Arabian Reseller - November 2020

NOVEMBER 2020 Vol. 2. Issue 9.

www.arabianreseller.com

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

WHY IT MATTERS?

For Business Inquiries ASUS Middle East Tel.: +971 4 256 6102, M.: +971 55 544 5639, Email: jeff_j@asus.com www.asus.com/me-en/commercial

CONTENTS 

NEWS

06

ASUS Middle East Announces High-Performance AI Accelerator Cards

07

Fortinet Named as a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant

08 10 11 12 14 

31

TP-Link Intros Latest Series of PoE Switches

38

ServiceNow Modernizes the Employee Workplace Experience American-Israeli Trackimo to Enter Regional Markets Through GITEX 2020 SonicWall Debuts ZTNA Solution to Secure Work-from-Anywhere Environments Honeywell and Vertiv to Improve Sustainability for Data Centers

20

F E AT U R E S T H I S M O N T H

20

Artificial Intelligence: Why it Matters?

27

The Emergence of the Zoom of Cybersecurity

24

Diversity Has its Own Impact

28

2021 Predictions for the Tech Industry

26

MITRE ATT&CK Framework and Threat Intelligence

30

Securing the Hybrid Workforce Begins with Three Crucial Steps

ARABIAN RESELLER | November 2020

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EDITORIAL

NOVEMBER 2020

EDITOR IN CHIEF Chris N. Fernando chris@ryshamedia.com

CHRIS N. FERNANDO EDITOR IN CHIEF

Artificial Intelligence is Reashaping the World as we Know it

SALES AND MARKETING Ranbir Sen ranbir@ryshamedia.com

DEPUTY EDITOR Edward Frank edward@ryshamedia.com

We live in a world where everything is fast evolving with artificial intelligence (AI) at the forefront of changing the world and the way we live. Artificial intelligence is the most progressing technology at the present time.

The concept of AI is quite fascinating and is expected to change the face of the world. AI is not a single technology rather its a combination of computer science, mathematics, machine learning, data science, and several other complicated technologies of science.

The main concept of AI is to make machines and computer systems do smarter enough to perform the task on their own without any human intervention. Also, it helps them to become smarter enough to learn and evolve from their previous experience by analyzing past data.

The bottom line is, artificial intelligence is learning and adapting fast to the data fed into it and is continuously helping businesses enhance their operational performance. The more

big data, machines collect and investigate, the more dynamic the machine becomes, resulting in an enhanced collaborative effort with humans and businesses.

The use of AI in organizations, government, security frameworks, energy, and natural resource management, etc is drastically on the rise. Hence, our cover story this month explores why AI matters today. Industry experts from the region voice their opinion about how AI is changing the world around us.

We also touch upon topics such as the regional development of AI, the use of AI to fight pandemics, how companies can transform themselves post-crisis, and so much more.

Do give it a read and we hope you will enjoy this month's edition of Arabian Reseller.

SENIOR WRITER Priyan Sampath priyan@ryshamedia.com

GRAPHIC DESIGNER John Christy info@ryshamedia.com

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Prarthana Mary prarthana@ryshamedia.com

DIGITAL TEAM Context Media LLP, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. www.arabianreseller.com

C O N TA C T I N F O R M AT I O N Rysha Media LLC, Sharjah Media City (Shams), Al Messaned, Al Bataeh, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Email: sales@ryshamedia.com Web: www.ryshamedia.com

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

While the publisher has made all efforts to ensure the accuracy of information in the magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors whatsoever.

Copyright @ 2020

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NEWS

ASUS Middle East Announces High-Performance AI Accelerator Cards

Huawei Sells Off its Honor Phone Business Huawei has announced plans to sell off Honor, its smartphone business focused on mid-range products for younger consumers. Huawei says the decision “has been made by Honor’s industry chain to ensure its own survival,” following “tremendous pressure” and “a persistent unavailability of technical elements needed for our mobile phone business.

ASUS has announced the CRL-G18U-P3DF and CRL-G116U-P3DF, two new full-height, half-length, PCI Express 3.0 AI accelerator cards based on the Google Edge TPU — the processor specially designed for AI applications.

Both new cards feature the Edge TPU, a machine-learning (ML) accelerator that speeds up processing efficiency, lowers power demands and makes it easier to build connected devices and intelligent applications.

With this onboard ML accelerator, CRLG18U-P3DF is capable of performing at up to 32 tera operations per second (TOPS) using only 36 W per unit of computation, while CRL-G116U-P3DF ups performance to a maximum of 64 TOPS at 52 W. The cards are also optimized for the TensorFlow Lite deep-learning framework, making it easy to compile and run common ML models.

Advanced thermal design and easy installation ASUS CRL-G18U-P3DF and CRL-G116UP3DF offer a compelling and powerful plug-and-play experience for AI acceleration.

The cards are engineered to be stable at high loads, with an optimized thermal design with twin axial-tech turbofans to propel cool air over a copper heatsink — rapidly dispatching heat from the cores to ensure nonstop, high-performance operation.

The new cards are also solidly constructed, with a one-piece cover providing strong reinforcement on all sides. They’re ready

for use in industry-standard PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, providing an accessible and easy upgrade path to a broad range of users.

With CRL-G18U-P3DF or CRL-G116UP3DF installed, users are able to enjoy on-device inferencing capabilities to build products that are efficient, private, fast and offline.

They’re also the perfect choice for independent software vendors (ISVs) and system integrators (SIs) wishing to deploy their AI models on the edge for diverse vertical applications.

Developing edge AI solutions with Google Coral A new partnership between the ASUS IoT business unit and the Google Coral platform is focused on developing AI solutions for edge computing. Specifically, the new ASUS IoT AI accelerator cards provide AI-development hardware for users, featuring with the Google Edge TPU enabling the creation of AI-powered projects.

Of course, ASUS IoT is more than a hardware provider. Our dedicated support pages provide the latest updates and comprehensive product information, helping users to find what they need quickly and easily.

This ensures that CRL-G18U-P3DF and CRL-G116U-P3DF are the perfect choice for those seeking to develop AI applications for defect detection, obstacle avoidance, responsive retail advertising and much more.

CRL-G18U-P3DF and CRL-G116U-P3DF are now available in the region.

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Honor products often rely heavily on Huawei’s own technology, so the company has been equally hit by US sanctions preventing Huawei from doing business with American companies.

The V30 line of phones, for example, uses the same Kirin 990 processor that powers Huawei’s P40 flagship devices. Under new ownership, Honor should have more flexibility to develop its products, potentially being able to deal with the likes of Qualcomm and Google.

Huawei says it “will not hold any shares or be involved in any business management or decision-making activities in the new Honor company.” That company will be owned by the newly-formed Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co., a consortium of partners and government-backed businesses.

Honor’s new owner is Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co., Ltd. And it has signed an agreement with Huawei Investment Holdings Co., Ltd. to fully acquire the Honor smartphone business. The agreement states that the acquisition will protect the interests of consumers, channels, suppliers, partners, and employees. Changes in ownership should not affect the direction of Honor’s development, and Honor’s senior management will remain on board.

The purchasing company was established by a consortium (a group of investing partners and businesses) of more than 30 agents and distributors.

‘New Honor’ will oversee resources, branding, production, distribution, services, operations, and executive decisions. Huawei will no longer hold any share in Honor, nor will it be a part of the company’s executive board any longer.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Reuters reported earlier this month that a proposed Honor sale could reach 100 billion yuan ($15.2 billion).

NEWS

Fortinet Named as a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant

Fortinet has announced it has been recognized as a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls.

This marks the 11th time Fortinet has been recognized in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls for completeness of vision and ability to execute.

John Maddison, EVP of Products and CMO at Fortinet said, “We believe Fortinet delivers the broadest and most complete security platform in the industry. We have pioneered the Security-driven Networking approach, integrating security into every element of the network and enabling customers to protect any edge, at any scale.

Fortinet has been named a Leader in this year’s Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewall. Fortinet also recently announced its placement as a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure. We credit our continued successes to our ongoing commitment to innovation, unique and flexible security platform, and approach to securing the entire attack surface – whether on-prem or in the cloud.”

Fortinet’s FortiGate Next-generation Firewalls (NGFWs) are an integral component of Fortinet’s Security Fabric platform, which provides broad visibility and protection across the entire attack surface. Fortinet FortiGate NGFWs protect any edge and at any scale because they are powered by purpose-built Security Processing Units (SPUs) resulting in the industry’s highest Security Compute Rating. Fortinet continues to drive innovation with its Secure SD-WAN offering as well, with advanced routing and industry’s most flexible security options via an integrated NGFW or SASE-based cloud-delivered security.

Manage operational and security risks for better business continuity: Digital transformation offers tremendous opportunities for businesses to create value and realize

efficiencies. However, it also creates new security risks, such as expanding the attack surface for would-be cyber adversaries.

With Fortinet NGFWs, customers can achieve full visibility into their networks, applications, and potential threats. Fortinet offers the industry’s highest Security Compute Rating through the power of the company’s purpose-built Secure Processing Units (SPUs – e.g. NP7) to deliver optimal user experience at any scale.

Reduce Cost and Complexity: As the digital attack surface expands, security teams must also expand their defense capabilities. Fortinet NGFWs allow customers to build defense in depth through segmentation, dynamic trust, and advanced security inspection to keep operations running.

FortiGate NGFWs protect business applications with AI-powered and ML-powered FortiGuard services, eliminating the need of point products and resulting in optimal total cost of ownership (TCO).

Improve Operational Efficiencies: A single-pane-of-glass management enabled

by Fabric Management Center provides a complete and consolidated view across a variety of network edges, on-prem or in the cloud. Fabric Management Center provides automation, and orchestration for the Security Fabric that extends to 400+ ecosystem integrations. This simplifies enterprise-wide workflows across FortiGate, FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, and Ecosystem Partners.

In addition to being recognized as a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls, Fortinet was named a 2020 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Network Firewalls. Fortinet believes that this additional customer validation further highlights that Fortinet’s simple, secure, and scalable platform approach resonates with customers across all industries.

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HITB+CyberWeek Returns to the Middle East Hack In The Box (HITB), the international conference renowned for its cutting-edge technical talks and trainings in computer security, is once again bringing together the world’s top thinkers and cyber security experts as HITB+CyberWeek 2020 gets underway today, on 15 November. Now in its second edition, the must-attend security event is taking place virtually this year.

Registered attendees will gain access to HITB’s networking platform from 15 November onwards while the main HITB Conference days are on the 18th and the 19th, when keynote speakers and attendees share their latest knowledge, ideas, and techniques with the wider security community over two days.

“Today’s digital world continues to accelerate and evolve exponentially. HITB+CyberWeek is the perfect platform to drive widespread industry collaboration, research practices, and cutting-edge training that equips professionals with essential knowledge, skills, and solutions,” said Dhillon Kannabhiran, Founder and CEO of HITB. “Security incidents are ever-present across the digital landscape, as are hackers. It is our shared responsibility to exchange experiences, propose ground-breaking ideas, and equip ourselves and others with next-generation competencies.”

As a virtual networking platform, HITB+CyberWeek matches attendees according to shared interests and connects them with exhibitors to discuss and explore topics of interest.

Experienced security professionals get to engage with subject matter experts and participate in extensive knowledge sharing through various breakout sessions, hands-on labs, and workshops.

Other than HITB’s two main talk tracks which require paid access, HITB+CyberWeek will feature four other talk tracks that are free – the CommSec Track, IoT Village Talks, Red Village Talks, and DevSecOps Talks. All talks will be accessible for viewing on HITB+CyberWeek’s browser-accessible event platform. Additionally, more than 30 virtual booths make up this year’s HITBCommSec exhibition space including the Radio Frequency Village, the Automotive Village, workshops, labs, and other themed spaces where attendees can interact with booth representatives, view demos, watch videos, or other activities by each booth.

NEWS

TP-Link Intros Latest Series of PoE Switches

Digital Distribution Platform HYKE Launches in UAE and KSA HYKE, a digital distribution platform, has launched in the UAE and KSA. The app-based platform will help suppliers meet its retailers through a proper channel designed to accommodate a holistic and robust network backed by relevant technology, supply chain infrastructure and market reach in just a few clicks, enabling the whole journey and transaction is a seamless and frictionless manner.

TP-Link has launched a series of latest PoE switches, from Unmanaged PoE switches to L2+ Managed PoE switches.

Demands for PoE are expected to significantly expand over the coming years.

TP-Link has been developing different kinds of PoE switches to meet the needs of different scenarios.

A wide range of 100 Mbps, gigabit, and multi-gig PoE products provide more flexible deployment and cost-effective options for fixed devices like IP cameras, access points, and IP phones.

For general surveillance, TP-Link PoE switches with 10/100 Mbps ports are sufficient to meet the requirements of IPC. TP-Link’s 100 Mbps PoE switches are designed to address specific SMB surveillance needs and satisfy the demands of most IP cameras.

Many robust features like Extend Mode, Priority Mode, and Isolation Mode provide value well beyond basic networking needs, creating a versatile and reliable surveillance network to grow your business.

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250 m PoE Transmission. With Extend Mode, PoE supports data and power transmissions up to 250 m away—perfect for surveillance camera deployment in large areas.

One-Click Priority Mode. Guarantees the quality of sensitive applications like video monitoring in critical business areas by prioritizing the data of certain ports.

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One-Click Traffic Separation. Isolation Mode easily divides traffic for downlink ports to avoid snooping and tampering and isolates broadcast storm for higher security and performance.

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Silent Operation. Desktop switches’ fanless design delivers zero added noise in their locations. Rackmount

switches automatically adjust their built-in fans to balance power consumption with sound reduction in noise-sensitive locations.

TP-Link’s gigabit Unmanaged and Easy Smart PoE switches offer more efficient and cost-effective solutions to meet the various needs of access points, surveillance, VoIP, and other applications.

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PoE Auto Recovery. Automatically reboots your dropped or unresponsive PoE-powered devices.

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Easy to Use. Simply plug and play with a setup that requires no software or configuration.

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Energy Efficient. Consumes less power and lowers energy bills with Green Tech.

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Managed switches integrating Omada SDN (Software Defined Networking) provide 100% centralized cloud management to create highly scalable networks. Seamless wireless and wired connections are provided—ideal for hospitality, education, retail, office, and more.

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Cloud Centralized Management. Fully manage your whole network from different sites—all controlled from a single interface anywhere, anytime.

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Zero-Touch Provisioning. Remotely deploy and configure multi-site networks to ensure efficient deployment at a lower cost.

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Easy Network Monitoring. The Omada app and intuitive Web UI make it easy to check your real-time network status and traffic distribution.

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2.5 GE PoE for WiFi 6. 2.5 GE Ports support the bandwidth needs of Wi-Fi 6 access points.

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HYKE has successfully this year accommodated over 5000 stores and more than 8000 in-store staff from its targeted network which covers the majority of the market and making it already the player with the highest reach. Founded in 2020, HYKE is a B2B digital platform that is well versed with market research of the smartphone distribution in UAE, KSA and Levant.

HYKE helps its partners to meet their retailers through the simple process of using an application and powered by a strong backend engine. What differentiates HYKE’s offerings from the traditional distribution setups, is its real-time data visibility of different relevant matrices required by suppliers and retailers, an efficient and instant communication board to improve effectiveness between parties, and a state of the art supply chain infrastructure, that holistically have made it possible for the B2B parties to connect instantly and in a much efficient manner.

Businesses have seen significant transformations in the current year, with the pandemic causing several sudden changes in the business environment.

There has been an increase in the demand for online availability, efficiency in supply chain and market response.

HYKE is a brilliant initiative to fill these gaps and remove any friction that exists in the product journey from the manufacturers to the retailers.

HYKE recently signed an operating partnership with popular entities like Saudi Arabia Telecom Company (STC), Zain Telecom, OPPO, and Realme, to name a few, to look after its supply chain infrastructure and enhance its operational efficiency. These renowned suppliers will provide HYKE with the stock, and HYKE, in return, will be responsible for distributing the smartphones to its retailers situated across the UAE and KSA.

NEWS

SentinelOne Valuation ServiceNow Modernizes the Employee Workplace Experience Exceeds $3 Billion SentinelOne has announced it has raised $267 million in Series F funding led by Tiger Global Management, with participation from Sequoia Capital Global Equities and existing investors including Insight Partners and Third Point Ventures. The significantly oversubscribed round will allow SentinelOne to continue accelerating hyper-growth driven by demand for its Singularity XDR Platform, today’s leading solution for complete enterprise protection. Since SentinelOne’s Series E funding in February 2020, the company’s valuation has tripled, exceeding $3 billion.

“We have set the standard for AI-powered cybersecurity for the new normal,” said Tomer Weingarten, CEO and Co-founder, SentinelOne. “Cloud, container, and IoT technologies are empowering today’s distributed workforce. A cohesive view of the entire enterprise network and a real-time autonomous security layer across all connected assets is required to protect people, businesses and their data, wherever they are. Our platform solution delivered via the cloud is purpose-built to secure and operationalize today’s enterprise data everywhere it resides.”

SentinelOne is the first to expand from cloud-native endpoint protection to a full XDR cybersecurity platform – that protects and monitors every asset in the enterprise. Leveraging patented behavioral AI models, SentinelOne seamlessly unifies endpoint protection (EPP), endpoint detection and response (EDR), IoT control, and container and cloud-native workload protection (CWPP).

Earlier this month, Forrester Consulting concluded a custom research study using the Total Economic Impact methodology. The study found that SentinelOne can provide customers with a 353% return on investment (ROI) over three years.

According to the study, “SentinelOne offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that allows the customer and its endpoint users flexibility regarding physical location and access while still maintaining vigilance,” and continued that SentinelOne “enables the detection of more previously undetectable threats through its AI-powered behavior analysis that can predict and prevent malware and ransomware attacks.”

“The past eight months have been an inflection point in our business across the globe,” said Nicholas Warner, COO, SentinelOne. “The demand for flexible technology that can stand alone — without requiring services and staff — will only continue to increase as the threat landscape evolves.

Our ease of deployment and autonomous remediation has made us the go-to solution to replace other next-gen products at scale.”

“After leading SentinelOne’s Series A financing over six years ago, Tiger Global is excited to further deepen our partnership with Tomer and SentinelOne’s world-class team by leading this round as the company prepares for its next chapter,” said John Curtius, Partner, Tiger Global. “It is a unique point in time in the company’s journey and the future looks bright.”

ServiceNow has announced the availability of its Workplace Service Delivery solutions, which deliver seamless digital experiences to employees wherever they are, driving employee productivity and satisfaction in a rapidly changing workplace landscape. Workplace Service Delivery provides organizations with a single solution that enables employees to use their connected devices to reserve workspaces, including desks, conference rooms and collaboration spaces.

The solutions enable employees to easily request room configurations, catering, AV support and more, while providing corporate real estate teams with the analytics and utilization data they need to optimize spend and service levels. With employees and businesses opting for distributed working models, ServiceNow provides organizations with a seamless service delivery model for employees when they want to return to the office. With Workplace Service Delivery, ServiceNow expands its unified employee service experience across HR, IT, legal and now workspace services.

“After having adapted to a new world of remote work over the last six months, businesses must now shift from crisis to planning mode,” said Blake McConnell, senior vice president of employee workflow products, ServiceNow. “This includes reimagining the processes and systems that keep employees safe and productive in a distributed environment. Powered by the Now Platform, Workplace Service Delivery is designed to be the foundation for modern, connected employee experiences in all work environments, helping enterprises optimize how they manage workplaces

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and workforces going forward.”

“Over the next year, two-thirds of companies will invest in automation related to their facilities. In addition, one in five companies worldwide will add new applications to address needs uncovered by the COVID-19 pandemic, including space utilization, desk reservations and visitor management,” says Juliana Beauvais, research manager in IDC’s enterprise applications practice focused on enterprise asset, facility, and real estate management. “Moving forward, it’s more critical than ever for organizations to focus on the employee workplace experience.”

ServiceNow will continue to introduce new capabilities to Workplace Service Delivery, including performance analytics and predictive intelligence, empowering businesses to evolve and optimize workspace and workplace design for employees’ shifting needs. This release follows ServiceNow’s Q2 2020 acquisition of App4Mation’s 4Facility assets, which serve as the foundation for the new Workplace Service Delivery offering.

For enterprises planning their safe return to work strategy, Workplace Service Delivery provides the ability to establish safe distancing for workspace reservations in addition to automated cleaning task assignments after daily use. Customers looking to expand these capabilities with employee health screening, contact tracing and PPE inventory management, employee travel safety, and targeted employee campaigns can easily add the ServiceNow Safe Workplace Suite and HR Service Delivery to form a complete return to workplace solution.

NEWS

American-Israeli Trackimo to Enter Regional Markets Through GITEX 2020

Trackimo, an American-Israeli IoT solution provider that develops the world’s most compact and cost-effective tracking devices has confirmed its participation in GITEX Technology Week 2020. The company specialises in making trackers that work seamlessly indoors and outdoors, worldwide. Trackimo’s smart GPS (Global Positioning System), GSM, Wi-Fi trackers are purposed for personal, professional, industrial, and commercial use. As per Global Industry Analysts, Inc. the global GPS tracking devices market is projected to touch $3.9 billion by 2027.

Trackimo’s solutions have been already recognized and adopted by global mobile operators who sell Trackimo personal safety and asset tracking to their customers, supported by Trackimo’s global IoT cloud platform. The most successful Trackimo consumer IoT product launched recently is the Vodafone Curve Tracker. hai Bar-lavi, CEO, Trackimo, said, “It is exciting to be part of this industry-defining tech innovation platform. We are looking forward to personally demonstrating our latest patented tracking capabilities to a variety of industries at the Gitex event in December. During the current pandemic, the GPS tracking industry has been viewed with a slightly different lens. While business owners are relying on state-of-the-art tracking products for gathering real-time asset location data and location-triggered alerts to optimise the deployment of high-value assets, governments in some countries are using GPS data to track the spread of the virus” “We want to identify the potential markets in the GCC and the wider Middle East and Africa region through Gitex. From monitoring the safety of loved ones to tracking expensive professional gear to industrial and commercial integrations, Trackimo addresses a broad spectrum of tracking and monitoring needs. Tracking people, pets, luggage, shipments, drones, motorcycles,

boats, cars, or remote-controlled objects and many other sectors can benefit from our seamless tracking technology. We are also aware that the UAE has several drone enthusiasts. With drones enduring a high susceptibility of theft and non-recovery, Trackimo empowers drone owners to LIVE track their drone crafts with its lightweight trackers that do not come in the way of the drone’s performance,” added Shai.

Hosted between December 6th and 10th at the Dubai World Trade Centre, GITEX Technology Week brings together buyers from the world’s largest tech buyers in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia to test and collaborate with game-changing innovations from niche startups and global tech giants.

“UAE and other GCC countries have a very highly active commodities trade that highly depends on a fleet of trucks. Such large numbers of vehicles are also using GPS tracking devices to help reduce fuel costs and improve customer experience by decreasing response time through route optimisation. Tracking devices further enable fleet owners to reduce repair costs and increase profit margins. They are also likely to minimise theft probabilities.

Fleet owners are now using GPS trackers in their vehicles also to maintain social distancing and avoid the risk of possible exposure,” added Shai.

Trackimo’s fleet management tracking solutions provide real-time asset monitoring and protection of high-value and remote assets, increasing accountability, efficiency, responsiveness, safety, and savings. “Industrial machines integrate rugged and weather-proof trackers to monitor and support non-powered and remote assets. On the B2C front, Trackimo keeps an eye on loved ones by alerting the guardian when the wearer leaves the safe zone/virtual fence or when the SOS button is pressed,” concluded Shai.

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Huawei Launches a Full Series of 5G Solutions for “1+N” Target Networks At the 2020 Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF), Mr. Yang Chaobin, President of Huawei Wireless Network Solution, unveiled the future-oriented “1+N” 5G target networks and released a full series of 5G solutions for building simplified “1+N” 5G networks.

“To embrace the approaching golden decade of 5G, we need to evolve our networks towards 5G with full-spectrum and build one high-bandwidth simplified target network that ensures ubiquitous connectivity with an on-demand overlay of ‘N’ capabilities,” said Yang.

5G is not only a new generation of mobile technology, it also represents the creation of new business, ecosystems, and opportunities. 5G features more diversified services and differentiated requirements in comparison to 4G. The connection of people requires a contiguous high-bandwidth network to provide a premium experience at greatly reduced per-bit costs. The connection of things also requires ubiquitous coverage to support the massive connectivity of IoT terminals.

Industry connections, which are applied first in local scenarios, require capabilities such as flexible high uplink, low latency, and high-precision positioning to be deployed on-demand. To meet these differentiated requirements, Huawei proposes “1+N” 5G target networks for full-spectrum evolution toward 5G and building a ubiquitous high-capacity foundation network, with a high intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidth as its core and other frequency bands to achieve differentiated benefits and on-demand overlay of ‘N’ capabilities.

Scaled deployment worldwide has shown that TDD high-bandwidth M-MIMO has been highly recognized across the industry. TDD IF M-MIMO achieves co-coverage at the same sites with 1.8 GHz and a minimum of a tenfold improvement in user experience compared with that of 4G. The performance of the same hardware varies considerably with different algorithms. As the cornerstone of M-MIMO performance, algorithms greatly affect the performance of commercial networks. Huawei’s pioneering algorithms will enable operators to significantly improve user experience and the cell capacity of 5G networks.

NEWS

ASUS Launches the All-New ZenBook 14 (UX425)

ASUS has announced ZenBook 14 (UX425), new-generation 14-inch ultraportable laptops in the ZenBook Classic series. ZenBook 14 are even thinner and lighter than the previous generation. ZenBook 14 weighs just 1.13 kg and a mere 13.9 mm thin, but uniquely for such an ultra-thin design they offer comprehensive I/O capabilities, including full-size HDMI and USB Type-A ports in addition to Thunderbolt 4 USB-C and a microSD card reader. They are the world’s thinnest 14-inch laptops to offer such comprehensive and versatile connectivity.

Compact four-sided NanoEdge displays offer a up to 90% screen-to-body ratio for immersive visuals, with the option of an ultra-low power 1-watt display that maximizes battery life. The user experience is also fully updated, featuring ASUS NumberPad 2.0, up to 21 hours battery life, a new edge-to-edge keyboard design, ErgoLift hinge mechanisms, and IR cameras for fast face-recognition. Powered by the latest 11th Generation Intel Core processors with next-level Intel Iris Xe graphics and up to 32 GB RAM, ZenBook 13 and ZenBook 14 make light work of multitasking, productivity and entertainment. Up to 1 TB PCIe 3.0 x2 SSDs and the latest WiFi 6 (802.11ax) round off the specification for superb all-round performance.

The latest ZenBook Classic series offers two screen sizes. For the ultimate traveler, there’s the sleek ZenBook 14. It is designed for effortless portability, with a compact and elegant all-metal chassis that’s a mere 13.9 mm thin. ZenBook 14 are also incredibly power efficient, with up to an amazing 21 hours of battery life on a single charge, meaning that the charger can be left at home for many trips to minimize weight and bulk. ZenBook 14 are a perfect match for today’s onthe-go lifestyles. The stylish new design of ZenBook 14 is enhanced by two timeless new color options.

Pine Grey is a glossy shade that is calm and peaceful.

It projects professional wisdom and features a special off-center version of the iconic ZenBook spun-metal finish.

ZenBook 14 redefine what’s possible in an ultra-thin laptop: they are the world’s thinnest laptops in their class to offer uncompromised I/O capabilities. At just 13.9 mm thin, but uniquely for their size still include full-size HDMI and USB Type-A ports, two high-speed Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, and a microSD card reader for easy mobile data transfer: No other current 13.3inch or 14-inch laptop offers all these I/O ports in such a thin design. The two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports — with their convenient any-way-up connectors — support fast charging, up to two 4K UHD external displays for an expanded visual workspace, and up to 40 Gbps data speeds for ultrafast file transfers.

ZenBook 14 also support the new ASUS USB-C Easy Charge feature, which allows them to be conveniently charged from a wide range of standard USB-C chargers. USB-C Easy Charge allows users can enjoy ultrafast charging with any USB-C Power Delivery-certified charger, such as the bundled 65-watt charger, or charge at slower rates when wall sockets are unavailable using airline chargers, portable chargers or power banks. USB-C Easy Charge takes the frustration out of long journeys or travel in locations with limited mains power.

SonicWall Debuts ZTNA Solution to Secure Work-from-Anywhere Environments

SonicWall has announced the expansion of its Capture Cloud Platform with the addition of the high-performance NSa 2700 firewall and three new cost-effective TZ firewall options. The company also debuted SonicWall Cloud Edge Secure Access that delivers easy-to-deploy, easy-touse zero-trust security for organizations operating in a modern work-from-anywhere model.

“As emerging technologies mature, it’s imperative that companies make the necessary investments to ensure they are prepared for what is to come while making it seamless to the operation of their organizations,” said SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner. “As remote users require more and more devices, the reliance upon IoT continues to rise and extended distributed networks are challenged with evolving security and connectivity measures, we look to provide tailored options to address growing needs.”

The new SonicWall NSa 2700 expands multi-gigabit threat performance to enterprises, MSSPs, government agencies, as well as key retail, healthcare and hospitality verticals. It’s also the company’s first mid-level appliance on the new SonicOS 7.0 platform, delivering a modern UX/UI, device views, advanced security control, plus critical networking and management capabilities.

Like the rest of SonicWall’s newest generation of firewall appliances, the NSa 2700 is ready to be managed by SonicWall’s cloud-native Network Security Manager (NSM), giving organizations a single, easy-to-use cloud

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interface for streamlined management, analytics, and reporting.

Leading a robust Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) offering, SonicWall also debuts its new zero-trust network access (ZTNA) solution. SonicWall Cloud Edge Secure Access enables organizations to control and protect network access to both managed and unmanaged devices based on identity, location, and device parameters. The cloud-native solution provides a fast and safe authenticated on-ramp to any cloud and on-premise network using authorise-first, connect-later zero-trust model.

Cloud Edge Secure Access is easy to set up and easy to scale. An IT administrator can configure the zero-trust security solution in as little as 15 minutes; end-users can self-install the client application in just five minutes. SonicWall Cloud Edge Secure Access joins SonicWall Secure Mobile Access and SSL-VPN technology in providing remote security that meets security standards established prior to responses made prior to ‘the new business normal’ set in motion in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To secure increasingly relied upon SD-Branch solutions, SonicWall is adding more security choices for SMBs with new cost-effective TZ firewall options. The new TZ270, TZ370, and TZ470 were specially designed for mid-sized organizations and distributed enterprises with SD-WAN locations. 5G- and LTE-ready, the full line of TZ firewalls comes with a convenient USB 3.0 port to quickly and reliably add 5G connectivity.

Conference, Collaborate, Click!

Discover the new

ClickShare Conference Let the new ClickShare Conference transform your remote meetings. Gone are the frictions when you host a conference from your laptop, or the struggle trying to use cameras and other meeting room equipment. Simply launch the ClickShare Collaboration App or plug in the ClickShare Wireless Conferencing Button.

In less than 7 seconds you are ready to go.

barco.com/clickshare

NEWS

Avaya Launches Avaya Vantage

Honeywell and Vertiv to Improve Sustainability for Data Centers

Avaya Holdings has announced a redesign of its Avaya Vantage desktop experience to significantly improve the home-office experience. The reimagined Avaya Vantage is an all-in-one meeting solution for the home office which includes a built-in high definition conferencing camera, wideband audio, and four microphones, enabling an exceptional collaboration experience without requiring the use of a laptop.

Avaya also announced that it has integrated the Avaya Vantage with its Avaya Spaces collaboration app. Avaya Spaces is the cloud-based team collaboration and meeting tool that is changing how work gets done, enabling the digital workplace by bringing together distributed groups of people instantly with immersive workspaces where they can message, meet, share content, manage tasks and collaborate in the cloud.

Avaya Spaces delivers immersive virtual communications and team collaboration to ensure everyone is connected and informed, with the best ideas being actioned, regardless of location. Its capabilities — including chat, audio and video conferencing, file sharing, task management, and more — enables hyper-fast decision making – and breaks down barriers to immediately process change across teams, departments, and more. It provides a 24×7 followthe-sun work mechanism where globally distributed teams collaborate as if they were in the same room.

The Avaya Vantage and Avaya Spaces are central to Avaya’s Composable Home Office Solutions strategy – which is driven by the Avaya OneCloud framework and leverages the capabilities of Avaya OneCloud UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS. This new approach empowers businesses with the capability to compose personalized home office experiences for its employees and customer service agents.

Avaya’s recent “Work From Anywhere” survey reveals that 65 percent of companies polled are adding new video conferencing solutions as they adapt their workforce to what is likely to be a long-term trend toward more home offices. Analysts estimate that there are now over 1 billion knowledge workers globally, and before the pandemic, the percentage of these who worked remotely was in the low single digits. New estimates indicate that when the pandemic is over, 30 percent of the workforce will work from home at least a couple of times a week.

Honeywell and Vertiv will work together to create integrated solutions to optimize data center sustainability, resiliency, and operational performance.

These solutions are expected to be available before the end of the year.

“The partnership builds on Honeywell’s industry-leading building management systems (BMS), operational software, and safety and security products along with Vertiv’s uninterruptible power supply (UPS), power distribution, thermal management, infrastructure monitoring, and modular solutions to enable operators of hyperscale, large enterprise, co-location, and edge data centers to integrate multiple domains of data within a data center. The companies will leverage building-operations data to drive optimization of operations, reducing energy use and costs while improving data center performance and sustainability,” the companies said in a statement.

“In the region, organizations across a multitude of industries are actively increasing investments in data centers and cloud computing, in accordance with the priorities of regional governments. Data centers face similar challenges as other buildings that have disparate systems that were not designed to work together, but they experience these challenges on a greater scale,” said George Bou Mitri, With this shift of the workforce to remote work, the vice president, and general manager, laptop has become the new “office” – being used Honeywell Building Technologies, Midfor calling, meetings, messaging – as well as for dle East, Turkey, and Africa. “We look completing work projects. As a result, laptops have forward to collaborating with Vertiv to become crowded with numerous CPU-intensive offer integrated solutions that make apps, and work must often be paused to use the it easier for data center operators to softphone or to participate in meetings. distill the mountains of data they pull from their equipment into actions that Avaya also announced that it has included new create more efficient and sustainable “screen shifting” technology in the Avaya Vantage to enable new flexibility when participating in a meeting. operations.”

Content, meeting participants, or both can be shifted “Business continuity is more critical to a larger screen based on the meeting dynamthan ever, with more people working, ics at any given time. And for presenting content, learning, and connecting remotely, drivone-touch on the Avaya Vantage opens the same ing a simultaneous explosion in data meeting on a laptop to enable the presentation.

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and demand for new data centers.

There are a need and opportunity for data centers to be more efficient, reliable and sustainable,” said Rob Johnson, CEO, Vertiv. “Our collaboration with Honeywell will help us to collectively better serve our data center customers. Our offerings complement each other to provide greater value to data center operators.”

Data centers in 2018 consumed approximately 1% of the world’s energy use. While the industry has made great strides to reduce and offset energy demands, including increasing the utilization of renewable energy, more work can be done toward a more sustainable and carbon-neutral future.

The companies’ initial focus will be on micro-grid solutions for data centers to enable more efficient integration of alternative energy sources such as solar arrays, fuel cells, and batteries, and to provide a scalable approach for operators to quickly enhance functionality and improve the total cost of ownership.

The first offering from the collaboration will be an intelligent power management solution that features an energy resource management and supervisory control system in a single, integrated platform. Combining energy storage, analytics, forecasting, and economic optimization, the solution will provide data centers with an intelligent and autonomous selection of energy sources and grid services to operate a data center load and reduce energy costs while maintaining uptime requirements. The solution can help data centers meet availability requirements while optimizing energy costs, meeting corporate sustainability goals, and reducing the overall carbon footprint. It will also allow operators to better manage sustainability targets and account for external risk factors such as weather and grid reliability.

NEWS

75% of Regional CTOs Believe AI Will Generate Value for Their Companies

OKI Launches the New C650 A4 Colour Printer OKI Europe Ltd has announced the launch of the C650, the world’s smallest A4 colour printer. Available from January 2021, the C650 delivers the performance, media handling and cost-efficiency of a class-leading workgroup device in the format of an A4 colour desktop printer.

Designed for any business that has limited space, the C650 will fit comfortably in the smallest of spaces while printing high volumes quickly and in professional quality, making it ideal for use across a variety of sectors including retail, hotels, restaurants, healthcare, education and construction.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not yet giving a big bottom-line boost to most companies, according to a new study by the Boston Consulting Group and MIT Sloan Management Review. The report, titled ‘Expanding AI’s Impact With Organizational Learning’, found that despite 75% of CTOs believing that AI will contribute to generating value for their organizations, only 6% of Middle Eastern businesses have seen significant financial benefits due to a lack of a holistic approach entailing integration and close interaction between humans and machines.

However, financial gains have started becoming apparent nonetheless. Hence, more and more companies are continuing to adopt AI. Of the regional companies surveyed, the study found that 47% had AI pilots underway or were using AI in full-scale deployments.

Furthermore, 58% of these companies revealed they now have an AI strategy in place.

“Multiple technology foundational steps, AI-driven decision-making, and process improvements have enabled companies to generate value with AI,” said Elias Baltassis, Partner and Director and BCG Gamma Lead for the Middle East. “At the same time, several other companies are yet to see a significant return on their AI investments. Our new study reveals organizations that ultimately achieve the most value from AI are the ones implementing a holistic approach – ensuring increased interactions and mutual learning between humans and machines,” added Baltassis.

As per the report, five modes of human-AI interaction have been identified: • The AI decides and implements a decision on its own.

• The AI makes a decision that a human implements.

• The AI makes a recommendation to a human, but the decision remains in the human’s control.

• An AI generates insights from data that help the human’s decision-making calculus.

•

Humans make decisions that an AI system only evaluates after the fact.

The most successful companies were more likely to use multiple modes of interaction, with 20% of regional companies using all five modes and an additional 13% using three or four different modes. Those that used all five modes were six times more likely to see financial gains and amplify their success with AI than those that relied on just one kind of interaction. These findings are significant, especially considering the increased emphasis on implementing AI internally.

“Much like their counterparts in other markets around the globe, regional companies are under various competitive pressures to drive AI strategies within their organizations,” said Rami Mourtada, Partner & Associate Director of Digital Transformation at BCG. “94% of regional CTOs believe that AI will provide an advantage over their competition as opposed to 87% globally, 71% are concerned that they may lose that advantage should competitors begin using AI in their operations, and 77% of global counterparts share the same apprehension. Moreover, market demands are also driving organizations to implement AI, with 60% believing that customers will begin to ask for AI-driven offerings, and another 63% under the impression that partners will ask the same. As such, it is imperative that organizations drive their AI strategies effectively and efficiently.”

“One major takeaway from this report is that Middle Eastern companies need to calibrate their investments in technology, people, and learning processes,” added Mourtada.

“Configuring a business to capitalize on AI capabilities requires substantial investment and companies most committed in this direction are far more likely to reap the rewards.

Financial investments in technology and people are important, but it is also essential for companies to identify that investing social capital in learning is equally critical to creating significant value with AI.”

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Powered by OKI’s pioneering digital LED technology, the C650 delivers high speed printing in rich LED colour, perfect for handling everything from everyday documents to all manner of marketing collateral and signage. The device prints 35 pages per minute and can handle media as light as 60-gsm and up to 256-gsm, and from B8 up to 1.32m in length.

The C650’s innovative Space Saving Technology includes full front access which significantly reduces the amount of space needed to operate the printer compared to a device with a similar footprint by uniquely ensuring all operations are performed from the front of the device. When it comes to maintaining the C650, only a 2cm space is required around the sides, so it can fit into the tightest of spaces for all operations.

Reliability was a key area of focus in the C650’s development and the extensive use of high value components in place of plastic makes this one of the most robust printers in its class, guaranteeing a long and hassle-free life. Separate toners and long life drums enable a high duty cycle and maximum use of consumables ensuring the C650 keeps printing and printing, making it ideal for organisations requiring high volume printing and high colour coverage.

OKI recommends the use of ABBYY FineScanner, the first AI-powered smart mobile scanner for scanning paper documents and getting perfect digital copies to print and store. This adds scanning capabilities to the C650, removing the need for a separate desktop scanner or MFP taking up valuable space in your business.

Customers can also subscribe to The Design Hub powered by Shoppa, providing a one-stop-shop for design and printing needs. This user-friendly creative platform empowers businesses to produce professional quality, fully personalised visual communications and marketing collateral in-house, in a few simple clicks.

CHANNE L TALK

Menlo Security and Smartworld Announce Partnership in the Middle East

Shell and AVEVA Partner to Deliver Engineering Data Warehouse

Smartworld has joined the EMEA Partner Programme of Menlo Security, provider of Cloud Security Platform built on an Isolation Core. The partnership provides the UAE organizations with the most effective way to eliminate all Internet threats while protecting business and user productivity unlike the traditional “detect and response” approaches that don’t protect against the modern-day threats such as ransomware, phishing and credential theft.

John Brown, Director of EMEA Channels at Menlo Security Inc., said, “The need to provide a truly safe Internet experience for users in the Middle East region is more critical than ever before. Our partnership with Smartworld is a fantastic early indicator of our intentions for the region. Traditional security appliances can’t cope with the complexity of modern-day threats and customers have reluctantly accepted that there will be breaches. Our solution, built on a unique isolation core, delivers on the promise of cloud security by providing the most effective zero-trust approach to preventing malicious attacks, and offers a seamless experience for end-users that allows for safe, uninterrupted work while accessing the Internet, SaaS or private applications.”

Menlo Security’s Insolation-powered Cloud Security platform separates the enterprise network from the public web while providing users with secure, low-latency connections to the Internet and SaaS applications. This enables the safe viewing of content and documents by executing all active content in the Cloud, away from the endpoint, while providing native and seamless user experience across all endpoints, including mobile devices. Menlo Security offers a 100% malware protection warranty of up to US$1 million – the first of its kind from a Cloud security company for any customer that experiences an infection from any malware that passes through the Menlo platform.

Fahad Khursheed, Director of Managed Services at Smartworld said, ‘As a semi-government company, Smartworld is trusted by multiple government and private organizations for protecting their networks, devices, programs and data from digital threats. Our partnership with Menlo will improve our company’s positioning through enhanced cybersecurity offerings. Given the recent adoption of cloud and remote work policy, cloud-based network security will be the new normal for organizations to protect business space. We are excited to be on board and believe the Menlo Security broad product portfolio, powered through Cloud, is the best way to secure enterprises from Internet threat and to achieve secure cloud transformation.”

AVEVA has announced that it has signed an agreement to help accelerate Shell Global Solutions International B.V’s digital transformational strategy by deploying AVEVA’s cloud software solutions. AVEVA will provide Shell with its Engineering Data Warehouse technology, which is one of the building blocks of the digital twin. This will enable a common digital thread across Engineering, Operations and Maintenance and the ability to securely deliver information in context from a single source to decision makers across these critical functions.

AVEVA’s Engineering Data Warehouse will enable Shell through its Digital Twin to drive asset reliability, enhance efficiency and reduce unplanned downtime. The solution will also support in providing actionable insights right from the site operator to the Asset Leadership Team. AVEVA’s solution supports Shell’s ambition to empower staff across Shell’s manufacturing sites and to keep frontline industrial workers safe while ensuring business continuity and operational resilience.

“Empowering workers requires access to all the information as today’s new normal entails remote access to monitor, manage and optimize production facilities,” commented Johan Krebbers, GM Digital Emerging Technologies / VP IT Innovation. “We are already witnessing the benefits of our strategic collaboration with AVEVA

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through our fully aligned vision for digital transformation. This has enabled us to conduct operations remotely as well as seamlessly access the necessary applications to provide the insight, guidance and tools to ensure safe, effective and consistent work output, specific to each role.”

AVEVA’s Engineering Data Warehouse brings together engineering information across the lifecycle of the asset, supported by powerful and proven applications that enable visualization, analysis, prediction and guidance. Its vast experience across multiple industries provides the domain content to address industry specific scenarios and use cases.

“We are delighted that Shell has chosen to extend its long and robust existing strategic partnership with AVEVA to support in enabling the digital twin cloudbased services,” commented Ravi Gopinath, Chief Cloud Officer and Chief Product Officer, AVEVA. “This deployment is part of Shell’s recently announced strategy to deploy digital twin technology across its manufacturing sites. Implementing new technologies like IIoT, extended reality, and artificial intelligence has huge advantages with the digital twin of an operating environment and this cutting-edge technology is guaranteed to deliver immediate improvements for Shell’s operations.”

Mimecast Joins CrowdStrike Elevate Mindware Signs DisPartner Program tribution Agreement with HTC VIVE Mindware has announced the distribution agreement with HTC. As per the agreement, Mindware will now offer HTC’s complete portfolio of VIVE Enterprise virtual reality (VR) solutions across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). HTC VIVE Enterprise solutions are built around enabling businesses of all sizes to enhance their creativity, accelerate training, strengthen collaboration, and engage their customers.

Mimecast Limited has announced it has joined the CrowdStrike Elevate Partner Program, an elite cybersecurity ecosystem delivering solutions and expertise to stop breaches. Organizations need an integrated threat intelligence strategy that enables the collection of data at the point of attack.

Through Mimecast partnering with CrowdStrike, customers can better defend against threats at the perimeter, inside an organization and beyond, improving an organization’s overall security posture. The CrowdStrike Falcon platform offers cloud-based architecture that is highly scalable in nature and secures all devices and workloads in real-time across an organization.

The Falcon platform’s artificial intelligence (AI) engine collects and monitors threat data from more than 4 trillion events weekly. This data is used to mitigate risk for clients, providing protection against today’s cyber threats by supporting large-scale data models that can recognize and prevent attempted intrusions. Complementary to Mimecast’s defense approach, this integration expands community immunity exponentially helping to quickly identify and resolve incidents.

Through this partnership, customers’ endpoints are enriched by email and web data along with indicators of compromise. The sharing of newly discovered threats and growing threat activity will improve customers’ overall cyber resilience postures by helping avoid downtime and costly breaches. “As we think about

how threats have evolved, a layered approach to email and web security is key to keeping an organization protected from threats it can and can’t see,” said Peter Bauer, chief executive officer of Mimecast. “Organizations need deep email threat intelligence that is integrated into their endpoint to make their systems work better together so the identification, prevention and response to threats are connected, orchestrated and automated.

CrowdStrike was a perfect addition to our ecosystem of partners as the combination of endpoint, email and web security will offer Mimecast and CrowdStrike joint customers actionable threat intelligence to build a stronger cyber resilience posture.”

“Today’s complex threat environment includes rising eCrime activity that utilizes a multitude of tactics, such as targeting organizations through email phishing attacks for monetary gain. As such, multilayered risk mitigation strategies are necessary to secure employees from the endpoint to the email and web,” said Matthew Polly, vice president of worldwide alliances, channel and business development at CrowdStrike. “Partnering with Mimecast will offer joint customers strong security and insights into the threats they face from advanced cybercriminals in order to better secure their critical data, ultimately protecting day-to-day business operations.”

The partnership will also include robust reporting and measurement capabilities to help CISOs be fully aware of their cybersecurity ecosystem and learn from breaches that were prevented.

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Nicholas Argyrides, General Manager – Gulf at Mindware comments, “Are you ready for the New Reality? – this is the question we challenge regional enterprises with. Virtual Reality is a trend that is gaining considerable traction in the enterprise space at the moment. It enables powerful ways for employees to communicate, collaborate and learn. With remote working becoming increasingly prevalent in the context of the current pandemic, VR solutions provide a real sense of presence and personalization of interactions, contributing to better business outcomes. Today, VR is able to eliminate traditional physical barriers and provides incredibly immersive experiences. Organizations across different industries are gradually discovering new and interesting use cases and application areas, such as training, industrial design and architecture, scientific visualisation, virtual events and entertainment, to name a few.”

“With VR gaining popularity in the MENA region, we believe that there is an enormous amount of potential for HTC’s best-in-class technology that will usher in a new age for the enterprise. We are excited about our newest partnership and look forward to introducing our innovative solutions to the region through our channel ecosystem.”

One of HTC’s innovations, namely the VIVE Focus plus, features an all-in-one VR headset for enterprise designed for quality and portability.

With the newly-added dual 6DoF controllers, increased comfort for extended VR sessions, and enhanced optics, VIVE Focus Plus blurs the lines between reality and virtual reality. The VIVE Pro Eye Office creates more immersive virtual simulations with precision eye tracking and is ideal for a wide range of environments and applications, such as training, design, construction, and more. Finally, the VIVE Sync is an all-in-one meeting and collaboration solution for VR, which is in beta stage but currently being used all over the world. It enables clients and co-workers to meet in a virtual setting in the blink of an eye.

HTC and Mindware will work together to develop a strong partner ecosystem based on a specially designed partner program – REED (Recruit, Enable, Engage & Deliver). The objective is to enable skilled and trained partners to consult, design and deliver on enterprise VR requirements.

Mindware’s agile logistics operations with several warehousing facilities enable HTC to timely deliver the vendor’s solutions to resellers across the region.

MOVE RS AND SHAKE RS

Infoblox to Drive Channel Growth in EMEA

Mimecast Gets New Senior VP of Global Channel Sales

Infoblox Inc. has announced the appointment of Ashraf Sheet as Director of Channel for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The company also unveiled new incentives, business development resources and expanded professional services to help channel partners in the region sell more, learn more and add more value for new and existing customers.

“Infoblox channel partners are in a favourable position to keep growing through the COVID-19 shutdown by helping customers’ remote workforces optimise connectivity and security,” says Lori Cornmesser, Vice President, Worldwide Partner and Alliance Sales at Infoblox. “This influx of channel investments and incentives will help fuel our partners’ pipelines by energizing, educating and further enabling their sales, marketing and technical support teams.”

Sheet is an industry veteran who in his former role as Infoblox’s Regional Director of Middle East & Africa (MEA) grew the regional business by 25% year-over-year. Cherif Sleiman, Senior VP, International Business at Infoblox comments, “Ashraf has been hugely successful in developing our MEA channel business since joining us 6 years ago. Not only is Ashraf an accomplished sales leader, but he bleeds channel and tightly collaborates with sales, marketing, business development and other cross functional teams.

With him at the helm of our channel organisation in EMEA, we are confident in our ability to accelerate growth in the region.”

As part of the business strategy, Sheet will focus on expanding Infoblox’s footprint into new markets. A key focus area will be focused on the company’s pivot to SaaS and supporting existing partners in this transition, as well as potentially looking to new partnerships that offer expanded coverage or capability. A key focus area will also be on recruiting partners that specialise in cloud and security – two important markets for the company.

Infoblox is also investing in a dedicated team of business development specialists skilled in helping partners grow their business with existing customers. Additionally, Infoblox has expanded its professional services programme to EMEA partners. This will enable partners to invest in professional services capabilities, which will open up new revenue streams.

Mohammed Al-Moneer, Regional Director, Middle East, Turkey & Africa at Infoblox, will be taking over Sheet’s previous role.

Mimecast Limited has announced that Jonathan Corini has been appointed the new Senior Vice President of Global Channel Sales. In this role, Jonathan will be responsible for the strategy and execution of Mimecast’s global channel program. Mimecast is dedicated to ensuring its partner community is supported, engaged and armed for success and the appointment of Jonathan will help unify and strengthen its commitment to the channel.

“As a leading cybersecurity and resilience provider to organizations using Microsoft 365, there’s a huge opportunity to grow in the enterprise while also serving small and medium businesses, and we can’t do that without the channel,” said Dino DiMarino, chief revenue officer at Mimecast. “Jonathan has a long history of success in channel management and sales, and his leadership will strengthen our global channel strategy.

His hands-on approach will help regional sales leaders and other internal and external stakeholders evolve our approach. With Jonathan’s guidance, we’ll ensure our program provides strong value to our channel partners, tech partners and customers.”

“Mimecast leans on partners as strategic advisors to help expand our global business. As we plan to grow in the enterprise market, Mimecast’s technology partners, systems integrators and reseller community will be pivotal to that

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success,” said Jonathan. “Exponential growth can be achieved when everyone is aligned and working towards the same set of goals.

Mimecast’s culture is infused with so much drive to make the world a more resilient place. I look forward to leveraging my experience building and growing successful channel partner programs to further Mimecast’s footprint in the Enterprise, Commercial, SMB and MSP markets.”

Jonathan brings more than 20 years of experience building and managing technology relationships, as well as the teams responsible for driving joint sales within the Channel Partner community.

As the Senior Vice President of Global Channel Sales, Jonathan will oversee the strategy and execution of Mimecast’s global channel program and will work closely with the teams to ensure alignment and maximize the value for partners.

Prior to joining Mimecast, Jonathan was the Vice President of Worldwide Channel Sales at Forescout Technologies where his team delivered a customer-first mission to all Forescout channel partners, spanning more than 90 countries and more than 1000 resellers. Under Jonathan’s leadership, Forescout’s channel partner program received CRN’s 5-Star Award in 2018, 2019, and most recently in 2020 for the Envision Partner Program. Before that, Jonathan held management roles with Tanium, Intel Security and McAfee.

Barco Appoints Erdem Soyal as VP for MEA Operations

Citrix Appoints New Country Manager for Saudi Arabia Citrix Systems has announced the appointment of Mohammed Kiki as Country Manager in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). With almost two decades experience in sales management, business development, and strategic planning within KSA, he will drive the acceleration to cloud of customer environments in the country to enable both business continuity and business transformation to new work models, such as remote working. He reports to Taj El-Khayat, regional director, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at Citrix and will be based in Riyadh.

Barco has named Erdem Soyal as the new Vice President of its Middle East and Africa (MEA) operations. Bringing to his role over 15 years of experience, Erdem is responsible for developing and strengthening Barco’s enterprise, entertainment and healthcare client bases. In this capacity, he is mandated to accelerate Barco’s growth in the region through creating synergies across the MEA markets to offer more convenient solutions to its customers.

Speaking on his new role, Erdem Soyal said, “I am pleased to come on board at this important time when Barco’s offices in the Middle East and Africa region are witnessing great success. The company provides innovative solutions in different fields such as the meeting room hybrid conferencing collaboration experience, control rooms, digital healthcare imaging, live event visualization, as well as architectural projection mapping.”

He added, “Barco’s ongoing research that addresses dynamic employee needs through its cutting-edge solutions, clearly indicates that in the

prevailing global landscape, these solutions are more relevant and impactful than ever in delivering effective customer experience. In the next few years, the company will focus on shaping and delivering innovative solutions to further strengthen its product portfolio in the region.”

Earlier in his career, Erdem held several leadership roles in sales, business development, and general management in companies such as Philips, General Electric, and Honeywell. With a proven track record in realizing profitable growth and leading multi-cultural and multi-divisional teams, Erdem Soyal’s strength lies in developing breakthrough initiatives that enable strong organizational structures, and in building high performing teams that can achieve accelerated growth.

Erdem Soyal has been active in the Middle East region for more than a decade and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Tilburg University, in the Netherlands, with a focus on Organization and Strategy. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering.

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“At a time when the world is transitioning due to the new virtual world and the new remote workspace, it is a great opportunity to join the Citrix team”, says Mohammed Kiki, country manager, Saudi Arabia at Citrix. “We are not only deploying cutting-edge technologies to keep our customers’ businesses connected and secured, but are also starting a new charter and reinforcing Citrix commitment to the Kingdom’s talent and workforce development, and its dynamic shift towards cloud and digitization.”

Mohammed Kiki has significant technical and sales expertise in both software and hardware fields, as well as deep understanding of the Kingdom’s private and public sectors. He joins Citrix from Oracle where he was responsible for the Autonomous Cloud Team and has previously held senior roles at companies like NetApp’s, Cisco and Dell. Mohammed holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Engineering, and studied Strategic Management in Harvard University (USA).

Taj El-Khayat, regional director, MENA, Citrix says, “Citrix is closely aligned to the Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the nation’s technology-led transformation. In current times, as the country’s government and businesses continue to adapt to the new normal of remote work and adopt hybrid multi cloud strategies, we are excited to have Kiki bringing his leadership and results-driven approach to Citrix to drive awareness and growth around digital workspaces and cloud networking.”

COVE R STORY

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

WHY IT MATTERS?

Arabian Reseller speaks to industry experts about how AI has evolved in this region, the AI factor in combating pandemics, transformation of companies post-crisis, and more You could say that artificial intelligence, robots and smart devices were all offspring of some of the wildest imaginations of visionaries. Through art, movies and literature, we have been able to conceive such ideas and work our ways up towards making them a reality. But no matter how harder we try to live our futuristic dreams right now, artificial intelligence and other allied technologies are still in their infant stages. We have achieved face recognition, speech detection and stages of autonomous cars at consumer levels and it will be years from now until we have robots serving us mac and cheese.

With that said, groundbreaking technologies and researches are being made every single day and if you are a follower of influencers and industry experts, you would

see how artificial intelligence is working at grassroot levels to solve some of the simplest of concerns besides the most complicated ones. Artificial intelligence is indeed laying the foundation for what will be standards tomorrow and to get ready for the future, you need to start becoming open from today.

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT The GCC region has been evolving rapidly and has observed a drastic modification with AI technologies, especially in countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia. According to PwC Middle East, GCC economies are already moving towards AI and adopting advanced technologies, with increased AI adoption being estimated at approximately $277 Billion by 2030. “The biggest opportunity for AI in the GCC has been in the construction and

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manufacturing sector, where estimated adoption has been 31.0%, followed by 24.5% in the energy, utilities and mining sector, and 18.5% in the public sector, including education and healthcare; of all AI investment in the region predicted for 2030,” explains Anas A. Abdul-Haiy, Director and Deputy CEO of Proven Consult. “Overall, the potential gains at the industry level are likely to depend on the ability of businesses to automate processes, and on the potential impact of further innovation due to AI.” “Digital innovation is accelerating across all industries across the region in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses, especially healthcare institutions and governments are taking advantage of AI technology to deliver better patient care,” says Fadi Kanafani,

General Manager and Managing Director Middle East for NetApp. “Governments are using AI to detect and monitor COVID-19 cases at public places and airports to control the spread of the virus.

Many healthcare institutes have used AI or specially designed digital platforms to deal with the pandemic by screening people who might be infected, identifying high-risk patients, screening frontline healthcare workers and distinguishing COVID-19 from other respiratory illnesses using X-rays or CT scans.”

Kanafani further adds that the UAE were leaders in this domain; they made better use of technology, including AI, drones and robots, to support its efforts to contain the virus. “Early detection and constant monitoring were key to controlling and slowing down the progression of the disease. The fact that the UAE is first country to appoint a minister of state for AI, as well as establish the world’s first dedicated AI university is proof that the country plans on leveraging the power of AI across key sectors in the coming years. AI is already being put to use in key public sector services,” he adds.

According to Lee Miles, the VP for CEMEA at Red Hat, AI can fundamentally reimagine Middle East markets through the creation of innovative new services and futuristic business models. We have seen increased development on multiple fronts in the AI arena across the region in recent times, in terms of spending and adoption. “In the Middle East and Africa, AI spending grew by almost 43 percent last year alone due to higher investments in AI-enabled projects and platforms.

And through 2022, spending is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 19 percent.

Compelling use cases in AI applications are visible in areas including manufacturing, finance, retail, telecommunications, and the public sector – and AI has the potential to make significant contributions to these sectors over the next decade,” he adds.

Tabrez Surve, the Regional Sales Director of F5, says that one of the

most notable developments is the focus from governments, especially in the UAE where support has been immense. The UAE created a Ministry of Artificial Intelligence which is focused on AI and how it can help drive excellence in industry, government and public services.

“This will give a lot of impetus for AI. The Middle East is expected to accrue 2% of the total global benefits of AI in 2030, equivalent to $320 billion, according to a recent report from PwC. We’re going to see a growing willingness across different industries – from oil & gas to financial services, healthcare and government – to adapt AI in various formats. All sectors stand to gain from AI and we see growing awareness of the need to adopt it here in the Middle East,” he says.

Miles further adds that from a government perspective, they can obtain and analyse vast amounts of citizen data, and it is their responsibility to meet the requirements of millions of people and deliver essential public services. “The need to provide services efficiently and at scale, together with the ability to leverage vast amounts of data, means AI is an ideal avenue to sustainability. Cities including Riyadh, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi are well-positioned to capitalize in the coming years due to their respective government-led AI initiatives. More will likely be launched as the current programs serve as an inspirational example for the rest of the region,” he says.

Avinash Gujje, Practice Head – Infrastructure, Cloud Box Technologies, if of the opinion that the GCC is one of the regions that are availing of and implementing AI to accelerate developments that the authorities have for their long-term country vision. “The UAE leads the path in adopting new and advanced technologies, and AI is at the forefront of all major sectors. This includes the RTA, utility, health, education, finance, etc. In fact, it is the only country in the world as of now to have an AI ministry. AI is being successfully used for drone surveillance, as well as transport and cargo movement which are the prime focus. The airline indus21

try is working on developing an AI powered assistant that will support customers from pre to post flight services. It is evident that the technology is moving into most areas of day to day life,” he explains.

AI DURING COVID-19 Today, AI technologies play a key role in all aspects of the COVID-19 crisis response. AI can be utilized to understand the virus and can be used to accelerate medical research on drugs and treatments, detection and diagnosing of the virus.

“AI can also assist in preventing or slowing the virus' spread through surveillance and contact tracing, responding to the health crisis through personalized information and insights gathered, in turn aiding in monitoring the recovery process and improving early warning tools,” says Abdul-Haiy.

“Researchers and healthcare institutions are turning to AI to fight the virus. We firmly believe that technology and innovation can help navigate and overcome global challenges such as the current COVID pandemic. The fight against this strain of virus still is very much ongoing, but we are proud that many technology companies are contributing, whether it is with analytics, research, or business continuity,” explains Kanafani.

AI technologies are widely used in many countries to combat COVID 19. Currently, the most common usage is the wireless thermometer guns which are AI powered.

“It can also help in monitoring the movement and tracking of patients.

Automated thermal monitoring along with facial recognition is enabling a faster and more effective process. With the help of AI based data analytics, predictive modelling helps professionals to garner deeper insights into the disease. And, AI based risk assessment tools can help identify symptoms and develop relevant drugs,” explains Gujje.

“Identifying an affected patient and isolating them to the nearest location with the help of self-driven cars and robots is recommended in the future. As well as the use of drones to deliver medication and food to isolated patients.”

COVE R STORY

Surve is of the opinion that COVID-19 has driven a reliance on digital technology for most organisations. “AI can help organisations transition to digital more easily and effectively. It adds a level of intelligence that can help them operate and tap opportunities more effectively. This will be vital as organisations move into the post-COVID-19 phase,” he says.

According to Miles, through advanced planning algorithms, OptaPlanner is among the most prominent AI factors that have helped keep medical staff and patients safe while combating COVID-19. “Some of the most common challenges in the healthcare sector include assigning doctors and nurses to hospital shifts, establishing a fair schedule, and maximizing leave day request approvals. During the ongoing situation, these issues have been solved easily due to this innovative AI factor. Advanced planning algorithms are superior to human planning in far less time, and valuable time saved has subsequently been utilised by medical professionals in a variety of vital areas,” he says.

TRANSFORMATION POST CRISIS The pandemic has opened avenues to rethink the opportunities that are being utilised to handle the situation. The world is seeing a major shift towards digital transformation.

“Digital skills are being improved and there will be ongoing reskilling trends that are required to develop the workforce to face and manage the unexpected. Remote work spaces powered by AI will be the norm.

And, it is clear that automation will drive all major sectors mainly travel, transport, IT as well as retail and ecommerce,” says Gujje.

Miles says that companies can make the transition to becoming fully AI-enabled following the crisis through Open source software.

“Although predictive analytics and AI capabilities can offer valuable insights and actionable intelligence, organizations operating in the public sector requires more to achieve their ambitions concerning

AI – they need ‘explainable AI.’ With Open source software, companies can develop more transparent AI solutions through technology and development methodology that are much faster – resulting in greater efficiencies and more accurate, trusted decisions,” he says.

Abdul-Haiy meanwhile adds that most companies already have an extensive experience with digital applications such as automation and basic data analytics. But AI, which enables machines to solve problems and take actions that in the past could only be done by humans, goes far beyond that.

“Financial services offer another good example, where we see AI being used a lot more in fraud and risk management. As businesses and individuals increasingly make digital transactions, the volume of transactional data also increases, and this presents an ideal opportunity for AI algorithms to learn to spot patterns that indicate fraud.

Human experts can then assess the AI’s findings, saving a significant amount of time and resources. AI cyber security solutions can analyse traffic in real-time to spot unusual behaviours and anomalies previously out of sight while automatically flagging problems as they occur,” adds Surve.

Adoption of AI varies by industry, with different industries, from education to healthcare and manufacturing, each using AI in a different manner. But one thing they all have in common is that AI is helping them to automate processes, especially labour-intensive and time-consuming processes, such as analysing data about footfall in retail or checking product quality in manufacturing.

“AI tools analyze immense volumes of data to learn underlying patterns, enabling computer systemsto make complex decisions, predict human behaviour, and recognise images and human speech, among many other things. AI-enabled systems also continuously learn and adapt. These capabilities will be enormously valuable as companies

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Anas A. Abdul-Haiy, Director and Deputy CEO, Proven Consult

Avinash Gujje, Practice Head – Infrastructure, Cloud Box Technologies

Tabrez Surve, Regional Sales Director, F5

confront and adapt to the new reality of the current crisis and its aftermath,” says Abdul-Haiy. “This new reality will significantly impact companies’ costs, revenue, and operating models. AI can play a significant role in enabling companies to thrive and seize a competitive advantage in this new environment.”

According to Kanafani, the first step towards transforming into an AI company is to become a “Data Driven” organization. “Becoming data driven starts with a clear digi-

tal transformation strategy. A company ought to be ready for a total mindset change away from archaic legacy processes into how business outcomes may be achieved faster, for less cost in an effective manner.

As an example, when Tesla decided to build the future automobile; the engineers did not take an old concept and built on the same but rather innovated towards what the future automobile should look and perform like,” he explains.

OPERATING IN AN AGILE MANNER The need of the hour for companies is to operate in an agile manner to enable nimble, data-driven teams. Many of the world’s biggest companies struggle to be nimble, efficient, and data-driven, which makes them less productive than they should be. It’s not just their size that holds them back; much of the problem is created by traditional business models that have been created for scale and standardization, rather than for agility and innovation.

According to Kanafani, for achieving this, it all starts at the top. “Every company has to have a data strategy to enable a data driven mindset.

As simple as this may sound, many CIOs; although had their own plans to move in that direction, progress was very slow. COVID19 global pandemic has led to the acceleration of digital transformation initiatives and in some way forced that agenda on the top leaders of the organizations that were lagging behind either to survive the current market challenges,” says Kanafani.

The concept of agile frame work comes into play when there are huge amounts of work to be completed within short time frames.

Business stake holders and product and development teams prioritize the work flows and develop a system to be able to operate within an agile framework. “The key lies in the actual data and data readiness. The use of different analytical tools to collect and share the data is prime.

Organizations must identify the bottle necks and ways to improve this process is very crucial. But what they must also take note of

is that while the agile frame work has been described as simple, it comes with its own set of challenges which must be met and tackled,” says Gujje.

“According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), large-scale agile transformation isn’t just about technology. It’s about a new way of thinking. It’s more collaborative, more open, more creative, and much more efficient than other business models. And it’s something that can be implemented across a company, not just in a few departments,” explains Abdul-Haiy.

He further adds that companies can achieve agile transformation at three levels: the project level, which is relatively easy to accomplish; the portfolio level, which is more complex; and the organization level, which requires a complete rethinking of a company’s operating model.

“Moving effectively from the first level to the last can be difficult for a large organization, but companies that move in progressive steps can succeed,” Abdul-Haiy says.

Surve says that once a company starts leveraging AI, they will be able to make decisions faster and in a more agile more manner, because AI is able to tackle the kind of labour intensive and time-consuming tasks that often holds teams back.

“Education and training around AI will be very important in terms of helping companies to maximise the benefits of AI, with considerations such as which processes to apply AI to, and how to use the learnings and insights from AI to an organisation’s best advantage,” explains Surve.

Kanafani meanwhile explains that data science and artificial intelligence are now official curriculums in the region offered by reputed universities to skill up the human capital so to enable data driven teams. “On the technology side, NetApp may help organization deliver the AI and data management platforms with its echo system partners to complete the circle.

Both combined, trained human capital and technology will provide 23

Fadi Kanafani, GM and MD - Middle East, NetApp

Lee Miles, VP for CEMEA, Red Hat

the sought business outcomes,” he says.

Visionaries today are working on enriching our everyday lives.

Home delivery of food, apparel, and consumer goods, cab services, entertainment options are all some of the basic conveniences we have made them necessities. But technology feels there is still human intervention involved. So, it is working on making life simpler to another level by introducing delivery drones, chatbots, advanced systems and more to further add convenience in our lives.

Today, data scientists, machine and deep learning experts are increasingly in demand. Companies are now depending on them for their organizational requirements. Considering this, the ability to code and work on a programming language would become inevitable and all our career choices will have an intertwined aspect of computer and tech skills. Though we are far from the days machines would dominate the earth, we are still making tremendous progress in making them smart and human-like (Sophia).

Maybe we humans are just here to give rise to a new species of entities that would go about solving the mysteries of nature and universe.

WOME N IN TECH

DIVERSITY HAS ITS OWN IMPACT ARABIAN RESELLER | November September2020 - October 2020

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Arabian Reseller speaks to Swapna Nair, the Regional Marketing Manager at ASUS Middle East about her career journey into the IT industry Tell us about your leadership style and philosophy.

The corporate world has grown quickly, and the consensus nowadays is that a leader works side-by-side with the group, instead of merely delegating. This is seen as the optimum path in today’s corporate environment. I lead by facilitating open communication and trying to bring out the best in every team member I work with.

Why did you choose IT to advance your career?

I may not have taken the ‘traditional’ career path into this field. However, through the experience and skills I gained previously, it gave me the opportunity to really determine my niche and find where my strengths could excel. It’s often difficult to say that I have always wanted to pursue this career, because for me I needed to try different areas to determine what type of career was right for me.

I started my career in a different field. But, I got an opportunity with ASUS and I ended up liking this new area more and as they say, the rest is history. I have been working for ASUS for the past 12 years – 2005 to 2007 at ASUS India, and from 2011 till date at ASUS Middle East.

What advice would you give to women looking to break into the field of computer technology?

Tech is a great way to make your ideas happen. Everything today involves and is accelerated by tech. There is nothing more fun that seeing results quickly. There has never been a better time for women to be part of the technology industry.

The industry is realizing the impact of diversity, both on the community at large and on companies' bottom line. Powered by advancements in computing and AI, there are now huge opportunities to solve interesting social problems at a global scale.

This opportunity, combined with the

momentum to build a diverse workforce, makes it a truly exciting time to be part of the industry.

What is the greatest transformation in technology you’ve witnessed in your career?

I have seen exponential growth in the AI and IoT arena. Artificial Intelligence is one of those catch phrases that elicits strong reactions from different groups. Employees might get nervous when they hear it, fearing an army of robots out for their jobs.

However, c-suite executives might be counting the future profits they believe will be theirs as AI is increasingly used.

It was predicted that there were almost 27 billion IoT devices in the world in August 2020, and this is estimated to increase to over 75 billion by 2025. There are currently about 8.4 billion connected devices in the world – somewhat short of the 26 billion that Gartner predicted in 2013 would be in use by the end of the decade. That 20 billion number (if not the 200 billion predicted

by Intel for 2020) will no doubt be achieved eventually, but the point of IoT is not just having smart devices gathering data and storing it in a database somewhere.

What are your thoughts on the next transformation in the tech industry?

AI, Machine Learning and Cloud Computing have become force multipliers for data analytics and there will be big growth in this era.

Are you involved in any sort of charity work?

Having spare time is sometimes very challenging. However, I have worked on several charity drives by donating and distributing toiletry bags and food packs to the hard-working laborers in Dubai. Also, time to time I do some charities in my home country.

Girls education is also supported through WHO in India.

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What’s shaping the IT industry in the region?

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. The increasing ability of machines to learn and act intelligently will absolutely transform our world. It is also the driving force behind many of the other trends on this list.

The Internet of Things (IoT). This refers to the ever-growing number of “smart” devices and objects that are connected to the internet. Such devices are constantly gathering and transmitting data, further fueling the growth in Big Data and AI. Wearables and augmented humans.

What started with fitness trackers has now exploded into a whole industry of wearable technology designed to improve human performance and help us live healthier, safer, more efficient lives. In the future, we may even see humans merge with technology to create “augmented humans” or “transhumans.”

Intelligent spaces and smart places.

Closely linked to the IoT, this trend is seeing physical spaces – like homes, offices, and even whole cities – becoming increasingly connected and smart.

Cloud and edge computing. Cloud computing – where data is stored on other computers and accessed via the internet – has helped to open up data and analytics to the masses. Edge computing – where data is processed on smart devices (like phones) – will take this to the next level.

What is next for you in terms of your career in the tech industry?

Technology is rapidly growing, so the next challenge will be to stay updated with new Tech and the upcoming challenges but also needs to develop the business with the past learnings and experiences.

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MITRE ATT&CK Framework and Threat Intelligence Written by Firas Ghanem as Regional Director – Middle East & Pakistan at ThreatQuotient

The MITRE ATT&CK framework is being used in more and more areas of cyber security, including the identification of threat actors, their techniques and behavior. Companies need a knowledge base to identify who they are dealing with at an early stage.

Information about the actions of future attackers, based on observations of security incidents in other companies, is ultimately of interest and relevance to all organizations. The mapping of this data, summarized as threat information, is ultimately one of the main activities that IT security departments should undertake.

There are two ways to use this data for threat intelligence; as consumers and as producers. Being a consumer of the data means using the data already created to improve threat intelligence decision-making. The second method is to use this information and build on it as a producer of additional information.

Security departments that have the appropriate skills and capacities should also engage internationally in this way.

over and above the existing threat information. This mainly refers to own data that can be added to a complete data set. For this activity, organizations must give analysts the time and training they need to analyze available incident response reports (both closed and open source, internal and external) to extract data and match it with ATT&CK metrics.

While the use of the ATT&CK matrix for Cyber Threat Intelligence mapping focuses on external threats, the next common step is inward. First, all techniques are listed with information on how security departments identify, detect and contain them. Extracting this information is an excellent way for security departments to better understand their own ability to defend and prioritize. The first step in this process is the programmatic extraction of data source information.

Being a consumer begins with narrowing the threat landscape to specific groups of cybercriminals or other threat actors. Because then a company can assume that they have an interest in its data, assets or resources. To reduce the threat landscape, previous attacks on similar organizations should be investigated and the groups suspected of being involved in these attacks identified. Once the threat groups that are of interest have been identified, the security department can use a data set to view the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) for those groups.

There are several ways to do this using the APIs provided by MITRE or other open source tools on GitHub. Once completed, comparing the data sources that the security experts have had access to and the groups of users and systems that have access to those data sources can reveal important gaps in coverage and visibility. For example, if the threat information they have collected indicates hacking techniques that target scheduled tasks, a particular group may be behind them. The security experts are then able to determine whether or not they can detect this technology. The data sources listed in the technique-File and process monitoring, process command line parameters, and Windows event logs-provide this answer.

Augment Data In addition, it is recommended that further threat information be created

Close Knowledge Gaps If none of these data sources are available to the security department,

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or if they are only available on a subset of the IT systems, the next logical step should be to fix this problem. It doesn’t matter whether they capture these new sources of information through built-in operating system logging or by adding new security tools (network monitoring, network discovery and response [NDR], host-based IDS/ IPS, endpoint discovery and response [EDR], etc.).

While the collection of the required data sources is already an important milestone, it is only the first step in the process. Once the data has been collected and sent to a central memory of threat, the next step is to find a suitable analysis tool. Finally, it must be emphasized when an attacker actually uses this technique. MITRE facilitates this step for many hacker techniques with its prebuilt Cyber Analytics Repository (CAR) and even provides open source analysis options such as the BZAR-project, which includes a set of Zeek/Bro scripts for detecting some ATT&CK techniques.

Conclusion With this collected information, security departments can identify priorities for attack groups and techniques that can be used against their own organization. They can also supplement this information with their own internal data. This provides the security department with the best possible knowledge of what techniques and tactics the attackers have and are likely to use against the organization. After assessing the threat level, the security experts can then use the integrated data source information to get an idea of the potential defense capabilities.

Where key information is missing, they must work together to collect the data and implement analysis for these techniques.

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The Emergence of the Zoom of Cybersecurity Written by Nico Popp, Chief Product Officer, Forcepoint

I always love looking towards the future, but in 2020 it seems that the future rushed right at us, startling us and shaking us all up. Now we’ve had a little time to adapt, we can regroup, reassess, and take steps forward again.

This is the status quo today: We have all moved to remote working. Cloud deployment is a necessity. Digital transformation has happened—and where it hasn’t, it needs to.

All of these macro factors have led me to the conclusion that cybersecurity is now a business differentiator, and it needs a category disruptor. Cybersecurity has become the enabling engine that permits businesses to accelerate their pivot to the cloud and take advantage of the speed, scale, and resilience of digital transformation.

The understanding and position of cybersecurity within the boardroom has long been an area for debate, but now, our discipline has moved a step higher in the food chain, and our importance is elevated. So where does that leave us? What will happen in 2021 to the industry?

The Irresistible Force When Gartner first introduced SASE as a concept in 2019, their first report indicated that the market would not be ready or moving to this model for between three and five years, and only 40 percent of companies would have moved to the model by 2024. But a combination of existing market forces in shifting to the cloud, plus the new blueprint of remote working forced upon us, means we’re facing faster defragmentation of the market and emergence of the “security platform” as the tool of choice.

This puts us in a situation rather like the irresistible force paradox.

When an immovable object, in

this case, the way cybersecurity is perceived at board level, meets an unstoppable force, here digital transformation is driven by both market change and the events of 2020, what happens? It’s my view that in fact, the immovable object moves. Cybersecurity grows in importance at the board level, thus driving demand for secure cloud platforms. Boards of Directors seek out differentiation and innovation for their businesses, speedy solutions, and cost savings: all of which will deliver pressure for security in the cloud, and thus a need for a cloud platform security solution.

These changing demands at the top will deliver metamorphosis within the cybersecurity industry. The need for a converged, digital, cloud-delivered platform means we’ll see the emergence of the “Zoom of Security.” As we all discovered this year, Zoom “just works.” It’s a high-tech system which is easily accessible for the everyday consumer, and this is what boards will demand of their cybersecurity platforms.

Any serious category disruptor must be more deeply integrated into the public cloud ecosystem. Currently, developers are using security as a tool, but having to shoehorn in applications and functions not necessarily designed as cloud-native. Security will move to the left for the developer and will become easily deployable and fully integrated.

Security… by stealth?

This integration will result in security becoming so engrained in applications and platforms that people will no longer realise they are being “secured.”

Cybersecurity products have long been tarred with the brush of being intrusive, conflicting with people’s ability to get the job done, thus con-

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stricting innovation. Even for cybersecurity practitioners, the security stack is too complex. It’s got to become more automated, delivering security as a service so that enterprises can get on with their core business: not their core business plus running a team of expert cybersecurity professionals.

Analysts agree: in fact, Forrester is predicting that Zero Trust architectures will grow 200% in 2021. Once we emerge out the other side of this shift, security will be a cloud commodity, and the combination of technology plus data will give IT leaders true visibility of how and where data is moving through an organization.

It is this visibility of data which is the game-changer. It’s not about monitoring in terms of keeping tabs on people’s actions, or invading their privacy: it’s about giving data analysts and business leaders a clear line of sight over data and its movements. Behavioral analytics gives us the telemetry we need to make intelligent, risk-based decisions on the fly, without intruding on either people’s privacy or their workflows.

We will have some fun as we look forward to next year. In my view, this category disruptor is likely to emerge through vendor consolidation and/or market movements, so we should also expect some significant merger and acquisition activity within the cybersecurity sector in 2021.

This defragmentation of the market, and shift to cloud and converged platforms alongside vendor consolidation should mean that security gets easier for business leaders – and hopefully for the professionals on the frontline too. In 2021, the cloud will become part of cybersecurity’s DNA in a way that it isn’t today.

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2021 Predictions for the Tech Industry Written by Danny Allan, CTO and SVP Product Strategy, Veeam

Developers will have more say in technology direction and data strategy of companies We will see an aggressive “shift to the left” across all industries, where CIO’s will depend more on their development teams to guide the technical direction of the company. Historically, development teams have taken a topdown approach to move their data to the cloud, but – as have many things in the world – this changed with the pandemic with the reinforcement of cloud-based environments. In 2021, we’ll see DevOps teams continuing to have far more say in the data strategy process, and as a result we’ll see a greater increase in the mobility of workloads, correlating with an increase in cloud data management techniques.

A greater focus on protecting and managing work collaboration platform data in the cloud Distributed workforces were already on an upward trajectory but have been completely kicked into overdrive with the COVID-19 pandemic. With many companies extending work-at-home opportunities through mid-next year, reliance on cloud-based collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, will only increase.

This means even more teams will be looking to harness the power of the cloud to store an influx of data from collaboration platforms. In 2021, this will create more focus, awareness and need for data protection and management for collaboration software.

With the decline of hardware, software-defined models will become more prominent Appliances will diminish in their attractive as we shift towards software-defined models. 10 years ago, appliances where these shiny new

toys that everyone wanted to get their hands on, however they have not had the staying power we predicted they would. In fact, we’ve seen a shift towards backup-as-a-service and away from appliances. Remote work in the pandemic had a real impact on how we dealt with hardware in 2020 that will continue into 2021 as software-defined models take center stage.

Machine learning will become democratized in the cloud around data.

Already, we are seeing organizations recognize the unlimited opportunities available to them through data they have already collected. Data re-use will be a big trend we see organizations shifting to 2021, with many leveraging the power of machine learning to help them do this.

This is still in the emerging stages; however, its adoption will increase as organizations recognize how it can help them analyze and re-use data that they already have. By leveraging machine learning in the cloud, organizations will ultimately become smarter.

Compliance regulation fines won’t see an uptick – they’re going to continue trending down.

Data privacy and privacy regulations will continue to gain traction in 2021. In particular, I predict we will see the first proposed federal regulations around privacy in the New Year. However, compliance fines will continue on the downward trend we saw in 2020.

We saw a massive jump in compliance fines in 2019, which solidified how seriously GDPR, CCPA and others needed to be taken. Now that this attention has been received and the awareness is there, the shift will be

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more towards more consistency of privacy regulations at the federal level.

IT spending will rebound after 2020 – security and hardware will be at the top of the list.

Despite the economic turbulence brought on by the pandemic in 2020, we’ll see a five to 10 percent increase in general IT spend in the New Year.

Allocations will likely focus most on security, general system modernizations (backup, applications, cloud migrations, etc.) and refreshing hardware.

In addition, organizations will take a look at what was on “hold” in 2020 to address IT spend that happens on an annual recurring basis. For example, hardware should be refreshed every three years, and if the pandemic halted an organization’s attention to hardware, it’s fair to say that will make its way to the top of the list in 2021.

Developers will have more say in technology direction and data strategy of companies We will see an aggressive “shift to the left” across all industries, where CIO’s will depend more on their development teams to guide the technical direction of the company. Historically, development teams have taken a topdown approach to move their data to the cloud, but – as have many things in the world – this changed with the pandemic with the reinforcement of cloud-based environments.

In 2021, we’ll see DevOps teams continuing to have far more say in the data strategy process, and as a result we’ll see a greater increase in the mobility of workloads, correlating with an increase in cloud data management techniques.

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Financial Services Organisations are Undergoing Rapid Digital Transformation Written by Ehab Halablab, Regional Sales Director – Middle East at A10 Networks The financial services sector is experiencing significant commercial disruption coupled with rapid innovation as established institutions strive to become more agile and meet evolving customer demand. As a result, financial services organisations are undergoing rapid digital transformation to meet changing customer needs and preferences, and to compete with a new generation of digital-native competitors.

Hybrid cloud environments play a key role in this strategy, allowing greater speed, flexibility, and visibility over application delivery than on-premises data centres while also reducing costs.

But the move to hybrid cloud introduces new challenges as well. So, as financial services organisations plot their strategy for transformation, firms must make critical technical decisions about the clouds and form factors best suited to host their hybrid environment.

They also need to consider how they will secure web applications against evolving threats such as ransomware, data theft, and DDoS attacks through measures such as DDoS protection and using a Zero Trust model. At the same time, they must also maintain regulatory compliance, governance, and auditability across complex, fast-evolving infrastructures.

To understand more about these challenges, we recently conducted a survey with Gatepoint Research involving senior decision-makers to gain insight into the current state of financial services technology and the future direction for organisations in this sector.

Here are some of the key findings:.

Ransomware and PII Lead Security Concerns Today, financial services organisations face a broad spectrum of security threats, including many being targeted at sensitive customer data. The survey

highlighted that organisations’ biggest security concerns or consequences were ransomware (57 percent); personally identifiable information (PII) data theft (55 percent); and phishing or fake sites (49 percent).

To address the changing security landscape, many organisations have started initiatives around the Zero Trust model, in which traditional concepts of secured zones, perimeters, and network segments are updated with a new understanding that a threat can come from anywhere or anyone inside or outside the organisation. As of June 2020, 41 percent of respondents had already established a timeline for their Zero Trust model initiative with 15 percent having projects currently underway. Still, nearly two-thirds have no current plans or initiatives around the Zero Trust model.

Moving to Improve Flexibility, Agility, Scalability and Security Technologies and strategies planned for the coming year reflect a key focus on the competitive requirements of fast-paced digital markets. The toptwo initiatives included moving from hardware appliances to more flexible software form factors and deploying hybrid cloud automation, management, and analytics to increase operational efficiency.

With DDoS attacks a prime concern, 29 percent of respondents planned to deploy or replace an existing web application firewall (WAF) or DDoS protection solution. Surprisingly, even several years after the introduction of modern Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) and Elliptical Curve Cryptography (ECC) encryption standards for enhanced security, 29 percent of organisations are only now working to upgrade their Transport Layer Security (TLS) capabilities to support these technologies.

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Addressing the Requirements of Hybrid Cloud and Rising Demand Moving forward, decision-makers view capabilities related to risk as especially important for their financial platforms.

When it comes to the most important capabilities for financial platforms running in hybrid cloud environments, regulatory compliance, comprehensive application security and redundancy/ disaster recovery are top must-haves.

Compared with risk-related and operational priorities, cost saw considerably less emphasis in the survey. While 28 percent of respondents placed importance on automation for operational efficiency and reduced costs, just 18 percent prioritised flexible licensing and pricing.

Desired Benefits from New Technology Investments As they plan new technology investments, decision-makers are motivated foremost by risk reduction—far outpacing business factors such as revenue, customer experience, and competitive advantage. By a large majority, security was the most likely benefit to spur funding for new technology.

The results of the survey offer a snapshot of an industry in transition, as decision-makers seek to keep control over security and compliance and maintain operational consistency, as they look to tap into the agility and scalability of the cloud. It is clear that, while security is important for digital transformation initiatives, application delivery and managing multi-cloud environments are of equal importance. Above all financial services organisations must maintain their good reputation and ensure customer trust. Firms must demonstrate that they are protecting customer assets, providing an ultra-reliable service, working with trustworthy partners and reducing risk to the business.

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Securing the Hybrid Workforce Begins with Three Crucial Steps Written by Rick Vanover, Senior Director of Product Strategy, Veeam

It is clear that remote working is here to stay. According to a survey conducted by Bayt.com, a leading job site in the Middle East, 90% of professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region expect remote work to increase over the next few years and 74% of professionals prefer jobs that allow them to work remotely. The shift to a remote workforce has redefined the way organizations structure their business models.

While threats to company data range in attack method, ransomware continues to be the most prominent risk known to organizations worldwide, with a 41% increase in 2019 alone.

According a recent study by Sophos, 49% of the organizations surveyed in UAE mentioned a ransomware attack in the last year. In July this year, researchers at cybersecurity firm Palo Alto uncovered a strain of ransomware that hit government-run organizations in the MENA region.

It’s important that companies focus on acknowledging this threat and deploying strategies to prepare, defend and repair incidents, before adapting to a hybrid workforce model. This process will prevent organizations from falling victim to attacks where data loss or ransom payment are the only unfortunate options. To win the war on ransomware, organizations should incorporate a plan for IT organizations that ensures they have the resilience needed to overcome any attack. Let’s explore three crucial steps for ransomware resilience in more detail.

Focus on education first, avoid reactive approaches to threats later Education – beginning after threat actors are identified – should be the first step taken on the path towards

resilience. To avoid being caught in a reactive position, should a ransomware incident arise, it’s important to understand the three main mechanisms for entry: internet-connected RDP or other remote access, phishing attacks and software vulnerabilities.

Additionally, preparing how to use the ransomware tools in place will help IT organizations familiarize themselves with different restore scenarios. Whether it be a secure restore process that will abort when malware is detected or software that can detect ransomware ahead of restoring a system, the ability to perform different restore scenarios will become invaluable to organizations. When an attack does happen, they will recognize, understand and have confidence in the process of working towards recovery. By taking the education aspect of these steps seriously, organizations can decrease the ransomware risks, costs and pressure of dealing with a ransomware incident unprepared.

Implement backup solutions that maintain business continuity An important part of ransomware resiliency is the implementation of backup infrastructure to create and maintain strong business continuity.

Backups with an air-gapped, offline or immutable copy of data paired with the 3-2-1 rule will provide one of the most critical defenses against ransomware, insider threats and accidental deletion.

Furthermore, detecting a ransomware threat as early as possible gives IT organizations a significant advantage.

This requires tools in place to flag possible threat activity. For endpoint devices displaced remotely, backup repositories that are set up to identi-

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fy risks will give IT further insight into an incredible surface area to analyze for potential threat introduction.

If implementations don’t prohibit attacks, another viable option is encrypting backups wherever possible for an additional layer of protection – threat actors charging ransom to prevent leaking data do not want to have to decrypt it.

Prepare to remediate an incident in advance Even when there are steps in place that leverage education and implementation techniques to combat ransomware before an attack hits, organizations should still be prepared to remediate a threat if introduced.

Layers of defense against attacks are invaluable, but organizations need to also map out specifically what to do when a threat is discovered.

Should a ransomware incident happen, organizations need to have support in place to guide the restore process so that backups aren’t put at risk. Communication is key, having a list of security, incident response, and identity management contacts in place if needed – inside the organization or externally – will help ease the process towards remediation.

The threat that ransomware poses to organizations both large and small is real. While no one can predict when or how an attack will happen, IT organizations that have a strong, multi-layered defense and strategy in place have a greater chance for recovery. With the right preparation, the steps outlined here can increase any organization’s resiliency – whether in office, remote or a combination of the two – against a ransomware incident and avoid data loss, financial loss, business reputation damage or more.

EXPE RT SPEAK

Our New Normal: Looking Ahead to Business Recovery Written by Keerti Melkote, Founder and President of Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company While the world is dealing with the worst health and economic crisis of the past century, there’s been a subtle shift in the public narrative. We’ve moved from the shock of the pandemic to thinking about how to ease back to some sense of normalcy with a phased approach to reopening economies. But if you’re a business owner, how do you prepare for recovery?

footprint gets even more distributed giving rise to new concerns around security, visibility and user experience.

Should IT provide the tools for work at home? What should those tools be? Is it simply a laptop and a set of cloud/web applications or is it more?

Does it include connectivity, security, and application assurance for carrying out mission-critical work?

One thing is certain: It’s unlikely we’ll all head back to work at the same time. And even when we do, our physical workplaces will look different. How will we reconfigure office buildings to maintain social distancing while ensuring productivity? And what about the schools that educate our children? What will learning look like in our near-future? These are all things we will need to consider as we shift into recovery mode.

Many Aruba customers have chosen to not only provide the computing environment, but a secure networking environment at home so employees get the same network experience as they do at their workplace. No need to VPN in to work, so to speak. Simply turn on your device and start using it like you naturally do at work. The connectivity and security are taken care of for you just like it is at work.

Also, IT gets to have visibility into this remote work environment in order to troubleshoot, maintain and monitor for security compliance.

1. Workforces will continue to work remotely.

Several large companies—including HPE—have said that while businesses begin to ease back to normalcy, they will not require team members to return to the physical office. In a recent article, Antonio Neri, CEO of HPE, said, “Our work-from-home guidance will not be lifted just because government orders are removed; we will only reopen sites when we feel we are in the best position to welcome back team members safely. We will modify our sites to ensure physical distancing can be maintained, and we won’t all return at once. Most importantly, returning to the office will be voluntary.”

These words echo sentiments across the global business community, which means that remote work is here to stay—at least for a while.

As the home becomes the primary place where mission-critical work gets done, organizations have to adapt their IT postures to account for this new reality. The edge of the enterprise

2. Rise of the automated edge.

As the Edge footprint increases, our ability to reach out and touch it has vastly diminished. All due to COVID-19. Everything at the Edge must be done remotely from an IT standpoint, which means Edge infrastructures at homes, branches, stores, warehouses, or other places will all need to be deployed and managed in a zero-touch manner. This means everything must be instrumented for automation and remote management. Cloud-managed solutions with advanced AIOps capabilities will play a large role in how these distributed environments will be deployed and managed.

3. Healthcare capabilities become part of the business recovery mix.

While the world’s leading researchers race to uncover a vaccine, governments realize that the key to recovery is an increase in COVID-19 testing.

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The ability to test, track contacts, and quarantine those infected hinges on the ability to test large numbers of the population. As the healthcare community continues to shift with these changing priorities, we will continue to support them with Rapid Response healthcare solutions that allow secure connectivity. Whether they are planning for pop-up testing, a triage tent, or a makeshift hospital in a stadium to prepare for a surge in patients, Aruba will be there to help.

4. Education shifts to a hybrid model.

As we speak to customers in the education space, their challenges start to sound similar to those of enterprise business customers: How do we bring students back to physical locations while maintaining social distancing?

How do we engage students when online learning stretches into an extended timeframe? And what are the resulting implications in how educators and planners prepare their education and technology plans to support these new learning models?

Aruba will continue to support our education customers and partners as they navigate these challenging times.

We’re here to help them configure their network infrastructure to get the most from the collaboration solutions they choose – whether Teams, Zoom, or something else.

5. Supply chains become a key differentiator.

As the pandemic leaves behind a trail of disruption, everyone will evaluate how they can plan for more resilient supply chains that can withstand future pandemics or similar global disruptions like this one. Aruba has done well in our supply chain execution and it is due to the resiliency we implemented across our supply chain plans.

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Assessing Dynamic Business Environments

with Remote Cyber Threat Assessments Written by Jon Bove, Vice President Channel Sales, Fortinet and Neil Matz, Manager Product Marketing, Fortinet Organizations across industries are deploying security tools on their networks to combat cyber threats and limit the impact of successful attacks. As these networks grow in complexity, however, measuring the effectiveness of the security solutions in place has become increasingly difficult. As a result, many organizations continue to rely on outdated or disparate tools to

ensure network security without recognizing that their network has become less secure.

To help organizations see and address the risks posed by expanding networks and inadequate security measures, Fortinet launched the Cyber Threat Assessment Program (CTAP) in 2015. Conducting a cyber threat assessment allows partners to

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identify gaps within key areas such as security, productivity, and performance on a customer’s network. Once an assessment is complete, partners can then work together with a customer to improve their security posture and optimize their network.

And now, given the recent widespread shift to telework and

the need to sometimes work with customers from a distance, Fortinet has introduced remote CTAPs to help partners provide continued guidance to customers even as their network environments evolve or adapt to new realities. Remote CTAPs give partners a way to deliver additional value to their customer base while also expanding sales opportunities, even as they temporarily move away from their traditional hands-on model of network management and security. As customers continue to streamline their networks, remote CTAPs put partners in a prime position to maintain their role as a trusted peer without the need for on-site engagements.

assessment-based selling model combined with flexible tools accessible from anywhere, partners are able to run critical assessments remotely, helping to build pipeline while continuing to offer tangible value to their customers.

Remote CTAPs can also be used to augment ongoing discussions.

Using assessment reports, partners can augment sales interactions with actionable insights and impactful findings. This approach helps partners position themselves as an essential service, thereby streamlining the sales process.

Analyzing Fortinet’s Remote CTAP Capabilities To help differentiate partner caHow the Switch to Remote pabilities from the competition, Operations Has Impacted InFortinet offers three remote teractions cyber threat assessments. Below In recent months, the operais a breakdown of each remote tional climate for partners has assessment type and how they shifted substantially. Tried and can be leveraged to enhance true sales interactions have been customer network operations. curtailed. Prospects are less likely to want to meet with part- CTAP for NGFW ners in person to discuss oppor- The CTAP for Next-Generatunities due to current global tion Firewall (NGFW) helps conditions. And with restricted partners better understand access to data centers and test customer network usage by labs, partners are currently facmonitoring key indicators. Using ing similar challenges, making it a FortiGate-VM virtual applidifficult to carry out traditional ance, partners can remotely integration validation or proof of deploy a virtual FortiGate inconcept work. side their prospect’s network to monitor traffic and generate a These factors make it critical report with findings. The report that partners emphasize immeprovides valuable insight into diate value when meeting with a prospect’s security posture, prospects. Partners must emfocusing on threat prevention, phasize the need for essential user productivity, and network services, as most customers are productivity. Once finalized, not willing to invest in non-espartners can use this report to sential services at the moment. guide discussions around security investments with key deciThe Partner Opportunity sion-makers.

Around Remote CTAPs Partners need a new strategy in CTAP for Email their toolkit to stay competitive. CTAP for Email focuses on This is where remote CTAPs identifying gaps in a prospect’s can be of use. By adopting an current secure email gateway 33

or hosted email platform. Performed remotely, a CTAP for Email redirects a copy of the prospect’s cloud-based emails to a hosted FortiMail Cloud instance for analysis. Once the analysis is complete, an email risk assessment report is generated, highlighting security threats found within attachments and URLs, as well as impersonation analysis, newsletter/spam information, and email utilization metrics.

CTAP for SD-WAN Deploying a CTAP for SDWAN gives partners increased visibility into a prospect’s router usage, helping them identify network bottlenecks. Similar to the CTAP for NGFW assessment, partners remotely deploy a FortiGate-VM virtual appliance within a prospect’s network to monitor traffic. The resulting report provides insight into business application usage, potential WAN cost reductions, and security readiness. This is especially beneficial for sales discussions with networking decision-makers as it demonstrates value, such as improving user experience via direct internet applications and other potential performance optimizations.

Final Thoughts on Remote CTAPs Remote cyber threat assessments present partners with a new opportunity to demonstrate value to customers while maintaining safe business practices.

The ability to monitor security and performance from remote locations plays an important role in strengthening and maintaining the customer/partner relationship in lieu of traditional sales interactions. By providing remote CTAPs, partners can continue to demonstrate value and efficiently interact with customers while expanding their sales pipeline.

PRODUCT REVIEWS

4/5 Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro HUAWEI’s new Watch GT 2 Pro joins the Watch GT 2 and the Watch GT 2e by adding more premium materials, with a titanium case and ceramic back. The case measures 47mm and it comes with a bright AMOLED display that offers a resolution of 454-by-454 pixels.

AED 999

stress tracking, SpO2 level tracking, heart rate tracking, and more. Talking about the spO2 level, a healthy adult should have between 94% and 100% oxygen saturation in their blood in normal conditions.

The Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro retains the internals of the GT 2, but is made with premium materials. Its borderless dial is made of sapphire crystal, the watch case is Titanium and the watch plate, which rests on your wrist is ceramic.

SpO2 isn’t constantly monitored and it takes about 10 seconds for the Watch GT 2 Pro to produce a reading.

The Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro comes with 4GB of onboard storage and can connect to Bluetooth headphones on its own. This means you can store your favourite music on the smartwatch and workout without your phone.

The Watch GT 2 Pro comes in a simple box with a USB cable and a standard wireless charging cradle. This means that the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro can charge on most any wireless charger you have lying around.

The Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro has a speaker and microphones and it can take calls if it’s connected to your smartphone. Call quality was top notch and the speaker is more than loud enough if you’re on your morning commute.

The strap itself has a two-sided finish. On the inside, the one that makes contact with your skin is smooth. The outer side is grippy and textured. The Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro comes with a selection of over 200 watch faces.

The Watch GT 2 Pro allows you to control music on the smartphone and also acts as a remote shutter while taking pictures from your phone

One that really stands out is the Night Wish face, which can show you all the 8 phases of the moon. You can also simply swipe down from the watch face to find information about sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset, tide time, and so on.

Battery life on the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro is also awesome. On a single charge, we were able to use it for nine full days before it needed a charge. A full charge takes about an hour and you can get about 10 hours of use from just 5 minutes on the charging cradle.

The watch also comes with a range of workout modes.

It can track over 100 types of workouts and even offers around 10 running courses with voice guidance. The watch also comes with a Route Back feature, which uses GPS to record your trail on a hike and will then give you assistance on the way back.

You can also charge the Watch GT 2 Pro using the reverse charging capabilities of Huawei’s latest smartphones. The Huawei Watch GT2 Pro is excellent as a smartwatch and packs enough punch to make your day better as a smart tracker.

For a price of AED 999, the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro is an amazing looking watch that will tell you time but can double as a brilliant fitness tracker.

You also get new golf and skiing tracking modes apart from all the bells and whistles including sleep tracking, ARABIAN RESELLER | November 2020

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4/5

AED 685

Jabra Elite 75t ANC TWS Earbuds Jabra launched the Elite 75t almost a year ago and just a few weeks ago, the wireless earbuds started receiving an Active Noice Cancellation upgrade. So this is our review of the upgraded Jabra Elite 75t ANC earbuds.

the earbuds connected to your phone.

The earbuds each have a physical button, an indicator light, and a motion sensor. The sensor is used to automatically pause music when either of the earbuds is removed, and resume when it is worn again. The buttons can be used to control everything on the earphones, including volume, playback, hear-through mode, and the voice assistant on a paired smartphone.

Upon opening the box, you see the wireless earbuds and the charging case up front. There is a small box inside the packaging that includes the USB-C charging cable, and the extra ear tips. There’s also a quick start guide to help you with the initial setup.

When you first connect the earbuds to your phone, it will automatically upgrade the firmware that brings the ANC goodness to the 75t. In order to continue with the upgrade, you will need to place the earbuds into the charging case and close it. The LED on the charging case will start blinking continuously to indicate that the firmware on the earbuds are being upgraded.

The charging case for the earbuds is easy to open with one hand and features a sleek design. Jabra has also managed to shrink the earbuds by 20 percent when compared with the 65t. The microphone stem has also been reduced in size and it no longer juts out from the earbuds.

The earbuds are also IP55 water and sweat resistant.

So if you workout in gyms, you don’t need to worry about the earbuds getting damaged due to sweat. The lid of the charging case closes magnetically, and the buds themselves are also snugly seated with magnets.

The earbuds are powered by 6mm dynamic drivers, with a frequency response range of 20-20,000Hz. The Jabra Elite 75t uses Bluetooth 5 for connectivity, with support for the SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs. The earbuds also come with four microphones (two on each earbud) for calls and noise reduction during calls.

There is also a USB-C port on the charging case instead of the Micro USB port. Jabra promises up to 7.5 hours of continuous audio playback, and 28 hours of total running time if you count the extra charges from the case. The charging case can also be charged wirelessly.

During our tests, the earbuds ran for a straight 7 hours, with the charging case offering 3 more charges before they needed recharging. The sound quality of the earbuds was impressive and the ANC feature worked really well. The bass levels were excellent for a good hearing experience, while the mids and lows are very well defined.

In order to connect the earbuds to your phone, it is recommended to download and install the Jabra Sound+ app from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. Once the app is installed, open the charging case and remove the earbuds to get it into the pairing mode. Then follow the instructions in the app to get

For the price of AED 685, you get good sound quality, impressive design, decent battery life, and excellent call quality. If you are on the market for True Wireless Stereo Earbuds that also offer ANC, the Jabra Elite 75t could be one of the options you could look at.

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PRODUCT REVIEWS

4/5

AED 999

ASUS RT-AX82U AX5400 Router ASUS is known for its top-notch gaming products – from laptops to accessories and components. The company is also well known for its wireless range of gaming products and the company recently announced its WiFi 6 gaming router called the ASUS RT-AX82U AX5400. This one’s a high-performance dual-band WiFi 6 gaming router, which was launched at the same time as the RT-AX86U.

an RJ45 CAT 5E cable, a user manual and the warranty card.

Installing the ASUS RT-AX82U AX5400 WiFi 6 Gaming Router onto your network is quite intuitive. Follow the step by step instructions in the user manual and you will be done in no time.

In terms of performance, the RT-AX82U really delivered. The dedicated gaming port on RT-AX82U automatically prioritises any wired device connected to it. No complex configuration is needed, just connect your gaming PC or console such as the Xbox One or a PlayStation 4 to the special LAN port to give you a fast, stable connection that’s always at the head of the queue.

The gaming router has been designed to deliver WiFi 6 speeds of up to 5400 Mbps. It also features a futuristic design with Aura RGB dynamic lighting effects. The RT-AX82U is powered by 1.5 GHz tri-core processor and comes packed with a Mobile Game Mode for a lag-free, low-latency mobile gaming experience, in addition to top-notch gaming experience on gaming PCs and consoles.

For this review we connected an Xbox One to the router and we came away impressed with the sheer amount of bandwidth and connectivity. We setup the router to use both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands on WiFi 6 to make sure it worked with a wide range of devices. The RT-AX82U router is also compatible with the brand new PlayStation 5.

It offers WPA3 support and comes with Advanced Parental Controls and AiProtection Pro network security powered by Trend Micro. And that’s not all – it also supports the ASUS AiMesh technology – so in case you are setting up an AiMesh at your home, this gaming router fits right in.

While both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are compatible with the WiFi 6 routers such as the RT-AX82U, make sure your firmware is up to date in order to use those gaming consoles with WiFi 6 routers. The new PlayStation 5 as mentioned before is also compatible with Wifi 6 routers and it can take the advantage of the higher speeds the new WiFi standard can offer.

Wired devices can be easily prioritised via the online control panel or by connecting them to the dedicated Gaming Port.

The overall design and build quality is top notch. In terms of connectivity, the router offers 1 x 1Gbps WAN, 4 x 1Gbps LAN, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, a power switch, a WPS button and a reset button.

The ASUS RT-AX82U AX5400 WiFi 6 Gaming Router offers a reliable WiFi 6 platform for the mainstream with excellent build quality and great design. The addition of an LED under glow adds an extra “oomph” to the whole proposition, which is also controllable from the WebGUI with Aura. For a price of AED 999, the ASUS RT-AX82U AX5400 WiFi 6 Gaming Router is well worth its price. It thus comes across as highly recommended for those looking for a performance based gaming router.

On the front of the RT-AX82U, you will find a large full-width louvered window that houses the stunning Aura RGB lighting system. You can choose from a range of alternative full-colour dynamic patterns or choose your own colour from a selection of patterns.

Inside the box, you get a few standard accessories along with the router. This includes a power adapter, an extra power plug, ARABIAN RESELLER | November 2020

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4/5

AED 450

ASUS ROG Chakram Core ASUS’ ROG Chakram Core is a gaming mouse that comes packed with a high-end optical sensor that offers gamers the speed and accuracy they need during an intense gaming session. The mouse features a programmable joystick, an advanced 16000-dpi sensor, push-fit switch sockets design, adjustable weight, stealth, instant screenshot and Aura Sync lighting support.

braided cable that measures 1.80 m in length. In order to customise the mouse, you can use the ASUS Armoury Crate that offers extensive controls.

Its intuitive UI lets you easily tune the ROG Chakram Core to suit your gameplay – adjust performance and surface calibration settings, program and map buttons, customise lighting effects and more. You can even track hardware stats during gameplay for data analysis.

The mouse offers a sensitivity range, ranging between 100 and 16,000-dpi thus allowing you to track movements of up to a brilliant 400-inches per second (IPS) at up to 40 g of acceleration. It also offers a 1,000 Hz polling rate and adjustable liftoff distance, to ensure lag-free responsiveness so the onscreen action reacts instantly.

The overall build quality feels solid. There is no creaking sound from the shell of the mouse when you squeeze the edges of the device. The Chakram Core has improved quite a lot from the original Chakram. The Chakram Core is a lot easier to handle and is quite light weight, too. The only feature that is missing on the Chakram Core is the wireless connectivity.

The detachable joystick on the mouse is programmable with 256-level Analog or 4-way directional Digital mode for superior in-game control.

The Chakram Core is also one of the first mice on the market to natively support NVIDIA’s Reflex Latency Analyzer. This makes it a great fit to be paired with monitors that offer a refresh rate of 360 Hz, such as the ASUS PG259QN.

Since the ROG Chakram Core has a screw-less modular design, with a magnetic cover and buttons, and exclusive push-fit switch sockets and adjustable weight, you get loads of customisation options to make Chakram Core your own. As an overall package, when you consider the mouse’ shape, materials, buttons, scroll wheel, feet, and sensor, the Chakram Core is a brilliant gaming mouse to consider.

Inside the packaging, you get the Chakram Core mouse, an additional joystick handle, joystick socket cover, tweezers, 13.6 g weight, quick start guide, and the warranty card. The mouse comes with a

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PRODUCT REVIEWS

3/5

AED 4585

BenQ EW3280U BenQ recently announced the launch of the EW3280U 32-inch 4K monitor onto the market. The monitor, which is aimed at gamers, also comes packed with HDRi technology. The proprietary HDRi intelligent technology is built to improve colour performance, detail contrast, and image clarity. The panel used on the monitor is that of the IPS variety and the display comes with Adaptive-Sync technology. The 16:9 flat panel offers lots of screen real estate and immersive gaming experience. The refresh rate is rated at 60Hz, while the response time is 5ms.

unpack the panel, you will need a screwdriver to fix the panel to the stand. Inside the box, you also get a USB-C cable and an HDMI cable. An IEC cable provides power to the monitor.

In terms of connectivity, the monitor offers one DisplayPort 1.2 and two HDMI 2.0 ports. You also get a USB-C port that can be used to either connect external video sources or charging devices at 60-watts.

There’s also a 3.5mm audio output for headphones or speakers.

The OSD on the monitor is well designed and quite intuitive to use. The OSD can be invoked by pressing the joystick or the menu button on the remote. The EW3280U offers six image modes and three HDR modes to choose from.

Since the monitor offers 4K resolution and multiple accurate colour modes, it can also serve as a professional monitor for those working in either the Rec.709 or DCI-P3 colour spaces. In addition, you also get a colour depth of 10-bits, and support for HDR10 signals with a VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification.

The picture quality of the monitor is very good. Black levels were really good, while HDR was good, too. Out of the box the monitor was surprisingly well-calibrated in terms of gamma tracking and white point. The monitor also comes with a range of Low Blue Light (LBL) settings, which were easy to activate and deactivate.

The BenQ EW3280U is a neatly designed monitor that follows the typical BenQ design cues. BenQ also packs in a well-designed remote control with the monitor. In addition, we found something on the monitor, which we haven’t seen recently on monitors we have reviewed – a volume dial on the lower left hand corner. It is an actual mechanical dial that lets you adjust the volume from the built-in speakers.

The 32-inch screen with high pixel density worked nicely for gaming as well. We found the BenQ EW3280U offers an immersive experience. The EW3280U delivers a productive work area while delivering excellent clarity and detail for high resolution content.

The output of the speakers on the monitor are rated at 2w, while the subwoofer is rated at 5w. Once you ARABIAN RESELLER | November 2020

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3/5

AED 2899

ASUS VivoBook S14 (M433) A few months ago, we reviewed the ASUS VivoBook S14 S433 – the S Series from the company is aimed at younger crowds looking for a stylish think and light laptop. The S14 S433 we reviewed back then was the variant that’s powered by Intel’s 10th Generation Core i processors. A few days ago, ASUS sent us the VivoBook S14 M433, which is the company’s laptops running the AMD Ryzen series of processors.

Book S14 models also come with the ASUS NumberPad 2.0, a touchpad that also works as a touch-sensitive numeric keypad for quick data entry.

ASUS also offers the MyASUS software that lets you easily collaborate and multi-task with mobile devices, such as smartphones to tablets. New features on the MyASUS software include wireless file and URL transfers for users who frequently need to share files or view websites seamlessly between their PC and mobile devices, Remote File Access to allow easy access PC storage via a mobile device, and Mirror and Screen Extender modes that allows users to multitask across a connected mobile device and PC.

The VivoBook S14 (M433) a slim and lightweight laptop that comes clad in either a Dreamy White or an Indie Black shell, featuring a colour-blocking yellow Enter key. The one we received for this review was the Dreamy White variant. The VivoBook S14 features a 15.9 mm chassis and weighs around 1.4 kgs.

In terms of performance, the VivoBook S14 truly shines. The AMD processor and Radeon graphics combo work really well together and are able to handle everything you throw at it. The full HD screen makes for a very nice display for watching movies or playing games. Since the laptop also offers multi-screen collaboration through MyASUS software, sharing content from your mobile device to the laptop and vice versa is hassle free.

The laptop also comes with a thin-bezel 14-inch NanoEdge FHD display – here, ASUS has packed a larger screen into a smaller chassis. The FHD display is treat to look at – it offers rich viewing experience and a very good viewing angle.

Under the hood, the ASUS VivoBook S14 (M433) is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 4700U Mobile Processor running at a clock speed of 2GHz, with up to 16GB RAM. You also get AMD Radeon graphics to help you power through graphics-intensive apps. In terms of connectivity, you get two USB ports, one microSD card reader, and the power and battery indicators on the right edge of the laptop. On the left edge, you get the power port, an HDMI port, a USB port, a USB-C port and the headphone/mic combo port.

Charging it from the bundled charger from 20% to full takes about an hour and 20 minutes which is a reasonable pace. For a starting price of AED 2899, the Asus VivoBook S14 (M433) offers an excellent price to performance ratio, helped in large part with the inclusion of AMD’s efficient AMD Ryzen 7 4000 series of mobile processors and Radeon graphics that does not compromise performance. This is an ideal choice for students and users looking for an affordable think and light laptop for general day to day computing.

For storage, you get a 1 TB PCIe SSD – that’s ample storage for your project files, movies and pictures. For audio, you get harman/kardon speakers. Select Vivo-

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PRODUCT REVIEWS

3/5

AED 839

POCO X3 (NFC) POCO is on a launching spree. The company has been busy churning out one smartphone after the other on a regular basis as it eyes a pie of the regional smartphone market. The POCO X3 (NFC) was launched recently with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G processor, with a promise of two day’s worth of battery life on a single charge. So, how did the device perform? Read on to find out!

icSwitch function that automatically switches the phone between 50, 60, 90 and 120Hz depending on the format of the content displayed on the screen. You also get a tiny dot 20MP camera on the front with ƒ/2.2 aperture and 1.6μm 4-in-1 Super Pixel, for all your selfies.

Turn the phone around and you will find the 64MP quad camera setup. Now, this includes a 64MP primary camera, a 13MP ultra-wide angle camera, a 2MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor. The phone’s primary camera is a flagship Sony IMX 682 sensor that offers an aperture of ƒ/1.89 and 1.6μm 4-in-1 Super Pixel that produces detailed and ultra-clear pictures.

So, the “G” in the Snapdragon 732G processor means that the processor is gaming optimized. So gaming on the POCO X3 (NFC) is not going to be an issue, especially since it also comes with 6GB of RAM, up to 128GB of storage, and support for microSD if you need to expand the internal storage capacity.

The 13MP ultra-wide-angle camera sports a 119° field of view propped up by ƒ/2.2 aperture and a 1.0μm pixel size, while the 2MP macro camera and depth sensor complete the setup offering extra functionality and reinforcing the primary lens’ capabilities. The camera performs consistently under good lighting conditions. We were able to get crisp and clear picture during day time.

Even under low light conditions, the camera module on the X3 (NFC) performed very well.

The X3 (NFC) also packs in 120Hz IPS screen which will make your gaming sessions a joy. Under the hood, the X3 (NFC) is powered by a 5160mAh hour battery.

In terms of look and feel, the POCO X3 (NFC) feels premium to hold even though it comes in at a very pocket-friendly pricing of AED 839.

On the right edge, you get the volume rockers and the power button which also doubles up as a fingerprint sensor. On the left edge, you get the SIM tray, while on the top edge you get he noise-cancelling microphone and the IR blaster. On the bottom edge you get the 3.5mm audio jack, USB Type-C port for charging, a second noise-cancelling microphone and the speaker grille.

The phone is powered by Android 10 OS with MIUI 12.0.3 UI running on top of it. The POCO X3 (NFC) performed very well during our review period. It was able to handle day to day jobs with ease. Gaming and graphics-intensive jobs were handled quite well, too. On a single charge, we were able to use the phone for about 1.5 days of normal usage. For a price of AED 839 for the 6GB+64GB variant, the POCO X3 (NFC) is a great handset to buy.

On the front, you get an edge-to-edge 6.67-inches FHD+ DotDisplay. The phone also comes with a DynamARABIAN RESELLER | November 2020

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