Reseller Middle East

vendor focusInfor looks for new partners in the region to drive business growth

Trends and technologies to watch in the year ahead

reviews ProductCanon EOS 60Dlives up to expectations

Belkin launches NetCam HD

m i d - m a r k e t f e r t i l e b r e e d i n g g r o u n d

ISSUE 194 // fEbrUary 2013WWW.rESELLErME.COM

PUBLICATIONLICENSED BY IMPZ

defining new valueAlmasa Value Distribution supports partners with

a right combination of products and services

cover feature

CONTENTSISSUE 194 // fEbrUary 2013

HigHligHts

6 News We help you catch up on all the

major news and announcements in the regional channel community

aNalYsis

14 Large-format ambition Canon took part in the Middle

East Sign and Graphics Exhibition for the first time in January, demonstrating its commitment to the large-format printing market and the channel partners.

si watcH

20 Geared for growth The Dubai-based ICT solutions

and services provider Visionaire serves a diverse range of industries in the region. Aneeta Gupta, CEO of the company, talks about what sets her company apart from the pack.

veNdor focus

22 In for the long haul

When Infor marched into town last month there was a noticeable difference to previous years – this time it brought the hype.

feature

26 Channels of profit Times have never been better for

security-focused channel players. The fast changing threat landscape and the emergence of advanced threats promise to make it a watershed year for the industry.

40 It’s all about mid-market The burgeoning mid-market offers

a plethora of opportunities for the channel willing to invest in services and solutions, and become trusted advisors

Year of change and transformation?

Hot products

F5 enhances application delivery security

Linksys rolls out Wi-Fi solutions

53 54

28 Defining the new value With a right combination of resources, Alamasa Value Distribution is bringing technology solutions to the market and in the process, creating a true value proposition for its partners.

Reseller Middle Eastfebruary 2013 3

Focus. Connect. Lead.Join more than 500 CIOs and senior IT executives at the inaugural Gartner Symposium/ITxpo on 5 – 7 March in Dubai. This global conference spans across 7 countries and is held throughout the year, offering the most comprehensive and strategic insight for IT to help drive the business forward.

Your source for actionable insight in IT and world-class networking

Symposium is designed to provide you with direct access to relevant and actionable new research for the Middle East along with many opportunities to network with highly qualified senior peers across targeted roles and industries.

Research specific to the Middle East

Sessions will cover these key IT and business focus areas of this region:

• Workforce Management • Sourcing and Vendor Management • Leadership Development • Governance • Business Intelligence • Infrastructure • Mobility • Security

Industry specific content is also featured throughout the agenda for:

• Government • Financial Services • Energy and Utilities

View the most comprehensive IT agenda for 2013 at gartner.com/me/symposium and register your place now!

The World’s Most Important Gathering of CIOs and Senior IT Executives

EDITORIAL

Good tidings in security

PublisherDominic De Sousa

Group COONadeem Hood

EdiTOrial

Group EditorJeevan Thankappan

[email protected] +971 4 4409109

Contributing EditorsBen Rossi

Joe Lipscombe

advErTisinG

Commercial directorRajashree R Kumar

[email protected] +971 4 440 9131

Key account ManagerMerle Carrasco


sales ManagerNasir Bazaz


CirCulaTiOn

database and Circulation ManagerRajeesh M


PrOduCTiOn and dEsiGn

Production ManagerJames P Tharian


designerAnalou Balbero


diGiTalwww.resellerme.com

diGiTal sErviCEs

digital services ManagerTristan Troy P Maagma

Web developersErik Briones

Jefferson de Joya

Photographer and social Media Co-ordinator

Jay Colina

[email protected]+971 4 440 9100

Published by

registered at iMPZ

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

Printed byPrintwell Printing Press

© Copyright 2013 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.

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ResellerME

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Talk to us:

all the predictions for 2013 have rolled in and every industry

expert worth his salt reckons security is going to be a top iT

budget priority this year. The research firm Gartner estimates

that the worldwide spending on security has touched $60 billion

in 2012 and is slated to touch $86 billion over the next three

years. Even a cursory glance at today’s threat landscape would

tell you what is really driving the need for businesses to spend

on security infrastructure, which includes software, services

and appliances. in the face of advanced persistent threats,

targeted attacks, sophisticated malware and cyber espionage,

organisations are left with no choice but to invest in security

infrastructure to mitigate risks and reduce vulnerabilities.

The Middle East region, which was lulled into a false sense of

security, has had a rude awakening in the form of a string of

targeted attacks against its critical industry infrastructure.

The fact that regional enterprises are prioritising security budgets

spells good news for the channel. The opportunity to provide security

services including consulting, audits and vulnerability assessments

are huge in addition to products. However, this comes with a caveat:

the margins from commoditised security technologies such as

anti-virus and traditional firewalls are shrinking and the channel will

have to look at high-end security technologies that offer much better

bottom-lines. And to do this, it’s imperative that partners have to re-

think their business models and invest more in building skill sets and

service capabilities. Providing security consulting services tailored

to meet customers’ specific needs can not only offer fatter margins

but also help you to create a competitive advantage in the market. It

might be a good idea to shift the focus from volume sales to drive top

line growth and start listening to your customers to understand what

they want and offer innovative solutions to suit their pressing needs.

Value-added resellers that have not got onto the security bandwagon

yet should align themselves with a partner that is already in this

space to cash in on what this lucrative market has to offer.

Jeevan ThankappanGroup Editor


Steve bennett, Symantec president and chief executive officer

“symantec’s strategy is clear: We

want to enable people, businesses

and countries to focus their

energies and time on achieving

their aspirations, instead of being

consumed with how to keep their

Symantec announces new strategy

hIghLIghTSNews

challenging information and protection

challenges at the endpoint, network

and data centre levels.

“There is a huge set of underserved

and unmet needs that customers

are experiencing with regards to

protecting, moving and managing

their information on multiple

devices,” continued Bennett. “With

our resources and know-how, we are

in a better position to meet those

needs than anyone. We have the

infrastructure to deliver real value to

help customers and this new strategy

will improve both our focus and

execution. We also have the expertise

to know and see what they’re going to

need next. It’s a question of alignment

and regaining focus on the current

and future needs of customers via a

renewed emphasis on innovation plus

developing new technology.”

Symantec’s sales process will continue

to rely heavily on the channel to

manage current customers and free

up Symantec’s sales force to focus on

generating new business. Symantec

will also enhance the marketing

organisation with more strategic

resources and capability to accelerate

focus and organic growth.

according to a new report

from idC, the number of PC

shipments in the EMEa region

continued to contract in Q4

2012, showing a decline of

10.7% compared to the same

quarter last year.

Weaknesses in consumer

demand and budget

constraints in the commercial

segment were cited as

the main reasons for the

contraction, which came in line

with IDC expectations.

The total number of PC

sales in the EMEA region came

to 105.6 million units for the full

year 2012, showing a decline

of 1.6% compared with 2011.

Portable PC shipments declined

by -0.8% in 2012, and desktops

declined by -2.9%, IDC said.

“As expected, PC sales

remained constrained across

EMEA in Q4 2012 as consumer

demand concentrated further

on tablets during the holiday

season, and despite the

launch of Windows 8 and new

designs which did not provide

the hoped upturn effect,”

said Maciej Gornicki, Senior

Research Analyst, IDC EMEA

Personal Computing.

“As a result, notebook sales

continued to display negative

trends in the last quarter of the

year, with a decline by 12.8% of

portable PC shipments in EMEA

in Q4 2012.”

According to IDC, tablets

continued to act as a disrupting

factor in Q4 2012, while both

consumer and commercial

markets have been affected by

macro-economic conditions.

This has led to a shrinking

disposable income among

consumers and tighter budgets

for business investments.

The public sector across

most countries also remained

under pressure, with most

announcing further cuts and

austerity measures, adversely

affecting PC demand, IDC said.

EMEA PC shipments see Q4 decline

digital lives safe and protected,” said

steve Bennett, symantec president

and chief executive officer. “This

is a story about more focus and

better execution by symantec to

make things better and easier for

our customers and partners. Our

path is straightforward: Offer better

products and services tailor made

for customers, and make it easier for

them to research, shop, buy, use, and

get the help and support they need.”

Symantec is focusing on 10 key

areas that combine existing products

and services into new, innovative and

comprehensive solutions that meet

multiple customer needs with integrated

and higher value offerings. The overall

development process is estimated to

take six to 24 months depending on the

specific offering.

In order to continue delivering value to

customers in the future, Symantec will

increase its investment in research and

development and homegrown innovation

to better meet next generation needs.

Symantec will also establish strategic

partnerships where it can integrate

what it does with others to add even

more value for customers. This will help

customers stay ahead of increasingly

Epicor fine-tunes channel strategy

Epicor software, which provides business

software solutions for manufacturing,

distribution, retail and services organisations,

has fine-tuned its channel strategy to drive

growth opportunities in the EMEa region. as

part of the expanded strategy, Epicor will be

looking at recruiting new partners, particularly

for key markets such as France, Germany,

“Our sweet spot is within manufacturing

and distribution but Epicor is also a great

fit in other industries so we are not only

looking for partners with manufacturing

or distribution experience, but also those

who have expertise within other industries

or niche domains,” said James Frampton,

channel vice president for Epicor EMEA. “We

are, however, not changing the strategy of

only recruiting a select number of partners.

Unlike some of our competitors we don’t want

a large channel with resellers that compete

against each other. Epicor therefore offers

true partnerships, often with some sort of

specialism, perhaps domain or vertically

driven or to cover certain geographic areas.

He continued, “It is critical to us that the

partners we select to work with become

successful and we understand that this includes

achieving a good return on their investment

within a reasonable amount of time. We

therefore invest an increasing amount of time

and resources with partners that have the right

attitude and aspirations for success, working

closely with them as an extended sales force.”

Keith Deane, senior vice president for Epicor EMEa

russia and Benelux, and boosting its channel

presence in the Middle East and south africa.

To support the ambitious initiative, Epicor has

recruited several new channel managers as

well as a channel marketing director.

“We have invested in our channel

organisation this year in readiness to support our

expanded strategy and being able to work more

closely with our partners across EMEA on new

business development and implementations,”

said Keith Deane, senior vice president for Epicor

EMEA. “Our goal is to at least double our channel

generated revenues within the next two years.

To help us achieve this we need to recruit a

number of new partners in our key markets, and

boost the breadth of experience we have within

the channel in other markets.”

Epicor will be looking at recruiting partners

that already have enterprise resource planning

(ERP) experience, typically with knowledge of

the larger systems such as SAP, Oracle, Infor or

some Microsoft solutions. Many may be facing

a ‘build-or-buy’ decision, either having legacy

products that are due for replacement, or

looking at building upgrades to older products.

Westcon named Juniper’s EMEA distributor of the yearWestcon Group has been named

“EMEa distributor of the Year”

by Juniper networks for the third

time in four years. The award

was presented at the annual

Juniper networks Global Partner

Conference in las vegas,

where the company recognises

outstanding achievements and

commitment on the part of its

channel partners.

Westcon Group impressed

with its security business

practice, which thrived in

Europe, Africa, and the Middle

East. It also achieved strong

performance in Turkey through

Neteks, it Turkish joint venture.

Overall, Westcon Group

demonstrated more than

25% growth in EMEA during

2012. The success was largely

attributed to its Configure-to-

Order (CTO) project for Juniper

Networks’ MX Series 3D

Universal Edge Routers.

“We congratulate Westcon

Group for its outstanding

achievements and commitment to

leading customers to build next-

generation networks,” said David

Helfer, Vice-President of Partners,

EMEA, Juniper Networks.

“Our annual partner awards

recognise those partners from

around the world demonstrating

outstanding leadership in sales,

customer service, technology

expertise and service

specialisations – all combining

to drive network innovation in

the marketplace.”

The award was accepted by

Leena Jayachandran, Business

Lead for Sales and Marketing,

Westcon Middle East Group.

“Receiving the award for EMEA

thrice in four years from Juniper

is a testament to our commitment

to our vendor partners on the

global level and we are greatly

honoured,” she said.

“Juniper is a strategic

partner for Westcon as a

group and we constantly

strive to ensure that our

technical competency, sales

skills and customer service

and support are at the highest

levels. We endeavour to

continue to build on this

success in the years to come.”


in February 2012, the anti-Economic

Crimes department of the dubai Police

carried out an enforcement action

against a computer and software

reseller in the Bur dubai area. a number

of allegedly counterfeit dell branded

Microsoft Windows Certificates of

authenticity (COa) labels were seized.

An out-of-court settlement was

recently agreed between Microsoft and

the reseller in which the latter admitted

that selling loose Windows COA labels

infringed Microsoft’s IP rights and did

not result in licensed installations of

the software for the end users, signed

undertakings covering future behaviour

and paid AED 150,000 to Microsoft in

damages.

Dale Waterman, Microsoft’s

Corporate Attorney for Anti-Piracy

for the Middle East and Africa,

said the enforcement actions by

local authorities were crucial

to combating piracy and

counterfeiting in the UAE and

driving increased awareness

about the detrimental effects

of piracy.

“Pirated or counterfeit

software has an enormous impact

upon the software industry.

Piracy hurts our honest channel

partners who are just trying to

Software reseller pays damages to Microsoft

hIghLIghTSNews

earn a living. Partners who must compete

with pirates lose more than software

revenue; they lose system sales and the

opportunity to service those customers

over the years. Microsoft is therefore

determined to protect its customer, reseller

and partner ecosystem from the threat

and losses associated with piracy, and to

prevent unscrupulous resellers from taking

advantage of innocent consumers and

gaining an unfair advantage over our

honest partners,” he added.

Pirated software can also

introduce risks to the health of IT

security systems. The impact is felt

by end-users who unknowingly

expose themselves to malware and

viruses existing in pirated software,

making it easier for hackers to

access sensitive information. Such

threats have been recently seen in

the oil and gas industry, banks and

even government websites.

The priority at Microsoft is

to ensure that customers have

a safe, secure and satisfying

experience with their products.

Since 2005, more than 400,000

customers have come forward through

Microsoft’s How to Tell website,

offering details about fake software

that left their computers infected

with viruses and malware.

Cisco has announced plans

to acquire Czech security

vendor Cognitive security, in

a deal that will be finalised

in Q3 2013. Cisco said that

Cognitive’s advanced threat

behaviour analytics will help

to take its current range

of security products to the

next level. The firm wants to

combine the technology with

its global cloud-based threat

intelligence system.

“We’re moving from a

perimeter-based defence

to being able to identify

markets,” said Christopher

Young, Senior Vice-President

of Security and Government,

Cisco. “Cognitive’s threat

behaviour analytics give

us the ability to identify

and stop advanced cyber

threats.”

Young said that cyber

threats are constantly

evolving, and that enterprises

now need to take a number

of steps to stay ahead of

attackers. Cisco is now

looking at ways to identify

threats before they make it

into the system, or else find

threats that have already

found their way into the

system.

Cognitive, which is based

in Prague, collaborates in

a joint security research

programme with the Czech

Technical University. Cisco

said that the collaboration will

continue after it acquires the

security firm.

Cisco to buy Cognitive Security

8 Reseller Middle East february 2013

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acer’s dubai-based management team has

committed to delivering sustainable, profitable

growth to its channel partner ecosystem across

the Middle East.

The brand has recently “fortified” its MEA

operations with new hires and the introduction of

top-end products, the team said, explaining that

Acer’s channel community is growing “bullish”

about future prospects.

“Acer commits to a significant increase in

the level of support we provide to our partners

to facilitate a dynamic business model that

encourages them to be pro-active,” said Amin

Mortazavi, VP, Acer Middle East and Africa.

“Working together, we can capture an even more

significant share of this growing, hugely exciting

IT market.”

The brand will soon embark on a road

show to educate all of its channel partners on its

new strategy and channel programme for 2013.

Acer will also recognise its best partners and

distributors from 2012 at the events that it holds.

The road show will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar,

Oman and Kuwait, with the first event starting in

Dubai this month. Dedicated events for SMBs

will be held in the afternoons during the Dubai

leg. The road show will then hit Saudi Arabia in

February, before heading to Kuwait. In March,

Acer will visit Qatar before finishing up in Oman.

The brand also has plans to visit Karachi in

Lahore, in Pakistan, which, the brand notes, is a

quickly growing market.

“MEA remains one of the strongest-

performing IT markets in the world. Empowering

our channel partners in the region and facilitating

their growth is instrumental for Acer’s continued

success,” said Mortazavi.

Plantronics has expanded its relationship

with distributor Westcon Convergence, in

an effort to reach key telephony accounts

and grow the wireless and unified

communication business opportunities in

the region.

The Plantronics devices that are

now available through Westcon include

Contact Centre, Enterprise and Unified

communications devices, the firm said.

“We’re very pleased to announce an

expansion of our relationship with Westcon

into the Middle East,” said Susan Hansen,

Vice-President of Marketing, Asia Pacific,

Plantronics. “Westcon has a proven expertise

in delivering excellence in core distribution

services around the globe.”

Westcon Middle East specialises in

the convergence of voice, data and video

application technologies, including VoIP,

Internet security, wireless and mobility

solutions. The firm claims to offer a global

portfolio in the Middle East, featuring “best-in-

class” products, services and solutions from

reputable vendor partners.

“We are excited to add Plantronics to

our portfolio,” said Manoj Panchai, Divisional

Director, Westcon Convergence. “We consider

this as a win-win relationship of quality

products and sophisticated distribution,

providing Plantronics with expertise in

recruiting, enabling and growing the enterprise

channel at the same time as expanding our

Unified communication offerings.

hIghLIghTSNews

Plantronics eyes Middle East expansion

Eros Group awarded best re-exporter of the yearEros Group, distributor

for consumer

electronics in the uaE,

was felicitated at the

5th EsEa E-services

Excellence awards as

Best re-Exporter of

the Year 2012. The

E-service Excellence

award is an annual award

organised by dubai

Trade to encourage

“e-transformation” in

trade and logistics and

to recognise the most active online

performers throughout the year.

Commenting on this occasion, Deepak

Babani, CEO, EROS Group said, “It is a proud

moment for all of us at Eros Group to receive

the prestigious E-Services Excellence Award

from Dubai Trade, the premier cross-border

trade facilitator. We take this opportunity to

thank all our principals, trade partners, staff

and customers for taking us further ahead in

our quest for excellence.”

The 5th E-Service Excellence

Award was held under the patronage

of His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum,

Deputy Ruler of Dubai.

Susan Hansen, Vice-President of Marketing, asia Pacific, Plantronicsamin Mortazavi, VP, acer Middle East and africa

Acer commits to channel partners


Allied Telesis unveils new SwitchBlade at partner event

Siemon expands EMEA commercial teamGlobal infrastructure specialist

siemon is expanding its

commercial team in EMEa to

accelerate development and

investment in the north East

area of the region, plus boost

marketing presence in the

Middle East andafrica. The

company is now recruiting

inrussiaand theMiddle Eastto

add to the sales and marketing

resource across EMEa.

The expansion also sees

promotions for two of Siemon’s

global marketing team: Daniel

Vout has been promoted to the

newly created role of regional

manager for the company’s

‘North East’ area and Lyndsey

Parham steps up into the role

of marketing communications

manager.

Dan Vout’s new role for the

North East of EMEA sees him

take control of Siemon’s business

inRussia,Central Asia, the Baltic

and Nordic countries. He will

continue to report to managing

director for EMEA, Steven Foster

and will travel continuously

throughout the region, working

with Siemon’s existing distribution

partners and developing major

end user relationships.

Explaining his appointment

to this senior post, Steven Foster

commented, “Dan is the ideal

person to drive our continued

expansion and investment in the

rapidly developing markets in the

North East region. His focus will

be on educating IT professionals

and supporting channel partners

across the region with the

latest high-end technology,

plus supporting end users with

system specification – a strategy

that has proven successful for

Siemon globally. Dan’s marketing

expertise will also be harnessed

to develop awareness of Siemon

and what the company can offer

to the enterprise and data centre

markets.”

The promotion for Lyndsey

Parham ACIM comes after two

years of success in a marketing

executive role at Siemon. She

now takes complete responsibility

for the company’s marketing

communications strategy across

EMEA and will manage a team

spread across the region. She

too reports to Steven Foster and

will play a key role in the global

marketing team, working closely

with Siemon’s vice president of

marketing, Robert Carlson.

allied Telesis has recently launched the new

switchBlade sBx8112 at its annual event for

partners from the Gulf countries, the levant

region, East africa and Pakistan.

The product is a next-generation,

intelligent Layer 3 chassis switch, the vendor

said, highlighting the contribution that it

can make to the “Stairway to the Cloud”

hIghLIghTSNews

Allied Telesis added that the new

product can be combined with multiple

SwitchBlade x908 switches, creating a

single “virtual core”, regardless of physical

connections and positions.

The firm also showcased a live

resilient network solution demonstration

at its December partner event, which

attracted over 70 partners. The firm

also held a presentation on the latest

information on the vendor’s service and

support models.

“Allied Telesis has seen considerable

growth in the Middle East markets,” said

Sabbahuddin Khan, Regional Manager for

the Middle East, Allied Telesis. “Customers

are looking for high-performance, reliable

solutions, alongside excellent support and

affordability. These are an integral part of

the Allied Telesis offering, which makes us

the natural choice.

“Channels in the region have realised

that they can ensure better customer

satisfaction when working with Allied

Telesis solutions.”

To finish off its conference, the firm

showcased its Star Partner Programme, a

membership programme designed to attract

partners through a range of benefits.

model. Allied Telesis said in the presentation

that the product would enable every small,

mid-size and large enterprise to “easily and

effectively” migrate to cloud operations.

With its 160 non-oversubscribed,

wire-speed 10G ports in a 11-rack unit, the

SBx8112 is the highest capacity and density

Layer 3 chassis on the market, the firm said.


Petra Heinrich, VP, Partners and alliances, EMEa-red Hat

Red Hat beefs up partner programmeRed Hat has also announced availability

of the Red Hat Partner Demo System, a new,

online virtual demo lab that partners can use for

training, customer demonstrations or to provide

proof of concepts. The Partner Demo System

includes demonstrations for all Red Hat products

and requires only a browser to access, designed

to save partners time and expense while adding

convenience. The Red Hat Partner Demo System

is available today in North America via Red Hat

Partner Center, with other regions to follow.

In 2012, Red Hat launched a new Partner

Lead Pass Program, a programme designed

to pass qualified sales leads from Red Hat

to qualified partners. Since its launch, Red

Hat has made several enhancements to the

programme, including making leads available

through the Red Hat Partner Center and

creating a one-step process for converting

eligible leads to deal registration opportunities.

red Hat has announced that the company’s

channel has grown over the past four years

with channel bookings at 53 percent of total

bookings in FY08 to 60 percent in FY12 and

most recently, 65 percent for Q3FY13. Channel

momentum has contributed to total company

annual revenue that reached $1,133M in FY12.

Red Hat has unveiled several partner

programme enhancements and investments

designed to support and reward Red Hat partners.

Red Hat is launching an overhauled training

curriculum for all partners, including a refreshed

curriculum covering pre-sales, sales and delivery

training that provides qualified partners with

access to Red Hat Services best practices.

Additionally, partner training will now be available

online and free of charge, making training

available to partners when and where they

need it. The updated Red Hat partner training is

available immediately via Red Hat Partner Center.

Canon took part in the Middle East Sign and Graphics Exhibition for the first time in January, demonstrating its commitment to the large-format printing market and the channel partners.

ANALYSISCanon

While it has always thrived as a

manufacturer of high-end

cameras and printers, Canon now

has an eye on the rapidly

expanding large-format printing (lFP)

market. in January, the firm participated in

the Middle East sign and Graphics

international Exhibition for the first time,

alongside a number of its channel partners,

such as EFi, devstudio, Esri and Colortrac,

to name a few.

Canon is keen to build up its presence

in the large-format printing market, in which,

Naoshi yamada, Deputy Managing Director, Canon Middle East

“We are trying to make selling Canon products more profitable, and we are trying to have long-term partnerships with our partners for both tier-one and tier-two channels.”

the company claims, it is already one of

the leaders. To become the leader, though,

the firm recognises that it needs to invest

resources into its channel partnerships.

“We have around a 20% market share

across the Middle East and Africa so far,” says

Ayman Aly, Marketing Manager, Professional

Solutions, Canon Middle East. “We are trying

to grow aggressively, and we are anticipating

a 40% growth in this business in 2013,

compared to 2012. We are investing in more

resources for our channel, so I think we will

be able to achieve our target of 40%

“What we are offering to our channels

now is that we are trying to make selling

Canon products more profitable, and we

are trying to have long-term partnerships

with them for both tier-one and tier-two

channels. And we are trying to help them find

new opportunities in new, vertical markets,

covering new industries, new applications

and new products, so there are new

opportunities for them.”

No doubt the brand will need to invest

in its channel over the coming year, then,

if only to support its burgeoning portfolio

of LFP products. At the Sign and Graphics

expo, Canon launched seven new products

in the Middle East, serving markets from

photography and proofing to production,

in-house printing and computer-aided design

(CAD) industries.

The newly launched LFP printers

included the imagePROGRAF 760 and

the imagePROGRAF 675, which, Canon

claims, are tailored to meet the needs of

the CAD industry, which needs to produce

high-quality print content accurately at

high speeds. Aly says that 70% of Canon’s

business in this segment comes from CAD

products, but that the firm hopes to drive

that number down to 60% or 50%, leaving

room for its other solutions.

“What professionals in this market are

looking for in a product is its ability to tackle

all their needs in a cost-effective and efficient

way without compromising on quality,” said

Hendrik Verbrugghe, Marketing Director,

Canon Middle East, upon the launch of the

new products. “Our versatility is unmatched.”

Canon claims that the very fact it debuted

these products at the Middle East Sign and

Imaging expo illustrates its commitment

to the regional LFP market. And of course,

attendance at such a show is always a good

way to meet new LFP resellers.

“There are many LFP resellers and

partners coming to this event, so I’d like

to show our product portfolio of solutions

to our partners and to be able to expand

our channel,” says Naoshi Yamada, Deputy

Managing Director, Canon Middle East.

Yamada says that it is important to

support any channel partners who might

come on board as a result of the show.

“We will introduce our channel partner

programmes , which is a total support

package for our partners, this year. Through

these kinds of programmes, we’ll provide a

lot of support, such as materials seminars and

reward systems. This will hopefully get more

partners on board.”

Canon is already taking bold steps

ahead of securing more channel partners,

though. In June 2012, the firm opened its

Live Showroom on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed

Road, and particular focus is being paid

to the display of LFP-related products,

Yamada says. //

large-format ambitioN


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.

DubaiP.O. Box: 32610, Dubai, UAE.Tel: +971 4 3426060 Fax: +971 4 3547779E-mail: [email protected]

Bahrain:P.O. BOX 75149, Manama,Kingdom of BahrainTel.+973 17292904Fax: +973 17295183Email: [email protected]

At its annual Cisco Live conference held in London, the vendor has unveiled plans to cementing its name as the dominant force in enterprise networking solutions. Tom Paye reports.

market domiNatioN

ANALYSISCisco

When Cisco sold its home

networking arm, linksys, to rival

Belkin in January, the firm said that

it wanted to commit to its enterprise

and service provider businesses. Having all but

dominated the world of home networking for

more than a decade, it was time for Cisco to

step back and get its priorities straight.

The word of the day seemed simple:

Cisco has a lot more to offer the world than

a decent WiFi router. And, in the enterprise

segment at least, the firm is becoming

something of an unstoppable force, as shown

by its products that seem, at first glance, way

ahead of the competition.

A certain change is in the air at Cisco,

then, but, as Padmasree Warrior, CTO, Cisco,

noted in her keynote speech, change is

happening all around the technological world.

“The most significant change that amazes

me is the growth in the number of devices

that we use. In 1984, when Cisco was being

created, there were 1,000 devices connected

to the Internet. By 1992, that number became 1

million. By 2020, we expect 50 billion devices

to be connected to the Internet.”

The message that IT managers and CIOs

had to get into their heads, she implied, was

that they need to find ways to accommodate

all of these devices on their networks. Indeed,

much of Cisco Live was spent discussing how

to better manage this exponential growth in the

number of devices connecting to the Internet.

Of course, Cisco had its own solutions to

this problem, and was keen to show them off at

the London conference. The mantra of Unified

Access is at the core of the company’s plans

going forward, Cisco said. This means being

able to manage multiple networks through one

unit and allowing any wired or wireless device

safe access onto enterprise networks.

“We believe that networks need to be

simpler, more secure and easier to operate,”

said Rob Soderbery, Senior Vice-President

and General Manager of Enterprise

Networking, Cisco, in his keynote speech.

“But in terms of new users, and new types

of devices, and all the things that come

onto your network, these things are actually

working against that idea. Our idea is to keep

all of those devices, and the network, safe.”

To this end, Soderbery previewed a new

set of products that would help companies

upgrade their networks so that they are easier

to manage. At the core of the new product

line-up, he said, is the new Unified Access Data

Plane ASIC, which allows for a new architecture

that converges the processing of wired and

wireless traffic into a single data plane.

“We’re going to converge that wired

and wireless network,” explained Soderbery.

“The Unified Access Data Plane ASIC is at

the core of our new converged wired and

wireless platforms, giving you all of your wired

features, and, at the same time, all of your

wireless services as well.”

Part of the new line-up included the new

Catalyst 3850 Unified Access Switch, which

delivers one physical infrastructure for wired

and wireless networks, and the new 5760

Unified Access WLAN Controller, which 60Gbps

performance. The 5760 can be managed

through Cisco’s IOS-based software, which

provides information on what kinds of devices

are connected to the network, how much

bandwidth they use, and who they belong to.

But the ability to converge wired and

wireless networks was not the only trick that

Cisco had up its sleeve in London. On the

second day of the conference, security was

the order of the day, with the vendor releasing

its annual security report and its new solutions

to address the changes in security needs.

With its new range of products and vastly

expanding partner ecosystem, Cisco looks

set to offer great things for 2013. And

judging by the professional response to its

announcements at Cisco Live in London, it

seems as if the vendor should get on fine

without its home networking business. //Padmashree Warrior, CTO, Cisco


Tel +971 4 4548740Fax +971 4 4548750

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pARTNER wATChAlmasa Value Distribution

roger El Tawil, Executive Director, almasa Value Distribution

With a right combination of resources, Alamasa Value Distribution is bringing technology solutions to the market and in the process, creating a true value proposition for its partners. Roger El Tawil, Executive Director of the company, talks about the plans for 2013 and how it is betting big on video to drive growth.

defiNiNg tHe New value

18 Reseller Middle East18 Reseller Middle East february 2013

do you have plans to cash in on some of the

hot tech trends such as mobility, security,

virtualisation, etc?

Security is indeed something we are looking

at. Today, everything is getting virtualised and

we are working with Avaya on their virtualised

platforms for networking and video. I think

video is going to be the key that will drive the

whole BYOD trend ahead.

do you encourage your partners to explore

the opportunities in the services space?

Every partner has to play a service role. If

you look at any business that gets half of its

revenues from services and other half from

products or integration that is a good formula

to have. But, if you tend to move more on

products your top line might look good but

profitability is going to suffer. I always have

this debate with our partners – do you bring

people first or projects first? If you bring in the

right people, you will get the right projects.

That’s exactly why are investing in people

even though the revenue opportunity may not

be immediate.

How do you see the distribution model

evolving in the context of cloud computing?

Yes, we have to adapt when the cloud

model kicks off. But, there is a still a lot of

infrastructure and connectivity required in

this part of the world for that to happen.

Small businesses will of course look at cloud

services and service providers will need

someone to transact for them. I think in such

a scenario, distributors will become services

aggregator and play the role of transaction

gateways. We still have to wait and see how

this model is going to evolve. //

You are a fairly new entrant into

the regional vad landscape.

How’s the journey been?

It’s been two years since our

inception and we are progressing in line

with our plans. We have had some setbacks

due to market conditions last year but it’s

been building up to a promising 2013. If you

listen around, last year was a challenging

one for the whole channel ecosystem but

we were able to perform despite challenging

conditions. I am bullish about 2013 because

there are better sentiments.

isn’t it challenging to function as a vad unit

within a broadline distribution set up?

Almost ten years go, Almasa had a value

business unit called networking. But, when

you are playing a broadline game, which

has different metrics, methodologies and

approaches, it’s very hard to think about

value. So we decided to create an entity

called Almasa Value Distribution with its own

team, focus, and go-to-market strategy. The

expectations from channel, vendors and

market are very different and you have to

cater to all of those. We are independent from

a decision making point of view but share

the same infrastructure such as warehouses,

back office and logistics; we are trying to drive

forward with a different approach than the rest

of the company.

do you have any plans to expand operations?

Right now, the key focus areas are UAE, Saudi

and Iraq. We were in Egypt but pulled out

because of the conditions, and we have an

in-country presence in Kuwait. We are also

looking at the African market and probably will

explore more of a JV opportunity to address

the Central and East West Africa.

How do you define value?

Everyone has their own unique approach

and for me, it’s all about people. We have

a solutions-led approach rather than a

product-centric one, and we are hiring

expertise to put solutions and bundles

together so that our partners don’t have to

invest in these resources.

do you evangelise technology on behalf of

vendors?

Some vendors expect us to but the reality is

that customers and partners want to hear it

directly from them. So what we really do is to

bridge the gap, and create platforms to bring

vendors and partners together.

How about training and certification?

The channel partners and customers want

certifications from vendor-led training centres.

The value we bring to the table is that we train

our partners’ sales force and assist them with

PoCs. We don’t want to drive any technical

training but we facilitate that with vendor-

authorised training centres. Recently, we have

invested in an in-house video conferencing

solution centre to enable knowledge transfer

to our partners.

How many partners do you have?

We have around 100 active partners at the

moment. As for vendors, Avaya and HP are

the key brands that we work with and we

are going to sign up a couple of more to

complement our existing portfolio in the next

six months.

Video is coming up big and we are

building solutions around it. We are going

to focus on key verticals such as education,

retail, healthcare and government. In terms

of technologies, apart from video we are

also looking at smartboards, digital signage

and video surveillance. There is a whole

convergence of technologies and video is

one example, which used to be very niche.

Now it’s moved into the realm of IT and same

is true in the case of digital signage. It’s a not

an AV game anymore.

“We have a solutions-led approach rather than a product-centric one, and we are hiring expertise to put solutions and bundles together so that our partners don’t have to invest in these resources.”


SI wATChVisionaire

aneeta Gupta, CEO, Visionaire

The Dubai-based ICT solutions and services provider Visionaire serves a diverse range of industries in the region. Aneeta Gupta, CEO of the company, talks about what sets her company apart from the pack.

geared for growtH


We don’t ship boxes, we ship complete,

configured systems to the client. We assemble

everything here, we deploy it, test it – even

the clients can sometimes come in and test

everything while their construction needs are

going on.

How much of your revenues come from

the basic infrastructure projects and the

applications projects?

I would think right now about 60 percent

is infrastructure, because we design major

projects. We don’t just go running after

every job. If you came to me and said, “I

have a simple office building – 300 people

– set it up”. Would that interest us? No. If

you came to me with a campus or you came

to me with a deployment in hospitality or

you looked at some of the complexity you

require for deployment, then we get very

interested in that.

How was 2012 for you? Where did the

growth come from?

This year was a very good year for us. Growth

has come from two areas. One from services

– that is a strong business area that we put

together – and infrastructure is still growing.

We just won the Abu Dhabi Education Council

corporate headquarters building now, and

there are many more that are coming up as we

go across. I have no regrets – in fact I’m very

excited about 2013 now.

What are the plans for 2013?

We are going to dramatically expand our

solution offering. And we are putting that

together with the four Cs approach. We have

a lot of visibility in the company – we’re the

premium sponsor of Gartner’s IT symposium,

the highest level sponsorship that one can

have. We’re working closely with Gartner on a

white paper that will be published right now. I’ve

just finished a white paper on transformational

ICT, which is the real business of the CIOs. //

Many people still think of

visionaire as an av company. Can

you tell us a bit about your

systems integration business?

A lot of people want us to be branded that

way but if you look at the projects that

we did, almost everything large-size and

complex in this country was done by us.

We didn’t do huge numbers in terms of

ports but we did substantially large projects

such as 33,000 network points in the UAE

University spread across 65 buildings. It’s

one of the most advanced networks in the

country today.

Also, our positioning is somewhat

different; it’s very unique. We’re not a gold

partner with anybody. Yes we do have the

highest levels of partnership with Microsoft,

VMware, HP, etc, but we don’t believe in

signing up with these vendors for volume

sales or guarantee that we will always sell their

products into what we do.

We are typically a vendor-neutral, design-

build-manage house, and a lot of system

integrators in the business today don’t have

any design capabilities. So they will go over to

a vendor, become their gold partner, and then

the vendor designs everything and hands it

over to them. We decided early in our life that

that’s not what our mantra is going to be. We

wanted to learn and add value for ourselves

and that allows us to be very flexible.

What value are you bringing to the table?

What is your usP?

The first thing is the integration value. We

are a system integrator. We really squeeze

the system to over-perform. The first thing

we give is much more enhancement. A case

in point is the UAEU data centre project, for

which we have won an award. We worked

with APC for this project and they were

trying to push their design. We didn’t take it

so we redesigned everything and created

something which was much more balanced

that cost the client 40-50% less.

We have two things that are unique about

us: one is that we give what’s called best of

breed. There is nothing that we have to buy

because we have the flexibility. And I think

that is the reason that a system integration

company exists today in the world. Our job is

to basically look at the client, help the client

achieve their best functional advantage rather

than trying to push a vendor’s quota.

are you looking at the opportunities around

some of the emerging technologies?

We look at what we call the four Cs. The first

is the connectivity, and we take both wired

and wireless together as connectivity and

access. That’s the connectivity infrastructure.

Cloud is the second one – cloud and mobility

go together. Linked to mobility is BYOD and

whatever else you want to do. The third thing

is communication and collaboration, which I

think is the most important thing in terms of the

growth of where the industry is going to go, as

people want to communicate and collaborate

all the time. And then the fourth is converged

services, which is how you manage your

services to keep this running for you.

The entire philosophy, which now we’ve

labelled under one name called technomics

– the economics of technology basically is

now labelled. Technomics is our branding, it’s

a platform that we have built that brings the

four Cs below it, and then we can extend that

outwards to give the client exactly what he

wants to achieve in the four Cs, depending

on his business case and whatever he wants

for his business.

How do you see the industry evolving this

year, especially the system integration

industry? do you think it’s going to change,

with cloud and everything coming into the

picture?

I think in services, there’s definitely going

to be an opportunity. Hardware is going

to get more and more simple. Software

is going to drive much of what’s going to

happen, and we need to have strong skills

and understanding there. The hardware is

going to shrink down into boxes. Maybe

all these vendors will just ship the pre-

configured box, so we may not have to do

too much there.

We are typically a vendor-neutral, design-build-manage house, and a lot of system integrators in the business today don’t have any design capabilities.


© 2012 Dell Products. Dell, the logo, XPS, Latitude and Vostro are registered or unregistered trademarks of Dell Inc. in the United States and other countries. Ultrabook, Celeron, Celeron Inside, Core Inside, Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Atom, Intel Atom Inside, Intel Core, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo, Intel vPro, Itanium, Itanium Inside, Pentium, Pentium Inside, vPro Inside, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks or trade names may be used in this document to refer to third-party products (such as operating systems and software) included with the products o� ered by Dell and the entities claiming the marks and names of those products. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Dell Corporation Ltd, Dell House, The Boulevard, Cain Road, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 1LF.

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22 Reseller Middle East22 Reseller Middle East february 2013

When Infor marched into town last month there was a noticeable difference to previous years – this time it brought the hype.

iN for tHe loNg Haul

vENDOR fOCuSInfor

Mike Hibbert, Channel Manager, MEa, Infor

it’s taken a change of management,

a change of strategy, another

change of strategy, and it’s taken

time, but infor landed in dubai last

month revelling in the success of a new era

that has been promised for far too long.

Prior to Infor’s roadshow in Paris back in

November when it announced the release

of its brilliant new upgraded system solution

known as ION, the company had been moving

along at walking pace with nothing but ideas

and expectations. However, when ResellerME

visited Infor at its annual Middle East roadshow

the blueprints had been replaced by profits and

productivity, and Infor had never looked stronger.

Channel manager for the region, Mike

Hibbert, has been pushing Infor to move more

prominently in the Middle East and has been

trying to get more support on the ground in order

to establish a solid brand in this part of the world.

Recently he was able to announce that he had

succeeded.

Hibbert says that Infor is also currently

recruiting more personnel, as well as already

bringing in two more support engineers into

the area.

“Our major problem, as we’ve said before, is

the working day issue. If we had a customer who

needed support on a Sunday, they wouldn’t get

anywhere for hours. We needed to bring Infor

people in and have them the ground offering full

support,” he says.

“We’re going through a lot of changes at the

moment and this is one for the better. We have

our own team set up here now and I’m here 90

percent of the time now which gives me far more

time to spend with the partners and customers.

It’s been a very productive last few months.”

Infor has recently split its go-to market into

five separate business units; supply chain and

manufacturing, finance, public sector, healthcare,

and hospitality – Hibbert has taken control of the

supply chain and manufacturing vertical which

he says makes choosing partners and dedicating

time to customers far more doable.

“We’re looking for new partners in the region

as we speak. But we’re going for quality partners

now instead of having just anybody. It’s about

quality not quantity this time. We’re looking into

Saudi as well, that’s a buoyant market so we’re

going to put someone on the ground there, I

think we’ll get more out of it that way,” he says.

“I have about 12 in my sector and they all

made the roadshow too which is great.”

Time of change

A lot has changed for Infor since its last visit

to town, the most significant being that its

hyped up market strategy and product base

has begun to ship as well be deployed in live

scenarios. Most recently, Infor sold ION to Pan

Emirates, a local furniture manufacturer which

upgraded its legacy system and deployed ION

through Infor’s partners.

Hibbert says many legacy customers who

have ERP systems already in place are finding

Infor as a safe bet for individual products, an area

of its business which is growing.

“Most companies have ERP systems, not

necessarily Infor systems but perhaps a home-

grown system which is becoming outdated. In

this case we’re selling individual applications

and technologies which will integrate with their

current system instead of just full whack products

or upgrades,” he said.

“ION isn’t new, it’s been around under

another name but it has really started to take off

now, that’s a major difference. It’s all starting to

click into place. That’s one of the differences with

us as a company now – we’re productive, we’re

full of energy and making waves as opposed to

just discussing ideas.”

Infor has been described as the world’s

largest start-up due to the way it operates

and perhaps its relatively low profile in

comparison to its major competitors, giants

such as Oracle and SAP who have been

around for decades. But Hibbert thinks this

isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“I’ve come from start-ups, so I know

exactly what they’re about, and in ways we

are like a start-up. We’ve been around for

ages but everyone is dedicated to helping

each other and getting things done for the

team and that’s a really great feeling. In these

well established firms, people will sit back

and just work by their job description, there

isn’t much urgency or team work. But with us,

and many start-ups, there is a real team effort,

people will do what needs to be done in order

to get results.”

Cometh the hour, cometh the man

Infor has witnessed a major turnaround in the

last couple of years which Hibbert puts down

to the introduction of new CEO Charles Phillips

and his executive team which he brought with

him. Described as not only a business man, but

also a product man, Hibbert believes that the

fresh approach, intelligence and ability to follow

through on projects has helped take Infor to the

next level.

“The team we had before were great, but

they got us to a certain point and we needed to

then go above and beyond that point – Charles

has taken us there.

“We needed some fresh thinking, we

needed to invest, and we needed to get things

moving, he’s done that,” he adds.

Phillips joined Infor from Oracle two years ago

and the company has seen a dramatic turnaround

since, so is Infor beginning to click because of

Phillips or because of its rival – Oracle?

“I think it’s all about Charles, but that’s my

view,” Hibbert claims.

“He is a real doer, and a strategist. The team

he brought with him are all very complimentary

to that strategy too, so it works. We were drifting

a little off track with our products and vision and

he really pulled us back on track.”

revelling in the now, investing in the future

Infor has done a lot in the last 18 months, claims

Hibbert. He says the company has done a

complete 180 in terms of business and with

heavy investment, more dedicated partners and

focused teams on the ground, Infor can continue

its surge in the Middle East.

“It’s a great time to be us, it’s a very

productive and positive time.”

“Our major issue has always been branding,

we’ve never branded ourselves well enough.

However, now we’re working on this, especially

in this area and we’re starting to get noticed. SAP

and Oracle obviously have a 20 year head start

on us, but we’re getting there,” Hibbert says.

“But we’re committed to the region and the

future looks bright.” //

“Infor has recently split its go-to market into five separate business units; supply chain and manufacturing, finance, public sector, healthcare, and hospitality.”

vENDOR fOCuSInfor


Times have never been better for security-focused channel players. The fast changing threat and the emergence of advanced threats promise to make it a watershed year for the industry. It’s time for the channel to raise their game and grab these new opportunities.

cHaNNels of profit

Security

fEATuRE

Security

Following a spate of well-

publicised breaches, security is

top of mind for Middle East

enterprises, regardless of the

size. if the industry predictions are

anything to go by, the security market is

poised to touch new highs this year with

many organisations budgeting for

protection of their critical assets.

The emergence of new technology

trends such as BYOD, virtualisation and

cloud has also made it mandatory for IT

decision makers to think about the security

ramifications and many of them are looking

towards partners to help them keep pace

with the ever-changing threat landscape.

have put security as an important priority on

the technology agenda for 2013. The region

has, in the wake of recent technology security

breaches, evolved its strategy to cover all

aspects of technology security enablement.

She adds that the fastest growing

security segments in the region are

SIEM (security information and event

management), anti-virus, and network

security. “The channel will also find ample

opportunity in the security compliance

domain. There is an apparent need of

growth in the security services market like

risk assessment and security architecture

planning, which should be the focus of most

of the channel as it augments the growth

of the security software and appliances

market.”

Aman Manzoor, Channel Manager,

Kaspersky Lab, adds a different

perspective: “Tackling security in the era

of hypermobility is going to be a critical

area that the partner community needs

to prepare itself to exploit. As the BYOD

trend is now a market reality, assisting the

customers in managing the corporate data

“Tackling security in the era of hypermobility is going to be a critical area that the partner community needs to prepare itself to exploit.”

fEATuRE

“With the recent targeted attacks and

breaches in the Middle East, IT managers/

CSOs are more and more being pushed

hard by their executive team to show a

clear security position that will protect their

business. Security and data protection are,

therefore, at the top of organisations’ IT

expenditure, and there is a growing need

for partners to make sure they are able

to fulfil the demand for the right levels

of security – and this is good business

for them,” says Sushma Kajaria, Regional

Channel Manager, Trend Micro.

Meera Kaul, MD of Optimus Technology

& Telecommunications, agrees that

governments, corporations and end users


Sushma Kajaria, regional Channel Manager, Trend Micro

anand Choudha, MD of Spectrami

in an environment where the employees

are increasingly introducing their own

devices into the network is going to be the

opportunity that we have to address. This

area not only needs a robust technology

but also a partner who is able to translate

the technology into a solution that fits in

the customer environment and matches the

customer’s business policies.”

Anand Choudha, MD of Spectrami,

points out some alarming statistics – last

year alone, 75 million known variants of

malware caused over $12 billion in reported

losses and infected over one billion

computers worldwide.

“Malware has become a crisis of epic

proportions. I think APT protection and

zero-day malware analysis are the two key

trends that partners need to have their eyes

on,” he adds.

new vistas of growth

Should channel partners move to high-end

security technologies from more traditional

ones such as AV and UTM? The opinion

is divided in the industry and what is for

sure is that there exists a huge gap in the

security market in the region.

“There is a huge gap in skill capabilities

to consult and execute security strategy

and governance infrastructures within the

enterprise in the region. The channel needs

to plan and invest in skills, capabilities and

certifications on people, processes and

technologies that may be able to address

a holistic security infrastructure rather than

just devices and applications,” says Kaul.

Manzoor says that in the current

marketplace most of the AV vendors are

already striving to ensure that their products

evolve into a comprehensive security

solution to respond to the emerging threats.

“And we are witnessing similar trends

in other security technologies as well. It

is a critical requirement that our partner

community has to work tirelessly to remain

at the bleeding edge of these technological

innovations. This means investing in training

for all their team members, including the

sales and post sales operation. These

efforts will result in a workforce that is able

to spot opportunities in their customer

bases and translate the customer pain

into commercial advantage for both the

customer and their organisations.”

Kajaria advises the channel to look

beyond simple AV solutions, and says

there has to be a multi-layered approach

to security. “The market is now driving

security vendors and they have to respond

to new models of computing such as BYOD,

consumerisation and cloud in various

guises. Channel partners have to follow the

market and invest in skills to meet the ever

changing needs of their customers.”

A key tend in the IT security market is

the transition toward more of a services-

led model. “According to Gartner, the IT

management segment of security services

is forecasted to grow from $9.361 billion in

2012 to $14.9 billion in 2015 which is almost

double the size of the security services

market for managed security using the

outsourced management model. The security

service market is increasing rapidly with

more security technology providers offering

their technologies as services,” says Miguel

Braojos, Vice President of Sales Southern

Europe, Middle East and Africa, SafeNet.

Manzoor says this transition into a services-

“Last year alone, 75 million known variants of malware caused over $12 billion in reported losses and infected over one billion computers worldwide.”

Security

fEATuRE


led marketplace has been occurring at a more

rapid pace than before. The key reason for this

is that in the current threat landscape, the attack

vectors are many and diverse.

For the customer to navigate this

landscape independently is going to be

difficult due to the rapid pace of changes

occurring in this landscape. As such the

customers need their suppliers to not

only be aware of these changes but have

effective recommendations and solutions

for securing the IT infrastructure of the

customer, he adds.

Choudha from Spectrami says that there

is a concentrated push from vendors and

system integrators alike to move towards

more of a services approach. “With the

sophistication of attacks, lack of skills,

not even budgets, and the high stakes

involved, we see an interesting trend where

in customers are looking at SLA or service

approach to security. The other aspect driving

services led market is the fact that no matter

how many products a customer deploys, he

still needs high end services, be it malware or

breach analysis or incidence response.”

In this context, it is pertinent that the

channel ramps up and invests in expertise,

people and processes to bring consulting

and services expertise to the end customer.

This expertise may be product agnostic or

linked to the products being positioned by

the channel, according to Kaul.

Braojos agrees: “This is a competitive

and growing area, unless channel partners

are up-to-date and equipped with the right

skills they will not be able to compete

and benefit from the opportunities in the

market. Businesses rely on vendors and

Meera Kaul, MD of Optimus Technology & Telecommunications

partners to provide consulting and services

to assess their business and technology

requirements, and provide them with

solutions accordingly.”

Alexander Zarovsky, International

Business Chief, InfoWatch, says it’s a

good idea for the channel partners to

focus on specific areas within the security

domain. “Information security technologies

are quite a narrow field. That’s why

the channel should use the synergy of

different companies to meet the client

needs. All vendors offer different versions

of security solutions and the channel

should have multi-vendor agreements.”

How can channel partners create

competitive differentiators to position

them as viable contenders in this space?

Kaul says channel partners can create

differentiation through the quality of service

they offer. “The channel partners need

to differentiate themselves on expertise

through customer consulting and services

in this domain. This may be an expertise

in performance management of networks

and devices, incident response planning or

service continuity but the market is keen to

accept differentiation in expertise.”

So what does it take for the channel

to succeed in this challenging market?

Probably, Kajaria sums it up best: The

partners need to know the solutions their

customers need, then have the right vendor

relationships to deliver those solutions,

acquire the right skills to implement and

manage those solutions and support them

ongoing. Know your customer, be a ‘real’

trusted advisor to your vendors as well as

your customer.” //

Security

fEATuRE

Miguel braojos, Vice President of Sales Southern Europe, Middle East and africa, SafeNet

“It is pertinent that the channel ramps up and invests in expertise, people and processes to bring consulting and services expertise to the end customer.”


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Maroor Street opposite Abu Dhabi Bus Station Maj building, c-159, Office M 02 Abu Dhabi, U.A.E Tel. 971 2 641 88 68 Fax. 971 2 641 88 61Email: [email protected] WWeb : www.prologixme.com

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OpINIONSonicWALL

The security issues affecting businesses are similar around the world, writes Florian Malecki, Head of Product Marketing Manager –EMEA, Dell SonicWALL

cYber securitY cHalleNges iN 2013

The key issues and points of

vulnerability are around human

engagement – most of it

innocently – such as bringing an

infected personal mobile device into the

corporate network, or clicking on a social

media link that looks harmless but hides a

Trojan or Worm that will secretly steal data

and money and, potentially, remain

undetected with severe impact on security

of the infected device.

The major cyber-security challenges to

businesses through 2013 will come from

• Increase in Exploit Kits

• Increase in mobile device cyber-security

threats

• Increase in sophistication of threats

increase in Exploit Kits: Exploit Kits

represent the dark but massively profitable side

of cyber-security attacks. Exploit kits comprise

malicious programs. They quickly identify and

then attack cyber vulnerabilities and spread

malware. Exploit kits are created, sold and

rented, on the black market. We predict they will

be increasingly used because of their ease of

deployment (rental model) and ease and speed

of infection they deliver. The impact of these

attacks will be felt in loss of data, IP, identify

theft, financial fraud and theft, as well as in

diminished business productivity and continuity.

We expect to see exploit kits targeting Windows

8, MAC OS X and mobile devices, particularly

Android based, in 2013 as these three targets

represent fast-growing segments used by

corporates and consumers alike to transact

communications, business and commerce.

The growth of malware will continue at

an explosive pace. In 2012, Dell SonicWALL

identified nearly 16 million unique malware

samples through its GRID (Global Response

Intelligent Defense system) compared to 13.5

million in year 2011. Already, there are around

44,000 new malware samples every day

increase in mobile cyber-security

vulnerability: The adoption of NFC (near field

communication) for mobile payment systems

makes mobile platforms a very attractive target

for financially motivated cybercrimes. The

increased use of personal devices because of

trends like BYOD (bring your own device) in

businesses creates entirely new cyber security

issues from loss of company data and IP,

financial threat, non-compliance issues to name

a few. As social media continues to be adopted

universally for personal and business purposes

alike, malware will increase dramatically across

Facebook, Twitter and Skype in 2013. This

triple threat threatens targeted mobile devices

at the point of commerce, through their

access to corporate networks and through

their access to social media channels. It will

be particularly dangerous and become more

advanced and prevalent.

increase in sophistication of cyber-

attacks: Last year, we saw cybercriminals

abandon older scareware methods such

as Fake AV scams and move over to

Ransomware scams. We expect to see this

continue and become more global and multi-

lingual which also represents a growing threat

to LATAM. Ransomware attacks lock down a

computer, device or service and holds all the

data hostage or even threatens court action

if the user does not pay. These are very

devious attacks that are embedded deep

into the computer or device and it is nearly

impossible for an average user to regain

control over his own system and data.

The sophistication and ability to attack

and paralyze websites will continue to grow

at dramatic pace. For example in 2011, there

were 1,596,905 DDoS (distributed denial-of-

service attacks) compared to 120,321,372 in

2012. As businesses of all sizes continue

to move services and infrastructure to the

cloud, the issue of DDoS will be high on many

agendas at it has the potential to quickly

cripple entire cloud infrastructures.

Viruses, Trojans, Worms, and Ransomware

do not differentiate between a large or

small business. They represent the same

risk, no matter if you have a lot or only very

little budget to invest in network security.

Irrespective of the size of your business,

these threats can mean loss of profitability

and productivity, loss of data and financial

assets, and potentially catastrophic loss

of business continuity. It is likely that small

businesses are more likely to fall pretty to

these attacks, because they do not have the

budget, IT infrastructure or support that a

large business can afford. On the other hand,

the more people a business employs, the

greater the vulnerability of its network. //

florian Malecki, Head of Product Marketing Manager –EMEa, Dell SonicWaLL


manageability

without thecomplexity.

This communication has been created for you by a company reselling Dell products.

© 2012 Dell Products. Dell, the Dell logo and Latitude are registered or unregistered trade marks of Dell Inc. in the United States and other countries. Intel, the Intel Logo, Intel Inside, Intel Core, and Core Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Windows and the Windows logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks or trade names may be used in this document to refer to third-party products (such as operating systems and software) included with the products o�ered by Dell and the entities claiming the marks and names of those products. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. [Dell Corporation Ltd, Dell House, The Boulevard, Cain Road, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 1LF.

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lati_opti_20.7x27cm.pdf 1 12/26/12 3:57 PM

OpINIONSophos

Looking forward to 2013, we will see an extremely high rate of trends continuing from 2012. Therefore, many of the following aren’t as much predictions of new surprising trends but, rather, a baseline of what we still need to deal with next year, says James Lyne, Director of Technology Strategy, Sophos

13 securitY treNds for 2013

attack toolkits continue to

proliferate

Over the past year we’ve

seen significant investment by

cybercriminals in toolkits like the Blackhole

Exploit Pack. Features such as scriptable

web services APIs, malware quality

assurance platforms, anti-forensics and

self-protection mechanisms are becoming

readily available. Slick reporting interfaces

and ‘premium features’ are fostering new

innovation and ensuring that the barrier to

entry to cyber crime is low and the quality

of malicious code is growing. This trend

will continue in 2013, with new toolkits

being developed and older toolkits being

strengthened.

Modernisation and hardening of operating

systems.

One positive trend for 2013 is the

modernisation and hardening of

operating systems. In 2012 a plethora of

vulnerabilities made headlines, such as the

recent string of Java vulnerabilities (the

2012 equivalent of Adobe in 2011). Despite

the attention these received, exploiting

vulnerabilities in general became harder

as people adopted more modern operating

systems with new security features. The

ready availability of DEP, ASLR, Sandboxing

and new trusted boot mechanisms make

exploitations more challenging.

Cloud based malware testing changes the

threat protection model

In 2012 malware testing platforms were

widely used to test malicious code before it

was released in the wild to make detection

by anti-malware products much harder.

These testing platforms are now growing

more feature rich and introducing money

back guarantees, and continuous testing

features making cyber criminals even more

agile. These platforms have forced the use

of more behavioural and reputation based

security mechanisms, a trend that will

strongly continue and accelerate in 2013.

Watch out for more bi-directional security

data exchanges between endpoints

and security labs and new strategies on

intelligence gathering to equal the efforts of

cyber criminals.

increased focus on layered security

The aforementioned attack tools plus the

trend of targeted, low-volume attacks

means we will see more attacks where the

malware authors will gain long-term access

to systems (a trend most definitely now

established). As a result, 2013 will see a

stronger focus on layered security systems

that detect malware across the entire threat

lifecycle, not just the initial point of entry.

One step forward, two steps back

We all know the story. The pace of adoption

of new technologies, devices and operating

systems is only increasing. Throughout

2012 many of these have already ended up

in common use, a trend that will naturally

continue in 2013. The challenge however

is that many of the new devices and

protocols we introduce are making basic

mistakes which allow simple attacks we

had previously eliminated to once again be

effective. The security community needs to

watch these new technologies closely in

2013 as they are already in production in

most cases.

Mobile attacks become more advanced

Most mobile attacks to date have been

comparable to 1990s PC malware or simple

attacks. They can largely be avoided

by correct device configuration and

management. The increased adoption of

mobile control and security solutions will

force mobile malware authors to alter their

strategies in order to remain effective. This

is also likely as the mobile device becomes

a more interesting platform for attackers to

James Lyne, Director of Technology Strategy, Sophos


More advanced hacktivism and political

debate

It goes without saying that hacktivism has

a huge place in the public eye and that it

is likely to continue to escalate next year.

Interestingly, political debates are raging

over whether methods like DDoS are

legitimate online versions of protest. Over

the year we saw hacktivists employ a wide

range of techniques beyond DDoS, though

many organisations still perceive this as the

primary threat from hacktivists. There has

been an upward trend in more advanced

hacktivist attacks and we can expect more

nasty surprises and news headlines next

year. Organisations should not limit their

field of thinking on hacktivists to DDoS.

arguments over big data vs analytics and

confusion

With the challenge of malicious code and

attackers bypassing traditional single-

layer controls, lots of organisations are

discussing the hot topic of the moment:

‘big data’. There is a great deal of

marketing hype around the topic, with

many claiming magical solutions to the

security problem by just combining lots

of information together. This process

somehow works together to then output

actionable and useful intelligence, even

though the original data was often poor

in quality. Many organisations are still

chasing basics like patching. In 2013 the

hype turns more to reality as more get

to grips with what is actually required

to execute on these projects and slowly

develop the business process and

organisational maturity to benefit from

these forms of analysis. //

target in terms of pay off. In 2013 it is likely

we will see mobile malware start to borrow

more techniques from its PC cousin (though

volumes are likely still to remain low with

more of a focus on attacks than malware).

Web servers back in the crosshairs

Attacking web servers to distribute malware

has been the default for some time – in

SophosLabs we find a new infected website

every couple of seconds. While most

businesses have protection for traditional

PC environments and endpoints, many

neglect to adequately protect their web

server environments. In 2012 we saw a

large number of web server and database

hacks . Like most trends, malware attacks

come in cycles, and it has become

fashionable to extract credentials from web

servers. This trend was gaining momentum

in 2012 and it shows no signs of slowing

down for 2013 It is likely we will see even

more web server attacks in the coming year.

integrate “all of the things”

Mobile devices, applications and social

networks (amongst others) continue

to become more integrated, which will

potentially breed new opportunities for

cyber criminals in 2013. New technologies

like NFC being integrated into mobile

platforms and increasingly creative use

of GPS services to connect our digital

and physical lives means there will be

new opportunities for cyber criminals to

compromise our security and/or privacy.

diverse business models and irreversible

malware

Business models and motives for malicious

code are diversifying. One particularly

concerning category is ransomware.

Ransomware encrypts your data and

demands money to unlock your files,

forcing you to pay the criminals or to

restore to a backup, a process can go

poorly in many enterprises. Whereas early

samples were low in numbers and easy to

reverse and remove, the latest versions

are more widespread and use public key

cryptography. In some cases their damage

is irreversible. We can expect to see more

of this class of malware and potentially

similar evolutions in 2013.

skills problem becomes more apparent

As the platforms and technologies that

we are using and need to secure are

diversifying, so too are the targets of

the attackers. Securing platforms like

Linux is increasingly on the priority list of

many organisations (not necessarily from

malware, but from hackers) and getting staff

with up-to-date skills will be an increasing

issue. Staff will need to plan to upskill on

mobile platforms, new computing delivery

models and even protocols such as IPv6 as

they become more relevant. With perhaps

the greatest degree of change occurring in

computing platforms in the enterprise since

we moved from the mainframe, the next

couple of years will bring many new lessons

to learn.

Cyber criminal anti-forensics

Cyber criminals and hackers are now using

the techniques we’ve used in the security

industry against us. Reputation lists that

block forensics teams, labs and security

researchers from accessing malicious

code networks are being shared between

crime packs. The sharing of intelligence

in the cyber criminal community presents

more challenges for those doing forensic

investigation and trying to chase down

incidents. Forensics specialists, law

enforcement and vendors need to work

carefully to avoid falling into cyber

criminals traps.

“Ransomware encrypts your data and demands money to unlock your files, forcing you to pay the criminals or to restore to a backup, a process can go poorly in many enterprises.”


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7,20

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PM

3.5” DESKTOP DRIVES

The burgeoning mid-market offers a plethora of opportunities for the channel willing to invest in services and solutions, and become trusted advisors

it’s all about mid-market

fEATuREMid-market


iT heads in mid-sized

enterprises have to provide the

same services as those in large

enterprises, but without access

to the same resources or budgets. These

companies rely on solution provider

partners to overcome these hurdles to

drive innovation and add business value.

almost all major technology vendors

have started to shift their focus towards

this still untapped, lucrative market

segment, resulting in profitable growth

opportunities for the channel.

“In the Middle East, the mid-market

sector faces some challenges by nature

as recently stated by the research analyst

group IDC; by the year 2015, IT spending

in the mid-market will reach more than

$24 billion in the MENA region (with

Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E extensively

“Most of the prominent vendors and their distributors are ramping up the support to help their channel partner tap the opportunities in the storage market.”

fEATuREMid-market

contributing to this investment). The

challenges faced by SMEs in this

region include competing with larger

organisations as well as engaging new

customers to expand their operations

as well as increasing their profits while

maintaining low costs,” says Dan Smith,

Head of Integrated Marketing for the

Middle East and Africa region of Xerox’s

Developing Markets Operations.

Aman Manzoor, Channel Manager,

Kaspersky Lab, echoes a similar opinion:

“When we examine the mid-market segment

then we are looking at organisations with

networks of 250 nodes and reaching up

to a thousand nodes. The complexities

and crises that these organisations face

are similar to many of the larger enterprise

organisations. However the IT management

teams in these organisations are not on

par with their large enterprise counterparts

in-terms of size and responsibilities. Hence,

these teams need to have specialisation

and expertise on multiple technologies and

diverse concepts, in simpler terms these

teams need to be like the Swiss army knife

in the field.”

While the definition of what is a mid-

market company depends on who you are

talking to and geography, the accepted


“Most of the vendors have adapted their products and service to cater to the unique characteristics of this market and enabled their channel to address the opportunities.”

aman Manzoor, Channel Manager, Kaspersky Lab

Sunando banerjee, Channel business Manager, Openbravo

norm in the region is usually the ones

with 10 to 100 employees. “Mid-market

is a relative term and it has a different

definition for different products and

organisations (targeting them). For us,

a company with a budget of $10,000 to

$500,000 is an SME organisation. They

normally don’t have in-house IT people to

manage a solution and requirements are

not streamlined,” says Sunando Banerjee,

Channel Business Manager, Openbravo.

Though there is hardly data related to

the total addressable market opportunity in

the region, the market size is considerably

large. “This has prompted most of today’s

technology vendors to start work on

developing and distributing solutions

that can suit the market and also meet

its current demands and requirements,”

says Hani Khanfer, Channel & Pre-sales

Coordinator, Smartworld.

Most of the vendors have adapted their

products and service to cater to the unique

characteristics of this market and enabled

their channel to address the opportunities.

“The mid-market needs the reseller

organisations that serve this segment have

certain mandatory characteristics. These

organisations need the technical teams that

assist the customers through the various

phases of deployment. They require support

response that is quick and consistent. They

need the sales persons of their reseller to

not only understand the technology but be

able to address their unique pain points.

This translates to the account managers

becoming sales advisors.

“We at Kaspersky make it our

endeavor to provide our partners with

the tools required for them to have these

characteristics as a part of our training

programs accessible for no additional

cost to the reseller as a part of our partner

extranet,” says Manzoor.

DLP vendor InfoWatch is planning

to extend its product line for small and

medium-size business market. “In 2013,

along with our DLP solution for the SMB

market, we will get acquainted with

InfoWatch endpoint security. And we

have marketing and lead-generation

programmes for our partners to maximise

the sales opportunities in this market

segment,” says Alexander Zarovsky,

International Business Chief, InfoWatch.

Banerjee believes there is an increasing

demand for ERP solutions in the mid-market

enterprises. “When the market is growing

exponentially and the SME market is

striving to get better cash-flow in operation

by doing their management right, we feel

ERP is something that they need. We have

launched the Openbravo On-Demand

and the Web POS mainly to cater the

SME segment who wants a cost-effective

solution at lower cost of maintenance.”

Wireless vendor Ruckus has also

adopted a partner-led strategy to tap the

mid-market opportunities. “We collaborate

with and recruit partners that have

expertise in specific industry verticals.

This concept also applies for mid-market

customers – we are likely to develop

promotions and campaigns that address

such channel category, with focus on their

training path. In addition, our technology

portfolio is quite easy to comprehend, so

this enables us to market for the channel


relatively quickly,” says Nader Baghdadi,

Middle East Regional Sales Director of the

company.

Most of the vendors expect mobility,

cloud, big data and security to be the

priorities for mid-market CIOs in 2013.

“The next big thing that we anticipate in

2013 is the rise of internet enabled mobile

devices proliferating in both the consumer

and enterprise space. It is going to be the

era of hypermobility. The need to protect

and manage the data in these devices will

be a key area of focus. We expect this to

accelerate in the mid-market segment.

Further, as the need to drive more revenue

from ever shrinking budgets means that

virtualisation and cloud services move into

the main stream. This means increasing

opportunities in the mid-market space as

well,” says Manzoor.

Khanfer says more and more mid-market

companies are now looking at managed

solutions services that are either in-house

with all systems hosted within the customer’s

premises and managed by the partner or the

complete solution managed and hosted at

the service provider’s premises.

For the channel partners looking to

cash in on this opportunity, verticalisation

and improving their capabilities to sell

solutions are absolutely vital. “Focusing

on a particular vertical to find a niche in

the marketplace is the great strategy that

reseller organisations employ to succeed

in the market,” says Manzoor.

He adds that verticalisation

could occur in two ways - one is the

technology-focused model, where

the reseller becomes a specialist in

deploying a particular technology or

the second is the industry focused one,

where the reseller becomes specialised

in serving the needs of a particular

industry. “In my opinion the mid-market

segment verticalisation when done

industry wise is more effective than

the technology wise. The main reason I

believe is that when it comes to choosing

suppliers in the mid-market space, the

Hani Khanfer, Channel & Pre-sales Coordinator, Smartworld

fEATuREMid-market

alexander Zarovsky, International business Chief, InfoWatch

avaYa EYEs Mid-MarKET OPPOrTuniTiEsRecognising that more than 90

percent of businesses in the Middle

East, Africa and Turkey have fewer

than 500 employees, Avaya has

introduced a suite of midsized

business solutions for unified

communications and networking.

Research conducted by T3i Group as

well as Avaya’s own insight into the

midmarket indicates that companies

with between 100-500 employees

want similar features and functionality

as larger businesses, but at a lower

cost of ownership because IT budgets

and resources are more limited and

managed in-house.

New solutions introduced by

Avaya, aimed at the mid-market, to

help this segment realise the benefits

of improved communications include

Avaya IP Office 8.1—which can serve

SMEs as small as 5 employees and

scale up to 500 users in a single

location. This gives mid-sized

companies a more cost-effective,

simplified way to manage more

people on a network across one

or multiple sites. It also provides

Avaya business partners with new

opportunities to provide their growing

base of mid-market customers with

an affordable, yet high-capability

collaboration solution. IP Office 8.1

can also be paired with Avaya’s

recently introduced ERS 3500

switches to automate network set-up.

One simple command automatically

configures the switches and enables

IP phones on Avaya IP Office.

Avaya says its midmarket

Continued on page 44


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customers are looking for a partnership

than a transactional relationship. This

becomes economically viable only when

a reseller is able to deliver more than

one technologies for the same customer.

This means that the reseller needs

to have expertise in more than one

technology while maintaining an acute

understanding of a particular industry.”

Smith from Xerox agrees that

verticalisation is a definite way to create more

value for customers. “Knowledge of a specific

market, and further a specific solution within

that market can be invaluable.”

Banerjee adds that his company’s

channels are getting enormously

benefitted by developing industry specific

solutions. “In Openbravo we have a space

called exchange where our partners are

developing solutions, connectors and

industry verticals and we as a company

promote them.”

To sum up, the regional mid-market

offers growth and revenues for partners

who are willing to explore new trends and

assume a strategic advisory role rather

than just selling solutions or services. It is

a large but fragmented market, and with all

vendors looking to leverage their channel

network to serve SMEs the timing is indeed

right for partners to join the bandwagon. //

Dan Smith, Head of Integrated Marketing for the Middle East and africa region of Xerox’s Developing Markets Operations

fEATuREMid-market

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We buyTelecom/Networking/ Computers

Laptops / Servers Monitors Cell phones Printers / Copiers

Faxes Displays / Parts / Routers Switches / Accessories

communications solutions, which

are more comprehensive and multi-

featured than any other alternatives

in the regional market, address

these specific issues for SMBs in the

Middle East, Africa and Turkey.

“Seeing that 90 percent of the

market in the UAE and Middle East

are SME’s making them a huge

factor in a successful economy,

it is detrimental that they are

equipped with the best solutions at

a reasonable cost. The products and

technologies mid-size companies

invest in these days must provide

solid and significant value in helping

them fulfil their business objectives

while addressing specific challenges.

With this in mind Avaya has

completed our midmarket road show

throughout the Middle East, Africa

and Turkey to properly equip our

channel partners with the resources

and solutions needed to address the

Midmarket community,” says Nidal

Abou-ltaif, VP- Middle East, Africa,

and Turkey, Avaya.

Continued from page 42

Next-gen firewall is emerging as the centre of enterprise security. Palo Alto, which defined this category on its own terms, is bringing new innovations to market. Karl Driesen, VP EMEA, Palo Alto Networks, talks about the strategy for growth in the region and opportunities for its channel partners.

blaziNg a New trail

What kind of opportunities do

you see in the Middle East

market?

This is a very strategic market

for us and we are investing heavily here

to grow our business. The recent high-

profile security breaches in the region

have spurred demand for next-generation

security technologies and what we offer

is a revolutionary technology that is

being appreciated by both customers and

partners. The market opportunity is on

a multiple billions-dollar level per year,

which we serve through a 100 percent

channel model. Most firewalls deployed

by end users today are based on 15 years

plus technology. We believe the current

stateful inspection firewalls will become

obsolete over the next couple of years and

next-generation firewall is the way to go to

meet this generation’s network and threat

environment.

How do you define nGFWs?

Palo Alto Networks has pioneered the next

generation of network security with its

platform that allows enterprise customers

to secure their network and safely enable

the increasingly complex and rapidly

growing number of applications running

on their networks. The main principles of

the Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) were

developed in 2005 and the first product

was launched in 2007.

At the core of our platform is its NGFW,

which delivers visibility and control over

application, users, and content within the

firewall using a highly optimized hardware

and software architecture. This platform

offers enterprises the ability to identify,

control, and safely enable applications

while inspecting all content for all threats

in real time. The Palo Alto Networks

NGFW platform can address a broad

range of network security requirements,

ranging from the data centre to the

network perimeter to the far edges of the

enterprise, which includes branch offices

and mobile devices.

There is a common perception that Palo

alto products are more expensive. is it

because you do everything from ground

up on high performance hardware,

compared to your competitors who have

retro-fitted?

To the chagrin of many IT professionals,

the industry’s traditional response to

new applications and threats has been

to add more appliances – each “helping”

the firewall with a piece of the network

security function. This unsustainable

approach has long proven complex and

costly, and now appears to be broken –

since these firewall helpers either can’t

see all of the traffic, rely on the same port-

and protocol-based traffic classification

that has failed the legacy firewall, or proxy

a very limited number of applications (a

dozen instead of hundreds or thousands).

Given that enterprises had little choice,

most have adopted an array of firewall

helpers – resulting in a network security

infrastructure that is expensive, difficult

to manage, and increasingly ineffective at

controlling application or the threats that

applications might carry – characteristics

proving unacceptable to enterprises today.

What is the difference between nGFW

and uTM? are they conceptually the

same?

INTERvIEwPalo Alto Networks

Karl Driesen, VP EMEa, Palo alto Networks


21-23 May 2013, Fairmont Bab Al Bahr, Abu Dhabi

MIDDLE EAST

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DME13_207x270.indd 1 29/01/13 16:38

As mentioned above, Palo Alto Network’s

next-generation firewalls enable

policy-based visibility and control over

applications, users and content using three

unique identification technologies: App-ID,

User-ID and Content-ID. Due to the fact

that the Palo Alto Networks firewall can

perform traditional firewall functions, and

is also capable of blocking threats and

controlling web usage, logical comparisons

to Unified Threat Management (UTM)

offerings are made. Our firewall is not a

UTM. Palo Alto Networks’ next-generation

firewalls fix the problem that is plaguing

network security – the inability to identify

and control the applications running on

enterprise networks. By giving control

back to IT in the firewall, many network

security band-aids can be removed. The

only value proposition a UTM provides is

to collapse the traditional (broken) network

security infrastructure into a single box as

a cost savings mechanism. All in all, UTM

solutions are merely attempting to reduce

the cost of deployment without addressing

the business and security risks presented

by the loss of visibility and control over

applications, users and content that IT

managers are faced with today.

What is WildFire?

It’s a cloud-based malware-detection

and analysis service that can detect

targeted attacks within 30 minutes. It’s a

subscription-based service that allows our

customers to monitor zero-day malware

attacks and block them.

Modern attackers have increasingly

turned to targeted and new unknown

variants of malware in order sneak past

In fact, we have recently updated our

physical appliance portfolio by introducing

two new NGFWs – the PA 3020 and PA

3050, which respectively deliver 2Gbps

and4Gbps of throughput. All of our new

products are based on an updated OS,

PAN OS 5.0.

How do you plan to tackle competitors

and what differentiates your company?

By Innovation. Palo Alto Networks was

the first manufacturer bringing NGFW

technology to market back in 2007. Two

years later, Gartner validated that what we

did was setting the pace. Since 2011 we

are being considered a technology leader

by Gartner per their Magic Quadrant of

Enterprise Firewalls. Palo Alto Networks is

one of the few companies in this market

being dedicated to Network Security and

is committed to continue to innovate in a

market in which the problems customers

have to deal with are very dynamic.

Given the fact that nGFW is a relatively

new technology, how do you plan to

create awareness among users and also

train your channel to sell this technology?

We are in contact with our addressable

market on a daily basis. The largest

organisations we are in contact with

directly, mid size and small companies

via our value added resellers. In parallel

we have dedicated channel teams and

distributors educating our channels on an

ongoing basis in line with our NextWave

Partner program.

What is your message to the channel

community?

Palo Alto Networks is one of our most

exciting companies in the tech industry

today. We have reinvented firewalls and we

have bet everything on it. Our motto is very

simple - nothing that travels on your network

should be invisible to a next-gen firewall.

The era of traditional firewalls is very likely

to be over and the NGFW market is a long

term revenue opportunity with significant

profit for the channel community. //

Modern attackers have increasingly turned to targeted and new unknown variants of malware in order sneak past traditional security solutions.

traditional security solutions. To meet

this challenge, Palo Alto Networks has

developed WildFire, which provides the

ability to identify malicious behaviors

in executable files by running them in

a virtual environment and observing

their behaviors. This enables Palo Alto

Networks to identify malware quickly and

accurately, even if the particular sample of

malware has never been seen in the wild

before.

Once a file is determined to be

malicious, WildFire automatically

generates signatures for both the infecting

malware and the resulting command and

control traffic. Signatures are delivered

with regular security updates to provide

automated in-line protection from these

highly advanced threats. Your IT team is

provided with a wealth of forensics to see

exactly who was targeted, the application

used in the delivery and any URLs that

played a part in the attack.

How do you plan to address virtualisation

security?

Two months back, we introduced the

first virtualised version of our next-gen

firewall which is a server-based software

intended to run on VMware platform.

Called VM-series, this new software

will allow security managers to set up

firewall application-layer controls in virtual

machines and overcome the limitation that

physical firewall appliances face in virtual

environments. Though we are entering

the virtualised firewall market, it doesn’t

mean we will not stop selling physical

application-layer firewalls.

Palo Alto Networks

INTERvIEw


3March 27, 2013

Al Andalous Ballroom, Habtoor Grand, Dubai, UAE

Michal Zylinski, Sales ManagerTel: +971 55 230 2341

Email: [email protected]

Rajashree R Kumar, Commercial DirectorTel: +971 55 1053782


Jeevan Thankappan, Group EditorTel: +971 55 1053774


Ben Rossi, EditorTel: +971 55 447 9648


Nominations close 28th February 2013

www.cnmeonline.com/nwmeawards

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With its impressive bloodline, this DSLR had a lot to live up to upon launch. Happily for Canon fans, the EOS 60D is a more than worthy successor to its fantastic forebears.

caNoN eos 60d

REvIEwCanon/Belkin

Canon’s EOs 60d comes as a

replacement for the EOs 50d,

which was a solid, semi-pro

digital slr that came with

some nifty features and plenty of

reliability. The 50d was also the

follow-up to the extremely well-

received EOs 40d. The new 60d, then,

has got an impressive bloodline.

Canon has made good use of this

DNA and come up with yet another great

DSLR to add to its EOS range. It comes

with an 18-megapixel sensor that borrows

the same low-pass filter that you find on

the pro-spec Canon EOS 7D. You can also

boost the ISO to 12,800 and it comes with

a fantastic iFCL metering system, all of

which can be found on the professional

camera.

Another big talking point on the 60D

is the swivel-out, three-inch screen, which

offers a 3:2 aspect ratio. This is the first

swivel screen that Canon has fitted to

one of its DSLRs, and it’s clear to see the

benefits from the off. Interesting photo

angles are easier than ever to obtain,

meaning that the 60D is useable in just

about any scenario. It also begs the

question why more professional-spec

DSLRs don’t come with a swivel screen.

The photo quality is what’s expected

of a camera in this price range. The 60D

will offer startlingly clean images all the

way up to ISO 1,600. Even past this, it’ll

take some zooming to see any real visual

noise. The noise becomes an issue past

ISO 3,200, though, particularly on JPEGs,

and it’s intolerable by ISO 6,400. Shooting

raw will combat the problem, but it will also

result in a loss of shadow detail, so it’s up

to the user to decide which way to go.

The colours burst with vibrancy, even

when the camera is set to its default

settings. The sharpness could take some

fiddling with, but this is a very capable

DSLR straight out of the box. A good few

weeks of heavy use might be required to

get to grips with all the settings, though; it

can be difficult to know if fiddling with the

buttons is making things better or worse.

The EOS 60D sports one of the most

well-sorted autofocus features on any

semi-pro DSLR, however, the same cannot

be said for the automatic white balance.

It’s not bad under well-lit conditions,

but in a mixed-lighting environment,

the quality of the images drops. Of

course, this can be remedied by manually

adjusting the white balance, but it’d be

nice if the automatic function worked a

little better.

The 60D works extremely quickly.

Canon claims that it will focus and shoot

in good light in 0.3 seconds. It’ll take

about 0.5 seconds for a lower-contrast

shot, but that’s still not bad at all. What’s

more, the autofocus is brilliant at picking

out the right parts of the picture. There’s

also a 5 fps burst mode, which is actually

a frame slower than on the 50D, but the

quality of the images makes up for the

lack of frames.

Another aspect that has moved this

line of cameras forward is the HD video

capture, which is extremely smooth and

produces great, high-quality shots. With

some decent video mastering software,

it’s possible to shoot high-quality movies

with this thing. Indeed, the 60D is now a

well-used tool among indie filmmakers.

It’s possible to shoot at a number

of different frame rates and the manual


BElKin WEMO sWiTCHThe idea of controlling a home’s

electronics from a remote location

is not a new one. However,

such systems are, traditionally,

notoriously expensive, and often

have to be installed by proper

professionals. What’s more, those

who do try to control every power

outlet in their homes with an iPad

app often find that the system

works intermittently at best, despite

having paid thousands of dirhams

for the privilege.

Belkin hopes to change this

state of affairs with its new WeMo

range of products, which is so far

limited to just two models, the WeMo

Switch and the WeMo Switch + Motion.

Both are Wi-Fi-enabled power adapters

that can be used to turn the power

supply on or off via an iOS app.

At the top, there’s a blue light that

indicates the device is connected to

the Wi-Fi network, and there’s a power

button below the light that can be used

to manually turn the power supply on

or off, whether the user has a Wi-Fi

connection or not.

It’s possible to buy as many of the

WeMo Switches as the house needs,

and operate them through Belkin’s free

WeMo app. This is where the device

comes into its own. Users can flip any

one of the devices that’s connected

to the Wi-Fi network on or off with

a simple button. And it is easy to

keep track of which device is which,

thanks to the ability to name each one

individually and even add photo icons

to go next to each Switch’s information.

Users can also set the

Switches to timers, which should

appeal to those who are conscious

about their power costs. The feature

is also useful where children are

concerned, as parents can cut the

power to their rooms at bed time,

ensuring they don’t stay up late once

they’ve been sent to sleep.

It’s all wonderful in theory, but

what’s really impressive is that the

system works flawlessly in practice.

Setting up will come as naturally as

signing into a Facebook account,

and, after that, the app takes care of

everything.

In terms of downsides, the WeMo

Switch is a reasonably big device, and

it might obscure the socket next to the

one that it’s plugged into. But perhaps

a bigger concern would be whether

customers will actually consider the

WeMo a worthwhile investment; prices

start at AED 249.

These reviews were done by rWME online editor Tom Paye. He can be reached at [email protected]

The verdict

While the Canon EOs 60d isn’t a full-on,

professional-spec digital slr, it comes close

enough for most of the users who will buy it.

For an amateur photographer simply looking

to up his or her photography skills, this will

provide everything and more. and with its

fantastic Hd shooting mode, the 60d is hugely

versatile. The price tag may scare off some

customers, but given the quality of this product,

it’s simply a case of “you get what you pay for”.

controls allow users to customise the

shots very nicely. Even when it comes

to recording audio, the 60D performs

well, despite the mono sound. There’s a

wind filter with 64 levels of control, too,

so shooting outside shouldn’t affect the

sound too much. In the UAE sun, however,

the LCD screen does become a little hard

to view.

Apart from that, the 60D is a difficult

camera to fault. There are a couple

of annoyances with the interface, but

they’re easy to work around after a

week or so. And the LCD screen could

be a little brighter. Die-hard Canon fans

will fall head over heels for this camera.

For everyone else, the good points still

heavily outweigh the bad. //

RaTings:

HardWarE 8/10

PErFOrManCE 9/10

valuE FOr MOnEY 8/10


radvision, an avaya Company, has rolled

out its next-generation scopia Elite 6000

series multipoint control unit (MCu),

enabling real-time video collaboration

for businesses of any size. The new

scopia Elite 6000 series, which is the

latest addition to the Elite series MCu

portfolio, reduces the cost per port for

high definition video conferencing by up

to 50 percent, offers double the density

and performance, and requires up to

75 percent less power than traditional

hardware-based MCus.

Video conferencing is becoming more

pervasive due to an increasing number

of video-enabled devices. As a result,

there is growing demand for higher quality

radvisioN iNtros New mcuvideo and greater ability to support more

participants and conferences as well as

a mixture of endpoints. The Scopia Elite

6000 Series MCU delivers that high quality

through full 1080p60fps high definition

video communication while minimizing the

bandwidth requirements for HD video in a

streamlined, easy to use and administer,

cost-effective solution.

The Scopia Elite 6000 Series MCU

features dual 1080p/60fps channels for

video and content, simultaneous H.264

High Profile for bandwidth efficiency and

H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC), along

with multi-stream immersive telepresence

connectivity deliver uncompromised

multi-party collaboration. It also boasts

hOT pRODuCTSNew launches

The new core vertical switch

management platform (Core vsM) from

TE Connectivity is an innovative solution

to the challenges posed in the data

centre by high-density core switches

with a vertical blade configuration.

The design consists of a cable

management guide that fits above the

switch and copper or fiber modules that

provide connections for blades of either

media. The complete Core VSM platform

can be installed within an 800 mm wide

cabinet, saving valuable white space in

the data center.

te coNNectivitY lauNcHes core vsm

The new TE solution is designed to

remove the need for cable management

at the side of the frame, and enables data

center managers to save space, reduce

cost and improve data centre efficiency

by ensuring clear representation of the

switch ports and ease of access.

In the new Core VSM platform, all

patch cables, whether fiber or copper, are

managed vertically, and just one length

of patch cord is required to patch within

a frame, simplifying the build process and

ongoing logistics.

a hybrid architecture with support for 40

full 1080p HD ports on a single 1U system,

and the highest processing performance

available in the market. Scopia’s “Virtual

MCU” management solution provides

an intelligent, distributed multi-party

conferencing architecture for maximum

scalability and resiliency.

For end users, Scopia Desktop

and Scopia Mobile, both of which are

supported on the Elite 6000 Series MCU,

enable one-click-to-video and an intuitive

interface for video conferencing on-the-

go. Participants can moderate a call, share

content, record and stream and even

choose individual layouts featuring up to

28 on-screen participants.


F5 networks has announced new

security offerings designed to safeguard

organizations’ network and application

infrastructures. With the introduction of

BiG-iP advanced Firewall Manager and

enhancements to other security offerings,

F5 claims it is the first in the industry to unify

a network firewall with traffic management,

application security, user access

management, and dns security capabilities

within an intelligent services framework.

When deployed with F5’s new VIPRION

4800 hardware, the F5 application delivery

firewall solution provides performance

levels well beyond what other vendors can

offer, including:

• 640 Gbps of firewall throughput

• 288 million concurrent sessions

• 8 million connections per second

At the core of F5’s application delivery

firewall solution, the BIG-IP Advanced

Firewall Manager product is a network

firewall built on full-proxy architecture

to provide outstanding security. By

f5 eNHaNces applicatioN deliverY securitY

fortiNet lauNcHes New Network securitY appliaNce

operating system in the world and includes

next-generation firewall capabilities that

feature:

• More control with network, user and

device defined policy

• Integrated security with firewall, IPS,

application control and VPN functionality

with advanced behaviour inspection for

improved advanced threat detection

• Enhanced performance for every

customer environment

In addition, BIG-IP APM offers identity

federation across multiple product

instances within an organisation, reducing

the number of passwords needed by

users to access corporate applications.

Managing credentials in this way helps

customers mitigate security risks and

reduces the burden of administrative tasks

on IT personnel.

Fortinet has announced the newest

addition to its next-generation firewall

(nGFW) appliance family - FortiGate-

3600C, which offers large enterprises

and MssPs the most advanced network

security appliance in the industry.

The FortiGate-3600C runs FortiOS

5, the most powerful network security

orienting application

security around

the applications

themselves, F5’s

approach simplifies

firewall policy

management.

This application-

centric security

model leverages

F5’s application

delivery capabilities

and intelligence to

enhance customers’

overall security

posture, while alleviating the complexity

associated with mapping application

infrastructure to static constructs such as

traditional firewall zones.

With support for SAML 2.0, F5 now

offers improved single sign-on (SSO)

capabilities for web-based, VDI, and client/

server applications—whether hosted

in corporate data centres or the cloud.

The 3600C can be deployed in a

standalone security application mode

such as a firewall or as an NGFW that

includes firewall, IPS and application

control. Additional applications such as

virtual private network (VPN) or advanced

threat detection, which uses behavioural-

based detection in conjunction with

a cloud-based reputation system that

tracks botnets and elements of their

threat life cycle, can easily be enabled

and configured.


hOT pRODuCTSNew launches

belkiN lauNcHes Netcam HdBelkin has unveiled netCam Hd, a high

definition wireless networking camera

that allows you to see your home in high-

quality 720p resolution for a smoother,

more detailed picture on your smartphone

or tablet. another development is the

addition of WeMo sMarT, meaning

netCam Hd can be integrated with other

WeMo devices from Belkin.

WeMo SMART is a partnership

program designed to bring WeMo,

Belkin’s simple, Wi-Fi based home

control platform, to new devices,

products and brands. With WeMo

SMART functionality added, the

Arkeia’s software, appliances and virtual

appliances back up data to disk, tape and

cloud storage. The company’s patented

Progressive Deduplication technology

speeds hybrid-cloud backup by reducing the

bandwidth necessary to replicate backup

sets over wide area networks. Arkeia sells

its products through resellers and managed

wd expaNds smb storage portfolioWd, a Western digital company, has

expanded its product portfolio addressing

small- and medium-sized businesses with

the addition of network backup software and

appliances from arkeia software, recently

acquired by Wd. Wd also announced that the

arkeia network Backup version 10.0 software

has become generally available.

NetCam HD is viewable from the

WeMo app and acts as an additional

motion sensor on a WeMo network to

trigger another device to turn on or off

when it senses motion.

The NetCam HD sets up easily

using any iOS or Android device and

connects directly to a Wi-Fi router

without the need of a computer.

The free NetCam app allows you to

monitor your home remotely anytime,

anywhere. The app also provides email

alerts, notifying you when motion is

detected and sending you a snapshot

of the motion in full HD.

service providers worldwide.

Arkeia will be integrated into WD’s

Branded Products SMB unit and the

products initially will retain the Arkeia name.

WD will support all Arkeia customers on

current maintenance and plans to retain

both Arkeia’s software and appliance

product lines.


Documents

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