The Integrator - JAN 2013

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Irreversible trends Technology upheavals have been fast and furious in the last several years. There seems to be kind of a mismatch in the sense that while worldwide, national Economies are by no means having it easy and are struggling to show any semblance of growth, Technological advances have never been as quick as they are now.

Cover Story A Buoyant Outlook - P 18

ICT spending can be expected to rise further in 2013 as Cloud computing workloads, Big Data and BYOD phenomenons etc shape the year’s IT spending

Content

Editorial

News in Detail - P 10/12

Lenovo EMC in key partnership

Schneider Electric Eyes higher Market share SI Scan

Riding the storage wave - P 14

Andrew Calthorpe,CEO at Condo Protego believes in a robust outlook for storage growth

And as much as I want to avoid clichés, it seems nothing reiterates an established truth than a cliché.

So the clichéd statement for this opening edit of the year is that we have certainly moved into a changed world. 2013 would see continued changes in line with the dominating trends of 2012 and 2011 towards deployment of virtualisation, cloud computing etc.

These are now established irreversible trends for the industry and more and more believers will deploy in larger measures these Technologies as it benefits the growth objectives of their organizations.

TechKnow

Changes will be the order of the day even in go to market models as partner profiles alter and expectations of vendors increase.

Adobe looks to the future - P 26

Consultative selling will be a requisite competency that VARs will need to provide as partners, providing meaningful solutions and strategies to Business pain points, rather than highlighting product features and specs. Since B2B purchase decisions are also arrived at after a lot of fact finding through poring over various sources of content, VARs may also do well to use to engage better a larger base of potential customers with meaningful marketing communication supported with whitepapers, case studies etc that helps build their case with the customer.

Point2Point

Partners will look at empowering themselves better by looking to add competencies in cloud services deployment. Since Cloud services also provide the option of delivering affordable and in some cases enterprise grade Technologies to SMB sector organizations, this could further broaden growth opportunities for VARs.

R. Narayan Managing Editor Founder & CEO: Vivek Sharma Managing Editor: R. Narayan Assistant Editor: David Ndichu Art Director: Faiz Ahmed Sr. Sales Manager: R. Subramanyan Sales Coordinator: Smitha Jithesh

Filling a security void - P 17

Barracuda Networks is on the forefront in the fight to protect businesses and assets.

A strong legacy - P 22

Aviat Networks sees bright future for Gulf Region Wireless VARs according to Karl Osswald, GM, Aviat Networks

Network management reimagined - P 23

Commscope hopes to takeout the complexity from network management with newly launched solution ImVision Abdallah Saqqa, GM, MENA region for Adobe Systems discusses the company's mobile and cloud credentials

Strong credentials - P 16

Mushtaq Khot, Head- Value Business Group at METRA speaks about how the company's focus areas

Security specialist - P 25

Mohammad Mobasseri, senior VP at Comguard, a leading Security VAD speaks about the company’s outlook

Insight

The challenge of securing smartphones - P 28 80% Smartphone users are still unaware of the cyber threats writes Govind Rammurthy, MD & CEO, eScan

The Biggest Themes of the IT Industry - P 30 Chuck Hollis, VP- Global Marketing and CTO at EMC Corporation shares his views

Regulars

News Bytes Eytech Stats & Trends

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Disclaimer: While the publishers have made every attempt possible to get accurate information on published content in this handbook they cannot be held liable for any errors herein.

News Bytes

DVCOM announces Digium Training Partnership DVCOM Technology, a leading solutions provider of Open Source VoIP Telephony, announced its partnership with Digium Asterisk as an ‘Authorized Training Partner’.

Digium is the creator, sponsor and driving force behind Asterisk, an open source telephony software. As an ATP, DVCOM Technology will be offering training and certification testing including Asterisk Fast Start, Asterisk Advanced and dCAP-Testing courses to system integrators, channel partners and clients across the MENA regions.

“Asterisk is a fast growing platform which is continuing to occupy a noticeable share in VoIP telephony market space. Rapidly changing world of telecommunications requires trained and certified professionals to develop, implement and manage the systems,” said Renjan George, Managing Director of DVCOM Technology.

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The Integrator | January 2013

Dell primed to deliver end to end solutions At its 2nd Annual Dell World Conference, Dell announced that more and more customers worldwide rely on its technology solutions and services since the company embarked on its transformation four years ago. Dell World 2012 brought together more than 6,000 customers, partners, media, analysts and employees for three days of networking, education and insight into Dell’s strategy and solutions to solve the most challenging IT trends customers face today.

During the past four years, Dell has invested more than $10 billion to deliver innovative, high-performing end-to-end solutions to better support the evolving needs of its customers. Dell innovation and investment across technologies, sales and channel resources, trainings and solutions centers set customers on a path to IT transformation.

“Today, Dell is better positioned than ever before to deliver innovative, end-to-end solutions,” said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell. “We’re investing to help our customers be successful and secure in a world being transformed by the forces of cloud, big data and mobility.”

Aptec launches Expresspod in the Middle East Aptec, an Ingram Micro company, announced the launch of NetApp’s Expresspod SMB Virtualization solution in the Middle East. ExpressPod is NetApp and Cisco's new prepackaged solution, which combines computing, networking, storage, and management products. ExpressPod integrates Cisco UCS C-Series servers, NetApp FAS2220 or FAS2240 storage, and Cisco Nexus 3048 switches with infrastructure management to support an open ecosystem of management and hypervisor solutions. Expresspod is targeted exclusively at mid-sized businesses.

"After having a successful run globally, with Flexpod being adopted by the enterprise and mid-sized enterprise customers, now NetApp and Cisco have launched Expresspod to replicate the same success in the fast growing MSB segment," said Govind Haridas, BU Manager, Security & Storage at Aptec. "It is a validated design and a viable alternative for the customers who want to enjoy enterprise-class performance with limited IT budgets."

News Bytes

Frost & Sullivan Product Line Award for Fortinet Frost & Sullivan recently attributed Fortinet with the 2012 Middle East Product Line Strategy Award in the Middle East Network Security Market, in recognition of the leadership position of Fortinet’s FortiGate product suite of network security appliances.

The Award is bestowed upon a company that has demonstrated excellence by continually focusing on innovation, translating customer insights into strong product lines, and showcasing a clear roadmap strategy.

Bashar Bashaireh, Regional Director at Fortinet Middle East, stated, “We are honored to be recognised by Frost & Sullivan for our technology innovation.

This Award has acknowledged the leading position of our FortiGate product line in providing next generation of network security solutions to the enterprise.”

HP pay-per-use program creates revenue opportunities HP has announced the HP FlexNetwork Utility Advantage Program enabling communication service providers (CSPs) to offer managed network solutions on a pay-per-use basis, creating new revenue opportunities without investment.

The HP FlexNetwork Utility Advantage Program enables CSPs to help enterprise customers modernize their network with standard, prepackaged networking solutions, including hardware and software, with no upfront cost. Customers then contract with the CSP for the managed network offerings they need to support initiatives that speed innovation on a pay-per-use basis.

“Cloud introduced consumption-based economics for a wide range of business applications,” said Eyad Shihabi, MD, HP Middle East “HP FlexNetwork Utility Advantage Program brings these economic benefits to CSPs as they support their clients to pursue initiatives that drives growth and innovation.

Sophos makes significant strides with Mobile Device Management in 2012 Less than eighteen months after introducing Sophos Mobile Control into its complete security product portfolio, the company announced that more than one million devices worldwide are now managed by the mobile device management (MDM) solution.

This milestone comes on the heels of several major MDM developments in 2012, from a strategic acquisition to major product enhancements to the release of several free mobile security apps.

“Enterprise Mobility Management is a key focus area for Sophos and this will continue into the coming year, with bigger launches, greater integration and more platform support, all of which we’re excited to introduce to partners and customers,” said Thomas Lippert, senior product manager, Sophos. “More customers are turning to Sophos Mobile Control to protect their mobile workforces, and this increased adoption has been further accelerated by our complete security approach, of which mobile plays a key part.”

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The Integrator | January 2013

Aruba Networks provides next-generation Wi-Fi connectivity at DSOA Aruba Networks is collaborating with Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA) to provide secured and reliable next-generation wireless network access at the headquarters of Dubai Silicon Oasis, the integrated free zone technology park. The project includes the installation of Aruba controllers Ap 105 and Ap 125 for indoor and public areas within DSO, as well as a firewall and RF Protect license for policy enforcement and intrusion prevention. Additionally, Aruba’s Airwave technology will provide the IT department with end-to-end clarity and centralized control for managing the complete solution and monitoring mobile users.

Ammar Enaya, GM, Aruba Networks, said, “Working with DSOA demonstrates our understanding of the demands placed on a wireless network by a government sector organisation, particularly the need for highly secure and controlled access within a cost effective solution. Aruba Networks’ implementation additionally reiterates that tools allowing complete control seamlessly ease the management of wireless networks within a sensitive environment.”

Citrix to acquire MDM Leader Zenprise Citrix has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Zenprise, an innovator in mobile device management (MDM). Following the close of the acquisition, Citrix intends to integrate the Zenprise solution for mobile device management, with its Citrix CloudGateway and Me@Work solutions for managing mobile apps and data. This combination will give Citrix the first solution in the industry for managing mobile devices, apps and data from a single, integrated enterprise mobility product line. This comprehensive approach can transform any organization into a truly mobile enterprise with the security and control IT requires, the ease of use and flexibility users desire, and the productivity business demands. Subject to closing conditions including regulatory approval, Citrix anticipates closing on the acquisition during the first quarter of 2013.

Comguard partners with Tripwire Comguard has partnered with Tripwire., to offer its security and compliance solutions targeted at enterprises, governments, government agencies and service providers.

Tripwire's integrated solutions help protect sensitive data, prove compliance and prevent outages. Tripwire VIA, the integrated compliance and security solution delivers bestof-breed file integrity, policy compliance and log and event management solutions.

Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO, Comguard, said, “We are glad to represent world’s leading IT security and compliance solution provider, Tripwire in the Middle East. With the numbers of security breaches growing at an alarming rate, the need to arm enterprises in the region with the best of breed IT security and compliance solutions is also growing at a rapid pace.”

Comguard will distribute products and solutions from Tripwire across MENA.

Sumit Dhawan, Vice President and General Manager, Mobile Solutions at Citrix said, “Consumerization and BYOD have given rise to very difficult challenges for businesses in enabling a productive, mobile workforce while still maintaining tight controls over company information. Zenprise was a clear choice for Citrix, with its leading MDM product, an experienced team, a history of innovation, and a footprint on more than one million devices.

With a complete Citrix enterprise mobility solution, customers have all the necessary pieces to manage and secure mobile apps, content and devices.”

January 2013 | The Integrator

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News Bytes

SafeNet appoints Dave Hansen as CEO SafeNet, a global leader in data protection, announcedthe appointment of Dave Hansen as the company’s new President and CEO. Dave Hansen has a successful track record of creating and executing innovative IT strategies and solutions for the enterprise.

He arrives at SafeNet from BMC Software, where he most recently served as Vice President and General Manager, Commercial Division.

“SafeNet has undergone a tremendous transformation over the past five years, and is uniquely positioned to solve the most complex security issues facing CIOs and CSOs today,” said Hansen.

“With SafeNet’s market-leading data protection and rights management portfolios, and the recent introduction of game-changing cloud and virtualization products, the company is set to lead the way in securing access and data for the cloud and from the cloud."

Micro Automation opens new manufacturing facility Micro Automation Industries, a Dubai-based manufacturer and premium member of the Dubai SME 100, opened a new manufacturing facility in Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA) for their wide range of cost effective, microprocessor embedded power protection products.

Celebrating its 10th year in JAFZA, Micro Automation’s new manufacturing facility, extending to 1100 square metres, serves as a hub for engineering, prototyping and developing its products. The company has considerably grown since it first started in 2001 with a 52 per cent revenue growth yearon-year (YOY) in 2011 and an average of 56.8 per cent growth every year since 2007.

The company’s products and solutions are classified into four categories namely Powermatic, Genmatic, Voicematic and Datamatic solutions. Its range of products has grown to over 85 different models conforming to various country specifications and has recently developed an Intelligent Socket Protection Solution, new concept of multiple power protection of electronic and electrical appliances.

Meta Byte emphasises on Data governance Meta Byte Technologies has unveiled its new unique approach to help enterprises in the region to implement Data Loss Prevention (DLP) projects more successfully.

According to several independent reports, majority of DLP projects fail within the first year of its implementation. Meta Byte has identified the issues and has developed an approach enabling visibility in to such situations and automating the process. Meta Byte's approach allows organizations total visibility and control over their data, ensuring that only the right users have access to the right data at all times.

Salil Dighe, MD, Meta Byte Technologies explains, “Meta Byte’s approach is like a first step for enterprises who aspire to have the ultimate data protection. Our unique approach to protect data revolves around the concept of data governance that defines the framework of people, processes, permissions, privileges or access rights to ensure proper data use. Enterprises in the region need to have a strategy and processes in place to govern appropriate and authorised use of business data, thereby significantly lowering the risk of data misuse.”

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The Integrator | January 2013

Avaya delivers Virtualised collaboration Avaya unveiled its new communications architecture for virtualized unified communications (UC) applications, Avaya Aura Virtualized Environment (Avaya Aura VE), to help businesses accelerate mobile collaboration applications across their organization. With Avaya Aura VE, businesses maintain the high reliability, simplicity and functionality of Avaya Aura – the company’s next-generation collaboration platform – while gaining flexible new options for deploying Avaya’s UC and customer service solutions in virtual architectures.

Gary E. Barnett, senior VP & GM, Collaboration Platforms, Avaya said, “Avaya recognizes that any path to collaboration requires a platform that prioritizes high reliability, functionality and flexibility. This is why we’ve seamlessly brought these benefits from Avaya Aura into virtualized environments. With Avaya’s UC applications now VMware Ready for virtualization, our customers can travel a faster, more efficient route to next-generation collaboration.”

GFI LanGuard expands Vulnerability Assessment capabilities GFI LanGuard now supports vulnerability assessment and patch management for computers running the Mac OS X operating system. The latest version of the company’s patch management, vulnerability assessment and network auditing software for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) now also features a deeper portfolio of compliance standards reporting tools. IT administrators can generate streamlined and dedicated reports for nine of the top regulatory compliance standards, including PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), SOX, HIPAA and FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act).

“We have seen a steadily rising demand for all of our products to support Mac systems. Business networks often have a mixture of devices and we have developed GFI LanGuard to address this and meet today’s demands.

The combination of Mac and PC patching as well as device audit and vulnerability assessment make GFI LanGuard the administrator’s choice for maintaining the strength of a business network,” John Spoor, Regional Director-MEA, GFI Software.

Avnet joins NVIDIA Tesla Partner Program Avnet Technology Solutions has joined the NVIDIA Tesla Preferred Partner program to help high-performance computing (HPC) customers drive business growth in expanding industries, including life sciences, finance, oil and gas and manufacturing.

The Tesla Preferred Partner program is a sales, marketing and business development program for VARs, OEMs and ODMs that are driving the growth of the HPC market.

As a program member, Avnet will provide partners and resellers across EMEA with advanced server and workstation platforms with the new NVIDIA Tesla K20 family of GPU accelerators, which are based on the next-generation NVIDIA Kepler GPU computing architecture.

Rajesh Suman, vice president of computer components, Avnet Technology Solutions, EMEA, commented, “Joining the NVIDIA partner program expands our ability to provide resellers and partners with solutions that improve application performance up to several orders of magnitude faster, addressing some of the most challenging computational tasks such as processing financial trades, gridding oil in the sea and evaluating solar systems”.

January 2013 | The Integrator

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News In-Detail

Cizar Abughazaleh Regional Director, MEA & Turkey, Iomega

LenovoEMC partnership shakes up storage segment

Lenovo and EMC have completed the formation of LenovoEMC, combining EMC's Iomega networkattached storage (NAS) arrays with Lenovo's ThinkServer product lines.

By bringing together EMC’s strengths in storage systems with Lenovo’s partner ecosystem and experience in emerging markets, LenovoEMC is positioned to increase market share in both mature and developing markets around the world as the new joint venture expands its network storage solutions portfolio.

Locally, the transition from Iomega to the new venture has been seamless, according to Cizar Abughazaleh, regional director for MEA and Turkey for Iomega.

All Iomega teams in sales and operations departments as well as market development teams are now under the LenovoEMC venture. “We expect changes on the technology side and products as well. Part of the deal between EMC and Iomega is to build the server business for EMC and Lenovo and partly to target SMBs through

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The Integrator | January 2013

Iomega network storage products,” said Cizar.

The Iomega network storage portfolio includes desktop, tower and rackmount array products, ranging in capacity from diskless versions (0TB) up to 48TB. Iomega NAS solutions incorporate the EMC LifeLine operating system, which combines enterprise-level storage features with an easeof-use tailored to small business users, remote enterprise offices, departmental data centres, and others. These capabilities provide storage expansion for Lenovo’s ThinkServer and Thinkstation server and workstation offerings.

The partnership is beneficial to distributors as well as customers who will be able to access a complete solution package from the same vendor, according to Cizar. “The new company will be able to offer a complete solution including desktops, netbooks, servers and network storage. It’s a win/win situation both at the channel level and the customer level for our customers. Instead of

With the new joint venture, Lenovo and EMC have domination of the storage market in their sights going to two or three vendors, they can get the complete solution from the same vendor,” said Cizar.

As part of the joint venture, Lenovo and EMC have formed a server technology development program that will extend Lenovo’s capabilities in the x86 industrystandard server segment. These servers will be brought to market

by Lenovo and embedded into selected EMC storage systems over time. The companies have also forged an OEM and reseller relationship in which Lenovo will provide EMC’s networked storage solutions to its customers, initially in China and expanding into other global markets in step with the on-going development of its server business.

EMC and Lenovo also plan to bring certain assets and resources from Iomega into a new joint venture which will provide Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems to small/medium businesses (SMB) and distributed enterprise sites.

EMC acquired Iomega in 2008 to expand into the NAS business.

News In-Detail

Schneider Electric eyes larger share of growing EMEA IT spending in 2013 Schneider Electric has announced its short-term growth plans will seek to leverage Gartner’s projections of US$1.154 trillion on IT spending in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) by 2013.

The company’s aim to capture a share of the forecasted industry growth comes on the back of its optimistic performance in 2012.

In addition to registering a nine percent growth in the first nine months, Schneider Electric also witnessed a four percent growth in the last quarter for the rest of the world that includes the Middle East.

Infrastructure, buildings, power and IT business units have been identified as key contributors to the company’s performance this year.

The announcements were made at Schneider Electric’s Middle East Datacenter Solutions Conference titled ‘Power to the Cloud’.

Goktug Gur, Country President, UAE and Oman, said: “We perceive a definite positive trend in the market with customers inclined towards investments to bring in efficiency within their infrastructure framework. Organizations are additionally focusing on increasing investments in newage technologies such as cloud computing and virtualization for reducing capital expenses. The emphasis is on driving greater efficiencies within the datacenter to transform services automation and provisioning.”

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Pointing out that the worldwide datacenter market has witnessed a growth of 22 per cent in 2012, to US$105 billion from US$86 billion in 2011, the panelists added that the Middle East is the fastest growing sector in this category.

Consequently, the evolving trend of datacenter-focused IT strategies necessitates the synchronization of IT and facilities management to produce optimal results.

Paul-Francois Cattier, Global Vice President, Datacenters, said: “As one of the top three players in datacenter infrastructure management, Schneider Electric is in a unique position to offer innovative solutions that meet the most specific customer requirements. Our commitment to

quality ensures that our solutions are designed, developed and delivered by leading technologists.”

Christian Bertrand, VP, MEA, IT Business, Schneider Electric, said: “Datacenters are a cornerstone for businesses, and as demand for storage and operation continues to expand, we are providing the right solutions to manage the power and cooling of this business critical infrastructure. We are seeing enterprise IT trend towards virtualization, which will result in healthy demand for cost-effective solutions, speed and simplicity, efficiency of scale, and overall energy consciousness. We are confident that our expertise will open up significant opportunities in these areas.”

SI Scan | Condo Protego

Condo Protego is one of the region’s top turnkey data storage solutions providers and valueadded resellers. The SI is looking to ride on the buoyant growth expected in Data storage.

According to IDC, the Middle East’s hardware and software storage spend is on course to grow 10.2 per cent CAGR between 2010 and 2015.

“The Middle East’s fast-paced development plans and market challenges are creating a business environment favoring nimble, adaptive, and protected

Typical solutions that organizations want at the end of the day include scalable solutions and are part an ultimate reference architecture. “ Condo is making sure that they are delivering what customers need to have today and that is also part of the ultimate reference architecture of the customer. This pursuit of excellence is a driving force for the company when it deals with customer needs.

“Sometimes the customers get there and sometimes don’t. But that

Riding the storage wave Andrew Calthorpe Chief Executive Officer Condo Protego

Allying with some of the industry’s leading storage vendors, Condo Protego has built a successful track record of growth as one of the region’s well regarded storage integrators.

Andrew Calthorpe, Chief Executive Officer believes the company has a good opportunity to build on the continued expectations of a robust outlook for storage growth

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The Integrator | January 2013

companies,” says Andrew Calthorpe, Chief Executive Officer, “Business leaders in the Middle East are increasingly determined to move away from the notion of data storage as a diffuse, overwhelming burden to embrace it as an integral part of a business strategy driven by information visibility and accessibility.”

Calthorpe believes that the era of information being dumped and dispersed across multiple servers and mainframes is long gone, and business leaders are rightly looking for solutions that are faster, more efficient and, above all, safer.

He adds, “We are working closely with customers to understand their requirements and design solutions for them. We come up with options and what fits their budgets as well.

doesn’t stop us from the pursuit and as an organisation, we want to be self-sufficient to do that. We bring the knowhow to design and implement solutions as well as support.”

The company is well regarded for its consultative approach and comprehensive post-sales support.

It has a successful track-record across multiple industries in the region, and partnerships with global Data storage and security brands such as EMC, Symantec, Dell, Websense, Riverbed, RSA, VMWare, CISCO, Brocade, and Emulex.

The SI focuses on building requisite technical expertise in its teams to support the products they work with and they are also supporting other partners who would need support during implementations.

This works differently with different

This because the newer Storage has changed over the past ten years organizations when storage solutions were focused on larger can leapfrog organisations primarily. Now there is a storage legacy solution even for smaller organizations with as deployments, that might few as 5 people. for instance slow down organizations Calthorpe says, wanting to move to Virtualised “EMC has a very large local support could be other opportunities that platforms in regions where IT organization. That is a comfort come up. There might be some deployments have been around factor but we add value on top of SAN switches needed for instance longer. that depending on the solution. As but we are not knocking on doors vendors depending on what local support strategies each has, either directly or indirectly.

for Symantec, we are the regional Symantec support partner. We implement our own solutions but we also offer support to any other partner to be able to implement Symantec solutions, not just in the UAE but across the region.”

trying to sell them. Components from other vendors might come as requirements of solutions.”

While they are focused on the key solutions where they have built in competencies in their technical resources, they are also catering to opportunistic sales with components from other vendors that are necessarily part of configurable turnkey solutions.

The SI targets all verticals but typically large customers in Banking and Financial sector are key accounts. They don’t target Government accounts as it believes there are other companies that see that sector as their forte. It sees plenty of opportunities in the midmarket segment where it is certain of adding value. The SI is optimistic that there would always be a market for more and more storage even in the era of Virtualisation.

Calthorpe comments, “Everybody needs backup. At the end of the day, data is one of the most critical aspects. Storage has changed over the past ten years when storage solutions were focused on larger organisations primarily. Now there is a storage solution even for smaller organizations with as few as 5 people. “

Calthorpe adds, “We are looking for opportunities to sell EMC storage solutions, Symantec backup and high availability solutions primarily but during the course of that there

He believes that Virtualisation will ramp up faster in emerging markets like the Middle East compared to some of the regions that have been earlier adopters of IT Technologies.

He adds, “We are highly focused on key products. We are the only master specialist partner for Symantec in the region with highly specialized technical staff as demanded by the vendor.

Maintaining that high level of specialization is necessary with Technology changing almost on an everyday basis.”

“In some of the developed markets where IT has been around longer, is showing momentum but they have legacy deployments that need to be accounted for.

In markets like the Middle East, there is opportunity for start-up organizations to start immediately on Virtualisation platform. This is good for us because when you have a Virtualised environment, there is a need for more storage.”

Condo is certain that it will continue to see a steady growth because the Data storage domain has seen consistent growth even in the tougher years immediately following the recession. And it is hopeful that their focus on their expertise in the domain will continue to give it the edge.

He adds, “We have seen a few spikes in growth over the past several years. We didn’t suffer much during recession because people kept investing in storage. While we are out in the market trying to get our message out but we also have customer approach us on their own having heard of the value proposition we offer.

January 2013 | The Integrator

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Point2point | METRA

Discuss new expansion initiatives undertaken recently and planned?

The plan was to have four major hubs, where we build strength in terms of manpower, technical skills and market share. The hubs that I have mentioned are UAE, Qatar, KSA and Egypt. Last year we started

Mushtaq Khot Business Unit Head Value Business Group, METRA

Is the Value Distribution Business a growing focus for Metra?

Metra’s Value Distribution Business offers much more than a traditional Value added model . Some of our value added services include PreSales Expertise, Proof of Concept, Implementation Services, Alliance Management, Enablement and also Demand Generation.

It’s a definitely a large business in the region. Compared to the Volume Business, it’s completely different as you generally talk about solution building capabilities with the vendor and the Partners and ways and means to deliver it to the end customer.

Is KSA a key forcus?

Across the region it’s looking positive and we have seen good growth over the last couple of quarters. The ICT industry in the Kingdom is very promising as I think this is the place to be in because of the opportunities and the time is just right for us to get on with VBG. Therefore, we have invested heavily in all its major cities in different ways.

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The Integrator | January 2013

value additions to our stakeholders.

Discuss sales growth year on year for the Value Business?

We have different aggressive growth plans and strategies for this business. Over the next three years we would like to see this business completely blossomed

Strong credentials METRA is one of the region’s larger sized distributors and is among the top three easily in KSA’s ICT channel. Mushtaq Khot, Business Unit Head, VBG at METRA speaks to VAR Arabia about how the company has strengthened its credentials as a leading Value Add Distributor

with UAE and Egypt. Currently, while we are on with our plans in these territories, we will also continue to further improve on this and continue to build our market share in other countries like Qatar and KSA. Please comment on your product portfolio strategy?

Our Strategy from Day one has to been to build our Business around five key verticals or Technologies.

These include Virtualization, where our major focus would be Desktop Virtualization, Networking Security, Compute and Storage, Business Continuity Planning & Disaster Recovery as well as Business Application & Consultancy.

We are aligning vendors, building skills, offering services around these technologies.e want to align non competing brands on these technology sets, so that we can build a good value based offering as well as a full solution platform to our business partners and to customers. We want to ensure

and flourishing as a 100+ million USD business. The Industry growth has given us lot of confidence to achieve this.

What are the value add services you have in place currently for your partners and what are you looking to add?

Every vertical or Technology has different requirements. Further, the requirements of different partners are different; some need a complete end to end support, while others may only need product enablement. We are building a proper channel enablement and development plan, where we can take care of everything from training the channel and enablement on product and the technology, helping build solution playbooks, solution architecting, demand generations engines and if the partner requires even implementation support. In short it’s a complete cycle wherein we can completely handhold a partner build his Value portfolio.

TechKnow | Barracuda Networks

The recently launched security capabilities for the Barracuda Web Application Firewall target the latest threat and attack strategies, including botnets and applicationlevel distributed denial of service (DDos) attacks.

“At Barracuda, we have a wellprotected user environment, protecting data with sophisticated security apparatus. We also offer security apps that can save premium applications that can provide deep level security product on a space where you don’t know what to expect,” said Wieland.

Wieland Alge General Manager EMEA

In a study by research firm, The Radicati Group, the typical corporate email user sends and receives about 105 email messages

gateway’s outbound scanning also protects email server reputations by blocking any spam from leaving an email server,” Wieland added.

Often victims operate complicated security networks that fail due to complexity. Barracuda, according to Wieland, offers simple and straight-forward solutions with little skilled intervention required in deployment and operation.

“BYOD has changed user behaviour.

To cater for the new security scenario, Barracuda launched the NG Firewall, a complete solution that integrates application awareness with an advanced network firewall,” Barracuda NG Firewall integrates

Filling a security void Online attacks against firms are relentless. A reliable firewall has become as much a basic business requirement as any.

Barracuda Networks is on the forefront in the fight to protect businesses and assets.

The growth of social media, despite its advantages of enhanced interactions between firms and partners, has exposed companies to increased threats. Barracuda Networks offers an array of IT security solutions to regional enterprises, big and small that can help combat these threats.

“With a few clicks, you can find out a lot about a firm, its management, employees etc. Social engineering combined with sophisticated malware are the two major basis of modern attacks,” said Wieland Alge Barracuda’s General Manager for the EMEA region.

per day. Roughly 19% of email messages that are delivered to a corporate email inbox are spam.

Not only do corporate require strong anti-virus protection but protection against spam and graymail. The Barracuda Spam & Virus Firewall, according to Wieland, is an affordable solution combining a powerful gateway appliance with cloud services to provide essential security functions surrounding email. “The cloud security layer shields email servers from inbound malware and DoS attacks while filtering out spam before it reaches the network’s perimeter. The

Layer 7 application control of rogue applications and full integrated user awareness; optimize network traffic flow via intelligent adaptive WAN routing; extend security and application control to every location and save considerably on management overhead through scalable and centralized management of all functions.

Wieland says that the lack of legacy systems has made the MEA region a leader in adoption of new technologies. Barracuda intends to be primed to seize that opportunity.

January 2013 | The Integrator

17

Cover Feature | Industry Outlook

A Buoyant Outlook ICT spending can be expected to rise further in 2013 as Cloud computing workloads, Big Data and BYOD phenomenons etc shape the year’s IT spending.

The past few years in succession have seen increased spending on IT infrastructures and 2013 will be no different. However, the shape of IT spending patterns will be ever so different as from the past as new Technologies and frameworks gain 18

The Integrator | January 2013

currency.

Cloud computing workloads, Big Data and BYOD phenomena etc would shape the year’s IT spending.

Basil Ayass, Enterprise Product Manager, Dell Middle East – Commercial Business says, “The usual suspects including Cloud

Computing and BYOD will be key to increased spend.

These concepts will drive increased adoption of tablets in the workplace. This in turn will see wireless networking becomes ubiquitous. With more freedom, and increased threats, I believe organizations will increase their focus on next-generation security devices and around the clock security services. To manage this new “platform” of computing, I predict more concentrated investments in monitoring and management solutions.”

The relatively high growth rates in

the IT infrastructure market in the past years as well as the predictions for the coming years are making the Middle East attractive and at the same time a competitive market.

Bashar Kilani, Territory Manager, IBM Middle East says, “We have witnessed over the past years many governments in the Middle East making significant investments in creating and upgrading their respective national technology infrastructures and investing in a new collaborative technology infrastructure, driving innovation that touches every citizen. At the same time, companies across different sectors appreciate that IT plays a crucial role in the success of every business.

The shifts IT infrastructure is now the backbone of not just Business but everyday life. Further enhancements in pre-existing IT deployments across verticals can be expected to continue through 2013. Consolidation and transition towards inclusion of cloud based IT services will be some of the defining trends.

commerce, banking function in a smarter way and help us all create a “Smarter Planet”.

He adds, “Banking, Telecommunications, Airlines, Public Sector, Oil and Gas, Government are all sectors that will all go through transformational phases in their industries.

Businesses need to be more competitive through driving costs down and being more agile on their investment plans to increase revenue and profitability. IBM’s key focus priorities are Business Analytics, Smarter Planet, Cloud Computing, Next Generation Data Centers as well as consulting and business process outsourcing are all relevant to the key initiatives for these industries.”

The momentum is therefore not limited to only the key verticals.

Of course verticals like Oil & Gas, Banking, Education etc will still see larger IT spending as they further seek to enhance their productivity and services.

Basil Ayass Enterprise Product Manager Dell Middle East

cloud computing, 2013 is expected to mark the beginning of a transformation that could see the channel completely change from its current form by the end of the decade.

Philippe Fosse, VP, EMEA Channel, EMC says, “Already the roles and responsibilities of the different channel entities are blurring.

Kilani says, “Information technology Service Integrators (Sis) are is evolving rapidly, and now forms becoming resellers; resellers are an invisible layer that increasingly becoming service providers; and touches every aspect of our even end users are becoming lives. Power grids, traffic control, service providers. This readjustment healthcare, water supplies, food The transformation could affect of the channel is taking place and energy, along with most of the the channel considerably as well quicker in the telecoms sector than world's financial transactions, now according to Philippe Fosse, Vice in most others, a change forced depend on information technology. President EMEA Channels, EMC. on operators by prevailing market That’s why governments and While 2012 saw the market change conditions. In just two to three businesses globally and here in rapidly under the influence of years, telecoms the region operators will will continue no longer be to focus on "Information technology is evolving rapidly, and able to rely developing IT now forms an invisible layer that increasingly on voice for infrastructure touches every aspect of our lives. Power grids, revenue, a state which is vital traffic control, healthcare, water supplies, of affairs that to make cities, is forcing them food and energy, along with most of the education, to look into the world's financial transactions, now depend on healthcare, development water, information technology."

Basil says, “All verticals continue to invest and grow. In particular, we’re seeing large growth potential in IT spending from the public and education sectors as governments continue to invest in public services and quality of life solutions.”

January 2013 | The Integrator

19

Cover Feature | Industry Outlook

infrastructure. They are looking for new ways of delivering and benefitting from IT without heavy investments in infrastructure – such as Cloud Computing, SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and even IaaS (infrastructure as a Service) as well as other new computing aspects. Worldwide platform as a service (PaaS) revenue for instance is on pace to reach $1.2 billion in 2012, up from $900 million in 2011, according to Gartner.

Bashar Kilani Territory Manager IBM, Middle East

of service portfolios. A major part of this will be the provision of Infrastructure-as-a-Service as well as IT-as-a-Service. “

Bashar says, “SMB and Enterprise customers in the Middle East are facing a number of challenges and opportunities at the same time. With increasing costs and operational complexity, clients need to optimize their IT systems making them more efficient, faster and cost effective. “ Rising momentum for Big Data Big Data and tools to analyze the growing volumes of data will be among the priorities of larger Businesses. Companies who will get more Intelligence out of their data are expected to differentiate themselves better, provide more tailored services, acquire more customers and hold the edge over the ones who won't. In 2013, Big Data is forecast to drive $34 billion of IT spending according to Gartner.

The dramatic increase in the amount of data from both Internet and mobile applications will of course require more computing power and storage space, but the ability to analyse and interpret data to support optimized decision

making and enhanced customer service will be a key differentiator in the years to come. Clients also need to be assured of the security of their IT environment and that sensitive data and critical systems are protected.

Bashar says, “Organisations are reaching far beyond the structured tables of databases.

They are analyzing the streaming, unstructured data generated by events as they occur in the world, and acting upon those insights— from customer preferences or patient outcomes, to process inefficiencies or safety—in real time.

They are integrating analytics into the way they work."

However, we still seem to be somewhere at the beginning of this journey. The focus would be on ramping up storage infrastructure that is not challenged by the deluge of data. According to Gartner, most of the current spending is used in adapting traditional solutions to the big data demands — machine data, social data, widely varied data, unpredictable velocity, and so on — and only $4.3 billion in software sales will be driven directly by demands for new big data functionality in 2012. In the next few years, vertical specific tools would be one of the value add propositions that the channel can look at as one of their offerings.

He comments further, “Such changes will be common over the next three years as resellers build up propositions to become or provide further expertise to service providers, or broker relationships between customers and service providers. It is probable that the traditional mix of end user, channel, alliance and service organisations will change, merge or disappear.

However, these new opportunities will also drive profitability as Fosse, VP, EMEA Channels, EMC successful vendors will increasingly says, “Big Data is one of the hottest allow trusted partners to provide topics in the IT world at the professional moment. While services, it will have an opening up impact on the “ Big Data and tools to analyze the growing new revenue channel in 2013, volumes of data will be among the priorities of streams.” this will mostly larger Businesses. Companies who will get more be centred on Customers are Intelligence out of their data are expected to the provision of looking at the differentiate themselves better, provide more scalable storage best ways to tailored services, acquire more customers and hold and data glean value management the edge over the ones who won't.” from the IT 20

The Integrator | January 2013

technologies. Greater changes will occur over the next few years; however the main focus for 2013 will be in helping businesses manage their data from an infrastructure point of view and in extracting valuable insights from it.”

He adds, “The next stage in the evolution of Big Data in the channel – the provision of sector-specific analytical propositions that SIs can build services around – won’t take place until further down the line.”

Towards Increased cloud computing workloads Customers will look to increasing their cloud computing workloads across segments in 2013. Cloud computing is gaining the trust of customers by the day and is increasingly understood as an effective way to swiftly introduce and deploy necessary IT applications and services as required.

Basil adds, “Cloud computing will continue to grow in the large enterprise segment. Most companies spent 2012 in the exploration phase, however, I believe 2013 will see enterprises start the planning and production stages. All organizations must quantify the risk of falling behind if they wait too long to embrace this technology and make a decision accordingly.”

IBM is helping enterprises build private clouds in areas central to their business, while also enabling them, like consumers, to tap into cloud services provided by IBM and others.

Bashar says, “Definitely, Cloud computing is an emerging IT delivery model that can significantly reduce IT costs & complexities while improving workload optimization and service delivery. Companies and governments are increasing

their cloud computing workloads."

He adds, “Cloud, which delivers business and IT services over the network, is transforming the way data centers are designed and software is developed, providing far more efficiency and flexibility.

That has the potential to change the way many industries work. But it requires addressing important issues of security and privacy. So, enterprises seek not just clouds, but smarter clouds.""

BYOD, a pervasive phenomenon As the BYOD phenomenon become more pervasive in enterprise, it will influence IT spending in the enterprise segment in the region.

BYOD pretty much looks like an irreversible trend and organizations have begun to reconcile and simultaneously looks at having regulatory policies in place.

Bashar says, “As the BYOD trend is becoming more pervasive in the enterprise, CIOs in the region realize that BYOD is here to stay and that the focus should be more on ensuring the protection of corporate data. Cloud services, global integrated computing paradigms and BYOD have become more pervasive in the past few years. We already see that many companies are adopting the BYOD trend in the region and started also to allow personalization in devices, applications and data which improves productivity and job satisfaction. CIOs are focusing more on a BYOD policy which gives employees the choice over their computing environment but at the same time preserving the high standards of data and infrastructure security and well as integrated corporate workflows and business processes. “ Investments in network security will be a key priority for enterprises who want to zealously guard their data.

Philippe Fosse Vice President EMEA Channel, EMC

While more and more companies are instituting BYOD programs in place as they see BYOD as a means to increased worker productivity, nearly all companies that do permit BYOD have policies in place that require employees to install security software as a precaution .

Basil says, “Employees today expect and demand the freedom to use their own devices at work to be productive at any time and from anywhere. As the BYOD phenomenon gains momentum, we anticipate that IT spending in the enterprise segment will shift away from the traditional PC and towards security, management, robust networking, and thin clients."

In sum, even as these shifts dominate IT spending, all the major domains included will see growth as there will be related investments always called for whether in storage, networking, security and servers when companies seek to enhance their IT systems to benefit from these Technology leaps.

January 2013 | The Integrator

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TechKnow | Aviat Networks

largest LTE installation as well as LTE networks in the Middle East.

In addition, the mission-critical attributes of the solution (e.g., reliability, strong security) make it ideal for security, defense and utility applications. We are a global leader for each of these types of deployments, too.

Karl Osswald General Manager Aviat Networks Dubai

A strong legacy Aviat Networks sees a bright future for Wireless specialist VARs in the Gulf Region. Karl Osswald, General Manager, Aviat Networks Dubai discusses some of these trends in the industry and the solutions the company offers.

Please discuss the range of solutions you have for different segments?

Aviat Networks has been providing microwave radio solutions for more than 50 years to a variety of market segments including mobile operators, defense and security agencies, utilities and energy companies, and more recently, low latency or high frequency trading 22

The Integrator | January 2013

applications. We do most of our business in the still-growing mobile segment, but we consider the other wireless verticals very high growth areas, and we’re seeing some very interesting demand in these segments. Our Eclipse Packet Node platform is a highcapacity, futureproof solution that is supporting numerous LTE network deployments including the world’s

Discuss the partner strategy for you as a company. Do you work with integrators in different segments?

Aviat Networks does a substantial amount of business in all market verticals with integrators.

Integrators are a key part of our go-to-market strategy in the Middle East. We are focused on developing vertical market segments in the Carrier, Military and Security, Finance & Banking, Utilities and Petrochemical markets.

Because of these extensive market opportunities, Aviat Networks is always on the lookout for bestin-class value-added resellers, systems integrators and services partners. Because Wireless Backhaul is a highly skilled discipline, Aviat is committed to making skills development investment in our partners, ensuring that our mutual customers benefit from best-inclass solutions.

Do you see growing demand for deploying wireless backhaul solutions, especially as highspeed wireless connectivity becomes pervasive?

Absolutely! The growth of LTE represents a major opportunity for wireless backhaul solutions, and this is just getting started in most regions. In addition, machine-tomachine (M2M) communications— in defense, security, utility and financial applications—and especially video is driving large bandwidth demands in the backhaul networks. More and more,

TechKnow | Commscope

high-speed connected devices drive the major projects in these verticals. Regional forecasts indicate that this demand will continue to increase exponentially and will require specialist backhaul vendors such as Aviat and its partners to play a significant role in the new deployments and expansions within these vertical market segments.

What are the services you provide? Are they delivered directly or through partners?

Aviat employs multiple service strategies, depending on local market requirements. In most cases, Aviat works closely with local partners in the supply, installation and maintenance of wireless backhaul solutions to all vertical market segments. Aviat has also embarked on fully managed services offerings to mobile phone and security agencies with the help of local service partners. In all cases, the highest level of service is provided to the end user though qualified and competent partners, which fulfill Aviat and ISO TL9001 standards of service. Aviat remains committed to meeting best-inclass service expectations for all our customers and partners in all Middle East markets.

Discuss your focus in the Middle East and the year-on-year growth Long term, sustainable partnership is at the forefront of Aviat’s focus on the Middle East. Aviat sees that the Middle East is strategic to our company’s long-term growth objectives and will continue to invest in resources and qualified partners in the region. The key focus will be partnership with local companies, systems integrators and service partners, who have focused business initiatives in our strategic verticals of defense, security, utilities, financials and petrochemicals.

Network management reimagined Maintaining complex networks within large organizations is a daunting task for any IT manager.

Commscope hopes to take the complexity from network management with newly launched solution ImVision, as Matias Peluffo, VP, Growth Solutions at Commscope explains.

Matias Peluffo VP, Growth Solutions Commscope

What’s new about imVision and why does it matter in the market We have rebranded imVision.

Two of the new imVision components are the imVision Controller and the imVision System Manager 7.0 software. We have been busy re-architecting this intelligent infrastructure and management solution that is set to provide functionality much enhanced from the earlier iPatch solution. ImVision is an all-round network management solution offering IT managers a complete solution that provides them a real-time view of their global network that is accurate and easy to maintain while also preparing them for future network demands. ImVision further enhances its offering with connected hardware and software.

What support are you offering in the back-end to make sure that imVision performs at optimal levels?

We hope to introduce additional optical fiber capabilities as the market has grown in terms of density and the use of MPO parallel fiber capabilities. We are going to be introducing new products that enhance density for LC and MPO types of fiber connectivity. On the software and controller side, we will enhance the solution with real time locationbased energy management capabilities in which we will make use of Cisco’s energywise energy management profile capabilities available for Cisco Catalyst customers. This allows for the application of energy management profiles to individual switch ports so

January 2013 | The Integrator

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TechKnow | Commscope

to be much that you can turn on and off concerned with "As the market moves more towards intelligent devices in the reliability and infrastructure like imVision, we are actively off-peak hours robustness and looking for a new breed of business partners that for example to the visibility are not just capable of installing passive solutions maximize and of the cloud but also able to bridge the gap between the minimize energy infrastructure. physical and the logical infrastructure." consumption.

Fiber cabling We have a novel for large way of applying datacenters and anything from market research energy management profiles on a intelligent infrastructure is the key to market sentiment to energy real-time location basis by utilizing to provide that robust visibility into management and security. As the information that we hold in the network. you start to realize the benefits our system in the monitoring of of big data and rely on big data connectivity. For instance, we can What does intelligent analysis, you need to rely on a very ensure that every time an energyinfrastructure mean for the solid foundation in terms of the wise profile is applied to a room or channel as this new technology physical layer infrastructure that is an outlet, we identify the correct may require system integrators high performance be it in copper, switch port for the room or outlet possessing of different skill sets? fiber or wireless. This infrastructure that is connected to regardless As the market moves more towards is increasingly intelligent and of any changes that may have intelligent infrastructure like can also provide some of the happened in the connectivity. This imVision, we are actively looking information that can be used in greatly enhances the capability of for a new breed of business big data analysis combined with applying location-based energy partners that are not just capable other sources. As an example of management and removing the of installing passive solutions our intelligent solutions, ImVision manual configuration required to but also able to bridge the gap do so. This is an area that we will be can discover devices connected between the physical and the extending our solutions into energy to any access point it is connected logical infrastructure. This requires to so that alarms can be triggered management. We have developed partners that have networking when new devices are discovered. a proof-of-concept integration infrastructure expertise from LAN This way, necessary action can be working together with Cisco to to SAN networking, to VMS and taken if it’s desired to address the demonstrate how they work and audio visual and are true integrators presence of those devices on the there’s tremendous customer that can deliver cabling, hardware network. interest in terms of the type of and software solutions. ImVision energy consumption requirements. solution provide opportunities for As a company whose background is solidly cable, what those partners to develop their own Discuss Commscope’s answer integration or software solutions does our increasingly wireless to Big Data and the capacity and can take advantage of the universe mean for Commscope? of your products to handle the information that we collect through More wireless incidentally also deluge of information currently means more cable; now in addition infrastructure monitoring and overwhelming network systems to the cables you are using for fixed deliver their own solutions. This has What is important in big data devices, you also need cables to the seen some of our business partners is not the size; the issue will be access points. As we become more able to analyze data from many transform themselves from just dependent on cloud infrastructure heterogeneous sources and be intelligent infrastructure business for delivery of information be it in able to discern patterns and make partners to aspects of software decisions based on the relationship wireless or wired form, the cloud development that they can offer to infrastructure becomes more between those data sources. We’ve leverage the capabilities provided cable intensive. Now you need seen application of big data to by imVision.

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The Integrator | January 2013

Point2point | Comguard

Mohammed Mobasseri, Senior VP, Comguard

Government Agencies have been leading in terms of spending and focusing on investing in IT Infrastructure. This trend has been predominant for several years and hence we see it continuing in 2013 too.

Which are the likely areas in security to show increased spending?

While this could be vary depending on SMB and Enteprise requirements, generally, the top areas which we are expecting more this year are

seen emerge in the past year is the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon in the enterprise environment. There are numerous reasons for companies to allow this to happen including lowering cost and increasing employee satisfaction as many don’t want to carry multiple devices. While there are issues like security and ownership of data that will need to confronted, the trend is only beginning to gain momentum and I believe our region still needs time to shift to BYOD. This could take perhaps a few years from now.

Security specialist Comguard is a leading Security VAD and holds several leading security brands in its portfolio including Kaspersky, Infowatch, GFI, Gateprotect, watchguard etc. Mohammad Mobasseri, senior VP at Comguard speaks about the company’s outlook for the year.

Do you anticipate that IT security will continue to be an area of priority spending?

Owing to a recent spate of security threats and outbreaks which have increased drastically, we are expecting a significant leap in investment in IT infrastructure as security occupies the priority of all businesses and government agencies. There is an increasing awareness across the verticals with the growing dependence on IT to ensure high levels of availability of services.

End Point Security, Core Network Security ( Including Firewall, UTM, Penetration Testing tools, etc), Web Security Solutions ( Including Vulnerability Scanners, Web Application Firewall etc … ) etc.

The pattern of expected spending in 2013 on security is in line with the trends seen from 2009 onwards.

The trend is clearly towards increased investments in IT security.

Are customers in the region more confident about the security aspects of moving to cloud based solutions?

Many SMBs are excited about cloud based services and we have seen reasonable growth in SMB segment spending on cloud based solutions.

However, we face challenges in the enterprise segment as these customers are more wary about cloud. We are however noticing a shift in their stance and this will reflect positively in 2013.

Which verticals will hold the key in the region in the year?

Banking, Oil and Gas and

How is BYOD likely to influence trends in IT security investments?

One of the clear trends we have

On the other hand, there is still a need for mobile applications of the technologies that enterprises use and their development would take further time and could be another reason that might slow this down this transition.

What are the key priorities that Comguard kicks off this New Year with?

We are focusing on increasing our presence and extending our reach in new geographic locations.

Also on our agenda is the plan to expand our channel and help our existing channel to be able to expand their business in their region. We have also added new products in the end of 2012. We have worked out a strategy to hit the market and streamlining our initiatives in 2013. On our priority is also cloud based solutions that we are keen to follow up with.

January 2013 | The Integrator

25

TechKnow | Adobe

Creative Cloud comes with cloud storage and the ability to sync to any device. The service will be available for individuals or teams.

The team option allows members of your creative team to seamlessly share files from any device wherever they may be.

How are Adobe applications now supporting mobile interfaces?

Working with PDF files on the

and they can share images through social sites like Facebook.

Are you are also now targeting hobbyists and the average consumer with some products?

We have launched several versions of our software that anyone with average IT skills can be able to use.

The most popular one is Photoshop Elements for home and students a software that is selling very fast in

Adobe looks to the future It’s a busy time at Adobe; not only does the company have to launch new versions of its software, it has to simultaneously polish its mobile and cloud credentials. Abdallah Saqqa, GM, MENA region for Adobe Systems looks at how the company is accomplishing all this.

Abdallah Saqqa GM, MENA Region Adobe System

How do your cloud offerings stack up against traditional discbased software?

Cloud is the hot topic right now. We began offering cloud and subscription services over the last year on a limited basis internationally and the service is ready to make its Middle East debut in the second quarter of this year. This is an area we are ready to put much focus on. With Adobe Creative Cloud, a monthly membership gives you the entire collection of CS6 tools. Creative Cloud subscribers also automatically get access to new products and updates as soon as they’re released.

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The Integrator | January 2013

go is now simple and easy. The mobile application enables users to fill out forms, sign documents, and make comments right from their iPad, iPhone, or Android devices. This service is offered through the Adobe Touch Apps.

With these apps, users can design, edit, and present their work using their tablet. One can use a stylus or just your fingertip, and the intuitive touchscreen features provide easy, precise control for a variety of creative tasks. Each app is integrated with Adobe Creative Cloud, so you can transfer and refine your work in Adobe Creative Suite software or view, access, and share it from almost anywhere.

Photoshop is now also available on tablets with the Adobe Photoshop Touch. This application allows users work on files up to 12 megapixels,

the retail segment. This is driven by social media which has created a lot of enthusiasm for photography among the general population.

Discuss new products in the market for 2013 The new Acrobat XI Pro offers an updated and more user friendly version of the ever popular Acrobat.

We now have a new and more streamlined interface to add or replace content or images. You can now more easily change fonts and typeface, size, adjust alignment, or add superscripts or subscripts on a PDF file. The Acrobat faithful will also appreciate new options that allow them to flip, rotate, crop, resize or replace images on PDF files. These features, and more, should ensure that Acrobat remains on top of every Creative’s wish list.

Insight | eScan

Govind Rammurthy, MD & CEO, eScan

The challenge of securing smartphones With more and more people switching over to Smartphones, there will be a definite increase in the use of cloud services – be it for enterprises or end users. However, 80% Smartphone users are still unaware of the cyber threats and this calls for urgent customer education writes Govind Rammurthy, MD & CEO, eScan.

Information security is probably one of the most discerning factors that have plagued the Web. The term information security however is not anymore limited to securing data stored on desktops, laptops or servers. Smartphones are beginning to play a much larger role in the distribution of malware. In this day and age, protecting and blocking information theft has become the number one priority not only for enterprises but for users as well.

The rise in Smartphones was inevitable and with technology progressing at such pace, it won’t come in as a surprise to see them replacing their desktop counterparts in the coming years.

Smartphones have also made way for larger known devices such as the Tablet PC. When combined, these two devices are like a powerhouse filled with options of running and executing your daily tasks – something that laptops are also designed to do but with the added

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The Integrator | January 2013

weight and bulk. Now who would want to carry a device that’s three times heavier and at least seven times bulkier than a Smartphone.

There was a time when the socalled IT gurus had predicted a PC for every household. With technology progressing at such rapid pace Smartphones have eaten into the sales of both Desktop PCs and Laptops. From big brands such as Samsung, HTC, and Nokia to lesser known brands – the mobile market is flooded with options that cover all price levels.

Mobile devices are reshaping the way people communicate across the network. Close to 30% of adults in India gather news using a mobile device, while the recent Olympic event attracted over 40% of mobile users. Growth wise also, Mobile apps are generating 100% revenue per year. On the tablet front, 80% of iPad users used the tablet for browsing the web. In addition, over

600-million users used the mobile platform to log into Facebook.

Mobile users in China have surpassed desktop users and we are going to witness this globally in the coming years. Mobile Internet users in China have also grown by 192% since 2010.

Smartphones and Tablets are also giving rise to Cloud-based storages which basically allow users to store data as well as personal information.

Till date, the use of Cloud-based services has attracted a limited number of users. This will however change in the next couple of years as the number of service providers are slowly increasing by the numbers. We have seen Google’s Cloud Drive, SugarSync, Dropbox, iCloud, Box, Carbonite and Mozy cater to the needs of Smartphone users. The freedom that phones provide – Smartphones in this case – are nothing like what they were 5 years back. They give you direct access and control over emails, files,

the phone.

A number of "The biggest problem at hand is the use of thirdtargeted attacks party or independent app stores. With China are currently leading the charts, there are many who use this as focussed on various a gateway to download apps that are otherwise governments payable on Google Play. " and companies, while 20% are targeted towards non-governmental and non-business organizations.

With so much happening in the of giving access rights to an With more and more people Smartphone & Tablet segment, it application when requested. Well, switching over to Smartphones, goes without a doubt that targeted over 95% of most Android users attacks and theft of personal overlook the need to check the type there will be a definite increase information will see a definite of permission an app asks for before in the use of cloud services – be it for enterprises or end users. growth with regard to this segment. installation. The use of an Anti-Virus Again, customer education plays a Now, since Desktops and Laptops is also limited to just 15% of most very important role. According to cannot be written off completely, Android users. In other words, 80% statistics, it is seen that small and there will be instances where are still unaware of the dangers a medium businesses are simply malware will be programmed to Smartphone is likely to bring. putting their data in the hands of run and execute on both PCs and third parties without taking note of Smartphones/Tablets. We have seen On the positive side, users who the security being implemented. this in the past, and this trend will stick to Google’s very own app store Over 75% of organizations are set new standards in the malware are less likely to get infected by making use of at least one of the industry. malware, as the company is quick in many cloud based service but a taking down malicious applications mere 30% ensure that the data held The Android Operating System (such as the ones that take more by external providers are being attracts over 75% of most information than required). encrypted.

Smartphones which also makes However, they do run the risk of it the most sought after target by leaking sensitive data as a number Therefore, it makes it essential for malware writers. As recent as two of apps are made to send back user private cloud providers to do a months, there have been close to related information (mainly used for minimum of three things: 200,000 suspicious programs posted marketing purposes). The biggest - Be clear about their prospects and in various app stores. Google Play problem at hand is the use of thirdtheir approach to security. State itself has been home to embedded party or independent app stores. what options are available to adopt, malware. Instances where rogue With China leading the charts, without compromising security in apps pose as legitimate applications there are many who use this as a the process. have been growing by the numbers gateway to download apps that are - Communicate in standardized and users fail to make the difference otherwise payable on Google Play. language and classify the various between a legitimate app and security risks and solutions, thus malicious app.

There has also been evidence allowing companies to compare of the growth of hackers who different providers easily when In the last three months, there are more focussed on various making purchasing decisions. have been records of over 35,000 military agencies and sensitive - Educate end-users on what rogue applications that are made installations. The apps, currently they need to look for technically to gather information on the user. under development can be made & commercially to ensure data With that being said, users need to siphon off information and security when migrating to a cloudto understand the importance install additional components on based solution. photographs, document editors, etc.

More so, they even allow users to connect remotely to their laptops or desktops, which can either, be at home or office.

January 2013 | The Integrator

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Insight | EMC

The Biggest Themes of the IT Industry in 2013 Chuck Hollis VP - Global Marketing & CTO EMC Corporation

#1

IT Continues To Move From Cost Savings To Value Generation Following the transition of the years past, customer conversations will continue to focus on "how do we generate more value for the business?� blurring the lines between IT and business strategies.

However, the vast majority of IT organizations weren't constructed as valuegenerating entities. Most have to invest in a non-trivial organizational transformation to achieve this state. So the topic of IT transformation becomes extremely relevant

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The Integrator | January 2013

Chuck Hollis, VP- Global Marketing and CTO at EMC Corporation shares his views on some of the expected themes that will shape the year.

-- true in 2011, more true in 2012, and now very mainstream during 2013.

#2

Digital Business Models Become More Important Than The Ingredients As a result on rich industry discussion on the latest technology trends, there's now an interesting acronym floating around- SMAC (social, mobile, analytics, cloud).

Hollis believes the year ahead will see the development of a "digital business model" -- a complete re-envisioning of an organization's value proposition using entirely digital constructs bringing each of these elements

together with a set of leadership initiatives to transform the business.

#3

Executive Literacy Become Important A growing concern in the current environment is that many business leaders don't have the required background to understand how to use technology effectively in their businesses. In a world that's becoming dominated by digital business models, wouldn't it make sense to demand at least a conceptual grasp of technologies by business leaders throughout the organization? The IT rallying cry for increased

executive digital literacy will gather even strength during 2013.

#4

#5

#6

Enterprise Users Go 100% Mobile -- With Or Without IT 2013 will be the year when most enterprise IT organizations fully come to terms with the fact that pervasive mobility is no longer just a want, it is a need and start the unenviable work of building enterprise mobility environments that bring users back into the fold by offering a superior set of services.

A New Wave Of Analytics Addicts In The Business In 2013, the world will witness new platform capabilities such as Analytics-as-aService that will inevitably be complemented by management education on how to put these new tools to work to continually improve the business.

While there is no doubt that the world will still need traditional BI professionals (and the newer breed of data science), executive analytical proficiency will quickly become part of the modern repertoire expected of business leaders around the globe.

Big Data Analytics Starts To Change IT Thinking Big data analytics is one of those tools that can be applied to just about any thorny business problem, and that includes the business of running IT itself. The year ahead will see the big data analytics discussion take root with IT professionals around the globe as toolset that they

can use to better run their own businesses.

#7

App Factories Become The New Model Applications are ideally fresh instantiations of business ideas, put into practice as quickly as possible, learned from and enhanced.

Unfortunately, the norm seems to be development processes heavily biased towards really big applications with big teams and big investments.

“That's going to have to change before long: it ought to be as easy for someone in the business to specify an application idea and see a rough prototype as it is, for example, to hire a contractor or two. EMC has practiced this idea in their own business, and it's paying off handsomely,” says Hollis. He predicts that 2013 will bring a dramatically increased interest in this topic, especially in larger enterprise IT settings.

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Everything Goes "Software Defined" -- And "As-AService" “If ‘software-defined’ describes how IT services will be supplied, then ‘as a service’ will describe how they will be demanded: published for easy consumption when needed and not before,” says Hollis.

In 2013, more and more IT vendors pivoting towards the new supply and demand concepts: IT capabilities produced through dynamic instantiation of virtual instances, and variably consumed as a service.

IT Process Engineers Will Rule The Roost Delivering a service (any service, really) is only as good as the processes and automation behind it, and no one is ever done examining and improving the processes behind any service. Continual process re-engineering, at both the macro and micro level, is the norm in so many disciplines today, and it's headed straight for IT. In these more progressive settings, you'll see a clear category of senior process jockeys, who are empowered to look at things crossfunctionally and drive meaningful change in the way things are done.

The New School Of Security Will Be In Session The year ahead will see the development of a relatively new set of philosophies, processes, models and skills to define the new school cyber-security. New tools will definitely be required such as the use of big data and predictive analytics, but will be just one visible icon in a much broader picture of substantial change and evolution.

In 2012, it was mostly the vendor community arguing for a fundamental change in approach. In 2013, I'm predicting we'll hear even louder voices from the users of these technologies, and in particular our national governments.

January 2013 | The Integrator

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eyetech

NETGEAR 10 Gigabit M7100 series Overview: The NETGEAR® 10 Gigabit M7100 series consists of a fully managed, low-latency, line-rate 10G Copper "Base-T" switch solution; 24 ports 10GBase-T (RJ45) that support Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit speeds for server, storage and network progressive upgrade; 4 ports SFP+ that broaden 10 Gigabit connectivity for 1G/10G fiber uplinks and other DAC connections.

Shuttle DS61 Overview: The DS61 solution designed for the digital signage market, powered by H61 Express Chipset, supports Intel Core i high-performance processor, with dual display interface for highdefinition output capability, greatly upgrade the digital signage display quality and enhance customer viewing experience. The 43mm thin case of the DS61, is the H61 solution thinnest

M7100 series is ideal for all organizations considering reliable, affordable and simple 10 Gigabit Ethernet Top-of-Rack server access layer; and high-density, high-performance 10GbE backbone architectures. M7100 series models are built upon L3 hardware platform while Layer 2+ software package allows for better budget optimization. M7100 series Layer 2+ software package provides straight forward IP static routing capabilities for physical interfaces, VLANs and subnets.

on the market, and also supports VESA Mount capability, built-in RS232 / RS422 / RS485 dedicated interface to allow broader and extensible diverse application. The DS61 with low energy-saving and low noise design can save your expenses and offer you the perfect solution for high-efficiency digital signage, Kiosk, POS and many other performances demanding applications.

NETGEAR M7100 series is backed by NETGEAR ProSafe Lifetime Hardware Warranty.

Key features • 24 ports copper 10GBase-T / 4 ports SFP+ • Backward compatible Gigabit and Fast Ethernet • Line-rate for virtualization and convergence • Innovative multi-vendor Auto-iSCSI optimization • Dual redundant PSUs / Fan trays • Designed for top-of-rack and distribution capabilities

Key features • Support HDMI / DVI-I dual output • Dual Gigabit LAN • Support RS232/RS422/RS485 • (2) USB 3.0, (2) USB 2.0 ports • Solid capacitors offer stability in high working environment temperatures • Slim design 43mm thick • Comes with VESA mount • 90W adapter

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The Integrator | January 2013

Cyberoam NG series appliances Overview: Cyberoam NG series appliances are network security appliances offering gigabit ports and security throughputs needed for future network performance in SOHO/SMBs. The NG “Next-Generation” series of appliances come pre-loaded with CyberoamOS – the most intelligent and powerful Cyberoam firmware till date. The new firmware tightly integrates with the hardware for network and crypto acceleration to deliver high performance. The CyberoamOS also extracts full performance from a multi-core platform, along with offering minimum latency and improved processing speed with use of optimized Interrupt rates and FastPath technology. The NG series appliances come with a powerful hardware consisting of Gigahertz processors for nano second security processing along with Gigabit Ethernet ports and high port density. The unique design and robust components used in the NG series support high speed I/O throughputs for better performance as well as protect against tough environment conditions, including power surge and fluctuations.

Key features: • Stateful Inspection Firewall • VPN (SSL VPN & IPSec) • Web Filtering • Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware • Anti-Spam • Intrusion Prevention System • Data Leakage Prevention • IM Management & Control • Bandwidth Management • Multiple Link Management • On-Appliance Reporting

StorCenter px12-400r Overview: The Iomega StorCenter px12-400r Network Storage Array offers high end, enterprise-class network storage features at price points suited for smaller businesses. Powered by enterprise-class EMC storage technology, the StorCenter px12-400r is ideal for production data stores, server virtualization, backupto-disk target and video surveillance. The px12-400r provides the superior features and reliability that you need for your mission critical data and with built-in McAfee VirusScan Enterprise, your data is safe from viruses and other malicious threats. The StorCenter px12-400r includes many enterprise-class features, such as the EMC Atmos Cloud Connector, EMC Avamar data deduplication as well as deviceto-device data replication to ensure data integrity at both the source and the replication target. Businesses will appreciate extremely high throughput with quad-Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and an Intel Core i3 Processor plus link aggregation (port bonding), Server Class hard drives, and the option of solid state drives.

Key features: • Iomega’s latest network storage array powered

by EMC storage technology with sister company software innovations, including EMC Atmos Cloud Connector and EMC Avamar data deduplication • Ideal for production data stores, server virtualization, backup-to-disk target and video surveillance applications • 12-bay, 2U network storage array ready for use today with 4TB* Server Class hard drives and the option of solid state drives • Available in diskless, partially populated or fully populated configurations up to 48TB in a single array • Included McAfee VirusScan Enterprise provides industry-leading anti-virus protection

January 2013 | The Integrator

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Stats & Trends

More redirects from legitimate sites 2012 was a year of new platforms and modern malware—what was once a homogeneous world of Windows systems, is now a landscape made up of diverse platforms. Modern malware is taking advantage of these trends, creating new challenges for IT security professionals, according to Sophos.

The increasing mobility of data in corporate environments has forced IT staff to bcome even more agile. 2012 was also a retro year driven by resurgence in traditional malware attacks, specifically malware distributed via the web.

For example, more than 80 percent of attacks were redirects, the majority of which were from legitimate websites that were hacked.

Although some websites are created with the intention of infecting visitors, legitimate websites continue to be a popular target for cybercriminals, as once they are compromised, they will infect completely unsuspecting internet users. While a large proportion of cybercrime continues to be opportunistic, Sophos believes that, in 2013, increased availability of malware testing platforms — some even providing criminals with money back guarantees – will make it more likely for malware to slip through traditional business security systems. As a result, we can expect to see an increase in the number of incidents where attackers have gained and sustained surreptitious access to corporate networks.

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The Integrator | January 2013

SDN gaining momentum Software-defined networking (SDN) is gaining momentum within the broader enterprise and datacenter networking industry. According to new research from International Data Corporation (IDC), SDN is a rapidly emerging set of scalable, flexible technologies that have networking vendors, cloud service providers, enterprise IT, and industry pundits all sitting up and taking notice.

The worldwide SDN market for the enterprise and cloud service provider segments is forecast to grow from $360 million in 2013 to a robust $3.7 billion by 2016. This forecast for the SDN ecosystem includes the associated network infrastructure, SDN applications and control plane solutions, and SDN-related professional services.

"SDN's ability to decouple network logic and policies from the underlying network equipment allows for a more programmable network," said Rohit Mehra, Vice President, Network Infrastructure at IDC. "Providing better alignment with the underlying applications, this programmability allows for greater levels of flexibility, innovation, and control in the network. Logic and policies that can be defined, changed, and modified result in a more dynamic network, providing the scale network administrators so desperately crave."

Software-defined networking (SDN) has brought innovation and change to the networking market. In many respects, SDN is riding the wave of a "perfect storm," with several market and technology factors converging: • Growth of cloud services/applications • Focus on converged infrastructures (compute/ storage/network) and on the software-defined datacenter • Lessons learned (and benefits derived) from server virtualization • Customer frustration with the network's inability to provide the flexibility required to support virtualization, cloud, and mobility SDN also presents a tremendous opportunity as many large and small incumbent vendors strategize on how to deliver on the SDN promise.

In addition, a number of start-up companies have launched their portfolios or are in advanced pilots and trial deployments.