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EDITORIAL

Technology for Tolerance, Tolerance for Technology!

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

On 15 December 2018, H. H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed declared 2019 as the Year of Tolerance— thereby making UAE a role model for rejecting extremism and emphasizing acceptance. It is a straight-driven fact that the government is the torch bearer of any economical, technological, political, or social wave that rises in a nation— specially the Gulf region. Experts across the world welcomed UAE’s anti-hate law with open arms thereby opening new avenues for strengthening transnational ties, trade and travel. Today, when a business makes a decision, the first thing that they look for is not a land with fertile business soil, but a land with fertile minds. Tech gurus are seeing this as a new era for business to come in and simultaneously bring new opportunities. Since GCC is on a digital path to success, the concept of inclusivity shall be seen as a key contributor. So, there is a huge opportunity at the disposal of channel partners who shall be seen playing a key role in channeling these businesses in the market. It would be very interesting to see how this will be a vice versa situation where the region will see Tolerance make way for new technologies and emerging technologies empowering the concept of Tolerance. We can already see a lot of online portals and intelligence-embedded applications initiated by UAE for extending this concept worldwide and inviting more and more stakeholders to join. Our special story on ‘Revisiting Government’ takes a closer look into the various turn-key initiatives that the government organizations of GCC have embarked upon to transform the region. When we say ‘transform’ how can we not talk about the channel champions who are transforming the distribution industry. Take a look at the key ‘Movers’ in Value added distribution in our cover story of the month. This and many more interesting reads in this issue of Enterprise Channels MEA. Before adieu, we at GEC Media are prepping up to unveil the Regions’ tech future on March 13th at The Armani Hotel, Burj Khalifa. Yes! The countdown for the fifth edition of The Future IT Summit has started. Be with us as we unlock something new every week. #RevolveDX. ë

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FEBRUARY 2019 | VOLUME 06 | ISSUE 07

CONTENTS 22

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04 EDITORIAL

INNOVATIONS

DTK-WM4NETS

CHANNEL STREET

ADVERTISER INDEX:

A STEP AHEAD IN THE GAME FEATURE STORY

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TOP 10 COMAPNY TO WORK FOR 2019 02, GEC OPEN 03, TOSHIBA 07, BTX AD 09, FINESSE 11, CATALYST AWARDS 13, ASBIS 15, WD 17, TOSHIBA ROUND TABLE 19, GARTNER 21, EMERGENTEL 23, GISEC IN HOUSE AD 39, GISEC 43, DELL EMC 59, FUTURE IT 2019 60,

PURE STORAGE ROUNDTABLE

VERTICAL ANALYSIS

CHANGE BEGINS HERE!

CHANNEL

STREET DFF Appoints Maha Khamis Al Mezaina Director of Area 2071 H.E Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of the UAE Cabinet Affairs and The Future, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Managing Director of Dubai Future Foundation, has issued a decree appointing Maha Khamis Al Mezaina as a Director of Area 2071 in Dubai Future Foundation. Area 2071 was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-president and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, as one of the key pillars of achieving the goals of UAE Centennial 2071. The appointment of Al Mezaina reflects DFF’s efforts to achieve His Highness’s vision in empowering young talents in contributing and leading the design of the future. Al Mezaina will oversee the management and implementation of projects and initiatives of Area 2071, which represents a platform for connecting the best minds around the world and enabling them to work together alongside. Through her career, Maha Al Mezaina has worked was an important part of many governmental entities and initiatives including: Dubai Future Accelerators, Museum of the Future and Dubai Future Academy. She has also worked in the Prime Minister’s Office in the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, and was part of several government teams including the team leading the World Government Summit and the Drones for Good Award, amongst many others. Maha holds a Masters degree in innovation, creativity and leadership from City University, London, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the American University of Sharjah, and she is a graduate of the UAE Government Leaders Programme.

GE HEALTHCARE SHOWCASED ADVANCED PORTFOLIO OF HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS AT ARAB HEALTH GE Healthcare showcased its advanced portfolio of products and solutions at Arab Health 2019. Elie Chaillot, President & CEO of GE Healthcare, Eastern Growth Markets, said: “From digital solutions to advanced diagnostic equipment, our solutions presented at Arab Health 2019 are designed to meet the needs of healthcare providers. With the region focusing on transforming

the healthcare sector by investing in modern technology, our portfolio is ideally suited to achieve better patient outcomes.” At Arab Health 2019, GE Healthcare presented a multi-disciplinary Discovery IGS 7 OR for neuro, spine and orthopaedic surgeons and Liver ASSIST V.I. These interventional solutions address key clinical challenges and will introduce a new wave of patients to

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the benefits of minimally-invasive therapies, which includes the potential for reduced risk, pain and recovery time. Since the introduction of Hybrid Operating Rooms, cardiovascular surgeons have benefited the most from the surgical suite’s advanced imaging capabilities. GE Healthcare’s Discovery IGS 7 OR with ASSIST solutions are designed to allow a new wave of

clinicians and patients to benefit from high quality intra-operative 3D imaging and guidance, and complete workspace freedom without compromising sterility or disrupting workflow. Liver ASSIST V.I. is a new software that equips clinicians with a dynamic simulation tool, so they can plan their injection points in complex, minimally-invasive liver embolization procedures.

CHANNEL STREET

Report: High-capacity microwave is a key enabler for 5G With 5G fast becoming a reality, microwave is also evolving as service providers require new solutions to meet rising demands for capacity in a cost-efficient way. The latest microwave technology offers wider channels, higher modulations, higher frequency spectrum and multi-band solutions. Microwave radios are equipped to meet future requirements set out by more advanced radio access networks. Hans Mähler, Head of Microwave Systems at Ericsson says: “Service providers have the option of deploying varying amounts of New Radio (NR) spectrum and advanced radio features. That will increase the spread of needed backhaul capacity in a 5G network. We also see an ongoing shift in backhaul to future-proof frequency bands

to support the introduction of 5G.” Mähler adds that the combination of fiber and microwave solutions remains a winning backhaul strategy for evolving 4G and developing 5G networks. “Microwave backhaul is a cost-efficient way to handle backhaul needs for LTE and 5G. Advanced microwave offers higher capacity and performance levels that to date was only believed possible for fiber solutions. Fiber is not the only option for building transport networks for 5G,” Mähler says. Exactly when and how to launch 5G will be decided nationally for each operator. What they will have in common is the importance in securing spectrum not only for access but also for backhaul.

OSN SELECTS SNAPLOGIC FOR CLOUD TRANSFORMATION OSN has selected SnapLogic’s Intelligent Integration Platform to modernise its IT environment and support its use of cloud services across the organisation. OSN has been at the forefront of digital technology innovation in MENA, introducing firsts to the region with both its OSN Play and OSN On-Demand offerings. The company is modernising its existing technology systems and recently shifted to a new multi-cloud hybrid architecture to become even more efficient and ensure a seamless service for customers. Using the SnapLogic platform, OSN has successfully implemented an effortless migration path from its existing systems to new cloud-based systems, including Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse, with minimal manual coding requirements. SnapLogic is also being used by OSN for the ongoing maintenance of its hybrid cloud architecture, ensuring that data across the business is available in the right place at the right time with little manual integration effort required. By automating and accelerating system integration, OSN can spend more time responding to changing customer requirements and delivering new value-add programming and services.

CSA HIGHLIGHTS COMMITMENT TO PRINT INNOVATION Canon Saudi Arabia (CSA) showcased its extensive range of innovative print solutions at the 16th edition of Saudi Print and Pack, held from the 27th to the 30th of January at Jeddah Center for Forums and Events. At the first event since formally establishing direct operation in Saudi, Canon Saudi Arabia emphasized its commitment to helping partners and customers in the Kingdom thrive by providing value added on-ground after sales support directly from the company, in addition to direct advice on products and services from Canon professionals. At the event, the company presented six experience zones to highlight the opportunities available to commercial print partners as well as print departments of all sizes. These zones included Production Print, Signage, Solutions, Commercial Printing, Photo Printing, and Service. Each of these sections will help businesses discover new ways to increase overall productivity to handle growing output, unlock new efficiencies, and introduce them to capabilities to diversify.

LITE-ON SHOWCASED AI-POWERED SMART STREET LIGHT SOLUTION AT CES New technological advancements are turning smart street lights into AI-empowered traffic controllers! LITE-ON Technology said that the company’s AI-enabled smart street light solution has seen its first implementation in Southeast

Asia, where streets experience high traffic volumes throughout the day and drivers are prone to traffic violations. Since its debut, the solution has alleviated the workload related to ticketing for the city. With the average of 3,000 traffic citations issued

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every day in the region, ticketing used to be highly labor-intensive. However, the solution “shortens the handling time from one day to three hours, while drastically improving the accuracy for identifying violations,” said David Yeh, General Manager of

Leotek, Smart Life and Applications Strategic Business Group, LITE-ON Technology Corp. In view of the pressing challenges, LITE-ON exhibits technologies under the theme of “Smart Mobility: The Connectivity Revolution” at

CES 2019. The company features innovative solutions in Urban Mobility, Automotive Electronics and Smart IoT, with the AI-instilled smart street light and traffic management solution being the key focus of the first category.

www.btxshow.com SAUDI ARABIA 25th March 2019

BAHRAIN 28th March 2019

KUWAIT 1st April 2019

OMAN 8th April 2019

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Al Dahra to Transform Procurement with SAP Ariba

SECONDS

SPIRE SOLUTIONS BECOMES BLUECAT DISTRIBUTOR To address customer challenges related to security, network control and compliance, ‘Disruptive Distributor’ Spire Solutions has partnered with BlueCat. The Company possesses an innovative approach through DNS Edge, which leverages the existing DNS infrastructure to give a user visibility, control and detection capabilities. These features allow detection, blocking, and quick remediation of cyberattacks; which take place at the DNS layer. EVANSSION PARTNERS WITH BITGLASS Evanssion has signed a distribution agreement with Bitglass. With this partnership,

Procurement in the agriculture business can be complex as it requires compliance with strict regulations that are put in place to safeguard consumer health and environmental safety. And for a global agriculture business with operations in several countries this can be even more of a challenge. Facing this, Al Dahra, a multinational agribusiness specializing in farming and trading, serving more than 45 markets around the world, will implement SAP Ariba in its efforts to digitize and centralize procurement to drive greater efficiency, cost savings and compliance to fuel its growth. “Our business is all about the availability, accessibility and affordability of animal feed and food

products in key global markets,” said Khadim Al Darei, Vice Chairman and Co-Founder, Al Dahra. “Having expanded our global footprint significantly through acquisition, we know we need to standardize on one system for procurement to continue to drive maximum value for our customers. SAP Ariba’s vast business network and cloud-based solutions for managing our spend from end-to-end proved to be the best-in-class solution we were looking for.” By connecting to the Ariba® Network and the cloud-based applications for sourcing and procurement delivered on it, Al Dahra will transform its procurement operation in its efforts to achieve these primary goals.

Evanssion will be able to offer its customers across MENA region a complete NextGen CASB solution to deal with Zero-day security across any app and device, managed or unmanaged. Bitglass enables securing individual or ‘own’ devices with an agentless mobile security solution that protects data without impeding on employee privacy. AVAYA AND VERINT EXTEND PARTNERSHIP Avaya and Verint have expanded their partnership to introduce cloud deployments for Avaya Workforce Engagement Management, improving customer experience through operational intelligence in the contact center. Avaya‘s suite of workforce engagement capabilities can be deployed in any manner from

CX DISCONNECT IS PUTTING BUSINESSES AT RISK: STUDY Dimension Data revealed the findings of its annual CX Benchmarking Report. It urges organisations to address a “customer experience disconnect” that could lose them business or even jeopardise their chances of survival in competitive markets where consumer loyalty can no longer be taken for granted. Research from Dimension Data shows that 68% of Middle East and Africa (MEA) respondents said customer experience is not represented at board level, with lower-level management or multiple managers often assuming responsibility. Furthermore, only 20% said their organisation takes a fully integrated, centralised approach to customer experience. However, the research found that most MEA business respondents recognise customer experience as an important competitive differentiator (90%) that’s also vital for driving loyalty (85%), revenue growth (73%), and cost reduction (55%). Despite this, the research revealed that nearly a quarter of respondents (24%) are dissatisfied with the customer experience they deliver, and only 10% believe they’re delivering experiences that would lead customers to recommend them to others.

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on-premises to cloud services supporting public, private or hybrid deployment models. AOC PARTNERS WITH QDS AOC has appointed QDS Egypt as the authorised distributor for its wide range of AOC AGON and G-series of gaming monitors in Egypt. QDS Egypt is a PC gaming component distributor in Egypt. The company has grown from a small operation in 2007 to full fledged distribution house servicing leading global gaming brands including ASUS, BIOSTAR, Corsair, AMD, Sapphire, ADATA among others. Over the years, the distributor has managed to create a strong base of channel partners across the country.

CHANNEL STREET

Centrify Named A Leader in 2018 Magic Quadrant for PAM Centrify has been positioned by Gartner in the Leaders quadrant of the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management. The report evaluated 14 vendors based on completeness of vision and ability to execute. “We are delighted to be acknowledged as a Leader in Gartner’s first-ever Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management,” said Tim Steinkopf, President at Centrify. “We believe our position in the Leaders quadrant is due to our best-in-class Active Directory bridging for Unix/ Linux systems, a truly cloud-architected solution that can be deployed on-premises or SaaS, and our machine learning-based analytics services. Furthermore, we think our integration with common DevOps tools and integrated multifactor authentication round out what we believe is the most complete offering for the privileged access challenges facing enterprises today.” Catastrophic data breaches have become more common in a mobile-first, cloud-first world. Cyber attackers are no longer hacking their way in; they are logging in using weak or compromised passwords, then moving laterally across the network to gain privileged access to steal data and cover their tracks. From a hacker’s perspective, privileged access is one of the easiest ways to reach sensitive and potentially-valuable information that can then be exploited.

CARREFOUR COLLABORATES WITH SAS Carrefour has chosen SAS® Viya® to optimize its supply chain as part of the company’s global transformation plan to better meet customer expectations through advanced technologies. Carrefour aims to create a unique online and in-store shopping universe where the most suitable merchandise for recognized loyalty customers is guaranteed any time, any place. The deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize the supply chain is a first for the French retail sector. Carrefour is meeting the challenge of omnichannel distribution and inventory optimization by using SAS Viya to collect and process data from stores, warehouses and e-commerce sites. Analysis of the data will improve downstream forecasting and upstream ordering with suppliers – reducing waste and overstocks. Following an 18-month test period, SAS Viya will be deployed at Carrefour in a way that allows procurement and replenishment teams greater agility for integrating working methods and continuously improving forecasting processes. Robust, secure, open and elastic, SAS Viya stores and processes large volumes of data and will allow Carrefour’s experts to develop tailor-made algorithms to meet their specific needs.

VERITAS NETBACKUP CERTIFIES ITS BACKUP AND RECOVERY SOLUTION Veritas NetBackup 8.1.2 has received certification for protecting Docker container based workloads. Veritas’ customers will be able to protect their containerized data and other legacy or modern workloads like SAP Hana, Hadoop or MongoDB in multi cloud, virtual and physical environments. Containerization of modern

workloads are becoming the norm for organizations all around the world as an efficient way to develop and deploy applications. Gartner expects that “by 2020, more than 50% of global organizations will be running containerized applications in production, up less than 20% today.” This rapid deployment is leading to questions about data integrity as an increasing number

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of new containerized applications are designed to create and modify persistent data. This evolution is emphasizing the need for mature backup and recovery processes that protect containerized data and applications wherever they reside. “With certification for the Docker Enterprise container platform, Veritas once again proves its capabilities to broadly and quickly

cover new modern workloads,” says Glen Simon, Product & Solutions Marketing at Veritas. “Customers can protect their critical data across on premise deployments and in private and public cloud environments and they will benefit from Veritas’ long term strategy to rapidly support any upcoming new workload in the future.”.

5TH EDITION

Honoring the best #iamacatalyst

MARCH 13, 2019

#changemakers #2019trailblazers BROUGHT BY

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CHANNEL STREET

New Report Shows Retailers Bullish on Hybrid Cloud Nutanix revealed the retail findings of its Enterprise Cloud Index Report, measuring retailers’ plans for adopting private, hybrid and public clouds. The report revealed enterprise workloads are quickly moving off traditional data centre infrastructure, dropping from 41% today to just 18% in two years time, as cloud usage accelerates. The retail industry has the second largest penetration of hybrid cloud deployments at 21%; with 93% identifying hybrid cloud as the ideal IT model, outpacing the global average for other industries. Today’s consumer expects a seamless omnichannel shopping experience in store, online and through new avenues such as

mobile, in-app or even smart TV purchases. At the same time, retailers need to gather, analyse and keep data secure. This pressure to keep ahead of customer expectations is driving retailers to deploy innovative IT practices faster than ever. It may not be a surprise that retailers are also embracing public clouds more quickly than their counterparts in other industries, yet their control of public cloud spend is better than peers in other industries. With the seasonality of the retail industry and traffic bursts impacting workload needs throughout the year, retailers have experience in flexing workloads to the public cloud as demand requires.

WEB CLIPS EC-COUNCIL PARTNERS WITH STARLINK StarLink has signed up with EC-Council to deliver industry-recognized cybersecurity programs, including their flagship program, Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH), and their C-level training, Certified Chief Information Security Officer (C|CISO), as well EC-Council Certified Security Analyst (ECSA), EC-Council Disaster Recovery Professional (E|DRP), Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (C|HFI), and Certified Blockchain Professional (CBP). TEAMVIEWER PARTNERS WITH VAD TECHNOLOGIES TeamViewer® and VAD Technologies have

MULTIPLE ZERO-DAY VULNERABILITIES DISCOVERED BY TENABLE RESEARCH

partnered to strengthen TeamViewer’s channel

Tenable Research has discovered several zero-day vulnerabilities in the PremiSys™ access control system developed by IDenticard. When exploited, the most severe vulnerability would give an attacker unfettered access to the badge system database, allowing him/her to covertly enter buildings by creating fraudulent badges and disabling building locks. According to its website, IDenticard has tens of thousands of customers around the world, including Fortune 500 companies, K-12 schools, universities, medical centers and government agencies. “The digital era has brought the cyber and physical worlds together thanks, in part, to the adoption of IoT. An organization’s security purview is no longer confined by a firewall, subnets, or physical perimeter — it’s now boundaryless. This makes it critically important for security teams to have complete visibility into where they are exposed and to what extent,” said Renaud Deraison, co-founder and chief technology officer, Tenable.

a strong partner eco-system for TeamViewer

footprint in the Middle East. The goal of this new strategic distribution alliance is to build and its new disruptive solutions such as TeamViewer Pilot, TeamViewer IoT and TeamViewer Tensor in the gulf region. VAD Technologies will provide its specialized reseller network with the full range of TeamViewer remote connectivity solutions. AVI NETWORKS & MINDWARE SIGN DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT A distribution agreement has been signed between Multi-Cloud Application Services

MOVEMENTS

NUMBER GAME

Mimecast appoints KAREN ANDERSON as Chief Human Resources Officer

distributor Mindware. The vendor-distributor cooperation will empower resellers across the Middle East and Africa to deliver multi-cloud

$182b

application services based on intelligent automation and elasticity across any Cloud. DED-AJMAN SIGNS MOU WITH DUBAI SME The Department of Economic Development –

Hoover Ferguson

Ajman (DED Ajman), signed a Memorandum

appoints KEVIN FRIAR as

of Understanding (MoU) with Dubai SME,

President

to implement several initiatives aimed at

Spire Solutions Appoints SAMMY ELYAN as

company AVI Networks and value-added IT

AI to add $182b to UAE economy by 2035: Accenture

enhancing cooperation that support national entrepreneurs. The MoU seeks to fulfil key initiatives for SMEs such as signing them in various concessions, providing the best training and marketing strategies for their projects and

Regional Sales Man-

products, collaboration in events and exhibi-

ager - Gulf Region (GCC

tions, and sharing of experiences for research

Excluding KSA)

and studies related to the growth of SMEs.

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CHANNEL STREET

Raqmiyat and eMudhra Join Hands Raqmiyat is now an authorized reseller of eMudhra products and services for the UAE Region. Raqmiyat sees this partnership as a strategic engagement with the purpose of enabling our customers to adopt sophisticated Identity Management, Paperless Office, and PKI solutions that significantly empower organizations in today’s world. Commenting on this partnership, Amer Khreino, Chief Executive Officer, Raqmiyat, said, “Our partnership with eMudhra will empower our customers; giving them ways & means to secure their business, as they move towards the digital transformation arena. Secured e-signatures / Digital signatures, two/ multi-factor authentica-

tion, SSO, Digital ID, and paperless office are amongst eMudhra’s leading technologies that will benefit our customers. We look forward to new gains with eMudhra in the years ahead”. Arvind Srinivasan, Head Global Markets, eMudhra, said “Solutions aimed at addressing secure digital transformation are the need of the hour in the Middle East region, and specifically, UAE. Raqmiyat has been a strong, long-lasting player in the market focused on making digital transformation easy for many firms in the region. We are glad to partner with Raqmiyat and are highly confident in the success that will result from a combination of their expertise and our solution stack”.

SUPREMA INTRODUCED BIOMETRIC SECURITY AND IDENTIFICATION SOLUTIONS AT INTERSEC Suprema showcased its latest facial recognition technology, biometric-driven enterprise access control and fingerprint identification solutions at Intersec 2019. It also showcased its prototype next-generation facial recognition solution designed to provide enhanced level of accuracy, speed and convenience. Suprema introduced BioStar 2 Device Manager App, the latest addition to the company’s enterprise-level security solution which enables comprehensive access reader configurations and settings on the go with smartphones. In addition, Suprema demonstrated its full range of centralized and distributed access control solutions as well as biometric time attendance solutions. “Our next-generation facial recognition terminal is designed to fulfill growing demand of touchless biometric technology within the more-secure, larger scale access control and time attendance applications in Middle East markets. While providing second-to-none facial recognition performance, the new device also offers improved versatility and lower cost of ownership packed in a compact form-factor. Upon its official launching in mid-2019, we are expecting larger growth in GCC countries where demands for touchless biometrics are stronger than other part of the world,” said Mohamed Elshenawy, Sales Director at Suprema Middle East.

AIRBUS BOOSTS INTERSEC WITH PROGRESSIVE COMMS TECHNOLOGY Airbus showcased its latest secure communications solutions at this year’s Intersec exhibition in Dubai. These solutions are being used by security authorities to safeguard cities, ensure protection for citizens and residents, and respond to emergency incidents. Airbus demonstrated Virtual Reality applications that facilitate the work of paramedics or firefighters during their operations on the scene. These technologies enable field and control room officers to support fire fighters on ground when rescuing people. Also, camera simulations and drones can be integrated into this solution. In addition, Airbus featured the collaboration tool Tactilon Agnet 900 at the exhibition. This application for professional group communication allows efficient and secure exchange of information on Tetra radios and smartphones, to assist, for instance, police officers or healthcare teams.

DU REVEALS ITS FIRST HEALTH BLOCKCHAIN SOLUTION TO ENSURE PATIENT SAFETY du revealed its latest Blockchain Platform as a Service (BPaaS) use case by entering into a collaboration with Dhonor HealthTech to build the UAE’s first Patient Safety Blockchain Solution. Building on its commitment to championing innovation to create a better society for all, du’s BPaaS use case will empower and enrich

lives through the country’s first patient-centric safety verification blockchain solution. This builds on the telco’s proud legacy of delivering life-changing technological solutions and will support the nation’s progress towards achieving the UAE Blockchain strategy 2021 in creating a paperless economy and digitally transform the country.

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Not only is Blockchain used for data integrity over a decentralized network, but it also ensures high security and transparency of data that allows a patientcentric approach to Blockchain in healthcare. This incorporates direct communication with key stakeholders, access to healthcare resources, and verification of

authentic medicines, which are the main drivers of the Patient Safety Blockchain solution. This solution is design on du’s Blockchain platform as a service (BPaas) in order to provide authenticity and compliance traceability that delivers the transparency and trust that has eluded the healthcare industry to date.

CHANNEL STREET

BT Gets Chinese Telecoms License

BT has become the first international telecommunications company to receive nationwide licences from the China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The two ‘value added licences’, China nationwide

Domestic IP-VPN licence and China nationwide Internet Service Provider (ISP) licence, enable BT China Communications Limited to contract directly with its customers in the country and bill them in local currency. The value added licences represent a major step for BT in China where many of its multinational customers require secure and reliable connectivity to expand within the country. Bas Burger, CEO of Global Services, BT, said: “We are delighted with this major benefit for our customers. Thanks to cooperation between the governments of the PRC and the UK, we are now able to offer a nationwide service in China that can be scaled up to match the ambitions and needs of our customers. Being able to service and bill locally significantly simplifies the process of delivering connectivity and other communication services. It is what our customers expect from us and we are very grateful for the opportunity to do this as of today.”

MIMECAST ACQUIRES SIMPLY MIGRATE Mimecast has acquired Simply Migrate Ltd. With this acquisition, Mimecast expands its migration services with a rich portfolio of connectors, combined with a deeper experience in helping organizations get out of the business of managing expensive, unreliable legacy archives so they can move to a next-generation data protection strategy in the Mimecast cloud. This helps enable them to reduce costs, safeguard their intellectual property, preserve institutional memory, accelerate e-discovery and achieve compliance. The cost and complexity of legacy data migration is one of the leading obstacles preventing enterprises from moving to modern cloudbased archiving solutions such as Mimecast. The acquisition of Simply Migrate will offer customers and prospects a faster, less expensive and more reliable path to the Mimecast cloud.

ESHARAH ETISALAT SECURITY SOLUTIONS SHOWCASED SMART CITY SOLUTIONS AT INTERSEC Esharah Etisalat Security Solutions showcased their latest and innovative products designed for public safety at Intersec 2019. Esharah’s participation in the platform for safety and security reflected the dynamism and growing size of the region’s security and safety market. The company was present at the event for all three days with its products and solutions which included a Biometric Checking via Secnet, an electronic verification of the ID document’s RFID chip providing facility to query central police databases, and an integrated operations center demonstrating Video Analytics (FR, Object Classifications, Behavioral analytics), Smart Environment monitoring, Smart Waste management and Smart Traffic solutions. The company also featured a live demo on the infection cycle of an IoT camera; demonstrating how the solution offers protection against malware through a combination of network, anti-virus protection and IoT anomaly detection. In addition, Esharah showcased Command and Control Software for Incident Management, latest mobile commands and patrols beneficial for police officers; and an Indoor Location Tracking solution used with TETRA radios to operate without the need for GPS satellites.

TREND MICRO RESEARCH UNCOVERS SECURITY RISKS Trend Micro Incorporated released a new report detailing inherent flaws and new vulnerabilities in radio frequency (RF) remote controllers found and disclosed through the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI). The report, A Security Analysis of Radio Remote Controllers for Industrial

Applications, demonstrates how an attacker could persistently and remotely take control of, or simulate the malfunction of, the attacked machinery. The report’s findings cover RF remote controllers found in cranes, drills, mining machinery and other

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industrial devices produced by the seven most commonly deployed vendors. These types of devices have become a major point of security weakness because of their connectivity. Long lifespans, high replacement costs, and cumbersome patching processes compound this

problem. “This research demonstrates a concerning reality for owners and operators of heavy industrial machinery where RF controllers are widely found,” said Bill Malik, VP of infrastructure strategies for Trend Micro.

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Enterprise Channels MEA

EC_MEA

Enterprise Channels MEA

www.ec-mea.com

CHANNEL STREET

Infinito unveils all-in-one Blockchain Platform Infinito, operator of the Infinito Wallet, released a comprehensive blockchain platform for businesses and developers to seamlessly use of a wide variety of blockchain-based functionality from one stop. The Infinito Blockchain Platform (IBP) enables easy development of decentralized apps using APIs. Businesses can also choose from various turnkey SaaS and solutions according to their needs. IBP aims to be the number one solution for anyone looking to integrate or build practical blockchain applications, the newly released Infinito Blockchain Platform promises to radically simplify development of decentralized applications and blockchain services. The platform serves to help both traditional

and blockchain businesses break through the dreaded proof-of-concept stage, begin production, and later monetize their innovations. IBP will eventually evolve into a comprehensive marketplace where module creators can sell and profit from own-built innovations. With IBP, most custom code work is eliminated thanks to turnkey, highly scalable solutions and powerful blockchain APIs that work in plug-and-play fashion. Clients can access and choose from a wide variety of blockchain development tools, including but not limited to transaction settlement, data retrieval and analysis, identity verification, multi-chain interaction, and so forth.

ELTIZAM REVEALS USD 5-MILLION INVESTMENT

Eltizam Asset Management Group said that it is investing USD 5 million in next-generation property technologies over the next three years, a move that is seen to further solidify its market edge and accelerate its Business Transformation Program called ‘Vision 21.’ The latest development is expected to sustain the momentum following the company’s adoption of a five-year Technology Roadmap as well as recruitment of a Technology team in 2018, the cornerstone year for technological innovation at Eltizam. The Technological Road Map has outlined the areas of innovation that are going to lead to major improvements for both Eltizam’s core businesses and their customers. Furthermore, the earmarked funds are seen to fast-track Eltizam’s transformation into a ‘Customer Company’ as embodied in its ‘Vision 21’ initiative. “The management of Eltizam believes that sustainable business growth can only be achieved by focusing on the development of its people and processes, ensuring customer happiness, and enhancing operational efficiency. The allocated funds will not only help us achieve these objectives but also better serve our long-term business goals and strategies. Backed by more efficient and effective management of its core businesses, Eltizam is all set to take the leading position in terms of asset technology in the facilities management (FM) industry,” said Chris Roberts, Chief Executive Officer, Eltizam Asset Management Group.

MICROSTRATEGY 2019 NOW AVAILABLE MicroStrategy 2019, the industry’s first and only enterprise platform for HyperIntelligence, transformational mobility, and federated analytics is now generally available. Founder, Chairman of the Board, President & CEO Michael J. Saylor and other members of MicroStrategy’s management team rang the Nasdaq opening bell yesterday to celebrate the launch of MicroStrategy 2019. “We’re proud to unveil MicroStrategy 2019, the first enterprise analytics and mobility platform that provides intelligence that organizations need for every moment of the day,” said Mr. Saylor. “Intelligence is about time, and when seconds matter, there’s simply no room for information that is one click away — let alone the time to find the right sets of data through self-service analytics. With HyperIntelligence, information becomes self-evident. Information about customers, products, and employees naturally surfaces — with zero clicks — at a glance on a screen, by voice or even through the lens of a camera.”

DIGITAL HEALTH START-UPS SHINE AT INAUGURAL ARAB HEALTH INNOV8 TALKS The world’s most creative and forward-thinking healthcare start-ups and SMEs took part in the daily inaugural Innov8 Talks at Arab Health 2019. Thirty two companies from around the world were invited to present their ideas to an esteemed panel of judges that were involved in driving innovation in the Middle East & North Africa

(MENA) region, and included the world’s only closed system for digital point-of-care urine testing – with the system launching at Arab Health – and Virtual Reality (VR) therapy for the home treatment of eye problems, amongst others. On each of the four days of Arab Health, , eight companies had eight minutes to make their “pitch” for

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their healthcare innovation in a bid to be selected as a winning pitch and have a potential to shape the future of healthcare. Commenting on the Arab Health Innov8 Talks, Ross Williams, Exhibition Director, Arab Health, said: “With the digital health start-ups industry said to be worth around $11.5 billion in 2017, the Innov8 Talks are an

important platform to highlight the vital role that start-ups and SME’s play in areas such as personalised medicine and technology-enabled care models. So far we’ve seen some amazing technology being presented including an app to detect atrial fibrillation and a hand-held device for the early detection of breast cancer.”

Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2019 Intelligent #1

Digital #2

Autonomous Things

Digital Twins

AI-Driven Development

Blockchain

Empowered Edge

Augmented Analytics

Mesh

Smart Spaces

Immersive Technologies

Ethics & Privacy

#10 Join us at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2019 to learn about Gartner’s technology trends, if they will work for you and how to implement them.

Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2019 Dubai, UAE / 4 - 6 March gartner.com/me/symposium / #GartnerSYM

© 2018 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner and ITxpo are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. or its affiliates. For more information, email info@gartner.com or visit gartner.com.

Quantum Computing

GUEST ARTICLE

AN URGENT ASSIST OR STRATEGIC RISK MANAGEMENT Before selecting an instrument to fight information leaks an organization should consider several aspects of successful risk mitigation as investigation.

Trying to find the way which would lock your corporate perimeter and seal all the breaches, a company might think of a solution which would forbid any data transfer outside the network. This is the first measure which seemingly needs to be taken and the first step which totally misleads you. Before selecting an instrument to fight information leaks an organization should consider such aspect of successful risk mitigation as investigation. URGENT ASSISTANCE Prohibition of communication channels will not stop confidential data leaking neither will it be helpful in revealing the source of a violation. If you have a system integrated which doesn’t allow specific information to be printed or uploaded to an external storage device, it might save your sensitive files once there’s an attempt to leak the documents, but next time an offender can opt for another way to steal the details and you will not know who tried to misuse the data and undermine the workflow. Plugging up loopholes is about soothing symptoms and not curing the cause of a disease. Correct urgent assistance implies an immediate and accurate alert mechanism providing you with the needed information on where, how and by whom an attempt was made. To capture the problem and fix it you might want not to manage the consequences but prevent them. Instead of hindering suspicious activity a company can monitor the ongoing processes, see the value of every detail helping to discover the reason of an incident and protect employees who aren’t part of the fraud. Instruments which are marketed as instant problem solvers appear to be inadequate when it comes to actual incident prevention – guaranteed to stop data leakage these tools often mishandle a real situation. Data loss prevention systems are surely tuned to intercept app messages (via Skype, for example)

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and forbid sending credit card numbers, but any software has a deficiency, and even a minor one can render the product completely worthless. Just one extra space in a card number might neutralize the obstructive power of a program. Some systems are lenient on sensitive details written down within a message because they can protect only file content. And there are lots of such omissions which make these interceptive functions insufficient. That is why there will always be unstoppable threats which you will not protect your company from by activating tools impeding data flow. The software allows violators to improve their tactics learning the weak spots of a system. It is just a matter of time before a loophole is discovered. The system will report 9 out of 10 attempts to leak information but will not be able to detect a successful one. Policies and reports – these are the instruments contributing to exigent help which businesses require when trying to safeguard their perimeter. While you may still impede printing of corporate documents and encrypt data uploaded to a flash drive so that scammers wouldn’t know they are being kept in view and wouldn’t be able to read it outside the network, you can be guided by policies and an elaborate report system. Preconfigured, as well as customizable, policies detect anomalous behavior and draw your attention to an abnormal event while a report, which can be set to show the results based on automated check of any corporate aspect you are interested in, saves your time. STRATEGY Risk management is an evaluation process. To guard your company against internal threats you should implement a multistep algorithm. A comprehensive software solution facilitates performance and upgrades the tactics. As you get the information arranged and displayed in front of you, the detailed analysis of communication within and outside the network becomes possible.

n A L E X E I PA R F E N T I E V, L E A D I N G A N A LY S T AT SEARCHINFORM

Whereas an incident is an outcome, a leak is a process. There are systems which monitor suspicious activity and watch a leak is being arranged, thus detecting the source of a breach, the purpose and the way it is happening. Preparation is an essential stage of an incident prevention. Stopping a leak from happening you don’t prevent a threat. Only an early detection of an issue enables preventive measures to be taken to prove useful. The opportunity of seeing a source, a recipient, a channel, data transmitted, accomplices and victims involved as well as watching the situation unfolds is immeasurable for your awareness. While many companies confine their practice to internal vulnerability scan which inspects technical issues detecting cracks and deficiencies, they neglect the instruments for developing transparency in the workflow which capture the details of an incident and prevent recurrences – unprocurable knowledge if there are no analytical tools in place. Forecasting an action which is likely to happen within the context of the situation empowers a company to manage corporate morale, increase productivity and protect diligent colleagues from being entangled in fraudulent activity. There can be some employee groups distinguished in order to allocate attention and regard every staff member as individual. Threat minimization strategy gives you much more than just a loophole discovery mechanism does. Anticipating situation twists and turns levels up the understanding of internal communication and mood tendencies. Knowing your people will ease task distribution process, provide HR specialists with needed information to improve productivity by making sure employees are interested in the job they are doing and are comfortable with the workflow. ë

TOP

CHANNEL TRANSFORMERS

As the CEO of Spire Solutions what does your role entail? I am responsible for driving the overall success of the organization alongside the Founder & President, as well as, leading the development and execution of short- and long-term strategies. What plans do you have for the company and your partners this year? We have three primary strategic goals for 2019. l Ensure effective coverage of the Middle East region’s channel and customer-base l Building out the product portfolio to provide a comprehensive, differentiated and profitable cybersecurity offering for our channel partners. l Investing in optimizing processes, team structures and portfolio messaging, to achieve 100% Year-on-Year revenue. What will you consider your biggest achievement for the year 2018? We went through a major process optimization initiative and managed to streamline processes

Tell us about your role in the company. Why did you take up this role? As a Director - Channel Sales it is crucial in improving an organization’s topline as you need to be result-orientated, intelligent, energetic, have a positive attitude and commercial awareness that affects the overall performance of a business as it my responsibility to manage and support organization’s growth. I have been associated with this organization for a decade and I feel long-term strategic planning is a key focus for the growth of the organization. I am responsible for managing and coordinating sales efforts, strategically launching new products or services and ensuring customer service standards are high and continually improving. What plans do you have for the company & your partners this year? We look forward to invest in the training & empowerment of our existing partners on the capabilities of latest technologies. Apparently ,2019 has been a great start for SNB as we have partnered with Antaira and 2CRSi wherein

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that brought increased efficiency, productivity and automation across the organization. What challenges do you face on an everyday basis? l Preventing margin erosion on high-touch deals by selling on value and not on price. l Maximizing on-time collections is a priority. l Lastly, we are privileged to be recognized for our technical excellence, so even though we are hiring aggressively, our services are in high-demand so sometimes capacity becomes an issue. Who do you consider your role model and why? Warren Buffet and Jeff Bezos. Warren Buffet because of how he has achieved phenomenal business success while always maintaining the highest levels of humility. Jeff Bezos because of his disruptive market-making approach, his perseverance and his forward-looking strategic thinking.

SPIRE SOLUTIONS

AVINASH ADVANI, CEO, SPIRE SOLUTIONS

For partners who don’t know you yet, what is that one thing they should know about you? I am ambitious, so taking Spire to number one is the plan with our Disruptive Distribution go-to-market strategy. We are not in a rush and want to have fun on the way, while redefining and rethinking what it means to be a VAD.

this partnership would strengthen our product offering and improve our customer service across EMEA markets which in turn will boost our growth. What will you consider your biggest achievement for the year 2018? Securing the confidence of BIKAL LTD. and being their exclusive distributor worldwide was one of the strategic achievements for SNB. Partnering with Pacom was another accomplishment for us to have them under our product portfolio. We are excited about the partnership with Pacom and bringing their solutions to EMEA market. Who do you consider your role model and why? Well I look upon to Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, well known for his e-commerce giant Amazon, who knows doing what you love, while still making a positive impact on the world. For partners who don’t know you yet, what is that one thing they should

SNB MIDDLE EAST

IRSHAD ABOOBACKER, SALES DIRECTOR, SNB MIDDLE EAST

know about you? For partners who don’t know me yet, well I am responsible for managing all sales efforts of my company, keeping the sales team motivated, strategically launching new products or services into the market and ensuring customer service standards are high and continually improving.

TOP fulfilment of commitment towards customers and partners.

BULWARK TECHNOLOGIES

JOSE THOMAS MENACHERRY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, BULWARK TECHNOLOGIES

Tell us about your role in this company. Why did you take up this role? As the Group CEO and founder of Bulwark, have been instrumental in the development and creation of organization’s strategy and operations with emphasis on value added services for the latest technological solutions with proper expertise. Some of the key career achievements have been in the areas of business development in new markets or with niche technologies that triggered successful market demand over a period and

What plans do you have for the company and your partners this year? Channel development and growth into focused territories across GCC, Middle East & Indian sub-continent region are our core areas of focus this year. We would execute comprehensive, action-oriented and well accepted Channel programs which benefits our channel through deal registrations, joint marketing activities, sales and technical enablement and promotes greater synergy among our vendors and partners and added value to end customers. What will you consider your biggest achievement for the year 2018? l strengthened our sales and technical team with more resources from Security & Distribution domain and with dedicated focus on other GCC and ME regions. l partnered with some key resellers and SI organizations with dedicated focus on security in the ME region. l expanded our presence with a new office in Bangalore in the Indian sub-continent

CHANNEL TRANSFORMERS

region and increased the regional presence in other countries in ME region. l added some new vendors to our existing portfolio – Utimaco, Ekran System LLC, Cyberbit & CoSoSys, thus strengthening our security offering to address the security concerns of the customers in the region. What challenges do you face on an everyday basis? Being in Security itself is very challenging during continuously evolving cyber threats and sophisticated attacks. Identifying, studying and evaluating new products and solutions on an ongoing basis, to counter such threats, is always a challenge. For partners who don’t know you yet, what is that one thing they should know about you? The message to our channel partners is that when you work with us, we are there to support you in addressing the customer’s concerns, that too from our last 20 years of experience in the region as a security focussed distributor. It is our continuous and ongoing effort to invest on channel initiatives which include long term partner growth plans, partner certification and reward programs and channel enablement sessions.

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CHANNEL TRANSFORMERS

STARLINK

Tell us about your role in this company. Why did you take up this role? Founder and Managing Director What plans do you have for the company and your partners this year? Today we feel privileged to ‘Empower’ our vendors, partners and customers through their journey towards digital transformation. We have the right platforms, investment and resources in place for our partners to create incremental business which is a value add. Key initiatives will be launched this year that would enable and empower our partners to grow their business. We have become even more strategic to our partners as we can now provide Data Centre and Cloud offering along with Security. What challenges do you face on an

Tell us about your role in this company. Why did you take up this role? I started my journey with Mindware towards the end of 2016 as Chief of Sales & Marketing and Deputy General Manager. As of 2019, I have taken up the role of General Manager for UAE and Gulf. Going back, two years ago it was a very different Mindware, one that was ready for structural redesigning and out-of-the-box ideas for growth; the two main reasons this job really appealed to me. What will you consider your biggest achievement for the year 2018? Talking about “my” biggest achievement would probably be misleading. “Our” achievement as one Mindware team is a much fairer and accurate statement since I am only one of numerous contributors into where our organization has reached since my joining. One painful year of enforcing transformation and one more demanding year of tactfully bringing Mindware up to speed with the regional market, have led to closing 2018 with, more or less, double the revenue we had generated in 2016 – not bad at all! It did take lots

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everyday basis? To remain competitive and increase efficiency at the same time can become a challenge which we at StarLink have managed to strike a good balance with integrated and automated processes and skilled resources globally.

NIDAL OTHMAN, FOUNDER & MANAGING

Who do you consider your role model and why? John Maxwell, he is an author and speaker who has written many books primarily focusing on leadership. Titles include the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and the 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. He is very inspiring and motivating.

DIRECTOR, STARLINK

For partners who don’t know you yet, what is that one thing they should know about you? That me and my team are here to support them and empower them to help grow their business.

of planning from the management team, loads of support from our head office and – most notably - some seriously hard work from our extraordinary Mindware people. What challenges do you face on an everyday basis? This is almost impossible to wholly answer because - honestly - reducing, bypassing or eliminating challenges is what we – as managers and leaders - are here to do. If I had to encapsulate it all in one line my main challenge is to maintain the right balances between all stakeholders while running a profitable business. Customers, vendors, employees, head office, and – of course – one’s family obligations. Who do you consider your role model and why? Tenacity, resourcefulness, achievement, discipline, integrity, and originality are only few of the (business-relevant) qualities I admire in a professional. I can think of at least a dozen individuals that combine most of the above traits but I would rather list the qualities rather than naming the actual people.

MINDWARE

NICHOLAS ARGYRIDES, CHIEF OF SALES & MARKETING/ DEPUTY GM, MINDWARE

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EVANSSION

SHEIK ABIDEEN, VICE PRESIDENT, EVANSSION

Tell us about your role in this company. Why did you take up this role? My role in the company is to drive overall sales, marketing and technology operations. I’m responsible for customer, vendor and partner engagement apart from onboarding innovative technologies into our portfolio.

Having worked in the region for 11 years in the Information security space, I have come to realise that there was a huge gap in technology innovation in the west and the adoption of these technologies in the region. One of the main reason for this gap was the lack of ability and focus from regional distributers and system integrators. Way back since 2010, Evanssion was addressing this by identifying innovative technology companies and was successfully evangelizing it in the Middle East market. This is what excited me to join Evanssion. What will you consider your biggest achievement for the year 2018? We have transformed Evanssion from Cloud and Data Center company to 100% Cyber Security focused organisation. What challenges do you face on an

CHANNEL TRANSFORMERS

everyday basis? The lack of skilled resources in the areas such as AI, ML, Big Data, Automation is inhibiting various companies in adopting new technologies and initiatives. Who do you consider your role model and why? There are many role models to emulate in the technology domain. So, it is very difficult to choose one. For partners who don’t know you yet, what is that one thing they should know about you? Evanssion is a revenue generation engine for its vendors and partners. We thrive in impactful customer engagement to create win-win opportunities for innovative cyber security technologies. Join hands with Evanssion for new business streams.

VAD TECHNOLOGIES

MARIO M. VELJOVIC, GENERAL MANAGER, VAD TECHNOLOGIES

Tell us about your role in this company. Why did you take up this role? Leading a very talented Group of enthusiastic People and Redefining Value-Added Distribution in the Era of Disruptive Technologies still excites me and make me rush to work every day. What plans do you have for the company and your partners this year? 2019 is the Year of Partners for us and we have put a Plan together that will see the Team working even closer and more focused with our Partners. Part of this Plan is the newly established legal entity in Saudi Arabia, which will allow us to engage with our Partners locally in the Kingdom. Furthermore, we will continue to expand our disruptive Product and Solutions Portfolio in exciting areas such as (1) Artificial Intelligence (AI), (2) Internet

of Things (IoT), (3) Augmented Reality (AR) and (4) many others. What will you consider your biggest achievement for the year 2018? Robert J. Collie once said; “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” Our biggest achievement is to stay focused and committed to our Vision. What challenges do you face on an everyday basis? I would love to have more time with my Partners to explore business opportunities. Who do you consider your role model and why? Ferdinand (Ferry) Porsche is a person I admire as he invented a sports car - the 911 - more than five decades ago, which to date is almost unchanged in shape and basic principles, but still one of the fastest in the world.

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CHANNEL TRANSFORMERS

Tell us about your role in this company. Why did you take up this role? I’ve been with the Group since 1999, initially joining to start-up our Comstor operation in region and then combining this with our existing Online Distribution business into what today is Westcon-Comstor Middle East. It has been a long, challenging and immensely enjoyable journey in building a top team of people, a unique empowered ‘can-do’ culture and developing our reach, portfolio and offerings in the region. The challenge of building out a leading distribution business in the Middle East doesn’t come around every day, I was very fortunate to be allowed this opportunity. What plans do you have for the company and your partners this year? We aim to build upon our substantial investments in new operations in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Bahrain this year. The roll-out of our digital distribution platform over the year will see us take

Tell us about your role in this company. Why did you take up this role? My role at ASBIS as Vice President involves overseeing the day-to-day operations of the business coverage in the Middle East and North Africa. I have been in the IT industry and specifically the IT Channel for well over three decades now. I have always had an interest in the business of Technology and the business of the entire IT supply chain from the time a product is made by the vendor right through to when it’s consumed by the end user. What plans do you have for the company and your partners this year? In 2019, our focus is to continue to build our Value Division with best of breed brands and to continue our solid track record in the enterprise storage and server market with our solutions. In addition, we continue to augment our networking and security business offering while maintaining our strong leadership position in broadline distribution with our vendor line.

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a true leadership position. WESTCON - COMSTOR

What will you consider your biggest achievement for the year 2018? We have started to capitalise on the huge investments we made in IT and infrastructure in the previous year. Our partner breadth has grown, our loyalty increased and our internal and external customer satisfaction continues to build. What challenges do you face on an everyday basis? The challenges we face each day differ greatly, our ability to work proactively as a team to resolve these at pace is what sets us apart. Who do you consider your role model and why? I have been fortunate to have worked with some fantastic people and mentors over the years and to this day am blessed with being part of the Westcon-Comstor family and the impressive leaders of our vendor and reseller partners. I can

STEVE LOCKIE, GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR, WESTCON-COMSTOR

honestly say I don’t have any one role model, I try to learn and emulate the best traits and attributes from those great individuals on a daily basiseach day is a learning opportunity and we learn more from our people than from any text books or theories.

What challenges do you face on an everyday basis? Aside from the usual challenges that any IT distributor faces, the Middle East channel has been impacted by the tough business climate, shortage of components (HDD) and in some parts in North Africa the currency volatility and the lack of forex. Who do you consider your role model and why? I have always admired the works of people in the technology space that have challenged the status quo, Apple’s Steve Jobs, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg & the founder of Google have all contributed to shaping the IT industry to what it’s right now. For partners who don’t know you yet, what is that one thing they should know about you? I am an avid and passionate person about the business of technology and the wellbeing of the IT supply chain.

ASBIS MIDDLE EAST

HESHAM TANTAWI, VP, ASBIS MIDDLE EAST

AVINASH ADVANI, CEO, SPIRE SOLUTIONS

SPIRE SOLUTIONS

JOSE THOMAS MENACHERRY, MD, BULWARK

BULWARK

TECHNOLOGIES

ONE THING PARTNER’S SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ME - WE ARE NOT IN A RUSH AND WANT TO HAVE FUN ON THE WAY, WHILE REDEFINING AND RETHINKING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A VAD

MY ROLE MODEL – MY PARENTS

IRSHAD ABOOBACKER,

SNB MIDDLE EAST

MARIO M. VELJOVIC, GM, VAD TECHNOLOGIES

STEVE LOCKIE,

MIDDLE EAST CHALLENGES FACED ON EVERYDAY BASIS - RECRUITING THE RIGHT TALENT WITH DESIRED COMPETENCIES, CHANGES IN TECHNOLOGY, EMBRACING THE CHANGE, KEEPING UP WITH THE MARKET, AND PLANNING AHEAD.

VAD TECHNOLOGIES

FOR PARTNERS WHO DON’T KNOW YOU YET, WHAT IS THAT ONE THING THEY SHOULD KNOW ABOUT YOU? VAD TEAM WILL ALWAYS ENSURE THAT THE PARTNER HAS 1ST PRIORITY

GROUP MANAGING DIREC-

SALES DIRECTOR, SNB

SHEIK ABIDEEN, EVANSSION

VP, EVANSSION

NEW PLANS FOR THE COMPANY AND PARTNER IN 2019 – INTRODUCED 3 NEW PRACTICES IN THE CYBER SECURITY SPACE: n CYBER DEFENCE CENTER PRACTICE n VIRTUAL DATA CENTER SECURITY PRACTICE n CLOUD AND MOBILITY SECURITY PRACTICE

WESTCON COMSTOR

TOR, WESTCON-COMSTOR MINDWARE FOR PARTNERS WHO DON’T KNOW YOU YET, WHAT IS THAT ONE THING THEY SHOULD KNOW ABOUT YOU? WE ARE COMMITTED TO THE SUCCESS OF OUR MUTUAL BUSINESS AND WE ARE CHANNEL LOYAL

NICHOLAS ARGYRIDES, CHIEF OF SALES & MARKETING/ DEPUTY GM, MINDWARE PLANS FOR THE COMPANY AND YOUR PARTNERS THIS YEAR 2019 IS BRINGING ALONG NEW BUSINESS VERTICALS TO MINDWARE, BE IT STRATEGIC VENDOR PARTNERSHIPS, MULTIPLE CLOUD OFFERINGS, OR UNIQUE PARTNER PROGRAMS

STARLINK

NIDAL OTHMAN, FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR, STARLINK

HESHAM TANTAWI, VP, ASBIS MIDDLE EAST

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT OF THE YEAR 2018 GROWING OUR TOP AND BOTTOM LINE IN A YEAR THAT WAS FULL OF UNCERTAINTIES

ASBIS MIDDLE EAST

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT FOR THE YEAR 2018 STARLINK’S BEING ACCLAIMED AS THE THIRD LARGEST CYBERSECURITY DISTRIBUTOR GLOBALLY

F E B R U A R Y 2 019

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ENTERPRISE ADVISER

Unfolds

The Digital Transformation Story

rganized by GEC Media Group and Powered by StorIT Distribution and Dell EMC, a highly customized roundtable was held on 24th January at The Armani Hotel, Burj Khalifa. Organizations today are reimagining their business models in order to stay agile and stay competitive. In a digitally evolved world, it is important for the businesses to decode the progress of Digital Transformation and make an informed decision on understanding the future. The roundtable witnessed on how the digital transformation is important for future development.

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Charbel Zreiby, Senior Manager – Channel Speciality – META for Dell EMC spoke on how digital transformation is changing our lives. With some real usecase video clips, Charbel explained how the organziations can be left behind if the emerging technologies are not adopted. Hemesh Dogiparthi, Director – Technical Services & Consultancy for StorIT presented their DevOps story and it’s delivery model. The roundtable, a mix of end-users from various verticals indulged in a productive discussion at the event.ë

ENTERPRISE ADVISER

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FEATURE STORY

A STEP AHEAD IN THE GAME Looking ahead to 2071 - its centennial anniversary, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) aims to become a global leader in innovation. The country has been progressing with various tech advancements and going through rapid digital transformation. 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

he UAE aims to establish the first inhabitable human settlement in Mars by 2117. H. H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid said that the project is a seed that the UAE plants today and expects future generations to reap the benefits, driven by its passion to learn to unveil a new knowledge. Wow! Isn’t that mind-blowing? No wonder the country has been a model nation in the adoption of technologies. It has always been a step ahead and never hesitated to adopt early or use wisely. This change can

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be witnessed region-wide and enterprises are embracing technologies like AI, robotics, machine learning etc. A report by the Dubai Technology Entrepreneurship Campus, prepared in collaboration with ArabNet and startAD, has revealed that the UAE ranks first in the region in terms of enterprise adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) applications with an annual growth rate of 33.5%.

MAJOR PLAYER IN AI In 2017, the world witnessed the appointment of the first AI

minister for UAE which shows the country’s determined goals towards the future. Omar Bin Sultan Al Olama, the AI Minister will spearhead UAE’s ambition to be at the forefront of the global technological revolution which will see it planning to build houses on Mars by 2117. The country plans to have a fully functional city of 600,000 people on Mars. UAE has launched a unique strategy for this and aims to achieve the objectives by 2071. In May 2018, UAE adopted 26 mechanisms related to the

FEATURE STORY

use of AI in many economic sectors while the University of Dubai signed an agreement with the Roads and Transport Authority, RTA, to establish a research centre for the roads and transport sector. There are several initiatives by the government but how are the solution providers aligned with the vision of the government is a question to think of. In conversations with some of the solution providers, this is what they had to say. The Ministry of Artificial Intelligence (MoAI) recently signed an agreement with Dell EMC to help Emirati youth develop new skillsets associated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. “Dell

EMC will train 500 Emirati students under a specialized AI programme, supervised by an executive team. This agreement aims at bridging the skills gap in the technology sector and help these next generation of IT professionals play a pivotal role in improving the efficiency of government organizations by 80%, and achieve a cost reduction of up to 45%, equivalent to millions of dollars. This partnership clearly aligns with the UAE Centennial 2071 plan,” said Fady Richmany, Senior Director and General Manager, UAE at Dell EMC. “Accelerating the UAE’s nationwide digital transformation, we are seeing strong feedback from the recent go live of customers on our cloud data center in the UAE, the centerpiece of our 5-year USD 200 million UAE investment plan. Running on the cloud is vital for UAE organizations to integrate emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain, and the Internet of Things,” said Zakaria Haltout, Head of Global Channels and General Business, SAP MENA. “The 2071 vision for the UAE to become the world’s leading nation will be achieved through the implementation of a series

of bold initiatives across a variety of industries, including education, economy, government development and community cohesion. To compete in a global market, the UAE will need to balance risk / reward in its ventures, and Netskope’s plans are to support this balance by mitigating the risks associated with the cloud services that will help the market grow,” commented Mohamad Alhakim, Regional Sales Director ME & Turkey, Netskope. “The UAE aims to become a model nation and global leader in innovation. At the core of this vision is a call for transformation across the country’s infrastructure and main economic sectors, starting now. It is at this inflection point that Meydan One emerges as the face of retail and leisure experiences of the future. Set to launch in 2020, Meydan One integrates convenience and customer service through technology. Its revolutionary ‘Smart’ app – the result of two years of R&D – offers virtual access to the destination’s infrastructure. The truly omnichannel platform allows visitors to plan their experience at home or at the airport, helping them make the most efficient use of their time and the resources at hand,” said Fahad Kazim, Vice President, Meydan Malls. Meanwhile Etisalat Digital is working with Dubai Future Accelerators on a challenge focused on reducing crime and

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FEATURE STORY

“MEYDAN ONE EMERGES AS THE FACE OF RETAIL AND LEISURE EXPERIENCES OF THE FUTURE. IT INTEGRATES CONVENIENCE AND CUSTOMER SERVICE THROUGH TECHNOLOGY,” FAHAD KAZIM, VICE PRESIDENT, MEYDAN MALLS

“DELL EMC WILL TRAIN 500 EMIRATI STUDENTS UNDER A SPECIALIZED AI PROGRAMME, SUPERVISED BY AN EXECUTIVE TEAM,”

“WE BELIEVE THAT PEOPLE AND COMPANIES SHOULD BE ABLE TO COLLABORATE WITHOUT LIMITS, WORKING SAFELY ACROSS CLOUD SERVICES, DEVICES, AND LOCATIONS,”

FADY RICHMANY, SENIOR DIRECTOR AND GENERAL MANAGER - UAE, DELL EMC.

MOHAMAD ALHAKIM, REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR ME & TURKEY, NETSKOPE

accidents.

UAE – A LEADING EXAMPLE OF TOLERANCE

“HAVING A REAL-TIME DIGITAL CORE IS THE FOUNDATION FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES TO DELIVER SERVICES FOR RUNNING SIMPLE AND TRANSFORMING DAILY LIVES AND THE ECONOMY, SOCIETY, AND ENVIRONMENT,” ZAKARIA HALTOUT, HEAD OF GLOBAL CHANNELS AND GENERAL BUSINESS, SAP MENA

road congestion using artificial intelligence (AI) on video surveillance systems. The company said AI will be deployed to analyze behavior, predict crime-related patterns, congestion, and road

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Tolerance is a virtue and an intrinsic part of the Islamic culture. It is observed at all levels: individual, organizational and national says the UAE government portal. With more than 200 nationalities living peacefully and successfully here, the UAE society has been an undisputed example of being a tolerant and inclusive country. Now, the Federal Government is keen to promote acceptance and understanding as core values of the society. The UAE government has officially declared 2019 the Year of Tolerance to strengthen the nation’s role of encouraging stability and prosperity in the region. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, formed the Supreme National Committee for Tolerance after a few days of the announcement of Year of Tolerance. Comprised of ministers, artists, businessmen and charity founders, the committee is tasked with fulfilling the Year of Tolerance’s seven pillars. Among these are to develop policy, legislation and executive regulations to guarantee sustained values of tolerance in the UAE.

While the law has yet to be issued, it will likely compliment legislation that already exists in the UAE and that penalizes discrimination against anyone on the basis of their religion, gender or creed. The country has also planned activities and initiatives that will be the venue for encouraging tolerance. This year will start out strong with Pope Francis visiting Abu Dhabi. It will be the first visit by a pontiff to the Arabian Gulf and it is expected to mark a new era in inter-faith relations between the UAE and the Vatican. Construction of the Hindu temple is underway and will be inaugurated in 2020. The Special Olympics World Games will be held in Abu Dhabi. It will be the first time the games are held in the MENA region and will be another occasion to show that tolerance is about accepting and embracing differences.

FUTURE BEGINS NOW ‘One thing you can’t accuse the UAE of lacking is - vision.” This was how a BBC report summarised UAE efforts to plan for the future. The country has been at the forefront of innovation. It is its forward-thinking policy that has enabled this country to develop within a short span of time. Nothing seems beyond imagination when the country is ready to embrace the future! ë

INTERSEC

STORING VALUE “AS DATA IS GETTING MORE IMPORTANCE, STORAGE IS ON THE PRIORITY LIST FOR END-USERS AND THIS REALIZATION IS FUELING THE CHANNEL BUSINESS”

As the market could see, Toshiba had a very busy 2018. Can you brief what were the key milestones that you achieved? Certainly. 2018 has been a phenomenal year for Toshiba as we saw a significant growth in the enterprise storage segment, especially in surveillance. We were a late entrant in the surveillance category but if you see the growth that we have had from 2017 till today, it has been fantastic. In 2018, we went a step ahead in deep-diving to comprehend the market’s appetite for capacity and storage and came up with much more clarity and product differentiation based on the usage. We have a dedicated drive for NAS, Enterprise Capacity, Enterprise Performance and exclusive drive for surveillance as well. With this kind of focus we have been able to give the market what it needs.

SANTOSH VARGHESE,

VICE PRESIDENT, TOSHIBA GULF FZE

What kind of growth are you seeing in the surveillance market? The surveillance market is growing at a remarkable rate. The security market is growing 25-30% YoY and we are expecting the CAGR to touch approximately 17-20% by 2022 in the security market. There is a dire need for storage as the new cameras that are being installed come with 4k quality recording which means double the capacity of storage is required. The government regulations on storing surveillance data is about 6 months which is further propelling the demand for storage. What is Toshiba’s strategy in making the captured data meaningful? A few years back it was all about capturing the data and storing it. But today, businesses are analyzing the data and using it for their market positioning. Toshiba has a dedicated storage and analytics division which predominantly focuses on big data and IoT solutions and that is a

separate division and department altogether. Under the umbrella of ‘Storage and Surveillance 360’ Toshiba has conducted 4 key channel roundtable in GCC in 2018. What were the key takeaways from the sessions? The channel roundtables were highly successful in driving home the fact that storage is no more at the back seat. As data is getting more importance, storage is on the priority list for end-users and this realization is fueling the channel business. We had some really interesting interactions with the leading channel players in UAE, Oman, KSA, Qatar who spoke to us about the demands that they are seeing coming from the customers and how Toshiba can be a preferred vendor. What is your market prediction for the next 3-5 years? Toshiba has always been a futuristic company and all our products are designed and launched in sync with that. We recently launched the 16TB in the market going by the prediction that by the year 2025, 166 zettabytes of data will be produced. You need bigger capacity drives that are more efficient and less time and energy consuming. Can partners or customer expect any change in your GTM strategy in 2019? Toshiba’s go-to-market strategy for many years has been in-country developments. We do a channel connect program that goes to every country and elevates our messaging. Apart from that, we also do dedicated roundtables, channel education and training programs etc that enable our partners to go to the end customer with the correct product. Quality and reliability is our USP. Every year, we invest 6% of our revenue for R&D that indicates a serious development in technology that is in sync with the market requirements. Go Wide, Go Deep has been our mantra.ë

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INTERSEC

CHRISTIAN RINGLER,

DIRECTOR - MEA & DACH, MILESTONE SYSTEMS

A NEW APPROACH

Milestone Systems participated at Intersec 2019 with a new focus on Verticals. The solutions showcased provided business benefits to industry verticals such as transportation, retail and safe cities. The company also introduced new software’s. In the latest update of Milestone XProtect 2018 R1 video management software, Milestone systems introduced two-way audio in the Mobile Client, enabling the users to speak to people on camera, directly from their mobile devices. This is beneficial for on-the-go security personnel, whose tasks require them sometimes to be away from the Smart Client. One-way audio allows users to listen to audio captured by the micro- phone connected to the camera directly from their mobile phones using the Milestone Mobile application. Users can also increase their situational awareness when a video is not available, like in extreme darkness or when an incident happens outside of the camera’s viewing range. Two-way audio takes the audio capability a step further with Push-to-Talk (PTT), a feature that allows users to speak through the camera connected speaker directly from their mobile phones. This enables security personnel to use their VMS systems preventatively for things like access control, crowd warnings, and intruder alerts – all available on mobile. “We showcased our new software’s and our milestone open platform approach along with different VMS vendors and solution partners,” said Christian Ringler, Director – MEA & DACH, Milestone Systems. He believes that they are better from their competition as they deliver the open platform. “We are involving different partners into our business and we have various verticals.” The company’s roadmap for the year is to stay focused. “More focus to community, more focus to verticals and more focus to channels is our roadmap for the year,” added Christian. As the Director, his top priorities would be – “Focus on right country where we can invest more, work closely with end users and sharpen our team,” concludes Christian.

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MAYA ZAKHOUR,

HEAD OF DISTRIBUTION & ALLIANCES - MEA, NETAPP

GOING STRONGER INTO THE MARKET NetApp showcased its video surveillance and hybrid flash storage solutions during its participation at Intersec 2019. Talking about the show, Maya Zakhour, Head of Distribution & Alliances – MEA, NetApp said, “Intersec is a great place to be to meet our existing as well as new partners and customers. We took pride in showcasing our unique physical security offering which received good traction. We have a strong architecture built and implemented with our top strategic alliances and partners.” The region has huge mega events coming up, one of them being Expo 2020. The enormous number of visitors will create demand for the video surveillance systems. The increase in data that is created by video surveillance will require storage solutions. To meet the security surveillance challenges of data retrieval, retention and capture, NetApp’s video surveillance storage solutions provide consistent high-performance bandwidth for media-intensive video-streaming environments. Talking about partnerships, Maya says - “We work strongly with our alliances. We believe in having quality partnerships rather than quantity or volume, who differentiate themselves and differentiate NetApp offerings. We are looking to expand through our channel in 2019. We have many enablement’s coming up. We shall be soon having our partner academy where we will make sure our partners are updated with the latest technologies, incentives and programs.”

INTERSEC

BEYOND SURVEILLANCE “WITH EACH AND EVERY PRODUCT WE ARE GOING BEYOND TRADITIONAL STORAGE. OUR MESSAGING TO THE MARKET IS THAT – FROM CAPTURING TO STORING TO ANALYZING DATA, THE ENTIRE JOURNEY CAN HAPPEN ON A WESTERN DIGITAL PRODUCT”

to storing to analyzing data, the entire journey can happen on a Western Digital Product.

SAIFUDDIN KHWAJA,

SENIOR SALES DIRECTOR - MIDDLE EAST, WESTERN DIGITAL

As a part of its Beyond Surveillance campaign, Western Digital showcased its latest surveillance solutions at the recently held Intersec 2019. As the surveillance industry moves to higher-resolution cameras and new applications requiring real-time analytics, Western Digital’s full edge-to-core surveillance portfolio shifts focus from ‘seeing’ to safety and insights. Built around the themes of capture, store and analyze, the Beyond Surveillance campaign focuses on advanced surveillance technologies demonstrating how Western Digital solutions support deep learning and analytics such as facial or object recognition and traffic heat maps. Enterprise Channels MEA sits down with Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director at Western Digital at the show. Excerpts.

As goes the cliché, Data is the new currency. How has Western Digital been able to innovate newer solutions for satiating the demands of the data-driven organizations? 2019 has kicked-off with a bang for WD. We have launched some good products in sync with the market inclination for higher capacity storage and made some strong messaging on digital storage and how we perceive the future of storage at WD. We have launched a wide range of products that include the 4 terabytes external storage from an SSD point of view; the largest capacity micro SD card for security and surveillance camera; the 12 terabytes purple and all the way to 14 terabytes enterprise class drives. With each and every product we are going beyond traditional storage. Our messaging to the market is that – from capturing

Capture, Store, Analyze – the third point is what matters the most today. How does WD products make the stored data worthwhile? At Western Digital, our prime motive is to make sure that the data is available when you need it. Today every second or third VMS solutions has an embedded AI component. So, to ensure that everything runs perfectly you need to have a device that makes your data easily available and write the data in a way that it is compatible with each and every device that it is connected with. This is one of the differentiating factors with WD. We do not make a one-size-fits-all product or solution, but solutions that are built upon the compatibility models, scalability and peace of mind that the users have when they are storing their data on a WD device. This is a key component when you have hundreds of cameras writing at the same time. All investments are done keeping in mind that all the data should be available in the same quality and resolution that it should be in. What is your take on the Surveillance industry and how do you plan to re-route or revisit your market strategies? The global surveillance industry is growing by 20% YoY from a solution and implementation perspective. We forecast it to be steady in the coming years as well. The market is changing, the channel ecosystem is changing and the entire way of doing business is changing so we cannot remain stagnant. We are very agile on that because of our local presence which is yet another key differentiator that makes WD stand apart. We are not only close to the market place but also the people who are running the market place. We become the change that the market beckons. ë

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INTERSEC

MARCO FORNIER,

SALES DIRECTOR, BARCO

JACK O’REILLY,

REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR, OEM & IOT SOLUTIONS GROUP, DELL EMC

A NEW APPROACH

SIMPLIFYING SURVEILLANCE & SECURITY

Barco along with their partner Intertech showcased their security and surveillance solutions this year at Intersec. “We have been participating in Intersec since the beginning when the show was very small. We always believed in this show and now it has become the main event for security in the Middle East & Africa region. Intersec has evolved well and now we cannot refrain from participating,” said Marco Fornier, Sales Director, Barco. Barco showcased their full control room solutions. Barco UniSee and KVD wall solutions products were on spotlight. Barco UniSee takes a completely new approach to seamless LCD video walls. Redesigning and optimizing every component, Barco UniSee is not only a step forward in terms of image quality, but also in installation time, ease-of-servicing, and reliability. “The LCD video wall technology completely revolutionises the LCD video wall experience. It ensures amazing image quality, while being super easy to install, maintain and service,” added Marco. Talking about how different are they from their competition, Marco said – “We have been in this business for the past 25 years. We are not here to sell and run away. We have more than 500 references in the region. We always believe in maintaining a long-term relationship with our customers.”

At Intersec 2019, Dell Technologies showcased their next-gen IoT and surveillance solutions. They also showcased the “Live Earth” demo which offered an overview of Dell Technologies’ capabilities of how video surveillance comes to life in the ever-changing modern environment, hosted on a ruggedized Edge Gateway platform. Jack O’Reilly, Regional Sales Director, OEM & IoT Solutions Group at Dell EMC said – “This year launched our IoT for surveillance solution. It is a hyper-converged platform for video surveillance which comes with our server storage networking. It comes with built-in security as well.” With every connected device turning into an attack vector, Dell Technologies also provides enterprise-grade IoT solution that combines hardware and software optimized for surveillance needs. “Dell Technologies has several products for security. We have products from Secureworks, RSA, VMware. In the past, video surveillance was about recording and then installing the data. Today’s surveillance is not only about storing a video, but about the performance and reliability of the storage platform that allows customers to locate and analyze the required information quickly. With advanced cameras, sensors, and intelligence, surveillance can do way more than just protect people and property beyond the usual perimeter,” said Jack. Talking about the show, Jack said – “The quality of customer engagements is always higher at Intersec. The security industry is a great industry to be part of to meet some old friends as well as make some new connections.”

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PARTNER PROGRAMS

PARTNER PROGRAMS FOR DIGI NEXT GEN CHANNEL EMPOWERMENT - NUTANIX “GIVING UP CONTROL OF OPPORTUNITIES TO PARTNERS CAN BE AN UNCOMFORTABLE PROCESS FOR TERRITORY MANAGERS BUT WITH THE PROPER TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION TO MEASURE THE LEVEL OF EXPERTISE IN THE CHANNEL, EVERYONE CAN BE FULLY CONFIDENT IN A PARTNER’S ABILITY TO PROFESSIONALLY DELIVER THE BEST AND MOST COMPELLING REPRESENTATION OF A SOLUTION”

BASSAM ALMASRI, SR. MANAGER CHANNEL, NUTANIX MIDDLE EAST

artner programs should be dynamic and stay ahead of the trends. The technology space is one of the fastest changing industries and so with the evolving landscape, it’s important to keep your hand on the pulse and change strategies accordingly. A partner program should ensure that all partners, irrespective of which tier they fall into, have equal access to opportunities to evolve and grow their businesses. A partner program should have a clear and defined vision and plan on how to achieve it. And a recognition and reward program that is transparent and achievable. Nutanix is a perfect example of a company that has broken the traditional partner program mould and created a channel charter. The term ‘program’ is too definitional and limiting. Too many vendor partner programs today focus on partner classification and tiering based on

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revenue alone. However, there are other factors that we deem more relevant for long term mutual success including number of deals, quality of deals and partner’s investment in Nutanix through certifications and training. Measuring commitment by transactions rather than total revenue allows smaller, focused partners to reach the highest level of partnership, not just the large account resellers and long-time Nutanix partners who have already built up large practices. Transactions also show breadth, winning new customers as well as getting repeat business. Nutanix understands that it is important to have a mechanism in place to safeguard against partners trying to beat the system with artificially smaller deals to score more transactions and as such the company has implemented advanced analytics that immediately raises a red flag. Nutanix’s Channel Charter is about empowering partners rather than measuring them, and

giving benefits based on what they deliver. There’re no Platinum, Diamond or Silver-levels. Instead partners are categorized as Pioneers, Scalers and Masters. Pioneers are newbies who have just joined with the company and they need a different set of tools and support. Scalers are companies that are experiencing strong growth and need additional support; and Masters are companies that are off and running on their own. In addition to more margin, the Master Partners get more MDS as well, and more sales support, because they are selling more and addressing more of the market. Each category needs different rewards, incentives and forms of support. Training and certification is a very important part of a good partner program. Giving up control of opportunities to partners can be an uncomfortable process for territory managers but with the proper training and certification to measure the level of expertise in the channel, everyone can be fully confident in a partner’s ability to professionally deliver the best and most compelling representation of a solution. When you don’t have a training program in place, it limits the ability to scale the business as vendor presence is typically going to be required to ensure the customer fully understands the value of your solution. Moreover, unless a partner is trained and certified, you have no way of qualifying the level of expertise in the partner organization and whether they need additional help in certain areas. In short partner training is mandatory for any vendor if they expect to be successful and meet their growth targets. Finally, it’s very important to constantly get feedback from partners so that the partner program can successfully evolve and be tailored to their needs.ë

PARTNER PROGRAMS

PARTNER PROGRAM FOR DIGI NEXT GEN CHANNEL EMPOWERMENT - TP-LINK “BY OFFERING A WIDE ASSORTMENT OF TRAINING PROGRAMS AND CERTIFICATIONS TO OUR CHANNEL PARTNERS, SMB PARTNERS & END-USERS, TP-LINK IS ACTING AS A CATALYST IN IMPROVING THEIR COMFORT, FAMILIARITY AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE TECHNOLOGY THAT THEY WORK WITH”

LUCAS JIANG, GENERAL MANAGER, TP-LINK MEA FZE

s a brand TP-Link is highly considerate towards the channel partners. Implementing programmes that are aimed at helping their channel partners and improving their own resolutions towards the requirements with SMB partners. An enterprise that believes strongly in not just enabling its users and partners with its reliable networking solutions, but also educating them about the technology behind their solutions in order to aid them in utilizing its potential to the fullest, TP-Link offers an array of certifications and training programs. The partner programs offer three tiers of offering a variety of benefits like price protection, demo discount, pre-sales support, technical onsite training, dedicated account management, exclusive offers and rebates that cater to a variety of SMBs and enable overall business growth that is holistic in nature.

TP-Link places immense emphasis on training and creating a pool of solution that can help the partners overcome their field impediments. One of their foremost responsibilities as reliable a solutions provider is to facilitate in generating awareness and educating their SMB customers about the company’s SMB products and solutions. By offering a wide assortment of training programs and certifications to our channel partners, SMB partners & end-users, TP-Link is acting as a catalyst in improving their comfort, familiarity and knowledge of the technology that they work with. This consequently has a significant impact on their productivity and comprehensive business growth.

CERTIFICATION PROGRAMS: The TPNA SMB (TP-Link Network Associate

for SMB) & TPNP (TP-Link Network Professional) Certifications have been designed to give the partners a categorical walk-through of the technology behind the solutions we provide. Successful completions of these trainings signifies that they have absorbed the advanced network and wireless concepts, and can explain and differentiate clearly between TP-Link SMB products (such as the TP-Link SMB Router, TP-Link SMB Switch, TP-Link EAP and TP-Link Pharos AP) based on such criteria as usage scenarios, configuration methods, software functions and advanced switches functions such as Stack, LAG, VLAN and STP, as well as routing concepts including RIP, OSPF and PIM. Open to all technicians, sales personnel, and those associated with networking solutions, the TPNA & TPNP SMB Certification is open to all who have acquired abundant network concepts, through TP-Link’s comprehensive training programs or otherwise. This includes a myriad of eligible takers ranging from technicians and sales personnel of TP-Link agencies and partners to end customers. On successful completion of the TPNA & TPNP SMB Certification, TP-Link signs and issues the corresponding certificates, that are valid for three years from the date of issue. Since technology has the fastest rate of obsolescence and the solutions provided are constantly upgraded or renewed, TP-Link believes in keeping its partners upgraded and updated with the latest products and know-how. Therefore, when the certificates expire, one is required to repeat the TPNA SMB Certification exam to renew the validity of their existing TPNA SMB Certificates, thus enabling them to be relevant with the changes in the respective spaces.ë

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PARTNER PROGRAMS

PARTNER PROGRAMS FOR DIGI NEXT GEN CHANNEL EMPOWERMENT - EATON “LISTENING TO THE CHANNEL AND TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THEIR FEEDBACK, WE HAVE ROLLED OUT A BRAND NEW ONLINE TRAINING PORTAL USING THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE WITH ON-DEMAND CONTENT AND TUTORIALS”

What initiatives are being launched by the solution providers for the next generation partner programs? The most pressing channel issue is the increased complexity and the digital transformation of businesses implies. The traditional box-moving broadline business will offer less and less profit opportunities, while emerging technologies will benefit to the channel players who have invested early in acquiring the right skills. The more complex the technology becomes, the more the channel will be essential to act as the trusted advisor for the end-customers. Eaton has been present in the market for many years and has always sold its technology and products 100% through the channel. The changes to Eaton’s Power Advantage Partner Program will give Eaton’s extensive network of resellers even more benefits from their relationship with the company. The additional investment and support that Eaton is bringing today demonstrates our long-term commitment to its channel partners. We will empower their expertise with easier access to knowledge. We will empower their demand creation with additional resources available such as marketing development funds and we will empower their margins with easier ways to deal with us.

KARIM REFAS,

REGIONAL CHANNEL MANAGER, EATON

F E B R U A R Y 2019

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How does the partner program enable business growth? Channel partners are extremely solicited by the extensive number of vendors in our industry. Coping with all the requirements and certifications can become a daunting task, especially for the SMB segment. Eaton acknowledges this and has made it a priority to develop a very simple and flexible program, focusing on enabling partners to boost demand creation, deliver superior service to end-user customers and maximize their sales and profitability. Listening to the channel and taking into account their feedback, we have rolled out a brand new online training portal using the latest technology available with on-demand content and tutorials. In addition to comprehensive enablement, partners will be able to take advantage of demand-creation assets, including ready-to-use campaigns for fast execution of marketing initiatives. We have also increased the resources allocations to fund more of these activities with partners willing to generate demand in their market. Finally, we have also strengthened our deal registration process to guarantee our partners that all their efforts and investments to promote Eaton will be rewarded while maximising their profitability. ë

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ENTERPRISE ADVISER

‘Transformation Ready: Roundtable Churns up

next-gen DC story’ O

rganized by GEC Media Group and powered by Pure Storage and Wipro, the Transformation Ready – A Bird’s Eye View of Next-Gen Data Center held on 22nd January at The Armani Hotel, Burj Khalifa touched upon the major aspects of the next generation data center market. Transformation is the spine of seamless end-user experience. With the rapid shift in data center edifice and developed platforms, there is a dire need for future-looking and best of breed data center infrastructure solutions. The roundtable showcased how the organizations are collaborating to provide customers a seamless

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experience in their production environment with Pure’s next generation data-centric infrastructure solutions and Wipro’s transformational services in the Middle East market. Patrick Smith, CTO, Pure Storage highlighted how the company is a leader in the market for 5 years in a row. The Pure Storage team also focused on the business value derived from using their innovative technology and services. Pure Storage provides solutions with global Sis focusing on six use cases with differentiation – AI & Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics, SAP, databases, hybrid cloud and STaaS, and security and log analytics. ë

ENTERPRISE ADVISER

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ENTERPRISE ADVISER

PATRICK SMITH, EMEA FIELD CTO, PURE STORAGE

“It was a great morning in Dubai speaking at the CIO round table hosted by Pure Storage and Wipro—the open and insightful discussion among the executives at the session reinforced the enthusiasm of regional enterprises to drive enhanced business opportunities through digital transformation. Particular areas of interest included the advancement of Artificial Intelligence, use of modern real-time analytics and big data, the introduction of public cloud providers into the region and the financial models for technology acquisition. These are exciting times to be delivering business value in the region, through next generation technologies, and we at Pure Storage look forward to being an integral part of our customers’ transformation strategy.”

“Continuous Technology changes are forcing organizations to prioritize their Digital Transformations. This industry wide disruption creates new opportunities for all of us to deploy best of class solutions to fully optimize operational expenses. This event helped us to understand - 1st hand - the customers unique perspectives & issues in the Middle East market. It is exactly this kind of brain storming session that allow us to understand & meet end user expectations more precisely.”

INDRASSHISH DAS, STRATEGIC BUSINESS ALLIANCE MANAGER, WIPRO

“Continuous Technology changes are forcing Organizations to make way for Digital Transformations. The disruption across industry is creating opportunities for us and this will ensure best of class solutions which will optimize operational expenses. The event has helped us to understand customer perspective to a large extent for middle east market and these kind of brain storming sessions actually led us to know end user expectations clearly.”

“The interactions and exchanges with customers and colleagues from the industry reflected the breadth of the opportunities as well as the challenges in the region. Customers do need help and guidance in their digital transformation journey in order to navigate through the complexity and realize the promised business value. At eHDF, that is our mission.”

JAMAL KILANI, REGIONAL DIRECTOR - MEA, TOTAL TELECOM,

ROOPS BRAR, GSI EMEA ACCOUNT DIRECTOR, PURE STORAGE

YASSER ZEINELDIN, CEO, EHOSTING DATAFORT

“It was a great session to understand the right approach needed for the market and investigate more about the budget readiness and know current network legacies and regulations.”

ENTERPRISE ADVISER

MOHAMED LOAY ALI, LEAD BUSINESS PRODUCTS & SOLUTIONS, VIVA BAHRAIN

“Digital Transformation is neither a decision nor a process. It is a customerspecific journey that should start with proper designing and planning. The core for Digital Transformation is the next-gen data centers, which will include software-defined equipment, virtualized compute and storage stacks, and vendor-neutral solutions. Along with automated management and intelligent operations to serve big data faster”.

“Enterprises in the region increasingly recognize the need for hybrid cloud solutions, and as a result we are already witnessing a growing presence of hyperscalers for new ventures and workloads. Having said that, we find that reliable cost-predictions for the large-scale implementation, as well as the availability of local talent, remain major challenges which we hope to address this year for the region to remain at the forefront of intelligent transformation.”

JEROEN SCHLOSSER, MD, EQUINIX

“We view the recent announcements by global cloud players to invest in the region, as a key enabler for ME enterprises to build out hybrid & multi cloud IT strategies, moving infrastructure from a centralized model to one that is decentralized, re-directing traffic to the digital edge, close to users.”

“It was great to participate in the transformation ready roundtable with such an impressive group of people. It was an interesting topic and more importantly learning from a great group of peers sharing their knowledge and opinion. I think the format has a huge potential and look forward to participating at more roundtable discussions.”

FAYAZ BADUBHAI, GROUP IT DIRECTOR, AL YOUSUF GROUP

CHRIS COOPER, GM, LENOVO DCG

SHEFIQ ABDULLA, COO, TELEPHONY GROUP OF COMPANIES

“It was a nice knowledgeable and collaborative forum between popular service providers and customers to discuss and share our thoughts about Digital Initiatives, Automations, Optimizations and Transformation and clarify the myths around it. Thanks for organizing it.”

VERTICAL ANALYSIS

CHANGE BEGINS HERE!

In October 2017, UAE Government launched the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence……and the world was never the same. The post-mobile government phase not only promises never-seen before smart digital systems but also create new vital markets with high economic value.

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 > P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K

AE, the frontrunner in the smart city race, is transforming regional landscapes with its Smart City Agenda. Re-visiting government services and service delivery models is all about forging newer public-private partnerships that pave way for adopting open and global standards. Dubai joins a growing global Smart City movement, with Frost & Sullivan estimating a global smart city market potential of $3.3 trillion by 2025.

BROWNFIELD VS GREENFIELD Well, a greenfield has the advantage to build any solutions from scratch as it is a nontouched area whilst a brownfield has to let go of many legacies and transform itself into a new place. GCC has been garnering attention for being a knowledge-based urban development region that has invested highly in renewable energy, cutting-edge financing and governance. The regional government has been a strong contender and forerunner as compared to its counterparts and has openly enjoyed welcom-

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ing technologies like big data and open data to play an instrumental role in driving business and various other government sectors. Dubai Municipality is one such government entity that has been running at the forefront of innovations in AI and Machine learning. Corporate service catalogue is the customer guidance in benefitting from government or commercial organizations. This guidance should include regulations of running a service, service request submission, required documents, service timeframe, and so on. Recently corporate services can be requested online without a present of the customer, but if you are looking for exceptions, or if service delayed then you need to call the organization or visit to clarify and complete your issue. How artificial intelligence can reduce the need to visit the organization? The answer is through AI tools. Chat bot is one of the tools, where most frequently asked questions can be entered to the database of questioning and related forms which can be given to the customer when it is requested through chatting, billing information, clarifying organization emails, or SMS, …etc.

IOI—THE INTERNET OF IDEAS The last few decades witnessed that the center of gravity was moving to GCC in terms of science, technology and innovation. For example, the government of UAE had introduced the post of Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) in the public sector. In KSA, the initiative Doroob offers on-line training, e-health, and e-employment for youth. UAE Government organizations have been instrumental in bringing forward some amazing platforms like the Innovation labs and incubators that form a key ingredient of the eco-system of innovation. The concept of I-labs are also one-of-its kind that facilitates innovations and competitive-

VERTICAL ANALYSIS

ness on a significant platform. According to studies, the entire GCC region is now looking to adopt smart initiatives, with an expanding market for Internet of Things (IoT) technology and strong government support for the change. The UAE and Bahrain will be the fastest growing countries in terms of IoT solutions by 2020. A total of nine smart city projects are expected in the Gulf nations by 2025, of which two are brownfield projects and seven are cities that will be built from scratch.

WALKING HAND IN HAND According to Schneider Electric, One of the biggest opportunities for Arabian Gulf governments is to have a strong operational technology (OT) infrastructure, and to integrate OT and IT, especially in buildings, data center, oil and gas, transportation, utilities, and water and waste water management. Real-time data insights are only as smart as their underlying OT infrastructure. Cities need to constantly maintain and upgrade utilities infrastructure, foster energy efficiency with building operating systems, and provide innovative education and healthcare facilities. Integrating AI, IoT, and mobility is catalyzing next-generation government services.

HANAN DARWISH, CLUSTER PRESIDENT â€“ GULF AND PAKISTAN, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

KSA TRANSFORMS WITH VAT As part of Vision 2030 aimed at achieving budgetary balance, Value Added Tax (VAT) was applied starting from 1 January 2018 in KSA for a basic of 5%. The VAT program is a fundamental pillar for the economic sustainability of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Given the access to the service will confirm the applicantsâ€™ right to refund on the basis of reciprocity. Other conditions of refunds are controlled by General Authority of Zakat and TAX (GAZT). GAZT also refunds the tax. Capture and validate applications and push these to GAZT IT system. When Eligible Persons (EPs) log in with their credentials for registration. Mission information is then retrieved by MOFA database such as mission

MOHAMMED MAHNASHI, ICT CONSULTANT, MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS F E B R U A R Y 2 019

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VERTICAL ANALYSIS

THE UAE AI STRATEGY WILL COVER THE FOLLOWING SECTORS: Transport to reduce accidents and cut operational costs

Technology to increase productivity and help with general spending

Education to cut costs and enhance desire for education

Health to minimise chronic and dangerous diseases

Environment to increase forestation rate

Space to help conduct accurate experiments, reduce rate of costly mistakes

Renewable energy to manage facilities

Traffic to reduce accidents and traffic jams and draw more effective traffic policies.

Water to conduct analysis and studies to provide water sources

UAE C E:

name and its ID number. They are set to be filled at the backend to assure its accurate and easiness for applicants. • EP should initiate filing the application form by filling the variable fields listed in registration form for the diplomatic mission and its representative information. Representative shall claim for all refund requests regarding the diplomatic mission or diplomatic members. • There will be automatic validation to ensure all mandatory fields are completed before proceeding. MOFA then shall review and validate the submitted forms.

DUBAI MUNICIPALITY’S AI STRATEGY Robot can be implemented in organization information desk and have an access to organiza-

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VE R GO

E NM

RTA

tion service catalogue where can answer visitors enquiries and print or input customers applications. AI also can remind customer with other services that might need to request, to apply in parallel rather than sequential. DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) used a bot chat called “Ramsah”, this to answer enquiries of customers, they started frequently asked questions that has been recorded during the past 10 years, as one important things in AI is you have a historical data years and years. Then the chat-bot will be able to analyze your enquiry and answer your questions, and most of the answers are correct if it is related to DEWA work field. Furthermore the robot connected to consumers accounts, so if a customer enquiry about electricity disconnection then system will answer him

LOAY AHMED ALNAKHAL, DM AMBASSADOR & ICT PROJECT MANAGER, DUBAI MUNICIPALILTY

reason of that maybe late overdue payment, or if consumer want to disconnect or got a clearance letter, then robot can tells how much need to pay in order to get clearance letter. Another example is in RTA (Road Transportation Authority), if you check the service catalogue presented at the web page for any kind of service like car registration or driving license or using the metro, then the chat-bot can answer your questions, without a human presence. Other type of AI used in network systems, like what is applied at Dubai Municipality, an initiative called “White-ticket” used for technical support, the system will check all the nodes connected, run preventive scripts for technical support, cleaning hard disk from bugs, removing corrupted files, checking antivirus status, printer driver activities, ..etc. and it will register an incident in the Organization Technical Support System, it makes the staff a very happy staff, it reduce number of incoming emails and phone calls requesting technical support, reduce workload to the technicians, and make the work environment more productive.

FINALLY As we began, so shall we end. It is all about change. Industry 4.0 has dawned upon us and now there is no question of whether or not to transform. Until a few years back, the private sector has been the torch bearer of advancements, but GCC and specially UAE has stood as strong examples of how a region succeeds when its government is open to change and excels in multi-layered transformation. ë

INTERVIEW

AIM: TO BE THE ‘TRUSTED ADVISOR’

HAVING BEEN IN THE INDUSTRY FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS, JORGE DINARES, PRESIDENT INTERNATIONAL FOR MICRO FOCUS HAS DEFINITELY SEEN THE INDUSTRY EVOLVING RAPIDLY. ENTERPRISE CHANNELS MEA HAD A QUICK CHAT WHEN HE WAS IN DUBAI TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE COMPANY’S PLANS FOR THE YEAR AND HOW HE INTENDS TO TAKE IT AHEAD.

JORGE DINARES, PRESIDENT INTERNATIONAL, MICRO FOCUS

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 >

echnologies have exploded the market in a very short span. Having been in this industry for more than three decades, Jorge Dinares has witnessed this change and believes that the industry is developing as it grows. “The market has certainly been dynamic and the industry today is ripe for any technology to thrive and sustain. There are some differences as well as similarities. Difference lies in the fact that the market has become more customer driven and similarities - at the end of the day is all about trying to solve customer problems in time to help them to do business in the most efficient way,” he said. Middle East is an emerging market for Micro Focus and Jorge says that they have witnessed significant growth here. “Customers here have an adaptive mindset and do not sulk away from embracing any new technology that can enable them to grow their business.” he said. Clearly, organizations that succeed in providing good service to customers are the ones that

stay and the rest disappear in the effort. “Micro Focus has been in the market for 42 years now which means that it has been doing a good job for a period of time,” says Jorge. Commitment to customer-centric innovation is the mission of Micro Focus. “Our primary focus lies in addressing the challenges faced by the customer.. We are up to date with the new technologies that can add value to the customer. We also value the investments made by our customers, hence the customer can skip the trouble of changing versions every six months. We queue up our products over time and help our customers to evolve.” Jorge says that they are the top seventh software company globally and second in the EMEA region for the size of their business. The company has deep seeded willingness to solve customer problems. Not to forget, they have a unique portfolio and focus on 4 niche areas – DevOps, Hybrid IT Management, Security and Predictive Analytics. Jorge says – “The market is moving

to DevOps and we are proud to say that we help our customers in any transition phase that they go through. We cover the entire spectrum and support them with a consistent approach.” Micro Focus has strong solutions on IT management, an application manager service management for customers who want to run their applications partially and on premise on the cloud. They also have solutions for Security, Risk & Governance. “We secure applications and protect businesses with the most comprehensive, accurate and scalable application security solution that work with the DevOps processes. The focus on predictive analytics is to make sure to take the best advantage of what is happening in the system and how to automate as much as possible some of the positions or capturing information that can help an organization to make decisions for the business.” The company’s go to market strategy is two dimensional. “We first make sure that we are close to the customers and secondly, work with the channels to make sure that they are prepared to deliver our solutions in the market.” 87% of the Micro Focus business is done through its partners. The company makes sure that their partners know their software and are able to deliver it well to the customers. Though Micro Focus has completed 16 acquisitions in the last decade, the company has maintained its products and its commitment to its customers. As President – International for the company, focusing on customer needs tops Jorge’s priorities. “I want to take Micro Focus a step higher and make it the company customers can rely on. I want to make sure that we give the best customer support and be the trusted advisor,” concluded Jorge. ë

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GUEST ARTICLE

WHY THE ENERGY SECTOR SHOULD TURN TO TECHNOLOGY TO DRIVE PROFITABILITY

While IoT is set to form the foundations for a more efficient digital future for the energy sector, it will also enable the implementation of other, complementary technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, such as augmented reality and real-time remote asset management, to extend the life of assets and improve operational efficiency.

EXTRACTING VALUE WITH REMOTE MAINTENANCE AND GUIDANCE Efforts to standardize wireless networks over the last decade have enabled operators to implement remote monitoring and maintenance strategies that can help avoid costly shutdowns and improve the efficiency of maintenance operations, by using technology that takes data readings at set intervals and transfers this data back to head offices. Specialised companies like IEC Telecom Group have a range of solutions, which leverage satellite communications, allowing businesses to carry out remote monitoring and oil rig management. Their solutions significantly improve data visibility, allowing staff to constantly monitor machinery and other vital data and take action when necessary. Another benefit of remote monitoring is that it enables predictive maintenance. Maintenance schedules can be now optimised to improve the efficiency of operations. Advanced IoT remote monitoring solutions can also be deployed along pipelines to measure and analyse structural integrity, detecting weakness in construction materials and alerting staff if any area looks likely to fail. While remote monitoring and asset management can handle a wide variety of issues on rigs, human presence is often the calming hand and the expert instruction when disaster strikes. Solutions with Augmented Reality (AR) enable offsite experts to guide the hands and see through the eyes of onsite technicians. This unique, hands-overlay technology lets the expert show, not tell, what to do—in real time, with a shared view and pinpoint accuracy.

EXPLORING WITH TECHNOLOGY The exploration of oil and gas fields is both immensely complex and expensive. Energy businesses looking for deposits of oil and natural gas have to survey significant areas undersea or on land, before deciding to drill into these deposits to extract natural resources most efficiently. Connected IoT sensors embedded in the ground or on sea beds can provide drilling

A MORE EFFICIENT FUTURE New technologies will play a critical role in enabling the future of the energy industry, improving efficiency by automating key manual processes, ensuring vastly improved data visibility over critical assets and supporting more informed, faster decision-making. Satellite networks will be a crucial enabler, ensuring businesses benefit from IoT and other related technologies wherever they are.ë

From crude oil hitting the dizzying heights of $110/barrel in 2014 before plunging to $30/ barrel in March 2016, producers have gone through an extended period of belt-tightening to weather the storms, as margins and profitability become slimmer.

n G A R Y B R AY, D I R E C T O R O F E N E R G Y, I N M A R S AT E N T E R P R I S E

The need for energy companies to operate more efficiently is the greater pressure from governments, consumers and other parties to reduce non-renewable energy consumption and humanity’s impact on the environment. This, in turn, places revenues, profits and margins under severe strain and this is where technologies can play an important role. Key to the energy sector’s efforts to protect margins and profitability will be the introduction of Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) technologies that enable energy businesses to gather data from anywhere, through connected sensors, and transfer that data across to cloud platforms for analysis by staff in control centres, often hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away. Satellite communications will play a vital role in bringing the many efficiency benefits of IoT to remote areas.

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companies with detailed seismic data to help them build 3D maps of deposits with much greater speed and lesser cost and drill with vastly improved accuracy. In an industry where costs and revenues are under growing pressure and exploration is becoming increasingly difficult, connected sensors gathering key data points could be critical to improving margins and profitability.

n NABIL BEN SOUSSIA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, IEC TELECOM MIDDLE EAST

INTERVIEW

DELIVERING SEAMLESS SERVICES WITH THE VISION TO PROVIDE QUALITY SERVICES TO CUSTOMERS AND A MISSION TO BUILD LONG TERM RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE CLIENTS, TECHVIVID SYSTEMS HAS TAKEN A STEP HIGHER TO SERVE THE CUSTOMERS BETTER THAN LAST YEAR. IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ENTERPRISE CHANNELS MEA, BRIJESH SAINI, GLOBAL SALES HEAD FOR THE COMPANY SHARES HIS VIEWS AND PLANS FOR THE YEAR AHEAD.

BRIJESH SAINI,

GLOBAL SALES HEAD, TECHVIVID SYSTEMS

Tell us more about Techvivid Systems and your portfolio. When was the company established? Techvivid Systems was established in the year 2014 with the core fundamental to serve the Industrial Automation segment for all their IT network need. We are closely working with OEMs & system integrators in Industrial Automation segment and supporting our valued clients to fulfil the gap between IACS Network (Industrial Automation & Control System) & Business Process Network, keeping their Industrial data secure with 100% uptime. Since the establishment of the company, we work with various verticals such as Telecom, Data Security, Industrial Cyber Security, Critical Infrastructure Security, Structure Cabling Solutions and Control Room Designing and Control Room Integration Services. The company is helping the organizations to keep their most essential digital information protected, secured, and continuously available. Techvivid Systems focuses on providing end-toend professional services to the customers. Our primary emphasis is on helping our clients to run their business smoothly by delivering non-interrupting seamless services and network solutions. We look at ourselves as an extension to our clientâ€™s business and are committed to providing services and solutions that compliments their business strategy. We help our customers to achieve the maximum return from their investments with proactive measures, services and solutions.

How was the year 2018 for Techvivid Systems? What plans do you have for this year? Overall, 2018 was a very productive year for us. I am happy to say that, as per the decided timeline, we completed most of our projects with 99% customer satisfaction. We also added new team members on board with expertise in the fields.

This year, our major focus will be on Managed IT services and Industrial Cyber Security Solutions so that we can serve our customer better than last year. Tell us about your key technology partners you work with. We are working closely with the market leaders in their segments like HPE/Dell for the Server infrastructure, Cisco/D-Link/Aruba for Network Infrastructure, Cisco/Avaya for Unified Communication, Samsung/Honeywell/Pelco/Axis for Critical Infrastructure Security, Tripwire/ESET/ KasperSky for Cyber Security segments, etc. What are the key industry/ verticals you cater to? We work with Industrial OEMs and Automation System integrators which are generally in Oil & Gas segments. Apart from that, Utilities Educational Institutions, Manufacturing companies is also our focus. We recently entered the construction industry to provide our ELV project expertise to optimize the cost of the project for our customers. How have the data centre services evolved in the Middle East? What does the term next-gen data centre signify to you? Data centre services playing a major role in the Middle East. As the Middle East has become the commercial capital of the world, every organisation is keen on establishing their business here. With the growing demand in cloud computing, most of the companies are building their data centres in the Middle East. For me when it comes nextGen Data centre looking forward of the jumbo package includes of AI/ Machine learning, improving automation, better cooling technologies with energy saving system, data centres using Blockchain for advance reliability, better performance. ĂŤ

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INNOVATIONS

IRONKEY D300SM Kingston Digital Europe Co LLP has made available the Managed model of IronKey™ D300 Serialized (D300SM) encrypted USB Flash drive. A fully-encrypted managed USB drive is an essential component in following industry standards and the strong data encryption of the D300 series is what makes this drive compliant for data storage under GDPR and the New York financial regulations.

DTK-WM4NETS DITEK launched the DTK-WM4 family of wall-mount network surge protectors. These 4-channel devices feature state-of-the-art technologies to provide robust surge protection for any desired combination of Ethernet, PoE and PoE Extender circuits, while supporting data speeds up to 10GbE. Two versions are available: DTK-WM4NETS is a 4-channel Ethernet and PoE surge protector, while DTK-WM4EXTS is a 4-channel PoE Extender surge protector. Both versions use the same design as the company’s popular rackmount models, but in a compact package with simple, versatile mounting. KEY CAPABILITIES n Compact design offers rapid-replacement surge protection modules shielded RJ45 connections n Shielded ethernet and PoE protection n Data speeds up to 10GbE n Optional PoE extender support n Supports up to 24 modules in single enclosure n Ideal for smaller installations n Do not require large rack-mounted protection systems n Modular design allows for rapid replacement measured in seconds, n Protection modules are the same as the larger rack-mount devices n PoE Plus and HiPoE ready for high-wattage applications n Robust 20kA per pair surge current capacity is the highest offered in a product designed for shielded network devices

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KEY CAPABILITIES n With encryption, no one can access data that you have stored on the drive without knowing the password. n Is FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certified and TAA compliant so you can rest assured it meets the most frequently requested corporate and government IT requirements. n Can centrally administer access and usage policies and easily manage thousands of drives. n Time saver, simply read or scan the barcode, when deploying, when it is returned as well as during any physical auditing. n Interface: USB 3.1 Gen 1 n Capacity: 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB n Speed: USB 3.1 Gen 1: 4GB: 80MB/s read, 12MB/s write 8GB & 16GB: 165MB/s read, 22MB/s write 32GB: 250MB/s read, 40MB/s write 64GB: 250MB/s read, 85MB/s write 128GB: 250MB/s read, 85MB/s write USB 2.0: 4GB: 30MB/s read, 12MB/s write 8GB–128GB: 30MB/s read, 20MB/s write n Dimensions: 3.06″ x 0.9″ x 0.47″ (77.9 mm x 22.2 mm x 12.05 mm) n Waterproof: Up to 4 ft.; conforms to IEC 60529 IPX8. n Compatible with: Windows® 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 (SP1), Mac OS (v. 10.11.x - 10.14.x) n Standard Drive Compatible with: Windows® 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 (SP1), Mac OS (v. 10.11.x 10.14.x), Linux v.2.6x+ 6 n Managed Drive Compatible with: Windows® 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 (SP1), Mac OS (v. 10.11.x - 10.14.x)

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UNVEILING THE FUTURE AT #FITSMEA19'

#RevolveDX Regionâ€™s Tech Future is here.

March 13, 2019

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