aCelera APV

SaaS DR/DC

aCelera

APV

AGvAPV

Branch

aCelera

Enterprise

APVaCelera

SSL VPN allows customers and service providers to remotely manage their infrastructure

Physical, virtual and multi-tenant ADCs enable load balancing as an infrastructure service

WAN optimization reduces time needed for data center to datacenter backup/replication

Global server load balancing fails overto redundant data centers in the event of emergency. Link load balancing provides redundant ISP connectivity.

ADCs provide scalable SSL offload and high availability for cloud software services

SSL VPN provides secure connectivity to business applications for remote and mobile users

Server load balancing provides high availability, performance and security for enterprise applications

WAN optimization reduces time needed for backup/replication and accelerates applications to branch, remote and mobile users

WAN optimization ensures application performance between headquar-ters and branch offices

SSL VPN remote access and remote desktop access

SSL VPN mobile access and mobile application management

WAN optimization accelerates user experience for cloud software services

IaaS APV

AG

INTERNET/WAN

Application Delivery Networking (ADN) Architecture

TALK TO OUR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY !

Srinivas Vege

Afi Hashim

+971-50-3466098 svege@arraynetworks.net

+971-50-1682396 afi.hashim@comguard.net

aCeleraWAN Optimization ControllersPhysical & Virtual Appliances

APV SeriesApplication Delivery ControllersPhysical & Virtual Appliances

AG SeriesSecure Access Gateways

Physical & Virtual Appliances

Array load balancing, WAN optimization and secure access solutions deliver the performance, features and reliability essential for enterprise environments. Uniquely, Array solves enterprise application delivery challenges without the cost and complexity typically associated with enterprise-class solutions.To learn more, visit: www.arraynetworks.com

Enterprise Application Delivery

Contents

R. NarayanManaging Editor

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

Editorial

Founder & CEO: Vivek Sharma Managing Editor: R. NarayanArt Director: Faiz Ahmed Sr. Sales Manager: R. Subramanyan Sales Coordinator: Smitha Jithesh

Published by: JNS Media International MFZEP.O. Box: 121075, Montana Building 404, Zabeel Road,Near GPO, Karama, Dubai-UAE - Tel: 04-3705022 Fax: 04-3706639

There are more events being lined up and organized

by different industry bodies that are focusing on

emerging technologies right through the calendar year. For

partners and end-customers, this could be an overkill and a

fatigue factor could come into play as well from expected

attendees. It could also become difficult to manage and

prioritize which ones to attend.

However, a chance conversation with an SI that I was

privy to helped me understand that on the contrary, many

are still looking forward to attending these events and

forums because they have the opportunity to come across

possible customer leads. So the more, the merrier seems

to apply as the integrator channel seeks as many customer

leads from all possible quarters as Business slows down in

some segments.

Building up customer leads is a challenge for all

Businesses and more VADs are organizing partner and end

user events as a means to create leads. It is disappointing to

see thin to average attendance at some of the events that

distributors or vendors organize. There is a need to have

substantial outcomes out of such investments and therefore

the urgency to ensure good attendance from both partners

and possible customers.

Effectively, as the region works through shorter time

windows athectic pace right through a year, it is therefore

essential to execute your initiatives in the ‘quicker’ months.

Some months, there is a definite lull as can be expected

in July and August for instance. For those companies who

have done their best through the first two quarters, they

can afford the anticipated slowness and then gear up for the

expected leap that the last quarter brings, beginning with

GITEX. That could round up a successful year.

More the merrier

Cover Feature - 18

A transformative phaseAs Business look to scale up their infrastructures, they are looking for invest in data centres that are energy efficient as well as agile

News In Detail

PROMISE Technology certifies security professionals - 12

MEA Spending to Reach $214.7 Billion In 2015 - 14

TechKnow

The connected vision - 22Shahnawaz Sheikh, Distribution Channel Director for Dell Software across emerging markets discusses how the vendor’s connected security vision is fiving traction

A strong forte - 24Rajesh N. Rajan, Sales Manager, Middle East, IT Infrastructure and Data centre at Rittal Middle East, Dubai, UAE discusses the company’s focus on data center solutions

Security upfront - 25Marwan Khoury, Axis Communications Marketing Manager MEA discusses the manufacturer’s recent launches and partner strategies for the GCC

Point2Point - 26

A smarter way Ram Praveen, Director – ProValue at FDC International says the distributor is keeping pace and proving partners what it takes to be successful in the coming years.

Insight

From Virtualization to the Cloud - 28A growing number of companies are switching to an open source-based hybrid cloud infrastructure and therefore will need tools to manage it writes Frederik Bijlsma, Strategic Account Manager, Red Hat

How IoT affects Network Administration - 30Cricket Liu, Chief DNS Architect, Infoblox writes about the varied challenges for deployment of IoT devices and some of the key steps to get it right

Regulars

News BytesEyetechStats & trends

4 | June 2015

News Bytes

STME has signed an agreement with Hitachi Europe Ltd., to deliver a unique digital signing solution to the banking sector using Hitachi’s biometric finger vein authentication technology.

Hitachi’s VeinID is recognised as one of the most secure biometrics in the market. Unlike finger prints, vein patterns are extremely difficult to spoof or replicate. The scanned finger must be attached to a live human body in order for the veins in the finger to be authenticated. Through the STME-Hitachi Europe Partnership, regional banks are guaranteed that large transactions with their corporate customers can be carried out seamlessly and securely, utilising Hitachi’s VeinID for single sign-on procedures.

Ayman Al Bayaa, Chief Executive Officer of STME, said the partnership will help organisations in the financial services industry (FSI) to find a more cost-effective approach to integrating legacy systems into their software architecture. In addition, the technology offered will promote innovation and safeguard leading regional banks’ network security system.

“This partnership was formed as a result of extensive research aimed at bringing innovation and a more effective security solution to some of the Middle East’s major banks. It supports our existing fully integrated security portfolio,” Al Bayaa said.

STME teamsup withHitachi Europe Foresight Technology, a subsidiary of Alpha Data Group won the Partner Marketing Award

of the Year during the HUAWEI Partners Summit held recently in Dubai. The company was honored for its outstanding contributions to the development of Huawei’s channel business in the region’s enterprise market.

Huawei certified Foresight as a ‘Gold Channel Partner’ for its Information and Communications Technology solutions in 2014. Since then, Foresight has been successfully representing the Huawei line of IT and networking solutions with a primary focus on facilitating strong relations and brand awareness within the UAE’s Enterprise and Commercial sectors. It currently carries Huawei’s extensive portfolio of routers and switches, wireless LAN technology, security solutions, and server, storage, and cloud technologies.

Zakaria Ibbini, Director of Foresight Technology accepted the award for Partner Marketing Award of the Year during the Huawei Channel Awards ceremony featured as part of the summit which ran under the theme ‘Transforming Together.’

Foresight Technology wins Huawei Partner Award

NetApp has introduced NetApp AltaVault, previously SteelStore, cloud-integrated storage solutions and services, which will provide customers with the ability to quickly backup data to any cloud at up to 90 percent less cost than on-premises solutions.

The enterprise backup storage footprint is growing, yet budgets and acquisition costs remain flat and bandwidth costs and constraints become more acute with larger datasets. Adding to these challenges, many organizations still rely on tape, increasing the risk of lost media in transport and leading to increased downtime, data loss and the inability to adequately test disaster recovery procedures.

“A hybrid cloud backup strategy incorporating NetApp AltaVault solutions delivers compelling economics, speed and security so organizations can meet their backup and recovery service levels,” said Phil Brotherton, vice president, Cloud Solutions Group, NetApp. “Data lifecycle solutions like AltaVault are key elements of NetApp’s vision for a data fabric, which gives customers the confidence that no matter where their data lives, they can control, integrate, move, secure and consistently manage it.”

NetApp unveils AltaVault Cloud-Integrated Backup and Restore Solutions

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

Redefine Hybrid Cloud(20.7x27).pdf 1 6/8/15 1:32 PM

6 | June 2015

News Bytes

Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson and a global leader in maximizing availability, capacity and efficiency of critical infrastructure, has opened a new Customer Experience Center for the Middle East & African region. Located in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone, the facility offers a unique range of amenities including Academy training programs and demonstrations on Emerson Network Power’s full portfolio of products and solutions.

The new Customer Experience Center includes a live data center demonstration room, providing partners and end-users with the opportunity to experience technologies at first-hand coupled with support and counsel from engineering specialists. Visitors are able to view a vast range of Emerson Network Power products through live and remote demonstrations of the company’s capabilities in AC and DC power, thermal management, racks and integrated solutions, data center infrastructure management and much more.

Additionally, the Academy training area within the facility develops local staff and distributors through a series of programs aimed to deliver world-class standards in technical excellence and support.

Emerson Network Power opens new Customer Experience Center

StorIT Distribution has unveiled its social initiative, THOT (The Human-side Of Technology), at its annual technology summit, ‘CONVERGE’. Amal Al Redha, Senior Fundraising Manager at Dubai Cares, the program partner of THOT, introduced the ‘Adopt a School” initiative, the first cause undertaken by THOT, and honoured the support partners EMW, Pinnacle Smart Systems and Spusht for their contribution towards the cause.

Suren Vedantham, Group Managing Director, StorIT Distribution, explained, “THOT is a platform to get the regional IT fraternity together in reaching out in any way possible to make a difference in the lives of people and communities lacking basic needs such as access to clean water or education.“We plan to get together each year with all partners who intend to be part of the initiative to sponsor a social program which may not demand much of our time or resources but could certainly touch the lives of underprivileged people around the world.”

“This year, through THOT, we have been successful in sponsoring a social cause related to children’s education titled ‘Adopt a School”, which has been launched by Dubai Cares. We thank Dubai Cares for their support and our partners, EMW, Pinnacle Smart Systems and Spusht for their extraordinary generosity in co-sponsoring this program,” he added.

Apart from technology presentations from leading industry experts from EMC and VCE, and the introduction of THOT, StorIT also honored its best performing reseller partners with awards under different categories.

StorIT unveils THOT

Toshiba has partnered with Nimble Storage, a world-leading provider of flash-optimised data storage solutions based in California. As a distributor of Nimble Storage solutions in the Middle East, Toshiba launched the Adaptive Flash platform, the latest in hybrid storage innovation, in the recent Gartner Symposium/ITXpo 2015 held in Dubai.

Using hybrid storage architecture, Nimble Storage’s Adaptive Flash platform is engineered to address the industry's most pressing storage issues by delivering better performance and capacity at a reasonable price; providing integrated protection with rapid backup and recovery; and reining in storage complexity.

The platform combines flash-optimised architecture with InfoSight, a cloud-based management service that delivers predictive support and operational simplicity through deep data analytics. InfoSightensures the peak health of storage infrastructure by identifying problems and offering solutions in real time.

Santosh Varghese, General Manager of Digital Products and Services, Toshiba Gulf FZE, shares, “In today’s world, IT departments have transformed into service-oriented organisations, with the need to satisfy different interests. Understanding this concern, Toshiba sees the Adaptive Flash platform as a necessary innovative B2B solution for enterprises, big or small, especially here in the Middle East.”

Toshiba partners with Nimble

Wave Tech Computers LLCP.O. Box: 3421, Sharjah, Toll Free 800WAVE-8009283aten@wavetechgroup.com, www.wavetechgroup.com

8 | June 2015

News Bytes

Eaton has launched a IT channel incentive to reward its partners, and support the leverage of opportunities offered by the End of Support (EoS) of Windows Server 2003.

PowerAdvantage Explorer is open to all Eaton’s IT channel partners through its PowerAdvantage Partner programme, across EMEA. It will provide them with sales enablement-based incentives, including training, and revenue generation rewards for power management system upgrades, resulting from migrations from Windows Server 2003.

“With many companies switching to new operating systems, there are significant benefits of upgrading to a more sophisticated power management system that should be highlighted,” said Hany Maurice, regional channel and alliance leader, Eaton Middle East.

“PowerAdvantage Explorer offers our IT partners the opportunity to highlight to their customers the advantages to be gain through migration and as well as showcasing their own added value in this core area of expertise.”

Throughout the incentive period, participating partners earn points from sales of selected Eaton products and by taking part in various enablement activities. Points can then be exchanged for rewards, with the grand prize being a trip to Cape Canaveral, Florida for a zero gravity flight.

Eaton unveils new Windows Server 2003 EoS Incentive

WD has enhanced itsmyWD Partner Program for MSPs,

VARs, and integrators with new features such as product

solution centers, industry-focused marketing assets and

on-demand product training.

As a result of more than a year of survey and

ongoing feedback from WD’s valued myWD partners, the

new and improved site offers new features that lead to a

seamless user experience for partners providing relevant

and easy-to-access information at their fingertips. The

new features include solution selling centersfor growth

markets such as Surveillance, NAS, and Datacenter.

Partners can now receive up to a 40% discount on qualifying products which can be used

for demonstration, seed units or internal use. There is a special pricing program for select

partners. Under the Points system, members earn rewards based on purchases of WD

product from authorized distributors.

“Since the launch of myWD in 2012, the program has grown to over 25,000 partners

worldwide spanning across 190 countries and 17 languages,” said Saifuddin Khwaja,

Sales director for India, Middle East and Africa at WD. “With the re-launch of myWD,

WD is proving its commitment to invest in the channel by presenting our valued

partners opportunities to build their business in the growing storage applications of NAS,

surveillance and datacenters.”

WD enhances channel program

EMC has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire

privately-held Virtustream. When the transaction closes,

Virtustream will form EMC’s new managed cloud services

business. The acquisition represents a transformational

element of EMC’s strategy to help customers move all

applications to cloud-based IT environments. With the

addition of Virtustream, EMC completes the industry’s

most comprehensive hybrid cloud portfolio to support all

applications, all workloads and all cloud models.

Virtustream CEO Rodney Rogers will report to Joe

Tucci, EMC Chairman and CEO.

“Virtustream is an exceptional company and this is a critical and transformative

acquisition for EMC in one of the industry’s fastest-growing and most important sectors,”

said Joe Tucci. “With Virtustream in place, EMC will be uniquely positioned as a single

source for our customers’ entire hybrid cloud infrastructure and services needs. We could

not be more delighted that Virtustream will be joining the EMC Federation family. It’s a

game changer.”

One of the world’s fastest-rising cloud software and services companies, Virtustream

is trusted by enterprises worldwide to migrate, run and manage mission-critical

applications in the cloud, including SAP. Virtustream customers include marquis

enterprises such as The Coca-Cola Company, Domino Sugar, Heinz, Hess Corporation,

Kawasaki, Lexmark, Scotts Miracle-Gro and a global footprint of service provider partners

who use Virtustream software to power their cloud offerings.

EMC to acquire Virtustream

Rittal Middle East FZEP.O.Box 17599, Dubai, UAE I Tel : +971-4-3416855 I info@rittal-middle-east.com I www.rittal-middle-east.com

Networking andServer Cabinets

Power SystemCooling System

Explore. Create. Win.

RiMatrix SMonitoring & RemoteManagement

Warm Greeting’sRittal Middle East Team

VAR MEA (Ramadan Kareem2015)_21x28.5(bleed) 20x27.5(trim)

10 | June 2015

News Bytes

SETS, a leading provider of IT solutions in the Middle East and Dell exclusive agent in Lebanon, successfully organized an event for its customers at the Dell Solution Center (DSC) in Dubai, where IT leaders from top Lebanese companies and banks, have attended 3 days of customer briefing sessions on “Dell end-to-end solutions” in collaboration with Dell and Intel.

Dell Solution Centers are a network of state-of-the-art technical labs located in key sites around the globe, dedicated to enable customers to architect, validate and build solutions, from the data center to the edge of the network while taking advantage from the insight of Dell experts.

The event included customer workshops on Dell’s hardware and software portfolio covering cutting-edge products from Cloud Computing (VDI and EUC) and BYOD, to Dell Network and Storage, along with Dell Data Protection and Security Solutions.

Maher Chahlawi, CEO at SETS, said, “This one of a kind experience done for the first time among Dell Lebanese customers was a pure success in terms of awareness raised on Dell latest end-to-end solutions. The participants had the opportunity to discover DSC where hundreds of proofs of concepts (POC) are implemented and deployed for visitors to discover and test the efficiency of Dell solutions"

Dell’s Solution Center showcases new Solutions

emt Distribution, the leading international value added distribution company in the ME region announced the appointment of Egypt-based leading IT distributor as the in-country distributor for the complete suite for DenyAll, including Vulnerability Management, Web Application Firewall, Web Access Management and Security Management solutions.

Gateworx is a leading distribution company in Egypt, specializing in information security and business applications with a strong channel base across the country.

Both, emt and DenyAll will work closely with Gateworx to develop and market the products. The partnership expects to increase the footprint of DenyAll across the country and help support its partner base more effectively.

“The market for best of the breed security solutions is gaining momentum in Egypt and we believe the timing for this unique tie-up will open new doors of opportunity for all of us in the channel. Gateworx has a countrywide presence, which will allow us to offer better support to our channel partners," said, Mohammad Mobasseri, the CEO at emt Distribution.

emt Distribution is the authorised master distributor for DenyAll in Middle East and is responsible for the distribution of all of DenyAll products across the region, including countries like KSA, UAE, Oman, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain among others.

Emt appoints Gateworx Egypt distributor for DenyAll

Global Distribution FZE, an authorized SolarWinds distributor in the Middle East, recently conducted a Reseller Partner Event at the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai. SolarWinds sales and technical team joined the event from SolarWinds EMEA headquarters in Ireland.

More than fifty value added resellers from the UAE and Oman attended the Reseller Partner Event. Attendees had the chance to discuss the latest product updates from SolarWinds systems portfolio, including: the NEW SolarWindsStorage Resource Monitor, SolarWindsServer & Application Monitor, SolarWindsVirtualization Manager, and SolarWindsWeb Performance Monitor – all products that help manage visibility across the entire application stack. Key partners such as Al Rostamani, CAD Emirates, Dmatics, EBM, GBM, InterTec, MDS/PACC, NetLinks were among the attendees.

"Building a strong partner community for SolarWinds and other solutions vendors is a key objective for Global. It’s always a proud moment for us to have support from our key partners and having them attending and supporting such events and initiatives, especially at such a prestigious location. We are very happy with the positive responds we have received from partners and vendors alike," said Avinash Chanchalani, Business Unit Manager - Software from Global Distribution.

“Global Distribution” conducts SolarWinds Partner event at Burj Al Arab

12 | June 2015

News In Detail

PROMISE Technology has certified over 30 system

integrators and security professionals as part of its Video Surveillance Training Course hosted in May in Dubai with its partner, Musallam Trading. As PROMISE certified professionals, all participants now have the knowledge to support, install, configure and maintain PROMISE’s video surveillance solutions.

All participants will receive the PROMISE Certified logo to use as banner on their website and email footers which will ensure customers can easily identify that the participants are certified by PROMISE. The growing number of PROMISE certified professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), combined with the company’s Dubai office which can provide quick support and service including covering local RMA replacement services, make PROMISE’s solutions a

leading choice for any security project.

Musallam Trading, a distributor of PROMISE’s high performance storage solutions for the MENA region, have extensive experience in the video surveillance industry which enable them to provide excellent consultancy to integrators to ensure the optimal solutions are delivered to the customer.

PROMISE develops open storage platforms for video surveillance whose solutions include Vess A2000 NVRs and Vess R2000 and VTrak x30 external storage which are optimized to effectively handle high resolution video from HD/megapixel cameras. PROMISE’s video surveillance solutions support a wide range of Video Management Software, such as solutions from Aimetis, AxxonSoft, CamIQ, Genetec, OnSSI, Milestone, and SeeTec. Additionally, the new PROMISE

Surveillance Cloud platform for video surveillance as a service provides new possibilities to protect smaller businesses and chain stores. The PROMISE Surveillance Cloud provides great simplicity to end users, offloads their initial costs, reduces hardware and software maintenance costs, provides plug and play convenience, enables anytime and anywhere viewing and ensures a reliable and highly-scalable video service and storage solution.

Eng. Mostafa Fawzi, BDM, Musallam Trading said: “We are excited that so many of our resellers and integrators were eager to participate in the PROMISE Video Surveillance Training Course which is a testament to their commitment to quality. Receiving certification from PROMISE is a clear indicator the security professional is fully trained on the best-practices for deploying and maintaining PROMISE’s

surveillance solutions and is up to date on the latest industry trends.”

John van den Elzen, Managing Director, PROMISE Technology EMEA: “We want to thank all of the participants for joining and making this such a wonderful event. A big thank you goes to Musallam Trading for helping arrange the trainings to ensure so many participants are prepared with the necessary experience and skills to build the best security solutions throughout the region. We are already looking forward to our next training course in October to build on the enormous success of this event.”

Participants who want to preregister for the next training course in Dubai, or upcoming training courses in Moscow, Russia and Johannesburg, South Africa, can send an email with their contact details to promise.certified@eu.promise.com.

PROMISE Technology certifies security professionals

14 | June 2015

News In Detail

Middle East (ME) IT spending is projected to reach

$214.7 billion in 2015 a 5.2 percent increase from 2014, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.

Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president and global head of research at Gartner, provided the latest outlook for the IT industry today to an audience of more than 500 CIOs and IT leaders at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo.

“Business intelligence and analytics, infrastructure and data center, and cloud are the Top 3 CIO technology priorities in the Middle East region,” said Sondergaard. “Sensor/Internet of Things (IoT) are on the radar with no action planned and/or is in the medium to long term planning. Robotics and 3D printing are not priorities in the Middle East in 2015.”

ME spending on devices is forecast to reach $36 billion in 2015, up 16 percent from 2014. Devices are represented by mobile phones, media tablets, PCs, and printers. Telecom services continues to be the largest segment, accounting for 74 percent of ME IT spending in 2015.

“The impact that the digital business economy is having on the IT industry is dramatic. Since 2013, 650 million new physical objects have come online. 3D printers became a billion dollar market; 10 percent of automobiles became connected; and the number of Chief Data Officers and Chief Digital Officer positions have doubled. In 2015, all of these things will double again,” said Sondergaard.

Gartner defines digital business as new business designs that blend the virtual world and the physical worlds, changing how processes and industries work through the Internet of Things.

“This year enterprises will spend over $40 billion designing, implementing and operating the Internet of Things,” Sondergaard said. “Every piece of equipment, anything of value, will have embedded sensors. This means leading asset-intensive enterprises will have over half a million IP addressable objects in 2020.”

Every BU is a “Technology Startup”There is a dramatic shift in IT spending power. Sondergaard said there is a shift of demand and control away from IT and toward digital business units closer to the customer.

“Thirty-eight percent of the total IT spend is outside of IT already, with a disproportionate amount in digital. By 2017, it will be over 50 percent,” Sondergaard said. “Digital startups sit inside your own organization, in your marketing department, in HR, in logistics and in sales. Your business units are acting as technology

startups.”Gartner estimates that 50

percent of all technology sales people are actively selling direct to business units, not IT departments. Millions of sales people and hundreds of thousands of resellers and channel partners are looking for new money flows in the fluid digital world, and they are finding eager buyers.

Become a Bimodal OrganizationBimodal IT fills the digital divide between what IT provides and what the enterprise really needs. Mode 1 is traditional, and the systems that support them must be reliable, predictable, and safe (like a great IT organization). Mode 2 is nonsequential, emphasizing agility and speed (like a startup) because disruption can occur at anytime.

Sondergaard used the example of smart machines to highlight the disruption caused in digital business. Smart machines are an emerging “super class”

of technologies that perform a wide variety of work, of both the physical and the intellectual kind. For example, school computers have been grading multiple tests for many years, and now they are grading essays, unstructured tests that require analysis.

“Not is the grading more accurate, but students actually worked harder on their essays when they are graded by a smart machine,” Sondergaard said. “Other professional tasks won’t be far behind: financial analysts, medical diagnostics, and data analytics jobs will be impacted. Knowledge work will be automated.

Smart robots will appear not just on the manufacturing floor, where they do physical work, but in the workplace and even in the home. Smart machines will automate decision making. Therefore, they will not only affect jobs based on physical labor, but they will also impact jobs based on complex knowledge worker tasks.

MEA Spending to Reach $214.7 Billion In 2015

16 | June 2015

TechKnow | SAP

Please discuss the highlight features of SAP Business one- are there different variants for different verticals?SAP Business One is available on premise or can be hosted by our partners on the cloud, with the possibility of a subscription model. In both cases, our customers benefit from the same functionalities. The same version of SAP Business One is being used by companies operating in different industries or sectors.

However, when the industry requirements become very specific, SAP Business One can be customized by our SAP Partners, or can be integrated with an industry-specific solution. These industry-specific solutions are SAP Business One add-ons, and are certified by our SAP Labs.

Is Business one an SMB solution – what is the pace of adoption the region? While SAP Business One has been designed exclusively for small- and medium-sized businesses, however it can also be the ideal fit for large enterprise affiliates.

Worldwide, more than 46,000 companies are using SAP Business One, and we’re seeing strong demand in the MENA region, where we have 385 customers on SAP Business One, a number that is growing every month.

Discuss your partner strategy – are you looking to add partners in specific markets? What profiles would you typically target to recruit?Our strategy for addressing the SME market is by working closely with our channel partners in this region. Our SME channel structure consists of a two-tier reseller model.

Tier 1 has our Master Value

Youssef El-Arif, Business Development Manager, SAP MENA discusses how the vendor is taking SAP Business One successful to the SME market in the region through its channel

added resellers, while Tier 2 has our Extended Business Members, and we work with both channels to position, sell, implement, service and support our Business One Solution. Extended Business Members are mainly companies that are focusing on the SMB segment and can provide sales coverage with or without implementation capacity.

In the region, there is a tremendous opportunity and large demand for SAP Business One, and therefore the plan is to grow our Extended Business Members channel to cover the region. This strategyaims to reach out to new customers and service their specific industries.

Elaborate on Business analytics features in Business One powered by SAP HANA? SAP Business One version for

Youssef El-ArifBusiness Development Manager,

SAP MENA

Steady on the growth curve

HANA offers the SMBs a wide range of Business Analytics capabilities thanks to the SAP HANA in-memory platform.

By leveraging the power of Big Data and the emerging Internet of Things era, SAP HANA analyzes massive amounts of data, enabling decision-makers to receive real-time actionable insights and make decisions on the right time from any mobile device, without needing IT skills.

Among the many features of SAP HANA are cash flow forecast, real-time stock visibility, text analysis, sentiment analysis, geospatial and graph functionality, predictive analysis, and social media integration.

With the Middle East’s Internet of Things hardware and services growth set to

reach nearly USD 2 billion in 2015, SAP HANA is seeing strong demand in the region. We signed our first SAP HANA in the region in Q1 2015, and are seeing strong growth for SAP Business One.

Discuss if the solution offers APIs for any custom integration that companies may want? All business functions come in one package on SAP Business One, which makes them easy to set up, use, and optimize. Integration with other systems is possible via standard integration packages or open application programming interfaces (APIs). Moreover there are various extension capabilities via the Software Development Kit and the integration framework.

busi

ness

in re

al ti

me

with

SAP

Busi

ness

one

solu

tion

SAP

has o

ver 4

0 ye

ars o

f exp

erie

nce

in h

elpi

ng sm

all a

nd m

ediu

msi

zed

busi

ness

es R

un B

ette

r. Jo

in th

e jo

urne

y to

day

by b

ecom

ing

a Bu

sine

ss O

ne so

lutio

n re

selle

r.

Scan

for f

urth

er in

fo a

ndre

gist

ratio

n to

bec

ome

a re

selle

rTo

kno

w m

ore

abou

t SAP

solu

tion

plea

se vi

sit w

ww

.sap

.com

18 | June 2015

As Businesses scale up their infrastructures,they are looking to invest in data centresthat are energy efficient as well as agile

Cover Feature | Data Centre

A transformative phase

June 2015 | 19

Spectrum Group while the data centre

demand and investments are growing

in the region, the challenges in the new

growth phase are of a different kind.

He opines, “The data centre is now

getting commoditized and converged

while the challenges are the ever growing

need to compute and analyze the data.

The need for power is going to increase

and the need to optimize the use of

resources including power will remain a

key challenge. Although the Cloud will take

additional resources it cannot replace the

local need for data residency and higher

compute needs for the moment. Hence,

the data centres are going to grow dense,

and converged or appliance based. The

client server in the data centre is going

to be replaced by cloud-client form with

private and Hybrid cloud technologies like

Cloud Foundry, openstack, moving into

local data centres.”

Data centre service providers in the

region are offering an array of services and

co-location is quite an established trend.

Most Businesses in the region are happy

to have their data hosted locally in the

region. The concerns are now on ensuring

that the data centre facilities in use offer

energy efficiency, reliability as well as

security.

Alexander comments, “Interestingly,

most data centre providers in the region

go beyond the traditional service portfolio

of just space and connectivity – many also

offer additional IT services like application

services and managed services. Colocation

is very popular in the region – almost all

of the facilities that have been built in the

past few years offer colocation services of

some kind. Cloud services are also in high

demand and are offered by most data

centre facilities. From an infrastructure

perspective, the most common concerns

of our clients are energy efficiency,

availability, and scalability, meaning

The data centre holds its primacy as

the nerve centre that powers the ICT

systems and processes even in the midst

of Technology transitions. More customers

are scaling up the capabilities of their

existing data centres as well as looking at

possibilities of outsourcing with large third

party data centres. In addition, they are

scaling up their cloud infrastructure.

Alexander Khalaev, Vice President of

Sales for MENA, CIS and Baltics at Tripp

Lite says, “Data centre spends are growing

at rapid rates in the region, especially in

the UAE. Reports show that since 2012,

data centre space in the country has

increased by more than 60%, and the

UAE data centre market is expected to

continue growing at a compound annual

growth rate of 6.3 percent over the next

five years. Due to the boom in data of the

past few years, businesses in the UAE and

the entire region have found that their

computational and storage needs have

increased exponentially. This presents

great opportunities for data centre

operators and infrastructure providers.”

The data centre market in the region

and especially the UAE appears to be on a

steady growth path with demand for more

agile data centres. In the UAE, with many

major smart computing initiatives from the

government as well as associated projects

in other sectors, there will be a need to

scale up data centres to meet growing

needs of Businesses and expectations of

customers.

Ashley Woodbridge, Customer

Solutions Architect, Cisco UAE says, “When

you look at smart city projects, it is the

sheer scale that is the key and therefore

you need much more agile and scalable

systems. So they need to be much more

automated and orchestrated as well as

orientated towards the cloud rather than

be built along the traditional design. From

a facility point of view, it would be still a

datacentre but would probably be much

more automated and self-driven including

systems having capabilities to sense when

they are running out of capacity and bring

up virtual machines as needed to provide

those additional capacities etc.

According to Malcolm Noronha, COO,

Ale

xan

der

Kh

alae

v, V

P, S

ales

MEN

A, C

IS &

Bal

tics,

Trip

pLite

"Due to the boom in data of the past few years, businesses in the UAE and the entire region

have found that their computational and storage needs have increased exponentially. This presents great opportunities for data centre operators and

infrastructure providers."

20 | June 2015

that there is a large demand for reliable,

efficient and modular power protection

and distribution solutions."

The demand for co-location from

enterprise customers is also driving the

need for sophisticated tier-3 data centres.

Ashley says, “While previously there

were more computer server rooms, more

users in the region are wanting to have

tier 3 data centres. Tier 3 data centres have

provision for multiple generators, multiple

UPS systems, and multiple cooling systems

etc. with no single point of failure. ”

He opines that enterprises that may

have their primary data centres in place

may not be getting approvals or funding

for their own DR sites in-house. So those

companies are looking to have their DR

sites available from high quality tier-3 data

centres that is also driving the demand.

This demand for these data centres is

largely being driven by the larger SMB and

enterprise customers that are concerned

about such requirements. On the other

hand, the regular SMB segment customers

are comfortable as long as a target driven

SLA is in place.

Ashley adds, “The SMB customers are

really price sensitive and what they want

is an SLA at a specific price. They aren’t

particular whether it is a tier 1, 2 or tier

3 data centre. It is in the enterprise and

public sector segment, where they carry

data that needs to be regulated, that

there is a need for looking at data centre

capabilities from a much more in-depth

perspective. You will see mandates for tier

3 data centres in such instances where

there is data legislation. “

Disaster recovery and Business

continuity are also driving demand for data

centre investments.

Alexander says, “The demand for

cloud services is absolutely a major driver

of the growing demand for data centres.

Another principal driver is the increased

emphasis on business continuity and

disaster recovery solutions. Businesses are

looking for a way to minimize losses and

stay operational and profitable even in

emergency situations, so they have started

to house the servers that store essential

business data and processes in safe,

reliable and efficient data centres where

they won’t have to worry about downtime

or service interruptions.”

The driversVirtualization, Big data, cloud, convergence

and hyper convergence have all been

among the transformational influences in

the changing face of the data centre over

the past few years. More new disruptive

technologies are continuing to come in.

Malcom says, “Virtualization is

a passed phase of Data centre. The

newer Data centres have converged or

Hyper converged infrastructure where

Micro Services are the key to demand

computing. Virtualization is only a

component of many layers of service

availability. Newer technologies like

Dockers and Micro Services and PAAS like

Cloud Foundry have gained traction in this

area.

The transformation taking shape in

the data centre is an opportunity for

companies like F1 Infotech, a System

Integrator from the Spectrum Group of

companies. F1 Infotech works on the

facilities of data centre and focuses

on making the data centre Smart and

ready for catering to the Smarter world

of e-government, smart cities, smart

Hospitality, Smart Retail etc. In fact, the

company also a pioneer in incorporating

IOT in the data centre for specific vertical

needs.

Malcom adds, “SMAC or Social Mobile

Analytics & Cloud are the driving trends

in the data centre. All technologies in the

data centre is going to be catering to this

growing transformation of the Enterprise

IT. Spectrum Group and its companies

have transformed the business need of

Enterprise IT in the past few months to

incorporate the ever growing need of

newer and hybrid technology needs.”

The trend towards private cloud and

hybrid cloud deployments is a significant

driver. Ashley says the big shift seems to

be that many data centres are now being

purpose built for cloud, be it for hosting

private cloud on the enterprise side or

for telecom operators who are looking at

enabling customers build private clouds.

However he also adds that customers

have a need to scale up capabilities of

their traditional Business Applications.

Therefore there is a percentage of

investment to scaling up on that

front as well in addition to enhancing

infrastructural support for cloud offerings.

He says, “While customers are

adopting cloud and virtualization, the

majority of their IT workloads would be

traditional enterprise applications like

Oracle, SAP databases etc. So we are

definitely seeing co-location demand

grow because companies do have the

need to meet their Business needs which

would entail growing capacities of their

existing applications, having a DR site etc.

Therefore while they scale up capacities

of their data centres for enabling cloud

offerings, there is a continued focus on

scaling up capacities for their traditional

applications.”

For instance, the new data centres

could have a larger focus on space

dedicated to cloud offerings but will also

include provision for traditional co-location.

While the new data centres are flexible

to do both, there is much more demand

Ash

ley

Woo

dbri

dge,

Cust

omer

Sol

utio

ns A

rchi

tect

, Cis

co U

AE

Cover Feature | Data Centre

June 2015 | 21

coming in from

data centres that

can host cloud

applications.

Security has

always been a

concern with

cloud services

adoption. There

are challenges to securing these new

generation data centres that may have a

mix of physical and virtual infrastructures.

Bilal Baig, Technical Director MMEA,

CIS & Russia at Trend Micro says,

“Virtualization and Cloud brings new

challenges. As customer take advantage of

the operational and economic benefits of

virtualization and the cloud, it’s critical to

secure their virtualized data centres, cloud

deployments, and hybrid environments

effectively. Because the virtualization and

cloud security needs different criteria to

provide protection, customer leave gaps

that open the door to web threats and

serious data breaches since they try to use

the same security methods which they

used in physical data centre. The security

solutions need to adapt to this changing

dynamics in data centre and provide the

same level or more protection in cloud

infrastructure.”

Trend Micro offers Cloud and Data

centre Security solutions that protect

applications and data and prevent business

disruptions, while helping to ensure

regulatory compliance. Whether customers

are focused on securing physical or virtual

environments, cloud instances, or web

applications, Trend Micro says it provides

the advanced server security they need for

virtual, cloud, and physical servers via the

Trend Micro Deep Security platform.

Power efficiencies in demandThe demand for sophisticated tier three

data centres that are reliable and energy

efficient is rising. More companies are

possibly looking at flexibilities from

data centres to handle growing scale of

workloads. In addition, there are space

constraints as well as the urgency to meet

energy consumption regulations which are

driving factors.

The data centre indeed needs to have

a greater focus on energy efficiency as

energy use becomes a major parameter

with regulations that call for green IT.

The growth of the data centre market

therefore has driven the need for reliable

power protection and distribution as well

as efficient cooling solutions.

Alexander says, “As the market

expands, so has the demand for UPS

systems, PDUs (Power Distribution Units)

and cooling units. Tripp Lite offers a wide

range of single and 3-phase UPS systems

and PDUs with a variety of capacities and

advanced features, meaning that we can

provide the right solution for just about

any application. As a result, our business

has grown continuously in the region

over the past several years, and we are

gaining more and more market share in

the UPS and PDU categories. We have

also seen a steady increase in demand

for our line of cooling solutions, which

includes a portable precision cooler and a

larger in-row air conditioning unit.”

In addition, the rapid growth of

thedata centre market in the Middle

East has driven the adoption of DCIM

solutions in the region.

He adds, “The demand for

DCIM is rising almost just as

quickly. Because enterprises

are investing significant

amounts of money into

building new data centres,

they want to maximize

the potential of their

investments with

management

and monitoring

solutions that

can optimize

the

efficiency and

performance

of their IT

infrastructure and

ensure that it is

seamlessly aligned

with their business

needs.”

For the

integrators, it boils down to several

areas of opportunities as the demand

for Data centre solutions continues to

grow. These could range from turnkey

end to end data centre projects that are

usually won by larger sized integrators

to specific migrations that could be done

by integrators which are not necessarily

large sized. Since data centres are at

the very heart of the organization’s

infrastructure, they would also make

sure to work with integrators that they

believe have what its takes to deliver

on the required scale and therefore

customer intimacy and familiarity with

the customer’s

Business

environment

and

processes

will be

clinching

points.

"SMAC or Social Mobile Analytics & Cloud

are the driving trends in the data centre.

All technologies in the data centre is going

to be catering to this growing transformation

of the Enterprise IT."

Mal

colm

Nor

onh

a,CO

O, S

pect

rum

Gro

up

22 | June 2015

Vija

y Ba

bber

, Se

nior

Sys

tem

Eng

inee

r, En

terp

rise

MEA

How has the partner networks from different acquired vendors been assimilated? All acquired vendors came with their legacy programs and the need was to assimilate and unify all of them into a single program. In the last few quarters, we have transitioned all of the Sonicwall partners into the new Dell program. It is work in progress for some others. At the end of the day, there would be one single program with software competencies. It could be a combination of legacy partners, new partners and in parallel, we are also reaching out to Dell hardware partners and enabling them on various software competencies.

Are customers and partners responding favorably to the connected security vision?From a network security point of view, there is a no vendor who can offer both Firewall and IAM offerings. It is a good space to be in as it is easier to show the value to the customer that these two solutions are integrated as one unified security solution.

For partners, it has more to do with us in enabling them on all these solutions and that is the reason, we have been running a high number of sales trainings and technical trainings, focusing on these partners to enable them in acquiring different software competencies. We did typical trainings, online trainings etc with certifications.

What are the major focus areas for Dell Software and how has the growth been in these domains?Dell software focuses around

Shahnawaz Sheikh, Distribution Channel Director for Dell Software across emerging markets discusses how the vendor’s connected security vision is finding traction in the region with partners and customers

TechKnow | Dell

then propose your product offering.

What were the objectives of the User Group Conference?We had a good turnout of around 200 partners at the Dell User group Conference. We updated partners about Dell Software’s end to end offerings. The idea was also to encourage them to look

Shahnawaz SheikhDistribution Channel Director

Dell

The connected vision

at other products available from Dell Software. We also discussed the partner program and how we are unifying the program. We want to make the Dell Software program as thoroughly robust as the Dell hardware partner program that has been running for many years now in terms of partner requirements and benefits.

Do you have a services team to help partners in the region?We have a Professional services team that is being built in the Middle East at the moment. They have knowledge about professional service implementations. It would just be a matter of time for them to familiarize with technical knowledge of our products.With this we

three areas – network security, Information Management and systems Management. Network security has been the fastest growing among these focus areas. The next best is systems management and data protection because of shorter sales cycle products. The products under Information Management need higher technical skill to sell and the opportunities with customers are also of longer term sales cycles. For instance, to sell a product line such as Boomi which is Middleware that integrates two technologies, you need a thorough understanding of the existing infrastructure, applications running at the customer premises, the legacy systems being used etc. It requires more consultative approach and demands time to understand the existing set-up and

June 2015 | 23

Dell Software is experiencing in the regionIn this region, we are growing at the same pace as the entities prior to their acquisition by

Dell. However, there is additional momentum on the enterprise side. We do continue to have a focus on SMB but the strengths of Dell as a Brand in the enterprise segment is helping Dell Software get more into the enterprise segments. Many customers who have standardized a lot of their IT infrastructure on Dell hardware systems are comfortable working with Dell Software. These have been low hanging fruits for us and easy customer wins for us.

For information, contact:Tripp Lite Middle East

+971.4.887.1633 / infome@tripplite.comwww.tripplite.com

Bigger Margins for You, Better Value for Your Clients.

TRAINING/CERTIFICATION MARKETING TOOLS SALES SUPPORT VOLUME PRICING CUSTOMIZED SOLUTIONS CUSTOMIZED REBATE PROGRAMS

Tripp Lite protects your sales efforts with uncompromising channel loyalty. Take advantage of everything Tripp Lite has to offer and start earning big today!

POWERPDU

PROTECTUPS

ORGANIZERACK

CONNECTCABLE

MANAGEKVMCOOL

AC

will have local competencies available and we can make that available not just for post sales but if need be for pre-sales. What level of handholding is required for implementations and what is Dell’s approach?Since our solutions offerings are so wide and varied in terms of complexities and ease of deployments, we would in all probability use a mixed approach. We would enable many of our partners to be certified in network security, data protection and so on. At the same instance, we would be cautious that products which need deep technical expertise are deployed by our professional

services that already has a good background of such installations. So we would suggest to all our partners with partial levels of competence in those domains to approach the professional services for advanced deployments. For those partners with no implementation skills, they can reach out to the services team for anything from basic to advanced deployments.

How many tiers of partners does Dell Software currently have in the

region?In Sonicwall, there were three tiers of partners for the region but the entry tier had modest requirements. We have consolidated the partner network and Dell Software in this region now has two tiers- registered and the preferred. The EMEA runs with three tiers and the emerging markets has two tiers. There are plans to introduce the third tier in emerging markets probably by end of year.

Discuss the growth that

"Many customers who have standardized a lot of their IT infrastructure on Dell hardware systems

are comfortable working with Dell Software. These have been low hanging fruits for us and easy

customer wins for us."

24 | June 2015

Discuss the range of

solutions Rittal offers and

the focus on the region

Rittal is a leading manufacturer

of Enclosure Systems,

Electronic Systems, Enclosure

Air-Conditioning, Power

Distribution Components, Data

Communication Components,

Outdoor-Enclosures etc. These

are supplemented with our

extensive range of software

tools and global services. Rittal

Middle East has an active team

with over 30 professionals

addressing the Middle East

market. We continue to

innovate and help partners

to enhance business growth

across the region.

Are data centre spends

growing in region?

Within the Middle East

economies, barring few

countries, investments in

new Data Centres has been

growing to keep up with the

pace. Since the beginning of

the year, we have seen the

SMB business investing more

in data centres & upgrades.

Rittal’s DC in a BOX & Micro

Data Centres are appealing

more to the SMB business

and are seeing bigger growth

rates than large Data Centre

solutions.

Data centre seems to be

perhaps your largest focus

in terms of the products that

offer? Please comment on

your focus

Rittal Middle East is one of

the recognized Innovative

suppliers for the Industrial and

Electrical sectors as well as a

key player in the Networking

Infrastructure & Datacentre

arena. Rittal is paving the way

in data centre technology

Since its foundation in 1961, Rittal has continuously evolved into a leading systems provider for enclosures, power distribution, climate control, IT infrastructure and software & services. Rajesh N. Rajan, Sales Manager, Middle East, IT Infrastructure and Data centre at Rittal Middle East, Dubai, UAE discusses the company’s focus on data center solutions

TechKnow | Rittal

to create the most energy

efficient, secure, future proof

data centres on the market.

Our Data Centre solutions

include critical components

like three phase UPS, Cooling

& DCIM. While these are

a major focus for Rittal,

equally important for us is

the Network Infrastructure

products that includes Indoor

& Outdoor Racks, both wall

mounted & free standing,

different types of PDU,

KVM’s, Single Phase UPS &

Environmental Monitoring

Units. Physical Security is yet

another focus area where

Rittal offers IT Security Rooms

and Container based Data

Rajesh N. RajanSales Manager, ME

Rittal Middle East

A strong forteCentres

Rittal provides systems

and products together with

design, consultation, planning,

project management and post

sale service.

How many of your partners

are focused on the

datacentre Business?

Our partner segmentation

includes Distributors &

Data Centre Integration

Partners. We have Data

Centre Integration partners

in most of the countries of

focus in the region that are

adding value by supporting

us. They are involved in the

site preparation, installation

& after sale support of Rittal

systems, while being our local

champions in the respective

countries and supporting us

uphold the confidence placed

on Rittal solutions by the end

users through their service

competencies.

How are consolidation trends

like virtualization impacting

demand for data centre

solutions?

Virtualisation demands high

density equipment. There is a

need for modular & scalable

architecture in Data Centers

to keep up with the growing

power & high density cooling

requirements.

June 2015 | 25

Discuss your focus on enterprise to mid-sized segmentsAxis traditionally has focused on the enterprise segment customers including massive projects in the public and private sectors but has several solutions for mid-sized surveillance installations as well. As the markets expand, there is a growing realization of the benefits of security solutions. Businesses from Malls to Banks want to offer safer and secure shopping or transactional experiences to customers.

Elaborate on the Axis Camera Station you introduced recentlySecurity consultants usually gather the various components need for a surveillance solution deployment as they don’t have access to a ready solution. The Axis Camera Station S10 Recorder Series presents an out of the box ready recording solution comprising of a series of network video recorders for reliable high definition surveillance. It is an easy plug and play solution for mid-sized installations up to 64 channels where active surveillance is needed. It is preloaded with all necessary software including licenses and preconfigured to minimize installation time. The solution can be completed with cameras from the wide product portfolio and monitors.

The Axis Camera Station in meant for mid-sized installations like a retail shop. It is meant for 16-32 channels but can support up to 62 channels. This works for both indoor and outdoor locations.

We offer the Axis Camera Station for the enterprise side installations as well but when it comes to Analytics, we recommend our customers to go with professional VMS providers.

Marwan Khoury,

Axis Communications

Marketing Manager

MEA discusses the

manufacturer’s

recent launches and

partner strategies

for the GCC

TechKnow | Axis Communications

What does the Access Control offer?We introduced the Access Control in the US last year and are now introducing it here now. Axis control is IP driven. You can connect it to any available network including competitor products. It is PoE driven so you don’t need a separate power supply. It can be used from SMB to enterprise. There is a huge demand in the region and we are very excited about this. It is very easy to install and to set-up in minutes.

The Access Control offers a new level of freedom for physical access control and is consistent with the open IP philosophy of Axis. Traditional

Marwan KhouryMarketing Manager MEA

Axis Communications

Security upfrontproprietary systems mean limited options, central servers with complex and expensive cabling, as well as restricted possibilities for integration and scalability

Discuss your focus on encoders for the region?Encoders are a way for organizations who have invested a lot in analog deployments to get the benefits of IP without giving up their analog camera investments. This is a stepping stone to IP deployments. But in the UAE, not many people are investing in analog because IP is seen as the future for surveillance.

Discuss growth in the IP

surveillance segmentThe GCC is seeing 20-25% growth YoY. UAE is one of the highest growth markets. There is massive growth from the other GCC countries as well. Banking services, critical infrastructure, retail are key growth segments. Discuss your partner strategyWe go through a two tier model of partners that is prepared to take our solutions for market. We are trying to ensure that partners in these countries are up to speed with the latest Technologies and deploying them to customers. We are making sure end market buyers are educated regarding these technologies.

26 | June 2015

Point2Point | FDC

What are some of the changes that distributors and partners are confronting in the industry?In an era, where how and when users want data is important, there has been an increased need for smart solutions which are IT enabled.In recent years, many new vendors providing leading edge technologies have emerged. And although many of these solutions have been around for over a few years, there is now an enhanced level of awareness and education required to gear up on the partner front. There has been a period of build-up and is perceived as slowness. The distributors and partners who are geared up already to these changes including knowledge enhancements, positioning capabilities and overall services will lead the industry in the coming years.

Which are the Technology solutions that FDC ProValue has been focusing on?Envisioning the trends, FDC ProValue has built its portfolio around Storage with best

of breed brands like Overland Storage, Tandberg data, Synology, QNAP, Seagate and Western Digital enterprise portfolio followed by Networking and Security with ZTE, TP Link, Netgear, Cyberoam, ESET. The focus is on solutions built around storage overall complemented by networking and security for the storage.

Are emerging technologies opening new frontiers of opportunities for VADs?

Of course, emerging technologies like Cloud and Virtualization will be key drivers which are changing the way VADs have done business. The mature and stable technologies are becoming an area o fvolume Business for most VADs. However, VADs that are concentrating on these emerging technologies will be geared up to provide end to end of value requirements of partners and Vendors. FDC ProValue, from a VAD perspective, has always focused on ensuring our partners are geared to grow with the changes by providing them end to end support.

What have been some of the highlights of the year?We signed up several new vendors including TP Link, ZTE, Overland storage, Synology, QNAP, Netgear, Array Networks during thepast year. We launched ZTE and Overland Storage in Middle East at the Armani Burj Khalifa with over 100 Partners attending. Thelaunch event for Synology saw over 80 partners attending and another Synology technology update event saw over 120 participants. We recently launched our Channel Partner Program – “Relevance”. We successfully ran the “Season Kickoff” promotion of Overland and launched the Partner rebate program for ZTE Channel. Overall, we clipped a very healthy growth rate over the year.Along the way, we also collected several accolades from the industry.

Elaborate how you are enhancing the services to the channel and how these can enable partners in increased sellout opportunities?The industry is experiencing changes in trends especially in Storage, security and infrastructure requirements. Adopting to this trend will be the critical growth factor in 2015. At FDC ProValue, we have strongly geared up for the technologies and expertise required to fully drive this trend. RELEVANCE Partner Program has become a major instrument to participate in partner development. We understand that a focused approach to enhance our current infrastructure and provide best in class support in hand holding and developing our vendor market share is the key to our successful growth. In-country trainings are already in place. Road shows and events are planned in 2015. All vendors that our ProValue team is engaged with have intent to invest more into upgrading the Channel market knowledge base and this has greatly triggered our weekly Trainings and Hand holding sessions. The Trainings are based around how to sell including modules for technical, marketing and product exposures and hands on experience. There are implementation and support trainings as well. We have successfully completed to date 42 weeks of direct and remote weekly trainings. This commitment has hopefully enhanced partner capabilities.

A smarter way

There is continued shift in the industry with emergence of new Technologies. This has required a change in approach from Value add distributors. Ram Praveen, Director – ProValue at FDC International says the distributor is keeping pace and proving partners what it takes to be successful in the coming years.

Ram PraveenDirectorProValue FDC International

28 | June 2015

Insight | Red Hat

Highly efficient administration and

operation are key for attaining flexible IT operations in a data center, which are the core of the company's IT system. Server virtualization has been established as the preferred method for increasing productivity and flexibility in this area. A glance at the trends in business IT illustrates this. Gartner market researchers report that the number of virtualized servers in data centers has noticeably increased over the last five years. Up to 50 percent of servers had been virtualized in many companies by the end of 2012. This percentage has risen to 70 percent in the last

year, especially with the newly delivered systems.

Comfortable Administration Supports IT AgilityUsage and implementation of administration tools is always closely tied to the long-standing organizational structures and technological landscape. Companies risk missing out on the expected benefits of a virtualized environment, in particular the much-desired IT agility, if they fail to conduct an adequate analysis of all processes that could be affected by virtualization. The definition of the individual administration processes plays an important

Server virtualization leads

to a long-term increase

in business agility while

providing the foundation for

taking the first step toward

cloud computing. A growing

number of companies

are switching to an open

source-based hybrid cloud

infrastructure and therefore

will need tools to manage

it writes Frederik Bijlsma,

Strategic Account Manager,

Red Hat

From Virtualization to the Cloud:Use IT Resources More Efficiently

role in this respect. Examples include the provision of virtualized applications and servers, as well as change management. If in doubt and without specification, each application requires as much server resources as possible. Companies therefore require administration tools that show what resources the individual applications need throughout the course of the workday. When equipped with suitable administration tools, administrators are able to identify issues quickly to ensure that mission-critical applications take priority.

Virtualization Is a Good Starting Point

Frederik BijlsmaStrategic Account Manager, Red Hat

for the CloudVirtualization is a central

component of a successful IT strategy in any industry, regardless of the company’s size. It is often the first step towards cloud computing because IT organizations that have already virtualized their IT environment can later move to the cloud without any problems. As such, virtualization can be viewed as an excellent starting point for any cloud initiative. It is in high demand in companies, because the employees are more well versed in using the cloud in their private lives than the company.

Everyday life has practically become unimaginable without

June 2015 | 29

cloud services for messaging, online storage, music, and videos. Consumers use services such as Dropbox, Flickr, iTunes, Skype, and WhatsApp at home or on the road almost daily. These are ultimately nothing more than public cloud services. They are easily and quickly available and operate largely without problems. People desire such cloud services at work, as well. If we look at the differences between public cloud providers and corporate IT, we can see why this is not already in place. The different infrastructures of typical public cloud providers are designed for dynamic and agile operation. Everything is constantly changing. In comparison, corporate IT appears quite rigid and inflexible. However, it also has to deal with heterogeneous hardware and software solutions that were developed at different times and by different technology paradigms.

The corporate IT sector is currently starting to catch up and compete with public cloud services that are familiar to consumers. This is a must, because there is definite demand from the different industries. Not wanting to wait any longer, many are using external cloud services, bypassing the IT area altogether. IT should therefore act quickly and consider options to combine external and internal services. However, it will still require some effort to get company-owned cloud services as easily and quickly launched as the public cloud services. The appropriate administration tools play an important part in addressing this issue.

Open Hybrid Cloud Services Provide the Building Blocks for a SolutionGreater flexibility and speed are necessary to meet the growing needs of the departments. The offers from the public cloud are suitable for specific application scenarios, but they are not comprehensive enough to cover all requirements in the field of mission-critical applications. Therefore, various groups within the IT department are examining from different perspectives how the production cycle of applications can be accelerated with the help of available technologies. There are several options available for prototyping, testing of modules, and transferring finished applications to the departments, traditional virtualization, infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), or platform-as-a-service (PaaS) environments. The development team will prefer the PaaS approach and the infrastructure and operations team would rather opt for a virtualization or IaaS environment. There is no ‘one size fits all’ environment for all application scenarios. Generally, an IT department will opt for an open standards-based combination of the aforementioned models and use the most appropriate one for the given situation. In other words, an open hybrid cloud will be used.

It is important to note that few if any companies will

completely migrate all existing, tested, and often mission-critical applications to the cloud. Every company should first carry out an inventory and identify the application scenarios that are suitable for operation in the cloud. Practical experience has shown that it is better to initially concentrate on new cloud applications.

All cloud technologies are ideally suited for certain application scenarios and not for others, and IT will therefore host various components of the application on different platforms for a department. When you start using the cloud, IT departments operate, for example, the web front-end on a scale-out IaaS or PaaS platform, while the database system and middleware probably run on a virtualization platform, which runs in the internal data center and is nearly infinitely expandable. The horizontal scaling (scale-out) architecture will be replaced over time by a vertical scaling (scale-up) architecture, in other words by additional computers, and transferred from the internal virtualization to an IaaS platform. The IT department will migrate some application components to the PaaS platform and others to the public cloud.

However, the simultaneous operation of multiple cloud platforms is only the beginning. Without a comprehensive management environment, IT departments would be dependent on tools for each

platform and would have to manage the same rules and regulations and monitor compliance to it, while running several operating systems in parallel. A unified cloud management

platform links the various on-premise, PaaS, and IaaS components of an application and keeps them together, regardless of whether they are hosted on a scale-up or scale-out platform in the cloud or are operated in their own data center. Additionally, it oversees the entire lifecycle from deployment to decommissioning in a mix of private and public cloud.

OpenStack as a Cloud Operating SystemMany companies currently focus on evaluating the open source cloud platform OpenStack when it comes to setting up new cloud infrastructures. This is a vendor-independent open source project that is rapidly expanding. OpenStack can essentially be described as a cloud operating system consisting of processing power, storage space, and networking capacities with which a company or service provider can build a cloud structure in a data center environment. Some cloud providers already use an OpenStack environment as a cost effective alternative to a VMware environment. Thanks to its modular design in the OpenStack core areas, cloud providers are able to adapt such an environment to various customer requirements, without performance, availability, or security suffering as a result.

"All cloud technologies are ideally suitedfor certain application scenarios and not

for others, and IT will therefore hostvarious components of the application on

different platforms for a department."

30 | June 2015

Insight | Infoblox

Things to test some of those theories.

For the most part, the survey and these panels confirmed my suspicions. For example, I had spoken with many customers who initially said they had no IoT devices whatsoever. When pressed, though, and given concrete examples (networked badge readers, surveillance systems, HVAC systems, cash registers, vending machines, and so on), most realized they already had at least a nascent IoT infrastructure. Accordingly, 75% of respondents to our survey reported that they already had office equipment “Things” on their network, and 70% reported security “Things” on their network.

I had also encountered very few IT organizations that had deployed any infrastructure specifically for IoT, from dedicated networks to

There’s a tremendous amount of buzz around the Internet

of Things, or IoT: How it will revolutionize manufacturing, agriculture, medicine, and our daily lives; the novel capabilities it will support; the new era it will herald. But the Internet of Things relies on networks, and networking technologies are deployed and managed by people—network administrators, in particular. Yet in recent years network administrators have been asked to “do more with less”: less budget, a smaller staff.

I’ve spent some time thinking about the effect the Internet of Things will have on networks and network administration and I’ve developed some theories. Also, Infoblox recently commissioned a survey of networking professionals and hosted two panel discussions with customers on the Internet of

management systems. Again, our survey supported the anecdotal evidence – only 35% of respondents said they have deployed solutions specifically to support IoT.

Since, in most cases, no dedicated network infrastructure exists for IoT devices, most IT organizations relegate IoT devices to existing networks. Only 30% of the organizations surveyed planned to create a separate logical or physical network for “Things,” while 46% will attach them to the corporate network. In our panel discussions, we found that most organizations simply dump IoT devices on existing guest wireless networks, which usually provide Internet access (which many “Things” require). However, guest wireless networks usually don’t allow access to internal resources (e.g., Domain Controllers, database and

file servers), which other IoT devices need, and they provide little or no authentication, unpredictable performance, and no prioritization of traffic, all of which are required by some categories of these devices.

Despite the varied requirements of these IoT devices, many IT organizations I’ve met with described having “Things” that are “thrown over the wall” for deployment, well after another business unit had made the purchasing decision. Our survey bears this out: 60% of the organization surveyed reported being brought in to support IoT devices after another organization acquired them, and 63% reported that the subsequent deployment was more challenging than the acquirer believed it would be.

This difficulty in implementation isn’t surprising. From our customers, we’ve learned that IoT devices

How IoTaffects Network AdministrationCricket Liu, Chief DNS Architect, Infoblox writes about the varied challenges for deployment of IoT devices and some of the key steps to get it right

Cricket LiuChief DNS Architect, Infoblox

June 2015 | 31

aren’t that smart. Many lack a user interface, making configuration a challenge—and often the responsibility of a network administrator, setting up DHCP options. Many are not easily upgradeable. Many are designed for consumer rather than enterprise deployment, and lack tools and features required for enterprise use. A university network administrator told me about dorm networks with hundreds of Apple TVs—making Apple’s Remote iOS app nearly useless, because it presents you with a list of those hundreds of Apple TVs to choose from. Some “Things” are just designed poorly. A network administrator for a hospital chain described an

MRI system that used the same set of hardcoded IP addresses for every machine, meaning that the network administrator had to set up NAT for each MRI machine to ensure it was accessible across the network.

This same lack of capability extends to security features. Most “Things” don’t support strong authentication mechanisms such as 802.1X, leaving network administrators to use their MAC addresses—or nothing—as a weak form of authentication. Consequently, securing IoT devices’ access to

the network is difficult. Some organizations I spoke with used VLANs to isolate certain categories of “Things,” but dedicating one VLAN to each type of device certainly doesn’t scale.

Our survey reiterated the concerns of our panel participants: 63% of those surveyed are concerned about the security challenges posed by the Internet of Things.

Based on our discussions and the survey results, I’ve come up with a short list of recommendations for network administrators facing an

Internet of Things deployment:1. Work to get yourself a seat at the table early in IoT deployment planning. You should have input into the minimum

network requirements of devices that you’ll have to deploy and support.2. Those requirements should include support for 802.1X, DHCP, SNMP management, remote upgradeability, and IPv6.3. Consider deployment of IPv6. As you probably know, IPv4 addresses have become much more difficult to get. Some of your “Things” may require access from the Internet or from third parties’ networks. Don’t let your lack of routable IP address space hamper your IoT implementation.

"From our customers, we’ve learned that IoT devices

aren’t that smart. Many lack a user interface, making

configuration a challenge—and often the responsibility

of a network administrator, setting up DHCP options."

32 | June 2015

eyetech

Neutron Series Managed Indoor Access Point Dell PowerEdge R930

Overview:The EWS360AP can operate as a stand-alone Access Point connecting to third-party PoE-capable switches but more control and versatile management of the Access Point is achievable when it is part of an EnGenius Neutron Series Wireless Network Management solution because the AP includes firmware that enables it to be immediately discovered, configured, monitored and managed from a compatible Neutron Series PoE+ Switch (EWS5912FP, EWS7928FP or EWS7952FP). This capability enables IT managers to deploy and manage up to 50 EWS360APs from a Neutron Series Switch allowing for simplified management from one browser-based interface including simultaneous firmware upgrades, clustering, traffic monitoring, bandwidth steering and many other features that can be reset or reconfigured from the convenience of the IT manager’s desktop.

Operating in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency spectrums and supporting 802.11a/b/g/n and ac (draft) standards the EWS360AP features wireless speeds up to 450 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz radio and up to 1300 Mbps on the 5 GHz radio. As the EWS360AP is designed for deployments on ceilings

where power outlets may be scarce, it also comes equipped with PoE (Power-over-Ethernet) IEEE 802.3at for use with an 802.3at-capable PoE injector or 802.3at-capable PoE Switches, drawing up to 22 watts of power. As a result, the EWS360AP is ideal for spacious environments such as large homes, small and medium-sized businesses, multiple-floor offices, hotels, hospitals, and other multi-floor buildings.

Key features:• Hightransmitpowerforlongerrangeandenhanced wireless coverage• SupportsIEEE802.11a/b/g/nandac(draft)standards. Up to 450 Mbps on 2.4 GHz and up to 1300 Mbps on 5 GHz• SeamlessRoaming,FastHandover• 6internalMIMOantennas/Dualband/ThreeStream• Sectorized3Dantennadesign.Formountingonceilings or desktop deployments

Overview:Dell has announced an expansion of its 13th generation PowerEdge servers. This includes the PowerEdge R930, Dell’s most powerful server specifically designed for the most demanding enterprise applications such as in-memory databases, customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP). Once the domain of UNIX systems, these enterprise applications are increasingly shifting to x86 platforms for increased innovation, additional capabilities and lower total cost of ownership.

With the PowerEdge R930, along with Dell software and services, many of these non-x86 customers can migrate from UNIX to Linux with ease and move to a more innovative, future-ready data centre.

The PowerEdge R930 rack server can flexibly scale to optimise transactions and operations while reducing latency.

Key features: • Maximiseapplicationperformancewith22percent better performance than our previous world record four-socket server on the industry ERP sales & distribution benchmark. When paired with Dell Fluid Cache for SAN, organisations can further boost transactional performance and accommodate more virtual machines for increased productivity. • Flexiblyscaleworkloadsbybringingstoragecloser to compute and leveraging industry-leading storage scalabilityand a large memory footprint. The PowerEdge R930 features the future Intel Xeon processor E7- 8800/4800 v3 product families, 6TB of memory in 96 DIMMs, 24 internal hard drives and support for up to eight high performance PowerEdge Express Flash NVMePCIe SSDs. • Protectmission-criticalanddata-intensiveapplications with built-in reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) features, such as Dell’s exclusive Fault Resilient Memory. • Reduceconfigurationtimebyupto99percentand reduce time on manual inventory by up to 91 percent.

June 2015 | 33

Overview:

Sophos has announced the availability of new UTM appliances with 802.11ac integrated wireless. The new SG Series SG 125w and SG 135w models tightly integrate wireless access with firewall protection to allow small and mid-sized businesses (SMB) to achieve the performance gains offered by 802.11ac wireless, including smarter performance and better hotspot management.

These desktop firewall appliances are available with or without integrated wireless networking. The new SG Series integrated wireless models mean customers can now choose from sixteen models in the SG Series range including four with integrated Wi-Fi capabilities:

• SG105wandSG115wwith802.11nintegratedwireless• SG125wandSG135wwith802.11acintegratedwireless

The Sophos SG Series appliances are designed to provide the optimal balance between performance and protection – for diverse IT environments. Whether you need a solution for a small remote office, want to protect your school campus, or are a global organization requiring high-availability and enterprise-grade features, our SG Series appliances are an ideal fit.

Key features:

• Withfasterthaneverfirewall,IPSandVPNthroughput, the SG Series appliances effortlessly handle multiple tasks simultaneously. Plus, you can easily scale up by dynamically

clustering up to 10 units without external load balancers.

• BuiltuponthemostadvancedInteltechnology.Optimized use of multi-core processors allows consolidation of your security solutions without a performance trade-off.

• Acceleratedin-memorycontentscanninginsecureproxy mode makes defenses more effective and efficient.

• SG100Seriesdesktopmodelswithintegratedwirelessare a very tidy solution for even the most compact office space. As the access point is built in, you do not require any extra hardware.

VM1600 16x16 Modular Matrix Switch

Overview: The VM1600 Modular Matrix Switch offers advanced access and real-time control of multiple local and remote A/V input devices and displays from a single chassis. The VM1600 allows users to independently switch and route video and/or audio content directly to various monitors, displays, projectors and/or speakers simply by pressing front panel pushbuttons. A built-in Scaler encodes the video format in order to provide seamless, real-time switching. The front panel LCD shows a quick view of active port connections, with an option to select an EDID Mode that yields the best resolution across different monitors.

VM1600 is easily expandable and accommodates a lineup of hot-swappable ATEN I/O boards. Equipped with automatic signal conversion, it allows any combination of digital video formats, such as DVI (VM7604 /

SG Series with integrated wireless

VM8604) and HDMI (VM7804 / VM8804), thus making it ideal for large-scale A/V applications such as broadcasting stations, traffic and transportation-related control rooms, emergency service centers and any application that requires customizable high speed A/V signal routing.

Key features:• Connectsanyof16videosourcestoanyof16displays in combination with ATEN Modular Matrix Solutions• Superiorvideoquality–HDTVresolutionsof480p,720p, 1080i and 1080p (1920 x 1080); VGA, SVGA, XGA, SXGA and WUXGA (1920 x 1200)• SeamlessSwitch–providescontinuousvideostreams, real-time switching and stable signal transmission• Easilyswitchbetweenmultiplesourcesandmultiple displays• Videowall-providesupto32connectionprofilesthat you can customize into layouts using the web GUI• RackMountable

34 | June 2015

Thefirst wave of innovation accelerators based on the

3rd Platform technologies of cloud, mobility, Big Data, and social media are beginning to roll into the Middle East and Africa (MEA) healthcare sector, with the Internet of things (IoT) set to play a fundamental role in shaping the digital transformation that will determine the industry's future direction. That's according to the latest pronouncements from IDC Health Insights, which is confident that the currently nascent MEA IoT market will take off rapidly, offering considerable potential to vendors and healthcare providers alike through the rest of the decade.

"Few fields have greater IoT opportunities than healthcare," says Nino Giguashvili, IDC Health Insights' lead research analyst for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (CEMA). "Sensor-based technologies offer tremendous benefits at all levels, from

inpatient treatment and community-based healthcare to social services and self-care, providing new opportunities for disease prevention via screening and early detection. IoT technologies capable of automatically collecting and processing patient data enable us to capture early predictors of diseases while onset is still preventable and to diagnose diseases at early stages, when their progression and unwanted outcomes can be averted."

With the availability of a wide range of telemedicine solutions, IoT has the potential to break down the distance barriers in healthcare, which are particularly acute in parts of the MEA region. Sensor-based systems can be used to monitor various critical health parameters in healthcare facilities, as well as remotely. Earlier this year, for example, Etisalat and Enayati Home Health Care (a UAE-based Canadian nursing care center) launched a pilot

Governments in the Middle East and North Africa will spend US $11.97

billion on IT products and services in 2015, an increase of 0.4 percent over 2014 spending of US $11.92 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. This forecast includes spending on internal services, software, IT services, data center, devices and telecom services. Government comprises local government and national government.

Telecom services, which include fixed and mobile telecom services, will be the largest overall spending category throughout the forecast period within the

Governments in MENA to Spend US $11.97 Billion on IT in 2015

government sector. It is expected to be US $5.2 billion in 2015– led by growth in mobile network services.

The software segment includes enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise application software, infrastructure software and vertical specific software. Software spending will grow 6.7 percent over the 2014 spending, to reach US $1.2 billion. In 2015, software spending will be led by growth in the ERP, SCM, CRM and enterprise application software which includes office suites

and content, communications and collaboration amongst others.

“Transition from one-way department centric eGovernment initiatives to a two-way interactive citizen centric digital government is driving spending in government IT in the region,” said Dr Anurag Gupta, research vice president at Gartner. “We expect further investments in building systems for sharing data across departments with a goal of simplifying government transaction for citizens and continued investments in mobile technologies to facilitate anytime anywhere access.”

home-monitoring system in Dubai. Developed by Equivital (a British company that focuses on IoT technology), the system will enable Enayati's healthcare staff to monitor high volumes of physiological data on their patients (collected from patient-body-worn sensors) in real time or retrospectively and to manage their patients remotely.

"The Internet of Things will make available a wealth of health-relevant data that can be used to make informed

healthcare decisions," says Giguashvili. "Data systems are rather underdeveloped in the region, and critical information is often missing. In the extreme case of rural Africa, community health workers often need to go door-to-door to collect critical data on health-related issues, such as data on immunization statuses. IoT-enabled technologies such as fingerprint-based recognition methods could ease this process significantly."

Stats & Trends

Healthcare likely to see IoT impact

AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTOR

Aptec - an Ingram Micro Company

P. O. Box 33550Dubai Internet City,Dubai, UAEE-Mail: sdawda@aptecme.com

Tel.: (+971 4) 3697 111Fax: (+971 4) 3697 110www.apteconline.com

www.dlinkmea.com

The security of your business is at risk if there is no monitoring system in place to protect your business assets. Choosing to implement IP Surveillance offers the advantage of leveraging your existing network infrastructure to maximise your investment. D-Link can supply end-to-end networking solutions to build an affordable and easy-to-deploy system to ensure the security and safety of people, possessions and places.

Migrate to IP Surveillance

Making the move to digital technology at your own pace

DCS-3716PoE HD Day and Night WideDynamic Range IP Camera

DCS-7513Full HD WDR Day & NightOutdoor Network Camera

DCS-6915Full HD High-Speed

Dome Network Camera

DCS-5615 Full HD Mini P/T

Dome Network Camera

DCS-6315HD Outdoor Fixed

Dome Camera with Color Night Vision

DCS-6115HD Indoor Fixed

Dome Camera with

Color Night Vision