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PA G E S 5 2 VOLUME O5 | ISSUE 08 MARCH 2018 WWW.EC-MEA.COM

The

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Disruption

ARUL JOSE VIGIN, SENIOR IT MANAGER, DISPUTE RESOLUTION AUTHORITY

INDIAECM012018

Automation, innovation and convenience leads the way for DIFC’s DRA in putting paradoxes together - amicable dispute resolution. / 32

M I M ECAST: B U I LDI NG TH E TR UST /45

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EDITORIAL

Digital TransformationFrom Buzzword to Reality

ANUSHREE DIXIT A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M

February and March have been eventful (literally) months in the UAE. We saw numerous summits, symposiums, conferences and leadership events being hosted in the last 2 months that focused on everything pertaining to IoT, AI, Machine learning, WAN, BI…..etc. I am sure a majority of us have been a part of these summits as well. 8 out of 10 keynotes and presentations focused on one thing— Digital transformation. Regardless of the organization or the solution that it provided (security, storage, networking, mobility, infrastructure….) digital transformation was the crux of all. While vendors talked about their solutions in empowering the digital transformation, the channel partners showcased how they are redefining or revisiting their business models to accelerate the journey. No sector is untouched! Our cover feature this time focuses on how digitization has disrupted the legal sector and how DRA (Dispute Resolution Authority) is riding the bandwagon of this disruption with its ‘Court of the future’ and Smart Tribunal services for providing easier access to justice. When Digital transformation is knocking hard, why not open the doors wide and welcome! The stage is set for the fourth edition of The Future IT Summit. To be held on 14th March at The Burj Al Arab Hotel, The Future IT Summit 2018, held under the patronage of The Ministry of Economy, UAE will be decoding the crucial aspects of this digital transformation and present some thought-provoking case studies and sessions on the META’s digital transformation readiness roadmap. We take this opportunity to thank all our strategic partners, esteemed speakers and panelists, and The Ministry of Economy for the tremendous support that they have bestowed on this event. See you there! ë

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2018 CONTENTS

VOLUME 05 ISSUE 08 MARCH 2018 W W W. E C - M E A . C O M

COVER STORY

CLOUD FIRST TODAY TO

CLOUD ONLY TOMORROW Majority of the software designs existing in the market today are based on cloud-first models. The inevitable shift towards./24

INTERVIEW /22

TRANSFORMING BUSINESSES SHAMS EJAZ, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE, RAWAD ITS

GUEST ARTICLE /46

DELIVERING THE TRUE VALUE OF SAM ZIAD RIZK, CEO, CRAYON - MEA

INTERVIEW /43

TO NEWER TERRITORIES FAISAL QURESHI, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, SNB MIDDLE EAST

INNOVATIONS /49

NEC PX10055QL PROJECTOR

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NEC Display Solutions Europedebuted their latest 4K projector in its PX Series, the NEC PX1005QL, at ISE 2018 in Amsterdam. NEC has used its long heritage in cinema projection to design a product that meets the rapidly-growing demand for large digital canvasses in meeting spaces,

40 EDITORIAL::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 04 CHANNEL STREET : ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 06 COVER FEATURE : ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 32 GUEST ARTICLE - EPICOR : :::::::::::::::::::: 44 NEW APPOINTMENT-MIMECAST ::::::::::: 45

ADVERTISER INDEX: GEC OPEN 2018 02, TOP 10 COMAPNY 03, REDHAT 07, FINESSE 09, TOSHIBA 11, RITTAL13, ACCELION15, GISEC MARKETING 17, VALUE MENTOR 19, INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS 21, TALARIAX 23, HID GLOBAL 31, FITS 2018 37, INFINITEWIRELESS 39, MIMECAST 51, CIO 200 AWARD 52

M A R C H 2 018

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CHANNEL

STREET JEFF BOUDREAU, PRESIDENT, DELL EMC - STORAGE DIVISION

Dell EMC Unveils VxBlock System Dell EMC expanded its converged infrastructure (CI) system with the addition of the next generation Dell EMC VxBlock System 1000. The new system breaks the physical boundaries of traditional CI and offers enterprises even greater simplicity and flexibility to help accelerate their IT and digital transformation efforts.

The VxBlock 1000 is designed to support workloads of all types and includes a substantially broader choice of world class storage arrays, data protection and compute than previousgeneration VxBlock Systems. This new system’s all-in-one, multipletechnology design expands upon CI’s promise by further simplify-

AVAYA LAUNCHES CLOUD BASED AI Avaya made advancements in delivering and integrating artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into contact centers to improve the customer experience. Avaya Ava, a new AI architecture including natural language processing, machine learning and innovative analytics, enables effortless customer engagement through social media and messaging platforms. Avaya Ava is a cloud, messaging-agnostic solution that offers new AI capabilities for social messaging integration and automation of digital interactions. Avaya Ava was originally introduced as part of Avaya’s online support community, helping customers and partners get their questions answered about Avaya solutions without human intervention. Ava has now evolved to include AI capabilities, complementing Avaya’s Customer Experience portfolio and is the ideal solution for any contact center to modernize their infrastructure with AI.

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ing IT infrastructure lifecycle management through extensive pre-validation. This enables IT staff to be freed from timeconsuming administrative tasks, so they can focus on higher-value, business innovation projects. “Our role is to deliver CI innovation that has the right mix and capacity of IT resources and data services

that evolving applications require, but with pooled resources, so the data center is more efficient even as workload requirements change. We offer this with a focus on reducing administrative burden for IT teams under constant pressure to deliver more with less,” said Jeff Boudreau, President, Dell EMC Storage Division.

ETISALAT LAUNCHES ‘HELLO BUSINESS HUB’ Etisalat launched the Hello Business Hub, aimed at assisting Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) to give them the flexibility and ease the process of setting up a business to kick-start their operations in the UAE, as well as services tailored for SMBs beyond telecommunications services, all under one roof. The Hello Business Hub caters to the needs of SMBs by offering comprehensive integrated propositions, ranging from company setup to company registration, banking to insurance, office leasing to furniture, combined with the latest telecom products and services from Etisalat and more. Esam Mahmoud, Acting SVP - SMB, Etisalat said: “The launch of Etisalat’s Hello Business Hub reaffirms our strong commitment towards this goal of supporting this strategic community who are the key drivers of growth and development.

CHANNEL STREET

Gulf region’s First AI Hackfest aims to Solve Real-World Challenges

SAYED HASHISH, GENERAL MANAGER, MICROSOFT GULF

Microsoft organized its inaugural Hackfest, a four-day event – and the first of its kind in the Gulf region – where customers from both, public and private sector were invited to work with Microsoft’s engineers and data scientists to solve real-world problems using the tools of artificial intelligence. The Hackfest falls in line with UAE’s strategy for Artificial intelligence and the Gulf region’s aim to use an integrated smart digital system that can overcome challenges and provide quick efficient solutions. The event will demonstrate the power of AI technologies to leading IT decision makers and give them an opportunity to experience capabilities such as machine-learning, advanced analytics, and natural-language processing – all hosted by Microsoft Azure cloud platform. During the event, attendees will present business problems and challenges to Microsoft’s experts, who will collaborate with the delegates on solutions that use a combination of cloud-based AI tools. “The intelligent cloud is full of possibilities, because of advancements in artificial intelligence,” said Sayed Hashish, General Manager, Microsoft Gulf. “Many companies, from multiple industries, and several governments, including those here in the GCC, have begun reaping the rewards.”

COMMSCOPE INITIATES A NEW ‘ERA’ FOR IN-BUILDING WIRELESS The vision for future wireless network architectures is built on centralized baseband processing and virtualized network functions for more efficient and flexible operation. CommScope is making that future vision a reality for in-building wireless by introducing a next generation platform, CommScope Era. CommScope Era is an all-digital C-RAN antenna system that leverages wireless operators’ initiatives to centralize and virtualize baseband radio assets, a foundational design concept for 5G networks. Era enables operators to deploy a centralized headend that serves multiple buildings, or even to tap capacity from the operator’s existing centralized radio access network (C-RAN) hubs. Era’s innovative Wide-area Integration Node (WIN) resides in the C-RAN hub and routes baseband capacity to a distribution point within the served building or campus. Era allocates baseband capacity where it is needed while reducing the amount of onsite head-end equipment and the amount of fiber needed for signal transport by up to 90 percent.

SONICWALL INVENTS NEW RTDMI SonicWall reveals that a new Capture Cloud engine has discovered hundreds of new malware variants not seen before by sandboxing technology. Through the use of previously unannounced patent-pending technology, SonicWall Capture Labs security researchers engineered an advanced method for identifying and mitigating threats through deep memory inspection — all in real time. “This new real-time deep memory inspection technology, coupled with more than a decade of machinelearning experience, will help level the playing field and eliminate some of the most challenging attack vectors. The new engine is the latest addition to our Capture Cloud Platform that reinforces our leadership position,” said SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner. The new SonicWall Capture Cloud Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMI) technology and engine has been operational for months and is discovering hundreds of malware strands not detected by sandboxing technology. “This is a revolution in engineering, execution and innovation,” said General Michael Hayden, Principal at the Chertoff Group, a global advisory firm focused on security and risk management. “To introduce this technology in the relatively early stages of these advanced attacks is a huge win for the security industry, as well as the public and private sectors.”

AI AND MACHINE-LEARNING TAKE CENTRE-STAGE AT SAS ANALYTICS SUMMIT SAS hosted its Analytics Summit at the One & Only Royal Mirage in Dubai. In an age when analytics is the cornerstone of smarter decision-making, this one-day event aimed at helping regional organizations capitalize on data to gain greater business insights and develop

advanced capabilities to innovate. “Data is the starting point of the next wave of innovation. In today’s world of hyperpersonalization, digitization, and the transformed customer experience, businesses cannot gain a competitive edge without capitalizing on analytics

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through machine learning and artificial intelligence” said Shukri Dabaghi, Vice President – Middle East and Eastern Europe, at SAS. “Unanalyzed data is an opportunity missed, and we at SAS are committed to empower, enable, and ensure that organizations in the Middle East transform

data into intelligence, react to business insights, and make streamlined decisions to achieve their broader objective.” Themed ‘Bring the Analytics Economy and AI in Action’ the event opened with a keynote titled, ‘The Renaissance of our Species’ by Neil Harbisson, the world’s first

recognized cyborg. SAS experts discussed various ways organizations can foster innovation through analytics, improve customer service by leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine-learning, and more, endorsed by speakers from SAS customers such as RAKBank and Turkcell.

CHANNEL STREET

ESET Launches Smart TV Security

SECONDS

ORANGE BUSINESS SERVICES ACQUIRES ENOVACOM Orange Business Services has signed an agreement for the acquisition of Enovacom. This acquisition project is a key element of Orange Healthcare’s strategy, which aims to be the main partner of the digital transformation of healthcare institutions and players in France and abroad. This acquisition is a key step in Orange Healthcare’s growth. Beyond its infrastructure and certified healthcare data hosting solutions, Orange Healthcare wants to develop innovative solutions that will enable healthcare players to communicate with each other and stay in contact with patients throughout their treatment. RED HAT TO ACQUIRE COREOS Red Hat has signed a definitive agreement to acquire CoreOS for a purchase price of $250 million, subject to certain adjustments at closing that are not expected to be material.

BRANISLAV ORLIK, MOBILE SECURITY PRODUCT MANAGER - ESET

Red Hat’s acquisition of CoreOS will further its vision of enabling customers to build any application and deploy them in any environment with the flexibility afforded by open source.

ESET launches their Smart TV Security – an advanced technology protection solution against targeted malware attacks on connected TVs and other devices with the Android TV operational system. According to statistics, there could be as many as 30 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020. While these gadgets bring numerous benefits to households, they also pose a threat to consumers’ everyday lives. Smart TVs in particular – with their microphones, cameras and USB ports – are increasingly becoming

prime targets for malware attacks. By gaining control over a smart TV, cybercriminals can not only attack other devices on the user’s home network but also spy on individuals to gather sensitive and personal data. “Given the risks to security and privacy, consumers need to think about protecting smart home devices in the same way they would protect their laptops, tablets or mobiles – they cannot treat them like an average TV, kettle, or watch,” said Branislav Orlik, Mobile Security Product Manager at ESET.

EMERSON ACQUIRES GEOFIELDS Emerson has acquired GeoFields for pipeline integrity data collection, management and risk analysis for the oil and gas industry. GeoFields software enables pipeline operators to collect critical integrity data, perform risk modeling and high consequence area (HCA) risk analysis and prioritize pipeline integrity-related maintenance and asset management activities. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. INFOGAIN PARTNERS WITH GCP Infogain partnered with Google Cloud Platform

DP WORLD SIGNS ORACLE TO DRIVE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION DP World has embarked on a programme to drive digital transformation across its business operations worldwide using Oracle Cloud Applications (SaaS). The digital transformation programme supports the company’s strategy to develop complementary sectors in the global supply chain such as industrial parks, free zones and logistics to add value for all its stakeholders and the move supports its vision to become a digitised global trade enabler – employing cloud applications that can increase efficiency, create new services and support diversification. DP World Group Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem and Oracle Business Applications Senior Vice President (ECEMEA) Arun Khehar, signed today the agreement to develop a modern and integrated technology platform.

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(GCP). The partnership will give Infogain’s enterprise customers a secure, flexible and cost-effective cloud platform. Google’s Cloud Partner program enables companies to sell, service and innovate by leveraging Google’s products and platforms across the Google Cloud Suite. The partnership will enable Infogain to collaborate with Google team, gain access to trainings & tools and be part of an engaged network of technology and service partners. Google Cloud provides secure, high performance infrastructure with customer friendly pricing.

CHANNEL STREET

Demand for Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 Accelerates Veeam Software, has experienced strong – and accelerating – demand for its Backup for Microsoft Office 365 since the product’s initial release. Over 25,000 organizations have downloaded the software, representing in aggregate more than 2.3 million Microsoft Office 365 users. From Q2 2017 to Q3 2017, sales for Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 grew 83%. In the most recent fiscal quarter, from Q3 2017 to Q4 2017, sales grew even faster with the release of Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 v1.5, at 327%, accelerating Veeam’s overall momentum – and reporting 4 consecutive quarters of growth. “As organizations increasingly move to cloud-based applications like Microsoft Office 365, they need to clearly identify and understand who is responsible for what. For example, Microsoft takes on management of the infrastructure built underneath Office 365 while companies have complete control over its data to ensure availability to users and meet the needs of compliance and legal requirements,” said Paul Mattes, Vice President of Global Cloud Group at Veeam.

PAUL MATTES, VICE PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL CLOUD GROUP - VEEAM

VISA BRINGS CYBERSOURCE TOKEN MANAGEMENT SERVICE Visa introduced Token Management Service, a solution designed to unify management and secure customer payment data. Token Management Service enables an integrated view of payment preferences and behaviors across a merchant’s commerce platforms, processing environments, geographies, payment types and card brands. Different token services deployed across multiple digital commerce environments create channel silos, preventing merchants from fully understanding payment behavior across their various customer touchpoints. Token Management Service helps enable merchants to unify payment token implementation in order to provide simple, innovative and seamless purchasing experiences. “Our clients are seeking to create new integrated commerce experiences that unify their digital and physical operations to gain a comprehensive 360-degree view of their customer interactions,” said Andre Machicao, SVP, digital merchant products, Visa. “Today’s launch of Token Management Service brings merchants a vital capability to better service their customers by enabling them to embrace and create new, frictionless and secure payment experiences and maintain their competitive edge.”

EMIRATES NBD GROUP’S INNOVATION MONTH ENHANCES CREATIVITY Aligned to the UAE Innovation Month initiative launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, Emirates NBD Group hosted a range of

activities under its inaugural Emirates NBD Group Innovation Month. The month-long programme marked the fifth anniversary of the bank’s annual Innovation Day and was steered by Emirates NBD Future Lab.

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During Innovation Month, Emirates NBD employees competed to provide the most innovative ideas on how to improve the bank’s products, processes and services. Concurrently, a social media campaign

titled #YouMakeUsBetter encouraged the bank’s customers to suggest banking solutions to make banking easier and more convenient. The bank also hosted innovation forums for employees and young students across the country.

This was undertaken in collaboration with key technology leaders such as Amazon and Google, as well as its strategic partners including Youth Hub, Emirates Digital Association of Women, ArabWIC and OpenUAE.

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CHANNEL STREET

Riverbed Launches New Innovative Channel Partner Program Riverbed launched its new channel partner program, ‘Riverbed Rise’ that aligns with the changing IT landscape and how partners are evolving to solve their customers’ technology needs. With the new program, Riverbed is moving away from a traditional, compliance-based program with rewards tied to certifications and revenue that needed heavy up-front and ongoing investment by partners to maintain compliance and tier status, and shifting to a new performance-based program that is designed to reward all types of partners, business models and various customer technology consumption preferences. The changes to the Riverbed partner program are aligned to Riverbed’s new sales strategy, works more closely with partners to acquire new

WEB CLIPS 2018 THALES DATA THREAT REPORT REVEALED Thales revealed the results of its 2018 Thales Data Threat Report, Global Edition, issued in conjunction with analyst firm 451 Research. The report finds digitally transformative technologies are shaping the way organizations do business and moving them to a data-driven world, with 94% of organizations using

BRIDGET BISNETTE, VP - GLOBAL CHANNELS AND COMMERCIAL SALES , RIVERBED

customers, and drive account penetration with new technologies and flexible consumption models. To support this new sales strategy, Riverbed will work with partners to focus on Riverbed’s new and existing enterprise and public sector sales accounts.

sensitive data in cloud, big data, IoT, container, blockchain and/or mobile environments. VPS HEALTHCARE SIGNS PHILIPS EMR SOLUTION Royal Philips and VPS Healthcare signed a multi-year partnership agreement to install Philips Tasy EMR in VPS Healthcare hospitals and clinics throughout the United Arab

MCAFEE, CSIS STUDY FINDS EASE OF CYBERCRIME GROWING

Emirates, Oman and India. Tasy EMR is Philips’

McAfee, in partnership with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), has released “Economic Impact of Cybercrime – No Slowing Down,” a global report that focuses on the significant impact that cybercrime has on economies worldwide. The report concludes that cybercrime costs businesses close to $600 billion, or 0.8% of global GDP, which is up from a 2014 study that put global losses at about $445 billion. The report attributes the growth over three years to cybercriminals quickly adopting new technologies, the ease of engaging in cybercrime – including an expanding number of cybercrime centers – and the growing financial sophistication of top-tier cybercriminals. The report measures cybercrime in North America, Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa.

addresses the shortcomings of conventional

next generation Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and care management solution, which EMRs. HID GLOBAL SUPPORTS FACIAL RECOGNITION HID Global’s Approve two-factor mobile authentication and verification platform now supports Apple’s iPhone X Face ID facial recognition system. The company expects facial recognition to play an increasingly important role in its authentication offering, combined with threat and fraud detection. HID

MOVEMENTS Epicor Appoints COLLEEN LANGEVIN as Chief Marketing Officer

Ciena Appoints FRANK MILLER as Chief Technology Officer for EMEA

Cisco Appoints ALI AL LAWATI as GM for Oman

WASSIM SELIMAN Appointed as GM for GBM Kuwait

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NUMBER GAME

$194Bn

Global is able to combine facial recognition technology with threat detection and other risk-based intelligence so that organizations can more quickly recognize potential fraud or misuse while improving and personalizing the user experience. SICURO GROUP GRANTED ISO 27001 ACCREDITATION IN DUBAI Sicuro Group has been granted ISO 27001

UAE’s video surveillance market is set to reach a record-high of USD 194 billion by 2023 according to 6WResearch

certification for Information Security Management. The rigorous and detailed, independent audit process entailed thorough interviews with various departments such as Operations, Quality Assurance, Human Resources and Finance, as well as investigating risk management, business continuity, compliance, physical security, access controls and internal security practices. This ensures that information security controls continue to exceed security needs on an on-going basis.

CHANNEL STREET

Proofpoint & Exclusive Networks Reinforce Advanced Protection Proofpoint is all set to revisit its channel and go-to-market strategy to create innovative cybersecurity solutions for an ever-increasing addressable market. Exclusive Networks, the regional VAD for Proofpoint, is gearing up to walk hand-in-hand by integrating Proofpoint solutions into its highly successful Cyber Attack Remediation & Mitigation (CARM) framework and kick-off a series of targeted initiatives designed to educate new partners. As business evolves and expands into new territories of digitization, all eyes are on mitigating and remediating the associated risks and ensuring the seamless delivery of processes The vendor and VAD are re-enforcing the existing partnership, with the latter paving way to capitalize on the growth opportunities presented by an expanded Proofpoint cybersecurity product portfolio across the Middle East, now incorporating SMB-aligned solutions, as well as leading targeted attack protection offerings. This expansion complements the vendor’s long-standing market leadership in secure email gateways. “Exclusive Networks Middle East are

excited to continue the success that we have witnessed across our European counterparts. Our Channel Partners can now benefit from Proofpoint’s extensive portfolio offering a market leading Secure Email Gateway, Email Fraud Defense, Digital Risk Management, SaaS Protection and Advanced Threat Protection. We now have the opportunity to educate the market on the evolving landscape of advanced threats and cloud adoption. Furthermore, the region is witnessing an enormous adoption of Microsoft Office 365, where the need to safeguard users against advanced threats, empower insight and keep users connected during the events of downtime is crucial. Proofpoint is a key to ensure that this migration and new service layer is protected,” says Nathan Clements, MD of Exclusive Networks. “As we continue to see increasing demand from Middle East businesses for innovative, effective cybersecurity solutions, expanding our established partnership with Exclusive Networks across the MEA region is imperative,” said Nik Churchley, Director, EMEA Channels for Proofpoint.

GCC EXECUTIVES AGREE ON MULTI-CLOUD’S BUSINESS POTENTIAL

SMART STORES EXPO HEADS TO DUBAI Smart Stores Expo is back with its second staging slated September 4 – 6 at the Dubai International Exhibition and Convention Centre. Building upon the success of its launch in Abu Dhabi, the event comes at an opportune time given the bright outlook of GCC retail, with technology innovations being cited as a key driver of growth. A report by Alpen Capital revealed that the GCC retail sector is forecasted to grow at a record high of US$ 313.2 billion by 2021, driven by an expanding population base, high per capita income, increasing tourist arrivals, and mega international events. Changing consumer preferences, the spread of digital devices and increasing number of people connected over the internet were also found to be propelling the change in the region’s retail landscape. Moreover, technology innovations and modern store formats with smart interiors were cited as key trends transforming the in-store experience. Meanwhile in the UAE, an analysis by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry found that the country’s retail sector is projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) 4.9% and reach US$ 71 billion by 2021.

C-level executives and business leaders in the GCC and Egypt overwhelmingly agree on cloud computing’s positive and transformative impact, according to new findings released. Commissioned by F5 Networks, and conducted by research agency Think Positive, the study is one of the most in-depth of its kind to involve board-level decision-makers. The results are the most up-to-date gauge on current regional attitudes to the cloud, drawing on the views of 250 C-level executives and business owners from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Egypt. “Cloud computing has significant potential to radically alter how businesses and organisations run in the GCC,” said Diego Arrabal, VP – Middle East, Turkey & Africa, F5 Networks.

PUBLISHING INDUSTRY TO WITNESS DRAMATIC SHIFT WITH RISE OF AI His Excellency Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, predicted that the Artificial Intelligence revolution would have a more profound impact on the media and

publishing industry than all other revolutions before it. His comments came as part of his keynote speech on the opening day of the 13th edition of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers

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(WAN-IFRA) Middle East Conference, organised in association with Dubai Production City (DPC). H.E. Omar bin Sultan Al Olama was a guest of honour at the event that brought together over 300

media experts, publishers, journalists, policymakers, and other stakeholders from around the globe for a series of industry talks and sessions under the theme ‘Roadmaps for Transformation’. The Minister said that

innovators in media are already collaborating with tech companies to find ways that smart machines can help in data processing and other automated tasks, which will streamline the newsroom workflow.

THE 6 KEYS TO UNLOCK YOUR GISEC 2018 POTENTIALS WE CARVE THE PERFECT PLAN FOR YOU!

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ENTERPRISE CHANNELS MEA (GISEC 2018 ISSUE)

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Felicitating the Top IT Decision makers from META

LEAD GENERATION (SURVEY) The crucial step towards attaining your ROI

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CHANNEL STREET

Spire Solutions Appoints Dy. VP for Commercials & Alliances

SAPAN AGARWAL, DEPUTY VICE PRESIDENT - COMMERCIALS & ALLIANCES MIDDLE EAST, SPIRE SOLUTIONS

FINESSE AND TIMEXTENDER JOIN HANDS FOR UAE

Spire Solutions appointed Sapan Agarwal as Deputy Vice-President – Commercials and Alliances for the Middle East. In his new role, Sapan will work closely with Channel Partners, Vendors and entire ecosystem to help organizations in the region to combat ever evolving cyber threats. Sapan will be responsible for accelerated growth of the company and increasing Spire Solutions presence across the region. Talking about the new appointment, Mr Sanjeev Walia, CEO of Spire Solutions said, “Today we see increasing demand in the region for robust cyber security turn-key solutions. Sapan has an excellent track record, relevant experience and skillset necessary to ensure our further expansion. He has successfully accomplished variety of complex projects and helped multiple enterprises to adopt latest information security technologies and protect organizations from cyber criminals.” As the Deputy VP, Commercials and Alliances of Spire Solutions, Sapan will join management team to provide greater value to existing and new customers in the region. “I am very excited to be a part of Spire Solutions Team and continue our commitment to help our enterprises in the region to decrease organization’s vulnerabilities and successfully mitigate sophisticated attacks”, says Sapan.

DU SELECTS AFFIRMED NETWORKS VIRTUALIZED NB-IOT du has selected Affirmed’s Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT) mobile core to provide 3GPP core network for IoT use cases, enabling a wide range of smart city use cases. Affirmed Networks’ NB-IoT solution is deployed on du’s fully virtualized native cloud openstack environment as one of the first in the Middle East. du will also be using Affirmed’s Virtualized Mobile Core, which includes a virtualized WiFi Gateway, to deliver VoWiFi and Fixed Wireless services. This state of the art deployment is 5G-ready with network slicing capability to support du’s vision of a fully virtualized and software defined native cloud core network. Saleem AlBlooshi, Chief Infrastructure Officer, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du), said: “We are excited to partner with Affirmed Networks, a leader in native virtualized core network solutions.”

TimeXtender partnered with Finesse. This agreement allows Finesse to offer its existing and future clients across United Arab Emirates Discovery Hub by TimeXtender. Discovery Hub is an integrated approach to IT architecture behind business intelligence that helps organizations decrease time to business insights and data-driven decision making by automating all that can be automated in the data discovery, BI, and analytics lifecycle. Discovery Hub brings together the best of both worlds: data governance and self-service BI. It enables business users to rapidly explore and interpret trustworthy data, while at the same time freeing IT and BI specialists from tedious and redundant tasks. By leveraging the power of automation, companies can increase agility, easily access governed data and facilitate the journey to compliance. Unlike other approaches, which rely on a mix of tools and vendors for scripting, data prep and data blending, Discovery Hub is a fully integrated, end-to-end solution, delivering faster time to value with fewer resources. “This new alliance with TimeXtender provides us the opportunity to assist companies in their deployment of governed data and access of that governed data at a much faster clip,” said Eljo JP, Director – Global Business Development, Finesse. “We’re excited to begin helping customers streamline their data discovery with Discovery Hub, while reducing time to insights for business users.”

JUNIPER BRINGS SIMPLICITY IN ENGINEERING TO MWC 2018 Juniper Networks provided attendees at this year’s Mobile World Congress insights into how simplicity in engineering can reduce operational complexity, secure network infrastruc-

ture and innovate services as they transform to a 5G/ IoT Distributed Mobile Cloud. The 5G and IoT offerings – including professional services – covered infrastructure, software and

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security solutions through a variety of demonstrations, delivered by subject matter experts and key partners. “At MWC, we showed exactly how operators and service providers can simplify the

transformation to a 5G and IoT distributed cloud. For Juniper, that translates to simplified architectures and easy integration with standardized connectivity, as well as exemplifying how

our self-driving network offerings can simplify the ever-increasing management and operational complexity of a service provider’s network,” said Rami Rahim, CEO at Juniper Networks.

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MY NEW VIEWS APPOINTMENTS

CYBERSECURITY THREATS ARE EVOLVING – IS YOUR IT INFRASTRUCTURE READY? THE KEY TO A STRONG CYBER SECURITY POSTURE IS TO HAVE A STRATEGY THAT INCLUDES PEOPLE, PROCESSES, AND TECHNOLOGY TO SPOT PROBLEMS, RESPOND EFFECTIVELY, AND MINIMISE IMPACT. WITH THE RIGHT MIX OF TECHNOLOGY, INTERNAL PROCESSES AND AN EMBEDDED SECURITY CULTURE, HIGHER PERFORMANCE AND BETTER SECURITY ARE POSSIBLE.

The rapid spread of digital technology is enabling organisations to quickly roll out new products and services to meet customer demands. Although digital technology offers vast possibilities for efficiencies and growth, it comes with its own set of challenges and risks. Digital platforms generate a huge amount of valuable, confidential, personal data that must be secured. For hackers, the digital age opens up a wealth of opportunities to penetrate security defences and gain access to customer data and intellectual property which can have devastating effects on businesses and their customers. While many corporations are investing in security prevention and detection to prevent traditional data breaches, cybercriminals are shifting their approach to more targeted cyberattacks involving different types of data and threats to availability and integrity as well as confidentiality so businesses need to take action. The importance of protection data is recognised worldwide and the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) across the EU will further change the way business will manage data privacy and respond to cyber security incidents.

OB VAN R STRATEN,

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, SAI GLOBAL

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fourth-party vendors and supply chains is critical. Extending your risk management practices to your network of vendor and performing vendor risk assessments is essential to demonstrate to your customers that you are working with a secure network of vendors. If your vendor suffers a breach, customers will blame you, and your business will be liable for the associated prosecutions and fines and your reputation will bear the brunt of the damage.

How can I protect my business? Threats can come in many forms. Are you vendors secure? Are your systems protected from malware and ransomware? Are your staff acting in accordance with the GDPR? An integrated approach is essential to achieving a strong cyber security posture.

Are your systems protected? Endpoint monitoring solutions should be used to efficiently monitor network activity and identify anomalies so you can shut them down before they become a full-blown breach. Ensure you have an automated process in place to deploy the latest vulnerability patching. Implement advanced authentication to prevent hackers from accessing multiple systems. Employ encryption to prevent hackers transferring data. Apply application controls and use internal and external penetrating testing. Bolster your firewall protection to detect intrusion attempts, stop malware from penetrating the network, identify unauthorised access and apply application-specific and user-specific security policies. Monitor log files to safeguard against gaps in application and perimeter defences so preventive actions can be taken before any serious damage occurs. Implement an automated process to analyse and monitor logs regularly.

Are your Vendors secure? Behind successful businesses is a complex network of 3rd party vendors providing backups, data storage and software applications. Managing the risks from third and even

Do your staff present a risk? Create a culture of security with staff training and awareness initiatives. It is critical to cleverly manage those that manage your sensitive data. ë

INTERVIEW NEW APPOINTMENTS

TRANSFORMING BUSINESSES RAWAD ITS OFFERS END-TO-END SOLUTIONS AND NEEDS-DRIVEN CONSULTATION TO SUIT ANY ORGANIZATION’S INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY NEEDS. SHAMS EJAZ HUSSAIN TALKS ABOUT HOW THEY HELP ALIGN AN ORGANIZATION’S IT SERVICES TO SERVE THEIR BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS EFFECTIVELY SO THAT THE ORGANIZATION CAN CONCENTRATE ON ITS CORE BUSINESS.

Tell us about Rawad ITS in brief. Rawad IT Solutions is one of the leading ICT specialists in the world; offering services and solutions in Information Security (InfoSec) and Innovative Business Solutions. We provide integrated IT Business solutions and managed IT services. These include expert consultation on communications and collaboration, cloud and data center solutions, information and data management and other IT managed services. Our dynamic services and specialized IT support systems ensure that midmarket businesses have comprehensive solutions that enhance their operations and our focused strategic consulting services to enterprise businesses ensure they are competitive, sustainable and proﬁtable in their line of business. At Rawad IT Solutions, we offer end-to-end solutions and needs-driven consultation to suit any organization’s information communication technology needs. Our mandate is to align an organization’s IT services to serve their business requirements effectively so that the organization can concentrate on its core business.

SHAMS EJAZ,

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE, RAWAD ITS

What does your partner ecosystem look like? At Rawad ITS, we have partnered with leading industry vendors including Microsoft, Cisco,VMware,Cirtrix, Acronis,Symantec, Sophos, Palo Alto, Nutanix and many others in order to give our clients unrivaled IT services and support for the businesses. Moreover, in 2017 we achieved Microsoft CSP status that allows us to directly utilize dedicated product tools in managing, provisioning and supporting our clients with products and services from Microsoft such as Microsoft Ofﬁce 365, Microsoft Dynamics, Enterprise Mobility Suite and Microsoft Azure. Our clients can, therefore, trust that our services are reliable, dependable and from highly qualiﬁed personnel. What are the latest

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infrastructure and networking that you have offered to the market? Right now, we are focused on offering cloud infrastructure (IaaS, PaaS,SaaS) that is based on Microsoft Azure and Amazon’s AWS. Both are leading cloud platforms and offer businesses a wide range of capabilities and have global coverage. We help our clients migrate to either or both of these platforms as they are highly ﬂexible and scalable and easily meet cloud storage requirements of most organizations while offering robust security for their data and information. We consult on an organization’s requirements and advice on the cloud platform that will serve their business interests optimally and help the organization migrate its infrastructure to the cloud platform. Tell us about your major customer wins. So far, we have been able to successfully manage and support IT Services in big multinationals. These include but is not limited to; IKEA, Honda, Macdonald, Americana,Tihama Group, AlJazirah Takaful, Taibah Holding, Mahmood Saeed, Al Zamil Matel Factory, Al Jaffali group AMI. Our services have been instrumental in helping these companies to remain very competitive and maintain a global presence. What new can we see from Rawad ITS in 2018? Currently, we are focused on offering Managed IT solutions, Managed IT Security, Backup as a Service, and Disaster Recovery as a Service, Cloud Solutions, Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Ofﬁce 365. Our Business Solutions also include Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM & ERP, Field service, Retail, Finance & Operations, Cloud Migration and Cost estimation solutions. We are committed to ensuring that our clients are up to date on current ICT technologies to give them an edge in their line of business. ë

COVER STORY

CLOUD FIRST TODAY TO

CLOUD ONLY TOMORROW Majority of the software designs existing in the market today are based on cloud-first models. The inevitable shift towards the cloud will reshape this model to soon become â€˜Cloud onlyâ€™. As hybrid cloud emerges as the most commonly preferred platform, due to its flexibility and scalability patterns, how are the regional organizations preparing to meet the arising complexities and workload spill-overs?

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n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M > n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K

hen technology researches and reports cite that UAE is still at a nascent stage when it comes to the adoption of cloud, one can often wonder how will a fully cloud-ready

country look like? The hybrid cloud market has seen a massive growth, especially in the year 2017, due to the opportunities driven by the newer players in the cloud domain against the hyperscalers. The added benefits of providing localized hosting and added layer of security has further driven the popularity of the new entrants and their hybrid cloud offerings. Cloud first is one of the top priorities for organizations in the Middle East. But, according to reports, over 50% of organizations have put stay on the cloud migration owing to the gap in cyber security—Blame it on the region’s skill gap or the lack of trust in provider.

LIVING UP TO THE EXPECTATIONS OF MODERN ENTERPRISES Roughly till 2016, hybrid cloud was more of a hype than a reality. But slowly and steadily businesses have started realizing the true value and potential in investing in a hybrid

cloud model. While public cloud has been largely successful in delivering the promise of reduced capital expenditure, enterprises were seen spending more on the migration process rather than the services. Studies and use cases showed that managing the migration process was one of the toughest phases of migration. Some of the hybrid cloud solution providers have been successful in bridging this gap. The reason why several start-up cloud service providers have been successful is their capabilities in providing migration management services. Being platform agnostic is yet another major aspect that has been believed to drive the trust in hybrid cloud model. Khalid Khan, Director of Midmarket and Cloud, MEA & APAC, Avaya says, “Platform-agnostic, hybrid cloud allows a specific workload or application within an organization to be delivered over the ideal mechanism. More often than not, we’re being asked for solutions that integrate with other business applications, such as their CRM or ERP systems, and hybrid solutions allow for that more easily. Furthermore, hybrid cloud solutions are more cost effective, as they avoid forklift migrations and allow investment protection.” Furthermore, according to FadiKanafani, Regional Director Middle East & Africa, NetApp - Data has become the most vital element of modern businesses and organizations that successfully navigate their digital transformation

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COVER STORY

“In evaluating service providers, organisations should consider their capability to provide a holistic approach to cybersecurity and to identify threats and risks across multi-faceted, distributed architectures, including on-premise, cloud, and hybrid environments.” -MECHELLE BUYS DU PLESSIS,

“With a plethora of vendors now offering public cloud offerings at various service levels and price points, portability of workloads across cloud is critical.” -CHRISTIAN PUTZ,

“Every product Avaya develops going forward will be developed for the cloud first, with a holistic approach to integration of emerging technologies.” -KHALID KHAN,

journeys achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Hybrid cloud data services go a long way in helping you chalk out your data management objectives. They also help you retain full control over your data and get maximum business value out of the resources and data at your disposal.

handles this, while cloud provides a fast on-ramp for those who don’t have access to infrastructure.” Christian also adds that Hybrid cloud allows customers to start by taking advantage of dedicated servers and virtualization using existing applications and paradigms, and eventually evolve the infrastructure by moving the right workloads to a public cloud over time as needed. For Riverbed, liberal movement of data is one of the critical factors for business to conduct cost. “With a hybrid cloud approach, an organization’s applications can come from everywhere – the cloud, SaaS, data centre, and branch. And these applications can be delivered over a variety of public and private networks to mobile and remote users everywhere across the edge of the enterprise. Such flexibility allows business to be conducted cost effectively in innovative new ways,” says Paul Griffiths, Senior Director, Advanced Technology Group at Riverbed.

and offers the user a 360 degree view of where the data resides, where it travels to, who uses it and where it lands. The blend of artificial intelligence and machine learning also makes sure that the data is accessible and available at the user’s disposal 24/7. Anilesh Kumar, CEO, Levtech Consulting says, “AI will play a role in deciding and actioning the distribution of resources and data across the hybrid cloud. The model will ensure that there is a continuous model of optimization of resources as per usage and evolving consumption patterns. There are several scenarios that demand a real time experience against a set of variable parameters such as storage, compute power and latency – AI will play a key role in maintaining this experience.” According to a studies, AI is set to soar high in 2018. IT analytic systems will be further embedded by AI in IT analytics systems. Suspicious behavior or anomaly can be spotted and mitigated immediately. Khalid from Avaya cites an example here; “A great example is Spoken’sIntelligentWire contact center automation solution that utilizes AI to capture the required data from the conversations agents are having with clients and customers. On

DIRECTOR EMERGING MARKETS - EMEA, PURE STORAGE

DIRECTOR OF MIDMARKET AND CLOUD, MEA & APAC, AVAYA

MANAGING DIRECTOR – UAE, DIMENSION DATA

PLATFORM FOR RAPID INNOVATION There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to choosing a cloud model. Different kind of workloads demands different kind of cloud approach. Hybrid cloud has been fairly successful for the simple reason that it allows the user the much needed flexibility and scalability to meet these requirements. Rapid innovation is yet another promise that a hybrid model yields. According to Christian Putz, Director Emerging Markets, EMEA, Pure Storage “Hybrid cloud allows organizations to move at the speed of DevOps. Developers can focus on developing products instead of waiting on IT to provision resources. IT can get access to resources as required rather than tying up huge amounts of IT budget in seasonal projects. Private clouds with efficient snapshot capability can do the same for customers with infrastructure in place that

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AI TAKING THE REIGNS Artificial intelligence has created a huge playground for cloud based services to rethink their delivery patterns. Gone are the days when developers had to design and train their own neural networks. AI has empowered data visibility

COVER STORY

“Every application has specific requirements and constraints, and a hybrid cloud allows IT to provide the right mix and advantages of dedicated and shared infrastructure for optimized and efficient consumption of these applications.” -ANILESH KUMAR, CEO, LEVTECH CONSULTING

the automation front, IntelligentWire helps agents save time by automatically inserting the correct information, and generating a summary of each interaction. On top of that, AI delivers insights into conversations and interactions with customers directly in real time. This speeds up call times, and more importantly, it gives our customers an opportunity to deliver differentiated service by arming them with actionable insight when it matters.”

SMALLER PROVIDERS MAKING WAY As we discussed earlier, smaller cloud service providers or start-ups in the region are gaining momentum by looking into ways to differentiate themselves from the big players in the market. Providing vertical specific solutions has been one such strategy in winning the market share. According to Dimension Data, “In the year ahead, we can expect to see these smaller players investing significantly in industry-specific compliance regimes to which different verticals are subjected, in order to build credibility within their target market. The result will be hybrid cloud offerings that span the entire

“NetApp Data has become the most vital element of modern businesses and organizations that successfully navigate their digital transformation journeys achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.” -FADI KANAFANI,

“Providing the flexibility of dynamic and ubiquitous connectivity, enables the hybrid cloud model to become more cost effective and easier to manage.” -PAUL GRIFFITHS, SENIOR DIRECTOR, ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY GROUP AT RIVERBED

REGIONAL DIRECTOR MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA, NETAPP

spectrum of the XaaS stack, platform-as-aservice (PaaS), infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS), which deliver a comprehensive solution for specific verticals,” says Mechelle Buys Du Plessis, Managing Director – UAE, Dimension Data. Portability of workloads has been yet another differentiating factor of the newer players. According to Christian, “With a plethora of vendors now offering public cloud offerings at various service levels and price points, portability of workloads across cloud is critical. With the right hybrid cloud model, portability of workloads should be built-in.”

SCALING UP SECURITY

policies, having visibility of application use and access, and using tools to enforce the policies with minimum resources required from the organisation’s IT team. “Organisations that appoint service providers to take on the management of their hybrid, multiple, dispersed, and potentially unrelated IT platforms, will expect them to enable an endto-end security posture that spans the entire platform. As we move into 2018, the assumption from organisations is that hybrid cloud is secure. Therefore, they will expect their service providers to offer robust security measures that cover on-premise and cloud-based assets, the network, and applications all built into an intelligent security core,” says Mechelle.

Needless to say, security, compliance and governance are top concerns for businesses. Overly complex security processes can lead to different business units self-sourcing ungoverned and non-compliant services to make their jobs easier. Management of multiple clouds, each with their own security protocols and capabilities, becomes a resource-draining but necessary task. The business risk of ignoring these issues should not be underestimated. The solution lies in putting in place the appropriate

Organizations have been pondering over the choice of going for hybrid cloud or ulti-cloud, which is the use of multiple cloud services from multiple providers with no orchestration. As all technology T&Cs, there is no one-sizefits-all policy when it comes to adopting a certain model of computing. It depends on the requirements of the departments and the kind of wavelength it needs. ë

FINALLY

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GUEST ARTICLE

How RPA Could Deliver Profitable Growth? â€œInspite of the initial upfront investment required to implement RPA technology, the overall increase in productivity & efficiency along with reduction in human errors lead to immense cost savings and improved finances.â€?

Robotic Process Automation is not just a buzz word being used today but is rapidly becoming a trend with a lot of businesses to envision how business process solutions are managed and delivered effectively. In a scenario where work areas are burdened with time-consuming and repetitive processes, it becomes difficult for most businesses to find ways to improve delivery, reduce costs, and ensure consistent quality in their work. It thus becomes crucial that people with roles that require creativity, judgment-based decisions and knowledge application spend their energies and precious time on customer centric business processes instead of being bogged down by repeated tasks. This is where Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can empower such staff to blend these two aspects of their role to come to a more efficient work scenario. Introducing RPA does not mean that some robot looking machines will take over the tasks, but it is about smart and intelligent software doing high volume, repeatable tasks that are usually mundane and boring for human beings, at the same time reducing errors. Manual tasks such as data entry, back office tasks which are typically time consuming, repetitive, high in volume are perfect to be handled by RPA.

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As with any technology, RPA comes with its own set of benefits and drawbacks. Major benefits of RPA that aid in delivering profitable growth are l Improved Efficiency: With technology managing ordinary, monotonous mundane everyday tasks, the entire process runs promptly and efficiently. l Greater Productivity: The use of RPA results in a significant increased output of task. Staff can be freed to apply their experience and skills to more important tasks and projects that drive growth & innovation. l Precise and Errorless Work: RPA technology results greater precision in work by eliminating risks associated by human errors. l Cost Savings and improved finances: Inspite of the initial upfront investment required to implement RPA technology, the overall increase in productivity & efficiency along with reduction in human errors lead to immense cost savings and improved finances. l Greater employee satisfaction: The handover ofrepetitive, boring, and mundane tasks to RPAalong with the ability to participate in more important and high-level projects leads tohigher overall satisfaction in employees.

n S U N I L PA U L , C O - F O U N D E R & C O O , F I N E S S E

Some points that inhibit the introduction of RPA are l High Financial Implication: The high cost of implementing RPA technologies along with internal budgetary restrictions are some of the biggest reasons why businesses opt not to implement RPA. l Lack of Technical Ability: Themisconception that to leverage RPA, the end user must own significant technical knowledge leads to not realizing all the benefits of RPA. l Fear of Change: Any new technology implies changes and so is the case with RPA with the impact being considerable and sometimes disruptive. But this can be overcome with appropriate tool & techniques. l Redundancy: By far the bigger reason for businesses for not choosing RPAis the fear that robots will replace workers. However, what many miss is the main purpose of RPAbeinga support to humans in the workplace. There are already fully functional RPA systems in use, which can automatically complete any repetitive task a human being does, that too in smarter ways using cognitive technology. Keeping in mind both sides of the coin, it is safe to say that in the future, organizationswill use RPA to deliver profitable growth as a norm. ĂŤ

INTERVIEW

Towards Being Proactive ESTABLISHED IN MAY 2015, CLOUDWORKS IS A SALESFORCE GOLD CONSULTING PARTNER BASED IN THE UAE AND COVERING THE GCC MARKETS. THE COMPANY HAS A TEAM OF CERTIFIED EXPERTS WITH YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WORKING ON SUCCESSFUL SALESFORCE PROJECTS WITH BUSINESSES ACROSS UAE, BAHRAIN, QATAR, OMAN AND SAUDI ARABIA.

n B Y: D I V S H A B H AT < D I V S H A @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M >

he Salesforce team is involved right from design to the implementation and training stage, aiming to help customers achieve their digital transformation aspirations. “Salesforce has come such a long way. From being merely a customer relationship management (CRM)-centred company, it has evolved to becoming the ‘backbone’ that supports a lot of businesses. And that’s not surprising because of how useful Salesforce’s features are for crucial business processes like lead management, sales data, and marketing automation. However, when organizations try implementing the platform on their own, it’s not just a time consuming and difficult task, but also counterproductive. That’s where we come in. With our design and customization, implementation and training capabilities, we enable customers to use Salesforce optimally, saving a huge amount of time and effort, and giving them the freedom to focus on their business priorities and generate more revenue,” says Souphien Akhrif, Managing Director, cloudworks. Sipping his black coffee, Souphien explains how starting a company was not easy and like any other business, cloudworks also had its share of ups and downs. But the company is now well established and on a high growth curve. What he believes is that Salesforce needs to have more visibility within the region and his company is taking the lead in generating regional awareness. “Salesforce is the market leading CRM solution and our strategy is to make companies aware of the tremendous business benefits of the platform and also let them know that we are here to help them when needed,” he adds. With Salesforce, businesses can deliver personalised customer experiences built

around their genuine preferences. A few of their solution offerings include Salesforce Sales Cloud, Salesforce Service Cloud, Salesforce Community Cloud and Salesforce Marketing Cloud. “Sales Cloud is the only tool you will need to make your business grow. With features such as contact management and opportunity management, you can connect with customers and key persons to help secure and close deals while increasing your upsell opportunities to take your sales further,” says Souphien. Service Cloud can power up the customer support system with mighty features such as automating service processes to speed up case resolution, improving onsite support operations, providing support services to customers via voice calls, chats, emails and even SMS. It can also respond to customer queries and posts on different social media channels! It is a known fact that the market in the year 2017 was tough worldwide. But growing twice their size in terms of staff as well as revenue has been the company’s major achievement. cloudworks have completed over 95 projects across the region across a wide variety of industry verticals. With a representative office in Saudi Arabia, cloudworks plans to expands its team and establish a larger footprint in the Kingdom. Souphien and his team are all geared up to be the largest Salesforce Platinum Partner this year. Talking about this, he says “We want to stop being reactive and start being proactive by promoting ourselves in the market. We want to position ourselves as the go-to company for enterprise solutions when it comes to Salesforce. So, whether you are starting your Salesforce journey or in the middle of it, cloudworks is here to make your experience worthwhile.” ë

SOUPHIEN AKHRIF,

MANAGING DIRECTOR, CLOUDWORKS

“Salesforce is the market leading CRM solution and our strategy is to make companies aware of the tremendous business benefits of the platform and also let them know that we are here to help them when needed.”

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INTERVIEW NEW APPOINTMENTS

FUTURE-PROOFING INVESTMENTS MORE AND MORE ORGANIZATIONS UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF CLOUD-BASED SOLUTIONS AND ADOPT THEM TO REPLACE LEGACY, PREMISE-BASED SOLUTIONS. MARK ACKERMAN, REGIONAL DIRECTOR – MESAT & EE FOR SERVICENOW TALKS ABOUT HOW THEY ARE HELPING ORGANIZATIONS TO STAY ON TOP OF THEIR SAAS COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS.

MARK ACKERMAN,

REGIONAL DIRECTOR - MESAT & EE, SERVICENOW

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With organizations going towards more OPEX models, software licensing and maintenance seem to eat a big chunk of the budget. Since VAT has also been introduced, how can organizations better manage this cost if they go for a competent asset management solution? ServiceNow Asset Management helps organizations stay on top of their SaaS compliance requirements by providing full support for subscription models. Starting with the software license contract, all of the important details of the agreement are kept in ServiceNow. The software license record tracks the number of users that an organization is permitted to have. Builtin integration capabilities allow organizations to bring in data directly from SaaS vendors to track software usage. Finally, software counters inform software administrators about their immediate and planned compliance levels. With fewer applications being installed directly onto end-user machines, tools that only scan local networks and search hard drives are becoming obsolete. Organizations that choose ServiceNow for all of their software license management needs are futureproofing their investment. By combining ServiceNow Service Catalog & Request, Orchestration activity packs and Asset Management, an organization can offer a cutting-edge process for requesting access to SaaS applications. Workflow with orchestration activities can also drive the process automatically by informing stakeholders of the SaaS application request and creating the transaction to add or remove the user. This type of advanced automation can even be worked into the process for new hires. It is also important to have a solution that can identify all of the software licenses and subscriptions that need to be removed and recycled for other users when a person leaves an organization.

Can you talk a little about ServiceNow’s SAM offering? ServiceNow’s Software Asset Management combines catalog, procurement and orchestration all in one system of action. With a few simple clicks, enterprises can quickly and easily allocate and reclaim software licenses to address non-compliance and avoid the pains associated with vendor audits. IT can also eliminate budget-draining software waste (shelf-ware), resulting in significant costsavings for the enterprise. ServiceNow Software Asset Management tames complexity by tracking commercial software throughout its entire lifecycle. This allows enterprises to: l Automate software license spend. With SAM on the Now Platform, organizations can take control of the software request and allocation process across the global enterprise. l Get a real-time view of licensed software compliance position. Enterprises now can get a clear picture of all their licensed software and how they are being used. They can perform highly accurate normalization using more than a million normalization rules. l Take a proactive approach to reconciliation and remediation. If a non-compliance issue is found, the software can initiate remediation activities that continue in the same Now Platform, such as the automated reclamation of a license by uninstalling it from a user’s machine. ServiceNow provides current compliance positions across software publishers through interactive dashboards. l Eliminate software waste and optimize license usage. Now software asset managers gain insight to employees’ actual usage of software. The system can identify when licenses are underutilized to make sure they are re-distributed to users who need them. If an employee leaves the company or changes roles, the system makes it easy to reclaim the license. ë

Print a card. Any card.

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COVER FEATURE

The Law of Disruption The judicial sector is on a due-diligence path to service excellence. As disruptive technologies make way into mainstream legal services and systems, the Dispute Resolution Authority is holding the reigns of digitization tight. Automation, innovation and convenience leads the way for DIFC’s Dispute Resolution Authority (DRA) in putting paradoxes together— amicable dispute resolution.

n W O R D S : A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M >

he word ‘Court’, derived from the French word ‘cour’ –which means an enclosed yard— has evolved from its etymology to break the walls of constraints. Technology, especially digitization, has played a disruptive role in changing the history of the legal framework that was intricately woven into the development of civilizations and set in the wider context of social history. The adoption of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, business intelligence, and predictive data analytics are radically transforming the legal sector and the professionals are adapting fast to this landscape by harnessing these technologies. In a close encounter with Arul Jose Vigin, Senior IT Manager of DIFC’s Dispute Resolution Authority (DRA), Enterprise Channels MEA dug deeper into how technical know-how is increasingly becoming a pivotal aspect of the legal framework at the DRA, all leading towards one goal— easy access to justice.

ENROUTE DIGITAL

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TRANSFORMATION “There are not as many major changes happening in the legal sector as you might think, but technology is opening up new capabilities in providing easier access to justice. For the Dispute Resolution Authority and the DIFC Courts, courts are not simply a physical place anymore. It is a service that has to be made available to the citizens, whenever and wherever needed,” says Arul. We at DRA are looking into emerging technologies to reshape our operational models. Artificial Intelligence is one of the key elements that will help the courts in serving the citizens better and giving a broader approach to justice. Going paperless is also one of the new strides that DIFC Courts is taking towards being a smart court. The DIFC Courts have become the first court in the Middle East to introduce a new secure cloud-based technology to allow court documents to be uploaded from anywhere in the world. “We announced our plan to go paperless just a day after Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai declared Dubai’s vision to become completely

paperless by 2021. The e-bundling service will enable judges, lawyers and courts staff to access case information in various formats, across multiple locations and share with numerous users. The e-bundling system is being introduced on 29th March 2018, affording lawyers and law firms a transition period. The DIFC Courts will schedule training seminars for the legal community, with full system adoption compulsory for new cases filed towards the end of 2018. “The Digital case management system allows parties to file their cases, submit their evidences and schedule the hearing without paper interference. The courtroom still follows a paper-based hearing, but this will change in the near future when the e-bundling mechanism is fully operational and fully implemented.”

TRANSFORMATIONAL SERVICES Among some of the ground-breaking services introduced by the DIFC Courts is the Small Claims Tribunal (SCT). It was set up at the DIFC Courts in 2007 to allow access to justice in a swift and efficient manner and without the need for

COVER FEATURE

ARUL JOSE VIGIN, SENIOR IT MANAGER, DISPUTE RESOLUTION AUTHORITY

lawyers. “The SCT can hear claims for civil and commercial claims, where the amount of value of the claim does not exceed AED 500,000. Parties can access the tribunal from anywhere and from any device, as long as they have internet access.”

A WILL (REGISTRY) WILL FIND A WAY For non-muslims or those living outside the country have easy access to registering their Will now through a Virtual Registry. Established by the DIFC Wills Service Centre, the Virtual Registry enables those living overseas to create and register a DIFC Will using a broadband connection in real time. Investors and former residents can access the Virtual Registry from anywhere in the world and be connected, via video link, to a Compliance Officer sitting in Dubai.

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COVER FEATURE

SMALL CLAIMS TRIBUNAL

SCT E-SERVICE 6 STEPS ON HOW TO USE

“There are also online templates available for certain Wills that will make it easy for the applicants to make their wills.”

SCT REGISTRY OFFICER SERVES DEFENDANT VIA EMAIL

COURTS OF THE FUTURE Similar to the pace of technology, the nature of technology is also unpredictable. Taking a giant leap towards defining the courtroom of tomorrow, the DIFC Courts and Dubai Future Foundation have launched the Courts of the Future Forum, which is considering new ways to oversee disruptive technology such as driverless cars, drones, blockchain and cyber security, within DIFC’s jurisdiction. ““Thinking through the judicial implications of emerging technologies is the Forum’s first priority. The second is to unlock the power of the same innovations to transform the experience of using a court for the end-user, the legal sector and the judiciary itself. This new initiative is about thinking big for big business, thinking smart for small business and thinking ahead for businesses of the future.” In 2017 the DIFC Courts also signed a partnership agreement with Microsoft. As a first step, the agreement is aimed at enhancing connectivity and virtual solutions to advance the more traditional court areas such as registrations, filings, case management, and even trials. For the courts of the future, DRA’s unique partnership with Microsoft formalises a joint ambition to advance technological innovation by leveraging their combined skillsets of court management, judicial excellence and digital transformation to create new standards of digital excellence – in line with achieving DIFC Courts’ 2021 vision of establishing and maintaining a world-class courts system that is reliable, accessible, efficient and fair.

02 IF THERE IS NO RESPONSE WITHIN

7 DAYS

THE CLAIMANT MAY APPLY TO SERVE BY ELECTRONIC MEANS INCLUDING DIRECT AND INSTANT MESSAGING SO LONG AS THE COMMUNICATION IS PRIVATE

03 EACH REQUEST WILL REQUIRE AN INITIAL APPLICATION SUPPORTED BY A WITNESS STATEMENT TO THE COURTS TO DETERMINE ACCURACY AND SUITABILITY OF THE CHOSEN METHOD, IDENTITY AND VERACITY OF THE ONLINE ACCOUNT OF THE DEFENDANT TO BE SERVED.

04 THE CLAIMANT WILL THEN SUBMIT SUPPORTING EVIDENCE TO THE SCT THAT THEY HAVE SERVED THE CLAIM ON THE DEFENDANT.

THE JUSTICE LEAGUE! The saying, ‘Big surprises come in small packages’ can have several connotations. The DRA’s IT Team is headed by four young and enthusiastic team members. The team members are Arul Vigin, Ajaz WaniTechnology Support Specialist, Adil Khan- Senior IT Infrastructure Engineer, and Ramesh KL- Enterprise Application Specialist. “We are a small team, but we punch above our weight. In the legal industry alone, each business is different and unique. Each business runs its own applications. Our day starts with bringing new ideas to the table. Everybody wants to leave something behind for the company and for the society. We start with the discussion on the innovative technologies that can be disruptive and add value to our organization. The rest of the day is operation driven, as we are a small team and shoulder the responsibility of servicing four entities across the organization.business in all four verticals.”

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A CONSULTATION CAN THEN BE SCHEDULED WITH BOTH PARTIES AS A NEXT STEP IN RESOLVING THE DISPUTE.

06 SHOULD ONE OF THE PARTIES NOT ATTEND THE INITIAL CONSULTATION OR THE RESCHEDULED CONSULTATION, A DEFAULT JUDGMENT MAY BE ISSUED

PARTIES BASED OUTSIDE OF THE UAE ARE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE IN CONSULTATIONS USING THE ADVANCED VIDEO CONFERENCING FACILITIES OF THE DIFC COURTS’ SMART SCT.

COVER FEATURE

ARUL JOSE VIGIN, SENIOR IT MANAGER, DISPUTE RESOLUTION AUTHORITY

RAMESH KL, ENTERPRISE APPLICATION SPECIALIST

ADIL KHAN, SENIOR IT INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEER

AJAZ WANI, TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT SPECIALIST

FINALLY

4 KEY PILLARS OF STRENGTH

SERVICE EXCELLENCE

JUDICIAL EXCELLENCE

CONNECTIVITY

INNOVATION

Arul is very firm when it comes to his approach towards the technology solution providers. He asserts that he has had many encounters previously where the vendor or the solution provider approached his organization just for the sake of selling the solution that he has in his kitty. “We do not have the time to go back and forth with the vendor, explaining how he should customize the solution for us. This understanding has to come from them.” He also advises his regional colleagues not to fall into the trap of buzzwords. “We are not cost centers anymore, but business enablers. We need to be very careful about the relevance of the technology that we go after.” Fair enough! As Arul mentioned, despite the fact that the progression of law can be perceived as moving at a slower pace that other sectors,, the sector is absorbing the disruption in its stride. A call out to the solution providers! If you have the right solution, then the ball is in your ‘COURT’! ë

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INTERVIEW NEW APPOINTMENTS

KEEPING A CLOSE WATCH A PERFECTLY SIZED, INSTALLED, MAINTAINED AND MONITORED VMS APPLICATION IS CERTAINLY THE NEED OF ORGANIZATIONS WHO ARE IN THE LOOKOUT FOR SAFEGUARDING THEIR PHYSICAL AND CAPITAL ASSETS. OUR EXCLUSIVE RENDEZVOUS WITH SATISH ARYA, GM OF WATCHNET TAKES US INTO GREAT DETAILS OF HOW THE COMPANY IS IDEALLY POSITIONED IN THE MARKETPLACE TO DELIVER STATE-OF-THE ART SOLUTIONS TO SATIATE THE DEMANDS OF VMS, STORAGE AND INTEGRATED SECURITY SOLUTIONS. (EXCERPTS)

Tell us about how the year 2017 has been for WatchNET. What kind of growth did you see in your business, customers, partners and portfolio? WatchNET’s business growth & our graph is trending towards north. 2017 is another year of success for us especially in Enterprise Class Integrated security solutions & VMS across Middle East. We made a great footprint in VMS (Video Management Solution) domain in many projects with quite a decent number. We had a great closure last year with fair booking as our Sales Team had done a fabulous work and excellent break-through in multi-location projects both in digital surveillance & access control systems projects (integrated solution) that helps to maintain our position as a market leader in multi-location segment in the industry.

SATISH ARYA,

GENERAL MANAGER - MEA, WATCHNET

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Which area or business of WatchNET had the greatest momentum? What kind of market share could you reap from it? WatchNET is a global leader in Multi-Location Surveillance with a proven track record of more than 2400 locations in the past 7 years of its operation in the Middle East. Our new solution includes improved Video Analytics functions in the latest version of VMS Software. BMS integration is also a new entrant in the last quarter of 2017. Our revolutionary VMS Media Gateway Server changed the perception of Video Management architecture, Management Solution, Storage Mapping & Video Wall system which paved way to improve our sale as well as build the confidence with our clients. Also, we had introduced lot of exiting software functions in our enterprise class access control

system and launched RS-485 which is highly secured. What is the regional market inclination for your kind of solutions? Especially when we talk about surveillance, access control, building automation etc, where do you see your strength lying and how well equipped are you to address the needs? WatchNET’s strength lies in VMS, Storage and Integrated Security Solutions. We have the complete range of products in all the 3 areas viz CCTV, Access Control System and Building Management. We are one-stop vendor for all the Security and BMS products. This will help our end-user and system integrator in multiple ways such as procurement, intact integration of solutions. Currently, vendors provide either field equipment or storage or software but in our case; we provide the completion product and solution from a single brand. Our solutions are proven in the market especially in Enterprise Class applications. In the business year 2018, what are the top 3 priorities for WatchNET in going-to-market? Our priority is to help our system integrators to get more projects for which we are working with end-users, contractors and consultant to specify the project and provide the sales lead to our SIs. In 2017, our focus was to provide stable solutions and products to our clients which as accomplished and we are focusing on the sales. Also, WatchNET forays into Building Management System and Critical Infrastructure Management System in the second quarter of 2018. ë

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INTERVIEW NEW APPOINTMENTS

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY MANDATES WORKING WITH CUSTOMERS AS AN INTEGRATED TEAM, VALUEMENTOR BUILDS THE THREAT MODELS FOR THE CLIENT AND IDENTIFIES CONTROL MEASURES TO MITIGATE RISKS

How Machine Learning in the cloud can help enterprise security? Machine learning is the new emerging security trend. It can help businesses better analyze threats and respond to cyber-attacks. Machine learning is the ability of systems to learn from data sets and patterns, and make decisions with minimal human intervention. Our cloud hosted Managed Detection and Response platform utilizes the advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence in identifying over 400 threat patterns to initiate an automated response and notifications. The quicker you detect a threat; the better security measures you can take to protect your organization from cyberattacks. Later, we use these models to process new data and make future predictions. By having a system that is constantly learning from threat patterns and can anticipate future risks, enterprises can handle security issues more efficiently.

BINOY KOONAMMAVU,

CEO & PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT, VALUEMENTOR

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How employees can be a threat to cloud security in an enterprise? We tend to focus on cyber defenses against external attacks, but neglect our own employees who can be a potential threat to our organizationâ€™s security climate. Threats posed by these insiders are different and thus different types of controls are to be incorporated to added the security weaknesses. Some them include: l Training & Awareness: Continuous security training and awareness is often neglected by organizations. Employees should be educated regarding best practices in cyber security to minimize cloud security threats on a REGULAR basis. Additionally, this shall be tested using social engineering tests and measured across the organization. l Access Control Policies and IDM solutions: Solutions such as Cloud Access Management services, Multi Factor authen-

tication etc. shall be utilized to enforce the organizations access control policies. l Control over Data: Data storage solutions allows users to store enterprise data in the cloud storage systems. Often, in our security assessment engagements, we see lack of access controls setup on these cloud solutions and the data is widely open for the public. Periodic data discovery audits can help organizations reduce such exposures. l Using insecure and/or non-standard cloud services: As many a times the Cloud Services are considered OPEX for business units, it may not follow a complete procurement process and mostly, taken up by the business unit managers. In such cases, the IT / InfoSec department within the business might not have visibility to such cloud applications and may result in data leakage due to the ignorance of the end users. How is digital transformation impacting enterprise security? We work with our customers in their digital transformation projects as an integrated team. Be it a cloud migration project or low code application development on a cloud platform, our team builds the threat models for the client and identify control measures to mitigate such risks. Some of the strategies enterprises need to adopt to manage cyber security in the age of digital transformation: l Enterprises should focus on building security into applications, as well as into interconnected device right from the beginning. l Security professionals should work towards adapting to current security trends and practices. l More methods and strategies should be created in order to track evolving threats and vulnerabilities and quickly respond to them. l Lastly, security training and awareness should be mandatory for employees. ĂŤ

SPECIAL STORY

DRONES NOW IN SERVICE! From package delivery to infrastructure maintenance, drones continue to play a major role in our daily lives. But are enterprises ready for the Drone-as-a-Service in their operations?

n B Y: D I V S H A B H AT < D I V S H A @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M > n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K

hen researching this article, I turned to a CIO from Al Sahraa Group – Ahmed Askar who believes that 10 years from now, drones by using artificial intelligence will take a massive space in the transportation and logistics sector. The interesting proof that he added was – 100 years back, people never imagined machines called ‘cars’ would run in places of horses, but now cars are an important element for logistics and transportation industry. How true! We already see how drones are saving lives, supporting law enforcement, streamlining agriculture management, delivering packages, protecting wildlife, etc. This technology can provide untold lifealtering benefits to mankind. But when we talk about the Middle East & Africa region, how well developed is this

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technology compared to other regions worldwide?

JOURNEY IN THE MIDDLE EAST SO FAR Currently, the drones market in the UAE is the most advanced in the Middle East supported by progressive development and implementation of regulation in Dubai along with programs like the “Drones for Good” award. The UAE Drones for Good Award is dedicated to transforming the innovative technologies behind civilian drones into practical, realisable solutions for improving people’s lives today. With significant advancement in drone technologies and capabilities, numerous organisations in both public and private sector are substituting some of the traditional methods of operation and are looking to perform chal-

SPECIAL STORY

lenging activities in a more efficient way by using drones. An interesting sight to witness was at the Intersec Dubai 2018 conference which brought together all the key stakeholders from industry, regulators and government authorities to discuss strategies and collaborative approaches for safe and secure drone and anti-drone usage in the Middle East region. Lockheed Martin, an American global aerospace, defense, security and advanced technologies company launched the inaugural Unmanned Aerial Systems Payload Design Challenge last year with Mubadala Investment Company. This initiative has already shortlisted six UAE university teams to design, develop and integrate civilian applications for drones. Lockheed Martin

engineers are currently guiding the teams through the design and prototype process, and these projects are real-world solutions that can help the UAE now and into the future.

DRONES RESHAPING THE BUSINESS WORLD In September 2017, an interesting news made it to the headlines of the newspapers on how Costa Coffee successfully tested its drone delivery service in Dubai. The ‘coffee-copter’ delivered coffee to beach goers in 15 minutes. Amazon’s drone delivery plans are well known as are Google’s Alphabet with its Project Wing, both looking to create a sky-bound logistics network. Drones are making a genuine impact on the industries and

quietly transforming the enterprises. Organizations are constantly in search of opportunities to save time and money. Drone mapping provides 3X times cost and savings compared to traditional land based and aerial methods says Kushal Nahata, Co- Founder and CEO of FarEye. What once may have taken days or months can be efficiently captured and analysed in hours like hurricane hunting, infrastructure maintenance and even package delivery. Robert Harward, Chief Executive Officer, Lockheed Martin UAE says that “Oil and gas companies that once relied on time-consuming, dangerous inspections, can now dispatch an unmanned system to gather critical imagery and data, keeping people out of harm’s way and giving

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SPECIAL STORY

CIO SPEAK

“When a machine gains the capacity to make decisions and learn to function independently of humans, the potential benefits must be weighed against the possible harm that could befall entire societies,” -KUSHAL NAHATA, CO-FOUNDER & CEO, FAREYE

“Drones can be used in a lot of different industries but the main profit now a days from it is in the broadcast and multimedia. For instance, football games must be covered by the spider camera and movies or big events must use the drones on it for shooting.It will be perfect if market focused on using drone’s in the transportation sector where we can shift people and goods. It will help this sector to provideeasy, fast and smart service.In the upcoming 10 years, drones will take a large space in the transportation and logistics industry. The proof is, 100 years back people never imagined machines called cars would run in places of horses; but now are cars are the main element for logistics and transportation industry”

infestations – without having to spend numerous hours performing these tasks manually across vast plots of land.” As the use of drones continue to expand exponentially, we are also witnessing anti-drone industry, that identifies and offers to mitigate threats posed by drones. So, does that mean drones aren’t safe?

“Oil and gas companies that once relied on timeconsuming, dangerous inspections, can now dispatch an unmanned system to gather critical imagery and data, keeping people out of harm’s way” -ROBERT HARWARD, CEO, LOCKHEED MARTIN

them more time to perform other important tasks. Farmers are now equipped with the airborne, digital capabilities needed to monitor plant size and health, weed emergence and insect

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SECURITY AND SAFETY No doubt, drones are making the lives easier but it can also transform the world for the worse. Drones can be a threat to the security of the organizations as it can be used to steal IP, damage infrastructure or gather sensitive information about a company as a means of competitive edge. Today most of the drones are controlled by human but the next generation would be powered by artificial intelligence (AI). A swarm of drones controlled by artificial intelligence could be used for surveillance or launching quick, coordinated attacks. “AI allows machines such as drones to make decisions and operate themselves on behalf of their human controllers. But when a machine gains the capacity to make decisions and “learn” to function independently of humans, the potential benefits must be weighed against the possible harm that could befall entire societies,”

AHMED ASKAR, CIO, AL SAHRAA GROUP

said Kushal Nahata. In February 2016, a drone crashed into the 40th floor of New York City’s Empire State Building and then fell onto a ledge five levels lower. The user, who claimed to be shooting video to promote a non-profit, was charged with reckless endangerment and illegal navigation of an aircraft in and over the city. In light of such incidents, CISOs and security specialists should implement best practices to minimize the potential damage to their organizations. Anti-drone platforms are being developed that can stop, redirect or land a drone safely. These anti-drone systems have been designed to manipulate the drone radio signals to handle a wide range of drone attack scenarios. The systems are relatively simple for end-users to operate, requiring no technical background in drone security. CISOs who make an investment in such system are likely to see a near-term payoff with the extra layer of security they have put into place.

FLY UNLIMITED As artificial intelligence becomes a part of our daily lives, it will be interesting to watch where and how things go. Good or bad, drones are here to stay! How do you think we should be using them? ë

INTERVIEW

TO NEWER TERRITORIES “WE AT SNB BELIEVE THAT IN TODAY’S COMPETITIVE MARKET, INNOVATIVE ‘CHANNEL PARTNER PROGRAMS’ IS KEY FOR A SUCCESSFUL CHANNEL STRATEGY. WE PROVIDE CHANNEL ENABLEMENT THROUGH SEMINARS, TRAINING, INCENTIVE PROGRAMS AND MARKETING INITIATIVES. THESE ARE VITAL COMPONENTS TO CREATE DEMAND AND ENGAGE PARTNERS WITH THE RIGHT SOLUTIONS.”

How has the year 2017 been for SNB? What kind of growth did you see in your business, customers, partners and portfolio? It is in our DNA to venture out in new territories even in challenging times as we are bullish on the region & beyond, we are looking forward to expand multidirectional, have made recent forays in Africa with positive results. The bold decisions we have taken have earned us many laurels and we are growing at a steady rate of 25%+ YOY. There are positive indicators on growth in our sector, we are actively working & monitoring to help sustain the growth momentum. Our focus in 2017 was channel expansion and regional diversification. We ventured into new territories (Egypt, and Pakistan) with our technology partners. Which area or business of SNB had the greatest momentum? What kind of market share could you reap from it? SNB is deeply rooted with its momentum in Surveillance industry. We are a Value-added IT-Distributor focusing on Surveillance, Networking and Data Storage Solutions. Our revenue constitutes 75% of Surveillance Industry. Our target territories include UAE, Qatar, KSA, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Kenya and Pakistan. Our end-to-end solutions portfolio allows us to sell across all verticals. We have very strong government references; followed by energy sector, media, education, real estate & construction, retail and hospitality.

FAISAL QURESHI

REGIONAL DIRECTOR, SNB MIDDLE EAST

What is the regional market inclination for your kind of solutions? Especially when we talk about surveillance, access control, building automation etc., where do you see your strength lying and

how well equipped are you to address the needs? SNB’s differential advantage is the focused approach on Security Surveillance, Data Storage and Networking solutions. SNB is 100% channel (sales) driven organization. We offer end-to-end infrastructure solutions with a diversified technology portfolio. We pride ourselves in being able to support our partners to grow their business by leveraging on our expertise in value-chain, product management, service & training, vendor support, and consultative selling approach. SNB supports partners from designing stage, project planning, site survey, product supply, installation and implementation. We have a dedicated Professional Services team to support partners from all aspects of pre-sales to post-sales services. Moreover, we empower our partners with technical education through trainings, workshops, seminars and proof of concept. In 2018, what are the top 3 priorities for SNB in going-to-market? In 2018, SNB with its three-pronged approach will be expanding into new territories, introducing new technologies/vendor & strengthening our core surveillance business even further. We will continue to show our commitment to our channel by offering various training programs periodically for both sales and technical resources. Are you looking towards adding more products and partners to your portfolio? SNB will continue to offer solutions in CCTV Security, Surveillance, Networking and Data Storage. In 2018, we are expanding are product portfolio by investing in “Access Control Systems business line”. ë

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GUEST ARTICLE

Three Things Industry 4.0 Will Change About How You Work The current trend for automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies is transforming production lines, supply chains and product portfolios, disrupting how we produce and deliver goods today and transforming the manufacturing workplace of tomorrow.

According to a recent Epicor study, 64% of businesses around the globe are successfully growing their profits, and this growth trend has coincided with over half of global businesses assigning a high priority to IT investment. So, there’s no doubt that Industry 4.0 will soon have an impact on your workplace if it hasn’t done so already. With machine learning capabilities and connected equipment enabling businesses to automate the production line, humans can upskill, take on new duties, add greater value, and focus less on repetitive tasks. They can therefore expect to be employed in more interesting and challenging roles in the future, helping their personal development and growth. Industry 4.0 will involve a significant shift in how people work – specifically their mindsets, habits and remits. Here are three such workplace attitudes that will need to change, as Industry 4.0 alters how we work. ‘THAT’S NOT MY REMIT, TALK TO A DIFFERENT DEPARTMENT ABOUT IT’ Industry 4.0 is breaking down the traditional silos that separate the different departments within a business, with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software playing a crucial role. ERP software acts as a single-source for business intelligence in the age of Industry 4.0, presenting

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n T E R R I H I S K E Y, V P, P R O D U C T M A R K E T I N G M A N U F A C T U R I N G , EPICOR SOFTWARE

employees with real-time data when they need it, thus bringing departments closer together. That data might include information about the status of a project, updates on a partner’s requirements, or analytics about customer trends or equipment maintenance schedules. For example, jet engine makers GE and Rolls-Royce now routinely collect data from their products as they fly around the world to schedule maintenance. In doing so, they stand a better chance of reducing downtime for individual aircraft and keeping up with customer demand. ‘IF YOU WANT IT LIKE THAT, YOU’LL HAVE TO WAIT LONGER’ Industry 4.0 is dawning a new age of personalised manufacturing, combining customised production with the speed and on-time delivery expectations of today’s consumers. This is the age of the customer, and customers demand bespoke products, fast. One of many companies putting this into practice is German cereal manufacturer MyMuesli, which makes personalised breakfast cereal for customers out of a collection of 80 different grains, nuts and fruits. The very fact that a FMCG product like muesli can be customised on a grand scale is testament to the rapid progression of Industry 4.0, and to MyMuesli’s

successful digital transformation. ‘A MACHINE CAN’T DO IT BETTER THAN ME’ Industry 4.0 requires a cultural change in the way humans work with machines. Not only will employees be able to work closer across different departments in an Industry 4.0 world, sharing real-time data and insights to make accurate decisions in the workplace, they will also be able to have some of their tasks automated by machines, allowing them to work on new, less tedious tasks instead, and crunching delivery timescales. While the technologies associated with Industry 4.0—from robotics to the IoT, and from big data analytics and artificial intelligence to 3D printing—are transforming business processes, and often-overlooked challenge is managing the inevitable shiftin workplace dynamics, which is crucial to supporting the successful integration of Industry 4.0 technologies. The three points above are fitting examples of attitudes that need to shift, as manufacturers break down barriers between departments, embrace customisation, and work in tandem with machines. It’s up to employers and their teams alike, to embrace these changes and change their mindsets, as they grow their businesses in the Industry 4.0 world. ë

NEW APPOINTMENT

BUILDING THE TRUST “I AM TASKED WITH ELEVATING THE THREE PILLARS OF TRUST: SECURITY, PRIVACY, AND TRANSPARENCY. AS THE CHIEF TRUST OFFICER, ONE OF MY DUTIES WILL BE LOOKING AFTER PRIVACY IN THE ORGANISATION, SOMETHING PREVIOUSLY MANAGED BY LEGAL”

How long has it been since you joined Mimecast? What was the most appealing factor about the company that attracted you? I joined Mimecast at the end of 2017 as Mimecast’s Chief Trust Officer. I was attracted to the role because it was different to the typical CISO roles I have held previously. I see it as the next evolution of the security practice. The practice of privacy has traditionally been looked after by legal and staffed by an attorney. While, I am not an attorney, my role is a convergence of the legal and practical sides of privacy and compliance, which is unique and exciting.

MARC FRENCH,

CHIEF TRUST OFFICER OF MIMECAST

Tell us in brief about your previous roles and experiences? How do you plan to utilize those experiences in this organization? Prior to joining Mimecast, I worked as the Chief Security Officer at Constant Contact, which was acquired by Endurance International Group. I was responsible for all facets of security, compliance and privacy for this global multi-billion-dollar organisation. Before that, I spent several years in senior security roles at EMC, RSA, Iron Mountain, Digital Guardian and Dun & Bradstreet. As mentioned, as the Chief Trust officer, one of my duties will be looking after privacy in the organisation, something previously managed by legal. Part of this remit will be GDPR, something that many organisations are approaching with a purely legal strategy and failing to realise the complexity and necessity of a strong operational approach to the new challenge. I bring the operational side with my experience as a CISO. I will work with an attorney on the legal elements, but with my background I will execute the programme, do breach notifications and implement privacy training

What does it mean to be a Chief Trust Officer? Tell us in brief about your portfolio. As the new Chief Trust Officer, I will be responsible for driving a global strategy to help ensure customer confidence in Mimecast products and services. I am tasked with elevating the three pillars of trust: security, privacy, and transparency. I have also been appointed as Mimecast’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) and will lead the company’s efforts to support the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a new European privacy law due to take effect in May 2018. This law will affect any organisation in the world with customers or doing business in Europe. At the moment, with the GDPR deadline looming, the majority of my time is focused on GDPR. Other focus areas include meeting with our engineering teams to discuss security/privacy in new product features, reviewing the marketing team’s data usage requests, looking after government data requests, working on breach notification processes and reviewing threat intelligence programs/data. Tell us any interesting fact about Mimecast’s office/ employee culture. I’m based in our US headquarters and we recently moved offices to a new facility in Lexington, MA. Here we have constructed a “Mimecast Game Lawn” as the centerpiece of this new amazing space. As a former American footballer, I’m really enjoying making use of this and I have on numerous occasions struck up a game with random folks in the office. The culture at Mimecast across the globe encourages this cross functional collaboration not only in work but in play as well. It is amazing how we come together as Mimecasters. ë

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GUEST ARTICLE

Delivering the True Value of SAM Traditional environment will increasingly get blurred as digital transformation puts forth technologies such as cloud computing, shadow IT, mobility, BYOD, and IoT. In this scenario software asset management will be seen playing a pivotal role in uncovering and better understanding the organization’s infrastructure.

A C-LEVEL IMPERATIVE Researchers from McKinsey and the Sand-Hill Group estimate that, all-in-all, 30% of the average IT budget is consumed by software assets. Many organizations are renewing their software licenses agreements with little or no visibility into their software estate. According to Gartner, SAM is now a C-level imperative. “Digital businesses cannot function without software, which is forcing IT leaders to deliver better process and cost transparency to improve IT services, license compliance, and alignment with business objectives.” Although based on findings from Gartner savings of up to 30% can be achieved with Software Asset Management, yet fewer than 50% of companies conduct regular software audits and 94% of companies are unaware of the legal penalties for non-compliance. SKETCHING THE PERFECT SOLUTION WITH CRAYON Ziad Rizk, CEO of Crayon Middle East and Africa says that the company, and its associated consulting services, has helped its customers within the MEA region save over 24 million $ in software spend over the last 2 years alone. “As the rate of Digital Transformation and cloud adoption continues to accelerate, Global

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n Z I A D R I Z K , C E O , C R AY O N - M E A

vendors such as Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and SAP are rapidly evolving their contract and pricing strategies to reflect these shifts. In addition, with the dramatic increase in cybersecurity attacks affecting businesses worldwide, having a strong Software Asset Management practice in place becomes imperative to ensure that companies not only optimize their costs and maximize their license usage but also minimize IT security risks by having full exposure of their software assets.” The new GDPR will be seen establishing a firm ground for unified consumer rights when it comes to their personal data. Harmonized data protection laws is intended to build greater consumer trust in online services. According to a CSO Australia study, with digital transformation technologies and trends on the rise - such as cloud computing, shadow IT, mobility, BYOD, and IoT - the lines of the traditional IT environment and network infrastructure have become increasingly blurred. In this scenario, it is very important that organizations are aware of the software they own, deploy, and use. SAM, or Software Asset Management, is designed to help organizations uncover and better understand their IT network. CRAYON OFFERINGS Through Crayon’s unique people, tools and

systems, we offer a range of flexible SAM solutions ranging from outsourcing specific tasks or an organization’s entire SAM function. We are experts at working in on-premise, off-premise or hybrid configuration solutions and work with customer’s choice of discovery tool, ideal for growing and evolving organizations serious about optimizing their IT estate. Crayon have developed unique IP and offerings to support organizations in managing software assets though the following offerings l SAM Maturity Assessment & Analysis: SAM Maturity Assessment evaluates, based on ISO standards, the company’s ability to utilize, track and manage software assets, in order to manage the financial risks of incompliance. l SAM Optimization Engagement: Crayon works on behalf of the customers to offer the most comprehensive and structured range of SAM consultancy services in order to optimize ROI through realistic TCO reduction in addition to license review providing you with an Effective License Position (ELP). l SAM Managed Service Program: A continual, governance-based, outsourced service to help customers more effectively manage software assets. These predictable managed services adhere to SAM industry standards (ISO 19970 ë

GUEST ARTICLE

The New Penicillin Improving Patient Outcomes with AI and Advanced Analytics Across the globe, healthcare providers are facing the same three questions. How do we improve patient care? With growing populations, how can we help more people? And how can this be achieved with budgets that have been under pressure? Finding a solution to these questions is increasingly reliant on technology.

Now the good news for healthcare providers in the Middle East is that based on findings from a recent survey, analysts at PwC believe that the region is positioned to be a first-mover when it comes to adopting technology to improve patient care. However, the responsibility of addressing these issues and ensuring that technology can deliver on these promises, is falling to the IT department within healthcare institutions. Once focused solely on ‘keeping the lights on’, IT has evolved to become a strategic element within healthcare, much like it already has in other consumer focused sectors like retail and hospitality. It’s now a team focused on helping to reduce costs, on making more resources available for medical professionals and on making medical innovation a reality within the organisation. It’s always been the case that by understanding more about a patient, doctors can more accurately diagnose an issue. Now medical professionals can use data in addition to their patients’ concerns to help them better understand symptoms. Everything from medical phone apps to new imaging technology is providing reams of data to support diagnosis. For example, by combining information on a patient’s lifestyle with data on their DNA structure, hereditary abnormalities in the family and heart rate and

n CHRISTIAN PUTZ, DIRECTOR, EMERGING MARKETS - EMEA PURE STORAGE

blood pressure, steps can be taken to prevent certain illnesses altogether or help doctors prescribe medication or lifestyle changes that are precisely and fully focused on the physiology of that single patient. These new innovations, and the data they generate, are increasingly helping medical professionals deliver significantly improved patient outcomes. However, enabling all of this data to be accessed in the right time, in the right place and in the right format is a significant IT challenge. Estimates suggest that the vast majority of all data in an organisation is unstructured. To enable healthcare providers to benefit from this data, IT is increasingly looking towards advanced real-time analytics and ‘deep learning’ using advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, to support the processing and delivery of data. There’s no doubt that these technologies provide incredible advantages across a wide range of industries. In healthcare, the application of real-time analytics can help to detect and diagnose diseases faster, reduce time-to-treatment, lower costs and eventually lead to better patient care and outcomes. We’ve seen the potential impact of this with the AMPLab at UC Berkeley, which developed a real-time analytics engine to analyse genetic

make-up. This analysis allows doctors to deliver medicine which is more precisely tailored towards each patient. By combining this engine with flash storage, the Lab has also significantly reduced the time needed to sequence dataintensive DNA samples and analyse results. As a result, researchers and clinicians can generate valuable new insights and, in some cases, deliver faster answers to life-and-death questions. Traditional data centres for healthcare organisations have done reasonably well in terms of enabling healthcare practitioners to deliver patient care. But they were never built with the intention of running the demanding data applications now being used. The future with these applications, AI and machine learning, requires a different approach to data centre infrastructure—an approach with a particular focus on storage, designed to deliver massively-parallel access to data at a very high bandwidth. But here’s the dilemma, how do healthcare organisations do this while dealing with constrained budgets? The answer lies in flash. An all-flash data platform, purpose built for modern analytics and deep learning can enable healthcare organisations to realise the potential of AI faster and on a far smaller footprint than traditional infrastructure for high-performance computing would provide. ë

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INTERVIEW NEW APPOINTMENTS

STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVE MAKING IT EFFICIENT IS ONE OF THE CORE FUNDAMENTALS OF FOREFRONT TECHNOLOGIES. FOLLOWING THE COMPANY’S TAGLINE, FOREFRONT BELIEVES THAT IF ONE IS NOT ABLE TO CONVERT THE TECHNOLOGY INTO SOLUTION, THEN THE TECHNOLOGY IS OF NO USE.

we have been in the CCTV industry much earlier than any other competitor. When the market was singing glories of analog, cameras and NVRs we came up with the Windows Storage System that had the storage in-built and the cameras could stream live into these storage boxes and make it more competitive.

SURYANARAYANA RAMANATHAN,

DIRECTOR OF STORAGE SOLUTIONS, FOREFRONT TECHNOLOGIES

The value-added distributor and solution provider of storage and surveillance industry solutions has tasted some great success stories in the region and is set for a regional expansion with five hundred plus partner network of system integrators and resellers spanning across 20 countries. So, tell us more about your storage and surveillance portfolio. How advanced or competitive are your offerings and market approach? Suryanarayana: The CCTV portfolio of Forefront is categorized into two— Public Security, that includes projects for the government, city wide surveillance etc; Commercial Security that involves security for shopping malls, hotels, schools etc. We are a hundred percent channel driven company and our go-to market is through our system integration partners. We are different! We do not go to customers and say that we have a bag of solutions for them to choose from. Johni: We have an experienced pre-sales

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JOHNI R. JABBOR

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF SALES AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT - FOREFRONT TECHNOLOGIES

consultation, post-sales implementation and post-implementation warranty support team who also make sure that we are ready for the implementation phase as well. As a VAD, we make sure that we put the right specs and the right model of solution for integration and this is where we closely work with the reseller. We create a perfect blend of solutions and products that can gives us the bandwidth to fulfill the requirements of the customers. Like there is retrofitting in buildings, how can we say that Forefront offers a similar retrofit option when it comes to scaling up and down of solutions? Suryanarayana: Every customer wants to build a high-rise tower and it has to start with a brick. We have to provide the customers with solutions that can scale up and scale out. Our ultimate goal is to offer our clients optimized performance and budget with efficiency for mission critical demanding applications. We can rightly say that

How are you helping the customers in their journeys towards OPEX models? Suryanarayana: One of our approaches has been to make IT greener by decreasing energy consumption, lowering carbon footprint and reducing capital expenditures by offering virtualized and/or Hybrid solutions with an eye on operating expenses for customer to get the needed space to integrate a video analytics system and they can build up the CCTV solutions as they go. Johni: When we were studying a prospective client in Saudi, his existing requirement was to have 40 servers to run his CCTV system. With the technologies and suppliers that we have, we were able to reduce it to 11 servers. Now they can grow more without paying more. How Future ready are you as a distributor? Suryanarayana: Our core strength is a strong management team with decades of experience in understanding business processes and a group of people who understand the nerve of technology. These are key in delivering any successful project. Our company tagline is ‘Transforming technologies into solutions’. You may have a lot of technologies in place but if you are not able to convert it into solution it does not have any meaning. Johni: We adopted Ansoff Matrix “a marketing planning tool” that assisted us to map products and markets growth strategically, focusing on Forefront’s present and potential products and in existing markets and new markets, this has enabled us to prepare ourselves for the future. ë

INNOVATIONS

KEY CAPABILITIES n Smart Amplification and noise cancellation n Simultaneous analysis of heart sounds and EKG n Aids detection of structural, mechanical, electrical, and Ischemic cardiac abnormalities n Real time Bluetooth transmission of EKG to smart device n Enables early detection of cardiac problems n Improves diagnostic accuracy at point of care n Compact and portable form factor expands spread of cardiac testing

HD Steth

HD Medical demonstrated at Arab Health HD Steth, a next generation Smart Stethoscope featuring an integrated EKG for instant and accurate cardiac diagnosis. For the first time, it is possible to simultaneously capture and visualize heart sounds and EKG waveforms for detecting structural, electrical, mechanical and ischemic cardiac abnormalities. HD Steth transforms the way medicine is practiced at the point of care with real-time bluetooth transmission of cardiac waveforms to a smart phone or tablet. Patient data can be transmitted via the cloud to cardiologists or other specialists for diagnosis which can then be utilized to prescribe optimum treatment. Patient data can also be captured and shared with other doctors, insurance companies and electronic medical record systems.

PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK AT INFO@ GECMEDIAGROUP.COM

NEC PX10055QL PROJECTOR NEC Display Solutions Europedebuted their latest 4K projector in its PX Series, the NEC PX1005QL, at ISE 2018 in Amsterdam.NEC has used its long heritage in cinema projection to design a product that meets the rapidly-growing demand for large digital canvasses in meeting spaces, boardrooms, and from conferences and education establishments to digital signage in retail or leisure areas. KEY CAPABILITIES n Provides outstanding picture quality; High brightness n Up to 4K input signal; Pixel Free Image n Features future-proof connectivity and processing; Quad 3G SDI, two Display Port and HDMI inputs each n Optional slot for 4K/UHD Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) Slot-in PCs n PX Series provides pixel-free viewing at large scale n Incorporates a laser light source, enabling new higher brightness n Maintenance-free; Controllable lifetime colour performance n Features fully-flexible 360-degree installation, unique geometric adjustment n Features Picture-in-Picture capability and 3D support. n Incorporates a wide zoom bayonet lens portfolio as well as support for third party lens

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INNOVATIONS

Dell EMC PowerEdge Platforms Powered by AMD EPYC AMD said that its EPYC 7000 series processors are powering three of the newest Dell EMC PowerEdge platforms. PowerEdge R6415, R7415, and R7425 are highly scalable, single and dual-socket servers designed to address high-performance workloads, including virtualized storage area networks (VSAN), hybrid-cloud applications, dense virtualization, and big data analytics. The no-compromise, single-socket capabilities of AMD EPYC help the new Dell EMC PowerEdge platforms deliver up to 20 percent lower total cost of ownership in a single-socket, four-node VSAN-ready configuration.

KEY CAPABILITIES n Dell EMC PowerEdge servers take full advantage of the AMD EPYC 7000seriesâ€™ ability to deliver both single- and dual-socket servers n Design features range from 32 to 64 cores, up to 4TB of memory capacity and 12 to 24x direct NVMe drives n Supports high bandwidth and dense GPU/FPGA capabilities n Provides unique and competitive options in a single-socket package n Single-socket configurations in the PowerEdge R6415 and R7415 offer a 32-core count optimized for high performance n The low total cost of ownership offered on all 3 platforms provides highspeed I/O performance on up to 128 lanes of PCIe and a memory bandwidth up to 342 GB/s.

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Siemon Z-PLUG Siemon launched its new Z-PLUG category 6A field terminated plug in the Middle East. The new plug allows for quick, reliable high-performance plug terminations in the field that enable custom-length direct connections to a variety of IP-based and PoE-enabled devices deployed in todayâ€™s intelligent buildings. With the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), more devices than ever are communicating and receiving power via the network cabling infrastructure, including LED lights, wireless access points, security cameras, video displays, distributed antenna systems and building automation controls. Rather than connecting to the network via outlets and patch cords, many of these devices can be directly connected using plug-terminated links for more efficient, rapid deployment.

KEY CAPABILITIES n Can be terminated to shielded, unshielded, solid and stranded cables for maximum flexibility n Involves a user-friendly tool and hinged lacing module n Features a dual-purpose latch protector clip, available in nine different colours for easy colour coding n Low-profile design; option to eliminate or shorten the boot n Suitable for fitting into end devices with limited space n Supports 10Gb/s system transmission performance for high-speed applications

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UNVEILS

RECOGNIZING THE LEADERS OF THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

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ITâ€™s TIME TO RAISE THE BENCHMARK AND THE MARK