-added distribution manifests itself in many forms.

For some, the value comes with great pre-sales consultation, while for others, training programmes or support make up the bulk of added value. In fact, the term, “value add” has become so commonplace and is applied

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to so many attributes that it’s difficult now to pin down an exact definition.

For Computerlinks, though, adding simply one area of extra value was never enough.

Instead, the distributor, which two years ago moved away from the “value-added” tag line and

evolved the company into “Next Generation Distribution”, aims to deliver every aspect of added value through its Professional Services arm. According to Amir Akhtar, Head of Services, MEA and APAC, Computerlinks, Professional Services is considered a standard proposition for Computerlinks’ distribution.

“It’s really important that our partners and vendors know that these are services which we offer as a standard. Value add for us is something that every partner and vendor expects from their distributor. For Computerlinks, Professional Services are diverse and cover pre-sales, post-sales and the training elements to support what we do for our partners and vendors alike,” he says. “A lot of customers have been wanting to become trained on their investment, have a fuller solution deployment against it, and the after-care support that they want through the vendor and Computerlinks.”

Akhtar says that the three main focus points of Professional Services are consultancy, training and support, though the range of things that Computerlinks can offer its customers through Professional Services is endless. The distributor can do anything from offering presales guidance for anyone looking to buy a new solution, through setting up refresher training courses on new technologies, to taking on full responsibility for the deployment of that solution.

These services don’t come free when buying a product, but Akhtar believes that the value provided by Computerlinks more than justifies the extra money spent.

“For example, if a customer

needs to leverage our Professional Services, he’s buying a product.

He needs to have Professional Services from a consultancy point of view but in addition he would like somebody to come in and fully deploy the solution end-to-end,” he says.

“The customer would then come back into his environment and have a fully working solution.

There’s no downtime for him, and it’s not been left on his head to get it deployed.”

Aside from the deployment services, Akhtar says that training is another area from which customers and partners derive real value. Computerlinks is the authorised training centre for a number of the vendors it works with. The advantage to skilling up on the products, he says, is that it will reduce support costs in the long run.

“The training element is vital for the product business,” Akhtar emphasises. “We’ve seen that, with customers who invest in product training when they’re buying a solution, it’s massively reducing support on the channel because they’re able to provide their own non-business-critical support, reducing the downtime should they have a support issue.”

Akhtar adds that the fact that Computerlinks is Middle East-based has also become an important factor for customers.

He explains that many regional customers face travel restrictions due to budgetary constraints, meaning they’re unable to fly long distances to complete product training. Given that the distributor’s training centre in Dubai is fairly central for the Middle East, though, customers can now get training

Amir Akhtar, Head of Services, MEA and APAC, Computerlinks

basically our value isn’t limited to enterprise customers,” he says.

“We’re fully committed to supporting both our SMB and SME customers for their deployments of single-digit product quantities but can also scale up to deliver projects for the large enterprises that are investing in multi-milliondollar projects and infrastructures and need to pass on the project integration. Our value is seen as in, whoever the customer is, we will provide them the services that they require to get the solution running for whatever product they’re purchasing.”

Akhtar adds that this approach has allowed Computerlinks’ Professional Services to become very popular with customers.

“I think that stereotypical customers aren’t wanting box shifters anymore; they’re wanting to deal with professional organisations that can offer more to them than just supplying a piece of kit.” without having to fork out for longhaul flights.

Computerlinks isn’t going after any particular market segment with its Professional Services, according to Akhtar. He says that pretty much every segment can glean something out of the value that Computerlinks provides with this arm, from government entities to small and medium businesses.

“We’re a bit like a one-stop shop. I don’t like to use that term because it’s a bit overused. But

“A lot of customers nowadays are looking for experienced consultants, which they can utlitise through Computerlinks to, let’s say, get their project or product deployed as quickly as possible, as efficiently as possible, as per the vendor’s best practices of deployment. That’s important for them,” he says.

That said, Akhtar admits that some customers opt to simply buy the products without adding on Professional Services. But he says

that these customers are “few and far between”.

“I would say that the majority of customers are happy to include Professional Services with the full solution that they’re ordering, only because it’s peace of mind for them,” he says. “In general, the market consensus is that services are in demand, and that’s where Computerlinks plays its key role as a value-added distributor.”

Indeed, the rise in the demand of value-added services is seen as part of a wider trend in the channel. And Akhtar says that Computerlinks is well-placed to satisfy this new breed of more demanding customers.

“I think that stereotypical customers aren’t wanting box-shifters anymore; they’re wanting to deal with professional organisations that can offer more to them than just supplying a piece of kit,” he says.

Akhtar says that Computerlinks has been a value-added distributor since “pretty much day one”.

Since the beginning, it has been positioning Professional Services to its customers, and making the vendors aware of it. This means happy customers who regularly return, plus satisfied vendors who know that their products are being sold by professionals.

“I think that, by offering Professional Services, it’s giving the customer exactly what they need in terms of the whole solution,” he explains. “And once it’s deployed, and they can see how we operate and how we’ve successfully deployed that solution, they’ll be more than happy to come back to us again for other products through the business.”

www.computerlinks.com

June 2013 | The Link

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NEWS updates

Computerlinks becomes Middle East distributor for Trend Micro

Lee Reynolds, Managing Director, Computerlinks

Computerlinks recently announced that it has become a distributor for Trend Micro in the Middle East to address customer demand for Internet content security and threat management.

The value-added distributor will provide an opportunity for local systems integrators to deliver security solutions from Trend Micro.

The security vendor’s offerings—which are powered

by Trend Micro Smart Protection Network, a global threatintelligence data-mining framework—are designed to stop malicious program threats when they emerge. Furthermore, its allin-one hosted security services and software are built to help its customers secure their data in and out of the office.

“Increasingly, companies are looking to virtualisation and the cloud for greater flexibility and lower operational costs,” said Ihab Moawad, Vice President, Trend Micro MEA

and Mediterranean. “Public or hybrid cloud enterprises require a robust security foundation to protect their entire journey to the cloud.

“We have entered into a strategic relationship with Computerlinks for their regional expertise in technology services. This agreement allows us to create customisable and scalable security solutions, which will help our customers take full advantage of the benefits of virtualisation and cloud computing, without compromising on security.”

Moawad also emphasised the “big business” the organisations expect to do “very soon” in Saudi Arabia.

“We think Saudi is a goldmine for both of is,” he said.

With Computerlinks already a distributor for Trend Micro in 17 of its 20 global offices, it was a natural choice for the Middle East operations of both parties, said Lee Reynolds, Managing Director, Computerlinks.

“We’re a great partner of Trend so far, I think,” Reynolds said.

“We’ve always looked at building that relationship further in other areas in the region to bolster our global partner.

“A global partnership is very good, but if you don’t have local presence and strength, there is no point. In this situation, we have both. It’s a great situation to be in.

We spent the last three months really defining the strategy of what we need to do. We both have great aspirations for the region.”

Reynolds added that he was

In pursuit of next-gen firewall, McAfee pledges to acquire Stonesoft

Michael DeCesare, President, McAfee

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McAfee recently announced that it is set to acquire Stonesoft, a manufacturer of next-generation firewall products. McAfee is reported to be paying $389 million in cash for the company.

McAfee said that Stonesoft delivers software-based, dynamic and customer-driven cybersecurity solutions, which secure information flow and simplify security management. The product portfolio of next-gen firewalls, evasion prevention systems and SSL VPN solutions can be targeted at businesses of all sizes, McAfee added.

“Through the pending acquisition of Stonesoft, McAfee

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expects to extend its leadership position in network security,” said Hamed Diab, Regional Director, MENA, McAfee.

Based in Helsinki, Finland, Stonesoft serves 6,500 customers across the globe. McAfee pledged to give these customers benefits through its own integrated, comprehensive security solution.

Similarly, McAfee’s customer base will be given access to Stonesoft’s next-gen firewall.

McAfee said that this firewall, when combined with its own IPS and high-assurance firewall, will provide customers with one of the most complete network security portfolios in the industry.

“With the pending addition of Stonesoft’s products and services, McAfee is making a significant investment in nextgeneration firewall technology.

These solutions anticipate emerging customer needs in a continually evolving threat landscape,” said Michael DeCesare, President, McAfee.

“Stonesoft is a leading innovator in this important market segment. We plan to integrate Stonesoft’s offerings with other McAfee products to realise the power of McAfee’s Security Connected strategy. Stonesoft products will benefit from the collective expertise of more

Gigamon named ‘hottest new’ networking company particularly impressed with the recent acquisitions that Trend Micro has made, and he said he was “very interested” in developing them.

He also revealed plans of bringing an authorised training centre to the UAE, and providing registered training programmes for customers and partners.

“That, for us, is a very important ecosystem, and we have a great machine to do that for Trend,” he said. “It’s being worked on as we speak, and I’m very happy to build on this with Trend. Together, we’re committed to building this and a great relationship.

“We need to build together a strong ecosystem of new customers and partners—that is exactly where this is coming from,” Reynolds concluded.

than 7,200 McAfee employees.

Leveraging McAfee’s cloudbased Global Threat Intelligence service will provide our combined customers with unparalleled security,” he added.

Ilkka Hiidenheimo, CEO, Stonesoft, said that, with McAfee and Stonesoft combined, the two companies’ customers will benefit from a “world-class product portfolio”.

“The combination of the two companies allows Stonesoft to benefit from McAfee’s global presence and sales organisation of over 2,200 employees, bestin-class threat research and technology synergies,” he added.

Gigamon, the vendor behind the Unified Visibility Fabric architecture, recently announced that it had won the NetEvents 2013 Innovation Award for the Hottest ‘New’ Networking Company.

NetEvents’ Innovation Awards recognise the very best in the technology industry, rewarding the leading individuals and organisations for innovation and performance in the networking and telecommunications sector. Judged by an independent panel of respected IT industry gurus, professionals, press members and analysts, the awards are based on endeavours and achievements in carrier Ethernet business services, enterprise wireless, cloud and data centre, security and SDN. “We are pleased and excited to receive this award. Our Unified Visibility Fabric architecture solutions help ensure rapid instrumentation, tooling and optimisation of the network,” said Shehzad Merchant, Chief Strategy Officer, Gigamon.

“With the growth of new technologies and paradigm shifts such as virtualisation, cloud and SDN [software-defined networking], Gigamon is uniquely positioned to serve as an enabler to the adoption of and growth of these new tehcnologies and this award is a testament to the unique place we hold in the network ecosystem.”

When giving Gigamon the award, Mark Fox, CEO, NetEvents, explained the the vendor had impressed by rapidly developing a presence in the networking sector, and for coming up with innovative networking technologies.

“Gigamon is rapidly establishing a solid presence in the networking sector. Their innovative approach of providing visibility into networking technologies of today and tomorrow certainly impressed our assembled audience of more than 300 international press, analysts, researchers, industry professionals and Silicon Valley movers and shakers,” he said.

“The live wireless voting at the NetEvents Innovation Awards ceremony certainly made this an exciting vote, awarding Gigamon as the hottest ‘new’ networking company. Perhaps [this is] an indication of one to watch in this space.”

The award was presented in tandem with the Ethernet Innovation Summit, held on May 22 in California, United States. During the event, Gigamon’s Merchant spoke on future network architectures as part of a panel discussion.

The panel included other industry pioneers, who proposed and explored topics such as new architectures, the promised benefits and challenges of SDN, content-centric networking and other new Ethernet architectures and technologies.

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June 2013 | The Link

17

NEWS updates

F5 announces BIG-IP Application Acceleration Manager

F5 recently announced its BIGIP Application Acceleration Manager (AAM), which is designed to bring advanced application acceleration and traffic management technologies together into one integrated platform.

F5 claimed that, with the BIGIP AAM, organisations can cut first-visit page load times for SaaS applications by as much as 50 percent. They can also improve throughput in high packet-loss environments—such

18

The Link | June 2013

as satellite connections and some mobile networks—by up to 75 percent on mobile devices running F5’s BIG-IP Edge Client solution, F5 said.

F5 said that the need for such solutions was being driven by the requirement to deliver on-demand content—particularly streaming video—to a variety of mobile devices. This puts great strain on networks and servers, F5 said, so BIG-IP AAP is designed to ease some of that strain.

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“With the huge demands placed on corporate, public, and private networks today, we understand how difficult it can be for organisations to consistently deliver exceptional application performance to their users,” said Jason Needham, Vice President of Product Management and Product Marketing, F5.

“With BIG-IP Application Acceleration Manager, we’re helping organisations solve that challenge by accelerating applications wherever they

reside—in the data centre or in the cloud, and wherever they’re delivered—on networkconnected or mobile devices.”

As well as announcing the new AAM, F5 said it was now offering, free of charge, the F5 Application Speed Tester (FAST), a self-service benchmarking tool that provides tangible data on anticipated performance imporvements. F5 said that, by offering FAST fore free, it was helping enterprises easily assess the performance of their Web-based applications.

ARE YOUR APPS SAFE? Visit interact.f5.com/freescan.html to assess your apps today

Take advantage of F5’s joint solutions with Cenzic and WhiteHat Security to find application vulnerabilities and patch them immediately.

• Improve enterprise security with Dynamic Application Security Testing.

• Reduce your organization’s risk exposure with an easy, and cost‑ effective combined solution.

• Quickly mitigate risks via integration with F5® BIG‑IP® Application Security Manager™ (ASM).

• Protect your apps from the OWASP Top Ten vulnerabilities while achieving compliance.

©2012 F5 Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. F5, F5 Networks, and the F5 logo are trademarks of F5 Networks, Inc. in the U.S. and in certain other countries. Other F5 trademarks are identified at f5.com.

Any other products, services, or company names referenced herein may be trademarks of their respective owners with no endorsement or affiliation, express or implied, claimed by F5.

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