Reseller Middle East

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


ADVERTISING

Commercial DirectorRajashree R Kumar


Advertising ExecutiveMerle Carrasco


CIRCULATION

Database and Circulation ManagerRajeesh M


PRODUCTION AND DESIGN

Production ManagerJames P Tharian


Art DirectorKamil Roxas


DesignerAnalou Balbero


PhotographerCris Mejorada


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

Published by

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Branch OfficePO Box 13700

Dubai, UAE

Tel: +971 4 440 9100Fax: +971 4 447 2409

Printed byUnited Printing Press

© Copyright 2012 CPIAll rights reserved

While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all

information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

Sathya Mithra AshokSenior Editor

E-mail:[email protected]

Talk to us:


© 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


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.


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.



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


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



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.


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



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.



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



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



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


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.



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Request for white papers, presentationmaterial, consultant on Dell blades.

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.


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


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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.



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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.”


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


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.


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.”


“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.


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.


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


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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.


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


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.”


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


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


[email protected] www.paramountassure.com

Paramount Computer Systems FZ LLC

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InformationSecurity...InformationSecurity...

InformationSecurity

IT ServiceManagement

IT Governance

SCADASecurity

NetworkInfrastructure

StorageSolutions

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.


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


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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


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.


TEST BENCH


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.


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.


TEST BENCH


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


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


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


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