reseller middle east
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In the last few years, the IT channel has seen a gradual but significant shift. From mere product pushing, the market has evolved towards value added services, keeping pace with a maturing market scenario for technology investments. Broadline distributionTRANSCRIPT
ISSUE 183 // MARCH 2012 // WWW.RESELLERME.COM
PUBLICATIONLICENSED BY IMPZ
T H E T R U T H A B O U T H PANALYSIS
IN FOCUSAptec Holding leverages its regional experience to launch a third party logistics company. P41
SPEAKOUTOpen standards across operating systems and applications are being extended to cloud architectures. P43
TEST BENCHPC Tools version 2.0 P49
STEP UPA look at how partners can profit from the technology future
COVER FEATURE
CONTENTSISSUE 183 // MARCH 2012
31
54 57
58
ANALYSIS7 The truth about HP
At the Global Partner Conference, HP spoke about how it would help its partners and together they could regain the status of industry leader in the global IT landscape.
IN THE BEGINNING11 We help you catch up on all the major
news and announcements in the regional channel community in one go.
IN FOCUS41 Supply chain value add
Aptec Holding has leveraged its regional experience to launch a third party logistics company.
SPEAKOUT43 Open standards in cloud
Open standards across operating systems and applications are being extended to cloud architectures.
45 Bundle offerings
Starting from the customer view point is make or break for any technology bundle o!er.
46 Enter the campus network
Social media applications, mobility and cloud are bringing the role of campus networks back into focus. Can channel partners exploit this opportunity?
TEST BENCH49 As good
as new
PC Tools version 2.0 has powerful features to manage Windows boot up time, privacy of documents, permanent removal of deleted files and health-check of the all important registry sector.
PEOPLE54 Aman Sangar, Interactive
Entertainment business category lead, retail sales and Marketing, Microsoft MEA
57 Nicholas Argyrides, MD of EMPA
58 Soichi Murakami, MD of ME, Turkey and Africa at Brother
Channel partners across the region can use the interest around cloud solutions to sell more and to add to their revenue base. However, some active interest and investment is necessary in order to bring to fruition that goal.
Step up
Aman Sangar
Soichi Murakami
Nicholas Argyrides
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 3
1994-2011 Hewlett-Packard Company. All rights reserved. All product and company names referenced herein are trademarks of their respective owners.4AA3-3955EEE, August 2011
DON’T FALL VICTIM
TO FAKES
ORIGINAL HP SUPPLIES. THEY PAY YOU BACK
Emitac Distribution LLCPO BOX 8391Dubai, UAE www.emitac.aeemail: [email protected]
UAEDubai: +971 46058200Abu Dhabi: +971 2 641 9219 KSA Riyadh: +966 1 4665451
QatarDoha:+974 44355440 Bahrain & Oman: +973 33 107 088
Kuwait: +965 22612616
www.hp.com/go/anticounterfeit
Keep an eye out for counterfeit print cartridges and help to keep your printers safe.
authentication software, visit www.hp.com/go/tonercheck
we will take the appropriate action.
It is the technology of our times. And the regional channel partner
ignores its expansion at his own peril.
There can be no dispute that cloud computing has come to dominate
ICT discussions among enterprise end-users, and vendors alike for
the last couple of years. This heated discussion has often been under
the auspices of constant confusion on what the cloud actually means,
how it can be implemented or delivered to the corporate user, and
the benefits that such an investment can bring in the long term.
The typical channel partner sees in the cloud the potential for new
business – a new way to sell an old technology perhaps, or a new
way to tap into ICT budgets among enterprises. Done the right way,
sales and delivery of cloud services can bring the channel partner
not only top-up revenue, but also the ability to add consistently to his
bottomline of profits through add-on services.
Vendors from the region are o!ering various cloud solutions and
services, and some of them are made for the partner to deliver
and service. By working with the right global vendors, partners can
ensure that they get a chance to play in this growing market to their
own benefit. However, long-term profitability in this market requires
the partner to invest in his own stead, to improve his skills and to
provide the customer lot more than just vanilla services – he needs
to become the trusted voice in a cloudy environment. (Turn to our
cover story, starting page 30, to understand some of the cloud
training initiatives that vendors have launched in the region, and how
partners can take advantage of these.)
The region itself reflects the growing call from global enterprises and
vendors for more well-trained, cloud-aware partners. At the recently
held HP Global Partner Conference in Las Vegas, USA, the global IT
giant stated that it would work to enable more of its partners globally
to cross-sell solutions across its infrastructure and software ranges.
It also emphasised that it fully intended to set up more cloud
competence centres, in partner premises, in order to provide
partners and end-users a ready, standing facility to see the di!erent
HP cloud solutions working together, and understand better the
eventual benefits of investing in them. (You can read more about our
analysis of what HP had to say at the conference starting page 7).
It definitely looks like a cloudy future for the region, and here’s
hoping that all partners can work towards benefitting further and
profiting higher from the promise of the clouds.
EDITORIAL
The cloud storyPublisher
Dominic De Sousa
Group COONadeem Hood
Managing DirectorRichard Judd
[email protected] +971 4 440 9126
EDITORIAL
Senior EditorSathya Mithra Ashok
[email protected] +971 4 440 9111
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[email protected] +971 4 440 9147
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Production ManagerJames P Tharian
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DesignerAnalou Balbero
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PhotographerCris Mejorada
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DIGITALwww.rwme.net
DIGITAL SERVICES
Digital Services ManagerTristan Troy P Maagma
Web DevelopersJerus King Bation
Erik BrionesJefferson de Joya
Louie Alma
[email protected]+971 4 440 9100
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information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.
Sathya Mithra AshokSenior Editor
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Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 5
© 2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Brocade. Rethink your campus LAN.
The truth about HPHP is trying to shed the bad news of the last few months, and work towards a future where it is back in the forefront of the industry. But the haul is likely to be long, difficult and as fragmented as the company seems to be.
Late February, HP announced its
results for the quarter. Revenues
from the company’s massive PSG
(personal systems group)
declined 15% from last year to $8.9 billion.
Sales to consumers dropped by a quarter
from last year, while sales of business PCs
slid 15%.
HP’s Imaging and Printing Group (IPG)
also fared poorly. Revenue was down 7% to
$6.3 billion, HP said, with sales to consumers
hit hardest.
Total revenue for the quarter, ended Jan.
31, was $30 billion, down 7% from last year,
HP said. Net profit was $1.5 billion, down 44%.
Everybody knows HP has been having
a tough year. If the economic climate was
not enough, it was the company’s vacillation
between whether it was keeping or letting go
of the troubled PSG division.
A week before announcing the results,
the IT major held its first Global Partner
Conference, where it brought more than
3000 people from every corner of the world
to lay out its roadmap for the next year. At
the three-day conference, the company laid
out plans for both its enterprise and its PSG
partners.
Most of the plans revolved around
moving existing partners constantly up the
ladder in solution and service provision. The
company, whose revenue base is largely
comprised of its hardware systems, is
working on growing its base from software
and services. With this aim, HP announced
incentives through 2012 to encourage
hardware partners to take up more software
or push leads to software partners.
“HP is putting in $5 million to accelerate
growth with converged infrastructure partners
over the next six months. Partnerships will
get a 5% rebate on the licence sale of any net
new software lead that closes. HP Software
will also set aside an additional 5% in an
investment fund for converged infrastructure
partners to invest in HP software,” said Hayley
Tabor, VP for worldwide partnerships and
field excellence.
According to her, these incentives are
meant to help partners work together more
often, and realise the benefits of a software
sale, which leads to a higher revenue base
from the delivery of related services.
“The market opportunity is huge across
servers ($50 billion), storage ($35 billion)
and networking ($30 billion), combined with
HP software. Partners can also choose their
practices across application development,
operations, storage or security. Working
together, partners have the ability to tap into
higher revenues and larger profit margins,”
Bill Veghte, executive VP for software and
services at HP said.
The company also launched HP
Interchange, a group on LinkedIn that is
HP
ANALYSIS
meant to bring together HP Converged
Infrastructure partners and HP Software
partners to share information, leads and even
sell and implement on projects together.
The firm expanded its PartnerConnect
programme and its partnership for the cloud,
with options between cloud builders, cloud
resellers and cloud service providers. HP
also promised that more Cloud Centers of
Excellence will be opened in partner premises
throughout the world in 2012.
The call from the IPG front sounded
very similar. According to Vyomesh Joshi,
executive VP of the IPG group within HP,
there is a $200 billion addressable market for
printing that partners can target, and benefit
from in the next couple of years. Joshi broke
down the estimate of the overall market
into printing, services and solutions around
content digitisation. According to him, printing
makes up the lion’s sum of the market at an
estimated $118 billion market by 2013, with
services and content digitisation assessed to
be $48 billion market by 2013.
He split solutions around content
digitisation itself across o"ce (at an estimated
$28 billion market), marketing ($10 billion
market) and production tasks ($10 billion).
“In the o"ce, the main concern is
to eliminate document management
ine"ciencies. Many vendors have attempted
to do this in the past 10 years, and most of
them have failed. This is because the only
way to do this is to cover the entire spectrum
from capturing, archiving and security, down
to the output,” said Joshi.
HP will cover this spectrum e!ectively
through the Smart Doc SMB solution, which
will be launched in the later quarters of 2012,
according to Joshi.
“With this solution, partners can go to
customers, o!er to digitise all of their paper-
based documents, have it stored, secured
and managed in the HP cloud, till they need
to draw from it and create active print-outs. It
is a complete solution,” said Joshi.
For the marketing market, HP will launch
a Smart Marketing Suite in 2013, and address
the production segment with the Smart
Production Suite, which is set for launch
around September 2012.
According to Joshi, these solutions are
Meg Whitman, president and CEO, HP
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 7
meant to empower partners help customers
achieve higher e"ciencies and capitalise
on the content that they are producing with
better printing solutions and services.
The company used the global partner
conference to launch both its Gen8 server
and its Z1 Workstation as well.
Going on stage as the last keynote of the
conference, the few-months old President
and CEO of HP, Meg Whitman emphasised
that the company aims to return to the
standing of industry leader by focusing on
certain areas, and by encouraging innovation.
She also stated that PSG is here to stay,
and even as e!orts continue to increase
revenue from the software side of the
business, HP has no intentions of moving
away from its infrastructure roots and turning
into a software company.
“I am a strong believer in focus. I believe
that we would be better o! focusing on a
small area, and doing really, really well in that
area. And that is what you will see in the next
few years. We are in the software business to
solve tough customer problems, we are not in
it to transform HP into a software company,”
said Whitman.
She emphasised that the focus areas for
HP would include converged infrastructure,
information optimisation, cloud and services.
She added that the company would be
investing a lot more in R&D across all its
divisions to encourage organic innovation.
Acknowledging the time from August
last year, when HP announced that it would
look to sell out its PSG division, has been a
challenging time, Whitman stated that the
team has been working to reduce the noise
of the confusion, and to emphasise on the
strengths that have held HP in good stead
over the years.
“In 2013, HP will be 70 years old. I want
to set up the company for the next 70 years. I
want to focus on the long term and work with
partners in order to ensure that we reach our
goals,” said Whitman.
Whitman continued to try and uphold her
stance following the announcement of the
quarterly results.
Speaking to analysts and investors
after HP released its#financial results,
Whitman o!ered a frank assessment of HP’s
challenges at the end of her first full quarter
on the job.
“The fact is that, for all that’s right with
PSG, we underinvested in innovation in the
last several years and we’ve been late to
market too often,” Whitman said.
She blamed last quarter’s performance
on the economy and on an industry wide
shortage of disk drives. But she also admitted
there are deeper problems at HP that need
to be fixed.
“For years, we’ve been basically running
our business in silos. Under that model,
we’ve built some of the biggest franchises in
technology, but it’s also made us too complex
and too slow,” Whitman said.
HP has lost share in some of its most
important markets, she admitted, including
PCs and even in its valuable printer business.
Whitman’s comments might be seen as
a critique of former HP CEO Mark Hurd, now
a president at Oracle, though Whitman didn’t
mention him by name. Hurd was praised by
some for growing HP’s revenue and more
than doubling its stock price, but others said
he achieved that by cutting costs too deeply
and failing to invest for the future.
Whitman implied she’s in the latter camp.
“We didn’t make the investments we should
have in the last few years to stay ahead of
customer expectations and market trends. As
a result, we see eroding revenue and profits
today,” she said on the conference call.
HP’s recovery plan fits in three “buckets,”
she said. The first is fixing its execution, she
said. That includes making its supply chain
more e"cient and cutting unnecessary models,
or “SKUs,” that make developing, selling and
supporting products unnecessarily complex.
Next, HP must address the “ongoing
problems” with each business unit, she said.
That includes investing in technology for
the future and streamlining processes and
support services.
The last part is to capitalise on
what Whitman sees as dramatic shifts
in technology, especially around cloud
computing, information management and
security, she said.
It’s a big challenge, not least because
HP must find the money to reinvest in its
businesses while continuing to deliver a profit
to shareholders. “We have to save so that we
can invest,” Whitman said, meaning HP has
to cut costs and become more e"cient to get
the money it needs to rebuild.
“We know what we have to do, we have
a plan to fix it, but it will take time,” Whitman
said. “This is a multiyear e!ort.”
There is no doubt that the company has
had a di"cult year, and the quarter numbers
are just one indication of it. HP is trying to
correct the imbalances of the past year by
investing in innovation and re-energising
its partner community. However, the real
problem for the company might be its internal
fragmentation and the obvious disconnect
between some of its divisions, which were
evident even during the partner conference.
Unless the firm works to address this,
and present a unified picture to partner and
customer alike, it is likely to see more di"cult
times than better ones. //
Bill Veghte, executive VP for software and services at HP
Vyomesh Joshi, executive VP of the IPG group within HP
HP
ANALYSIS
8 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
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IN THE BEGINNINGTie ups
Maham Al-Khaleej Trading Company also
known as Matco announced the opening of
its second EMC Velocity Signature Solution
Centre in the Kingdom. The centre, located in
Riyadh, is designed to demonstrate exactly how
the technology works in a live environment,
providing a total experience of the solution
and the benefits without risk for the customer.
Based on the immense success of EMC’s own
Global Solution Centres, Matco’s new Solution
Centre in the Kingdom replicates a framework
of technology that demonstrates EMC Proven
solutions in approved environments.
“We are giving our customers real choice
and the best of both worlds – a chance to
experience exactly how the proven solution
would work for them based on EMC technology
without any capital outlay. Our main objective at
Matco is to provide our customers with the best
service levels and ensure they are getting the
value of the solutions we o!er them,” said Toni
Prince, GM, Matco IT.
The centre will provide comprehensive
solutions development, live and remote
demonstrations, and improvement of near-
customer environments via EMC’s Customer
Integration Lab. The solutions demonstrated
are based on the strategic collaboration
that combines best-of-breed information
infrastructure technologies from EMC,
Matco launches second Velocity Solution Centre in KSA
PC Dealnet incountry distributor for IomegaIomega, a global vendor in
digital storage and content
management solutions,
announced signing PC
Dealnet as an in-country
distributor in Qatar and
Jordan. Iomega, which is a
subsidiary of storage vendor
EMC, has strengthened
its SMB presence in the
UAE, Oman and Bahrain
distribution network by
striking a deal with PC
Dealnet. Iomega believes that this channel
move will ensure its products and solutions
are readily available to system integrators,
SMB resellers and VARs in Qatar and Jordan.
“With our focus on the SMB
channel, this comes as part of a
wider plan in Iomega’s investment in
the Middle East region, to be on the
ground to support the SMB market
as well as the SMB business-to-
business distribution structure. With
PC Dealnet, we are fulfilling another
part of our B2B formula. PC Dealnet
has been chosen because of its
strength to reach di!erent channel
segments, whether it is system
integrators, resellers or corporate
resellers. We are confident PC Dealnet will
be an important addition to our existing
distribution partners in the region, where
there is room for all to grow,” explained Cizar
Abu Ghazaleh, regional director for Middle
East, Africa and Turkey at Iomega.
Bassam Obeid, president, ITG
Distribution Holding, said that PC Dealnet
works towards being a strong broad
based distributor and its drive to grow its
value business in GCC markets, has been
instrumental in this distribution tie-up with
Iomega. “We are confident that together
with Iomega we will make this relationship
fruitful for both companies. This association
will assist us in providing world class network
storage products through our strong and
loyal partner base in Qatar and Jordan.” PC
DealNet Jordan is part of ITG Distribution
Holding and provides solutions from Cisco,
Leviton, HP and EMC.
virtualisation from VMware, and networking and
compute solutions from Cisco and will focus
on helping customers in their IT transformation
towards the Private Cloud.
The first setup phase of Matco’s Solution
Centre in Riyadh will showcase the main
features of unified management of EMC Unified
Storage showing its ease of use and e"ciency
to organisations. The second phase will cover
replication between unified storage platforms and
backup and recovery solutions.
Havier Haddad, channel manager, for EMC
Turkey, Emerging Africa and Middle East, said:
“The ability to support Velocity Signature Solution
Centre is at the core of our channel partner
enablement programme. This Centre provides
the tools for Matco to work more e"ciently with
its customers, ultimately driving increased value
through doing business with EMC.”
“EMC customers in the Kingdom will now have
the ability to experience their planned solution
and identify the ROI before making financial
commitments. Matco is dedicated to its customers’
transformation to the private cloud which will
enable them to meet their business objectives
through greater e"ciency in virtualised storage,
reduced deployment times, increased scalability
and agility to deliver mission critical service levels,”
said Mohamed Talaat, country manager for Saudi
at EMC. Matco customers can also benefit from
24x7 on-site customer support service.
Cizar Abu Ghazaleh, regional director for Middle East, Africa and Turkey at Iomega.
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 11
Emircom announced it has achieved
TelePresence Video Master authorised
technology provider status from Cisco.
This designation recognises Emircom as
having fulfilled the training requirements
and programme prerequisites to sell,
deploy and support Cisco TelePresence
Video products and solutions at the
master level.
According to Mohamad Abou-Zaki,
COO at Emircom LLC, “It is one of the
series of investments that have been
allocated to align the company with
selective focused technology verticals
that covers data centres, video, security
and services.”
“The Cisco TelePresence Video
Master ATP programme is designed to
enable partners to take advantage of the
tremendous market opportunities ahead
not only in the telepresence space but
also in the overall collaboration market,”
said Richard McLeod, senior director of
Collaboration for worldwide channels at
Cisco.
Vision Valley also announced it has
achieved TelePresence Video Master
Authorised Technology Provider status
from Cisco. “Vision Valley is committed
to provide state of the art technology
solutions to address and solve our clients’
productivity, mobility and IT concerns
raised from their daily operations in
today’s dynamic markets. We consult
and advice our clients in the region with
cutting edge technologies to enhance
their day to day operation, and to have a
healthier ROI,” says Mohammed Swidan,
regional sales manager at Vision Valley.
“The Cisco TelePresence Video
Master ATP Programme is designed to
enable partners to take advantage of
the tremendous market opportunities
ahead—not only in the telepresence
space but also in the overall collaboration
market,” said Allan Bjørnstad, Director of
Collaboration Partners for Emerging at
Cisco.
Emircom is a partner for Cisco and
operates in UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Vision Valley is a solution provider the
Middle East and North Africa markets
for telecommunications, networking and
information technology industries.
Emircom, Vision Valley recognised as Cisco TelePresence Video Master partners in Gulf
Interactive Intelligence acquires contact centre business of reseller ATIO
Interactive
Intelligence
Group, a global
provider of unified
IP business
communications
solutions, has
signed an
agreement to
purchase select
contact centre
assets of its South
Africa based
reseller, ATIO Corp. Under the terms of the
agreement, e!ective from 1st January 2012,
these assets are now owned by Interactive
Intelligence Group. The new company will
operate as Interactive Intelligence South
Africa Pty Ltd.
As part of the all-cash transaction,
Interactive Intelligence South Africa will
employ approximately 40 ATIO team members
and will begin direct support of nearly 40 joint
ATIO and Interactive Intelligence customers
located throughout South Africa and sub-
Saharan Africa.
“ATIO has ranked among our top revenue
generating resellers of all partners throughout
Europe, Middle East and Africa each year
since it first began o!ering our solutions,”
said Interactive Intelligence founder and CEO,
Don Brown. “This successful track record,
combined with a talented support and services
team, mature infrastructure and expertise
in key industries such as financial services,
telecommunications and government, makes
ATIO’s Interactive Intelligence business an
ideal acquisition choice. This acquisition
marks our continued strategy to more
e!ectively grow our existing operations in key
international geographies, which began early
last year with reseller acquisitions in Germany
and Australia.”
“Africa is increasingly popular as a
preferred destination of contact centres,”
said Frost & Sullivan’s business unit leader,
ICT Africa, Birgitta Cederstrom. “South Africa
specifically has been a natural choice for
Interactive Intelligence founder and CEO, Don Brown
contact centers due to its large and articulate
English-speaking population and service-
oriented business culture. Another strength
is its expanding broadband connectivity,
thus ensuring that the latest unified
communications and collaboration tools will
run e"ciently.”
As part of the transaction, Interactive
Intelligence South Africa will occupy one of
ATIO’s buildings in Johannesburg, which will
now function as its regional headquarters
serving all of Africa. The new company will
continue o!ering the complete Interactive
Intelligence all-in-one IP communications
software suite, which includes applications
for contact center automation, unified
communications, and business process
automation. Interactive Intelligence South
Africa Pty Ltd. will sell its solutions both directly
and through authorised channel partners.
ATIO was founded in 1986 and is a privately
held provider of information and communications
technology services. It had been an Interactive
Intelligence reseller since 2002.
IN THE BEGINNINGTie ups
12 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
Hamad Medical Corporation and Cerner automate public health in QatarVAS player
Qanawat opens office in KSA
Hamad Medical Corporation and Cerner have
signed an agreement to digitise the entire
Qatar's public health system, including all HMC
hospitals and primary health care centres.
Acting as a prime contractor and CIS integrator,
Cerner will deliver health IT solutions from
Cerner and third party suppliers that will bring
HMC’s hospital information management into
the 21st century. This is Cerner’s first project in
the region to digitise an entire country’s public
health system on a single computing platform.
Using the Cerner Millennium architecture,
a unified health IT computing platform, will
enable Qatari health professionals to elevate
safety, quality and e"ciency. The system will
provide evidence based best practices and
improve the clinical care processes. In addition,
Cerner will provide the foundation for medical
research initiatives related to population health
management, including non-communicable
diseases and other chronic health conditions.
Cerner will also work with HMC to lay the
foundation for a national health framework
which will allow for a personal health record
for every citizen in Qatar. Using Cerner
solutions, HMC will help individuals better
connect with their care team and engage in
their health. Individuals will be able to schedule
appointments, send messages to their doctor
and create a personal health record to better
manage their health. Moreover, HMC will have
the ability to capture and research health
data across medical encounters and medical
facilities providing vast repositories for ongoing
research and disease management for the
Supreme Council of Health.
“Access to the latest evidence based
clinical information will ensure best clinical
guidelines and healthcare practices and
hence best care for patients. With the Clinical
Information System to be implemented
soon, this technology will be at the clinician’s
fingertips for health sta! within Hamad
Medical Corporation hospitals and primary
healthcare centres, allowing them to make
informed decisions about their patients,” said
Dr Abdulwahab Al Musleh, deputy chief of
medical, academic and research a!airs for
Clinical Information Systems at HMC.
Abdulla Al Emadi, HMC Executive director
of Health Information Systems, added: “The
creation of this partnership with Cerner is a
key stepping stone in our e!orts to achieve
excellence through the implementation of
technology.”
“Strong regional partnerships and
supporting government initiatives to develop
the health care industry are key pillars of
Cerner’s growth strategies in the region.” said
Greg White, VP and MD, Cerner Middle East
and Africa.
Cerner’s electronic health record will
be the foundation of the health technology
implementation. Over a period of five years,
HMC Hospitals and primary health care
centres will integrate approximately 100
Cerner solutions and 11 third party solutions,
encompassing clinical, technical, operations
and administrative areas, to support HMC
in achieving clinical and service excellence.
Cerner solutions are licensed by approximately
9,000 facilities around the world.
Qanawat, a mobile value added
service provider, has strengthened its
regional presence by opening its first
o"ce in Saudi Arabia.
The new Riyadh base joins
existing o"ces in Dubai and Cairo
and will further improve customer
relations in Saudi Arabia, helping
to acquire localised content and
broaden Qanawat’s service portfolio
through providing dedicated local
resources. Saudi Arabia is a priority
market for Qanawat due to its large
population and high average revenue
per user performance. The company
plans to open additional o"ces in
Jordan, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia
next year.
Adnan Omar Al Obthani, CEO
at Qanawat, said: “As the mobile
VAS services space matures, I see
Qanawat playing a more significant
role in harnessing the attractive
opportunities available across
emerging markets in the MENA
and Asian region.” A pioneer of the
mobile VAS concept in the region,
Qanawat now provides services to
40 mobile operators in 21 countries
across MENA and Asia. Qanawat’s
service portfolio today includes not
just mobile content and VAS services
but also mobile advertising, smart-
phone applications and mobile
portals.
The Middle East is a key region
contributing to the growth in the
global mobile value added service
market, which is estimated to expand
from revenues of $200 billion in
2009 to $340 billion in revenues by
2014, according to Informa Telecoms
and Media.
Qanawat’s top-selling content
catalogue now accounts for up 70%
the GCC market in Arabic and Islamic
digital content sales.
Hanan al Kuwari PhD, Managing Director of Hamad Medical Corporation and Greg White, Vice President and Managing Director of Cerner Middle East and Africa along with officials at the signing of the agreement
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 13
infrastructure with anti-malware
protection. It secures the complete IT
network including workstation, laptop, file
server, mail server, Internet gateway or
smartphone. eToken Pass is a compact and
portable one time password authentication
device that allows organisations to
conveniently and effectively establish
OTP based secure access to network
resources, SaaS cloud applications and
online services. SafeWord 2008 is an
out of the box, one time password, two
factor authentication solution that enables
secure remote access to sensitive and
confidential resources.
Mobasseri said, “We have created
unique bundle to offer total security
solution for all the corporate in the region
by combining Kaspersky and SafeNet
together. We are sure that this offer will
excite our channel partners and open
new avenues for them to target corporate
customers.” Comguard is a value added
distributor in the IT security space and
has a reach across the Middle East and
North Africa region. The company was
established in 2002.
Comguard recently held a special
training programme in UAE and Oman
for its channel partners on GFI Software
products. ComGuard conducted these
training programmes in association with
GFI Software designed specifically to help
channel partners capitalise on the fast-
growing email archiving and web monitor
market in the region. Experts from both
ComGuard and GFI Software provided an
overview and technical training on GFI
Software solutions.
Brian Azzopardi, product manager
of GFI Software who conducts training
workshops and programmes for GFI across
the globe presided over the training
programmes and provided in-depth
knowledge about WebMonitor and GFI
MailArchiver. He also highlighted a key
new feature called MailInsights, a business
intelligence (BI) functionality embedded
in MailArchiver, which extracts intelligent
information from the emails to enhance the
productivity.
With the overwhelming response
received from its channel partners
ComGuard plans to conduct similar training
programmes for its channel partners
in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia
and Lebanon in the Middle East region.
John Spoor, channel manager for Middle
East and Africa, GFI Software, said, “The
purpose of such training workshops
is to update the skills sets of channel
partners and provide them with necessary
knowledge that equips them to maximise
the potential of GFI software solutions in
the growing marketplace”.
At the end of the training programmes,
ComGuard offered its successful channel
partners free of cost training certification
from GFI Software. Mohammad Mobasseri,
senior VP, ComGuard, said, “We believe
information is key to success, hence we
decided to roll out this unique programme
to train and educate our partners on GFI
WebMonitor and GFI MailArchiver.”
ComGuard has also launched an
exclusive promotional offer by bundling
key security products from Kaspersky
and Safenet for corporate users. It is the
only distributor in the region to offer an
exclusive bundle deal on Kaspersky and
SafeNet together. Any reseller buying
300 licenses of Kaspersky Open Space
Security suite will get five SafeNet eToken
Pass along with SafeNet Safe Word 2008
Migration Pack for free. Channel partner
will also get 80% discount on SafeNet
package of eToken and Safe Word 2008,
if they purchase less than 300 licenses of
Kaspersky Open Space Security suite.
ComGuard also offers benefit of 80%
discount on SafeNet package of eToken
and Safe Word 2008 to its channel
partners who have already brought
licenses of Kaspersky Open Space Security
suite in past 6 months. The bundle offer
from ComGuard is valid till 31st March 2012
and channel partners from Qatar, Kuwait,
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon can
benefit from this offer.
Kaspersky Open Space Security
suite provides security to corporate
ComGuard trains partners in UAE, Oman, offers exclusive promotion
John Spoor, channel Manager for Middle East and Africa, GFI Software
Mohammad Mobasseri, senior VP, ComGuard
IN THE BEGINNINGTie ups
14 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
Our standard product line ranges from 12” to 55” and is available in the most popular and proven technologiesin today’s markets. And if you have special requirements, our “custom solutions” team is at your command.
IN THE BEGINNINGTie ups
Pan Emirates, a retail brand has partnered
with Barloworld Logistics to o!er greater
value to its customers across the GCC
through the optimisation of their inbound
and outbound distribution. Abdul Rehman
Al Shamsi, chairman of Pan Emirates and
Steve Ford, Group CEO of Barloworld
Logistics, signed and exchanged
agreements to this e!ect.
Mohammed Katawala, group finance
director of Pan Emirates said, “We are in the
process of an aggressive growth strategy in
the GCC and recognised the need to align
our supply chain strategy to our business
strategy. Supply chain costs form a big part
of the final product cost, and if not managed
properly, could prevent us from achieving
our goals and ultimately put the business at
Pan Emirates partners with Barloworld for supply chain management
risk. We wanted to have an expert look at
our supply chain holistically to optimise it and
align it to our business needs”.
Frank Courtney, CEO of Barloworld
Logistics’ Middle East and Asia said, “Long-
term partnerships with blue chip clients not
only highlight our capabilities but also our
commitment to delivering smart supply chain
solutions that work well into the future. The
first six months of our engagement with Pan
Emirates will be used to map, design and
implement the solution; the second six months
will be for the deployment and entrenchment
of best practices in the business.”
Over 70% of potential savings and
service enhancements in a supply chain
come from the re-engineering and integration
of logistics processes. Only small savings can
be extracted by pushing suppliers harder.
Barloworld Logistics is based in South Africa’s
and creates strategic advantage for their
clients by optimising and integrating client’s
logistics processes and information flows.
Kaspersky Lab joins Samsung Enterprise Alliance programme
Kaspersky Lab,
announced it
has become a
Golden Member
of the Samsung
Enterprise
Alliance
Programme.
The new global
partnership
is ushering in
much closer
cooperation
between the companies and inclusion of
Kaspersky Lab’s products on a wide range
of Samsung devices. Commenting on the
new partnership, Garry Kondakov, chief sales
and marketing o"cer of Kaspersky Lab, said,
“We are very glad to begin the new global
partnership with Samsung Electronics and
to take our cooperation to a whole new
level. Our membership in the Samsung
Enterprise Alliance Programme will help us
further develop our mobile solutions based
on Samsung’s vast experience, and also
expand the distribution of our solutions
through Samsung Electronics’ global
network, improving our market positions on
a global scale.”
The Samsung Enterprise Alliance
Programme is a comprehensive partner
programme designed to provide
di!erentiated benefits for sales, marketing
and solutions’ development to enable
leading domestic and global independent
software vendor and systems integrator
partners to create new profit models
through Samsung Electronics’ mobile
solution business.
As part of the Golden Partnership
package Kaspersky Lab is to supply
Kaspersky Mobile Security and Kaspersky
Tablet Security to Samsung to protect
both private and corporate Android-based
Samsung mobile devices. These solutions
ensure the highest class of security based
on advanced protection against privacy
violation, device loss or theft, annoying calls
and messages, as well as malicious software.
Under another part of the programme,
Kaspersky Lab is to provide consumer
security software to protect Samsung
PCs, notebooks and netbooks running
on Windows OS. For corporate products
Kaspersky Lab is to supply Kaspersky
Endpoint Security, di!erent business models,
and a flexible approach to achieve the best
security for each corporate customer.
Garry Kondakov, chief sales and marketing officer of Kaspersky Lab
16 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
IN THE BEGINNINGTie ups
Spectrami announced it has signed a
distribution agreement with Microdasys
to distribute a wide range of enterprise
security solutions in the Middle East
region. As prganisations continue to
worry about new and unknown threats the
adoption of Web 2.0 makes it even more
complicated to manage security posture
with the traditional security tool sets. In the
face of new threats, new technologies are
needed to manage attacks from unknown
and Microdasys completes the picture in
terms of protection from the new trend of
attacks.
“We are extremely delighted to bring
Microdasys’ portfolio to Middle East and
are confident that the pioneers in SSL and
XML protection worldwide would be able
to protect the local infrastructure here.”
said, Anand Choudha, MD, Spectrami.
The ongoing adoption of cloud
computing and Web 2.0 technologies in
enterprises and government agencies
is adding to the security challenges
that security administrators are facing.
SSL encryption, XML, SOAP, RSS feeds
and Web Services will continue to
grow exponentially while traditional
content scanners and firewalls are
incapable of inspecting these protocols
and applications. Microdasys products
enable the adoption and safe use of SSL
encryption and XML/SOAP applications in
the enterprise network.
“We are very excited to add Spectrami
to our family of partners,” said Oliver
Ott, GM of Microdays EMEA. “As the
pioneers of SSL content scanning we
enjoy continued high demand for our SCIP
SSL content proxy and with the recent
release of our XSG XML Security Gateway
we needed a highly qualified distribution
partner to assist and support our channel
partners and end users in the Middle East.
Spectrami has a proven track record of
successfully bringing new technologies to
these regions, and we’re looking forward
to a very successful partnership for the
benefit of our customers.” Spectrami is
authorised to distribute secure content
inspection solutions from Microdays across
the Middle East region including Qatar,
Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman among others.
Spectrami has signed up with Tenable
Network Security for the Middle East
region to provide enterprise grade security
solutions. Tenable’s technology helps
continuously safeguard enterprises from
targeted attacks, internal misuse and
compliance violations. The company’s
Unified Security Monitoring platform is the
only solution that can provide continuous
assessment and monitoring of vulnerability,
patch configuration, log, event, network
and threat intelligence across virtual,
cloud and mobile assets. Choudha said,
“With the number of threats and risks
growing at a great pace in the Middle East
region, we believe that the award-winning
solutions from Tenable will offer a high
level of protection by reporting real-time
vulnerabilities to enterprises.”
Spectrami will represent a range of
Tenable Network Security’s products
including SecurityCentre, the heart of
its Unified Security Monitoring platform,
making it faster and easier for enterprises
to visualise, understand and communicate
Spectrami to distribute security solutions from Microdasys, Tenable Network Security, Fastpasscorp
Anand Choudha, managing director, Spectrami
the security and compliance status of
their networks. Wayne Hollinshead,
international channel manager, Tenable
Network Security said, “We are happy to
partner with Spectrami, with its focused
approach and wide channel network. We
are confident that Spectrami will provide
us an excellent opportunity to expand our
reach in the Middle East region.”
Tenable provides enterprise grade
agentless solutions for the continuous
monitoring of vulnerabilities, configuration
weaknesses, data leakage, log
management and compromise detection to
help ensure FDCC, FISMA, SANS CAG and
PCI compliance.
Spectrami has also been appointed
as value added distributor for self-
service password management solutions
provider Fastpasscorp, to distribute its
products across the Middle East region.
Fastpass provides enterprise password
management for small to large enterprises
as well as for managed service providers
and has the ability to securely manage
passwords and resolve account lockout
incidents in a self-service fashion without
involvement of helpdesk personnel. It
also helps in meeting requirements for
regulatory compliance and address identity
management challenges.
Choudha said, “We are excited to
partner with Fastpass to offer a cost
effective and easy to deploy solution that
will not just help meet the security and
compliance requirements of the companies
but also streamline administrative tasks
of service desk, thereby reducing IT costs
and helping them to meet their business
objectives”. With hacking and cyber
crimes gaining in the real world, Fastpass
enterprise password management
provides a solution for companies in the
region to safeguard their organisation’s
and secure their information without any
human interference.
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 17
IN THE BEGINNINGTie ups
A10 Networks,
an application
networking vendor,
has named Scope
Middle East as
its authorised
support provider
for the region. This
development further
strengthens the
relationship between
the two companies
who had signed a distributor agreement in
September 2011. As per this arrangement,
Scope ME will provide support contracts
and professional services to A10 Networks
customer base in the Middle East. These
support contracts can be customised to suit
the requirements of each individual customer.
Mark Edge, sales director, EMEA, A10
Networks indicated the importance of the
agreement and its strategic implications
in consolidating the company’s position in
the application delivery controller market in
the Middle East valued at over $20 million
annually. “We entered the region with the
intention of rapid market capitalisation.
Signing Scope Middle East on as a distributer
in 2011 was the first step towards this goal.
Di!erentiating ourselves by providing
superior and dedicated customer support was
the next logical phase.”
Scope Middle East already handles
hundreds of support contracts with customers
Scope Middle East to provide support for A10 Networks
Mark Edge, sales director EMEA, A10 Networks
Avnet sets up Oracle Exadata and Exalogic concept centres
Avnet Technology
Solutions, a global
IT distribution
player, has entered
into a strategic
alliance with
Oracle to o!er a
proof of concept
demonstration
facility in Dubai,
for Oracle’s
engineered
systems including the Exadata Database
Machine and Exalogic Elastic Cloud. The
facility will help Avnet’s business partners
in the Middle East and North Africa region
address the business challenges of their
end-user customers.
The demonstration centre is the first
of its kind in the MENA region. The facility
works as a point of reference for companies
that would like to understand the potential
of Oracle Exadata and Exalogic technology.
It will enable companies to experience the
use of Oracle technologies by creating
proof of concept designs and performance
benchmarks based on the Oracle Exadata
Database Machine and Oracle Exalogic
Elastic Cloud virtual private cloud solution
to transform business requirements into a
proven IT solution within an optimised and
risk-mitigated environment.
Hani Barakat, senior director Oracle
business MENA, Avnet Technology
Solutions, said, “Avnet is dedicated to
accelerating the success of our business
partners and suppliers by investing
in long-term, profitable and shared
growth opportunities. This new facility
demonstrates our commitment to providing
Oracle business partners with the tools
and resources they need to increase sales
opportunities and provide additional value
to their end customers. It also reflects
the strength of our relationship and the
confidence Oracle has in Avnet to drive
in the region from various segments of
industry such as telecom, government,
education, internet service providers
and others. The certified engineers, who
have extensive networking and security
experience, are capable of providing 24/7
support via telephone, web and email in
multiple languages including English, Arabic,
Hindi and Urdu. In addition, customers can
opt for a dedicated support engineer.
“We are extremely excited to build upon
what has already proved to be a mutually
beneficial relationship. Our contact centre
engineers have been trained and certified
by A10 Networks and we are all geared up
to provide world-class support,” said Fadi
AbuEkab, CEO of Scope Middle East.
Scope Middle East is a regional specialty
distributor of advanced information technology
solutions in the Middle East and North Africa. It
has particular expertise in advanced network
technology and security solutions.
market expansion for Exadata and
Exalogic platforms in the MENA region.”
Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban,
VP, Oracle Middle East and Africa,
commented, “We have chosen Avnet as
a strategic partner for our engineered
systems Exadata and Exalogic, due to
their excellent capabilities, execution
and expertise.” The technology and
demonstration centre is fully equipped
with a team that has the skills, experience
and expertise to service the requirements
of partners and end-users on Oracle
Exadata Database Machine and Oracle
Exalogic Elastic Cloud platforms.
Oracle Exadata Database Machine
is a complete solution including server,
storage, networking and software that is
scalable, secure and redundant.
Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud is an
integrated hardware and software system
which has been designed, tested and
optimised by Oracle in order to run Java
and non-Java applications. The machine
o!ers a complete cloud application
infrastructure, consolidating the broadest
possible range of application types and
Java and non-Java workloads.
Hani Barakat, senior director Oracle business MENA, Avnet Technology Solutions
18 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
IN THE BEGINNINGTie ups
ESET signs distributor agreement with Bulwark
SAS, Expedia partnership drives customer satisfaction in tourism industrySAS Middle East revealed its strategic
global partnership with Expedia, an online
travel agency, has helped drive new ways to
increase customer satisfaction and reinforce
customer loyalty across the globe including
the Middle East regions thriving travel
and tourism market. With the use of SAS
Analytics, Expedia was able to transform
huge volumes of data into useful insights
for decision making, thereby e!ectively
optimising online customer experiences and
increasing customer lifetime value to fuel
the company’s growth.
Over the last year, the partnership has
given Expedia the advantage of utilising
SAS Analytics as a strategic tool to relate
key processes that range from customer
lifeline value to acquisition cost decisions.
The SAS Analytics team used a special
clustering technique to help learn more
about customer behaviour and preferences.
Based on their findings, the analytics team
was able to build predictive models that
revealed the factors that most influence
transactions. Customer lifetime value
insights help Expedia determine what o!ers
and promotions encourage repeat business.
“In the direct response business, we
track and measure everything so we need
powerful analytical products that can handle
big data,” said Joe Megibow, VP and GM,
Expedia US. “We use SAS for our analytical
heavy lifting. With nearly 200 terabytes of
customer and clickstream data in our data
warehouse, we count on SAS predictive
analytics and data mining to analyse
extremely large data volumes. Analytical
insights about customer needs and
preferences help us deliver the value and
convenience that earns their loyalty.”
To establish its culture of analytics,
Expedia hires creative thinkers who not
only understand data and analytics, but
also its business and customer needs. The
depth and breadth of SAS Analytics inspires
innovative problem solving. “Expedia has
capitalised on SAS experience solving
di!erent problems in multiple industries.
ESET Middle
East announced
it has teamed
up with Bulwark
Technologies,
a value added
distributor of IT
security solutions
in the Middle
East in a move
to meet the
growing demand
for its security
solution by small and medium businesses and
corporate. Under the terms of the agreement,
Bulwark will market, sell and support ESET’s
award-winning and technologically advanced
anti-virus software ESET NOD32 Antivirus
and ESET Smart Security solutions through its
reseller network across the countries of UAE,
Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Yemen.
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 utilises multiple
layers of detection and cloud technology
to block all potential threats. It has a
small footprint needing minimal resource
utilisation, taking up limited space on the
user’s computer and allowing for faster
performance. It is user-friendly and also
manages upgrades on its own.
Aji Joseph, GM, ESET Middle East
commented “We are excited about this
partnership with Bulwark for it allows us to
penetrate further into markets in the region
and reach out to a new breadth of customers.
We chose Bulwark as it is well-positioned
to serve the needs of end-users through its
extensive reseller network and decade long
expertise as value added distributor of IT
The domain
expertise of
SAS is an
incredible asset
that helps us
creatively apply
technologies
to seize
opportunities
and solve
problems,” said
Megibow.
“With SAS
predictive analytics, Expedia discovers
important new ways to increase
customer satisfaction. Expedia clearly
understands how each marketing
channel influences conversions on the
site, allowing it to optimise marketing
investments by channel. The value of
analytics became crystal clear as annual
gross bookings and revenue increased,”
concludes Tapan Patel, global product
marketing manager, SAS.
security products”.
“It is essential for Government entities
and enterprises to have the most optimal
anti-virus solution to protect their networks
without any compromise to data security. By
signing up with ESET, we are happy that we
can provide the end-users with access to
comprehensive and state of the art security
solution to counter potential virus threats”
said Thomas. “We look forward to a fruitful
relationship with ESET, bringing the best of
benefits to our reseller community and the
clients”.
Bulwark commenced its operation in
United Arab Emirates in the year 1999.
Bulwark works through channel partners in
the Middle East region with special focus on
the GCC countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE.
Tapan Patel, global product marketing manager, SAS
Aji Joseph, GM, ESET Middle East
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 19
IN THE BEGINNINGTie ups
Seagate appoints new distributors in EMEASeagate Technology, a global hard disk
drive and storage vendor, has appointed
four new authorised distributors for its
range of products in EMEA. These include
Gandalf Data AB in Sweden; MCR Info
Electronic, SL in Spain; ECS Distribution
in Egypt and Germany; and the pan-
European distributor Siewert and Kau
Computertechnik Gmbh. All four have
been distributors for the hard disk drive
business of Samsung Electronics, which
was acquired by Seagate last year.
The four new distributors will distribute
Seagate’s internal hard drives as well as
the company’s external solutions for the
retail market on a non exclusive basis
in the EMEA region. In the retail market,
Seagate’s o!ering includes the GoFlex and
Expansion external hard drives and the
company’s BlackArmor network attached
storage solutions for SMEs. Seagate’s
portfolio of internal hard drives includes
the Barracuda family of desktop drives, the
Momentus family for notebook applications
and, for enterprise, Cheetah, Constellation,
Savvio and solid state Pulsar drives.
“These new partnerships will broaden
the availability of Seagate’s products in key
EMEA markets and will enable customers
in these markets to have convenient
access to our industry-leading storage
solutions,” said Mark Whitby, Seagate’s
VP for EMEA Sales and Marketing. “This
is an exciting time in the storage industry
with rapidly evolving opportunities in many
markets including mobile computing,
cloud computing and solid state storage.
With their understanding of local market
characteristics and requirements, these
four new distributors are well placed to
take advantage of these opportunities
to grow their business and Seagate’s
business in the region.”
In an initiative to promote e-learning in the
Middle East, a delegation from Hamdan
Bin Mohammed e-University visited the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to discuss
ways of jointly cultivating collaboration
among major educational institutions. Dr.
Mansoor Al Awar, chancellor of HBMeU,
led the delegation that included Professor
Nabil Baydoun, Learners and Enterprise
Development, assistant chancellor Dr
Raed Awdeh, Knowledge and Technology
Development, director, and Nadia Amanallah
Kamali, marketing and communication
director.
The delegation visited the University of
Jordan, one of the most prestigious and oldest
universities in Jordan that was founded 50
years ago, and met Dr Adel Tweisi the president
of the university. They shared the history and
achievements of the university over the past
half century, particularly in the development
of research, scientific and cultural projects.
They also discussed the e!orts of Hamdan
Bin Mohammed e-University in organising
conferences, and hosting experts in the
field of scientific research in the Middle East
and across the world to spread knowledge,
share innovations, scientific researches and
new ideas. The delegation also visited the
Hashemite University and met Dr Abdul-Karim
Bani Hani, acting university president.
The delegation visited the Ministry of
Higher Education and Scientific Research and
met with HE Dr Mustafa Al Adwan, secretary
general of the Ministry of Higher Education and
Scientific Research in Jordan. The delegation
also met Dr Mashoor Al-Rifai, VP for Academic
A!airs at Princess Sumaya University for
Technology, which is one of the most prominent
universities in Jordan that is committed to
develop information and communication
technology, electronics, and business in a
scientific and practical way. The meeting
highlighted the UAE’s achievements in the field
of technology and HBMeU’s role in the spread
of the e-learning culture in the region.
Dr Al Awar highlighted the strategic
importance of the visit as a unique and
important step for the UAE, in particular for
HBMeU, to spread the culture of e-learning
and make a di!erence in the Arab world. He
said, “This visit marks the beginning of e!ective
partnerships and constructive cooperation with
the most prestigious educational institutions in
Jordan.”
The delegation concluded its visit to Jordan
by signing an MoU with the Jordanian Canadian
College. The agreement was signed in the
presence of Mohammed Al-Hadid, director
general of Jordanian Canadian College and a
number of o"cials and academicians, in a bid to
strengthen cooperation in the field of academic
education and the dissemination of e-culture.
HBMeU is the first virtual university in the Arab
World that was established with the vision
to develop a new learning process through
the implementation of teaching practices
characterised by flexibility, quality and diversity
to strengthen self-leadership among students
and prepare them socially and academically
for a career through integration into the
requirements of the job market.
Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University visits Jordan to initiate interaction and collaboration
20 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
Informatica Qatar has added Family
Food Centre’s MicroWorld store and Dubai
Technology to its growing list of local retailers
of Huawei mobile devices. Qatar based
MicroWorld store deals with all kinds of
telecom and IT products including accessories
and software. MicroWorld has three outlets
in Doha. Dubai Technology, is a well known
mobile retail shop that conducts its business
through several outlets in Qatar. Under the
terms of their partnership with Informatica
Qatar, both establishments will distribute
mobile phones manufactured by Huawei.
“MicroWorld and Dubai Technology are
important to bringing Huawei’s world-class
products to Qatar’s mass market. So far
we have been building up a distinguished
network of local partners who have the
capability, reputation and market reach to
distribute Huawei products, and these two
establishments reflect the success of our
e!orts so far. We are eyeing more strategic
alliances to capitalise on Qatar’s thriving
mobile market and position Huawei as one of
its most trusted brands,” said Wisam Costandi,
GM, Informatica Qatar.
Informatica Qatar has also signed
agreements with Saudia Hyper and the
Al Anees Group, to distribute devices for
Huawei. Saudia Hyper is a hypermarket
IQ partners with MicroWorld, Dubai Technology, Saudia Hyper, Al Anees Group for Huawei
subsidiary of NKM Group, the operator
of Qatar’s chain of hypermarkets, Qatar
shopping complex Markiya and Qatar
Big Mart Muaither. Al Anees is a leading
wholesaler and retailer of mobile phones
and accessories. Their combined 13 outlets
in New Rayyan, Al Markhiya, Muaither, Souq
Najada, Musherib, Mansora, Najma and
Industrial Area will significantly broaden the
market for Huawei products in Doha.
“Our agreement with Saudia Hyper and
Al Anees will enable us to reach more key
areas in the vicinity of Doha while associating
our o!erings with some of Qatar’s respected
names in wholesale and retail,” said Ramy
Numair, commercial director, Informatica
Qatar. The company had initially signed up
Safari Group and Sky Net Group.
Huawei recently chose Informatica Qatar
to distribute and provide after-sales service
for the Huawei IDEOS, IDEOS X5 and its
future Qatari launches. The Android OS 2.2
powered IDEOS is ideal for heavy users of
multimedia, social networking sites, instant
messaging and email, while the higher-end
Huawei X5 runs on Android OS 2.2 with 3D
user interface capability and is intended
for professionals and tech enthusiasts.
Informatica Qatar is am end to end ICT, extra
low voltage and telecom solutions provider.
IN THE BEGINNINGTie ups
22 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
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FVC, a recently appointed authorised
distributor for Alcatel-Lucent Enterprises
in Saudi Arabia, hosted its first partner
meeting to introduce the complete range
of Alcatel Lucent solutions to its network
of system integrators in the Kingdom. The
event was attended by around 50 partners.
The partner meeting covered
market trends, solutions portfolio, selling
techniques and data for SMEs. The
session also demonstrated, VoIP and latest
applications, MY IC Mobile 1.0 for iPhone
and iPad. The launch event concluded
with a sales test that contributed to the
partner’s accreditation level. Alcatel Lucent
issued certificates of attendance to the
participants.
The extended distribution agreement
between Alcatel Lucent and FVC provides
increased levels of service to Alcatel Lucent
customers through FVC’s wide network of
partners in the country. The launch seminar
provided information on products and
solutions, technical resources and access
to first level of technical support through a
dedicated Alcatel Lucent team at FVC.
IN THE BEGINNINGTie ups
Acer launches Allegro Windows smartphone
Acer has released its Windows
smartphone called Allegro. With its user
interface powered by Windows Phone,
complete with Live Tiles! the Allegro
puts people up front, making it easier to
connect and share with friends, family
and colleagues. With the most recent
version of Windows Phone, code-
named Mango. Acer says, Live Tiles are
more interactive, enabling users to get
real-time information without having to
open them, by pinning them to the start
screen.
The Acer Allegro is now available
in the UAE at select Sharaf DG Stores.
The Allegro comes in Midnight Blue and
Pearl White. “The Acer Allegro, which
runs on Microsoft Windows Phone 7.5
OS is a unique proposition for on-the-
go and connected customer. The easy
to use Windows interface gives the
user a mobile device that facilitates
instant connectivity and navigation on
the web,” commented Gustavo Fuchs,
director, Mobility, Middle East and Africa,
Microsoft.
“The Windows based Allegro
smartphone is loaded with features
that are designed to empower the end
users,” said Sanjay Kachroo business
head, Smart Hand Held Business Group,
Acer Computer.
Thinspace and Mantech Computers
announced an exclusive partnership to
accelerate deployment of cloud computing
technology to enterprise customers in the
Kingdom of Bahrain. The partnership also
targets the whole of the GCC region.
Founded in 1979, Mantech Computers is
the longest established computing company
in Bahrain, and provides hardware, software
and security solutions.
Hassan Bader Kaiksow, MD of Mantech
said, “We have been dedicated to providing
our customers with IT services and
solutions since 1979. The partnership with
Thinspace enables us to further embrace
the next generation computing model, and
assist in taking Bahrain’s cloud computing
to the next level.”
Thinspace will leverage Mantech’s
leadership position in Bahrain to target
industries and large enterprise customers,
including financial, healthcare, education
and government sectors. Lisa Layzell, CEO of
Thinspace said, “Mantech has a long standing
reputation and the right infrastructure to
e!ectively deliver the unique benefits of our
cloud client solutions to all major industry
sectors in Bahrain, as well as a wide range of
partners in the GCC region.”
This strategic partnership was brought
together by consultancy firm Curved Theory,
with high level support from the Bahrain
Economic Development Board and the
Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus.
The initial relationship was developed during
a UK roadshow led by the EDB in October
2011, which focused on direct outreach
activities across a number of key sectors
including IT and technology. Paul Abley, MD
of Curved Theory commented, “ManTech are
ideally placed to maximise the benefits that
the Thinspace product suite o!ers and will
be able to represent Thinspace in a new and
exciting market.”
Thinspace is a specialist provider of
cloud client technology and its customers
include Prudential Property, 20:20 Mobile
amongst others.
Mantech to deliver Thinspace cloud solutions in GCC
FVC hosts Alcatel Lucent Enterprise partner event in KSA
24 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
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Westcon,
announced
the company
has signed a
value added
distribution
agreement with
Arbor Networks,
a vendor
of security
and network
management
solutions for
next-generation
data centres
and carrier networks. In November 2011,
the companies announced Westcon would
distribute Arbor’s Pravail Availability
Protection System for enterprise data
centre availability and the Peakflow SP
platform for service provider networks in
Latin America.
“Arbor Networks is a leader for
DDoS attack identification and mitigation
solutions worldwide. By adding their
enterprise data centre and service
provider solutions to our portfolio in the
Middle East, Westcon is now able to offer
our value added resellers and partners
proven solutions that address an acute
problem for network operators on the
ever changing threats to the availability of
networks and services,” said Steve Lockie,
MD of Westcon.
“Westcon has been a tremendous
partner for Arbor Networks and we
are looking forward to extending and
strengthening that relationship. Arbor has
a full suite of solutions for data centre
operators and network service providers.
Steve Lockie, MD of Westcon.
Westcon extends agreement with Arbor Networks
Sonicwall includes Kaspersky in firewall client
Sonicwall, a global vendor of intelligent
network security and data protection
solutions, announced it has expanded
its suite of firewall security services with
the addition of Kaspersky Anti-Virus to
its Enforced Client Anti-Virus and Anti-
Spyware solution. Sonicwall firewalls
ensure easy deployment, provisioning
and enforcement of the client on endpoint
devices through a policy-driven engine.
Sonicwall integrated Kaspersky
technology into its enforced client solution
which resides on endpoint computers,
delivering critical protection against
viruses, spyware, Trojans, worms, rootkits
and more. “Deploying, maintaining and
enforcing the right security software on
endpoint devices within a network can be
di"cult,” said Swarup Selvaraman, product
line manager at Sonicwall.
Sonicwall Next-Generation and Unified
Threat Management firewalls provide
gateway anti-virus through Sonicwall’s
proprietary reassembly free deep packet
inspection (DPI) anti malware solution,
protecting the perimeter, wireless and
VPNs. But viruses can still enter the
network through other entry points,
including laptops, thumb drives or other
unprotected systems. While protection at
multiple layers is the best defence against
modern threats, deploying, maintaining
and enforcing the security software on
endpoint devices can strain IT resources
and budgets.
Sonicwall firewalls provide a multi-
layered anti-malware strategy consisting
of its anti-malware solution at the
gateway and enforced anti-virus solution
at the endpoints. When a non-compliant
end-point within the network tries to
connect to the Internet, the firewall will
redirect the user to a web page to install
the latest Sonicwall Enforced Client Anti-
Virus and Anti-Spyware software. The
firewall further ensures that all the end-
point clients are automatically updated
with the latest anti-virus and anti-
spyware signatures without end-user
intervention. The updated clients can
remediate infections by cleansing the
endpoint systems and thus preventing
further propagation of the threat
throughout the network.
Westcon has the reach and relationships
we need to make sure that decision
makers across the Middle East understand
the DDoS problem and how to defend
against it with Arbor solutions,” said
Jeremy Nicholls, Arbor Networks channel
director for EMEA.
Pravail APS is an on-premise device
that protects the enterprise data centre
edge from threats to availability —
specifically, application-layer distributed
denial of service attacks. Pravail APS
delivers carrier-class DDoS attack
identification and mitigation capabilities
that can be rapidly deployed with little
configuration, even during an attack.
The vast majority of service providers
rely on Arbor’s Peakflow SP platform to
proactively fend off malicious threats such
as botnets and volumetric and application-
layer DDoS attacks, while strengthening
the availability and quality of their services.
The Arbor Peakflow SP platform includes
two main components, Peakflow SP and
the Threat Management System.
IN THE BEGINNINGTie ups
26 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
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Bulwark, recently organised a partner
meet in Qatar, along with leading IT
security vendors Cyberoam and ESET.
The event attended by Bulwark’s reseller
partners in Qatar provided them with
a platform to interact with Cyberoam
and ESET to discuss the roadmap and
strategies for the future. Senior executives
of Cyberoam and ESET delivered
presentations to provide insight into the
portfolio of solutions they offer to address
the security market in the region.
Speaking on the occasion, Surender
Kumar Bishnoi, GM, Cyberoam Middle East,
commented, “The channel meet is a great
opportunity for us to know more about the
reseller community and to directly address
their concerns. Qatar is a significant
market for Cyberoam in the Middle East
and we look forward to engage ourselves
with more of these initiatives in future to
build stronger bonding with the channel”.
Jose Thomas, MD of Bulwark said “Our
partners are our biggest asset and this
interaction enables us to more effectively
communicate our commitment to them and
to thank them for their continuous support
to our growth. The event highlights
the efforts we are making to achieve a
stronger reseller network in Qatar.”
IN THE BEGINNINGTie ups
Cyber Gear partners with VoiceMpower for telephony solutions across MENA
Cyber Gear is an
Internet solution
provider in the
UAE since 1996,
developing Web
solutions for
government,
educational and
multinational
organisations
in the region.
VoiceMpower
specialises
in providing
end to end computer telephony and
CRM solutions with various options of
on-premise or on-cloud and Saas based
business models.
According to Sharad Agarwal, CEO
of Cyber Gear, “The strategic partnership
with VoiceMpower o!ers a range of
complementary solutions in the fields of
computer telephony, CRM and contact
centre solutions, to enhance the company’s
propositions in the MENA region.” Sastry
Oleti, business development director,
VoiceMpower said, “We propose to
leverage our computer telephony and CRM
solutions to Cyber Gear’s clients portfolio in
the government and private sector.”
Other than the above VoiceMpower’s
services include Dialogic, Sangoma voice
and fax boards; IVR, speech solutions and
various dialler solutions; fax server and
unified communications; call recording, call
billing and voicemail solutions; and SMS
solutions and digital dictation solutions.
Some of the Cyber Gear is prominent
clients include Grand Hyatt, GEMS,
Dubai Bank, Abu Dhabi National Hotels,
Burger King, Burjeel Hospital, Mubadala
Healthcare, Mega Mall, Farnek Avireal.
Exinda, a global vendor of next generation
WAN optimisation solutions, announced
it has strengthened its presence in the
Middle East by appointing Computerlinks
as its exclusive distribution partner across
the region. The deal enables Exinda to
satisfy growing market demand for its
technology and reinforces its commitment
to the region as a growth market.
Computerlinks will help Exinda increase
its channel footprint and add momentum
to Exinda’s sales, service and support
capabilities.
“As a business Exinda continues
to grow ahead of the market and that
particularly applies to the Middle East
where we are seeing pent up demand
for our solution and a significant growth
opportunity”, explained Adam Davison,
VP sales EMEA at Exinda. “We needed
a strategic partner to help us capitalise
on this opportunity, a distributor with a
proven track record in taking innovative
and disruptive technologies to market,
building channel
momentum and
providing value
added services.”
Commenting
on the
agreement Lee
Reynolds, MD,
Computerlinks,
Middle East and
Asia said, “It
is increasingly
rare these
days to find
a technology
that lives up to its next generation billing
and truly disrupts the market. Exinda’s
integrated approach encompassing
visibility, QoS and acceleration within
a single platform sets it apart from the
legacy WAN optimisation providers and
represents a great opportunity for our
channel partners to be able to differentiate
themselves in the market.”
Exinda in exclusive distribution agreement with Computerlinks for ME
Sharad Agarwal, CEO of Cyber Gear
Lee Reynolds, MD, Computerlinks, Middle East and Asia
Bulwark organises Qatar partner meet with Cyberoam, ESET
28 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
COVER FEATURECloud
Step upThe latest technology taking the region by storm, cloud computing has the potential to add to the revenues and bottomline of partners. However, to achieve its potential partners would have to build their expertise around the base solution that is provided by vendors.
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 31
COVER FEATURECloud
Cloud computing – it is
everywhere. You cannot ignore
it, especially if you are a partner
in the region of any major IT
company. The whole story is complicated
by the fact that there is no single version
of the cloud to adhere to – every vendor
has its own way of defining the cloud and
o!ering solutions for it. And the partner is
often left at the receiving end of
understanding each one and translating
its benefits to the customer.
Di!erent companies have di!erent
models to o!er cloud services in the
region. But almost all of them work with
partners to o!er cloud services to the
market. A case in point in the storage
vendor NetApp. “NetApp is one of the
leading infrastrucure providers for all
types of cloud-enabled services and
cloud-based application workloads.
Virtualised storage and data management
functionalities are the strong foundation
that provisioning models such as plattform,
infrastructure or software as-a-service
are built on. While we do not o!er cloud
services ourselves, we work closely
with regional and pan-European service
providers that cater to a wide range of
audiences and customers all over the
Middle East region,” says Konstantin Ebert,
director channels and alliances EMEA
emerging markets, NetApp.
EMC, on its part, works together
with sister companies VMware and VCE
o!er cloud solutions under the Iaas and
PaaS models. “From IaaS perspective,
a key building block of such a cloud
infrastructure is the pre-built and ready
for deployment VCE Vblock Infrastructure
Platforms, which are optimised for a wide
range of virtualised solution deployments.
Vblock infrastructure platforms integrate
best of breed technology from industry
leaders Cisco, EMC, and VMware in a
modular design that is highly scalable to
meet growth needs, provide investment
protection, and lower TCO,” says Zaher
Haydar, regional pre-sales manager, Turkey,
Emerging Africa and Middle East at EMC.
He continues, “From PaaS perspective,
for organisations who need a new
approach to application development and
deployment to accommodate modern
application characteristics, a new model
conceived and designed with the cloud
in mind. The VMware vFabric Cloud
Application Platform is engineered to
enable IT to e"ciently build, run and
scale modern, data-intensive applications
and deploy them in private, public or
enterprise hybrid clouds. The vFabric
platform improves application delivery
by intelligently leveraging underlying
infrastructure for the highest application
performance, quality of service and
resource utilisation.”
These are just some of the services
and solutions available for enterprises.
And then there is the whole range of
ones that are made for service providers
specifically.
The market segments choose the right cloud based on their data protection requirements and on the capital available. Some sectors deal with highly
sensitive data such as financial or medical institutions and will be unwilling to move data out of the company, save to a service provider harbouring data in another country. Smaller companies on the other hand will gladly accept cloud-based offerings that do not require them to build their own infrastructure.”
32 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
“Many communication service
providers have recognised this market
opportunity and are investing heavily
in cloud o!erings. The Alcatel-Lucent
CloudBand portfolio enables service
providers to quickly create end-to-
end cloud services with all necessary
data centre and network resources,
and quickly launch new services and
applications. Alcatel-Lucent are also
partnering with leading companies such
as HP to combine the strengths of both
IT and service provider portfolios. By
bringing the network to the cloud, service
providers can rapidly enter the market
and create that better class of cloud—
the Carrier Cloud. With the CloudBand
portfolio, service providers can abstract
and virtualize their networks to match
virtualisation in the data centre and
support complex network topologies and
bandwidth and latency guarantees, as
well as encrypted storage options,” says
Andreas C Lemke, senior manager, cloud
solutions marketing at Alcatel-Lucent.
There are other specific function
based ones – like security.
“mailFence, spamFence, backupFence
and dnsFence are the most important
ones among the solution portfolio
o!ered by Comendo, relevant to the
Middle East market. They are all under
SAAS. spamFence and mailFence works
to combat spam and viruses and to
provide total protection before reaching
customers’ networks. backupFence, is a
hosted managed backup and archiving
solution.
Apart from global vendors that o!er
regional solutions, there are ones that
o!er solutions from public clouds that are
universal, and apply to the region as much
as it does to the rest of the world.
“Google Enterprise products help
businesses become more productive by
combining the innovation and ease of
use of Google’s consumer products with
the features, security and support that is
essential for business. Google Apps for
Business is a suite of online communication
and collaboration applications with
the features, security and support that
businesses require. Google Earth Builder
is a revolutionary geospatial solution that
lets businesses publish their mapping
data on our secure, cloud-based mapping
platform and share it quickly and easily
through Google Earth, Google Maps and
Android Phones. Google App Engine
enables businesses to build and host web
applications on the same systems that
power Google applications. App Engine
o!ers fast development and deployment;
simple administration, with no need to
worry about hardware, patches or backups;
and e!ortless scalability,” says Abdul
Wahed, head of enterprise at Google.
Another similar service is HP’s ePrint, a
free service from HP that enables printing
from any mobile or connected device such
as a phone, laptop, netbook, PC, etc to any
HP ePrint web connected device. Your HP
printer can connect to the web and enable
you to print to it wherever you are. You
can have documents printed to another
location for business colleagues. You can
print them and pick them up immediately
or have them waiting for you when you
arrive at your printer. You can print your
documents from email clients and have the
convenience of printing them right from a
mobile device.
Popular or not
While there are a range of solutions and
services on o!er in the region, some
remain more popular than others.
“The market segments choose
the right cloud based on their data
protection requirements and on the
capital available. Some sectors deal with
highly sensitive data such as financial or
medical institutions and will be unwilling
to move data out of the company, save
to a service provider harbouring data in
another country. Smaller companies on the
Andreas C Lemke, senior manager, cloud solutions marketing at Alcatel-Lucent
Our partner ecosystem offers great opportunities because partners can rely on us not building our own cloud services. We support
the customer but follow-through and service delivery is handled by our trusted partners and their best-in-class solutions built on NetApp technology.
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 33
other hand will gladly accept cloud-based
o!erings that do not require them to build
their own infrastructure. The pay-as-you-
go model for those market segments is
highly attractive. In short: The cloud caters
to each and every demand, depending for
example on data protection requirements
and money,” says Ebert.
“In the leading markets, cloud
adoption rates are robust across a wide
range of industries from technology to
financial services and healthcare with
government applications following closely.
With the help of the Alcatel-Lucent
CloudBand portfolio, communication
service providers can target these
industries and their mission critical
applications with end-to-end carrier-grade
cloud services that are not available from
Depending on the IT system they used
formally, the deployment can take from
one day to a few weeks,” says Wahed.
Opportunities
While there is yet confusion in the market,
it is true that most enterprises are looking
seriously into cloud solutions, and these
are likely to consume IT budgets from
the region in the coming year. This is the
reason that vendors believe that a lot of
opportunities exist for partners in taking on
and delivering cloud services and solutions.
COVER FEATURECloud
Right from the beginning of our partner program,
we knew that we didn’t want to replicate traditional channel models and wanted to create a cloud-based partnering program for a cloud-based service. We thus have always been very careful in listening to our partners requests and concerns and intended to show a continued evolution, growth, and investment in our global partner program.”
public cloud providers,” states Lemke.
Delivery mechanisms vary from vendor
to vendor as well, and global firms can
often trump local providers in terms of
delivery and service provision.
“The deployment of our products is
very quick. Small businesses can sign
up for products directly online and use
our products almost instantly. Bigger
companies usually work with a partner for
the deployment and change management
because each company has its proper
challenges and needs a specific support.
34 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
Abdul Wahed, head of enterprise at Google
“Our partner ecosystem o!ers great
opportunities because partners can
rely on us not building our own cloud
services. We support the customer but
follow-through and service delivery is
handled by our trusted partners and their
best-in-class solutions built on NetApp
technology. One example is SAPs HANA
analytical appliance. One of the first SAP
HANA solutions to market was Fujitsu’s
reference design based on NetApp
FAS3240 with our unified storage as
key enabler of highly scalable analytical
infrastructures. One other factor is often
overlooked, which is customer care.
There are still some reservations towards
cloud infrastructures. So partners need
to address customer worries and consult
on topics such as secure multi-tenancy
and data protection. Another issue is
legal know-how around data retention:
Service providers and their partners may
find additional opportunities when they
can guaratee where data is retained,” says
Ebert.
He continues, “We are one hundred
percent indirect which translates to one
hundred partner opportunity. With our
global alliance partners like Cisco, Fujitsu,
Microsoft, Citrix and others we enable all
branches of our ecosystem to build the
right o!erings – whether it’s resellers,
system integrators, or service providers.
If we take FlexPod as an example, it
is very easy to communicate and sell
on the solution benefits: a validated
design such as the NetApp and Cisco
joint solutions with its 13 specifications
for communications, collaboration,
virtualisation, or ERP allows a safe and fast
migration path to virtualisation and the
cloud. This is what 99% of the customers
are looking for.”
“Our cloud solutions are a great
way for the resellers to easily gain extra
revenues, as we o!er an innovative, but
highly useful, layer of security, which their
clients can leverage to build a robust
infrastructure,” saysHouda Naji, MD,
Comendo.
Google’s Wahed states, “Channel
partners are an extremely important
element in the development of cloud
services in the region. Most of our partners
have built a comprehensive suite of
professional services such as deployment,
migration, change management, training
and other support services. They are
enjoying not just the rewards that come
from annual renewals but ongoing support
revenue plus one-o! project services
revenue.”
He continues, “Some of the more
advanced partners are also creating
their own cloud assets and sell them
on Google’s Apps Marketplace for our
tens of millions of Apps end users to
download. Just like downloading an App
on your smartphone, many partners are
creating similar valuable add-on services
(like project management, customer
relationship management (CRM) tools
etc. ) – that can be used seamlessly and
securely with Google Apps.”
Keeping the multiple opportunities
in mind, many vendors are also investing
in training programmes to enable their
partners to provide and profit more from
the cloud.
“Alcatel-Lucent is currently setting up
a training program covering all regions of
the world. Alcatel-Lucent will work with our
CSP customers to accelerate the adoption
of cloud based solutions in the Middle
East region. Channel partners have an
important role in carrying the new wave
of carrier cloud services into the market.
The carrier cloud enables businesses and
governments in the region to optimise
their IT infrastructure and become much
more flexible in responding to shifts in
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 35
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36 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
CSP customers to accelerate the adoption
of cloud based solutions in the Middle East
region,” says Lemke.
Partners who have taken up cloud
solutions and services also work to add to
their knowledge base in an active manner
and tap into the stretching market.
“We have added the cloud services
portfolio more than five years back. Few
of the key o!erings within are hosted
email, Network Operations, DR Hosting
and cloud based AV /AS mails. Besides, as
a system integrator, we do assist several
clients in helping them create their private
clouds. The vendor services engaged
are from IBM, HP, Microsoft, Cisco,
MessageLabs, CITRIX, CA and MindTree
(India),” says Narendra Talreja, director of
IT and managed services at SevenSeas.
demand and the need for new services
and functions,” says Lemke.
Ebert adds, “We o!er several paths
of education to facilitate business for our
partners in this fast building market. We
support them with our knowledge and
solutions as a global technology provider,
but allow them to build their individual
services. We also have specific solutions
such as the FlexPod cloud reference
architecture designed in cooperation
with Cisco. This is a pre-tested and pre-
validated design that o!ers network,
storage, and compute in one pre-
configured stack, thus greatly facilitating
the move to the cloud. We help to obtain
the necessary skills and certifications,
as selling the FlexPod solution requires
understanding of the full stack plus
dedicated application know-how.”
Wahed says, “We have a partner
program that we have continued to expand
and improve since it was launched. Our
partners have access to more advanced
sales and deployment training as well as
packaged marketing campaigns to help
them drum up new business. We are also
continually enriching the reseller tools to
give them even more power in managing
their customer accounts. In Google’s
partner model, partners own the billing
relationship with their customers - so
giving them more granular and flexible
tools means they can add more value and
retain more control.”
He adds, “We recently created the
Premier Reseller designation in order
to enable customers to more easily
assess a reseller’s expertise advising on
and deploying Google products. FVC in
Dubai has moved from an authorised to a
premier reseller based on their expertise
and success in helping customers deploy
and use Google Apps.”
“Alcatel-Lucent is currently setting up
a training program covering all regions of
the world. Alcatel-Lucent will work with our
He continues, “Seven Seas have formal
partnership with the above mentioned
vendors to provide cloud based services.
The resource enablement across sales,
presales and post sales is the imperative
part of these partnerships. We have
conducted product launches; CIO invites
and also end-user events to promote the
services. Besides, we have reflected the
same on our websites and also published it
via few of the regional IT magazines.”
“Internally at Seven Seas, we
position the cloud services as enabling
technologies. The vendors and service
providers have moved their focus on
enabling technologies vide virtualisation,
consolidation, private and public cloud,
mobility solutions, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS,
managed services, etc,” Talreja says.
Challenges and the future
Despite the various opportunities and
the promise of the cloud, partners have
a lot of challenges and doubts about the
delivery and provision of these solutions
and services to enterprise customers in
the region.
“The cloud has only begun to change
the way people live and do business.
COVER FEATURECloud
Houda Naji, managing director, ComendoAlcatel-Lucent is currently setting up a training program
covering all regions of the world. Alcatel-Lucent will work with our CSP customers to accelerate the adoption of cloud based solutions in the Middle East region,” says Lemke. Partners who have taken up cloud solutions and services also work to add to their knowledge base in an active manner and tap into the stretching market.
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 37
To better understand regional market
opportunities for cloud services, Alcatel-
Lucent undertook an in-depth market
study of perceptions and attitudes towards
the cloud among 3,886 IT decision makers
in seven countries between June and
September 2011: U.S., U.K., France, India,
South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
According to this study, India and the US
are the leading countries who will make
extensive use of cloud solutions while
cloud adoption in other countries was
significantly lower. Key concerns of the
decision makers about cloud services
were performance (29%), security (21%),
and ease of use (17%),” says Lemke.
He adds, “As mentioned above in
the Alcatel-Lucent study with IT decision
makers, cloud customers wish to achieve
the same or an even higher level of
performance, security, and ease of use
as with classical IT deployment models.
Channel partners are looking for tools,
proofpoints, and support to demonstrate
that with an innovative cloud portfolio,
as o!ered by Alcatel-Lucent, these
challenges can be addressed and the
benefits of the cloud can be realised.”
“Right from the beginning of our
partner program, we knew that we didn’t
want to replicate traditional channel
models and wanted to create a cloud-
based partnering program for a cloud-
based service. We thus have always been
very careful in listening to our partners
requests and concerns and intended to
show a continued evolution, growth, and
investment in our global partner program,”
says Wahed.
He adds, “Last year the Google Apps
Reseller program saw the announcement
of our Premier program and the launch of
the Google Apps certification program.
Very recently we launched Google Partner
Connect, an exclusive portal for our
partners around the world to access the
latest information about our Enterprise
business and products, and our sales
certification program for resellers along
with eLearning modules to help individuals
prepare.”
NetApp’s Ebert says, “Some concerns
are very specific: Channel partners are
worried that big vendors start building
their own data centres and o!er cloud
services directly. But our channel strategy
in the Middle East is one hundred percent
indirect and we will continue to enable our
partners to o!er cloud services based on
their own infrastructure. We support them
with profound knowledge in building the
right infrastructure as well as aligning with
the right alliance partners to complement
their portfolio. Then there are the general
cloud issues at the customer side. Security
COVER FEATURECloud
38 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
transparency. Seamless migration between
clouds is still in the future. These are the
next issues to be tackled as broader cloud
service o!erings are pushed into the
market.”
Naji from Comendo says, “Our channel
partners had earlier security concerns
about mail going out of the country, as we
didn’t have a data centre in the region. Now
we have addressed this issue by setting
up a data centre in UAE which ensures that
mails are being filtered in Dubai.”
The concerns raised by vendors
regarding the sale and delivery of cloud
services can sound a little di!erent from
the ones expressed by the vendors above.
“I personally feel there are a few
deterrents to the sale and delivery of
cloud services. This includes service
availability like pricing, contractual
fulfilment and compliance. Given the
investment and costing, the acceptance
of cloud services functionality against
the performance will remain a big ask
until bandwidth is available and cheap.
Given the concern on localisation of the
data and services as the biggest need,
the partner, SI or the provider will need
to demonstrate ROI and TCO benefits to
their own business owners. The services
should comfort the customer with limited
or no tools and resource on governance,
framework certifications and absolute
measurement of need versus cost versus
performance. Lastly, the customer in the
region would still able to a!ord the on-
premise IT deployment given the size of
the service. Despite the above deterrents
would be embraced in the IT fraternity,
one deterrent would still be a distant
future to overcome and accepted which is
the socio-political situation and regional
and linguistic barriers,” points out Talreja.
Channel partners are an extremely
important element in the development
of cloud services in the region. To truly
tap into the potential channel partners
should built a comprehensive suite of
professional services such as deployment,
migration, change management, training
and other support services. That way
partners can enjoy not only the rewards
that come from annual renewals but also
ongoing support revenues plus one-o!
project services revenue.
There are a whole lot of challenges
facing the partner of today as they move
to sell and deliver on cloud solutions.
However, there remains no doubt in
everyone’s mind that this is the future
– that cloud services are inevitable and
that regional partners have to up their
ante to capitalise on the business that
the cloud can bring them now and in the
years to come. //
still is a major concern, as well as questions
concerning data retention and issues
of governance and regulation – or lack
thereof. Customers also ask the channel
partners about resilience and local
connectivity as cloud structures are first
and foremost business-to-business driven.
Looking forward, there are also unresolved
issues regarding standardisation and
As mentioned above in the Alcatel-Lucent study
with IT decision makers, cloud customers wish to achieve the same or an even higher level of performance, security, and ease of use as with classical IT deployment models. Channel partners are looking for tools, proofpoints, and support to demonstrate that with an innovative cloud portfolio, as offered by Alcatel-Lucent, these challenges can be addressed and the benefits of the cloud can be realised.”
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 39
Entangled in amaze of tools tomanage yourIT infrastructure?
Supply chain value addAptec Holding has leveraged its regional experience to launch a third party logistics company
Aptec Holdings has been in the
regional distribution business for
the last three decades. As part
of its migration from broad line
distribution to value added distribution, it
has also added services layers around its
core competency in supply chain
management. And this has led to a stage
where this competency is now embedded
in an independent legal entity called
Advanced Logistics Services. ALS is now
licensed by Dubai’s Department of
Economic Development and Jebel Ali Free
Zone to stock and handle commercial
goods on behalf of other businesses. “This
is a very lengthy process,” says Mario
Veljovic, operations director, Aptec
Holdings, and di!erentiates ALS from
other distributor companies which are
licensed as trading companies and not
third party logistics companies.
While large scale global logistics
companies exist in the regional market,
there is also a need for specialised niche
players. ALS services are specialised
around ICT products. “The processes we
have developed over the last few years
are tailor made for the ICT business. You
need to know the procedures in order to
get these goods into the country. You need
to know the people whom to approach to
make sure you are not losing out,” he says.
As an example, import of media or software
need to be approved by Ministry of Culture,
Youth and Community Development, and
Telecommunication Regulatory Authority
controls shipment of networking equipment
into the country.
The close association of Aptec
Distribution and third party logistics
company ALS within the same holding
company is unique in the region. But
Veljovic stresses on the need to be neutral
in the market. “We have the resources and
know how to help vendors improve their
local footprint in the region.” ALS is therefore
targeting mid size vendors whose supply
chain business is not of su"cient scale to
approach large logistics suppliers such DHL,
Aramex, UPS and others. Most such vendors
are looking at setting up their regional hubs
but the scale of their business is insu"cient
to move towards leading distributors and
logistics management companies. “We can
actually help them with local inventories,
services and reverse logistics management,
and this allows more vendors to set up shop
in the region, improves sell through volumes
in the channel and drives sales for resellers,”
says Veljovic.
Supplies distributor Despec is a
customer of ALS and 80% of ALS warehouse
resources in Saudi Arabia are built up
around the requirements of Despec. For
the reseller community, ALS o!ers to
consolidate and hold shipments for them
based on a specific order or project build
up. ALS can consolidate specific items and
quantities from vendors or distributors within
free zones and hold them pending further
consolidation, re-export or final delivery.
For vendors, distributors and resellers,
signing on as customers, ALS also provides
fourth party support in a neutral fashion.
It can hire additional warehouse space
and delivery services in case there is
additional demand from the customer and
there are internal capacity constraints.
“We are independent of any resource
supply and can pick and choose what is
best for the customer to get their supply
chain managed.” Another challenge that
is often overlooked in the supply chain
business is the correct billing model. ALS
customers pay an annual management
fee as well as charges based on specific
services requested such as warehousing,
packaging, consolidation, forwarding
and others. Since the requirements keep
changing and are dynamic it is often
di"cult to keep track of the exact support
services extended. “How do you make sure
the customer is really paying as they use
the warehouse”, questions Veljovic. “Can
you demonstrate this to the customer?”
ALS has implemented Exactus warehouse
management system from regional partner
BSG to meet this requirement.
The landed cost factor becomes
important when profit margins are slim
and the landed cost needs to be carefully
managed and monitored. “If you do not
manage and master it, an initial profitable
deal can turn out to be a loss maker.” ALS
typically specifies to its customers from
which products or ordering pattern do
the higher overheads emerge from, thus
helping customers to focus on business
development rather than supply chain
management issues. //
Advanced Logistics Services
IN FOCUS
Adding on supply chain management services, Mario Veljovic, Operations Director, Aptec Holdings
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 41
50% discountfor
1st 5 clients
Open standards in cloudOpen standards across operating systems and applications are being extended to cloud architectures
Openness in software and
architectures is a big win for
users. This truth is so widely
recognised that a lot of
vendors seem to favour using open as a
sort of mantra. An open cloud allows
customers to manage diverse
infrastructures by bringing them together
under the same cloud architecture.
Instead of creating a new cloud silo or
forcing them to impractically start their IT
over from scratch, an open cloud extends
its benefits to the entire IT infrastructure,
delivering greater e"ciency and agility
and putting them in control of their
technology roadmap and, ultimately, the
future of their IT.
But what does open mean in the
context of cloud? It certainly does not
begin and end with the submission
of some format to a standards body
or with an announcement of partners
endorsing some specific technology
platform. An open cloud has the following
characteristics:
This allows adopters to
control their particular implementation and
does not restrict them to the technology
and business roadmap of a specific
vendor. It lets them build and manage
clouds that put them in control of their own
destiny and provides them with visibility
into the technology on which they have
based their business. It provides them with
the flexibility to run the workloads of their
choice, including proprietary ones, in their
cloud.
Open
source is not just about the code, its
license, and how it can be used and
extended. At least as important is the
community associated with the code
and how it is governed. Realising the
collaborative potential of open source
and the innovation it can deliver to
everyone means having the structures and
organisation in place to tap it fully.
Standardisation in the sense of o"cial
cloud standards blessed by standards
bodies is still in early days. That said,
approaches to interoperability that
are not under the control of individual
vendors and that are not tied to specific
platforms o!er important flexibility.
This allows API specification to evolve
beyond implementation constraints and
creates the opportunity for communities
and organisations to develop variants
that meet their individual technical and
commercial requirements.
History
has shown there are few guarantees that
intellectual property assets will remain
accessible from one day to the next. To
have confidence you will continue to enjoy
access to IP assets permission needs to be
given in ways that make technology open
and accessible to the user. So-called de
facto standards, which are often standards
only insofar as they are promoted by a
large vendor, often fail this test.
Hybrid
cloud management should provide an
additional layer of abstraction above
virtualisation, physical servers, storage,
networking, and public cloud providers.
This implies, or indeed requires, that
cloud management be independent of
virtualisation and other foundational
technologies. This is a fundamental reason
that cloud is di!erent from virtualisation
management and a fundamental enabler of
hybrid clouds that span physical servers,
multiple virtualisation platforms and a wide
range of public cloud providers.
This lets users add
features, providers and technologies from
George DeBono is GM, Middle East and Africa, Red Hat.
a variety of vendors or other sources.
Critically, the API itself cannot be under
the control of a specific vendor or tied
to a specific implementation but must
be under the auspices of a third-party
organisation that allows for contributions
and extensions in an open and transparent
manner.
Implicit in
a cloud approach that provides support
for heterogeneous infrastructure is that
investments made in developing for an
open cloud must be portable to other such
clouds. Portability takes a variety of forms
including programming languages and
frameworks, data, and the applications
themselves. If you develop an application
for one cloud, you should not need to
rewrite it in a di!erent language or use
di!erent APIs to move it somewhere else.
An open cloud requires a range of
attributes to push the needle from wholly
closed to truly open. Having a few of these
George DeBono
SPEAKOUT
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 43
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Paramount Computer Systems FZ LLC
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InformationSecurity...InformationSecurity...
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IT ServiceManagement
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SCADASecurity
NetworkInfrastructure
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paramount@ssuring Va lue
What if?
you think about each step. Use your existing
portfolio and strengths of major partners to
come up with two to three possible bundles
at a very high level. You will use these rough
drafts as a way to assess the broader impact
of bundling.
Consider
the finer details of creating, selling and
servicing a bundled solution to head o!
potential obstacles that may arise during
development, such as delivery, warranty
periods, commission models and support.
Several possible
routes to market are available to sell
bundled solutions, but the adequacy for your
particular solution is completely dependent
on customer preferences. Explore possible
routes to market for your bundled solution
and determine which ones will work best.
is a popular initiative
with providers because it has the potential to
deliver strong mutual benefits for both buyer
and seller. Before jumping into what should
be included in the bundles, make a high-
level business case to reveal how bundling
will deliver financial and non-financial
benefits to both buyer and seller. Conduct a
thorough investigation of the market, internal
operations and routes to market. //
Bundle offeringsStarting from the customer view point is make or break for any technology bundle offer
Technology providers spend
extraordinary amounts of time
and resources in search of the
perfect solution, researching
markets, industries and customer buying
trends to find the right fit. Equally, buyers
often spend inordinate amounts of time
force-fitting commercial solutions to
internal business processes — one size
rarely fits all.
Built correctly, bundled solutions give
buyers and sellers a configurable option
they need for addressing respective
goals. But bundles are hardly a panacea.
Challenges remain in getting them
right. Many providers fail to ensure the
organisation is prepared and equipped to
create bundled o!erings.
The challenge in engineering bundled
solutions lies in understanding the entire
solution - from the customer’s perspective
and desired experience. Most providers
approach bundles from the perspective of
what they need to sell to be successful —
versus what the customer needs to buy.
Though subtle, this can mean the di!erence
between winning and losing the deal.
Marketers should become the customer,
to understand what bundles should look
like and push internally to ensure that
Michelle Caminos is research vice president in Gartner’s data centre transformation group. Based in Auckland, her research covers vendor strategies, go-to-market strategies and user demands.
Michele Caminos
SPEAKOUT
integration, delivery and support match up
to the promise that marketing made.
The following steps will help ensure you
have the best chance of being successful
with building and introducing bundles to the
market:
Creating bundles
is not as simple as putting desired products
and services together and bringing the
combination to market. If back end functions
are not in place, you will end up with
dissatisfied customers and channel partners
— a situation that could do more damage to
your bottom line than if you did nothing at
all. Before jumping into bundling, first ensure
that your organisation’s internal structure
and culture support it.
Do not create
bundles unless you fully understand the
market segment you are developing for,
what its business challenges are, what set
of products and services customers tend to
purchase together, and most importantly,
what customers really want from the product
and buying experience.
It is helpful to have
some theoretical examples in mind to help
Built correctly, bundled solutions give buyers and
sellers a configurable option they need for addressing respective goals. But bundles are hardly a panacea.
Most providers approach bundles from the perspective
of what they need to sell to be successful — versus what the customer needs to buy. This can mean the difference between winning and losing the deal.
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 45
Enter the campus networkSocial media applications, mobility and cloud are bringing the role of campus networks back into focus. Can channel partners exploit this opportunity?
It has always struck me as
ironic that in a world as fast
moving and transformational as
technology, many of the
problems our customers face do not ever
seem to change. As does, how to spend
the smallest amount possible to bring
performance up to the level needed,
without having to spend more next year
and the year after. The focus in 2012 is
going to be driven not by the CIO or data
centre or IT manager. This year is going
to be the year of the most challenging
experience is beginning to have a bigger
impact on the IT landscape.
We have all heard it said that IT is no
longer in the hands of the IT department.
Increased use of mobile platforms, cloud
services outside the corporate firewall,
and demand for new applications at
speeds the IT department cannot deliver,
are driving a cultural change that has
significant implications for the network.
Users are increasingly empowered by
technology to determine how, when and
what IT services and solutions they use,
with or without the IT departments consent
or knowledge.
VARs and systems integrators are
increasingly being asked to help customer
IT and network teams to respond. For
the past few years the focus has been
on making the data centre more flexible.
Ensuring IT sta! can deploy business
driven changes across the network quickly
and simply, while guaranteeing uptime and
access is key. And this trend will continue.
The problem is that much of the new
technology in vogue – such as cloud,
unified communication, collaboration tools,
video conferencing, mobile platforms and
so on – are all about user experience.
And the user rarely sits in the data centre.
So if the data centre network is top notch,
but the campus network is not, the user is
likely to find the kind of problems the IT
department has spent time and money on
fixing, still prevalent. Loss of connection,
inability to connect, poor quality of audio
or visual media, lost data, updates not
updated – all those things are guaranteed
to send users straight to the IT helpdesk.
Years of adding layers of complexity
with every new feature has damaged the
financial and technical performance of the
network and created more problems than
solutions or improvements. For executive
management there is increased frustration
of investing in new, business critical
applications only to find it does not work.
For IT, the frustration is that it does work,
but the network outside the data centre
cannot cope and does not have the same
built-in intelligence. This issue will reach
crunch point in 2012.
The campus network has long been
the poor relation with the data centre,
where major innovation and investment
has taken place. But changes in how users
connect and the kind of data they are
driving back and forth over the network
mean the campus has become more
critical.
Demanding the kind of intelligence
already found in data centre networks,
customers will be looking for solutions
and will be turning to the channel to
make this a reality. The channel is the
point of integration, bringing the right
solutions together for customers needs
and providing insight into how they can
continue to balance cost and performance.
It is time to redefine the economics of
the campus network and recognise the
growing opportunity for significant new
and incremental sales that they provide.
Customers will be looking for VARs and
system integrators who can help them
make wise investments for now and for the
future. //
Peter Schaudeck is channel sales manager for Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa at Brocade Communications.
The focus in 2012 is going to be driven not by the CIO or data
centre or IT manager. This year is going to be the year of the most challenging client of all: the end user.
Peter Schaudeck
SPEAKOUT
46 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
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Computer Accessories & Peripherals
As good as newVersion 2.0 has powerful features to manage Windows boot up time, privacy of documents, permanent removal of deleted files and health-check of the all important Registry sector.
We always have a wishful
memory of the day we got a new
PC. The start-up time was
lighting fast, the hard disk had
vast storage space and navigation across
web sites happened with the click of a
button. PC Tools Performance Toolkit is
meant to make your day to day operations
feel like a new PC operation. While
Windows 7 has improved considerably in
managing its signature start-up file from
previous versions, frequent installation and
removal of applications will require the
start-up file to be managed closely.
Multiple license versions of Windows
PC Tools Performance Toolkit
TEST BENCH
Windows is forced to unload DLLs from
Windows Explorer caches Dynamic-
Link Libraries in memory for a period of time
after the application using them has been
closed. This can be an ine"cient use of
memory on low memory systems, and may
cause problems or delays for programmers
developing with Windows DLL files.
By default, Windows
subtly delays the display of menus. For
everyday Windows users however, this delay
can become annoying. When this tweak is
applied, the delay period is reduced.
Faster shut down times: When Windows
is shut down, this tweak forces the
Windows operating system to end all
tasks immediately without attempting to
safely close those that have hung. This can
improve the speed at which Windows shuts
down.
The Windows boot
file is defragmented, improving the speed at
which Windows starts.
Optimisation of the Start Menu items
The Windows Start menu items list is
rebuilt, sorted and refreshed, improving
the e"ciency with which programmes start
during Windows start-up.
Users with over 5%
errors in their Registry files, scattered across
the Registry structure are referred to as
bloated Registry files. The amount of benefit
provided by Toolkit is linked to the degree
of real world Registry bloatedness. This
increases with the number of applications
loaded on, partial uninstalls, nature of usage,
example light versus heavy versus power
users, to name a few.
The Registry sector needs to be
cleaned, repaired and compacted before
any appreciable system performance is
noted. The compact Registry option is similar
to defragmenting the hard disk. It removes
the slack space and old deleted Registry
information and then rebuilds the Registry in
a linear fashion. This rebuilding process can
repair a host of issues, such as bad security
descriptors and corrupt branches.
BENEFITS OF REBUILDING THE REGISTRY
applications and upgrades, also require
the registry file to be maintained through
regular scans and through more
sophisticated techniques, than inbuilt
within Windows. PC Tools Diagnostic
Toolkit also includes the Registry
mechanic utility to perform this function.
Some of the key features in this version
of Toolkit include intuitive dashboard, single
click optimisation of system performance,
reducing the boot-up and shut-down times,
custom selection of applications in start
up menu, removal of history trail, erasing
deleted files and directory structure, locating
deleted and duplicate files. PC Tools Performance Toolkit, Version 2.0, OS Compatibility: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 49
This version of Performance Toolkit features a new dashboard that allows the user to see at a single glance the overall level of system optimisation and performance. The current and new startup times for the operation system are specified; the number of history files indexed in the system; and the choice to repair the registry, clear document history and permanently clean up the hard disk drive directory; are also available.
For users looking at applying some diligence in the maintenance of their PCs, they can customise their performance enhancement operations. In the case of performance, PC Tools o!ers Windows Registry cleanup and compacting; Windows overall optimisation and fast boot up time as its features.
Windows device start-up times are strongly influenced by the nature of files loaded at the time of start-up. This Toolkit feature allows you to modify the files loaded at the time of start-up and shows the incremental increase or decrease in start-up times as you select or deselect the application files to be loaded into system memory.
Most users can select the single click optimisation, which completes major system maintenance tasks as a routine. These include resetting the registry block, deleting records of recent documents across all Windows and third party applications, optimising Windows startup time and performance and defragmenting the hard disk. The slider indicates the percentage of tasks completed and this can be used in conjunction with the scheduler to complete these maintenance tasks as a regular routine.
PC Tools Performance Toolkit
TEST BENCH
50 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
This option allows the user to select the best overall system performance compromising on the appearance of screens and other menu interfaces. Active and inactive files based on this selection are displayed and this allows the user to decide whether this system performance selection meets their requirement or not.
The privacy menu o!ers users the option of removing their history of recently opened documents in Windows applications, browsers and third party applications. This is one of the most important features in this Toolkit. Often recently opened documents can contain sensitive information that must not show up during public presentations or walk through and can get overlooked till the last moment. Running this feature will ensure that history of recently opened documents is erased from Windows applications. Un-checking the check option allows the user to deselect applications where the history trail is required
This option allows the user to select the best overall display performance compromising on system performance to allow enhanced displays and menus, usually suitable for gaming and media entertainment. Active and inactive files based on this selection are displayed and this allows the user to decide whether this system performance selection meets their requirement or not. A compromise balanced selection where both performance and display needs are met can also be selected and the slider allows the user to easily switch between settings most suitable for them.
In addition to erasing the history of recently opened documents in Windows applications, the Toolkit also erases history of recent documents across third party applications and plugins. Un-checking the check option allows the user to deselect applications where the history trail is required to be maintained.
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 51
Files deleted from the hard disk and recovery bin can be retrieved with specialised utilities and tend to reduce the availability of hard disk space. PC Tools Bleach feature ensures the hard disk is purged of directory and file information thereby ensuring that all records of private and sensitive information cannot be recovered by any other system utility. This is reset after a system restart.
In order to ensure that complete privacy of data has been obtained and no history of previously deleted files or directory exists on the system, this feature of checking for recoverable deleted files can be used. Files that have been shred and directories that have been Bleached can be verified with this feature. On the other hand, users can recover older files that have not been shred and are required after a period of time for some reason or the other.
Due to the My user feature under Windows operating system, document and media files may get saved in multiple directories and may be overlooked by the user. This is especially important for image and media files, where the files sizes are significant. This feature scans the system for files with the same names and history but saved in more than one location. Scans can be quick or deep or across the physical media. The file recovery selection criteria can be controlled by the user.
Similar to the Bleach feature, the Shred feature permanently deletes the selected files and ensures they cannot be recovered by any systems utility. This can also be used in conjunction with the file recovery option.
PC Tools Performance Toolkit
TEST BENCH
52 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
PEOPLEAman Sangar
As part of Microsoft’s gaming business, Sangar feels privileged to
deliver joy to families. Sangar is the category lead for the Interactive
Entertainment Business within Microsoft’s Retail sales and marketing
division and joined Microsoft in 2007. As part of the retail end of the
consumer electronics segment, Sangar gauges the success of his e!orts
by monitoring weekly sales. “This can be both incredibly satisfying
when all goes well and also painfully frustrating when it does not.” Since
people plan, deliver and consume, understanding and influencing people
is the most enriching and challenging aspect of his job role.
The changing consumer electronics environment is an area of
continuous learning. Equally important is the need to evolve your
interpersonal working style to match team members and partners. For
Sangar, “situational leadership is a key as long as one remains true to
one’s core ethos.” He believes in turning challenges into fun and works
hard and plays hard. Along with his partners, Sangar likes to keep people
happy, since happy people make for happy business. As an authority
on consumer electronic trends and changing technology needs facing
these sectors, Aman has leveraged this forte and experience to develop
relationships with partners, retailers and government organisations.
His favourite device remains the Xbox 360 and his favourite day dream
playing video games for a living. He relaxes o! work by spending time
with his wife and son and also prays and exercises.
Microsoft’s gaming champion
Consumer delight
54 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
6th June 2012Stay tuned for more details6th June 2012Stay tuned for more details
www.resellerme.com
Nicholas Argyrides has been appointed as managing director of EMPA
Middle East.
Argyrides brings a decade of significant experience and
achievements within the field of IT distribution in the Middle East. Under
his new role, he will be directing EMPA’s business strategy as well as
spearheading the firm’s overall operations across the region.
“Any professional would be delighted to take up such an exciting
role with such a respected organisation as EMPA Middle East. Our
multilateral market strategy is based on selective geographical
expansion, a diverse product portfolio and sustained operational
excellence. Adding value to the channel is crucial. I would like to thank
the Board of Directors for entrusting me the responsibility of driving the
company. I am definitely looking forward to an exciting journey ahead,”
said Argyrides.
Argyrides obtained his BScBA degree from the University of
Arizona upon completing his double-major studies in Marketing
& Entrepreneurship. He also holds an MBA degree from London
Business School. After briefly working for a bio-tech corporation in
Arizona, USA he moved to Cyprus in 2002 and, shortly after, launched
his career with IT distributor Logicom Public Limited in a number of
positions and geographies – the last one being the general manager
of Logicom Dubai.
Managing Director
EMPA Middle East
PEOPLENicholas Argyrides
Reseller Middle EastMARCH 2012 57
PEOPLESoichi Murakami
In line with the move to mark a stronger market presence
across the region, Brother has announced the appointment
of Soichi Murakami as the new MD for the Middle East,
Turkey and Africa (which includes South Africa and
excludes French speaking African countries).
“These are truly exciting times for the region’s printing industry,
where growth has managed to continue in an upward streak,” said
Soichi Murakami. “The predicted growth comes as a welcome
challenge for me to drive in e!orts of achieving 15% YoY growth in key
areas like the Middle East, Turkey and Africa. Despite being new to the
region, I am confident that the presence of a highly skilled and qualified
Brother team will not only help in reaching our targets and goals but
also consolidate our market presence across the region.”
Murakami, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Business
Administration from Kwansei Gakuin University, brings to the region
over 28 years of experience and loyalty with Brother. Joining the
company immediately after college in 1984, he has since then held key
posts for Brother, widely being credited for his excellent leadership and
business skills. In 1992, he was named as a core committee member for
the company’s Olympic Project. Seven years later, Murakami was then
appointed as chief executive for Brother’s Labeling machines division
and in 1999 he was promoted to being product manager for the
European operations of Brother for the UK region. Six years later, he
was appointed as general manager for Printing and Solutions products
for Asia Pacific in Japan. Prior to being appointed to his present
position, Murakami also served as Brother’s GM for Product Planning,
handling new category products like electronics stationary related lines
in Japan.
MD – Middle East, Turkey, Africa
Brother
58 Reseller Middle East MARCH 2012
To partner, please call: 048839888, Email: [email protected]