Redington Value Journal - September 2017

Issue 15 // September 2017

Customers now have access to a combination of performance and availability for the entire application stack.

Redington Value is a value added distributor for the following brands in parts of Middle East & Africa:

ORACLE’S NEXT-GEN CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE NOW SUPPORTS ORACLE EXADATA

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marriage of Oracle Exadata, the highest performing on-premises and public cloud database platform, with Oracle Cloud’s

Roadshow 2017, last month.Themed as ‘Leading new

ICT – Sharing success with ecosystem’, the objective of the event was to communicate to the partner base about the firm’s new ICT solutions. With digital transformation becoming the key

unique bare metal compute and storage services, delivers a combination of performance and availability for the entire application stack.

“Oracle’s next-generation cloud infrastructure is optimized for enterprise workloads and now supports Oracle Exadata, the most powerful database platform,” said Kash Iftikhar, Vice President of Product Management, Oracle. “With the power of Oracle Exadata, customers using our

priority for enterprises across the region, it is paramount for channel partners to be able to support their customers’ journey into the new era.

infrastructure are able to bring applications to the cloud never previously possible, without the cost of re-architecture, and achieve incredible performance throughout the stack. From front-end application servers to database and storage, we are optimizing our customers’ most critical applications.”

With the increased levels of speed and availability now possible, high-demand

The 60-plus attendees in each country were educated on the company’s latest offerings,

Oracle has announced that Oracle Exadata Cloud is now available on its next-generation cloud infrastructure. The

Leading global ICT provider, Huawei along with its regional value-added distributor partner, Redington Value, organized sessions for its partner community across Oman and Bahrain, as part of its second phase of GCC Partner

Huawei, Redington host second leg of GCC Partner Roadshow 2017Partners were enlightened on the firm’s latest offerings.

For more information, please write to [email protected]

Red Hat and Microsoft simplify containers for the enterpriseThe new additions to the firms’ joint roadmap will simplify container technologies to help enterprise customers increase agility and drive digital transformation using hybrid cloud.

Microsoft and Red Hat have announced an expansion of the two companies’ alliance with new initiatives aimed at enabling enterprises to more easily adopt containers. This includes native support for Windows Server containers on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated on Microsoft Azure, and SQL Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenShift. These additions to the companies’ joint roadmap will simplify container technologies to help enterprise customers increase agility and

drive digital transformation using hybrid cloud.

Both firms will extend the integrated, co-located Microsoft and Red Hat support to enable these new offerings across platforms. This helps to assure IT organizations that whatever challenges they face on their path to digital transformation, Microsoft and Red Hat will stand by them together.

Enterprises see the benefit in using containerized applications to run their mission-critical applications, but most IT organizations are not standardized on a single infrastructure stack. These heterogeneous environments often carry both Windows and Linux platforms, siloing applications and making it difficult for a business to adopt DevOps practices.

This announcement simplifies these challenges, as Windows Server containers will be natively supported on Red Hat OpenShift, a container application platform that brings Docker and Kubernetes to the enterprise.

Red Hat OpenShift will be

the first container application platform built from the open source Kubernetes project to support both Linux and Windows Server container workloads in a single platform across the multiple environments of the hybrid cloud, breaking down silos and making it easier for enterprises to pursue their cloud-native agenda.

This capability was demonstrated at Red Hat Summit in May 2017, and is expected to be available as a technology preview in Spring 2018.

Matthew Hicks, Vice President, Software Engineering, OpenShift and Management, Red Hat, said, “Alongside Microsoft, Red Hat is providing a way for organizations to truly make the technology choices that matter to them, from containerized workloads to public cloud services, without adding an equal burden of complexity. Combined with our integrated support teams, we’re able to offer an achievable pathway to digital transformation that offers the capabilities, flexibility and choice required to power the future of enterprise IT.”

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Huawei...Oracle...

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Hyperconverged solutions are the next stage in the path towards software-defined infrastructure. The hyperconverged

infrastructure (HCI) market is growing exponentially in the Middle East. Large enterprises as well as small and medium businesses who were investing huge amounts on standalone technologies or converged platforms are now seeking hyperconverged ones. This is because these are affordable and smoother to deploy, allowing customers the capability to go live in a short time. Understanding the benefits of these technologies, regional customers have hosted tier 2 applications and services on hyperconverged platforms. Some customers with All Flash capability have even deployed tier 1 applications as well.

Pivot3, the technology leader in HCI have announced the release of Acuity, the industry’s first priority - aware HCI software platform. It empowers IT to confidently consolidate multiple mixed application workloads onto a single infrastructure by delivering breakthrough performance. Other features such as Pivot3 Patented Data Protection with Scalar erasure coding, simplified management, highly granular quality of service, distributed scale out architecture, efficient operating environment and wide range of deployment options make the offering a unique one.

Our channel partners have access to customers’ HCI demands and Pivot3’s Acuity presents a great opportunity. They should also examine other potential prospects such as server tech refresh, data center virtualization, DR setup and backup environment for virtual platforms.

At Redington Value, we are always taking the upper hand in enabling our channel community. Our skilled sales and technical teams have committed to spread the message of Pivot3 – Acuity, with the touch and feel experiences they have built in our REDVault. Our in-house discovery mechanism has helped channel partners to find the next opportunity. We invite all our partners be part of this profitable journey.

Age of convergenceBy Dharshana K, General Manager VCG, Redington Gulf – Value Distribution

COLUMN: REDefined

applications such as those utilizing real-time targeting, analytics, or personalization now run in the cloud with extreme performance.

According to the firm, only Oracle Cloud Infrastructure offers: self-provisioning of multiple bare metal servers in less than five minutes with each supporting over 4 million IOPS, block storage that linearly scales by 60 IOPS per GB, and

which will allow them to offer comprehensive solutions to their customers. Huawei executives also presented on how the partners could overcome the challenges that might arise while transacting in the digital era.

In the third phase of the roadshow, partners can look forward to sessions in Jordan and Lebanon next month.

Matthew Hicks, Red Hat

now Oracle Exadata Cloud on the same low latency Virtual Cloud Networks. This combination of features enable applications to run at unparalleled speed. In addition, it offers complete compatibility with Oracle Databases deployed on-premises, helping ensure a smooth transition to the cloud, and an efficient hybrid cloud strategy.


Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solutions provider Pivot3 has unveiled its expanded Global Partner Program to support partners in addressing the exploding HCI market. The new program includes a wide range of resources and benefits designed to help partners of all sizes differentiate and profit as they bring Pivot3’s solutions to customers.

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi and VMware Global Innovation OEM Partner of the Year, has announced Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP) RS series, a fully integrated, software-defined data center

Hitachi is empowering our customers to transform their IT environments, accelerate hybrid cloud deployments and further their digital business initiatives.”

Hitachi enhances Hitachi Unified Compute Platform offeringsNew Hitachi UCP RS offering integrates VMware cloud foundation to simplify hybrid cloud journey.

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(SDDC) rack-scale platform, powered by VMware Cloud Foundation.

Hitachi UCP RS enables customers to embrace hybrid cloud for faster time to market and pay-as-you-go economics. It also gives customers the freedom to optimize their IT investments by leveraging private and public cloud as an agile extension to their business. UCP RS provides flexibility to customers to either

Intel Xeon Scalable Processors to deliver faster performance and reduced operating costs, maximizing business value for customers. This enhancement allows for higher performance, lower latency and accelerated workloads through the use of modern data center technology.

“Our deep, collaborative partnership with VMware has led to the creation of powerful systems and innovative solutions that help our customers modernize their IT environments and put data at the center of their business,” said Bob Madaio, VP, Integrated Solution Marketing, Hitachi. “With the launch of our UCP RS in addition to advancements in our hyperconverged UCP HC, Hitachi is empowering our customers to transform their IT environments, accelerate hybrid cloud deployments and further their digital business initiatives.”

Hitachi UCP RS is generally available to customers and partners now in all regions.

Bob Madaio, Hitachi

Mark Maisano, Pivot3

deploy integrated SDDC stack or build their own using Hitachi’s vSAN ready node and VMware software.

Alongside the launch of Hitachi UCP RS, the company has enhanced its hyper converged system Unified Compute Platform (UCP) HC.

Hitachi UCP HC all-flash and hybrid systems are now enabled with non-volatile memory (NVMe) and new sixth-generation

certification. The firm is also formalizing its Partner Advisory Board, allowing partners the opportunity to provide feedback and participate in pilot programs around new product launches with exclusive previews, pre-training and the ability to be first to market.

The program now offers three new sales and technical enablement certifications, including the Pivot3 Certified Sales Professional, Pivot3 Certified Pre-Sales Technical Professional and Pivot3 Certified Service Delivery Professional.

To allow partners to compete on a level playing field and support a broader set of use cases, Pivot3 added several key elements to its program:• A refined compensation

Pivot3 expands Global Partner ProgramPivot3’s program evolves with new tiers, certifications, resources and suite of premiere services.

structure to guarantee prices and discounts as soon as a deal is registered and incentivize deal registrations earlier within the sales process;

• Post-sale service delivery, allowing partners the option of providing installation and ongoing professional services;

• Proposal-based market development funds, allowing greater flexibility, customization and funding for partners both large and small who can demonstrate a strong return on investment with a go-to-market plan;

• New co-marketing benefits, including content syndication, a marketing platform with social media support, lead passing and quarterly campaign planning assets.

“Pivot3 is in hyper-growth mode. We built our new Global Partner Program with the best resources and investments to allow partners to grow along with us,” said Mark Maisano, VP of Channel Sales, Pivot3. “We’re 100-percent channel driven, and are committed to working side by side with our partners – from channel events and customer support to service delivery – to build their sales pipeline and support their complete success.”

Pivot3’s Global Partner Program is expanding into two partner tiers, Premier and Associate, with the ability to enhance profits with the Service Delivery designation upon successful completion of the Pivot3 Certified Service Delivery Professional


Transitioning our Website Security and related PKI solutions to DigiCert allows us to sharpen our enterprise focus on delivering unparalleled protection for the cloud generation through Symantec’s Integrated Cyber Defense Platform.”

DigiCert will gain capabilities to take advantage of growth opportunities in IoT and bring new approaches to the SSL market.

Cybersecurity firm Symantec and DigiCert, a provider of scalable identity and encryption solutions for the enterprise, have announced an agreement under which DigiCert will acquire Symantec’s Website Security and related PKI solutions. Under the terms of the agreement, Symantec will receive approximately

DigiCert to acquire Symantec’s Website Security and related PKI Solutions

$950 million in upfront cash proceeds and approximately a 30 percent stake in the common stock equity of the DigiCert business at the closing of the transaction.

According to the company, the addition of Symantec’s website security solutions to DigiCert’s offerings will bring together the “industry’s top talent and provide customers with an enhanced technology platform, unparalleled

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customer support and market-leading innovations.” DigiCert will gain capabilities to take advantage of growth opportunities in IoT and bring new approaches to the SSL market.

“Transitioning our Website Security and related PKI solutions to DigiCert allows us to sharpen our enterprise focus on delivering unparalleled protection for the cloud generation through Symantec’s Integrated Cyber Defense Platform.

As our recently announced deals with Fireglass and Skycure demonstrate, we are accelerating the pace of innovation we bring to market through a combination of acquisitions as well as development from the ground up,” said Symantec CEO Greg Clark.

Clark added, “We carefully examined our options to ensure our customers would have a world-class experience with a company that offers a modern website PKI platform and is poised to lead the next generation of website security innovation. I’m thrilled that our customers will benefit from a seamless transition to DigiCert, a company that is solely focused on delivering leading identity and encryption solutions. Symantec is deeply committed to the success of this transition for our customers.”

The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the Symantec Board of Directors, is expected to be completed in the third quarter of fiscal 2018, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Cisco has announced its intent to acquire Springpath, a Sunnyvale-based player in hyperconvergence software. Springpath has developed a distributed file system purpose-built for hyperconvergence that enables server-based storage systems. The acquisition will allow Cisco to continue

Cisco announces intent to buy SpringpathThe acquisition will allow Cisco to continue to deliver next-generation data center innovation to its customers.

Greg Clark, Symantec

to deliver next-generation data center innovation to its customers.

The acquisition is the culmination of a long-standing strategic relationship between Cisco and Springpath. The companies have worked together since early 2016 to launch HyperFlex, the industry’s first fully integrated hyperconverged infrastructure system, according to the firm. Since then, they have fully aligned on product development and go-to-market strategies. This acquisition will allow Cisco to continue to grow its computing business, enabling more customers to realize the benefits of simple and economic software-defined infrastructure.

“This acquisition is a meaningful addition to our

data center portfolio and aligns with our overall transition to providing more software-centric solutions,” said Rob Salvagno, Cisco Vice President, Corporate Business Development. “Springpath’s file system technology was built specifically for hyperconvergence, which we believe will deliver sustainable differentiation in this fast-growing segment. I’m excited to be able to provide our customers

and partners with the simplicity and agility they need in data center innovation.”

Cisco will acquire Springpath for $320 million in cash and assumed equity awards, plus additional retention-based incentives. The acquisition is expected to close in Cisco’s first quarter of fiscal year 2018, following customary closing conditions and regulatory review.

Rob Salvagno, Cisco

This acquisition is a meaningful addition to our data center portfolio and aligns with our overall transition to providing more software-centric solutions.”


Barracuda Workshop - Dubai - 6-10 August

Check Point - Check Point Partner Presales workshop - Riyadh - 15 August

Fortinet NSE4 Bootcamp - Oman - 9-10 August Splunk4Rookies Workshop - Dubai - 14 August

Aruba Deep Dive Workshop - Dubai - 15 August

Dell EMC - VXrail Paintball Game day - Riyadh - 16 August HPE Aruba - Partner Training session - Riyadh - 15 August

Oracle Customer Executive Seminar with CNS - Oman - 8 August

Fujitsu vSAN Bootcamp - Dubai - 8 August

SonicWall CSSA Bootcamp - Oman - 8-10 August

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EVENTS


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Oracle - Partner training - Riyadh - 22 August

Veritas - Partner Event - Nigeria - 9 August

Microsoft Partner Roundtable - Dubai - 17 August

Oracle - Customer Workshop - Uganda - 3 August

Huawei-Partner Roundtable session-Riyadh - 23 August

Red Hat - End-user Event with STS - Jordan - 21 August 2017

Fortinet - SMB Partner Event - Riyadh - 23 August

Cisco - Partner Enablement Session - Uganda - 10 August

Dell EMC - Partner Bootcamp - Nigeria - 24 August

Trend Micro - Partner Enablement session - Riyadh - 22 August


VMware has announced new versions of VMware Fusion solutions and the 10th anniversary of delivering enterprise-quality Windows virtualization on Mac. VMware Fusion 10 Pro, designed for technical professionals

By using machine learning to understand the content and user behavior of each organization, Amazon Macie can cut through huge volumes of data with better visibility and more accurate alerts, allowing customers to focus on securing their sensitive information.”

VMware announces new versions of VMware Fusion solutionsIt also celebrates 10 years of delivering innovations in Mac Virtualization with VMware Fusion 10.

that want to build, test and demonstrate Mac, Windows and Linux applications on a Mac, will include advanced capabilities that continue to evolve the solution to support technical professionals and developers.

evolved to become increasingly capable for IT professionals and the latest Fusion 10 Pro will deliver many capabilities that will suit development and operation teams.”

VMware Fusion 10 Pro and VMware Fusion 10 are expected to be available in October for $159 and $79 respectively. VMware Fusion 10 Pro will also be available through VMware partners and distributors.

Customers who purchase Fusion 8.5 or Fusion 8.5 Pro between August 22 and November 1 will be eligible for an electronic upgrade to Fusion 10 or Fusion 10 Pro, respectively, at no additional cost.

VMware Fusion 10 designed for personal use, will offer Touch Bar support, enhanced GPU and 3D graphics performance, and an updated user interface (UI) to leverage the latest innovations in Mac. Together, the solutions will enable Mac users to take full advantage of the innovative features and capabilities available in Mac, Linux and Windows 10.

“VMware has a proven track record over the last 10 years of delivering innovations in VMware Fusion for the ultimate Windows on Mac experience,” said Dave Grant, Vice President, Product Marketing, End-User Computing, VMware. “Originally designed for personal use, Fusion has

AWS debuts data security tool Amazon MacieThe fully managed service monitors data access activity for anomalies, and generates detailed alerts when it detects risk of unauthorized access or inadvertent data leaks.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the launch of Amazon Macie, a new security service that uses machine learning to help customers prevent data loss by automatically discovering, classifying, and protecting sensitive data in AWS.

Amazon Macie recognizes sensitive data such as personally identifiable information (PII) or intellectual property, and provides customers with dashboards and alerts that give visibility into how this data is being accessed or moved.

The fully managed service continuously monitors data access activity for anomalies, and

generates detailed alerts when it detects risk of unauthorized access or inadvertent data leaks. It is available to protect data stored in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), with support for additional AWS data stores coming later this year.

Customers can enable Amazon Macie from the AWS Management Console, and pay

Stephen Schmidt, Amazon Web Services

only for the GBs of Amazon S3 content classified and the AWS CloudTrail events analyzed, with no upfront costs or software purchases required.

“When a customer has a significant amount of content stored in Amazon S3, identifying and classifying all of the potentially sensitive data can feel a bit like finding needles in a very large haystack — especially with monitoring tools that aren’t smart enough to effectively automate what is now a very manual process,” said Stephen Schmidt, CISO, Amazon Web Services. “Amazon Macie approaches information security in a more intelligent way. By using machine learning to understand the content and user behavior of each organization, it can cut through huge volumes of data with better visibility and more accurate alerts, allowing customers to focus on securing their sensitive information instead of wasting time trying to find it.”

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John Maddison, Fortinet

Fortinet expands FortiCloud Software-as-a-Service offeringFortinet’s FortiCloud 3.2 update enables full management of FortiGate devices to centralize security operations.

Fortinet has announced a major update to its FortiCloud Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering for SMBs and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs). FortiCloud version 3.2 offers enhanced management capabilities to provide anywhere-anytime control over the Security Fabric solutions used to defend the largest segment of global business.

John Maddison, Senior VP, Products and Solutions, Fortinet, said, “Fortinet has consistently delivered advanced security solutions with the ease-of-use and flexibility to maximize both a business’s defenses and its resources. FortiCloud 3.2 centralizes and expands controls over Security Fabric solutions to enable SMBs to spend less time on their security and focus more on growing their businesses.”

FortiCloud 3.2 enables full management of FortiGate devices to centralize deployment, management and analytics across Fortinet’s Unified Threat Management (UTM), Wireless Access Point, Switch and Sandboxing solutions.

FortiCloud’s ease-of-use and high value make it the ideal solution for SMBs who need superior security fabric defenses and provides the ideal entry-point for new and existing MSSPs to deliver superior security services to their customers.

FortiCloud version 3.2 adds full management capabilities to the existing analytics and log retention features, enabling total control over an organization’s Security Fabric through a centralized and intuitive SaaS console:• Full Management of FortiGate

firewalls enables deployment, configuration, monitoring and troubleshooting, all through a single cloud interface.

• Turnkey and cloud-based provisioning of FortiGate,

FortiAP and FortiSwitch products requires little expertise to get devices up and running.

• Granular access controls, application usage policies, and sandbox integration enhances protection against advanced threats and zero-days.

• A Cloud-based, SaaS model easily scales as business grows and eliminates hardware costs for increased value.

FortiCloud simplifies deployment and configuration of customer services, while greatly reducing the staff required to monitor and troubleshoot client networks. FortiCloud’s SaaS model offers a low total cost of ownership and operational efficiencies that helps new service providers enter the market and delivers fast return on investment for existing partners so they can quickly generate recurring revenue and higher margins.

The FortiCloud service was updated to version 3.2 last month.

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Splunk, provider of the software platform for real-time Operational Intelligence, has announced Splunk Insights for AWS Cloud Monitoring, a solution that helps organizations drive more value from their journey to the cloud.

Splunk introduces Splunk Insights for AWS Cloud MonitoringThe solution aids organizations to drive more value from their journey to the cloud.

Rick Fitz, Splunk

Splunk Insights for AWS Cloud Monitoring provides end-to-end security, operational and cost management insights on Amazon Web Services (AWS) for as little as $7,500 per year, said the firm.

Splunk Insights for AWS Cloud Monitoring delivers an analytics-based approach to cloud monitoring to address challenges head-on by providing end-to-end visibility into a customer’s AWS infrastructure, delivering real-time awareness of performance, health, configuration, security and infrastructure spend. With the analytics capabilities of Splunk, this solution can help customers predict AWS usage and optimize their AWS infrastructure to

maximize savings. Splunk Insights for AWS Cloud Monitoring can be deployed via AWS Marketplace to correlate AWS data with other sources, across hybrid environments via a single platform with pre-built dashboards and visualizations.

“Cloud adoption has become standard practice, but companies can face challenges throughout the migration process, including visibility limitations, unforeseen cost and resource constraints. Customers need the ability to correlate data sources across environments, in real time to derive maximum value,” said Rick Fitz, Senior Vice President, IT Markets, Splunk. “With

Splunk Insights for AWS Cloud Monitoring, our customers now have a cost-effective, easy-to-use solution that provides predictive insights to remove the friction of cloud adoption and help ensure companies maximize their cloud investment.”

Splunk Insights for AWS Cloud Monitoring integrates right out of the box with numerous AWS offerings including Amazon CloudWatch, AWS CloudTrail and AWS Billing to provide operational awareness, security and cost avoidance for an AWS environment. Splunk Insights for AWS Cloud Monitoring AMI is available for a 30-day, free trial on AWS Marketplace.

Brought to you by HPE & Intel®. Intel Inside®. Powerful Productivity Outside.

*HPE internal testing on StoreVirtual VSA software-defined storage, February 16, 2016. Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. © 2016 HPED LP.

IT resiliency and security for everyone. Keep your business moving forward with secure, right-sized networking, servers, and storage from Hewlett Packard Enterprise. If disaster strikes, minimize disruption with powerful backup and recovery that delivers 99.999%* continuous data availability. See how easy it is to make uptime a key advantage.

HPE Just Right IT for any size business.

Stu & MitchIT Team of Two

Retailer198 Employees

Technology:HPE Aruba Access Points and Switches HPE StoreVirtual HPE ProLiant Servers


Brought to you by HPE & Intel®. Intel Inside®. Powerful Productivity Outside.

*HPE internal testing on StoreVirtual VSA software-defined storage, February 16, 2016. Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. © 2016 HPED LP.

IT resiliency and security for everyone. Keep your business moving forward with secure, right-sized networking, servers, and storage from Hewlett Packard Enterprise. If disaster strikes, minimize disruption with powerful backup and recovery that delivers 99.999%* continuous data availability. See how easy it is to make uptime a key advantage.

HPE Just Right IT for any size business.

Stu & MitchIT Team of Two

Retailer198 Employees

Technology:HPE Aruba Access Points and Switches HPE StoreVirtual HPE ProLiant Servers

Redington Value Journal - September 2017

Technology

Transcript of Redington Value Journal - September 2017