60mins Day 5 – PM (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

D-LINK DISPLAYS NEW PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS AT GITEX 2018

FINESSE ENABLES CUSTOMERS’ DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY AT GITEX 2018

ERP SOLUTIONS VITAL FOR BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION: FOCUS SOFTNET CEO

At the 38th edition of the GITEX Technology Week, D-Link Middle East and Africa is present at the show with dedicated stands for both consumer and business products.

Sakkeer Hussain, D-Link MEA According to the networking brand, since its first appearance at the region’s IT expo in 1997, GITEX has been serving as a great platform to launch new products to an audience craving for new technology and innovative ideas.

Within the consumer segment, the company is highlighting the new D-Link AC2600 Wi-Fi routers powered by McAfee.

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Participating at GITEX Technology Week for the eighth consecutive year, solutions provider Finesse is showcasing its end-to-end portfolio Sunil Paul to enable regional and Eljo JP, Finesse customers to drive their digital transformation journeys.

Eljo JP, director, Global Business Development, Finesse, said, “GITEX has always been an ideal platform for reinforcing the Finesse brand into this market. It gives us a great opportunity to showcase new technologies together with our partners.”

He added that the firm’s theme at GITEX this year is around digital transformation.

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What are you showcasing at GITEX? We are showcasing our complete product portfolio including our flagship ERP - Focus 8, which Ali Hyder Group CEO has been upgraded Focus Softnet with multilingual capability and is now GCC VAT compliant. We are highlighting the features and benefits of our vertical-focused solutions, mobile apps and cloud-ready business software solutions.

SBM SEES GROWTH AS MINDWARE, IDIS TO SAUDI ARABIA IMPLEMENTS DELIVER ADVANCED VIDEO SOLUTIONS IN MEA VISION 2030

Nicholas Argyrides and Harry Kwon

IDIS and value-added IT distributor Mindware have signed a partnership aimed enabling IT and network integrators across the Middle East 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Saudi Business Machines is playing a key role in the Saudi Vision 2030, which is spearheading the diversification of the kingdom's economy.

Announced in 2016, Saudi Vision Wael Al Andari, SBM 2030 is an ambitious programme aimed at reducing Saudi Arabia's dependence on oil, attracting foreign investment and developing sectors such as education and health, among others.

SBM, which is IBM's general marketing and services representative in Saudi Arabia, is already seeing rapid growth in demand for its services.

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IVANTI STRENGTHENS REGIONAL PRESENCE AND TOUTS NEW CHANNEL PROGRAMME At GITEX Technology Week, IT software vendor Ivanti is reinforcing its presence in the regional market.

Having entered the Middle East region recently, the company Husni Hammoud, is now looking to Ivanti Middle East showcase and communicate the strengths of its robust portfolio of products and solutions.

Husni Hammoud, GM, Middle East, Ivanti, said, “GITEX is a great platform to meet all our customers and partners under one roof. It is an ideal venue to display and learn about the innovative technologies and solutions, which customers are seeking today.”

Ivanti has been in the region under different names through various acquisitions.

“We have recently entered the market 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

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MINDWARE... and Africa to easily deliver advanced video surveillance projects.

Under the partnership, Mindware will offer its channel partners a single supply route for high-level video surveillance installations and turnkey applications, covering both IT and security by IDIS - the largest manufacturer of security and surveillance technology in South Korea and a globally recognised leader in advanced surveillance innovation.

“The distribution agreement with Mindware substantially extends IDIS’s reach across the region and opens an essential sales channel to specialist IT network integrators”, confirmed Harry Kwon, the General Manager of IDIS Middle East and North Africa.

“Integrators who already deliver successful IT network projects will particularly love our DirectIP offering

SBM...

because it is a genuinely plug-andplay video solution. It is easy to work with and ideal for all commercialgrade security applications,” Kwon added.

“For Network, IT and Communications integrators the availability of IDIS video technology is a one more welcome addition to our top-class vendor portfolio”, agrees Nicholas Argyrides, Chief of Sales and Marketing and Deputy GM at Mindware. “More end-to-end solution offerings by Mindware means, naturally, more value to more end-clients across the region.”

“We are delighted that IDIS plug-and-play video technologies will open up significant new profit opportunities for our customers, allow them to extend the services they propose and compete for projects which often offer higher margins,” Argyrides added.

apace, this seems likely to continue.

“We're part of the digital transformation of Saudi Arabia.

We've been in the market for 35 years. We have impacted the kingdom's development and we want to play a major role in the kingdom's vision for 2030,” said Wael Al Andari, marketing and communications manager for SBM. “The Saudi market is the biggest market in the Middle East and, especially nowadays, there's this transformation boom – the big projects and the touristic upcoming projects in addition to it being the biggest market.

“All of the governments are relying on technologies in a lot of ways. They need to enhance the services. They need to introduce the latest technologies for tourists and for locals. This gives more potential for the market to grow

even more in the future.”

Although SBM is focused on the Saudi Arabian market, Al Andari said there were still benefits in attending GITEX. “We participate in this event because a lot of our Saudi clients are here and our partners as well,” he said.

“Now the main focus is going towards software. The hardware is not growing at the same level as the software.

“The focus is on artificial intelligence, blockchain, smart cities, the Internet of Things and the cloud.

You have an issue with cybersecurity – there's a boom in cybersecurity, especially with the recent attacks.”

Aside from being the general marketing and services representative of IBM in Saudi Arabia, SBM also has tie-ups with Cisco and Oracle as part of the wide range of solutions that it offers in the marketplace.

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D-Link...

router, which takes care of the entire security requirements for a home user. With a simple and easy configuration, customers can address their security concerns with this product,” said Sakkeer Hussain, director, Sales and Marketing, D-Link Middle East and Africa (MEA).

Within the business segment, D-Link is showcasing its latest cloud networking solution called Nuclias.

“Nuclias is cloud-based access point, which is targeted for the SMB market. It is a wireless product that IT managers in SMEs can configure or control from any part of the world.”

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Ivanti...

through the RES acquisition and GITEX offers the perfect opportunity to announce our new branding and strengths that we now have.”

As a company, Ivanti has had several historical channel partners and distributors through the different acquisitions.

“We want to reiterate that today we are one company and this year has been about consolidating our channel strategies and partners. We have repackaged and reengineered our products so that we can position only the best to the market.”

As a part of the evolution of the company, Hammoud said that the firm’s channel business is a major area that needs to be developed and restructured.

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He added, “We have been present in all the segments from retail, channel to consumer. We will continue to conduct our regular trainings and enablement sessions with our partners to help them position our solutions effectively. We will also continue with our existing incentive programmes.”

It is a powerful router, which takes care of the entire security requirements for a home user. With a simple and easy configuration, customers can address their security concerns with this product.”

“We rolled out a new channel programme for the region as well as internationally. This channel programme works on different levels and certifications. The programme enables partners to have a total understanding of the skills and qualifications required to be able to position our solutions effectively.”

Hammoud added that as a part of the channel programme, the company is working on knowledge transfer, skillsets, enhancing quality of our resellers and value-added distributors.

“There will be benefits and rebates for partners based on their commitments and contribution to our business. We look forward to working closely with our partner community and offering in-depth support,” he said.

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Finesse...

“Customers can depend on us for all their digital transformation requirements, right from collection, processing, automation to generating important insights, which can assist them to take critical businessdecisions.” One of the first steps to embark on the digital transformation journey is to collect the exponentially growing data.

“At Finesse, we will help customers to completely automate and digitalise the whole process. Our innovative solutions can also help in processing the information through workflow systems, business process management and also through

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Focus..

Why is GITEX such an important platform for your company to connect with the Middle East’s technology industry?

We have been participating in GITEX for the last 22 years and the response we have received year-on-year has been bigger and better each year. This highprofile ICT exhibition has helped us raise our corporate profile, increase our brand awareness and visibility as well as promote our products to a wider audience.

GITEX is an ideal platform to showcase our best-in-class solutions and services, meet with existing and potential customers and hold demonstrations for

Robotic Process Automation (RPA).”

The director also added that additionally the systems integrator offers solutions to generate indepth insights through different technologies such as analytics, analysis, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

He said, “Increasing number of customers are realising the importance of ensuring that security is deeply interwoven with their digital transformation strategies and solutions. End customers are using many mobile devices and securing them should be a priority. We offer multi-factor authentication solutions to customers, especially for those in the banking and finance vertical. We offer customers end-to-end digital transformation solutions.”

visitors to show them the unique features our products and the benefits and cost savings of implementing our solutions.

What are the most exciting technological developments to have affected the Middle East in the last 12 months?

Digital transformation continues to be an important trend in the region especially the UAE. With the UAE government’s initiatives on digital, smart cities, artificial intelligence, blockchain etc., we see huge potential for cloud-based solutions, which help businesses become agile, future-ready and fully digitised.

We see an increase in mobile apps as business leaders want to have access to information anytime and from anywhere.

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LUXCARTA DEMOS OFFERINGS AT GITEX LuxCarta focuses on the creation and delivery of geodata for the global telecom, navigation and other vertical markets. As experts in cartography, the company specialises in delivering quality fit-for-purpose products and services to its customers.

At GITEX, the company is taking part as part of the French pavilion, has

OPEN SOURCE SOLUTIONS FIRM LINAGORA SHOWCASES INNOVATIONS AT GITEX

released its new 3D tree model for planning 5G networks.

“This is the first year we are taking part at GITEX,” Albéric Maumy, Founder and Director, Luxcarta. “It is a great platform and opportunity for us to meet our customers coming from across the region and demonstrate our innovative offerings.”

Alexandre Zapolsky, CEO, Linagora

Albéric Maumy, Sandrine Delmeire, Sales representative and Romain Charlon, Product Manager

Digital creation studio SoWhen? introduces augmented mirror offering at GITEX Why is GITEX such an important platform for your company to connect with the Middle East’s technology industry?

This is our first year taking part at GITEX, so we expect it to be a very good start in this region. As an international B2B event, GITEX is an excellent way to observe the market and to find local partners and client.

There is a lot of possibilities. We just started exploring this market, I hope that we are going to build a strong relationship with the regional customers.

Mohamed Marouene, Managing Director

Are you launching/announcing any new products and services at this year’s GITEX? Yes, we are announcing our Augmented Mirror MAREA. SoWhen? is bringing new realities into the reflexion of the customers in retails, hotels or events.

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What kind of changes are you expecting to see in technology over the coming year in the Middle East?

The customer experience will become more digitised and surely more personal. And it will all be possible through the connections between new technologies such as Big Data, machine learning, augmented reality and so on.

Are you launching/announcing any new products and services at this year’s GITEX? We are very excited to announce the launch of our digital open platform openpaas (open-paas.org). This open source platform, has been developed to enable large speed up their digital transformation while reducing costs. It has already been adopted by some leading organisations such as governments, banks and industries in Europe and Africa.

Why is GITEX such an important platform for your company to connect with the Middle East’s technology industry?

At GITEX, we are able to meet and connect with many potential customers and partners in the GCC countries, as well as some customers from Africa. We are targeting GCC as we foster open source technologies, meaning technologies that are fully customizable and available on premises.

How are you expecting this edition of GITEX to be different from previous years?

This year, the focus of GITEX on AI is a great apportunity for us to showcase linTO (linto.ai), our full open source and open hardware intelligent assistant that we believe will be a great success here. LinTO can be used as a smart assistant to bring new digital vocal services for smart cities. We hope that Dubai 2020 will be a great opportunity for us to showcase our technology.

What kind of changes are you expecting to see in technology over the coming year in the Middle East?

I think, in the near future, the Middle East market will no longer be just a consumer of technologies and technical services, but a provider of technologies and innovation based on Middle East start-ups. I think that the shifting between consumer / producer of software and Innovation is on this way, with the growing use of open source software in both governments and industries. @tahawultech

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Citrix showcases enterprise ManageEngine flaunts AI-powered infrastructure mobility solutions management solutions IT service management expert ManageEngine is spotlighting two of its new product announcements at its 12th consecutive GITEX, and the event hasn’t lost its importance for vice president of product management Rajesh Ganesan.

“On many fronts, GITEX is always a strategically important event for us,” he said. “We’re investing heavily in AI and machine learning to make our products as smart as possible.”

ManageEngine offers over 40 different products, which cover “end to end” requirements for managing IT infrastructure, from basic IT processes, and IT operations and endpoint management, as well as IT security and analytics. The firm is flaunting its ADAudit Plus and Log360 product suites at GITEX, which help to provide intelligent insights into IT infrastructure.

“We’re announcing two critical capabilities,” he said.

Rajesh Ganesan, vice president, product management, ManageEngine

“We have products that alert IT administrators if there are abuses of privilege. They need to be on top of wrongdoing. More than 50% of the ways that administrators write rules and configurations is done manually, which is only effective only to a certain extent.

“We’re announcing tools which learn about user behaviour to develop patterns, and allow IT teams to see what’s out of the ordinary. Network and system administrators are privileged users, but there’s an important issue of the time and place that they carry out certain actions. Our system periodically monitors what they’re doing. If they’re logging in at night, that’s maybe not unusual, but, if for instance they log on via a different machine, it should be flagged.”

Ganesan also highlighted ManageEngine’s geo-fencing capabilities, which he says are becoming essential in the ways that location context is used to set security parameters. “As soon as certain people walk into areas like a data centre, their devices should go on airplane mode, or if they go into a high-risk area, corporate data should be wiped from a particular device,” he said. “Once devices go out of a particular perimeter, it can display a message saying that the phone is lost. If the phone can’t be traced, then data can be instantly erased.”

Taj El-Khayat, Citrix MENA

During the five-day GITEX Technology Week, Citrix is showcasing enterprise mobility solutions.

Taj El-Khayat, regional director, Citrix Middle East & North Africa, said, “When we look at workforce mobility, we are viewing it from the perspective of how we can drive the future of work. We try to provide our customers a technology that will allow them to have access to their data in a secured, flexible and fast manner.

“We provide the mobile

workforce the ability to be flexible in terms of being able to use multiple type of applications in a secured and protected manner.”

El-Khayat said that the company goes to market today with workspaces.

“It is our ability to provide virtual desktops, enterprise mobility, content and collaboration.”

Citrix has hosted an executive briefing centre at GITEX Technology Week where the firm had dedicated meetings with customers and partners.

“We are directing our customers towards the whole journey on how they can access data from mobile devices and manage their communications in a secured manner.”

El-Khayat added, “GITEX is an amazing platform. Lots of customers come to see the greatest and latest and it is an opportunity to showcase our innovative technologies. Also we have a chance to learn and become aware about latest market trends.”

We are directing our customers towards the whole journey on how they can access data from mobile devices and manage their communications in a secured manner.”

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DG World unveils Middle East’s first Arabic speaking humanoid robot

Automation and robotics firm, DGWorld, has set its sights on taking Dubai from being a traditional importer to an exporter of top technologies, says CEO and co-founder Bilal Al-Hattab.

It’s been a particularly busy year for the UAE-based company. DGWorld has signed many new partnerships with some of the UAE’s most notable entities, such as the RTA, DP World, Emirates and Dubai Silicon Oasis, reaffirming Dubai’s drive to become the world’s smartest city through the deployment of emerging technologies such as AI and robotics.

“It’s been an exciting year in the transport and logistics space. We’ve launched a pilot drone project and have announced plans to roll out autonomous taxis with the RTA this year,” said Al-Hattab. “In addition, we have launched a smart inspection system using

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robotics and high levels of AI integration – again, with the RTA.” On display at DGWorld’s stand at GITEX Technology Week, guests can get a glimpse of the e-BiGo; an electric shuttle bus, which operates autonomously “in any desired area and environment,” and

was made entirely in the UAE. DP World is also on board with DGWorld’s autonomous transport system, and the pair plan to roll out 150 autonomous vehicles at the Dubai-based terminals.

“We’re also working with Emirates’ engineering departments to roll out

autonomous solutions for their service and maintenance centres,” Al-Hattab added.

Participating for the fifth consecutive year at GITEX Technology Week, Al-Hattab believes it is the perfect platform to showcase the firm’s products and technologies, particularly as the show has now “taken an interest in artificial intelligence and robotics,” rather than focusing on the more traditional IT product lines.

Pass by the DGWorld stand outside the main entrance of the show to say hello to its humanoid, Arabic-speaking robot, ‘Wizo.’

“Wizo is the first commercial humanoid robot to speak Arabic, and this is an enhancement we have added recently ahead of GITEX,” explained Al-Hattab.

“It is also equipped with facial recognition capabilities, emotional detection and the ability to adapt its customer service skills, registration and payment systems depending on its environment.”

We’re also working with Emirates’ engineering departments to roll out autonomous solutions for their service and maintenance centres.” www.tahawultech.com

SonicWall maintains its position in the regional marketplace

With its next-generation firewall, the cybersecurity specialist SonicWall is maintaining its strong presence in the Middle Eastern marketplace.

Indeed, two years on from its sale by Dell, the company has been busy putting new solutions onto the market.

“As a company, there've been a lot of new products that we launched in the last few months,” said Shahnawaz Sheikh, SonicWall's sales director, Middle East and Turkey.

“Firewall has always been a focal point with respect to security. Most of our customers in the region are using firewalls.

“We see customers investing in upgrades and renewals. In addition we educate our partners in all the markets, and [for] existing customers we have new areas: web application firewalls; enhancements with email security; wireless security; endpoint security with SentinelOne.” It was announced in September last year that an agreement had been reached to bring together SonicWall's next-generation firewall and SentinelOne's nextgeneration endpoint protection.

In a crowded marketplace, Sheikh said SonicWall, which can trace its history back more than a quarter of a century, was able to distinguish itself through its long experience.

“We come with a huge install base. The number of units shipped www.tahawultech.com

to the market is more than 3 million,” he said.

“The solutions have been deployed in different network scenarios, and [there is a] uniqueness in the technology.”

In particular, Sheikh said SonicWall stood out by offering a multi-engine sandbox solution with four engines in the sandbox. Most other operators, he said, offered just one or two engines.

As well as being well established as a company, SonicWall has long had a presence in the Middle Eastern market, having begun operations here in 2004.

Customers feel the focus is back. We're able to interact and collaborate with the customers so they know what to expect from SonicWall technology."

In 2012 SonicWall was acquired

by Dell, but around two years ago the company was bought by a hedge fun, Elliott Management, and a private equity firm, Francisco Partners. At the time SonicWall said the move would help it to serve its channel partners and customers better.

Sheikh said he sees many advantages in the company having regained its independence.

“Customers feel the focus is back. We're able to interact and collaborate with the customers so they know what to expect from SonicWall technology,” he said.

“We bringing products that are affordable. We're definitely offering our customers effective solutions and with that integrated approach they can eliminate a lot of redundancy, duplication and management burden.”

Wi-Fi and much more from Ruckus Networks Turn the clock back a couple of decades, and the biggest preoccupation of hotel guests might have been the décor or what the breakfast was like.

Today, though, there is one thing that hotels absolutely have to get right if they are to succeed: the Wi-Fi. In a world where connectedness is such an integral part of our daily personal and business lives, a poor Wi-Fi offering is a surefire way for a hotel to discourage repeat business – and to damage its score on review sites.

“There are a lot of studies made that show Wi-Fi is really a key measurable of how the hotel is operating. The better the Wi-Fi, the better the returning customer satisfaction. Today, if you walk into a hotel, the first thing you do is use the Wi-Fi,” said Muetassem Raslan, director – regional sales Middle East for Ruckus Networks.

Indeed, figures quoted by Ruckus indicate that 83 percent of hotel guests who experience bad Wi-Fi will report it. The bottom line really can be affected, because, Ruckus reports, 36 percent of guests will not stay again at an establishment with poor Wi-Fi. Ruckus Networks has been at GITEX showcasing its specialist solutions in sectors that include the hospitality industry, where it has a particularly strong presence globally.

Ruckus has said that, through its Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi, it has a 70 percent market share of the world's hospitality sector and an 86 percent share of luxury properties.

“With the H series, it's specifically designed for in-room use. Rather than just offering a Wi-Fi access point above the false ceiling, we have a small wall mount where the power sockets are. It provides a cosmetic advantage but also a technical advantage,” said Raslan.

The company has a particular “value-added proposition” tailored to the needs of different sectors, said Raslan.

Other verticals where Ruckus Networks offers specialist products include education, healthcare, retail and others.

“We have the M series for mobility where we put it in a bus or train – any moving transportation solution,” said Raslan.

Ruckus Networks provides solutions that can support as many as 1,000 devices, offering both

There are a lot of studies made that show Wi-Fi is really a key measurable of how the hotel is operating. The better the Wi-Fi, the better the returning customer satisfaction.

Today, if you walk into a hotel, the first thing you do is use the Wi-Fi.” high quality and high density.

However, the company's portfolio extends well beyond WiFi, and also includes software, cloud and a wide range of other products.

Growth is, said Raslan, running much faster than that of the market as a whole, with the company's technology the key factor behind this. @tahawultech

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“Our storage strategy reaping benefits”: market leader Dell EMC

Ossama El Samadoni, regional director, modern data centre, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Dell EMC

Dell EMC’s regional director of data centres has said that the formidable lead the firm has built as the world’s top enterprise storage provider is testament to its broad, customer-centric strategy.

According to recent IDC statistics, Dell EMC recently gained market share for enterprise storage for the third consecutive quarter, now boasting 32.9% of the global storage market, and 27.8% for ACI stack.

“We’re very pleased with this increase, and it shows that our strategy works,” Ossama

El Samadoni, regional director, modern data centre, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Dell EMC, said.

“We realised that we needed to keep growing in storage, and to deliver faster and more reliable storage devices.”

El Samadoni added that Dell EMC has capitalised on shifting demands in global storage. “We now have double the market share of our nearest competitor, and what we’re offering now really resonates with market demands,” he said. “The business-critical systems of today are not the ones we typically saw 10 years ago. It used to be ERP and CRM, but now enterprises are moving to scale-up and scaleout. People are now looking at sustained, low latency storage.”

He also highlighted the firm’s variety of solutions, and particular strengths in hyperconverged

infrastructure. “Dell EMC has a breadth of solutions, instead of one answer to everything. After the merger with EMC, we have excellent offerings on the HCI front, with better integrated appliances, including VxRail and VxRacks.

They’re built on PowerEdge technologies. We’ve also increased our relationship with VMware to ensure products are highly integrated.”

El Samadoni added that Middle East demand for flash storage has not only matched that of more developed markets, but in some case has exceeded it. “It’s no different to our global business,” he said. “The demand is very advanced and Dubai in particular is leapfrogging others. From a performance point of view, we’re seeing the same functionality, and there’s a particularly high level of

demand for HCI platforms.”

Recent Dell Technologies research has shown that 45% of Middle East organisations are looking at unifying their storage on all-flash platforms.

“There’s no single answer to all questions, but we’re always looking at customer problems and delivering various solutions to accommodate their needs,” El Samadoni said. “We analyse customer workloads, identify the optimum infrastructure solution and provide validated, performance-guaranteed solutions.

“We stand behind our announced features and functionalities, and do our level best to remedy issues.

All our flash products have a predefined value of maintenance renewals, and we maintain them as long as customers want to keep partnering with us.”

SolarWinds ramps up its hybrid IT management portfolio

Sascha Giese, SolarWinds

IT management software solutions provider SolarWinds says it has ramped up its ‘Orion’ platform and end-to-end hybrid IT management portfolio, enabling IT professionals to easily monitor and troubleshoot hybrid IT performance. “As companies are increasing their investments into hybrid IT and cloud computing, IT professional are constantly dealing with complex and distributed environments,” says Sascha Giese from SolarWinds.

According to him, the SolarWinds ‘Orion’ platform is designed to

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meet these challenges and aim to help technology professionals see the bigger picture, by quickly identifying performance issues and correlations between all the layers of the technology stack.”

The company says it has significantly decreased the time taken to identify key network related problems from several hours to less than a minute. “Today that’s significant, in terms of time saved by IT professionals. What

used to take several hours can be achieved within a minute,” he said.

“We have ramped up our service with two new additions -dynamic mapping and application dependency tracking.

Today an IT professional is constantly dealing with complex and distributed environments.

Our solutions are geared towards enabling end-to-end visibility into overall performance,” said Giese, head geek at SolarWinds.

The SolarWinds ‘Orion’ platform is designed to meet these challenges and aim to help technology professionals see the bigger picture, by quickly identifying performance issues and correlations between all the layers of the technology stack.”

“That’s my official title. You could also say I am in-charge of marketing technical products,” says Giese.

This is the first time SolarWinds is having a dedicated stand at GITEX Technology Week.

“It is a great show. There is so much happening here. This is not a show where people just sit there and wait,” he adds.

The company, which according to both IDC and Gartner, is the number one player in the network monitoring space, has been growing its presence across the Middle East - especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE. “We are actively present in the region through our partners. This time we wanted to increase our presence and visibility,” he says adding that there could be active participation from SolarWinds during the coming years. www.tahawultech.com

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Pavilion Highlights

La French pavilion Organised by Business, the national agency in-charge of the international development of the French economy.

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Repografix – 60MINS Official Printing Partner

Deepak, Kotwani

Having worked with CPI Media Group for three consecutive years, Repografix – the official printing partner for 60MINS at GITEX – has efficiently managed to produce

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every issue throughout the week.

The Dubai based company provides printers, toner cartridges and maintenance services. “We offer everything under one roof,” said Deepak Kotwani, CEO of Power Pen Office Equipment Trading, brand owners of the Repografix Line of Printing Products. “From new HP printers and compatible toner cartridges, to managed print services; all of which have been used to print for CPI live at GITEX Technology Week. Our tie ups with industry leaders in remanufacturing and compatible toners ensure that we have the best quality products at a very reasonable price.”

Reflecting on the week, Kotwani expressed his gratitude for the team on-site that ensured the process consistently ran smoothly.

“We have a truly talented team

Repograpix printing team

here at the 60 MINS stand. They have taken care of all aspects of printing, from the actual printing production process itself, to the folding of the booklets, to the

maintenance of the printers,” he said. “I am personally very happy with the joint efforts of both CPI Media Group and Repografix to get these out throughout the week.”

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FOCUS SOFTNET LAUNCHES “LIGHTNING SPEED” ERP SOLUTION AT GITEX

Sunil Mathew, COO, Focus Softnet

Software development and enterprise application provider, Focus Softnet, is launching its nextgeneration ERP solution, Focus 9, at GITEX Technology Week 2018.

Powered by the Pronghorn server, the solution is built to modernise and accelerate business operations at “lightning speed.”

“Focus 9 is built on our core in-memory computing capabilities, but the new, upgraded enhancements have amplified the solution’s speed and efficiency of operations. This is in response to the major demand we have found

from speaking to our customers.

The feedback we were receiving was that they were wanting to gain access to results, information and reports in quick time, so Focus 9 is our answer to that,” said Sunil Mathew, COO, Focus Softnet.

“Our key objective with the Focus 9 has been to provide customers with a solution that is not only built on speed, but is available as both on-premise and cloud versions,” he said. “In addition, customers can now have access to their ERP information anytime, anywhere, by using our mobile app – available on all iOS and Android platforms.”

Focus has also been liaising with customers in a variety of industries to create industryspecific ERP solutions for those in the manufacturing, education and facility management sectors.

“Traditionally, we targeted the

financial sector, with customers such as Ajman Bank here in the UAE,” added Mathew. “But in recent years, we have expanded our resources into alternative industries, after we discovered more recently that customers were demanding industry-specific solutions to cater to their business needs.”

Focus now offers industryready templates in order to speed up the deployment process, in addition to reducing IT costs for customisation, while still following industry standards and improving the solution’s usability and performance.

Mathew went on to highlight that the days of solution providers wanting to cater for a customer’s “every need” are gone, and this is something that has been highlighted at this year’s GITEX Technology Week.

KASPERSKY LAB AWARENESS PROGRAMME TO TACKLE “WEAKEST LINK” IN ENTERPRISE SECURITY

Amir Kanaan, managing director, META, Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab is highlighting the need for Middle East enterprises to enhance cyber awareness at the 2018 edition of GITEX Technology Week, in a bid to fight the increasing levels of cybercrime and attacks taking place in the region.

One aspect of the firm’s focus at the event hones in on its industrial security model, and guests at this year’s show can gain first-hand experience of Kaspersky Lab’s capabilities in this field via a demo on the security firm’s stand. This shows a scenario whereby a cyber attack attempts to compromise a plant, and demonstrates how the solution on display can prevent this.

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In addition, special attention is being paid to building awareness around cybersecurity in this region, as Amir Kanaan, the firm’s managing director for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey region, believes the “weakest link” in enterprises today when it comes to threats is the employees.

The results of a study released earlier this week by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International reaffirmed this, after it was found that when facing targeted attacks, the top three challenges for organisations in META are a lack of threat intelligence (35%), a lack of visibility into malicious events (26%) and an inability to detect a threat among many alerts (23%).

“We’ve been working with multiple enterprises across industries in enhancing the knowledge around threat protection and cybersecurity

within organisations,” he said. “We have also been hosting various awareness days at schools and universities, in order to educate the generations coming through into the workplace. Last year, we hosted a Cyber Day at the University of Bahrain, and spoke to over 3,000 students – not just studying ITrelated subjects, to enhance their understanding of this area.”

Kaspersky Lab is also highlighting its Safe Kids solution at the 2018 edition of the show, spotlighting the ever-increasing concern of parents in this region that their children are exposed, and therefore vulnerable, to multiple threats online.

“I’m a parent myself, and whenever I discuss child safety online with my friends, it evolves into a hot topic of conversation as it is such a huge headache for us all,” said Kanaan.

MIMECAST EMPHASISES NEED FOR ENHANCED GDPR KNOWLEDGE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Jeff Ogden, Mimecast Middle East

Email and data security firm, Mimecast, is looking to enhance the knowledge surrounding General Data Protection Regulation in the Middle East, to reinforce the implications the regulations can have on businesses here in the region.

In a bid to create awareness around this topic, Jeff Ogden, general manager, Mimecast Middle East, said that the firm is hosting events throughout the region to promote the company’s expertise in ensuring GDPR compliance, based on its experience in dealing with European-based companies.

“There is guidance from organisations such as the Central Bank and NESA with regards to GDPR, but there is a lack of real regulation in this part of the world beyond that. This has meant that despite our platforms being GDPR compliant, that only holds some merit with organisations here in the Middle East, because many are under the impression that it doesn’t apply to them.

“Many banks, for example, say that as soon as you’re a resident here and have a resident visa, you opt out of GDPR jurisdiction,” said Ogden. “There is set to be a more formal roll out of GDPR-like regulations in the future for this region, but until then we can only expect this level of ambiguity to continue.” www.tahawultech.com

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Commvault urges companies to make best use of their data

Mark Jow, Commvault’s vice president EMEA

In today’s world there are few things more important than protecting and making best use of data – and Commvault has been at GITEX to promote its solutions enabling businesses and other organisations to do just this.

“The message that we’re trying to deliver is very much about data being at the centre of the business. We believe we are the best and most capable data protection platform,” said Mark Jow, Commvault’s vice president EMEA (Europe, Middle East and

Africa) for technical services.

“But we can also give solutions that can help them to rapidly rescue the data, and provide a cost-effective and flexible means by which they can make their journey to the cloud, to hybrid, to using the cloud as secondary storage, to moving workloads between clouds.”

Jow said that Commvault’s solutions offered considerable flexibility, allowing users to, for example, migrate to other clouds and spread their workload between clouds, thanks to a system that “gives a degree of sophistication”.

Commvault’s products include Commvault HyperScale Software, which offers flexible hardware configurations, sizes and models.

The company also offers

Commvault HyperScale Appliance, which, in a single appliance, brings together computer, storage and Commvault Software. Among the benefits of this that Commvault highlights is reduced data sprawl, lower costs and a reduced hardware footprint.

ScaleProtect offers data protection on HyperScale software with Cisco UCS servers, which can cut complexity and help companies to gain value from their data.

HyperScale is seen by many customers, said Jow, as a costeffective solution for back-end storage and it offers benefits such as being scaleable and “more elegant and agile”.

The Middle East comes under Commvault’s MESAT operations (Middle East,

Suse backs Cloud Foundry to help users save time and money

Steve Mustafa, a Dubai-based cloud solutions architect with SUSE

The open-source cloud platform as a service (PaaS) Cloud Foundry certainly has some high-level backers: Google, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft and SUSE, among others, all give it their support.

It is a platform on which applications can be built, deployed, run and scaled and, according to Cloud Foundry, its use saves an average of $100,000 and 10 weeks with each application development life cycle.

As well as saving time and money, Cloud Foundry also offers the advantage, those behind the www.tahawultech.com

technology state, of avoiding vendor lock-in, since it can be moved between clouds without the need to stick to the same provider.

No one is more passionate about Cloud Foundry than Steve Mustafa, a Dubai-based cloud solutions architect with SUSE, the Germanheadquartered open-source software company.

“It does several things. It’s a developer-focused tool that takes care of the operational headaches.

That’s a really, really high level statement,” Mustafa said of Cloud Foundry.

Cloud Foundry offers, for example, connectivity and pooling to ancillary services such as data bases and message groups.

“It takes care of the plumbing,” said Mustafa, going on to give an example of how the technology

might be used.

“One application instance might not be enough to handle that workload pressure. Cloud Foundry might be able to scale that horizontally and vertically. It recycles the sources back in.

“You’re doing this without having to reach out to more infrastructure.

It’s very, very developer focused.”

It allows institutions to deploy applications “as fast as possible” and can be used by organisations “big and small”.

“You can have large organisations like Volkswagen and I can name some mom and pop stores in Brazil using it,” said Mustafa.

“If you have a moderate number of applications you are using, you will find benefits of having Cloud Foundry as part of your repertoire of tools.”

Nuvias highlights Juniper partnership at GITEX 2018

Mario Gay, Nuvias Middle East

At the on-going GITEX Technology Week, regional value-added distributor Nuvias is highlighting its partnership with networking and security vendor Juniper Networks.

The distributor is also reinforcing its presence in the region and transferring knowledge and skills to its partner community at the 38th edition of the show.

Mario Gay, regional general manager, Nuvias Middle East, said, “Over the last few months, we have strengthened our presence in the region and reorganised the team.

We believe we have built a robust foundation for a successful 2019.”

Nuvias commenced its Middle East operations a year ago and is focusing on three main technologies.

“We are a value-added distributor with a dedicated focus in three key areas – networking, security and unified communications. The approach is to be an integrated solutions provider and enable our partners to offer complete solutions set for their customers.”

Gay said the company will continue its efforts in empowering partners with regular trainings and enablement sessions.

“We will have our usual trainings and also offer partners access to our partner portal, which will provide a way to create effective go-tomarket strategies. This way small and medium partners can rely on us for our capabilities in marketing and leverage our experience and knowledge,” he added.

Going forward, we will see the distributor expanding its solutions and vendor portfolio. @tahawultech

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Nutanix enables customers’ cloud journey in the digital era

Sylvain Siou, senior director, EMEA, Systems Engineering, Nutanix

At GITEX Technology Week, global cloud software and hyperconverged infrastructure solutions provider Nutanix, participating for the fourth consecutive year, is touting Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS and enabling customers’ cloud journey in the digital era.

Sylvain Siou, senior director, EMEA, Systems Engineering, Nutanix, said, “GITEX is an ideal

place to meet all our customers and partners across the Middle East and Africa region. It is a unique opportunity where we can network with many customers at the same time. We have been participating for the last four years.”

He added, “Nutanix is a wellknown platform in the Middle East region with VM. Through our platform, customers can start small and scale their business as per their requirements. Now we are building services on top of this platform to enable customers to leverage cloud-related services.”

Earlier this year, Nutanix has acquired Frame and Netsil to

GITEX is an ideal place to meet all our customers and partners across the Middle East and Africa region. It is a unique opportunity where we can network with many customers at the same time. We have been participating for the last four years.”

strengthen its cloud offerings.

The Frame acquisition allows Nutanix to add inhouse capabilities and enables customers to deliver desktopsas-a-service (DaaS) from multiple clouds.

Acquiring Netsil has helped the vendor to add next-generation application discovery and operations management to Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS. Attendees to the 38th edition of the technology show will also be able to learn more about Nutanix Beam, which is a new software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, based on the firm’s recently-acquired Minjar Botmetric service.

Symantec enjoys brisk growth as demand for cybersecurity solutions surges

Bashar Bashaireh, Symantec’s general manager – Middle East

The cybersecurity specialist Symantec is seeing “huge demand” in the region for its solutions, the company has said at GITEX. A Fortune 500 company, Symantec serves customers in a wide variety of sectors, including oil and gas, banking, telecommunications, service provision, aviation, government and much else.

Its solutions are used by companies ranging from the very small to those with hundreds of thousands of users.

“In terms of growth, there’s a huge demand for information security solutions out there

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in the market and we’ve been witnessing doubledigit growth,” said Bashar Bashaireh, Symantec’s general manager – Middle East, adding that this was the case across the region.

Symantec has been promoting solutions around data protection, network protection and email security, among much else, at GITEX. “For all of these you need to have all the protections integrated, talking to each other. We provide this integrated platform and the capability to integrate with third-party products as well,” said Bashaireh.

“One of the main hot topics right now is social media.

Everything is done over social media. This is a challenge for the administrators and decision-makers because most of the social media

traffic is encrypted, so it’s a blindspot for any administrator if they don’t have the right tools in place.

“We provide our SSL visibility appliance, which helps IT network administrators to eliminate these blindspots, so it will give them visibility with encrypted traffic.”

Another high-profile issue is data protection, with banks needing to protect their customers’ account details and other personal information, and healthcare providers needing to protect patient records, to give two examples.

“We provide a DLP framework that provides data protection and data classification,” said Bashaireh.

Founded in 1982, Symantec has its headquarters in Mountain View, California, and operates several major development centres in India.

Bashaireh covers more than a dozen countries, with the Middle East head office being in Dubai.

“By scale of the economy, the two biggest markets are the UAE and Saudi Arabia, but we see an awareness of the importance of have the right security products deployed across all countries,” he said.

“The threats are common.

Everybody is trying to adopt the cloud, everyone is adopting mobility to increase the performance of the organisation. The threat vectors are the same, but the volume of the projects might be different.”

In the UAE projects tend to be scoped, procured and implemented faster than in some other economies, Bashaireh said, thanks to the country’s “very dynamic” economy. www.tahawultech.com

“Mobile solutions will transform ARROW SPOTLIGHTS RECENT VENDOR security”: HID Global PARTNERSHIPS AT

Wisam Yaghmour, HID Global’s regional sales director

HID Global’s regional sales director has said that the world’s love for mobile devices means that the secure identity solutions must now account for that transformation.

Wisam Yaghmour, speaking to 60 Mins, said that the firm had a selection of new solutions that allow users to manage their identities through mobile devices.

“GITEX is undoubtedly one of the most important shows for HID,” he said. “It’s a great platform to launch solutions for cloud and mobility and is a great way to show customers new technology that solves their problems.

“We’ve got a new tool that will help existing customers to upgrade from old systems to a new mobile platform.

Technicians and engineers can now use iOS 12 and our portal to grant pin codes where they can upgrade the firmware of readers, as well as conducting troubleshooting.

“It will make a big difference for customers to convert from basic security controls to mobile solutions and means they can use their mobile devices instead of access badges. The demand that we’re seeing is much more centred around mobility.

“High end customers want high security, privacy and protection. Many layers are coming on to the market, but our aim is to improve the customer experience and manage security credentials via the cloud.”

In June, HID Global’s parent company ASSA ABLOY agreed a partnership with Apple to enable contactless student IDs through Apple Wallet, and Yaghmour said the solution would open up a whole host of opportunities for the firm.

Aruba spotlights Mobile First Architecture at GITEX workplace, Adrian Hurel, VP of Global Field Operations for Aruba, says the Mobile First Architecture – on display at this year’s show, accommodates the working “anytime, anywhere” expectation of employees today.

“We provide a secure, intelligent networking experience on a single, softwareAdrian Hurel, VP of Global Field defined architecture, enabling users to Operations, Aruba access all of the services they require to be productive – be this in the workplace, the Aruba Networks, a HPE company, is coffee shop, or their home office,” said Hurel. promoting its Mobile First Architecture This flexi-working environment can on its stand in Hall 7 at GITEX Technology bring with it a host of security concerns Week 2018, exhibiting for the eighth for organisations, as IT administrators consecutive year. internally try to secure each and every device Aruba has been present in the Middle East connecting to the WiFi network. for over 10 years, and the firm’s approach “Our Clear Pass solution features several to the market remains enterprise-centric, tools to simplify connectivity, onboarding working across a range of industries including and endpoint configuration, and provides education, healthcare, hospitality and the answer to these security headaches government. that come with having a mobile workforce,” Supporting the evolution of the digital added Hurel.

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GITEX 2018

At GITEX Technology Week, regional distributor Arrow ECS is showcasing recent vendor partnerships and innovative technologies in its portfolio.

Vimal Kocher, MD, Arrow ECS said, “We have signed a couple of new vendors this year and we are focusing on Vimal Kocher, Arrow ECS these partnerships at GITEX. The technology show is an ideal platform for us to showcase our solutions portfolio.”

He added, “We are now working on the security vendors to increase the market reach. On the data centre side, we are focussing more on the Gulf countries. We are very strong in UAE but have now hired new associates who will be working for specific geographies.”

The distributor is encouraging partners to increase their business revenues by expanding their product reach.

“We want to strengthen our relationships with partners by helping them to expand their product range. If a partner works with us for a single product then we are encouraging them to leverage our complete portfolio.

We will be focusing on this objective for the next couple of months. At GITEX, we are having one-on-one focused meetings to educate partners on this.”

TABUK UNIVERSITY BECOMES FIRST FORTINET NETWORK SECURITY ACADEMY IN SAUDI ARABIA Fortinet has announced that Tabuk University will be the first educational institution in Saudi Arabia to offer the Fortinet Network Security Academy (FNSA) programme.

The FNSA is designed to develop and train actionoriented cybersecurity experts to manage new and advanced threats on the horizon.

The Academy will provide industry-recognised cybersecurity training and certification opportunities to students who will learn how to protect organisations from cyber threats. Fortinet will arm the Tabuk University team with the skills required to teach the program through extensive staff development. www.tahawultech.com

Ivanti aims to expand regional presence

Nigel Seddon, Ivanti

Ivanti has had a successful year where the company has doubled the size of its team in the region and is now looking to expand its market presence.

Nigel Seddon, AVP, Western Europe and MEA, Ivanti, said, “Partnering is really important for us because it gives us a great reach into the marketplace. Our strategy is to continue to work with partners from a channel perspective.

We boast strong partnerships in the UAE and are now looking

at increasing the number of partners we have in regions such as Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi. We do have a small in-store presence but there is a big opportunity to go-tomarket and we can only do that through our partners.”

The focus for the company in 2019 is to now build on its success in the UAE to grow its business in other regions such as Saudi, Qatar and Oman.

Seddon said, “The Middle East is one of the fastest growing regions for us. From a customer perspective, we have so much more to offer as we have made recent acquisitions and added investments into our technology. There is more from us that we can give our partners, which will allow customers to reduce risk and increase productivity.

Our partners can offer more value-add.”

Westcon-Comstor addresses key issues in dedicated partner meetings

David Grant, Westcon

Steve Lockie, Westcon

During the GITEX Technology Week 2018, Westcon-Comstor hosted it partners and customers at the IBIS Lounge and had one-onone dedicated meetings.

Steve Lockie, group MD, Westcon-Comstor, said, “GITEX is very much a networking event for us. It is great to get together with our partners and have a true business-to-business conversation. This year more than ever, the business conversations have also been largely about financing because the lack of liquidity in the channel is a huge concern.

“Our discussions included how we can bring about transparency in accounting and in business planning. We are discussing how we can be more creative in the way we do business together with channel partners.”

David Grant, COO, Westcon International, said, “In the Middle East, we have been setting up legal entities in Qatar and Kuwait.

Subsequently we will follow these investments with Bahrain and Oman. By having physical presence in these markets, we are committing to the local reseller community who will act on behalf of our business. We are committed to growing in the region.”

The regional channel partners can look forward to continued innovation from the value-added distributor.

“Security, reliability, automation need intelligent network”: Infoblox

Ashraf Sheet, regional director, Middle East and Africa, Infoblox

Infoblox’s regional director for the Middle East and Africa region has said that the delivery of IT infrastructures that are secure, reliable and automated will need intelligent solutions that accommodate cloud and onpremise environments.

Speaking to 60 Mins, Ashraf Sheet said that security solutions now have an obligation to “talk www.tahawultech.com

to one another” to ensure threat information is shared across IT infrastructures.

“If a firewall or an intrusion prevention system finds new threats do they share that information with each other? No – that information is not shared across the network,” he said.

“It’s important to share threat information detected by any kind of solution to raise the intelligence bar for other security solutions.

“The best approach is to have a centralised infrastructure that can talk to other solutions and exchange threat data. That’s where Infoblox plays a major role in enhancing the security level of

the network.

“Everybody is looking at next-level infrastructures, which will have to accommodate a huge number of connected IoT devices, from cars, smartphones and people, who will soon be carrying multiple connected objects.

“We provide core network services. Networks rely on core switches and other infrastructure, but if the DNS fails, whole network fails. Businesses are now looking at next-gen services that can ensure this doesn’t happen.

“They’re looking to provide next-level reliability, security and automation. You can’t just say

you want a reliable infrastructure then it’s automated. Everyone is now looking at delivering agile infrastructure and services in the cloud.”

Sheet went on to highlight how Infoblox’s solutions were a good fit for a secure ecosystem. “We complement a lot of security solutions in the market, and protect the infrastructure from being attacked from hackers,” he said. “We have to look at how businesses can secure users and infrastructures anywhere, anytime in an easy and agile way.

We’re promoting how end users and organisations look at cloud security.” @tahawultech

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