60mins Day 4 – AM (2018)

GITEX 2018 TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS

FORMERLY

VAD TECHNOLOGIES

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Show dates: 14-18 October 2018, Dubai World Trade Centre | AT GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK Exhibition hours: 11am-7pm

HUAWEI SPOTLIGHTS STRATEGIES AND UPCOMING INJAZAT DATA SYSTEMS SHOWCASES OPPORTUNITIES IN AI AT INNOVATION DAY DIGITAL CAPABILITIES AT GITEX 2018 Huawei has held an Artificial Intelligence (AI) conference at their third annual Innovation Day on the sidelines of GITEX 2018.

The event attracted industry experts and government leaders, including the guest of honor and keynote speaker, Mothanna Hamdan Gharaibeh, Jordan Minister of ICT, to 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

MICROSOFT FLAUNTS CLOUD-BASED CYBERSECURITY OFFERINGS

Girard Moussa, cybersecurity lead, Microsoft Gulf

Microsoft is showcasing its cybersecurity portfolio at its stand in Hall 7 at this year’s GITEX Technology

Week.

Girard Moussa, Microsoft Gulf’s cybersecurity

lead for the MEA region, said that the firm focuses on “two sides of the story” when it comes to IT security in the Middle East; securing Microsoft’s data centres – which will soon open in Dubai and Abu Dhabi - and secondly, ensuring customers are able to successfully secure their users using Microsoft solutions.

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At the five-day GITEX Technology Week, taking place at Dubai World Trade Centre, IT solutions provider Injazat Data Systems is showcasing the firm’s expertise Eddie Cunningham, around managed Injazat Data Systems services, digital advisory functional capabilities, innovation services as well as strate Eddie Cunningham, director sales, Injazat Data Systems, said, “GITEX has been a 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

CENTRA HUB FOCUSES ON NEW ‘EXPRESS’ SOLUTIONS LINE AT GITEX 2018

EXCLUSIVE NETWORKS SPOTLIGHTS SAUDI CYBERSECURITY FOCUS Exclusive Networks is utilising GITEX Technology Week to showcase its Saudi Grant Taylor, general manager,Exclusive Arabia-based IT Networks KSA security offerings, in a bid to reinforce the notion that the Kingdom is “not exempt from cyber attacks.”

Grant Taylor, general manager for Exclusive Networks KSA, highlighted how 2018 had been an interesting year so far from an information security perspective in the Kingdom, and added that he believes the country is definitely waking up to the need for IT security spending in technology beyond traditional realms.

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HOW ENTERPRISES CAN DEAL WITH THE MULTICLOUD Enterprises are moving fast to make use of the cloud, but the result can be an increase in Fayez Eweidat, regional complexity thanks sales director, Juniper to the creation Networks of a multicloud environment, when enterprises select

different cloud providers for different functions.

Juniper Networks is looking to strip out some of the difficulties that comes with this set up through its Contrail Enterprise Multicloud package, which aims to help companies to develop a single, cohesive infrastructure.

This is one of the key solutions that Juniper

Zameer Qureshi and Rohan Tejura, Centra Hub

At GITEX 2018, Centra Hub is highlighting its vertical specific solutions along with cloud and mobility solutions.

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Networks has been promoting to customers at this year’s GITEX. “We’re focusing mainly on the multicloud.

The multicloud is a clear pathway to achieve the simplicity most providers are looking for; it is becoming a very important solution for customers,” said Fayez Eweidat, Juniper Networks’ regional sales director for Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

“We have a multicloud solution for service providers, and now we’re offering that to 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

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Huawei...

strategise on the best path forward to bringing AI to the Middle East.

The conference fostered discussions on how the Middle East can best position itself to benefit from the imminent arrival of AI. The development of a national AI strategy must become a priority, as AI is a central aspect of national development plans and visions in the region to become diversified, knowledge-based economies.

As AI becomes more advanced, it is becoming an all-purpose technology which will drive the development of all industries, creating new venues of innovation and growth.

Mothanna Gharaibeh, ICT Minister, Jordan, said, “Investing in AI is an investment in the future.

AI has the potential to solve many intractable challenges we are facing across industries today, by

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transforming the way we approach problems, and completing tasks more effectively and efficiently than humans can. It will also free people from spending our labour on tedious and repetitive tasks, allowing us to use our minds to engage in high-level activities.

Investing in Jordan ICT is not only valuable, it is also smart; Jordan is perfectly poised to benefit from the opportunities of AI – we have at our disposal a population of talented and innovative entrepreneurs. By continuing to invest in progressing the ICT industry, and its next evolution in the form of AI, we will open new venues of innovation and economic growth for organisations, and uplift the Kingdom to new heights of prosperity.”

Anwaar Al Shimmari, CIO, Ministry of Infrastructure Development, UAE, gave a keynote about the benefits of AI in meeting global infrastructure demands and the ability of robots to deliver

information faster, reduce costs and risks. “Robots will use building facility management and asset management concepts to monitor and control infrastructure assets,” she said.

The Middle East is one of the first regions worldwide to import Huawei’s recently-unveiled revolutionary AI products and solutions. The AI conference was held just a week after Huawei Rotating Chairman Eric Xu announced the global launch of Huawei’s AI strategy, as well as its full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio. Huawei’s AI portfolio includes its new Ascend series of AI chips – the world’s first AI IP and chip series designed for a full range of scenarios. The portfolio also includes new products and cloud services that are built on Ascend chip capabilities. With its full-stack AI portfolio, Huawei aims to provide pervasive intelligence to help drive industry development

and build a fully connected, intelligent world.

Huawei predicts that by 2025, the world will see upwards of 40 billion personal smart devices, and 90 percent of device users will have a smart digital assistant. Data utilisation will reach 86 percent and AI services will be readily available, as prevalent as the air we breathe. According to Huawei, AI has become a new general purpose technology and will change all industries and organisations on earth.

Proactive change is the first step towards a better future in AI. Huawei has defined ten changes that will help pave the way. According to the firm, these include faster model training; abundant and affordable computing power; AI deployment and user privacy; new algorithms; AI automation; practical application; real-time, closed-loop system; multitech synergy; platform support; and talent availability.

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Microsoft...

“Microsoft is not traditionally regarded as a major player in the cybersecurity space, but we’ve tripled down on our investments in this area and now invest more than $1 billion per year in security R&D,” said Moussa. “That is why platforms like GITEX are so useful for us to utilise as a launchpad for these services, as it enables us to bring different aspects of Microsoft’s portfolio to the floor.”

Microsoft’s Azure ATP (advanced threat protection) solution is one of two security offerings on display at the show. “This solution allows us to identify abnormal user behaviour using embedded machine learning and AI, meaning we can raise the alarm when actions that are regarded as normal by IT standards are actually malicious.”

Azure Information Protection,

a cloud-based solution, helps organisations classify and add specific access constraints where necessary to allow information to be tracked and controlled.

“This is particularly important for enhancing an organisation’s flexi-working environment, as nowadays information is no longer just kept inside the four walls of a single office,” Moussa explained.

“A cloud-first approach is great in many ways, as it allows for remote working opportunities, but it also means that security parameters no longer exist.”

He added, “We’ve seen organisations in this region wake up to the need to invest beyond traditional security parameters.

Firewalls are no longer enough, as these only protect those inside an organisation. Today, the priority must be to protect the user – wherever they may be, as well as the data and the organisation.”

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Injazat...

great platform to showcase our latest innovation and strengths to the regional market while also networking with our partners and customers. For us, the value from GITEX is more qualitative rather than quantitative. It is about raising awareness about the transformation that Injazat has undergone and continues to go through. Historically, we have been viewed as a data centre company but today we are much more than that with robust capabilities as a managed services firm.”

Cunningham said that the company is emphasising on strategic projects, which are largescale and typically public-private partnerships.

“These projects have been delivered to the Ministry of Interiors and will be delivered to the

Exclusive Networks...

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“There has been more budget available in Saudi than in the UAE, particularly in the first half of this year, which has meant great things for IT security. The drive towards Vision 2030, and the fact that Saudi is changing immeasurably in terms of both culture and economic development, has led to it wanting to become an early adopter in many fields, and is driving its desire to be ahead of the game.”

He went on to add that he believes KSA has recognised the fact that it is no longer isolated from security threats since the Shamoon attack two years ago. As a result, he says more attention is also being given to cybersecurity education in the Kingdom.

“The Saudi graduates coming through to the workplace are well versed and possess advanced technical knowledge. Many of them may have been educated abroad, and therefore have seen how IT security is handled

Attendees can discover the company’s full suite of cloudbased Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions, that are thin-client ready and its solutions such as Computer Aided Facility Management Systems (CAFM), Human Capital Management (HCM), Real Estate Management Systems (REMS) at the region’s leading technology roadshow.

Rohan Tejura, assistant vice president, Centra Hub Technologies, said, “At the five-day technology exhibition, we are emphasising on how customers must have easy access and reach to technology solutions required for their business demands. They must have data accessible to them literally from wherever they are in the world.”

The firm is also introducing its latest ‘Express’ line of QuickStart solutions across its product portfolio.

Tejura said, “Under the express line, we are focusing on providing templatebased Quick go-live solutions to all the verticals that we address. Traditionally,

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in other nations, but even for those coming through the Saudi system, we have seen a shift in approach,” he said.

Taylor says that GITEX Technology Week – running for the 38th edition this week at Dubai World Trade Centre, acts as the perfect opportunity for Exclusive Networks to showcase its Saudi vision with the market.

“We’re receiving a lot of interest from Saudi businesses on our stand this year, and the general message we’re getting is that they’re after thought leadership and solutions to ensure they can lower their risk, while increasing their productivity,” he said. “It’s an excellent opportunity for us to bring together our host of multiple vendors into one single environment, and enables us to bring partners and users to the stand to show them real-time demos of our solutions so that they can see how they can be applied to their customers.”

Centra Hub...

Department of Health in Abu Dhabi in 2019.”

We will also see the solutions provider announcing a MoU with a potential Saudi partner during the week-long technology show.

Cunningham added, “We have the ability to enable customers’ entire digital transformation journey. We boast an ecosystem of partners and a core consulting team as well as strong global consulting collaborations. We bring these capabilities to our customers to help them understand best practices and the core of what we do. We have the skillsets to help clients all the way through, right from design, implementation, execution and the on-going support of any solution they have to use.”

He also said that the firm’s objective is to continue to help customers solve business problems through innovative technologies.

there are enterprise solutions, which are customisable and configurable.

Most of the enterprise players need to do requirement analysis and then customise applications to end-users’ needs. With our Express line of solutions, we have gone ahead and created best practices template for most of the industries we provide our solutions for.

“As a consequence, most of our customers can expect to go live quickly in 10 to 15 days with a very tangible and testable product in the technology space.”

According to Tejura, the new line of solutions offers advantages such as minimising delivery risk for the implementation teams, removing all kinds of ambiguity, especially in the software space and enabling customers to get quicker ROIs. The Express edition also offers Centra’s regional partners the ability to approach their customers and provide quick deployments.

Zameer Qureshi, assistant vice president, Centra Hub Technologies, said, “This also allows us to gain knowledge about the regional demand and enables us to deliver those demands to our partner network.” . @tahawultech

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Mimecast moves into web security

Werno Gevers, Mimecast’s Middle East business development manager

Mimecast is known for its email security solutions, with the company offering an integrated cloud suite to manage a wide variety of email risks.

However, a major focus of Mimecast’s presence at this year’s GITEX has been to showcase recently launched web security offerings.

Mimecast Web Security was officially inaugurated earlier this month, although the early adopter programme opened in mid-2018.

“We’re leveraging our existing gateways engine. We’re offering product against malicious URLs, for example. We all of us use these engines to filter URLs, to see if websites are good

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or bad. That’s built into our existing platform. It’s the same [solution], which already has a vast amount of scalability,” said Werno Gevers, Mimecast’s Middle East business development manager.

The technology can be used to block particular categories of website, such as social media, and is described as “very simple and easy to deploy”, taking as little as 60 minutes.

Mimecast has built up a reputation across an array of sectors, which ties in with the reality that “email is pervasive across all sectors and the same goes for web”.

“Every customer uses web, as they use email [so] we don’t have

any specific vertical focus,” said Gevers.

Although Mimecast’s technology can be applied across a huge array of industries, Gevers said that, globally, the company is particularly strong in healthcare, retail and finance.

“In the last year we’ve onboarded more than 120 customers; we’ve onboarded some enormous brands, some very large retail brands as well as leading aviation brands,” he added.

There are myriad companies offering cybersecurity solutions; in a crowded marketplace, how does Mimecast set itself apart from the competition?

“It’s an extremely competitive market. You have vendors of all sizes and colours. What really makes us unique is that we can solve multiple challenges,” said Gevers, adding that this meant that the company was able to develop more of a strategic relationship with clients.

“Customers can use our platform to solve multiple business challenges. That’s what gives us a competitive edge.

It’s a single platform; no point solutions to manage.”

The company doubled in size in the Middle East last year and growth locally is expected to continue apace.

“The focus will remain to get market share in the UAE. Saudi is the next biggest opportunity for us and then across the rest of the Middle East,” said Gevers.

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Juniper Networks... enterprises as well.”

Juniper Networks’ “simple solution” could, said Eweidat, “remove a lot of headaches” associated with dealing with the multicloud.

Founded in 1996, Juniper Networks is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and has offices in cities including Dubai, Riyadh, Istanbul, Islamabad, Johannesburg and Cairo.

Eweidat, who is based in Dubai, where the company’s regional office is located, was keen to emphasise the cuttingedge security technology being offered by Juniper Networks’ multicloud solutions.

“The other thing is security, we’re removing the human factor from responding to security threats. We’re automating security responses,” he said.

“We’re building the automation of security within our products.

This is helping customers to be more ready to whatever threats they may face. We’re removing this human part and letting the network take the action.

“Security is a very important topic. No one can close their eyes to it. People have to be considering security in whatever they’re doing.”

A key overall message from Juniper Networks at this year’s GITEX is, said Eweidat, that the company is taking the knowledge and experience that it has gained through its work with service providers, and putting this expertise in front of enterprises.

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Red Hat aims to get ahead in dealing with the open hybrid cloud

Adrian Pickering, Red Hat’s regional general manager, MENA

A decade on from Red Hat’s launch in the Middle East, the multinational software company is seeing rapid growth in the region.

This brisk expansion locally and further afield is set to continue as the Red Hat pushes its open-hybrid cloud management framework.

“The cloud as a solution is really

coming to the fore. We have a technology called CloudForms, which enables an organisation to manage the open hybrid cloud,” said Adrian Pickering, Red Hat’s regional general manager, Middle East and North Africa.

CloudForms offers what Pickering describes as an overall view that enables companies to automate and optimise their capability across the cloud, which may include multiple cloud platforms as well as their own infrastructure.

“You need that single pane of glass that gives you a view of how your assets are being used, not only in your data centre, but in the cloud.

CloudForms gives that helicopter view,” said Pickering.

Red Hat serves a range of clients in the region, including various government ministries, government-

associated entities such as traffic authorities, and organisations in the private sector, such as oil and gas and aviation companies. Financial services is another important sector for Red Hat. Red Hat, which was founded in 1993 and is based in North Carolina, is well established in the Middle East and next month will mark the 10th anniversary of when the company set up operations in the region.

“We’ve been around for quite some time. Quite a few people know the Red Hat name, but that knowledge is pretty much around Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We’ve built the foundation of our business on the Linux operating system,” said Pickering.

Among the solutions that Red Hat offers is OpenShift, an open source container application platform.

“That’s been deployed in a number of financial services companies, but also in aviation and government ministries,” said Pickering.

He said it was used to develop new applications “in a very rapid manner” and can be used for migrating existing applications from legacy platforms.

Dubai acts as the company’s hub for emerging economies, although other offices are also opening in the region to deal more locally with markets. For example, Red Hat has recently inaugurated an office in Riyadh and is also looking to set one up in Egypt and then Morocco.

“We’re really, really expanding because of the growth of the business. We’re in double digits, which is very exciting,” said Pickering.

Avaya addresses demand for flexible cloudbased business services in Saudi Arabia

Fadi Hani, Vice President - Middle East, Africa and Turkey at Avaya

Smart Link, as a subsidiary of Al Khaleej for Training and Education and a Saudi-based Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company, has teamed up with Avaya to accelerate Smart Link’s expansion and the diversification of its digital services portfolio.

The two companies signed a

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) during GITEX Technology Week 2018 with a focus on digital and cloud-based solutions that will enable Smart Link to have greater agility and flexibility in meeting its customers’ demands for digital services.

Smart Link is digitalising and automating all possible duties to increase its human value, assigning all admin and repetitive tasks to computers while delivering cuttingedge communication solutions to connect government and private organizations to their customers. As a subsidiary of Al-Khaleej Training & Education, which has the largest network of training centers in Saudi Arabia, Smart Link employees are

already some of the most qualified customer service representatives in the Kingdom.

Safwan Al Khatib, CEO, Smart Link, said, “As a leader in our field in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we aim to set an example for what can be achieved – and this includes delivering a superior service for our clients in line with the quality products they purchase from us. Avaya’s unique expertise across enterprise communications will deliver the solutions needed to expand our capabilities and offer businesses an unparalleled customer experience.

Accordingly, partnering with Avaya will enable us to take our business to the next level.”

Fadi Hani, Vice President Middle East, Africa and Turkey at Avaya, “This latest initiative with Smart Link will enable us to support the company in two ways—as a business advisor and as a provider of world-class technology solutions. Despite operating in a competitive industry, Smart Link has constantly focused on adopting the digital tools required to grow their value with customers. We look forward to helping them to meet these everchanging expectations across digital and human touch points.”

Find out more about Smart Link’s latest collaboration with Avaya at stand Z1-C10 in Za’abeel Hall.

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NEXT GENERATION CONTACT CENTRE SOLUTIONS AT GITEX available for live presentation of their Omnichannel solution for Inbound, Outbound and Blended Contact Centres, with ATI API for integrations, WebRTC, Drag and Drop Asterisk IVR and more.

Visitors can experience

Sabu Thomas, DVCOM

Specialist value-added distributor (VAD) DVCOM Technology participating with vendor partner XCALLY and Loway this year at GITEX2018.

The solution provides one of the best multi-channel user experience for Voice, Web chat, E-mail, SMS, Fax and Social channels through standard APIs. XCALLY team will be

innovative VoiceBot enabled Contact Center Solution, bots will serve the customer queries automatically without human interference.

Customers can design complex IVR using drag and drop IVR solution in few

Visitors can experience innovative VoiceBot enabled Contact Center Solution, bots will serve the customer queries automatically without human interference. Customers can design complex IVR using drag and drop IVR solution in few steps.

Zain is back at GITEX "to demonstrate its experience and capability"

Eaman Al Roudhan, CEO of Zain Kuwait

The mobile and data services operator Zain is this year participating in GITEX for the first time in well over a decade – and it is showing that its activities extend beyond the areas for which it has long been known.

One of Kuwait’s key enterprises,

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Zain is looking to play a central role in the digital transformation of its home country as part of Kuwait Vision 2035.

“One of the main objectives we would like to achieve in exhibiting here in GITEX is to demonstrate the experience and the capability that Zain has to partner with our public sector to achieve the vision of our national government,” said Eaman Al Roudhan, CEO of Zain Kuwait.

This vision is based on seven pillars – global position, infrastructure, human capital, public administration, healthcare, economy and the living environment – and Al Roudhan said all of these rely on the digitisation of Kuwait’s infrastructure.

Among the sub-brands that Zain Kuwait has launched in

Zain Life, which was inaugurated earlier this year and which offers a range of smart home solutions, including the technology to help consumers to run digital thermostats and digital smoke detectors, for example.

Zain Life, said Al Roudhan, is about promoting the digital lifestyle to consumers, and it also offers smart solutions for entertainment, health and youth empowerment.

“We’ve introduced a number of gadgets, such as a device to measure your blood sugar and heartbeat. They’re all connected to an app,” said Al Roudhan.

“In the early release, we used separate apps for separate markets.

We launched, this month, one app that will connect all these gadgets.”

Al Roudhan said the company’s

steps. Also, Xcally allows customers to integrate with any other third-party software. Recently we have integrated Xcally with HR management software for employee to have attendance over IVR for multinational security company.

Loway, a swiss based leading provider of call center queue reporting and dialling solutions for Asterisk will showcase their call center solutions. Visitor can experience how you can run a modern and full featured call-center based on open technology. DVCOM will also showcase the newly released version of Queuemetrics and Wombat Dialer.

Wombatdialer can integrate with your database increase efficiency by dialling number automatically and connect to agent once answered by customers. Leading global survey company is using our solution for more than 5 countries successfully.

approach was “a bit experimental”, with solutions being launched in waves every two to three months.

“We monitor the take up – the success of our sales, the appetite of the customers, and based on this we fine tune our offering,” she said.

“No one can give you a formula for what your customers want, especially for digital, where you can find lots of gadgets and apps.

“Our customers and consumers have trust in our brand. They would prefer to go for the application offering from Zain rather than getting it off the shelf.

We want to capitalise on that and strengthen what our team offers to both the private sector as well as the public sector.”

At GITEX, Zain also has on show a number of impressive drones built for Kuwait’s Environment Public Authority. Zain is offering drones that are even able to record details of oil spillages and collect samples of water for analysis. www.tahawultech.com

Emirates Post partners with Hewlett Packard Enterprise to kickstart digital transformation journey with regional debut of the ‘Hyper-converged Platform’

Emirates Post partners with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to kickstart its digital transformation journey with the regional debut of the Hyperconverged Platform. Announcing details of the Emirates Post’s data center transformation at GITEX 2018, the technology includes a state-of-the-art memory driven system that will enable Emirates Post digitization drive and establish it as an innovation-led organization.

The AI powered, cloud-enabled and highly secure data center, will be the cornerstone for Emirates Post’s new services and will support robust business growth, as well as Emirates Post’s digital

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services, applications and data.

In addition to hosting future technologies that are equipped to serve the traditional services, it is also designed to be agile and respond to dynamic market changes. The center is futureproofed and prepared to take on subsequent phases within Emirates Post’s innovation strategy, including blockchain for identity management, mail tracking, security and the digitization of the transaction journey; IoT for transportation and logistics with enhanced mail and parcels and smart postal buildings; and AI for robotic process automation.

As e-commerce, online

transactions and instant messaging usage surge, postal service providers around the world are experiencing a decline in the physical exchange of documents, forcing a renewed approach to operations and business models.

“Emirates Post recognizes the massive change in society’s communication habits and has initiated a business transformation vision that is aligned with the digital economy.

As we transition to a secure, cloud-enabled infrastructure, we are delighted to partner with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, whose impeccable reputation as an IT innovator will help us achieve our vision of an agile, adaptive infrastructure that provides the security to protect customer data, the flexibility to add instant capacity and the tools to manage growth,” commented HE Abdulla Mohammed Alashram, Acting Chief Executive Officer, Emirates Post Group.

“HPE has enabled us to build an evolutional data center architecture by considering key innovative solutions that are aligned with Emirates Post’s IT strategy. We are confident that HPE’s expertise will allow for a smooth transition with minimum risk,” Alashram added.

Emirates Post’s recent investment in the latest SDN technology offers cost effective solutions towards delivering reliable, secure and efficient digital services.

Phil Davis, President for Hybrid IT and Global Sales Manager at HPE commented: “Postal organizations today need to adapt to digital disruption in order to unlock new business models and increase customer loyalty. We are excited to partner with Emirates Post, to help them transform their core business by improving operational excellence, whilst providing best-in-class e-commerce and postal services experiences.”

Emirates Post recognizes the massive change in society’s communication habits and has initiated a business transformation vision that is aligned with the digital economy.”

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STAND TO WATCH

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“Tech hub a huge step for UAE-Russia collaboration”: InfoWatch MD

Kristina Tantsyura, the firm’s managing director for the Middle East and North Africa region

The regional managing director of IT security specialist InfoWatch has said that the launch of a Russian technology hub in Dubai Internet City is a huge step in helping the country to export its

technologies and talent to the Middle East.

Dubai Internet City earlier signed a memorandum of understanding with the Russian Export Centre to open a Russian technology hub in the emirate.

Kristina Tantsyura, the firm’s managing director for the Middle East and North Africa region, said that the Russian Centre of Digital Innovations and Information and Communication Technologies will be the ideal platform for the UAE to collaborate with Russia in developing technologies that can best serve local markets.

InfoWatch, who has partnered with the Russian Business Council, helped to deliver the deal to launch the centre.

Throughout the process of the partnership, InfoWatch acted as an advisor to the Russian Export Centre to cooperate with the local market and Dubai internet City, and the firm will also be part of the new centre.

The Russian Export Centre is a government authority that supports Russian companies in terms of consulting, finance and helping companies to operate abroad.

The newly announced centre will

provide solutions from over 100 Russian technology vendors and will serve as a platform for Russian companies to enter the Middle East market.

“Its core mission is to build complex solutions from Russian technologies and customise existing solutions for the local market,” Tantsyura, also a member of the Russian Business Council, said. “The centre will be helpful for both partners and can be a window for ways that each government can learn about the other’s technology and business opportunities.

Array Networks is focused on regional growth

Srinivas Vege, Array Networks’ regional sales manager for the Middle East and Southeast Asia

Array Networks, a network functions platform company headquartered in Silicon Valley, is enjoying double-digit growth in the Middle East and Southeast Asia – and this expansion is likely to accelerate

with the launch of a major new solution.

The company has debuted hyperconverged platforms for networking and security, part of its efforts to help companies that are grappling with the performance and complexity challenges of moving toward virtualized networking, security and application delivery.

A key aim of the technology is to allow migration to softwarecentric virtual appliances, in place of dedicated hardware appliances, but without a decline in performance, an increase in complexity or a high price.

Srinivas Vege, Array Networks’ regional sales manager for the Middle East and Southeast Asia, said the company had already enjoyed rapid growth since it launched in this region.

“We started our operations in 2013 in the Middle East and we partnered with SCOPE Middle East, the valueadded distributor, to have the great technology and access to companies and partners,” said Vege.

“It’s a well-known brand in the Middle East. We’re based out of Dubai and we travel extensively to the remaining parts of the Middle East.”

Headquartered in Milpitas, California, a city in Silicon Valley, the

company can trace its history back to 2000, when it was founded by Laurence Lu as ClickArray Networks, although it soon changed its name to Array Networks.

It became the first foreign company to become listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange when it held its initial public offering in 2009.

Array Networks has a particularly strong presence in major Asian markets such as China, India and Japan. However, Vege said Array Networks, which operates under the tagline “Powering Global Enterprises Since 2000”, was raising its profile in the Middle East too.

Veeam spotlights intelligent data management solutions, cloud availability

Gregg Petersen, regional vice president, Veeam

Veeam is utilising GITEX 2018 to spotlight its five steps for intelligent data management, highlighting the company’s progression through backup, aggregation, visibility, www.tahawultech.com

orchestration and automation in the last 12 months.

Gregg Petersen, regional vice president, said the company plans to talk its customers through this journey at their stand in Hall 7 at this year’s event, delving into Veeam’s ability to protect not just virtual workloads, but any workload in any location, too.

In addition, Veeam will be showcasing the Veeam Availability Orchestrator, which was launched earlier this year. “This means we can now help customers to plan

and simulate disasters, which plays a huge part in assisting them with risk and compliance regulations, as we can now proactively foresee the impact of these incidents and help our customers plan accordingly,” he said.

Claude Schuck, regional manager for the Middle East & Central Africa, added that the region’s emphasis on private cloud investments is also an area where Veeam can make its mark. “Big technology players, such as Azure and AWS, are now putting down investments in this space here

in the Middle East, and we’re very well positioned to help with this. As a result, I expect we’ll see a huge shift in how customers deal with cloud investments and plan their availability strategy moving forward over the next 12 months. Private cloud is no longer a pie in the sky dream, but it’s here and now in this region.” he said.

Peterson added, “GITEX is a fantastic platform for Veeam to bring customers together, and provides us with excellent opportunities to meet existing and potential partners." @tahawultech

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Russian Export Centre to launch tech hub with Dubai Internet City

Dubai Internet City has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Russian Export Centre to open a Russian technology hub in the emirate.

InfoWatch, who has partnered with the Russian Business

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Council, helped to deliver the deal to launch the Russian Centre of Digital Innovations and Information and Communication Technologies in Dubai.

Marat Korovaev, head of ICT export at the Russian Export

Centre, said, “We believe the centre won’t just be successful, but also an amazing opportunity for Russian companies and will provide a cooperative centre in the Arab world. It will provide Russian IT companies with the first steps

in familiarising themselves with the market in the Middle East.”

Ammar al Malik, executive director of Dubai Internet City, said, “This is a first step for Russian IT companies to come into Dubai. DIC will be working closely with these companies to expand their presence in the region. This MoU comes at a time when the Russia and UAE are closing bilateral ties.”

The core mission of the centre is to implement best practices and technologies in the Middle East that have already been successful in Russia.

The Russian Export Centre is the “main inspirer and founder” of this initiative.

InfoWatch and the Russian Business Council are the official organisers of the business program for Russian Export Centre at GITEX Technology Week 2018.

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In-built innovation Johnny Karam, regional vice president, emerging region, Veritas, gives his take on why effective data management strategies provide a platform for innovation. our solutions that help collect, store, analyse and utilise data to gain a competitive future.

In-house, we leverage our team of highly knowledgeable professionals to help drive innovation. For example, we recently invited our customer experience team to help us redesign the user experience (UX) of our latest NetBackUp product. Traditionally a role for IT developers, we decided to crowdsource ideas from a wider spectrum of talents, to get to know how our customers are actually using our products. The new UX is so well received, in fact, that we are now applying this model across our entire suite of products.

Johnny Karam, regional vice president, emerging region, Veritas

How does your organisation’s technology help to enable an innovative culture in organisations that consume it?

In the Middle East region, innovation is now increasingly regarded as a key driver of growth, so much so that it is integrated into the strategic visions of governments across the region. Here in the UAE, as part of the government’s ‘National Innovation Strategy’ there are more concerted efforts to drive innovation, and in investing in digital technologies that accelerate the innovation growth curve.

Organisations with clean integrated data assets will find it much easier to conduct data analytics, which in turn accelerates innovation. For the region, we also see significant opportunity in the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector, another core area that the governments are promoting,

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for their ability to innovate and contribute to the gross domestic product.

What does innovation mean to your organisation?

Innovation is part of Veritas’ DNA. We see tremendous value in how we can collaborate with our customers in the region, enabling them to drive innovation through

Is innovation a question of doing more with less, or does it demand high investment?

You need to invest time, resources and money to deliver new innovations, but budget constraints often mean organisations need to think creatively. Before you launch into any new innovation project, the first step is to understand what business or customer challenge you want to solve. It’s easy for

We also see significant opportunity in the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector, another core area that the governments are promoting, for their ability to innovate and contribute to the gross domestic product.”

people to get sidetracked by exciting new ideas and forget why they are doing it in the first place.

Having clear goals and objectives, and a detailed strategy will guide you to successful innovation.

And you may even find that some of the talents, resources or projects already exist within the organisation without the need for high investment.

Do organisations in the Middle East have the luxury of being able to work on innovationdriven projects?

Of course, and we see robust results in this direction in the region. Investing in innovation is not an option anymore; it is an imperative for any organisation to survive and thrive, and we see a focused drive by most organisations to nurture a culture of innovation, especially by drawing on young talent and advanced solutions in data management.

Give examples of how your organisation’s technologies or services have been used to enable innovation in organisations across the Middle East.

Through our data solutions, we have organisations to streamline processes through our Enterprise Vault: Automated Data Retention & Email Archiving to help centralise and automate the retention of data; our NetBackup 8.1.2 solution; the InfoScale Enterprise, a software-defined storage and availability solution for demanding enterprise environments, and other business critical services. What these solutions do is allow enterprises to free up their time and resources – as well as talent – to focus on promoting in-house innovation. www.tahawultech.com

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‘Innovate for a digital Middle East’ Alaa ElShimy, vice president and managing director of Huawei Enterprise Middle East, gives a preview of what GITEX Technology Week 2018 visitors can expect from the tech giant’s presence.

Alaa ElShimy, vice president and managing director of Huawei Enterprise Middle East

New technologies like 5G, artificial intelligence, and smart cities are revolutionising how governments, businesses, and consumers interact with the world around them. In the spirit of openness and sharing wisdom, we are hosting our third annual Innovation Day on the sidelines of GITEX Technology Week 2018. Held under the theme, ‘Innovate for a digital Middle East’ the one-day event is a platform for luminaries and industry experts to gather and discuss

how all can work together to embrace digital transformation and forge ahead on the road to an intelligent world.

With the aim of promoting a 5G ecosystem in the Middle East region, we will start the day with a 5G Ecosystem Conference held under the theme ‘5G is Now, from eMBB to Digital Society.’ The second part of the event will focus on AI and smart cities, under the theme ‘Embrace digital transformation, the road to intelligent world’, where

As a leading global provider of information and communications technology infrastructure and smart devices, Huawei views the Middle East as a significant market where the company can contribute to the development of the ICT industry, bringing digital to every person, home and organisation for a fully connected, intelligent world.”

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discussions, opinions, and sharing experiences will take place on how AI and smart cities are transforming and reshaping the world we live in.

As a leading global provider of information and communications technology infrastructure and smart devices, Huawei views the Middle East as a significant market where the company can contribute to the development of the ICT industry, bringing digital to every person, home and organisation for a fully connected, intelligent world.

Huawei’s end-to-end portfolio of products, solutions and services are both competitive and secure.

Through open collaboration with ecosystem partners, we create lasting value for our customers, working to empower people, enrich home life, and inspire innovation in organisations of all shapes and sizes in the Middle East region.

Huawei is committed to bringing its global expertise and latest innovations to the Middle East region and creating maximum value for governments, telecom operators, enterprises and consumers.

Our long-term enterprise strategy in the region is to build a digital ecosystem through which Huawei can help our Middle East channel partners meet their customers’ needs by bringing in the most cuttingedge artificial intelligence products and solutions, enhancing connectivity and improving user experience across different domains.

Through joint innovation with our customers, partners, and peers, we hope to achieve

growth across all industries, creating a robust win-win ecosystem for organisations throughout the region.

GITEX is an ideal opportunity for Huawei to showcase our innovative products and solutions which are being deployed across multiple vertical sectors. This year, our presence at GITEX will be building on the importance of AI as one of the future’s leading technologies. We will use GITEX as a platform to launch and showcase a range of exciting new products, with a particular focus on AI. These will include: • Huawei’s full-stack, allscenario AI solutions • The FusionCloud 6.5, a nextgeneration enterprise-class full-stack intelligent private cloud solution • The FusionAtlas intelligent computing solutions: an AI enablement platform based on ‘One Cloud, One Lake and One Platform’ architecture to help enterprises accelerate cloud migration and achieve digital transformation • For unified cloud communication, we will showcase EC3000, the latest integrated platform to facilitate enterprise video conference and cloud communication • In the field of wireless technology, we will showcase the latest eLTEDSA solutions, which overcomes the challenge of insufficient continuous dedicated spectrum resources around the world by using 4.5G technology to aggregate traditional VHF/ UHF narrowband discrete spectrum into broadband spectrum resources www.tahawultech.com

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