The Integrator - Nov 2012

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Cont

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R. NarayanManaging Editor

Disclaimer: While the publishers have made every attempt possible to get accurate information on published content in this handbook they cannot be held liable for any errors herein.

Published by: JNS Media International MFZEP.O. Box: 121075, Montana Building 404, Zabeel Road, Near GPO, Karama, Dubai-UAETel: 04-3705022 Fax: 04-3706639

The recent cyber attack on computing infrastructure of two Oil & Gas companies in the region underlines that there is substance to the rhetoric that a well fortified security infrastructure is not an option, but mandatory for companies. And they need to look at what are the best options from next generation security products and solutions.

Kaspersky’s ongoing development of a secure OS for critical industrial systems is no longer a rumor as Eugene Kaspersky confirmed it in his blog. It is fair to assume there might be a few concurrent initiatives from other vendors, not disclosed as yet, to build unconventional tools that will provide a better option of securing digital assets and critical infrastructure. In short, it is a rapid evolving landscape when it comes to development of information security tools and is likely to remain more so.

In the past year or so, BYOD has become a cause for concern. According to a report from Juniper research, the number of employee owned smartphones and tablets that will be used in the enterprise will reach 350 million by 2017 compared to 150 million this year. Of course, we are still in the initial phase as more companies become aware of the need to be uncompromising when it comes to regulating the access of personal mobile devices inside corporate networks or applications by defined user profiles and making sure these devices have security software loaded as well.

The response by multiple vendors to the emerged threat from the popular BYOD wave has been varied. While some vendors are integrating these features into existing product lines, there are some who have been offering Mobile Device Management for some time now. There are also new vendors emerging as well. It will take a tough assessment to make a good choice and VADs can have a decisive role to play in consultancy before the sale.

Editorial

The shifts in the security paradigm

Cover feature - P18

The changing Business of Information Security Security specialist distributors are now looking todiversify and strengthen their VAD profiles

Regulars

News Bytes – P 4Eyetech – P 32Stats & Trends- P 34

News in detail - P 10

Cisco outlines Software DefinedNetworking Strategy at Gitex 2012

Feature - P 14

Video conferencing undergoes revolutionBalanced somewhere between AV and IT, video conferencing has managed to take advantage of advances in these two

sectors to deliver a single innovative enterprise solution.

Techknow - P 12

Building momentumUnnikrishnan Pisharody,Business Unit Manager - Servers & Desktop, Acer Middle East discusses trends in the server market and Acer’s outlook and focus.

Point 2point - P 24

SonicWALL making all the right movesShahnawaz Sheikh, Regional Director MEA & Turkey discusses Dell SonicWALL’s regional ambitions

Case Study - P 22

Catalyst Spearheads STS Systems Makeover

Insight - P 28

Factory Networks and SecuritySecurity is an attitude and a feature that must pervade the entire network through a series of consistent mechanisms write Sabhhauddin Khan, Regional Manager at Allied Telesis Middle East.

Better designed networks can leverage cloud benefits - P 30Saad Khan, Regional Managing Director, Middle East, Ciena gives us top 10 reasons about why the cloud is only as good as the network

Founder & CEO: Vivek Sharma Managing Editor: R. NarayanAssistant Editor: David NdichuArt Director: Faiz Ahmed Sr. Sales Manager: R. Subramanyan Sales Coordinator: Smitha Jithesh

The Integrator | November 20124

Veeam Software announced the availability of Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5 in Q4 2012 at the Aptec booth in GITEX. The new release includes new restore capabilities for Microsoft Exchange, and HP StoreVirtual VSA and LeftHand snapshots. Another significant addition is support for VMware vSphere 5.1 and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, making Veeam the first vendor to support both new hypervisor platforms.

The new and powerful features further extend Veeam’s leadership position with its agentless solution specifically built for virtualization which is powerful, easy-to-use and affordable. Key new features in Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5 include Veeam Explorer for Exchange wherein VM admins will be able to look inside Exchange backups to find and retrieve individual Exchange items, without an agent. Veeam Explorer for SAN Snapshots is a new feature that enables admins to quickly restore any or all of a VM directly from SAN snapshots.

New Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5

Comguard has been appointed as the value-added distributor by German IT security specialist gateProtect for the Middle East region. The U.S. market research firm Gartner placed gateProtect solutions in the Magic Quadrant for UTM Firewall appliances for the SMB market, whereas, Frost & Sullivan awarded “Excellence Award” to gateProtect. gateProtect showcased its version 9.2 of its next-generation –firewall at the recently concluded GITEX edition. The award-winning next-generation firewall solution from gateProtect recently won the EAL4 certification. Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO, Comguard and Spectrum Group said “We are delighted to partner with gateProtect for distributing gateProtect’s next generation products in Middle East region. It will provide us an opportunity to offer quality German IT network security products to our partners across the region.”

Following the successful launch of NetBackup 5220 appliance in the Middle East, Symantec is now bringing Backup Exec 3600 appliances to the region to provide an easy to install backup appliance. Backup Exec 3600 includes the latest Backup Exec 2012 software from Symantec and delivers on Symantec’s Better Backup for All initiative to advance what Gartner has called “The Broken State of Backup1.” Symantec’s backup appliances deliver an end-to-end integrated backup appliance for servers, storage, and software. Gone are the days of extreme systems engineering where it was the customer’s responsibility to make all of their backup solutions work together.

“Earlier this year, we announced our new approach to delivering better backup to our customers, introducing ground-breaking new features to replace outdated and complicated approaches. Beyond features, we are changing the regional market with technologies like our purpose-built appliances that combine backup software, servers, storage and deduplication in a single solution – a key part of our strategy to drive complexity and costs out of the backup market,” said Amer Chebaro Appliances Sales Manager for Emerging Region at Symantec.

Comguard adds German IT security specialist gateProtect to its portfolio

Backup Exec 3600 Appliances promise easy installation

News Bytes


News Bytes

Aptec, an Ingram Micro Company, announced at Gitex Technology exhibition about completion of the acquisition process which officially makes Aptec part of an Ingram Micro Group. The announcement took place at Aptec Ingram Micro stand at Gitex, where Aptec as a group participated for the 32nd time. Top management of Aptec, an Ingram Micro Company, headed by Dr. Ali Baghdadi, Vice President and CEO of Aptec, an Ingram Micro Company, welcomed invitees and was happy to announce completion of the acquisition process. The ceremony was attended by seniors in regional distribution from more than 20 vendor partners, among them HP, Microsoft, Dell, NetApp, VMWare, Cisco, IBM and other, regional IT channel media, Aptec employees, representatives of Aptec reseller partners.

FVC has selected Microsoft as its exclusive Cloud and Unified Communications partner in the region. After a steady growth in businesses migrating to the Cloud, the two announced their partnership to continue providing businesses in the region with enhanced access to Office 365 to enable greater productivity, collaboration and reduced costs. Since 2011, Microsoft has been working across the region to deliver Office 365 to the SME sector.

Samer Abu Ltaif, Regional General Manager Microsoft Gulf. said, “We are very happy to be extending our partnership with FVC across the region to support and enable businesses to improve their productivity. As more businesses are using the Cloud to enhance their productivity, we are certain that greater need for tools like Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Lync Online will enable seamless and continued collaboration among businesses while helping them reduce costs.”

StorIT, a leading data storage specialist value added distributor entered a strategic distributor partnership agreement with Moonwalk Inc., a company that specializes in large-scale data management solutions.

StorIT will exclusively distribute the diverse range of large-scale data solutions of Moonwalk Inc., which are now widely being used across various industry segments like banking, healthcare, government, research & development, education and resources. Mellanox and QLogic.

“Entering into this strategic new alliance with Moonwalk Inc. gives us the advantage of offering a unique product that addresses the need to manage complex, data management through the tiers of storage and is comparatively economical as it is a software only solution,” said Bobby Joseph, CEO, StorIT.

Aptec showcases as an Ingram Micro Company at Gitex

FVC selects Microsoft as exclusive Cloud and UC partner in the Gulf

StorIT and Moonwalk forge strategic distributor agreement at GITEX 2012


The storage specialist Iomega has signed NIT Network Information Technology as Security Value Added Distributor for UAE, Saudi, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon and Jordan with the aim of increasing its reach into SMEs, SMB Security and Surveillance resellers and value-added resellers.

" With NIT, we are fulfilling another part of our B2B reach and expanding our support. NIT has been chosen because of its strength and reach to different channel segments within the Security and Surveillance segments," said Cizar Abughazaleh, regional director for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey at Iomega.

Network Information Technology L.L.C. was established back in 1995 in Dubai, U.A.E. and is a Value Added Distributor of IP Video Surveillance and Physical Security solutions. NIT has more than 600 channels partners across the Greater Middle East.

Iomega appoints NIT as Security VAD

Network Sentry 6.0 to strengthen BYOD policy

DVCOM Technology, a part of Al Mashka Group, a UAE based $150 million conglomerate and a leading solutions provider of Open Source VoIP Telephony, announced the launch of Matrix’s NAVAN CNX200, an Office-in-a-Box Solution for Small Businesses.

“Matrix Comsec is a leading manufacturer of VoIP products such as IP-PBX, IP-Servers, VoIP Gateways and IP Phones. With the launch of NAVAN CNX200, Matrix has, yet again, proved

that it has and it will continue to dominate the VoIP arena,” said Renjan George, Managing Partner at DVCOM Technology.

“NAVAN combines the functionalities of IP-PBX, Data router, Wi-Fi access point, VoIP-GSM gateway, VPN and Firewall Security in a compact and converged platform enabling small businesses to communicate and manage infrastructure. This helps in increased productivity, lower costs and enhanced collaboration with customers and suppliers,” George added.

NAVAN CNX200 combines VoIP Telephony, Data networking, Internet accessibility and Workspace mobility with 3G and GSM connectivity.

Bradford Networks launched the latest version of its Network Sentry 6.0 solution at GITEX 2012. A Network Access Control (NAC) solution, Network Sentry 6.0, provides organisations with a foundation for a strong and secure bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategy with new key features that focus on automation, enhanced platform coverage, and integration with leading security solutions.

“Implementing BYOD is now gaining popularity in the Middle East as it enables companies achieve greater productivity. The first step to a secure BYOD policy needs to be visibility and control over who and what is accessing corporate networks at all times,” said Ahmad Elkhatib, Managing Partner, Shifra, Bradford Networks’ channel partner for MENA. “With its automated workflows, broad network infrastructure and mobile device coverage, and out-of-band architecture, Network Sentry 6.0 can support existing corporate network equipment and enables companies to quickly and easily create a granular set of BYOD policies that are tailored to specific roles within any organisation.”.

DVCOM Launches Matrix NAVAN CNX200

News Bytes

26TH NOVEMBER | BURJ AL ARAB - DUBAI UAE

A VISIONARY APPROACH TO NEXT-GENERATION THREAT RESPONSE.

JOIN US ATJOIN US ATJOIN US AT

All right reserved StarLink Middle East. Copyright StarLink JLT.Office 1403, Tiffany Towers, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Sheikh Zayed Road. P.O. Box 99580. Dubai - UAE

Phone: +971 4 4473552 | Fax: +971 4 4473551 | Email: [email protected] | Web: www.starlinkme.net

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News In-Detail

Cisco unveiled ‘Cisco ONE’ its position on Software Defined Networking (SDN) at Gitex 2012. Cisco’s positioning and strategy involves making the network more programmable and virtualized, which requires more than SDN technology. The company’s strategy has three parts: SDN, network virtualization, and programmability via application programming interfaces (API’s) which are the specifications intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other.

Cisco believe that despite the current noise in the market, the

adoption of SDN technologies (including OpenFlow) is still small because the technology is still in its infancy. Furthermore, SDN and OpenFlow technologies do not cover all switching functionality – only a small portion of the switch or router’s overall functionality. Cisco has been actively participating in OpenFlow and SDN’s development, collaborating in the leading industry groups and it will continue to support industry efforts to develop SDN technologies and related standards.

Rabih Dabboussi, general manager, Cisco, UAE said, “Even in the Middle East we are finding that definitions of SDN are still very fragmented and vendor interpretations are also equally different. The general

consensus is that SDN is bigger than OpenFlow, but it is still largely perceived as a controller and agent’s architecture with de-coupling of control and data plane. A lot more can be achieved quickly with programmatic access as many customers just want quicker, multi-layer programmable access. Diverse customers have different motivations when it comes to SDN based on urgency of business drivers, in-house IT expertise, and requirement to customize applications. No one size fits all.”

Cisco’s Approach to SDN:Cisco ONE will deliver an open, programmable environment that will continue to deliver on the concept of the network-as-a-platform - in other words, making

networks more application-aware, applications more network-aware, and networks more conducive to developers and application hosting. This approach will not be an “either/or” approach but will leverage the power of AND. This will provide the flexibility and the most tools in the toolkit. Through this approach, Cisco will aim to deliver consistency of operational experience between: physical and virtual, network and compute, intelligent ASICs and software. Cisco’s continued participation at the IETF, ITU-T, ONF and other standards bodies and forums will drive standards activity.

Cisco on OpenFlow:Cisco embraced the market transition around server virtualization, delivering

innovations to customers like Cisco UCS and a broad portfolio of virtual networking technologies. They see network virtualization delivering similar benefits to IT organizations and offering similar opportunities for Cisco, because SDN and programmable networking will make it easier for customers to access the sophisticated capabilities of their Cisco infrastructure and help them to tackle emerging challenges like building large-scale public/private clouds.

Cisco’s SDN Offering:Cisco will continue talking to customers to learn their needs and plans to support industry efforts to develop SDN technologies, programmable networks, and related standards.

Cisco outlines SDN Strategy at GITEX 2012

Rabih DabboussiGeneral Manager

Cisco - UAE


and AMD. From 1P to 4 P solutions, we have all the solutions for small to large scale organisation. On the portfolio, we have the Acer 100 series, both Rack and Tower; Acer 300 and 500 series, Rack and Tower with robust options, best in-class expandability as well as Acer Density Systems - Gemini and Blades offering ultimate performance, minimal floor space and best power per watt.

Our tower servers are the AT series and Rack servers are the AR series.We also have in certain market tie ups with Hitachi storage solutions that offer high end storage solutions. In a nutshell, we have total x86 based solutions for almost all verticals. In short, our servers offer total value, as they are agile,

cost-effective and relable end-to-end solutions.

What factors are influencing the server purchasing decisions? Unlike other IT products, purchasing a server takes a longer time as there are various criteria to be considered. Brand loyalty is mostly seen in Server purchases. It would be difficult for an IT Manager to take a decision to change the Server brand (even if it’s at lower cost offered from competition ) unless there are serious technical or support issues. However, the IT supplier or partner can influence these decisions to some extent. Cost is also a factor in changing the decision for large-scale purchases

today. The major factors would be Brand loyalty, efficient partner, price and the product spread available with the vendor. Another criteria could be the application compatibility especially for large scale enterprises.

Are x86 servers now used more for mission critical workloads? x86 servers have matured in hardware and they are now being used for mission critical applications. For London Olympics 2012, we had supplied over 950 x86 based servers for mission critical application. Our servers have been running mission critical and cloud-based apps on x86 servers. Certified solutions including Intel Cluster Ready and Intel Cloud Builder. Also, we have our servers included in the

top 500 Green and top 500 super computers.

How is the trend for Rackmount servers vis-à-vis Towers?Rack servers are preferred in medium and large-scale deployment as we can accommodate more servers in the space. Secondly, the Rack servers today have almost the same storage capacity as that of the traditional tower model. However, there still is a market for Tower servers especially in small offices and satellite offices where the requirement does not exceed one or two servers. Tower servers are easy to service (hardware) as compared to a rack server.

Building momentumServers on the X86 platform offered by major vendors like Acer, continue to make inroads even into areas of mission critical workloads. Unnikrishnan Pisharody, Business Unit Manager - Servers & Desktop, Acer Middle East discusses trends in the server market and Acer’s outlook and focus.

Unikrishnan PisharodyBusiness Unit Manager-Server & Desktop

Acer Middle East

TechKnow | Acer

Has the demand for x86 servers in the region been growing? The demand for servers is on the path of growth. Firstly, because the region is an emerging market and there will be a growing demand for small and medium businesses. While large corporations and government institutions will eventually move on to virtualisation and new technologies, we see opportunity in the SMB segment.

Please discuss Acer's server portfolio? We introduce the latest products well ahead of the competition in order to offer customers increased TCO and value for the investment. Acer Server portfolio includes Intel

For more information please contact,Meenu Raje at [email protected] or Call us at +971 552281560, +97142379005


Feature | Video Conferencing

The video conferencing segment has come a long way from the days of grainy videos and barely decipherable audio. With HD, cloud services, and fast and secure transmission methods, the traveling businessperson and remote offices are capable of communicating with the main office and partners with almost seamless abandon. And with applications available for tablets and smartphones, video conferencing has truly come of age. Driving this impetus are companies like LifeSize, Avaya, Polycom and microphone manufacturer Revolabs.

Innovation is at the very heart of video conference market trends. Telepresence from Avaya offers pre-packaged or fully turnkey services including monitoring, conference setup and real time support. Telepresence includes enterprise video conferencing, globally to provide a more

efficient, effective and productive environment for collaboration among geographically dispersed employees, customers and suppliers, according to Claire Macland, Head of Avaya EMEA Go-To-Market and Marketing, Avaya EMEA. “The promise of on-demand video is now real,”Claire adds.

LifeSize UVC Video Centre provides access to HD-quality video streaming, recording and playback. Live and on-demand videos are accessible through a range of devices including desktops, laptops, tablets or smartphones. LifeSize technology also supports various video resolutions, according to Andreas Wienold, Vice President EMEA for Lifesize. “Our aim is to make sure that people forget about technology. Previously people were nervous in video conference meetings due to communication hitches. Today people can forget about the devices and just

concentrate on the meeting,” said Wienold.

Avaya also offers contact centre solutions. The Aura Contact Centre delivers solutions across web, social, mobile, voice, email, chat, and outbound. According to Claire, the Avaya Aura Contact Centre allows organizations to leverage real-time and historical information to deliver seamless, context-sensitive customer care.

Being a specialized field, video conference solution vendors have to deal through strong VADs.Revolabs for instance has regional distributor Taxan Gulf as partner servicing more than have 50 active resale partners in the region, according to Roshan Gupta country manager Middle East and India for Revolabs.

“We work directly with our partners as far as designing of solutions

Video conferencing undergoes revolution

Video conferencing undergoes revolution

Balanced somewhere between AV and IT, video conferencing has managed to take advantage of advances in these two sectors to deliver

a single innovative enterprise solution.

15 November 2012 | The Integrator 15

Andreas WienoldVice President EMEA

Lifesize

is concerned, discussing the applications, working out the right kind of solutions are needed in the market,” said Gupta. “We help them in winning those projects, designing the projects and we support them in showing live demonstrations as well as support if and we help them in product evaluation and also POC (proof of concept) when this is required”

Segments adopting video conferencing solutions are wide and varied. Revolabs microphones are specially geared for the enterprise, according to Gupta. “A crucial area for us is enterprise collaborations where video conferencing has become part and parcel of the large business operations,” said Gupta.

Another growing segment for Revolabs is education, as lecturers need to address large classrooms. Distance learning is also becoming popular and with it unique communication challenges to reach students all over the world. Revolabsmics can be easily integrated with existing video infrastructure to transmit audio where needed, according to Gupta.

Avaya solutions can be applied at, among other areas, to the banking sector. “For instance, customer support can be provided at the ATM to customers where they can communicate face to face with customer service reps in real time,” said Claire.

Video conferencing is well suited for the region, with its expansive oil and gas installations, according to DharmendraParmar, general marketing manager at FVC, a leading VAD for Polycom. Parmar cites the example of an accident at a remote oil rig. Using the telemedicine capabilities of video conferencing, a medical professional off site can be able

to diagnose the injuries and recommend first aid before transport to a hospital. Or he could decide the injuries are not serious to warrant admission and can be taken care through first aid at the site. This kind of intervention saves money and time.

“Technical personnel can also be able to carry out remote maintenance and troubleshooting of oil installations from anywhere in the world,” explained Parmar. Again this saves a lot of money and unnecessary travel, he added.

With a lot business being carried outwhile on travel, video conferencing companies are adapting to this environment through solutions specifically adapted for the on-the-go executive. LifeSize offers the LifeSize Video Centres which are able tostream videos live on tablets or smartphones. Polycom also allows people using tablets and smartphones to join standard video conferencing meetings.

Avaya’s one-X Mobile lets users access enterprise communications

from a wide selection of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Enterprises are today also actively adopting BYOD-friendly policies. Avaya supports BYOD with a combination of security, authentication, networking, and policies. Avaya solutions includes device authentication, access control for wired and wireless devices, secure remote access.

As the BYOD movement continues to explode, LifeSizeis offering the UVC Multipoint designed to provide a multiparty video conferencing solution that is suited for mobile, low-bandwidth environments that includes video-enabled laptops, tablets and smartphones, according to Wienold.

The rest of the IT industry is headed towards managed services due to its cost-cutting advantages. Avaya Telepresence solution is a managed service, consisting of a range of offerings which include managed UC, Managed Contact Centre andManaged Infrastructure.LifeSize also offers virtualized software that is adaptable and can be hosted on

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16 The Integrator | November 201216

Roshan GuptaCountry Manager, ME

Revolabs

Clair MaclandHead, EMEA, GTM & Marketing

Avaya

the cloud, hosted on site or offered as a managed service.

Avaya Collaborative Cloud is delivered over single, open and scalable communications architecture from the company. LifeSizeon the other hand is a member of the VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program. Organizations gain the efficiencies of virtualization backed by the technical expertise of VMware. Polycom offers unified communication cloud infrastructure to support managed services on a pay as you go model. This allows clients to have a feel of the system before they decide to buy the solution, according to Parmar. “This allows a great deal of flexibility,” he added.

Rather than competing, the various video conference solutions providers are collaborating at different levels. Avaya is enabling its Aura platformto runLifeSize

video conferencing systems. The combined solution is meant to combine thedelivery of HD LifeSize video systems and the centralized management and control capabilities of Avaya Aura. Polycom offers customers the capability of adding Polycom voice and video capabilities to Avaya communications platform.

Manufacturers have tried to make video conferencing solutions easy to use.The LifeSize Video Centre offers one-button HD streaming, recording and auto-publishing solution. This single solution ensures that live and on-demand videos are easily accessible from any location and by hundreds, even thousands, of viewers, according to Wienold.

Polycom offers end-to-end investment protection and provides software interoperability with older hardware. When customers are ready, they can upgrade their hardware systems when they need to. “At Polycom, we follow industry standards meaning that Polycom devices are compatible with other devices from partners and solutions within the same standard,” said Parmar. The Polycom CX series is also compatible with Microsoft Lync, helping users experience the simple and familiar Lync interface in environments throughout the enterprise.

Revolabs microphones work within the DECT protocol,a spectrum is outside the congested UHF frequency and therefore minimising interference, according to Gupta. “We have smart microphones that can for instance identify noise in the background and can automatically reduce the noise from the source itself,” said Gupta

Avaya Aura Conferencing, experienced through either

the Avaya Flare Experience or the browser-based Avaya Aura Collaboration Agent interface, also gives users one-touch control over their devices, according to Claire. “Features include drag and drop contacts to start a conference with no need for dialing,” Claire said.“One can also switch between IM, voice, and emailin one window, in one app. Users can scroll and click on contacts and send invites that automatically contain conference info and links,” she added.

Video conferencing offers a unique, if somehow contradictory, solution for businesses. It is a way for businesses to control costs by making constant travel unnecessary and yet encourages travel by making business collaboration possible through mobile communications. Either way, enterprises big and small will find their particular needs taken care of by this rapidly expanding technology field.

Feature | Video Conferencing


Information security has been one of the areas of substantial growth in the industry. Securing critical data and infrastructure being a key concern for companies, the Business of Information security looks to be a boom segment for the foreseeable future.

Security focused distributors have seen growth rates in the past few years, contrary to the decline in some other segments of the industry. This fact justified the continued specialist focus on security business.

However, distributors are discovering that they need to broaden their range of solutions that are related to security . They are steadily growing and in some case diversifying their portfolios

that will enable them to take advantage of emerging trends.

John Andrews, Director of Marketing at Computerlinks, MEA and APAC says, “We see our portfolio growing by the day and while historically, Computerlinks was known as a niche security solutions distributor, today it seems much more than that. We have partnerships with Extreme networks, Aerohive wireless, Exinda from the networking domain, a partnership with EMC etc. We are now more of infrastructure providers for networks that includes security. This demand is being driven by smart end users who are looking at what they need from the perspective of constructing their networking infrastructure and the need to improve their datacenter

performance, adopt cloud computing services better etc. ”

The security domain is also beginning to look a bit crowded with an increase in the number of

Cover Feature | Information Security

The changing Business of

Information SecuritySecurity specialist distributors are now looking to diversify and strengthen their VAD profiles

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Hackers are evolving their capabilities and Technologies to bypass traditional security

infrastructure every day. Which is why, we keep pace with these evolving threats by adding

products that can help address these threats.

distribution companies dealing with a similar set of brands. However, there is still room for growth as more new niche vendors are entering the market, opening up new opportunities.

Nidal Othman, MD at Starlink says, “It has been a challenging job being in the IT security domain. Every day I wake up, I start to believe that we have all solutions required to address the security challenges but there are newer zero attacks every other day which keeps us on our toes. Hackers are evolving their capabilities and Technologies to bypass traditional security infrastructure every day. Which is why, we keep pace with these evolving threats by adding products that can help address these threats. That has helped us gain the tag of being a trusted security advisor among high profile clients especially from Banking, Telecom, Oil and Gas sector as well as including those from the government agencies, who we help secure their critical data assets from possible external and internal threats.”

Starlink has local presence in 6 countries including some of the leading GCC countries. It has strong business in KSA and has Business partners in the Levant and Turkey as well.

He adds, “Starlink focuses on security products that can complement security infrastructure. Since we commenced operations in 2005, we have focused on niche products as a value add distributor. We have focused on next generation security products and there are

14 brands addressing different challenges. We are covering the entire Middle East with a locally based resource in each of these markets to help the channel grow their market.”

Security distributors are flexing their muscles and showing their intent to expand and diversify as larger sized value- add distributors. And, why not? After all, Broadline distributors are gate-crashing into what were the provinces of specialist distributors with their recently established value teams.

Secureway, a leading security VAD had a larger stand at GITEX showcasing all its brands and flexing its muscle as a distributor with a fast growing portfolio of products. Its showcase at GITEX included Fortinet, F5, Infoblox, Vasco, Sourcefire, etc. The company highlighted Fortinet and F5, which were the first brands the company partnered with when it came into the region and continue to be the strongest performing brands for the company.

Zafar Shabdiz, MD, Secureway says, “As the market has evolved, we are seeing new products and technologies developing. We consider ourselves as a leading VAD since we entered the market in 2005. We are investing in more areas that have not been categorically seen as IT security like application delivery, cloud computing, etc.”

The changing Business of

Information Security

Shifra has seen an interesting evolution of their Business model. The company started out as an IT security consultancy and branched out into security value-add distribution because that gave them the scale.

Ahmad Elkhatib, Managing Partner, Shifra says, “We have been established since 2007 as a consulting company but we moved into value add distribution 2 years ago. The major reason was scalability. To increase your reach as a consulting company, you need to office across the region. Being a distributor, you could do that because you can have channel partners across the region that

extends your reach with customers.”

Now they are looking at newer domains like BYOD that will again broaden their portfolio

Nidal OthmanManaging Director

Starlink


outside what can be strictly classified as Information Security. That appears to be the general trend with security VADs who are now extending their presence into additional domains that can help guarantee them larger Business opportunities.

Focus on BYODBYOD is currently one of the strongest opportunities. Different security vendors are addressing this either integrating features into their existing products lines that will take care of BYOD or evolving new products specifically. There are also companies that are specifically focused on BYOD. Distributors are therefore either highlighting what existing solutions they have that can handle the BYOD concern or they are tying up with vendors offering solutions in that domain.

Starlink has announced that they are partnering with Zenprise that offers solutions in Mobile Device Management.

Othman adds, “Many IT

departments in the Middle East lack the tools that they need to monitor the mobile devices that access their networks. Unlike most MDM vendors that just manage mobile devices, Zenprise focuses on next generation MDM, which includes keeping mobile content secure. After comprehensive evaluations, we have chosen to partner with Zenprise because we would like to provide customers in the region with an enterprise mobility solution, while providing them visibility through Mobile Security Intelligence, and secure access to business data with Mobile DLP. "

Zenprise is in the Leaders Quadrant of Gartner, Inc.’s 2012 Mobile Device Magic Quadrant report and under this new partnership agreement, StarLink will distribute Zenprise’s solutions to resellers across the GCC as part of StarLink’s growing security and compliance practice.”

The onus is on distributors to keep pace with emerging trends and make the right call, which is easier said than done. Some distributors choose to partner with established leaders in their spaces whereas other distributors may take a calculated risk to grow with an emerging vendor.

Andrews adds, “It is a tough call because there are so many trends emerging. However, we are dynamic and review on a weekly and quarterly basis as to where we are headed. Based on market analysis, we come to our decisions. For instance, BYOD has been a strong trend coming through this year. People are learning to cope with this phenomenon in order to take care of their network infrastructure. We need to look at whether we have the right portfolio of products to take care of these emerging threats and then decide.”

Additionally, it also remains to be judged if they already have a mix of products that address these concerns to a large measure

.He adds further, “We do have a pretty comprehensive range of products that take can care of these needs. For instance there is F5 which with its offerings provides the capability to manage network traffic, prioritizing who gets how much bandwidth, application security, which devices get access to which applications and so on. Further into the network infrastructure, there is switching and wireless security. Juniper’s new products address security for wireless security pretty strongly.”

Meeting market expectationsIt is a tight rope walk for a VAD, when they make decisions based on emerging trends. The threat to critical verticals is likely to increase. An evidence of that was seen last month when about 30,000 workstations at Saudi Aramco were affected by a virus known as Shamoon in August and a similar attack affected systems at Qatari natural gas company RasGas.

Ahmad Elkhatib of Shifra says, “Public and private sector companies are enhancing their security infrastructure as IT gains more critical significance in their business operations and desired growth. As IT applications within organisations grow in complexity and coverage, so does its security requirements. We expect deployment of integrated security solutions to have a massive growth in the next few years.”

Large installations will have a lot at stake if they are not alert to the need for securing their infrastructure from such threats that can become more sophisticated by the day. It is likely that this will

Zafar ShabdizManaging Director

Secureway

Cover Feature | Information Security


influence a larger spending on next generation security infrastructure apparatus.

Shabdiz of Secureway comments, “With recent attacks on critical IT infrastructure in the region, there has been a need for customers to seek solutions beyond the traditional elements in the IT security space. We represent solutions from our vendor Sourcefire offering anti-malware and IPS for critical infrastructure. We expect good opportunities within this space in the next year.”

There is a level of expectation build up in the vendor-distributor partnership but that has also to match with what the market needs. It remains a tough balancing act.

He adds, “We have to match what we offer from our vendors to what the market requires. While within IT network security, the protocols maybe the same, the market needs and environments are different. For vendors associated with us, we are co-managing to help create the fastest market opportunity for their products.” There are no shortcuts to winning over the channel unless you show the commitment to investments.Computerlinks has demonstrated so with the two training centers it has and with the hope to add more centers to ensure its channel is well trained.

The regional operations take an independent decision on which vendor to tie-up with, and preferably ensure that there is no overlap.

Andrews says,

“While some of the vendors have good presence in the channel, trained, skilled and active, some of the newer vendors are leaning on us to develop their channel and adding value to the 2000 odd reseller network that we have in the region. Some of the other more established vendors who may have a good presence in the enterprise segment, but not so in the SMB space may require us to strengthen their presence in that segment.”

It is important to keep the channel interested in what you to offer. Introduction of new solutions is mandatory to bring in growth for the distributor and the partners.

Starlink’s Othman says ,”We are always welcomed by the channel since we almost certainly bring new products to the market. We work with them hand in hand to make sure they get the business. We focus on security VARs and large Sis who also include security solutions as part of their overall solutions. We have business relationships with over 50 Business partners. Some of them adopt the entire portfolio while others may pick and choose what they require. We are doubling revenues year on year as demand for IT security solutions is growing by the year.”

Aligning product lines towards the channel’s growing expectations should also be factor that the distributors need to weigh when they evaluate their possible directions. That can be a decisive

factor that will force distributors in days to come.

Andrews adds, “We have diversified our offerings in line with expectations of the channel and the end customers and an instance would be our partnership with EMC and we cover pretty much their entire portfolio. We are aligned to vendor expectations as well as where the channel wants to take their Business. Whether the channel wants to be seen as a security VAR or as an infrastructure provider, we can help them do so.”

The trajectory that security VADs will unravel in days to come when they position more confidently

as VADs with plenty of options in their arsenal to meet evolving threats that critical network infrastructures face. That is a story to take stock of later.

Ahmad ElkhatibManaging Partner

Shifra

"With recent attacks on critical IT infrastructure in the region, there has been a need for customers to seek solutions beyond the

traditional elements in the IT security space."


Special Technical Services (STS): An energetic forward thinking business with its head office in Sultanate of Oman operates a workforce exceeding 6000 personnel working in a premier Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) company. STS specializes in fabrication, construction and maintenance services with their company’s solutions encompassing the entire range of services for Oil & Gas, Power and Petrochemical sectors. STS has varied capabilities and vast experience to execute Long Term Engineering, Procurement & Construction services or EPC Contracts. The company’s experience spans over three decades and they aim to serve their clients in the MENA region with their offices in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. STS is also operating over nine fabrication shops in Oman. The company has benefitted significantly by having an integrated business management system and gaining wider recognition as one of the fastest growing businesses of Oman. Optimum functioning by STS required real-time visibility into projects, resources and financials, but this was limited by its disparate systems which made it realize their requirement for a flexible and scalable business management solution to make it progress more efficiently and addressing the company’s future plans of continued growth and success.

What STS needed?STS needed an efficient tool to monitor the costs for all the Projects-works, which includes Labor, Material and Machine. They also wanted to provide a single platform for Projects accounting, enable system-driven accounting and booking from sub-ledgers to general ledger globally and migrate to a cost-effective Linux Operating System platform.

What solution did STS have already?STS had a bespoke product, addressing accounting and payroll only. Majority of the work was done outside the system (Excel).

What solution did Catalyst get?STS partnered with Catalyst for implementing Oracle JDE 9.1 which includes the followings modules:• Project Management• Finance• Procurement• Inventory• BI (Reporting)

The Catalyst SolutionCatalyst approach to implement the Oracle JDE 9.1 has reduced process complexities and achieved process

efficiencies for STS. Till now, this has resulted with a better control on project planning which in turn reduced stock outs and improved inventory turns. The Catalyst Solution has also improved the Labor cost efficiencies, through automation by time sheet interface with HRMS system & this applies for the Machine deployment cost too.

Catalyst developed interfaces in Oracle JDE 9.1 system to seamlessly integrate with their legacy systems.

Catalyst Solution Benefits STS:The Catalyst solution is helping STS in adhering to uniform practices for project management and has also enabled system-driven global accounting by setting up a multi-organization environment. Catalyst is doing this by streamlining the Project Management, Inventory, Procurement and Financial Accounting process for STS.

Creating value for customers by continuously improving business processes to deliver on time - every time is critical to driving growth. This is a big challenge for the client considering the nature of the industry, which works on extremely short lifecycles and therefore an impeccable 'on-time delivery' record is a crucial success factor.

There was a need to absorb the market fluctuations but the legacy system lacked the flexibility. This highlighted their need to implement a robust business process to keep ahead of competition, reduce overhead costs and improve cash flow.

Case Study | Catalyst

Catalyst SpearheadsSTS Systems Makeover

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Which products are you showcasing at GITEX?We have on displayed our next generation firewalls for small medium to large enterprises including include the SuperMassive firewalls. The SuperMassiveE10000 Series is Dell SonicWALL’s Next-Generation Firewall platform designed for large networks to deliver scalability, reliability and security at multi-gigabit speeds. Built to meet the needs of enterprise, government, university, and service provider deployments,

the SuperMassive E10000 Series is ideal for securing enterprise networks, data centres and server farms.

Discuss the benefits of Next-Generation Firewalls over existing security solutionsWith this, we are giving more control to the IT manager enabling them strike the right balance between user need and ensuring that corporate governance protocols are maintained in order to have optimum utilization of bandwidth.Users within an organization have access to business and leisure applications. It is thus important for the IT team to ensure that the business applications are available bandwidth-wise and also in terms of priorities. Although the leisure applications can be accessed,

there’s need to ensure that they do not have a negative impact on business applications. This could in terms of bandwidth, availability or priority. With SonicWALL application control, the IT manager will be able to granularly manage these business and leisure applications based on content, the specific user who should have access, what applications they should have access to, what time of the day certain applications should be access and so on.

UTM offers obvious benefits to SMBs. Discuss SonicWALL’s UTM solutions Network attackers have become more sophisticated, and their attacks more targeted. Many of today's attacks are blended attacks, which use multiple techniques to try to infiltrate a network. While organizations need an array of techniques to combat blended attacks, managing multiple, separate security tools can be expensive. SonicWALL's approach to UTM creates a security environment that delivers firewalling, content protection, anti-virus, intrusion prevention, Application Intelligence, anti-spam, content filtering and SSL VPN on a single hardware platform. Protection starts at the gateway and blocks both internal and external threats at multiple access points and at all network layers. The

Point2point | SonicWALL

SonicWALLmaking all the right moves

SonicWALL made its debut as a Dell subsidiary at GITEX this year after its acquisition mid-year. We caught up with Shahnawaz Sheikh, Regional Director MEA & Turkey who discussed SonicWALL’s regional ambitions.

Shahnawaz SheikhRegional Director, MEA & Turkey

SonicWALL


built-in gateway anti-virus, anti-spyware and intrusion prevention offers real-time security against a wide variety of exploits, software vulnerabilities and malicious code.

SonicWALL promises real time control of bandwidth usage. Please discussIn traditional UTM technology, the IT team would receive a report say the next day identifying any bandwidth abuse after the damage has already been done. In the next generation firewall scenario, the IT team is able to get this information in real time. This gives the power to the IT manager to take corrective measures on the fly. So we are able to give real time visibility of applications to the IT team managing the firewall. So at any time of the day, the IT team is able to understand applications usage. They are able to know what applications are consuming how much bandwidth and how many users are using these applications. If there is bandwidth abuse, they will be able to identify who is abusing bandwidth, which applications are consuming the most bandwidth and is it really a business need or is it a productivity loss. So based on all this information, the IT team can take corrective measures on the fly in order to ensure that bandwidth is used for business purposes.

With connection through mobile devices becoming more and more widespread, discuss how SonicWALL is prepared to handle

this new realityMobile computing today has become an integral part of the corporate network and establishing secure remote access has become a high priority. Dell SonicWALL Secure Remote Access (SRA) appliances extend secure remote networking over SSL VPN to potentially thousands of locations, to provide anytime, anywhere access.The modern mobile workforce also demands secure access to more resources from more remote devices and platforms than ever before. Our SRA solutions offer access to mission-critical resources from virtually any endpoint—including desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets. These scalable remote access solutions fit organizations of every size, from small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to the largest global enterprise.We are able to offer end point control over the SRA platform to make the whole proposition more secure in terms of the right users connecting to the right applications in the organization.

How manageable are SonicWALL solutions for the average SMB unable to afford a lot of technical resources? We offer management solutions for multi-location deployments-for example the head office as well as

"SonicWALL's approach to UTM creates a security environment that delivers firewalling, content

protection, anti-virus, intrusion prevention, Application Intelligence, anti-spam, content filtering and SSL VPN on a single hardware

platform."

branch offices-or multiple appliances in a single network. The IT manager can manage a single or multiple networks through

SonicWALL appliances using a single interface and console. So the IT manager has one window to manage multiple appliances making manageabilitysimpler and easier. SonicWALL offers a comprehensive offering from perimeter security to desktop security, internal security to wireless, WAN optimization to secure remote access technology. We also have solutions for companies who wish to manage their own email security if they have their own mail servers as well as offering back-up and recovery solutions.

Discuss the integration of SonicWALL’s own legacy channel program with Dell’s partner programUp now, we havebeen managing our channel through the legacy Medallion Programme based on a typical two tier model. This partner programme is set to be merged with Dell’s Partner Direct programme. All Medallion Programme members would be able to carry their benefits from SonicWALL and then be able to benefit from new benefits from Dell. This process is in transition and by the end of Q4, we should have most partners in Dell’s Partner Direct programme. Partners will still have the point of contact, benefits and support from SonicWALL.

Point2point | SonicWALL

November 2012 | The Integrator 27


only on a software or hardware product, or product-set, in order to achieve a decent level of security. It's not a matter of how sophisticated and evolved products are. Security is an attitude and a feature that must pervade the entire network through a series of consistent mechanisms that must be easy to implement, maintain, test and use.

Simplicity, clarity, immediacy: these are the foundations of a network infrastructure that is really strong and safe over time.

Let's start with resilience to failures.

Redundant network infrastructure that extensively uses a multilayer approach combining Ethernet and IP protocols such as Spanning Tree (in its various forms) and VRRP / HSRP in conjunction with any routing protocol (OSPF, RIP, ISIS, ...), requires coordinated planning and an extremely complex configuration of the various mechanisms. In such a complicated setup, troubleshooting is a complex and time consuming task too. The situation becomes almost impossible to sustain if VLANs or VPNs are implemented.

On the contrary, an infrastructure able to operate at Layer 2 across the entire factory, with resiliency mechanisms based on Link Aggregation and EPSR , combines a clear and simple architecture

The use of IT technologies when constructing a fully automated factory is a primary consideration in order to be competitive in today’s global marketplace.

In such a context, the corporate network plays a fundamental role because it is the nervous system of the entire company, hence it must be properly protected against any possible threat whether it is accidental or intentional.

Everyone will understand that security cannot be limited to the installation of devices like firewalls or UTMs that only act as the

network’s protection at its external boundary. The network must be resilient to every intentional or accidental action performed by internal users too because of inattention, ignorance of operational procedures or, even worse, for “surviving” complex and muddled access control procedures.

Consider passwords for instance. The more complicated access procedures and password policies are, the more likely users write them on stickers or store them in their mobile phone. It is like leaving the home keys under the carpet or in the flower-pot beside the door. It would not matter how robust and armored is the door might be.

Therefore it's not possible to rely

Factory Networks and Security

Insight | Allied Telesis

Security is an attitude

and a feature that must

pervade the entire

network through a

series of consistent

mechanisms that must

be easy to implement,

maintain, test and use,

write Sabhhauddin Khan,

regional manager at Allied

Telesis Middle East.

Sabhhauddin KhanRegional Manager

Allied Telesis Middle East


with ease of configuration and fault identification. There is no protocol to coordinate, traffic flow through two or more parallel paths across the network in a balanced way and virtualization can be simply achieved by VLAN that can then be aggregated at backbone level by activating VLAN in VLAN mechanisms.

Everything with fault recovery time under 50 milliseconds, typical of EPSR, and the scalability of Link Aggregation that allows the increase of the available bandwidth by simply adding more physical links. The impact on configuration is minimal: just add the additional port ids to the existing aggregation commands.

Complementing this feature with a pair of LAN switches connected in VCStack mode the network can even withstand fire if the two pieces of equipment are physically separated by a fire wall. This setup is not possible when deploying a chassis even if redundant.

A resilient architecture is not enough to ensure the operation of the network if basic critical protocols are not protected from simple voluntary or involuntary actions attempted by any user. First of all it is necessary that all access switches implement loop detection and protection features, without which a cable or a small switch or a consumer-

type router connected between two ports would give rise to an accelerator of packets that could bring down the whole network. Similarly a consumer router (such as an ADSL one) connected to the corporate network through one of its LAN ports can respond to DHCP requests from any PC with an IP address that is not compatible with the network itself preventing the communication across the network. All access switches must then implement DHCP protection and IP address verification, allowing only the officially assigned IP address to be used on that port.

The protection framework is completed by tri-authentication. This feature, active on every port, does not allow the access to the

network until the connected equipment successfully pass an authentication process using one out of three authentication methods: IEEE

802.1x, Web authentication or MAC address recognition.

This mechanism has to be integrated with the corporate security and access control infrastructure based either on a RADIUS server or an industry standard Network Access Control / Protection systems by Symantec or Microsoft. After passing the authentication procedure the equipment is automatically associated to the relevant VLAN as soon as users perform their usual login procedure.

Simple and resilient and at the same time scalable - this is the approach for an efficient and effective solution to a real problem.

"The network must be resilient to every intentional or accidental action performed

by internal users too because of inattention, ignorance of operational procedures or, even worse, for “surviving” complex and muddled

access control procedures."


As cloud implementations mature from trials to full deployments, management will demand to see tangible benefits of the cloud deployment. The way you design your network can be a deal breaker to success. The network is the strategic lever to achieve the cloud benefits of lower costs, reduced deployment time and new functionality. In short, the cloud is only as good as the network.

3Cloud storage is becoming an increasingly large percentage

of corporate data Organizations in the region typically use cloud infrastructure for simple storage backup to cloud data centers over low speed IP networks, trickling the data asynchronously as the network permits. Typically this use case fits small businesses with relatively low amounts of storage. As the market evolves,

Better designed networks can leverage cloud benefits

larger enterprises will also want to take advantage of lower cost cloud storage for large amounts of storage. They will want a network that can dynamically respond to moving terabytes when the data needs to move — without bottlenecks, security holes or dropped packets.

4A more efficient network is critical for cloud data center

connections IT organizations in the Middle East are highly motivated to drive efficiencies — first through data center consolidation, then virtualization, with the next step being to use cloud services. The network is also a key enabler for cloud service providers to operate multiple data centers as a shared pool of virtual data centers, which could enable a 35 percent reduction in total cloud data center

Saad Khan, Regional Managing Director, Middle East, Ciena gives us top 10 reasons about why the cloud is only as good as the network.

Saad KhanRegional Managing Director

Ciena Middle East

Insight | Ciena

1Your cloud workload will evolve as applications change

Today you are running SaaS or infrastructure applications that stay resident in the provider cloud, often locked behind semi-proprietary architectures. This is a logical first implementation that’s common to most technology rollouts. The next step is also predictable - a turn to a more open architecture with standards in place for APIs and management tools. By taking this step, you unlock the potential to federate your private data centers with multiple provider cloud data centers, enabling greater workload mobility and the ability to deploy entirely new applications that will require a better network to run effectively.

2Management wants to see your cloud performance

metrics

The Middle East needs a better network to the cloud. Following are ten reasons why that is so.

November 2012 | The Integrator 31

resources. The network is the key ingredient that ties everything together, serving as a backplane across the data centers for flexible delivery of applications and services.

5Inter-data center networks are going virtual too

A virtualized network partitions resources in many different ways, e.g., virtual circuits (EVPLs), virtual wavelengths (Optical Transport Network – OTN), virtual switches (VSIs) and virtual networks (VPNs, Optical Virtual Private Network – OVPNs). Virtualization of the network provides network efficiency, i.e. coordination of the bandwidth and topology to the specific application need at a point in time. This eliminates the need to size all data center network interconnection facilities for a peak capacity that is only rarely used, which lowers costs because you don’t need to make unnecessary network equipment investment.

6You will want to automate cloud use cases using an

intelligent networkWorkload orchestration between cloud data centers, and between enterprise and cloud data centers, will be driven by policy-based software automation tools. On-demand change in performance parameters such as bandwidth scalability will be accomplished through high-level software interfaces into the network control planes, not by an operator using a command line interface to the equipment. This performance-on-demand will be triggered at the application level, ensuring that the adjustments to the network and to the cloud meet the business requirements.

7The cloud network needs to scale dynamically

A north-south traffic flow is user-to-machine through a tiered IP network architecture. This reflects a client/server model and is exercised in the cloud for SaaS-type applications where the application is simply moved from the in-house data center to the cloud provider data center server.

East-West (standardized, either capital w throughout or not) traffic flows are machine-to-machine within, and increasingly between, data centers. Such traffic has much more stringent quality-of-service requirements. In the near future, we’ll see at least an order of magnitude more East-West data workloads driven by applications like storage synchronization, inter-data center storage virtualization and virtual machine migrations. This means the cloud network needs to be designed for performance to meet the traffic flow change and intensity challenges of the future.

8You need a network that can move a large amount of data

in a short amount of time You need a flatter Layer 0/1/2 network architecture between data centers that delivers better scalability, latency and deterministic performance. With this architecture, the network won’t be a bottleneck when you need it the most, and it will deliver the lowest cost per bit throughput.

9Stuff happens, so you need to plan for the worst

Whether you use the cloud as a fail-safe to on-premises operations or as your primary IT resource, you need to be prepared for a worse-case scenario such as a natural

disaster or unexpected peaks in traffic. You or your cloud provider may need to move hundreds of your virtual machines and/or data stores from the current data center to another data center in the cloud — potentially alongside those of many other enterprises. To move these workloads in time to avoid or recover from disaster, without damaging your business, you’ll need a network that can rapidly add and reallocate capacity to your Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery data center.

10A virtual data center architecture -a Data

Center Without Walls -means cost savings and operational efficiencyThe ‘Data Center Without Walls’ concept describes an architecture that creates a multi-data center, hybrid cloud environment able to function as a set of virtual data centers from a common resource pool to address any magnitude of workload demand and offer seamless workflow movement.

Enterprises will want to access cloud resources anywhere, anytime. Service Providers will want to offer cloud services differentiated by state-of-the-art, programmable network access, and economies of scale that leverage their data center footprints. Cloud Providers will handle uncertain demand requirements and failover by more efficiently allocating workloads across multiple data centers. The cloud backbone network is the critical link for providing cost-effective scalability, security, and on-demand services that enable the virtual data center.


With limited server room space and rising maintenance costs, network administrators are now more than ever looking for solutions that reduce both costs and space requirements. ATEN Cat 5 LCD KVM Switches and KVM switches offer a space saving, streamlined approach to KVM switching technology. KL1508A/KL1516A : 8/16-Port Cat 5 High Density LCD KVM Switches

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The new Iomega StorCenter NVR has all of the features of Iomega’s award-winning desktop network storage devices, including the EMC LifeLine operating system as well as local and cloud network storage capabilities that enhance the customized video surveillance functionality.

The new Iomega StorCenter NVR will be available in three versions: a two-drive model loaded with a pair of 2TB Server Class hard drives for 4TB of total storage capacity; a partially-loaded four-drive model with a pair of 3TB Server Class drives for 6TB of total storage capacity; and a fully-loaded four-drive model with four 3TB Server Class drives for a total of 12TB of storage capacity. The 4TB and 6TB models include four camera licenses each; the 12TB model includes eight camera licenses. Each device can support up to 16 cameras.

Key features:• The integrated SecureMind Surveillance Manager video management software expands the Iomega StorCenter NVR into a feature-rich video surveillance appliance. • The Iomega StorCenter NVR delivers multi- channel live monitoring, video recording, and fast video playback with multiple IP cameras (cameras not included). • With built-in storage capacity, the archiving and retention capabilities are exceptional for surveillance video. • The Iomega StorCenter NVR is scalable by adding incremental hard drives to the partially populate four-drive model, or additional Iomega network storage units to an infrastructure.

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Allied Telesis has announced the new SwitchBlade x8112 in response to the market’s requirement for high availability networks. The SwitchBlade x8112 is the ideal device for large solutions. It represents an extension of the Allied Telesis Stairway to the Cloud resilient solution on a much larger scale, which perfectly fulfils Public, Private and Hybrid Cloud needs. Key features:

• The SwitchBlade x8112 is a 12 slot Layer 3 chassis switch designed to deliver high availability, wire-speed performance, high port count in a small physical size. • Allied Telesis easy resiliency features, based on VCStack and EPSRing technologies, make it the ideal solution for the modern enterprise network where resiliency, reliability and high performance are the key requirements. • Delivers reduced CapEx and OpEx for customers, due to its Active-Active architecture. • This new product, along with Allied Telesis’ other Layer 3+ switches, is powered by AlliedWare Plus operating system.

• Lowest power consumption in its category

HID Global has announced it has expanded its card personalization portfolio with the introduction of its FARGO HDP8500 Industrial Card Printer/Encoder and is being distributed in the region by Business Connection, HID Global’s authorised distributor. Featuring the company's fifth generation High Definition Printing (HDP) technology, the new Industrial Series printer/encoder is a card personalization and issuance solution for extended-run, high throughput and high duty cycle requirements of government ID card programs, laborious service bureaus conditions, universities and large enterprises.

Key features:• The FARGO HDP8500 printer/encoder includes a 400-card total input capacity. This combined with a graphical touch screen user interface, helps minimize operator intervention and maximize card yield per shift.

• The HDP8500 is built using solid metal cabinetry with precision-engineered interior components to provide greater resistance to parts fatigue, and is designed to work with the most durable consumables for long-life card provision in small and large government ID programs. • For operational and issuance security, the printer is the first personalization solution in the market that has been architected for use within the HID Global Trusted Identity Platform (TIP) ecosystem, allowing it to process and generate Secure Identity Objects for enhanced system security and authentication where citizen privacy in government ID card projects and heightened security in other card programs is a necessity.

• The printer includes a comprehensive set of additional security features such as operator

• PIN number access and multi-locking entry points for secure printing; AES 256 bit data encryption and resin ribbon data-erase functionality; secure holographic lamination for lasting protection from fraud.

HID Global ExpandsFARGO SeriesAllied Telesis

SwitchBlade x8112


Big data will drive $28 billion of worldwide IT spending in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. In 2013, big data is forecast to drive $34 billion of IT spending. Most of the current spending is used in adapting traditional solutions to the big data demands -machine data, social data, widely varied data, unpredictable velocity, and so on - and only $4.3 billion in software sales will be driven directly by demands for new big data functionality in 2012.

Big data currently has the most significant impact in social network analysis and content analytics with 45 percent of new spending each year. In traditional IT supplier markets, application infrastructure and middleware is

A survey conducted by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by Trend Micro shows that across the U.S. and Europe, the majority (78 percent) of enterprise IT decision makers say that employees are already using consumer devices to conduct company business. This is further supported by another survey, also commissioned by Trend Micro and conducted by Decisive Analytics, which shows how the “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) phenomenon is not only prevalent in enterprises, but device security is a top concern for these companies. The most telling result from the Key Strategies to Capture and Measure the Value of Consumerization of IT survey is the fact that 78 percent

most affected (10 percent of new spending each year is influenced by big data in some way) when compared with storage software, database management system, data integration/quality, business intelligence or supply chain management (SCM).

"Despite the hype, big data is not a distinct, stand-alone market, it but represents an industrywide market force which must be addressed in products, practices and solution delivery," said Mark Beyer, research vice president at Gartner. "In 2011, big data formed a new driver in almost every category of IT spending. However, through 2018, big data requirements will gradually evolve from differentiation to 'table stakes' in information management

of enterprises are currently instituting BYOD programs. Breaking out the numbers from these programs, 60 percent of respondents include smartphones in BYOD strategies and 47 percent deploy tablets and laptops. When asked why BYOD has been instituted in a company’s workplace, 70 percent of survey respondents cite increasing worker productivity as the key driver of why such a high penetration of BYOD programs exists.However, the Mobile Consumerization Trends & Perceptions survey shows that nearly all (83 percent) companies that do permit BYOD have policies

Big Data Will Drive $28 Billion of IT Spending in 2012

As BYOD takes over the Workplace, Device Security is Top Concern

practices and technology. By 2020, big data features and functionality will be non-differentiating and routinely expected from traditional enterprise vendors and part of their product offerings."

Starting near the end of 2015, Gartner expects leading organizations to begin to use their big data experience in an almost embedded form in their architectures and practices. Beginning in 2018, big data solutions will be offering increasingly less of a distinct advantage over traditional solutions that have incorporated new features and functions to support greater agility when addressing volume, variety and velocity.

in place that require employees to install security software as a precaution. Further underlining these security implications, Trend Micro found that 86 percent of IT decision makers from the U.S., U.K. and Germany state that smartphone data security is their number one concern when consumer devices are connected to corporate networks.

Stats & Trends

The Integrator - Nov 2012

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