Reseller Middle East January 2015

ISSUE 217 | janUary 2015

PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZWWW.RESELLERME.COM

What’s in store for the regional channel?

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60

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cover feature

ISSUE 217 // jANUArY 2015

HigHligHts6 News

We help you catch up on

all the major news and announcements in the regional channel community.

opinion

18 Channeling change

EMC’s Havier Haddad outlines channel trends that will dominate in 2015.

19 Sky is the limit Mario Georgiou of Juniper

Networks explains the transforming role of channel in a cloud-enabled environment.

feature

25 Applauding excellence

An in-depth look at the esteemed winners of Reseller Middle East’s Hot 50 Awards

50 Clued in

Reseller ME speaks to industry leaders to understand how partners can leverage market trends to sell storage solutions successfully.

report

54 Taste of success

A recap of Mindware’s Synergy Partner Summit and Awards held last month.

Sony NWZ-W273 headsets

Huawei launches Honor 6 Plus smartphone

Dell announces new SonicPoint AC series

review

Hot products

contents

65Allied Telesis presents IE200 Series

cHanneloutlook 2015

31

3www.resellerme.com Reseller Middle East january 2015

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Someone once famously said that it’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future. Yet, in the channel business, it’s very important to correctly guess what is going to come because it can give you an edge over competition and not gauging the trends will have you scrambling to catch up. Though 2014 didn’t pan out to be great as predicted by many for the channel, the general mood in the industry is one of optimism. If I have to stick my neck out and pick some of the trends that will shape the regional landscape this year, security would be on the top of the list.

So far, thanks to a false sense of security, the focus of most companies in the Middle East has been on keeping the bad guys out with firewalls and Intrusion Prevention Systems. However, with the alarming number of breaches we have witnessed in the past year with the advent of sophisticated malware and advanced threats, the focus is shifting towards more integrated approach to security. The channel can expect to see a double-digit increase in security budgets among almost all industry sectors to keep pace with vulnerabilities related to both physical and digital environments. Many enterprises that lack the skills and resources to deploy some of the advanced security technologies are going to turn towards partners for help with integration and management.

Security is not the only area where channel partners can increase their business opportunities. Mobility is a growing trend in the region with most companies adopting mobile applications to streamline business processes and to mobilise their workforce. The BYOD trend has clearly boosted spending on devices and wireless infrastructure. This, in turn, has created a lucrative market opportunity for channel partners who can play a key role in advising their customers on best product combination and provide consulting on mobility strategies.

The channel will also need to get a grip on Big Data and analytics solutions. Within a short span of time, Big Data technologies have moved from the realm of hype to emerge as one of the biggest disruptive technologies in the digital age. Businesses around the region, especially in the services sector, are looking to unlock value from the vast amounts of data they have amassed and glean insights from it to enhance customer experience and relationships. Channel players, with their unique customer knowledge, can create solutions to suit their needs and profit in the process.

In this edition, we have lined up some of the prominent industry players to give their take on what is going to be hot and not in 2015, which we hope will serve as a ready reckoner for partners as they brace for the new year. What are you going to do differently or change in 2015? We will be watching with great interest.

Jeevan ThankappanGroup Editor

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HigHligHts

Fortinet has announced that it has bolstered its long-standing relationship with Exclusive Networks Group by extending the partnership into new countries in international market as well as providing improved global project deployment and support services.

The has strengthened its partnership with Exclusive Networks in both the EMEA and APAC regions by opening up existing markets in certain countries and extending distribution through Exclusive’s acquisition of Secureway, based in the Middle East.

“This extended partnership further underlines our long-standing and committed relationship with Exclusive, which, over time, has strongly contributed to Fortinet’s growth in EMEA,” said Patrice Perche, Senior Vice President, International Sales and Support, Fortinet. “Looking forward, I believe Exclusive Networks Group’s recent investments in geographic expansion and global services

SNB IT Distribution will highlight its security and surveillance portfolio at regional security-focused exhibition Intersec 2015.

The distributor plans to highlight new vendor partnerships to boost its solutions portfolio to attract a broader range of customers.

SNB will utilise its presence at the show to announce partnership with a new vendor, Pelco (by Schneider Electric)

Global Distribution has announced that is has signed a distribution agreement with MOBOTIX AG, a European provider of high-resolution digital, network-based video security systems.

The agreement marks Global’s entry into the emerging physical security market.

“The MOBOTIX decentralised concept is the first to make the recording of high resolution video streams practical and cost efficient,” said Phillip Antoniou, Business Development Manager, Middle East & Africa, MOBOTIX AG. “Embassies, airports, train stations, ports, gas stations, hotels, highways – MOBOTIX video systems are in use worldwide today. We are pleased to have Global to support us in the region and expand our footprint, as Global has a great reputation in regional channel development and enablement.”

“Global’s comprehensive enterprise product portfolio now allows us to address the fast emerging ‘physical security’ market in the region,” said Mario M. Veljovic, VP Solutions, MENA, Global Distribution. “That’s another step in our efforts to ensure our partners are able to embrace solutions selling and target specific verticals and technologies.”

GlobAl SIGNS MoboTIXAG DEAl

Fortinet extendsExclusive partnership

SNb IT Distributionto feature at Intersec

capabilities will further enhance the business value of our enterprise resellers and better serve the security needs of our customers worldwide.”

“We value our partnership with Fortinet and believe there is so much more that we can achieve together as we expand beyond our 13 traditional geographic territories and deliver new service capabilities to improve support for global customers,” said Olivier Breittmayer, CEO, Exclusive Networks Group.

for its cameras. The new partnership will enhance SNB IT Distribution’s surveillance portfolio, and will help the distributor cater to wider customer demand for a one-stop-shop solution provider. In addition, SNB will showcase its existing vendor offerings such as surveillance cameras from Mobotix, storage solutions from Infotrend, video management software (VMS) from AxxonSoft, uninterrupted power supply (UPS) from Infosec, and active networking products from Allied Telesis.

“The market for surveillance has been steadily growing over the last several years thanks to multiple drivers. SNB has been actively involved with most of the major projects in the hospitality and education sectors through our valued partners,” said Sonia Sebastian, Director, Security Systems, SNB IT Distribution.

Intersec 2015 runs from January 18 to 20 at the Dubai International Convention Center.

Sonia Sebastian, Director, Security

Systems, SNB IT Distribution

This extended partnership underlines

our committed relationship with Exclusive.”

That’s another step in our

efforts to ensure our partners are able to embrace solutions selling.”

6january 2015 Reseller Middle East www.resellerme.com

HigHligHts

Cyberoam has recently concluded partner meet for its partners in Qatar at Crown plaza. The event was attended by more than 50 partners of the vendor from the region. According to the company, partners were treated to a day full of fun-filled activities including desert safari along with business, technology and sales focused sessions.

During the event, Cyberoam discussed its future roadmap and expansion strategy with all the challenges awaited for the region with the gathered community.

IT security distributor EMT Distribution has launched its channel partner training programme, Market Magnitude. The progamme aims to train partners on products, technologies and concepts that impact their customer’s environment.

Product and technical presentations, discussions around the challenges that a customer faces in its network or security environment are an integral part of this training programme.

Case studies, market and technical global trends are few of the other focus areas. EMT concluded its inaugural Market Magnitude programme in Dubai, and was attended by several systems integrators and resellers from Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other emirates.

This training programme focused on small and medium enterprises, the fast-growing segment of the economy in UAE. The agenda included presentations on network infrastructure and security solutions as well as case studies from Altaro and emt’s senior executives.

Agnes Azzopardi from Altaro, Fawad Laiq, Lana Toumajane and Nandini

Sapru from emt Distribution shared their experiences in different customers scenarios, and gave a run down on product and technical details for IPSWITCH WhatsUpGold, GWAVA, Avira, 2X and Altaro.

“We are excited with the response from our channel partners in UAE for Market Magnitude, enabling and empowering partners with training, knowledge, education, awareness, skill-sets is the focal point of EMT’s partner programme,” said Mohammad Mobasseri, CEO, EMT Distribution. “Channel partners are our biggest strength and a well-informed, well equipped channel is key to our success too.”

EMT Distribution plans to take this programme to other parts of the Middle East region, with Bahrain next on the list, to be followed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar in first quarter of 2015.

EMT lAuNCHES CHANNEl PArTNEr TrAINING SCHEME

Cyberoam organises meet for Qatar partners

Governments and organisations are increasingly showing cyber-security awareness in the Middle East. The region holds tremendous scope for network security appliances as new businesses are rapidly expanding their network and IT infrastructure. Having a strong channel presence and being a high growth market, there is a huge potential for growth for the company’s offerings in the region.

“It was an enriching experience, as we could attend some truly informative and encouraging sessions during this

Mohammad Mobasseri, CEO, EMT Distribution

event. The highlight was the opportunity we received to have a better outlook on future of networks in the region we would be serving. Cyberoam is already known for its channel focussed initiatives and events like these ensure their focus and interest in the channel community,” said Shakeel, Cyberoam Account Manager, Emitac, Qatar.

Being a channel focused company, the security vendor offers extensive programmes for its partners covering technical trainings and certifications along with marketing and sales support. To stimulate partner performance, the company also offers attractive incentives and reward offers from time to time.

Ravinder Janotra, Regional Manager Middle East said, “Cyberoam has always been committed to deliver future ready security portfolio, offering fit-for-all solutions to organisations of all sizes. We believe and work towards meeting the crucial commitment our partners hold for every particular region they serve. Thus, it is important that we all remain on the same page.”


MCAFEE HoSTS FourTH PArTNEr SuMMIT

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StarLink has announced an agreement with Splunk to become a distributor of its software through its network of channel partners to enterprise and government customers in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

Splunk Enterprise collects, indexes, monitors, analyses and visualises machine data being generated by websites, applications, servers, networks, sensors, mobile devices and more.

STArlINk ANNouNCES SPluNk META DEAlCustomers gain visibility and insights

from Splunk Enterprise in use cases including IT operations, application delivery, security, compliance, digital intelligence and business analytics.

“Splunk is excited to have StarLink as a distributor in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa,” said Andrew Morris, EMEA Director of Alliances and Channels, Splunk. “With StarLink’s regional experience in security and IT operations, this agreement opens the door for Splunk software to help more organisations leverage machine data for deeper IT and business insights.”

StarLink will also distribute Splunk apps including the App for Enterprise Security and Hunk: Splunk Analytics for Hadoop and NoSQL databases.

“Signing with Splunk is a strategic milestone for StarLink as Splunk is the undisputed leader in providing machine data insight,” said Avinash Advani, VP,

Business Strategy, StarLink. “With the rapid proliferation of connected devices, and the advent of the Internet of Things, monitoring and analysing everything becomes even more critical to feed security intelligence and enable smart decision making.”

McAfee, part of Intel Security, hosted its fourth annual partner summit, providing nearly 700 channel partners from around the globe with the opportunity to engage with McAfee executives and customers.

During this year’s event, McAfee unveiled several channel initiatives to help partners build sustainable security practices.

The company has announced a new partner programme framework, including a name change effective January 1 – changing the name of its Security Alliance Programme to the Intel Security Partner Programme.

McAfee will consolidate from five product competencies to three solution competencies: endpoint security, network security and security management.

“We aim at providing our partners, globally and in the region, with increased flexibility for building profitable and sustainable security practices through a new channel partner programme framework that focuses on change and

thinking big, ” said Maya Kreidy, Regional Channel Manager, UAE, GCC & Pakistan, McAfee, part of Intel Security. “In order to anticipate our customers’ evolving security needs today and tomorrow, we need to think big.”

McAfee is removing the need for partners to complete baseline certifications and is expanding continuing education to give all partners the flexibility to earn credits for training that is most relevant to their business.

It has also announced its CloudRunner Platform, which enables partners to access McAfee’s product portfolio via the cloud.

With CloudRunner, partners can build a demo environment in an average of five minutes without the need to have an appliance, box or virtual machine set up in a customer’s environment.

CloudRunner will be available in early November and will include McAfee Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), McAfee Endpoint, and McAfee Network Security

Platform (NSP) environments.Two new channel partner

experience announcements were also made. The Partner 360 Dashboard provides partners with analysis of their performance and profitability, providing a view into approximately 10 different business indicators, including sales performance, rebate and marketing development funds.

The platform will be piloted with a select group of North America partners in Q4 2014 with a broader roll out aimed for the first half of 2015.

Avinash Advani, VP, Business

Strategy, StarLink

This agreement opens the

door for Splunk software to help organisations leverage machine data for deeper IT and business insights.”

Maya Kreidy, regional Channel Manager,

UAE, GCC & Pakistan, McAfee


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HigHligHts

Network control firm Infoblox has named Jesper Andersen company President and Chief Executive Officer.

Andersen will also become a member of the company’s board of directors.

He replaces Robert Thomas, who announced in his intention to leave the company in May. Thomas will remain

Jesper Andersen named Infoblox CEovision of how the shift from hardware-defined to software-defined networking infrastructure will create new market opportunities,” said Thomas.

Prior to Cisco, Andersen served as senior vice president of application strategy at Oracle, where he was responsible for creating an application integration architecture capable of bringing together disparate products from multiple acquisitions.

“This is an incredibly important time in network services, with many changes on the horizon,” said Andersen. “I’m excited to join Infoblox because the company has a well-earned reputation among its customers for quality, innovation, and leadership, a reputation that makes it possible for Infoblox to both grow its existing business and move in new directions from a position of strength.”

with Infoblox for about four months as an executive advisor to assist in the transition.

Andersen, 51, is a networking and software industry executive, having worked at Cisco Systems, Oracle and other technology companies.

Prior to joining Infoblox, he served in a number of roles at Cisco from September 2008 to November 2013, including as Senior Vice President for network management during his first three years at the company.

In this capacity, he managed a team of more than 1,000 employees and was responsible for the development of the Cisco Prime portfolio of integrated network management and analysis solutions.

“Jesper Andersen brings a unique set of skills to Infoblox, with a deep understanding of networking technology, experience in running and growing complex global businesses, and a clear

jesper Andersen, CEO Infoblox

Help AG, the information security services and solutions provider in the Middle East, has signed a reseller agreement with Splunk, provider of the leading software platform for real-time operational intelligence, that will enable it to offer Splunk software, including Splunk Enterprise, to businesses in the Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE region. As per the agreement, Help AG will also deliver 24×7 local support and offer professional implementation services.

Highlighting the value that Splunk software will deliver to regional customers, Stephan Berner, Managing Director, Help AG said, “Due to the

growing complexity of IT infrastructures, organisations in the Middle East are challenged by massive visibility gaps that inhibit their ability to securely conduct business. Spunk software delivers instant visibility and analysis of data from a multitude of sources allowing businesses to conduct real-time monitoring of attacks, identify security threats, investigate security incidents, and troubleshoot application problems, in minutes instead of hours or days. We expect to have a very positive market response from government and private enterprises alike.”

Splunk Enterprise is a powerful solution that collects, indexes, visualises and analyses machine-generated data from virtually any source or location in real time and enables businesses to adopt an analytics-driven security approach that adapts to the rapidly changing threat landscape. By monitoring and analysing everything from customer click-streams and transactions to network activity and call records, the company turns machine data into valuable insights that aid security and business decision-making.

Help AG expects to leverage its technical competence to add notable value to the relationship. Besides being the local provider of 24×7 support, the company has also invested in an in-house demo centre at which it will showcase Splunk solutions to customers in a live environment. The company currently has two engineers who have been fully trained and Splunk certified and looking to increase this to a total of six certified personnel by the end of the year.

“Help AG’s agreement with Splunk is will help customers in the region experience the power of Splunk software. The company boasts an extremely high degree of technical competence, and has been willing to invest time and effort into creating a regional support ecosystem for our market-leading solution,” said Andrew Morris, Director of Alliances and Channels EMEA, Splunk. “Help AG enjoys strong penetration in the government and enterprise sectors and is in a good position to promote Splunk Enterprise in their ongoing business, IT and security dialogues with these customers.”

HElP AG SIGNS rESEllEr AGrEEMENT WITH SPluNk

Stephan Berner, Managing Director, Help AG


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Westcon Middle East, the regional IT distributor has been recognised as the ‘Distributor of the Year’ by Avaya, a provider of solutions that enable customer and team engagement across multiple channels and devices. Presented to the company in Dubai earlier this month, the award represents Westcon’s success in 2014 in delivering outstanding communications consultancy and services to the technology channel in the region, and driving the market to adopt innovative customer and team engagement capabilities that underpin the growth of many small, medium and large businesses in the Middle East.

Asif Khan, Business Manager, Westcon, said, “The Westcon team wishes to thank Avaya GGM team and channel partners for the support provided towards this recognition as most valued

HigHligHts

Westcon named as ‘Avaya Distributor of the year’

distributor for FY14. Westcon continues to prove itself as an effective value-added distributor, expanding access to a deep portfolio of quality, value-added channel partners. As partners play an essential role in our go-to-market strategy, this expanded relationship represents a key piece of our growth strategy and our remarkable achievement with Avaya. Our success today lies in our ability through focused team to engage in business discussion, identify end-to-end communication solution, illustrate ROI models customised to each unique customer situation, measure business outcomes and continue the engagement cycle. We cherish our long-standing relationship with Avaya and shall continue to stay invested with them to serve our customers better.”

Westcon grabbed the ‘Distributor

of the Year’ award across Avaya’s India, China, Russia, Middle East and African markets. The award ceremony was held at the annual Avaya Customers and Partners Connect 2015 conference in Dubai earlier in November.

The vendor awarded its business partners for their exceptional results, loyalty and for driving the transformation of the industry towards a value-based model where achievements are measured by the ability of the Avaya partners to exceed customer expectations. 18 business partners from across the Avaya global growth markets were recognised, indicating a bright future for its global growth markets-led global footprint and paving the way for a services-and-customer-value-led business model from the vendor in 2015.

Tanya Lobo, Channel Distribution Director, Avaya GGM said, “Avaya has achieved a double digit growth across the Middle East, Africa, China, Russia and India markets in 2014 and almost 90 percent of this growth is driven by our business partners. The winners are those who adopted the value-based services and were able to exceed the expectations of their customers.”

“We are extremely proud of the achievements of Westcon, the power of consultancy and project management that its team delivered in 2014 and its outstanding business model to deliver value to the IT channel in the region,” he continued.

Middle Eastern logistics company Agility has partnered with solutions provider and systems integrator STME, in a deal designed to boost the firm’s data storage capacity and modernise its server infrastructure.

“Our growth over the years has been phenomenal and with that comes the need to make sure that our data storage solutions are up to speed in order to respond to our data growth requirements,” said Sohiel John D’Silva, IT Manager, Agility. “Partnering with STME has allowed us to reach this objective. In addition, we have sought

their expertise in transitioning to the VMware ESXi virtualisation technology so as to align our IT infrastructure with our organisation’s ever-shifting business strategies.”

Agility’s IT requirements reflect a growing trend among enterprises not only in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), but globally as well, said Ahmed Hassan, Support and Professional Services Director, STME. “Explosive data growth has prompted the need for larger and more complex storage solutions as old storage architectures reach their performance, availability and capacity limits,” he said.

STME implemented a complete technology refresh for Agility, Ahmed said. “We proposed the adoption of NetApp FAS2240 and Data OnTap O/S 8.2.x during the refresh. NetApp FAS2240 is a small and dense, yet highly scalable storage system, while Data OnTap O/S 8.2.x is a storage operating system, which can adapt to Agility’s changing business needs, giving them a clear path should they opt adopt private, public or hybrid cloud in the future.”

STME has also deployed the best-fit storage application of SAS for performance and SATA network-attached storage (NAS) for future data growth.

STME INkS AGIlITy DEAl


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Logicom, a regional distributor of technology products, solutions and services was named ‘Best HP PPS Distribution Partner’ in the Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa region, during the annual HP Distribution Partner Conference held in Athens last month.

This honour was awarded to Logicom for its successful promotion of HP Printing and Personal Systems in the Gulf, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Greece and Cyprus. Nikos Kyriakou, Director, Group Operations, Logicom Distribution and Sajith Raj, General Manager, Logicom in the Gulf were presented with the award by the Vice President and General Manager of HP MEMA, Andre Bodson.

Logicom’s Director of Distribution, Michael Papaeracleous, said, “This award

is a great honour for Logicom, and a recognition of the hard work and effort our teams have made this year. We are particularly happy that we are building on the success of last year when Logicom was named Best Distribution Partner for the Middle East. We would like to thank HP and all our business partners for this validation of our strategic investments in the region in the last few years.”

Bodson said, “Logicom epitomises the attributes of a great partner for HP. They are fully committed to the development of the HP categories through the resellers that they serve, whilst also actively developing their breadth and depth into the channel. We are looking forward to our joint accelerated growth in more geographies in the future.”

HigHligHts

logicom wins HP accolade

India-based company Globex International has acquired Octagone International FZE. The RAK Free Zone company has been in the market for almost a decade and has created a solid business in agro commodities, fertilizers and IT.

This acquisition will help Globex International to achieve exponential growth and entry into new markets such as Africa integrated with strategic location of Dubai, said the company. Octagone will continue to grow IT business in the region and will keep the same name for a period of six months to one year.

“Octagone has presented promising and exciting opportunities to Globex International and its customer base coupled with competency of Globex will take it to new heights,” said Sukant Mishra, MD, Octagon International Group.

“We are very excited be a part of growth in MENA region and acquisition of Octagone International will bring us all the strength to capitalise on this opportunity,” said Faiz Beg, Managing Director, Octagone International FZE and MD, Globex International India

Octagon International FZCO based in Jebel Ali continues to be a part of Octagon Group and this acquisition only concerns Octagone International FZE in RAK.

GlobEX INTErNATIoNAl ACQuIrES oCTAGoNE INTErNATIoNAl FZE

Ingram Micro has acquired a majority interest in Armada, the largest value-added technology distributor in Turkey with 2013 sales of over $280 million. Ingram Micro plans to make a mandatory tender offer for the remaining shares in accordance with Turkish capital markets regulations.

“The addition of Armada is well aligned with our strategic initiatives to grow Ingram Micro’s value business in attractive markets,” said Ali Baghdadi, Ingram Micro’s Senior Vice President and President, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Technology

Solutions. “Armada enhances our access and reach into Turkey’s fast growing technology industry while increasing the overall scale and breadth of value-added solutions Ingram Micro brings to our global partners.”

Established in 1993, Armada offers robust enterprise solutions portfolio and channel development experience in the SMB market, credit services, training and other professional offering. Armada has experienced management team, collaborative culture, and long-lasting customer and vendor relationships.

Ingram Micro acquiresmajority interest in Armada


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RSA SECURITY ANALYTICS AND RSA ECAT GIVES SECURITY TEAMS AN EDGE IN THE HUNT FOR CYBER ATTACKS

Havier Haddad, EMC’s Channel and Alliances Director for Turkey, Eastern Europe, Africa & Middle East, outlines channel trends that will dominate 2015.

Channelling change

eMcopinion

Over the years, both organisations and the business environment they operate in has

changed dramatically. CIOs, once tasked only with delivering IT systems, are now expected to execute digital strategies that enable business growth. CEOs, meanwhile, are embedding themselves in change projects to ensure new technology meets three key business objectives: differentiation, agility and growth

In this new world, old ways of working are no longer adequate and channel businesses will need to adapt – a process that will bring with it huge opportunity for those organisations that can adapt successfully.

Looking at 2015, we believe that the year ahead is one marked by important developments for the channel community driven by the force of key mega trends.

Going hybridAs organisations continue to invest in hybrid cloud infrastructures to avail the benefits of the private and public cloud models, we will see an emergence of three hyper-growth technologies that will underpin the hybrid cloud era.

In 2015, therefore, increased complexity will turn resellers into consultants where they are able to do this across both their own product set and those of others within the wider enterprise architecture.

Talent management is keyCustomers are going to be crying out for hybrid cloud expertise and only those resellers able to provide it are going to thrive. This means private and public cloud resellers alike are going to have to train their agents so that they are able to advise on where workloads should be placed and how they can be managed across the entire hybrid estate.

Distributor de-factoDistributors are able to take a variety of services from different vendors and bundle these onto an outsourced IT infrastructure and market them to resellers as white-label cloud services portfolios. We have already witnessed distributors evolve into public cloud service aggregators

for the reseller community; in 2015 we will see the emergence of distributors that can also aggregate private cloud services. In these cases vendors will leave it to their distributor partners to complete the final assembly of private cloud infrastructures. This will enable cost efficiencies for vendors while also making it easier than ever for resellers to create customised hybrid cloud solutions for their customers.

IoT will fuel big DataIn 2015 we can expect to see customers and resellers gain a better understanding of the business models that Big Data enables, largely thanks to the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT). For the time being we anticipate that this will largely be the preserve of the large systems integrators that have developed their own Big Data capabilities and are therefore in a position to explain to customers both the underlying infrastructure requirements and the benefits that are derived from them.

Flash, integration technologies – such as converged and reference architectures – and software-defined solutions will mark huge opportunities for channel players. Those resellers that take a lead in this market and drive the uptake of flash will, of course, stand to profit more than those who decide to wait for the market to evolve. The channel needs to be ready to help enterprises leverage these technologies to better manage complexity and create the hybrid environments they need to fuel agility for the future.

Complexity and consultancy rule the roostAs virtualisation continues its conquest of the enterprise IT industry throughout the next year, the trend towards complexity is going to gather momentum. In a virtualised world resellers can no longer rely on selling storage capacity to meet new application requirements of their customers. Resellers must be able to raise the conversation above these concerns and be able to make the case at a workload level for which type of solution should be deployed – something that will require knowledge of hybrid cloud infrastructures.


Mario Georgiou, Regional Partner Director, Middle East and Africa, Juniper Networks, explains the transforming role of the channel in a cloud-enabled environment.

Sky is the limit

Juniper networks opinion

Cloud computing is becoming firmly embedded in most organisations today

and has moved from hype to the mainstream. Investment is pouring into the Middle East, especially Dubai due to the build-up to World Expo 2020, with governments and businesses moving faster to compete in an increasingly complex environment. According to Gartner, cloud services spending continue to outpace other parts of the IT marketplace and in the Middle

and Microsoft Azure, have driven competition and industry innovation. Closed and overly complicated legacy infrastructure can no longer cope in the dynamic cloud environment, security solutions are being re-developed and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) has started to usher in a new business case for integrated services.

As with any type of industry change, there are pros and cons. To take full advantage of these shifts, the partner community must re-think their roles within the channel to help enterprises maximise the business benefits of the cloud.

Traditionally, service providers have focussed on managed services and the sometimes-clunky physical hardware that goes with it. It was not uncommon for this hardware to take up to two years to go to market and was specifically designed with longevity in mind. The advent of Software Defined Networking (SDN) and virtualised services has given companies the ability to bring a product to market in weeks (or even days) and services are now created for flexibility, thereby putting pressure on service providers to deliver not only at speed, but with agility. Cloud-based delivery models make sense. They are the means for service providers to deliver the widest array of services to their customers. For great effectiveness, they

also need to consider the right network architecture, which should be both scalable and intelligent to provide new content and services at speed.

Systems integrators too are facing new business processes. Until now, they have largely concentrated on managed services but the rapid uptake of virtualisation has meant that they can now deliver hybrid cloud solutions and multi-tenanted data centres that can host assorted services at greater levels of integration. This shift has caused systems integrators to re-think their offering and role in the market.

Traditional resellers, who have in the past relied on vendor innovation, new technologies and vendor demand creation, have a great opportunity to help service providers and systems integrators embrace the challenges of speed, agility, dynamism and integration. Not only can resellers provide value-added services in the way of technical support, but they also have the skills and capabilities to help service providers and systems integrators move quickly and deliver a portfolio of more specialised products in the cloud. With the Middle East partner industry continuing to rapidly evolve, we believe that the emerging virtual model and shift in IT spending presents opportunities to all parties. The virtual world is re-defining enterprise technology and re-shaping the way the channel operates. As investment in the region continues to grow, systems integrators, service providers and resellers can finally completely leverage this environment to meet customers’ needs and deliver scalable services to market in a timely and nimble fashion.

East and North Africa region, growth is expected to be even higher – around 20.2 percent.

The move to the cloud has challenged and disrupted the way that the channel has traditionally created and delivered technology to end-customers, impacting service providers’ and systems integrators’ ability to serve the enterprise. Specifically, virtualisation has created a new level of agility and enables a significantly faster time to market than in the past. Industry giants, such as Amazon Web Services


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Then Empower

The Channels

Manish Punjabi, Channel Marketing Manager MEA, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, pens down the channel opportunities in Near-Field Communication (NFC).

Tap and go

alcatel-lucent enterpriseopinion

A few years ago, online changed the way we booked our tickets, paid for

groceries, transacted with the bank and many more daily rituals. However today, the ‘click’ of a mouse is becoming a thing of the past as there is a new ‘tap’ in town called NFC.

Near-Field Communication (NFC) isn’t a new technology. The Nokia 6131 was the first ever phone to include a NFC chip in 2006 and Google Android was the first smartphone OS to include NFC in 2010. However, NFC has come into the foreground in 2014 thanks to the launch of Apple’s iPhone 6 and mobile wallet service, Apple Pay. The Economist recently highlighted

When contactless payment gains widespread acceptance, the smartphone will then replace having to carry credit cards and cash.

But NFC is not only for consumers, enterprises too can adopt this technology. With ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) trending in the business world, employees will be able to use NFC to transfer calls from a mobile device to a desk phone.

Why NFCBut one might wonder – why have another wireless communication protocol when Bluetooth is well entrenched in our vocabulary? Apart from being inherently more secure, NFC brings more to the party -

1. While NFC operates at slower speeds than Bluetooth, it consumes far less power and does not require pairing.

2. NFC sets up more quickly than standard Bluetooth - in less than a tenth of a second.

3. NFC has a shorter range than Bluetooth, which reduces the likelihood of unwanted interception.

Channel opportunities NFC and Bluetooth can have many uses and while still uncommon in Enterprise, these technologies can create new complimentary opportunities in the channel. Hospitality is one vertical where these technologies promise

to boost guest loyalty and hotel revenues. For example, BYOD-empowered employees increasingly expect more from their smart mobile device when they travel - make phone calls, activate the TV and lights, access concierge services and unlock room doors. In November, Starwood Hotels announced the launch of SPG Keyless, allowing guests to unlock their Bluetooth-enabled door with their smartphones.

In the travel and transport vertical, the channel can include NFC solutions in their offering that can fundamentally change the way we identify ourselves at a ticket kiosk or check in. NFC’s ‘tap and go’ functionality can increase processing speeds at check-in counters because NFC boarding passes are faster to process than bar codes.

Retailers have an opportunity to engage with connected shoppers using NFC. By creating mobile experiences, retailers can entice shoppers to engage while in-store, drive sales and reward loyalty. The cost efficiency and communication range of NFC tags can make them ideal for on-product, on-package and on-shelf applications. A user taps the tag to pull the desired information from the product or shelf containing the product of interest, such as further details, usage demos or online reviews.

With the increasing investment across the Middle East and Africa in hospitality, travel and retail, NFC offers early adopters a window to differentiate themselves. Furthermore, if channel partners embrace ‘tap’ just as rapidly as they did ‘click’, NFC can generate new opportunities in the outlined burgeoning verticals.

the pitched battle between Apple Pay and CurrentC, which has pushed the technology further into the spotlight.

What is NFCFor the uninitiated, NFC is a set of standards for smartphones and other mobile devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity, usually no more than a few centimeters. The applications of NFC range from Contactless Payment, File Transfer, Contact sharing, Electronic Identification and gaming.

NFC is but one of the many uses of smartphone devices that have invaded our lives and now occupy centre stage.


Online Technical Support www.dlinkmea.com/techsupport

www.dlinkmea.com

facebook.com/dlinkmea [email protected]

+971 4 880 9022

DIR-890L

Reseller middle East (RmE) held its third edition of hot 50 awards last month at a glamourous ceremony at the open air venue of Rivington Bar and Grill, madinat Jumeirah, dubai. during the course of the event, 50 companies were honoured and recognised for their excellence throughout the year across various categories. These 50 ‘hot brands’ ranged from various stakeholders of the channel ecosystem, right from distributors, resellers and systems integrators to vendors. handpicked by RmE’s editorial team, these 50 companies have gone over and above the norm to bring excellence in their business by ensuring they have content partners and customers. We turn the spotlight to these stellar performers.

ApplAuding excellence



Best convergence solution provider Al Shahba Computer

Best enterprise WLAN vendor Aruba Networks

Best strategic partner engagements Comguard

Best partner enablement initiatives Dell Software

Best mobile security vendor ESET

Best partner sales support Cisco

Best security appliance vendor Cyberoam

Best partner rebate programme EMC

Best partner training initiatives Aptec -an Ingram Micro company

Best data centre networking vendor Brocade Communications

Best storage management vendoR CommVault Systems

Best SMB networking vendor D-Link

Best partner empowerment initiatives Exclusive Networks ME

Best cloud networking vendor Citrix Systems

Best channel growth initiatives Dell Middle East

Best partner loyalty programme EMT Distribution


Best demand generation initiatives MDS ap Tech

Best mobility vendor Lenovo

Best consulting services Gerab System Solutions

Best mobility distributor Oxygen Middle East

Best partner collaboration initiatives Redington Gulf

Best collaboration vendor Lifesize Communications

Best channel marketing initiatives HP Software Middle East

Best solutions distributor FDC ProValue

Best physical infrastructure vendor Nexans

Best product innovation Prestigio

Best pre-sales support Mindware

Best managed print services Lexmark International Middle East

Best security integrator Help AG

Best network security vendor Palo Alto Networks

Best post-sales support Logicom

Best infrastructure integrator Intertec Systems

Best test & measurement vendor Fluke Networks

Best SMB printing vendor Oki Europe

Best emerging mobility vendor Quantum


Best channel management initiatives Riverbed Technology

Best channel development programme SAP

Best security solutions provider Spectrami

Best product leadership TP-Link Middle East

Best VOIP vendor Yealink

Best project management Smartworld

Best endpoint security vendor Symantec

Best partner accreditation programme Veeam Software

Best cyber security vendor RSA

Best after-sales service Secunia

Best security services provider Spire Solutions

Best peripherals distributor Trigon

Best partner recruitment initiatives SNB IT Distribution

Best brand promotion initiatives Touchmate

Best consumer storage vendor WD Middle East

Security Intelligence Plateform

Advanced Threat Defense Solution

Secure MobilitySolution

Network Monitoring & Vulnerability

Flash Storage System

Copy DataManagement

Advanced Data Protection

Identity Management Solution

Cyber SecuritySolution

cHannel outlook 2015

cHanneloutlook 2015

The regional channel witnessed a number of emerging and third platform technologies taking off the ground in 2014. However, most of these technologies will continue to develop and grow into this year as well. While we did see the market buzzing about cloud and Big Data, it is still a long way off before it become mainstream deployments. but the good news is, the conversations and discussions have begun and are slowly moving beyond the boardrooms. While social media skills remain low key within the channel, it is expected to build up in this year. And we are bound to hear a lot more on NFC, software-defined everything, various versions of cloud deployments and a more advanced utilisation of analytics. reseller Middle East speaks to experts from the industry on technologies and market scenarios that they believe will dominate 2015 and how regional channel partners can make the most of it to sustain a profitable business.

Security Intelligence Plateform

Advanced Threat Defense Solution

Secure MobilitySolution

Network Monitoring & Vulnerability

Flash Storage System

Copy DataManagement

Advanced Data Protection

Identity Management Solution

Cyber SecuritySolution


Mario Gay, GM, Mindware

THIrD PlATForM TECHNoloGIES To GroW


T he trends that we have seen in the past such as mobility, cloud, Big

Data, tablets, wearable devices and Internet of Things will continue to grow and develop this year. In terms of IoT, we will see a lot more intelligent gadgets coming into the market.

Mobility and cloud together will go hand in

hand and grow further this year. We believe Citrix will have a strong story to say in this regard. Storage, security and Big Data will continue to be big trends that will gain momentum in this year. Most of the trends we saw in 2014 will continue to grow and extend into this year.

As far as the channel is concerned, we are not seeing too much of a difference in the existing order as of now. However, what we can predict is that the large players will become even larger. A smaller player in the channel will have to invest more in terms of specialisation. If the channel partner is not specialised in terms of skills or abilities or high level of competencies, then it will become difficult for him to compete with the established players.

For Mindware, Qatar and Oman have been high growth markets. And we have seen good business coming from Pakistan. Although it is not an easy country, there are immense opportunities for growth.

We have reorganised and consolidated the volume business in 2014. This year, we are looking to reorganise the value division according to the type of products.

“If the channel partner is not specialised

in terms of skills or abilities or high level

of competencies, then it will become difficult

for him to compete with the established

players.”


We monetize the most high-value software— more than 100 million license keys protect and manage on-premise, embedded, and cloud applications globally.

We are the de facto root of trust— deploying more than 86,000 key managers and protecting up to 750,000,000 encryption keys.

We control access to the most sensitive corporate information— 35 million identities protected via tokens, smartcards, and mobile devices, managed on-premise and in the cloud.

We protect the most money that moves—over 80% of the world’s intra-bank fund transfers and nearly $1 trillion per day.

We are trusted around the world— by more than 25,000 customers, across 100 countries.

Steve Lockie, Group MD, Westcon Group

DATA CENTrE buIlD ouTS

We believe that vendors will remain vigilant to ensure

that their channel partners are truly supporting and implementing strict compliance controls. At this time, we are once again seeing that a real understanding and adherence to controls with robust systems and processes put our vendors and our reseller partners at huge risk of inadvertent compliance breaches. I think vendors and distributors

must move away from ‘appearing compliant at all times’ to really auditing and ensuring that the channel is educated and supported to hold us all free from breaches.

In 2015, we will continue to see data centre build outs, security and the virtualisation of the data centre are core to the product business but the real drivers of these technologies will continue to be mobility, security and hybrid cloud application adoption. Mobility will create many opportunities as will machine-to-machine communications in the Internet of Everything.

As far as markets are concerned, we see the largest volume growth in KSA, UAE, Qatar and Kuwait but there are also other territories in the region that could provide very high growth rates or exponential growth given the correct political and financial situations.

Channel partners should think now about what success looks like for their business in the next 12 to 24 months and share this aspiration with their trusted vendors and strategic distribution partners. Success for most of us, will come from bringing innovative solutions to the line of business owners in our end users, no one company can do this alone, therefore by sharing these visions we are better able to partner for success.

“In 2015, we will continue to see data

centre build outs, security and the

virtualisation of the data centre are core to the product business but the real drivers of these technologies will continue to be mobility,

security and hybrid cloud application adoption.”


TM and © 2014 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. FaceTime is not available in the UAE

For all your Apple Business needs

Looking to move your business to Apple?

in Dubai

iConnect Downtown Dubai, Office 201, Al Saaha Offices C, Souk Al Bahar +971 4818 7400 | [email protected] | www.i-connect.ae

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15-06-01_iCon_Dubai-A5-Flyer-Print.indd 1 07/01/2015 17:28


TM and © 2014 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. FaceTime is not available in the UAE

For all your Apple Business needs

Looking to move your business to Apple?

in Dubai

iConnect Downtown Dubai, Office 201, Al Saaha Offices C, Souk Al Bahar +971 4818 7400 | [email protected] | www.i-connect.ae

Call our team in Dubai today on 04 818 7400

15-06-01_iCon_Dubai-A5-Flyer-Print.indd 1 07/01/2015 17:28

Mario M. Veljovic, VP, Solutions, MENA, Global Distribution

SoluTIoNS SEllING To TAkE oFF


‘Solutions selling’ will be the way forward in 2015, along with alternative finance

solutions, such as leasing will emerge. We believe these will be the next logical steps closer to full adaption of cloud solutions. This year, we can expect to see physical security such as IP-based CCTV solutions, analytics/BI and VDI to dominate the headlines. Companies should really look out for ‘out of the box’ solutions to address those key

technology trends. And they should look at those solutions, which are easy and fast to deploy and will reduce service cost. We believe one of the most innovative products for this year will be flash-based enterprise storage. It’s addressing the last outdated technology, the HDD, and is key to ensure VDI and analytics/BI solutions are deployed successfully. As far as territories are concerned, we believe the politically stable countries in MENA, such as Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Oman will prove to be the strongest in this year.

As a company, we have expanded our solutions portfolio for the MENA region, which now covers the key IT infrastructure pillars, such as enterprise storage, high performance computing, IT infrastructure and physical security and software. Global has developed a strong vendor line card complemented with a strong services offering.

Channel partners should continue to concentrate on services and have dedicated focus. It will help if they create a business model that’s based on selling services and solutions instead of hardware, to increase and maintain their profitability. They should train their sales force to sell ‘ROI’ to its customer and not the latest ‘specs’.

“Channel partners should continue

to concentrate on services and have dedicated focus. It will help if they create a business

model that’s based on selling services

and solutions instead of hardware.”


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Sami Abi Esber, President, Board Member, Midis Group

uPbEAT AbouT DESkToP vIrTuAlISATIoN

Shifting customer requirements and an increasingly competitive IT

landscape will require service providers to move away from standard product-portfolios (reselling) and towards the role of a solutions provider in 2015. With a growing demand for third platform technologies such as Big Data, mobility, cloud and social media, customers will prefer working with providers who can add value to their business.

Within the third platform, cloud and mobility will be a key focus in organisations in the finance, government, hospitality and education verticals in this year.

In 2015, the region will move from being a new adapter of Big Data to a specialised service provider. It’s much more important now to understand the challenges presented by the Big Data explosion and to address them through new sets of software and solutions. One of the key developments to look out for is analytical services - where customers can benefit from Big Data

models coming from channel partners.

With the industry shifting towards virtualisation, one adaptation that the region has yet to completely utilise is desktop virtualisation. As was the move with cloud - the move to virtual space combined with the need for employee mobility have created a need for this category. Vendors and channel partners alike should seek to capitalise on such a demand in the near future. Though it has yet to completely catch on, it’s certainly one area to keep an eye out for. Also SAAS & IAAS will show significant growth in the market, especially in SMB.

Sustainable growth is a key element that should go hand in hand with the acquisition of new technologies such as cloud, Big Data and enterprise mobility. Companies no longer require traditional service providers, but partners who can provide strategic IT initiatives that enable sustainable growth. Channel partners should adapt to the role of solutions providers, rather than resellers.

“Companies no longer require

traditional service providers, but

partners who can provide strategic IT initiatives that

enable sustainable growth.”



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Asim AlJammaz, VP, Al-Jammaz Distribution

SPECIAlISATIoN TAkES ovEr

We will continue to see 2014’s technology wave extending

into this year. Last two years we have seen a number of new and emerging technologies taking off in the region such as cloud

technology will develop further.

Resellers should become more specialised in their offerings and should focus on certain verticals. Customers demand and want value today and channel partners should work towards delivering that by being trusted advisors. IT companies too are becoming more specialised in their approach. We are seeing channel partners becoming more mature and trying to understand the business approach better. IT is no longer a luxury but a must-have component in all organisations because IT helps to reduce the operating cost.

We will continue to do many engagement programmes with our reseller partners such as workshops, training programmes and conferences, helping them to integrate these technologies together as businesses look at deploying comprehensive solutions.

I believe KSA is the most important market within the region for 2015. UAE, Kuwait and Qatar are also important markets but the reality is no one will spend on IT as much as KSA will.

My advice to those resellers who are in KSA is to not worry about the oil prices, be smarter towards the opportunities in 2015.

“Customers demand and want value today and channel partners should work towards

delivering that by being trusted advisors.”

and mobility. Last year, we saw the demand for these technologies increasing in the region and 2015 will be a continuation of that. We will also see a number of new features being added to the existing technologies. While Big Data and analytics have gained prominence over the years, it hasn’t really taken off in its complete potential. Companies are still trying to find out which business models will work. On the other hand, Internet of Everything will boost the production of intelligent devices and wearable


uPTAkE oF NFC DIGITAl DISruPTIoN

In 2014, while enterprise customers accepted cloud technologies in small measures, consumers took to cloud whole-heartedly with services such as Microsoft Azure, NetFlix and DropBox. In 2015, the continued adoption of tablets and smartphones will boost Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) trends and Big Data analytics will start to make some in-roads within organisations. Branded and expensive tablets will start to lose market share as cheaper alternatives leave an indelible mark with volumes – there will be consolidation at all levels as Android-based tablets enter the ‘differentiate or die’ spiral.

Near Field Communication (NFC) has been around for a few years but took centre stage in 2014, thanks to the launch of Apple’s iPhone 6 and mobile wallet service, Apple Pay. We believe it

will become mainstream in 2015. This year, we will also see a big boost in wearable technology, network security and continued emphasis on education as a vertical.

Chanel partners need to be aware of what customers are demanding in terms of new business and deployment models because there are several new opportunities, but may need to be fine-tuned on a case-by-case basis.

2015 will see more resellers responding to global technology trends such as cloud computing, Internet of Things, Big Data and BYOD, and will offer tailored services and solutions to their customers.

The channel community’s relationship with its corporate customers will evolve from traditional business models to long term commitments and revenue models, for example, Managed Print Services (MPS). While these models will provide the channel the ability to secure customers and revenue with high profits over a longer period of time, it will also put pressure on the financing schemes of channels. 2015 will see a digital disruption in the IT enterprise, which is inevitable. Cloud computing, Big Data, IoT and related applications will require

more focused attention, with emphasis on security.

The channel will have to cater to a value IT enterprise business model rather than a volume-model in order to sustain and grow profitable business. This means that resellers will have to work closer with vendors and other partners as there will be pressure on resellers to deliver value-added offerings. Also service delivery and logistics will need to be revamped with focus on delivering to new technology, workflow and processes and cloud-based platforms.

“Chanel partners need to be aware of what customers

are demanding in terms of new

business and deployment

models because there are several

new opportunities, but may need to be fine-tuned on a case-by-case

basis.”

“The channel will have to cater to a value IT enterprise

business model rather than a volume-model

in order to sustain and

grow profitable business.”

Cem Ocal, Sales Director Distribution, ME, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise

Venkatasubramanian Hariharan, Regional Sales Director, Canon Middle East


CoMPuTING FroM EvEryWHErE

oMNI-CHANNEl rETAIlING

Workplace transformation remains a critically important phenomenon in the Middle East region. This has led to many industry decision-makers focusing on adopting new technologies to improve business operations by addressing developments such as the convergence of social, mobile, cloud and Big Data technologies.

In 2015, user-centric computing will lead. ‘Computing everywhere’ is becoming the reality and the norm, and users expect any-time secure access to their data. Enterprises need to adapt and build their computing environments around the needs of today’s mobile workforce. In 2015, we will also see a change in the way applications are developed – they will be designed to be secure from the start.

Channel partners need

to be able to articulate the various benefits and advantages that they offer to a customer organisation – creating secure, compliant, flexible work environments that encourage access to data and applications from any device, anywhere. It’s also important that partners acquire the technical knowledge and skills to be able to design, implement and deploy solutions that specifically address a customer’s individual workplace needs – there is no such thing as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.

With retail becoming more complex than ever before, and with the change happening at an increasing pace, the industry has reached a stage where it needs to quickly modify and adapt to the existent models and processes to satisfy the needs of the customers, remain successful and stay profitable.

Consumers are getting educated and are opting for e-commerce as their preferred choice of buying. With shopping becoming more ‘experiential’, retailers have to stay abreast of providing 100 percent knowledge to the customer before a purchase is made. We believe multi-channel and omni-channel, mobile and e-commerce will govern the regional IT retail channel in 2015. Phablets are expected to make a significant mark in this year. Wearable devices for health and fitness will continue booming

throughout this year. Curved TVs will continue to grow and further elevate in 2015.

As an overall approach, there are three things a retailer has to focus on. Retailers have to master the art of omni-channel retail, keeping customers at the focal point of their business. There are still some obstacles and challenges to e-commerce in the region, but it will surely evolve sooner than we know. Customer service experience, as always will stand out as a differentiation factor in this market. The better the customers are educated and provided with good after sales services about their purchase, the more chances of them returning to the retailer.

“Channel partners need to be fully

equipped with the tools, knowledge

and skills they need to cater to the individually

unique demand of customers in the

region.”

“Retailers have to master the art of omni-channel retail, keeping

customers at the focal point of their

business.”

Johnny Karam, Vice President, Middle East & Africa, Citrix

Neelesh Bhatnagar, CEP, Emax



bullISH oNPC SAlES

SECurITy AT THE ForEFroNT

We expect 2015 to be a year full of action. The good news for the hardware companies is that the trend indicates that PC is coming back. The sales of PC and laptops are picking up compared to last year and as we go into 2015 we expect this to go up further. Wearable technology is the next step for the mobile manufacturers. This year, we should expect more of this from different manufacturers. Also the new operating systems from Android (Android M) and Apple (IOS9) should see momentum in the mobile sector. Overall we except 2015 to be an exciting year.

The channel is expecting the release of Microsoft Windows 10 sometime this year. This could boost the PC and laptops sales further. The launch of Microsoft OS for tablet PC also will see lot of manufacturers introducing tablets with MS operating system.

We see maximum growth coming from storage sector. As we see the need for large data storage and other requirements, this sector is going to pick up. Apart from this the security and networking sectors should see robust growth in 2015.

We expect many countries, which were inactive in 2014 to pick up this year. We expect North Africa and the Middle Eastern countries to grow further.

My advice to channel for 2015 is to focus on margins and credit control.

From an F5 perspective, we are going to pursue our channel policy, which entails concentrating the business on a select list of partners in each country in order to elevate them to achieve sounder technical understanding. This will ensure that they are capable of carrying our technology messages in their respective countries acting as brand ambassadors and delivering robust, all-encompassing solutions.

From a resource perspective, we have also reorganised our teams locally in the Middle East and enhanced our workforce through additional hires allowing more focus to achieve our desired outcomes.

Security will continue to be at the forefront of our focus in 2015. We will also be focusing a lot on the fast growing markets of KSA, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE. Additionally Egypt is back

on our radar and investments that were previously placed on hold due to political instabilities are picking up. We will also be focusing on Turkey, which now fall under our Middle East remit, which is a hyper growth area that we are investing in and expecting to grow this year.

Channel partners should build their skills to become real credible advisors for their customers with regards to not only consulting but in deploying, implementing and developing solutions.

“The sales of PC and laptops are picking

up compared to last year and as

we go into 2015 we expect this to go up further. Wearable

technology is the next step for the mobile

manufacturers.”

“Channel partners should build their skills to become

real credible advisors for their customers with regards to not only consulting

but in deploying, implementing

and developing solutions.”

Shailendra Rughwani, Director, DCG

Nasser El Abdouli, Country Manager Turkey & Gulf, F5 Middle East



ClouD To EvolvE buSINESSES

IT ANAlyTICS To GAIN ProMINENCE

The growing adoption of cloud technology at the local government level will transform the way channels and customers spend money and allocate their IT resources. This won’t just be with the largest customers; the cloud will give small and medium-sized customers equal, on-demand access to a shared pool of computing resources. In the coming year, expect to see more SMB governments rethinking the role of systems integrators as they shift to the cloud. With this I can say that security will govern the IT channel in 2015.

There are new emerging technologies that companies should keep an eye out for in 2015 such as wearable technologies, BYOD, and cloud computing. Traditional IT service providers should be well positioned to help clients learn to use these

emerging technologies efficiently and effectively.

It is absolutely imperative that members of the channel are kept as up to date as possible on a product’s new features and functionality. Channel sales engineers must become product experts, and demand regular training from their vendor counterparts. Sales staff, for their part, must likewise keep up with the latest messaging, feature sets and solution updates. Both the partner and vendor must speak the same language and have the same level of knowledge.

With the rise of sophisticated targeted attacks across the region, security is the area where we will continue to see significant growth. Organisations understand that it is not possible to provide a 100 percent secured environment. Once organisations acknowledge this, they can begin to apply more-sophisticated risk assessment and mitigation tools. On the technical side, recognition that perimeter defense is inadequate gives rise to a new multifaceted approach. Perimeters and firewalls are no longer enough. Ubiquitous embedded intelligence, combined with pervasive analytics will drive the development of systems that are alert to their surroundings and able to respond appropriately. Context-aware security is an early application of this new capability, but others will emerge. By understanding

the context of an end-user request, applications can not only adjust their security response but also adjust how information is delivered to the end-user, greatly simplifying an increasingly complex computing world.

Channel partners need to embrace IT analytics solutions to differentiate their offerings and better serve their customers. Analytics will become deeply, but invisibly embedded everywhere. Big Data remains an important enabler for this trend but the focus needs to shift to thinking about big questions and big answers first and Big Data second — the value is in the answers, not the data.

“Channel sales engineers

must become product

experts, and demand regular

training from their vendor

counterparts.”

“Channel partners need to embrace

IT analytics solutions to

differentiate their offerings and

better serve their customers.”

Maya Zakhour, Channel Director, Middle East, Fortinet

Yassine Zaied, EVP Middle East & Emerging Markets, Nexthink



EMErGENCE oF HybrID ENTErPrISE

ENHANCED STorAGE SoluTIoNS

The hybrid enterprise trend will govern the Middle East in 2015. This can be defined as a combination of private assets and public services. The enterprise is transforming into a mix of owned applications and cloud-based services, with core apps and data usually running on-premises in private data centres and other apps running in the public cloud. Therefore, the enterprise is going hybrid in terms of where and how it hosts its apps.

Going hybrid offers opportunities to better balance capex investments in owned resources and opex spending on cloud-based services, and to leverage the combined capabilities of private and public clouds and networks to evolve towards a location-independent computing model. With location-

independent computing, a hybrid enterprise has the flexibility to host applications and data in the locations that best serve the business while ensuring flawless application delivery to better leverage global resources, radically reduce the cost of running their business, and maximise employee productivity.

Since the business benefits are abundantly clear, organisations are sure to go down the ‘hybrid enterprise’ path. This will require channel players to be agile and adapt their strategies accordingly.

As far as our business in the region is concerned, apart from the continued growth in data storage and data protection, we are seeing great opportunities in the areas of all-flash arrays, software-defined storage, converged infrastructure, virtual desktop infrastructure, and Big Data analytics solutions.

Enterprises have been showing keen interest to understand, evaluate and adopt emerging technologies that could give them distinct advantage over competition, enhance business productivity and achieve growth objectives.

We are expecting a significant increase in the number of customers ready to deploy these solutions in the coming year.

Channel partners should continue to build on their forte while keeping a sharp eye on the opportunities created by emerging

technologies. Those players who are early movers to these technologies will reap the most benefits.

“The enterprise is transforming into

a mix of owned applications

and cloud-based services, with core

apps and data usually running on-premises in private data centres and

other apps running in the public cloud.”

Elie Dib, Head of Channels, METNA, Riverbed Technology

Suren Vedantham, Group Managing Director, StorIT Distribution

“Enterprises have been showing keen interest

to understand, evaluate and

adopt emerging technologies

that could give them distinct

advantage over competition,

enhance business productivity and achieve growth objectives. We are expecting a significant increase in

the number of customers ready to deploy these solutions in the coming year.”


SoFTWArE-DEFINED EvEryTHING

FoCuS oN MArGINS

There are currently global major forces re-shaping the IT industry, with the top three including cloud, mobility, Big Data. All are intrinsically tied to mission critical cyber-security trends affecting the Middle East and beyond. These forces are enablers for the major trends in IT – and the same forces are affecting the channel and the way we sell to our customer base.

On a local level, we are seeing the market attracting an increasing number of multinational distributors and systems integrators to the region. These channel players are creating specialised in-house teams focused on the global trends instead of the generalist teams they had before. Elsewhere, we are also witnessing an increased demand for professional services from the channel due to the rapid expansion of the market and scarce resources

and skills available in the region. We are currently witnessing the ‘software-defined everything’ era. The box-moving or hardware dependent technologies are on a decrease and mobile connectivity is allowing objects or ‘things’ to talk to one another.

In 2015, we will also see new developments in virtualisation as a component of cloud computing and data management. Harnessing Big Data and utilising analytics to adopt sophisticated managed services is a step towards future connected worlds.

Cloud computing and mobility solutions will govern the IT sector in the Middle East in 2015. We will also see an increased demand for networking and security, virtualisaiton, mobility and storage solutions as well. In terms of markets, the GCC countries along with Africa and sub-continent will witness a high growth.

Today, distribution has become mere fulfillment, which means logistics and box shifting remain part and parcel of the channel’s role. Support and services are often overlooked areas of channel development. However, in this cut-throat competitive environment, high quality support and services are vital to differentiate yourself from competitors and that is where we have continued to excel in.

Distributors are busy grabbing market share on price and price alone. This

myopic outlook damages the brand image and the channel confidence in the long run. Too many fail to realise that success of a business model and health of the company depends on the bottom line. Gross profit margin and bottom line are the most important aspects of the channel. This continues to be our focus, which reflects our serious commitment about the long-term ambitions to continue to grow and exist in the market.

“The box-moving or hardware dependent

technologies are on a decrease

and mobile connectivity is

allowing objects or ‘things’ to talk to one another.”

“Today, distribution has become

mere fulfillment, which means

logistics and box shifting remain part and parcel of the channel’s

role. Support and services are often overlooked areas

of channel development.”

Fady Iskander, Regional Commercial and Channel Manager, Symantec

Arun Chawla, CEO, Trigon



Reseller ME speaks to industry leaders to understand how partners can leverage market trends to sell

storage solutions successfully.

Clued in

storage solutionsfeature


The technological cascading effect is an interesting phenomenon to

explore. The amount of data being collected is escalating by the minute as a result of increasing number of smart devices, social media activity, surveillance systems, demand for NAS and Big Data analytics, and the need to store, share and access these large volumes of information in a safe and secure manner has gained prominence over time. And not only should storage solutions be safe and secure but at the same time, should be scalable and cost-effective.

Whether it is cloud, server or storage devices, selling solutions to manage and store data is indeed a field that is heaped with opportunities for the reseller partners.

Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director, Middle East, Africa & India, WD, says today’s buyers research heavily before making a purchase. And this is one of the reasons why channel players should not

only educate themselves about the product but also about the whole ecosystem related to the product. “Sales representatives have to be able to effectively communicate the product’s features and benefits to a customer accurately to convert the opportunity into a sale. This means that although it is time away from the office, channel sales representatives should participate in vendor trainings whether they are face-to-face or virtual to get insights that he can pass on to the customer. It’s also important to offer well-priced value-added services, as these can far influence the customer to give you his business.”

Vendor trainings are crucial for partners to increase their profitability. What happens often times is that reseller partners lose focus in the haste to meet targets. While that is definitely the ultimate goal, partners should understand that being clued into market trends can also help in hitting those figures.

Pravin Kumar, Product Manager, ManageEngine

says, “With customers in the Middle East rapidly adopting the latest technologies such as flash and SDS (Software-Defined Storage), the channel partner has to be updated about these innovations. The quarterly training sessions are the best way to educate them about the latest advancement in technology vis-a-vis the product. The product road map is also discussed here to include their suggestion based on their customer’s requirement. They can also log on to the partner portal and get the required info.”

One of the issues currently is that partners look at selling storage as a separate unit instead of plugging it as a part of a comprehensive solution. Many channel partners lack clarity when selling storage, says, Ranjith Kaippada, Product Sales Manager, StorIT Distribution. “Partners need to keep abreast with understanding and adopting emerging technologies, which can give them a distinct advantage over their competition. They need to update themselves on the latest storage technologies and solutions and understand what products they need to sell to SMBs and enterprises and when they need to offer cloud storage. A little understanding of how to position these products will get the partner more mileage in volume and value sales.”

An effective and relatively inexpensive way to stand out is to maintain a social media presence. As of today, many channel partners

are still focused on phone, e-mail and face-to-face transactions, whereas there are millions of people who look for and purchase via the web or ask for help on deciding what to buy on social media platforms.”Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director, Middle East, Africa & India, WD


that is something the regional channel partners are not tapping into at the moment.

“An effective and relatively inexpensive way to stand out is to maintain a social media presence. As of today, many channel partners are still focused on phone, e-mail and face-to-face transactions, whereas there are millions of people who look for and purchase via the web or ask for help on deciding what to buy on social media platforms. Even without a website, if a social presence is maintained and an opportunity presents itself, a channel partner can tie up with a logistics company to address remote customer needs.”

Besides vendor trainings, partners can also stay on top of market trends by registration at storage forums, which features blogs and regular articles on storage, adds Kumar from ManageEngine.

Over the next year, the demand for large capacity storage solutions will only surge further. According to Saifuddin, this means that hard drive based storage will still have a sizable lead over flash storage in terms of demand. “Flash though faster is still very limited in terms of capacity and the cost per gigabyte is still significantly higher than what customers enjoy with hard drive technology.”

Kaippada from StorIT believes the storage architecture is undergoing drastic changes to cater to the new requirement of the enterprise class. “The emerging models are unified, scale-up, scale-out and full flash based storage. It has

storage solutionsfeature

partner supportRanjith Kaippada, Product Sales Manager, StorIT Distribution“StorIT’s priority is to keep our channel partners conscious of skills to successfully propagate and sell the technology solutions of our vendor partners and their vision. We educate and train our partners on product

sales, implementation, systems integration and technical support through our reseller partner on-boarding programme. We also offer sales and technical skills certifications, go-to-market sales activity plans, customised marketing plans for individual resellers, demand generation activities and cross-selling/up-selling opportunity identification.”

Christian Assaf, Senior Sales Manager, MEA, Seagate“Over the last few years, we have refined our Seagate Partner Programme (SPP) specifically for the indirect customers in the channel. The Seagate Partner Programme gives our channel partners’ exclusive access to tools

and services designed to help build their business and sell Seagate products. At Seagate we have found great success by working with resellers, distributors and systems integrators to develop tools that focus on the pillars of increasing their customer’s service satisfaction, lowering their cost of doing business, and accelerating their time to market.”

Christian Assaf, Senior Sales Manager, MEA, Seagate, agrees and also believes one of the ways resellers can stay ahead of the curve in this segment is by creating a more efficient tiered model based on existing technology. He explains, “By intelligently layering conventional hard disk drives, SSHD (solid state hybrid) drives and SSD (solid state) drives, CIOs will be able to organise data much more effectively; allowing quick and easy access to the most critical data from solid state devices while ensuring that the less valuable metadata is still available and secure on slower HDD drives, for example.”

Saifuddin says, the regional channel is still in a transition period, many players are only now shifting away from the box moving business model to becoming value sellers that are able to fully understand and address a customer’s needs. “In becoming value sellers that address a customer’s needs properly, there’s also scope to offer value-added services that can significantly add to a channel player’s bottom line. It could be anything from basic delivery and installation services to things like quarterly maintenance contracts,” he adds.

Another challenge for partners is that certain markets within the region are saturated in terms of the number of players and there are also geographical challenges, which make it more difficult to reach customers. To overcome this, Saifuddin says having a social media presence helps. And

And Assaf from Seagate says that the data growth driven by cloud, mobile and open source advancement will present new and significant opportunities in the MEA region.

Partners need to take into account of these trends while developing their go-to-market strategies and first consider the customer’s challenges and requirements before attempting to sell the solution. Does the sale enable the customer’s business? Thinking beyond selling and looking to close long-lasting deals should be the way forward.

become a mandate that all the storage models should be compatible and should be easily integrated with virtualisation and going forward with cloud and Big Data solutions.”

Also the race towards software-defined storage is at its peak. The key benefits of software-defined storage over traditional storage are increased flexibility, automated management and cost efficiency. Converged infrastructure becomes the most compelling building block of data centre infrastructure.”


event report

Mindware honours top performing partners at its inaugural awards ceremony.

Taste of successMindware in association with Reseller Middle East, organised ‘Synergy

– Partner Summit and Awards 2014’ last month at Habtoor Grand. The half-day event brought together the distributor’s portfolio of vendors and also commended its top performing partners.

Mario Gay, MD, Mindware, “It has been great to bring together the best vendors for this event. And we have received a positive response. Seeing the response, this is something we will look at embracing on an annual basis. I like to thank our partners once again for trusting us and we will continue to deliver to their level of expectations.”

The event also featured in-depth presentations from IDC and vendor partners such as Symantec, SAP, Dell, Citrix, Juniper, Intel and

Riverbed. The topics ranged from mobility and cloud to BI solutions.

Presenting on mobility, Noman Qadir, Director, Channels, MEA, Citrix, said, “Citrix seamlessly and securely unites apps, data and services on any device over any network and any cloud, therefore any device can be a state-of-the-art workspace. The ultimate mobile device is us as people, and people’s experience with technology is at the core of any and everything we do.”

“Mindware’s Synergy event brought together our channel partners and recognised them for their consistent performance, it was indeed a well-organised event. It was also a good opportunity to see the breadth of solutions and partners that Mindware covers. The partnership with CPI elevated the event and I

Noman Qadir, Director, Channels, MEA, Citrix

Fady Iskander, Regional Channel & Commercial Manager, Gulf & Levant, Symantec

look forward to attending such activities moving forward as well,” he added.

Fady Iskander, Regional Channel & Commercial Manager, Gulf & Levant, Symantec said, “The Mindware Synergy event enabled and educated partners on the latest trends in Big Data. It is always an honour to address our community of partners, who are driven to deliver exceptional customer value with Symantec’s next generation Partner Programme benefits, which are designed to help our partners’ grow their business and solve big problems for our customers.”

Ten of Mindware’s partners were recognised and awarded for their consistent performance throughout the year.

Dakshin Karthik, Branch Manager, Al Suwaidi

Mindware awards & suMMit


Computers said, “I feel proud to receive this award, especially since this is the first time we are getting an award. It has been an honour to

receive it. And I appreciate this recognition that Mindware has given us.”

Serjios El-Hage, CEO, EMW, said, “It was a complete

surprise to win this award. Mindware has continued to offer us a lot of support both on the fulfillment and vendor side. They stuck with us all

the way from the beginning of the year. Our year-on-year revenue has tripled since we started working with Mindware.”

Mindware awards & suMMitevent report

Best YOY Growth with Multi Product Pipeline Development in the UAE for Citrix: Alpha Data, Abu Dhabi

Highest revenue and units for 2014 on Intel Almasa IT

Performance award for year 2014 for RiverbedBahwan IT LLC

Loyal partner with the highest transactions & consistent revenue over 2014 for SAPAl Mazroui & Partners LLC

Emerging Dell Enterprise Partner for MindwareSolid Solution Technology, Dubai

Best-valued Juniper PartnerEMW ME

Best Growth Initiative by a Partner for SymantecEmitac Enterprise Solutions

Highest Growth YOY for Mindware: Al Ershad Computer

Middle East Solution Partner of the year award for Emerson incom Solutions Technology

Emerging SMB Partner for MicrosoftAl Suwaidi Computers

Longest Transacting Partner with MindwareAlmasa IT

Maximum number of transacting products for Mindware: Alpha Data, Abu Dhabi

WINNErS oF SyNErGy – MINDWArE PArTNEr SuMMIT & AWArDS 2014


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Sony NWZ-W273 headsets Sony’s new headsets offer

great value for money.

Brought to you By:

sonyreview

Available in 4Gb or 8Gb of capacity, the NWZ-W273 comes with space for 1000-2000 songs. Coming in black, white, pink and blue, Sony has tried to keep the look of previous W-Series MP3 players, using compact

earpieces with a single connecting flexible rubber neckband. Sony has designed the headset as a sealed unit, with no mini or

micro USB ports, shipping with a specialised charging cable that doubles a dock for the headset.

Fortunately for Sony, its design team have done a better job than the branders who came up with the NWZ-W273’s clunky and hard-to-remember name.

The first thing that strikes you with the NWZ-W273 is its tidy fit. When first worn, it fits tightly in your ears and is easy on the eye.

Before users even get on the move they can benefit from a fantastic feature. Sony have included the ability to charge the earphones for just three minutes for an hour of use; ideal for those in a hurry. Eight hours is its maximum battery life.

Users can also find their music on the run, by holding down the play button for two seconds to activate the ZAPPIN feature,

and scan the chorus of most used workout songs to easily match exercise intensity.

Unfortunately, although the NWZ-W273 is certainly a solid piece of gear when used on land - fitting well and offering decent audio quality - the same cannot be said for its use in water.

Sony designed the NWZ-W273 to be waterproof up to a depth of two metres.

Be it upthrust or unorthodox swimming technique – or more likely a design flaw – the sound quality is virtually inaudible once the device is dragged underwater.

That being said, if the earphones are very tightly fitted then they still serve a purpose, though this does require some effort.

Sadly, this renders Sony’s depth pledge redundant; more of a reluctant reptile than a graceful seahorse.

In spite of the NWZ-W273 failing its remit of fully functioning underwater, it is a good quality set of sports earphones that provide decent value for money at $99.

For any runners/cyclists/other athletes that are looking for robust audio quality in a neat package, these are well worth forking out for.

rME rATING


IN-MEMORY

ImatIon Introduces nexsan nst 4000

HuaweI launcHes Honor 6 Plus smartPHone

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Huawei has launched Honor 6 Plus Smartphone, one of the newest addition to its flagship device line-up.

The Honor 6 Plus features a dual 8 MP rear camera along with the company’s dedicated triple IE algorithm engine, deliver a single-lens reflex grade capture experience for users.

The smartphone uses the Kirin 925 octa-core chipset and provides 4G LTE CAT6 connectivity with a download speed of up to 300 Mbps. The premium edition supports dual SIM cards. It provides a dual-channel ultra-large RAM with the 3 GB LPDDR3 module, a CPU frequency of 800 MHz, a 16 GB/32 GB ROM with the eMMC 5.0 module, and a microSD card support of up to 128 GB.

It also sports a 5.5-inch 1080p JDI negative liquid crystal screen, a 3600 mAh battery, SmartPower 2.5, SmartControl 2.5, simple but elegant operating system, EMUI 3.0, as well as new features including the Honor Wallet and geo-fence.

The design of the smartphone features a night sky texture on its rear cover, a zinc alloy protective support that is produced after six-layer composite processes, and 93 main processes. The fiberglass base of the rear cover prevents the Honor 6 Plus from bending due to external force. The screen uses the new Corning Gorilla Glass 3, with enhanced scratch resistance and fingerprint resistant coating.

Imation’s scalable storage, Nexsan NST 4000 is perfect for those users who prefer Fibre Channel to other SAN protocols. It expands the availability of fault-tolerant FASTier DRAM caching with both Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity, and puts them in reach of mid-range businesses.

It is equipped with FASTier, which is an intelligent, self-tuning hybrid caching capability that uses a scalable pool of cache memory comprised of both high-speed memory and flash technologies to create a more efficient hybrid storage solution.

DRAM and Flash SSD technology is used to accelerate read and write IOPS and throughput. It also features AutoMAID Power Management, a flexible power management, which allows users to configure each RAID set to progress into deeper levels of sleep when they have not been accessed for a specified period of time. It is unified, in a single solution, NST4000 provides CIFS, NFS and FTP file sharing protocols for enterprise NAS file sharing as well as FC and iSCSI SAN block storage protocol for server volume sharing.

AOC’s new product line reduces risks that go hand in hand with excessive time in front of screens. The new 22-inch (55.9 cm) and 24-inch (61 cm) displays come with innovative technologies such as anti-blue light and flicker free. Combatting health concerns such as retinal stress and macular degeneration, the company’s anti-blue light models E2276VWM6 and E2476VWM6 are based on special LED technology, which reduces harmful blue light by over 90 percent without affecting colour fidelity. Furthermore, the flicker free technology prevents users from eye fatigue, which can appear without the viewer even noticing. The light-weight models deliver 1920 x 1080

Full HD resolution as well as vibrant, bright colours. For Android enthusiasts, they also boast an HDMI connector, which offers MHL 2.0 (Mobile High-Definition Link) functionality. This means that smartphone and tablet screens can be mirrored directly onto the 22-inch or 24-inch monitor screen. What is special about the MHL 2.0 is that with only one cable, peripherals can be recharged while playing audio, video, and/or surfing on the internet at the same time. Also, both models come with extremely short pixel response times of 1 ms and 2 ms, making them perfect for working on, watching fast-paced action video clips or enjoying games, said the company.

aoc Introduces antI-blue lIgHt and flIcker-free dIsPlays


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dell announces new sonIcPoInt ac serIes

ASUS Fonepad FE375CXG launches a new addition to the ASUS’s tablet lineup, the new-generation ASUS Fonepad 7 features the intuitive ASUS ZenUI, a 64-bit Intel Atom Z3530 1.33 GHz quad-core CPU and Android 4.4 KitKat operating system with 3G phone functions.

The ASUS Fonepad Series has a narrow bezel design for easy one-handed use, with the 7-inch ASUS Fonepad 7 (FE375CXG) being just 10.9cm wide. It has 1280 x 800 IPS displays and ASUS SonicMaster audio with dual front speakers for immersive multimedia. The 5-megapixel rear-facing and 2 megapixel front-facing cameras deliver high-quality images and video to capture memorable moments. Specially designed to balance private and professional life, the ASUS FonePad 7 features dual SIM card slots and 3G connectivity. The device is built to last for 11.5 hours for 720P video playback and 20 hours of 3G talk time. Dual front speaker with SonicMaster Technology directs sound towards the user. It also features a Micro SD slot, which can support additional 64GB of storage.

The smartphone will be available during Dubai Shopping Festival 2015 among all major retailers for AED 699.

asus fonePad 7 Is now avaIlable and the flexibility to receive power

over an AC adapter or 802.3at Power over Ethernet (PoE) Injector, and the SonicPoint ACi, which has dual radios, internally housed antennas, dimmable LEDs and receives power through an 802.3at PoE Injector. This enterprise-level performance enables WiFi-ready devices to connect from greater distances, and use bandwidth-intensive mobile apps, such as video and voice, in higher-density environments with virtually no signal degradation.

The Dell SonicWALL Wireless Network Security solution also offers comprehensive security, easy setup and centralized management.

Dell has introduced the new SonicPoint AC Series of wireless access points, which supports the high-performance IEEE 802.11ac wireless standard to deliver almost three times that of the last wireless standard (802.11n). SonicPoints combine with industry-leading deep packet inspection security from Dell SonicWALL next-generation firewalls to form a comprehensive wireless network security solution. This combination enables small- and mid-sized organisations to leverage enterprise-class wireless performance and security, while dramatically simplifying wireless network setup and management for a low total cost of ownership.

The SonicPoint AC Series includes the SonicPoint ACe, which features dual radio functionality, six removable external antennas, dimmable LEDs

ecs unveIls l337 gamIng Z97I-droneMotherboard manufacturer ECS has announced that its high-end gaming motherboard series, L337 Gaming, launched the latest Z97I-DRONE to its lineup.

L337 Gaming was created to dedicate efforts in developing products focused on gamers, and Z97I-DRONE is the latest member of L337 Gaming Motherboard. Equipped with Z97 Express Chipset, the Mini ITX form factor Z97I-DRONE provides 2 Dual Channel DDR3 3000+ (OC) Memory up to 16GB, 1 PCI-Express x 16 Gen. 3 Slot, and 1 M.2 Slot for Wi-Fi/Bluetooth device. In addition to enhancing the gaming experience, the ‘Low-to-Full USB Speed’ technology is designed for gamers, delivering an optimised 8-time faster keyboard and mouse report rate from 125Hz to 1000Hz. The Z97I-DRONE also introduces Intel I218V Gigabit LAN to provide the outstanding fast LAN networking

for gaming and to avoid latency.In order to fulfill the higher standard

ITX motherboard requested from users, L337 Gaming Z97I-DRONE equips the new ‘Hybrid Power’ technology to strengthen the outstanding performance and deliver remarkable stability. The Hybrid Digital 5-Phase PWM is designed for managing microprocessor core and memory voltage regulator with auto phase shedding, and Dual Advanced MOSFETs provides up to 90 percent power efficiency.


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allIed telesIs Presents Ie200 serIes

JunIPer networks Introduces Junos os

Series also supports features such as Ethernet Protection Switched Ring (EPSRing) and Allied Telesis Management Framework (AMF). EPSRing provides greater ring resilience in comparison to traditional technologies, ensuring network functionality is restored in the event of failure with negligible impact on users or applications. AMF assists network managers by providing a technology that reduces their daily workload by automating many common management tasks such as replacing failed units, modifying configurations, upgrading firmware, or extending the network.

Allied Telesis has released the IE200 Series of industrial ethernet switches. Available in fast ethernet and gigabit versions, the IE200 Series is ideal for applications in challenging environmental conditions, for example, industrial applications such as IP video surveillance, intelligent transport systems, and building management integration for both indoor and outdoor use.

The IE200 Series is available in 6- or 12-port models, with or without Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) support, and includes a broad range of features and functionality. Both models are DIN Rail mounted, resulting in reduced space, mounting complexity, and cost when compared to a standard rack.

Along with support for more traditional features such as port-based VLANs, IEEE 802.1p QoS, 802.1x port security, link aggregation, and port mirroring, the IE200

axIs communIcatIonPresents axIs f44Axis Communications adds AXIS F44 Main Unit to its flexible and modular AXIS F Series. The series is based on a divided network camera concept where the camera is split into a sensor unit, made up of a lens and image sensor with a pre-mounted cable

up to 12 m (39 ft.) long, and a main unit, which is the body of the camera. Since the main units and sensor units with different lens types are sold separately, customers can choose the components as required

and can easily change them to fit the surveillance need. The products allow for a highly discreet installation since the small sensor units can be installed virtually out of view in tight places and the main unit can be placed up to 12 m away where there is space for it.

AXIS F44 is a high-performance unit that supports simultaneous streaming of four separate high-resolution 1080p videos at 12.5/15 frames per second (50/60 Hz) or four HDTV 720p videos at full frame rate. It offers a quad view, a stream made up of four separate views from the connected sensor units and supports two-way audio. It has input/output ports for external devices to enhance alarm management and a RS232 port for integration of external data to the video. It provides local storage of recordings using its two built-in full-sized SD card slots. It has power over ethernet, and the option of connecting to an 8-28 V DC power supply.

Juniper Networks has introduced Juniper Networks OCX1100, the first switch to combine Open Compute Project (OCP) hardware design with a carrier-class network operating system, Junos OS. The new switch, which will be available the first quarter of 2015, provides customers who build large and massive scale data centres with an open, cost-effective, disaggregated switching platform.

Juniper Networks OCX1100 will provide large cloud providers with proven software and open source network hardware that is much easier to deploy, integrate and support. OCX1100 runs an optimised version of Junos, based on Linux, which delivers the features required for deployment in L3 networks. Additionally, the OCX1100 includes a range of open software interfaces and automation capabilities such as open, standards-based programmatic interfaces, including Python, which allows custom scripts and applications to interact with Junos. It offers support for native installation of tools in Junos, including Puppet and Chef, which enables automated programming and provisioning. It offers Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) that enables disaggregation and loading of third-party network operating systems, freeing customers from vendor lock in. The OCX1100 provides the added benefit of complete Juniper technical support services for the hardware and software, lowering risk and increasing reliability for customers. The new product will be available during the first quarter of 2015, and purchasing options will include volume-based pricing.


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One of the emerging technologies that has captivated me in the recent past is Internet of Everything. The concept is exciting and opens countless doors of opportunity, just the way the Internet did years ago.

Internet of Things (IoT), now more aptly named as the Internet of Everything (IoE) technology, has come a long way since the invention of the first Internet powered toaster by John Romkey and Simon Hackett in 1990. And over the next few years, it is only going to explode and transform the way we live. When Kevin Ashton first coined the term ‘IoT’ in 1999, he was referring to a computer’s potential to record and store data about things without any help from people. In a journal piece published a few years ago, he wrote, “If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things—using data they gathered without any help from us—we would be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost. We would know when things needed replacing, repairing or recalling, and whether they were fresh or past their best.” And today, that is where we stand.

Getting ‘things’ to converse with each other without any human involvement is indeed a remarkable feat. Connecting people, processes, data and things to make networked connections more valuable is Cisco’s definition of IoE.

Partners must understand that when we speak about IoE, there are other technologies also coming into play such as security, data analytics and storage to name a few. Wearable technology is another aspect that stems out of IoE. This means the revenue prospects for the channel is not only immense but also diverse. What is required from the partner’s perspective is the ability to recognise what it can truly mean for an organisation or business and the foresight and expertise to suggest the right combination of solution.

This month’s outlook piece outlines some of the industry leaders’ predictions for the year on market scenario and technologies. And needless to say, IoE features as a prominent theme.

This year, we are bound to see more advanced applications of IoE on a global level and it will be the highlight of all business dialogues regionally as well. How partners will gear up to make the most of this technology is something we will have to wait and watch out for.

On a closing note, I hope 2015 began on a high note for all of you, here’s to a positive and prosperous year.

janees reghelini, Assistant Editor, reseller ME

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Reseller Middle East January 2015

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