nearly as long. The company is now dedicating to enabling the vision of Smart Cities to become a reality here in the region.

“What is great about Gitex,” says Safder Nazir, Regional Vice President, Smart Cities and IoT, “is that people can come together to share ideas.” Gitex is also a prime venue to check out the competitive landscape. “It really is good to see what other companies have to offer,” says Nazir.

Huawei is already working with a number of government agencies in the region to realise their Smart City visions. Gitex visitors will be able to see first-hand the what solutions Huawei will be bringing to the Smart Cities table. “Part of what we offer you can see right here in the Command Centre,” says Nazir, gesturing to a bank

Show dates: 12-16 October 2014, Dubai World Trade Centre | AT GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK | Exhibition hours: 10am -6pm

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WHAT’S INSIDE

Etisalat reinforces tech leadership

Dicom comes to Gitex after merger

Microsoft driving third platform

Huawei has always been dedicated to consumer-centric products and solutions, and nothing is more end-user oriented than their solutions for Smart Cities. The company

Huawei unveils Smart City solutions

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is dedicated to providing actual solutions for Smart Cities, rather than just concepts. Huawei has been in the Middle East since 1997 and has had a presence at Gitex for

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Symantec releases DDoS research results

Top-brass at Symantec can easily see why security is such a hot issue in the Middle East. “Between

the oil and gas issue, the fast adoption of new technology and geopolitical instability in the region,” says Antonio Forzieri, EMEA Cyber Security Practice Lead, Symantec. “The Middle East is like a bundle of TNT waiting for a spark, when it comes to cyber security.” To be sure, there are plenty of reasons why CIOs in the region should pay keen

attention to the security of their IT infrastructure.

Symantec’s brief is not only to provide key IT security product, but also to ensure that professionals in the region are kept informed. At Gitex this year, the company has unveiled a comprehensive report on DDoS attacks in the region.

Dicom comes to Gitex after merger

Dicom International, a distributor of document capture solutions, was acquired by Spigraph in January and comes to GITEX this year with a merged identity.

What is different this year is the strength of partners Dicom brings to the exhibition through Spigraph, said Mark Reinhard, VP Marketing EMEA, Spigraph.

Dicom has been doing business in the Middle Eastern region for a decade and globally for twice the period. It has been actively exhibiting at GITEX for more than five years, Joachim Froning, Senior Vice President, EMEA, Spigraph said.

It has come to GITEX this year to enable smart business via discounted offers on the recently launched Canon DR-X1OC printer, Fujitsu Scanpartner and Kodak alaris scanners.

In Europe, Spigraph has over 6,000 partners whose strengths will also translate into more business for Dicom in the Middle East, Froning added. “This is a result of a two-tier sales model we adhere to, for picking partners.”

In addition to a strong reseller network the company holds throughout EMEA, Dicom/Spigraph’s approach to the Middle East is product driven with a focus on the automation of core document management processes.

Dicom holds a wide presence in the public sector, oil and gas, banking and healthcare verticals within the Middle East through its resellers, Reinhard said. “We strongly value the role of our partners in the region as these are our trusted advisors who bridge the gap between us and the end-user.”

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Etisalat reinforces tech leadership

Etisalat has announced technological upgrades and expansions in its networks, reinforcing its position as the leading telecommunications service provider in the region.

Major enhancements in 4G LTE network includes enhancing of Etisalat’s indoor coverage to improve customer experience. Etisalat’s 4G network extensively covers 88 percent of the country’s populated areas. During 2014, a large number of base stations were deployed for indoor coverage and to enhance customer experience. The total number of indoor base stations has reached 6000. This will further boost indoor coverage capabilities in buildings, malls, and airports.

Having established the region’s most solid, future-ready 3G and 4G LTE networks to meet the growing needs of the UAE’s highly connected environment, the company upgraded the country’s fastest mobile Internet at speeds of 150Mbps, reaching 300 Mbps recently. A phased upgrade to 4G LTE (A) is now making way for ultra-speeds for Etisalat’s mobile customers.

In line with the economic growth and demand of the UAE’s western regions, Etisalat’s plans of network expansion in the Western Region, are on track. Etisalat also added up on top of more than 300 base stations on the boarder and desert areas of the country to enhance its coverage.

A per the latest UAE TRA Cellular Mobile Networks benchmarking report, Etisalat maintained its leading position in the market in terms of quality of 4G LTE mobile services.

To meet strong surge in data consumption in the UAE, Etisalat’s fibre-to-the-home network (FTTH) has also enabled an ultrafast residential Internet network speed of up to 1Gbps. The company’s extensive FTTH network has helped rank UAE a global leader in terms of fibre-optic penetration, which covers more than 85 percent of the country’s populated areas. Having invested tens of billions in the FTTH network, Etisalat continues to develop its fibre optic infrastructure and ranked Abu Dhabi as the world’s first Capital to be fully fibre-connected.

As the first in the region to have successfully tested Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and enhanced Single Radio Call Continuity (eSRVCC) implementation back in May 2013, Etisalat is well on track to launch the service to customers in the UAE depending on handsets availability. VoLTE will allow customers to use 4G LTE technology for both data and voice services on a single device.

In support to the UAE government’s SMART initiatives, Etisalat will deliver the needed solutions on its vast fibre and cellular 3G and 4G LTE capabilities as well as in-depth machine-to-machine (M2M) experience.

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Symantec...The number of DDoS attacks, says the report, are increasing. The majority of incidents last less than 24 hours, a statistic which reveals that cyber criminals are becoming more sophisticated and using a more intense, targeted approach. “We’ve released this information at Gitex because it is such an important forum for consumers, customers and end-users,” says Forzeiri.

If anyone has the scoop on cyber attacks, it is Symantec. Since 1982, the company operates the largest civilian cyber intelligence threat network in the world. “There is a great deal of focus here in the Middle East, cybercriminals are paying attention,” says Forzeiri. He

continues that prevention is no longer enough, and that professionals need to turn their eye to detection and response.

The bottom line is clear enough – “Attackers need to succeed only once, and they are set. Defenders have to succeed every day,” says Forzeri. Symantec is in the business of helping organisation and individuals succeed in the battle against cybercriminals every day. “We want to push this information out to the customer, and to potential customers,” he says. As to whether or not Symantec will remain a presence at Gitex for years to come – “Well, I can’t tell the future, but I think as long as there are security threats, Symantec will be here.”

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Huawei... Microsoft driving third platformtransforming the way we do business, with the mobile workforce gaining momentum. We will create the best experience and digital and work life scenarios for our customers.”

Microsoft is also keen to discuss its social media tool Yammer at GITEX, which has already been adopted by 25 percent of the company’s UAE enterprise customers.

Ltaif is particularly aware of the importance of analytics in driving actionable business insight, “We’re here to show how Microsoft uses Big Data for business intelligence and KPIs, and how we can obtain this information through historic and real-time data,” he says.

The company has used GITEX to launch its Dynamics CRM Online software, as well as promote its recently released Surface Pro 3 tablet.

Microsoft’s GITEX presence is being defined by a broad presence across the range of third platform technologies: Social, Mobile, Big Data Analytics and Cloud.

Samer Abu Ltaif, Regional General Manager, Microsoft Gulf, is buoyed by the region’s technological progress and ambition, “The Middle East is

an exciting and diverse place at the moment,” he says. “Regardless of the size of individual countries, they have the aspiration to excel and compete with the best.”

With GITEX running on Azure Cloud, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s “Mobile first, cloud first” mantra has found a way to envelope the event. Ltaif believes the technologies will play a key role in defining the region’s IT scene. “We want to drive the investments so that developers can create lighthouse projects, and we want to excite SMEs around mobility and cloud,” he says.

Ltaif says the company will have adopt a flexible approach in order to accommodate its customers’ needs, “As the enterprise adopts mobility, we need to adapt to help them manage it,” he says. “It is drastically

of televisions screens. “Video everywhere is going to be part of the new Smart City.”

To support initiative such as M2M communication and video everywhere, Nazir supposes that mobile broadband is going to be the most important element. “We have a concept of ‘cloud, pipe, device’,” explains Nazir, “The cloud is the data, of course. In the pipe, we need to process that data – that is where we need fixed and mobile broadband. Then of course, that data is displayed on your device.”

We can look for Huawei year after year at Gitex, Nazir assures us. As Huawei becomes a bigger presence in the Middle East, it will also make its mark on Gitex every year.

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