CXO DX November 2022

SMARTER APPROACHES TO THE NEXT PHASE OF TRANSFORMATION

The record number of visitors seen at this year’s GITEX made the edition perhaps the most successful one in the event’s 42 years history. Several factors may have contribut ed to the success. While GITEX has always been the premier technology show of the region, this year people were perhaps celebrating the freedom from covid curbs and of being able to travel around easily, which ensured presence of a large number of overseas attendees as well. It is also perhaps the urgency that has dawned on companies to acceler ate their digital transformation execution, which led to a large number of CIOs and other IT leaders attending and getting a good look at future focused technologies including Metaverse, digital twins, new AI use cases etc.

Organizations that were well served by their digital preparedness during the pandemic years, will look to further consolidate those gains into the future. Others who missed the trick in terms of digital acceleration earlier, will need to quickly kickstart their transfor mation initiatives.

This sets the context for the next level of digital transformation in the UAE and the re gion. With an increasing number of enterprises now looking to deploy or already having multi-cloud deployments, the focus is shifting towards optimising the cloud resources and smarter cloud adoption. A more rationalised approach to cloud adoption would be the next leg of this journey as a spokesperson mentioned in conversation. Businesses in different verticals would be well served by looking to adopt industry specific clouds on offer that meet specific requirements for better performance.

RAMAN

SAUMYADEEP

MALLIKA

And finally, organizations need to look at technologies that help them improve efficien cies and accelerate sustainability objectives. With AI led software solutions that help provide real time data, better insights would be available for deciding best course of action that leads in turn to better productivity, efficiency and profitability. PUBLISHED

AVEVA

Khaled AlShami, VP, solution con sulting, MEA, Infor discusses the vendor’s focus on manufacturing and distribution sectors

21 » ENHANCING CYBER RESILIENCE THROUGH AI

Taj El-khayat, MD for EMEA South at Vectra AI discusses the ven dor’s unique AI enabled approach to security

22 » TOWARDS SMARTER CLOUD ADOPTION

Ossama Eldeeb, Senior Director, South EMEA Partner Organization, VMware discusses how cloud adoption trends are changing

24

» RATIONALIZING THE CLOUD JOURNEY

Tariq Halwani, Executive Direc tor, Enterprise Solutions Micro soft speaks about Microsoft’s focus on industry clouds and metaverse 28

» LEVERAGING STRONG PARTNERSHIPS

Kamran Khayal, General Manager at Trigon LLC discusses how the distributor has evolved its focus around several key areas of ICT distribution 25

» GOING DIGITAL

Santhosh John Thomas, CIO at African Eastern discusses the ongoing digital transformation initiatives at the company

26 » ONWARDS WITH DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Ramakrishnan Natarajan, IT Head at Emirates Hospitals Group dis cusses how digital transforma tion initiatives have helped

27

» A CONSTANT PURSUIT OF TRANSFORMATION

Khalid Jalal, Senior Group ICT Manager at GARMCO speaks about the company’s focus on digital transformation

» THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF EMAIL COLLABORATION

Pramod Sharda, CEO, IceWarp Middle East & India discusses how email collaboration tools need to facilitate remote work

EVERY DAY IS PHISHING SEASON!

Josh Goldfarb, Fraud Solutions Architect for EMEA and APCJ at F5, on why you can’t afford to ignore a growing menace 32

» BUILDING AI MATURE ORGANIZATIONS

Gregory Herbert, SVP & GMEMEA at Dataiku discusses 6 drivers to build a value-adding culture of Everyday AI

» THE SHIFT TO CLOUD -NATIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Gregg Ostrowski, Executive CTO, Cisco AppDynamics discusses what the shift to cloud-native technologies means for digital transformation strategies

REGULARS

NETAPP ANNOUNCES NEW PARTNER PROGRAM

NetApp Partner Sphere delivers a flexible path to advancement and growth

transformation are primed to capture market share, but this requires modern business models with highly specialized services, and capabilities that support the entire customer journey. The new cloud-focused and services-led NetApp Partner Sphere delivers a flexible path to advancement and growth for all part ner sales motions. By consolidating and simplifying multiple programs into one that includes all partner types, business models and routes to market, this program enables partners to evolve their business in the cloud.

ner-first culture, and the strategy behind our new partner program brings that commitment to life,” said Maya Zakhour, Director Channel Sales – EEMI (Eastern Europe, META, Iberia & LATAM) at NetApp. “With NetApp Partner Sphere, we’re accelerating growth and custom er success across our partner ecosystem by extending their reach into the cloud and offering more business opportunities with our industry-leading portfolio and flexible consumption models.”

NetApp announced its intent to launch a new partner program in NetApp fis cal year 2024 (FY’24). NetApp Partner Sphere is the evolution of NetApp's indus try-leading Unified Partner Program.

Partners that can drive digital and cloud

The program offers robust training and support to help partners capture cloud market share, brings new validation, rec ognition and rewards for partners’ invest ments in competencies and services, and the accelerated growth structure allows partners to contribute transformational value to joint customers.

“NetApp is committed to driving a part

In addition, the program offers simpli fied, flexible, progressive tiering with clear criteria that partners can follow across objective thresholds. The pro gram’s tiers range from Approved, to Preferred, to Prestige, to Prestige Plus – assessing, validating and recognizing partners based on value and competen cies, in order to identify the right part ners for the right customer opportunities. Benefits and support will grow as part ners ascend tiers.

FINESSE IMPLEMENTS RPA FOR IMDAAD

Key processes have been automated and additional processes are being considered for automation

Imdaad, a leading integrated facilities management company, has partnered with Finesse, a leading digital transformation en abler, to automate key processes within the organization using the ‘Automation Anywhere’ Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tool. Few key processes have been completely automated using the tool, resulting in significant improvements in process quality, greater efficiencies, and cost reductions.

Having successfully navigated the unprecedented disruption of the past two years, Imaad is now doubling down on preparing for the long-term with technology as a key enabler. Imdaad has engaged with Finesse, to help identify and automate key business processes.

It was identified that several key processes required minimal hu man intervention, and those when automated would be beneficial to the entire organization. In partnership with Imdaad stakehold ers, Finesse has implemented automation on four key processes across multiple departments using Automation Anywhere, a lowcode RPA tool that matches the group's use-cases perfectly.

With the implementation of the above processes, operational effi ciencies have already improved both within the participating de

partments and the group in general. Several additional processes are being considered for automation.

"We are grateful to Imdaad for trusting Finesse and partnering with us to streamline their processes using robotic process auto mation," said Eljo J P, Finesse's Chief Business Officer & Direc tor. “We are excited about this opportunity and will continue to work closely with Imdaad to ensure this initiative meets its goals, thereby bringing exponential benefits to Imdaad.”

ESET UNVEILS NEW BUSINESS UNIT TO ADDRESS CYBERSECURITY NEEDS OF

LARGE ENTERPRISES

ESET Corporate Solutions will extend the delivery of its proven products and services to meet specific customer needs

ESET has announced a new strategic thrust to reshape the company’s diverse digital security offerings and go-to-market model for fast-growing corporate clients.

ESET is well positioned to engage with and support large corporations’ increased need for security awareness and resil ience, and the management of ever-in creasing technology and business model complexities.

The newly established division, called ESET Corporate Solutions, will extend the delivery of its proven products and services with comprehensive solutions tai lored to the specific needs of these clients and their industries. Leveraging ESET's zero trust-enhancing security technolo gies and its undisputed research leader ship, corporate clients are provided a new option to work closely with a strong, inde pendent, European cybersecurity vendor.

"The segment including the largest com panies and organizations is one of the fast est growing in digital security. Events in recent years, such as the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, have further increased the need for these organizations to strengthen their cyber resilience. As we aspire to play a significant role in this segment, we have decided to create an entirely new divi sion focused on this type of customer. We believe that in the next five to ten years, this division can create opportunities in this new market with annual revenues of hundreds of millions of euros per year," explains Richard Marko, CEO of ESET, about the decision.

The ESET Corporate Solutions division will extend service delivery beyond thend point security suite to ensure large clients can tap into ESET's threat intelligence –highly configurable XDR solutions, and security services including MDR.

NUTANIX LAUNCHES CLOUD CLUSTERS (NC2) ON MICROSOFT AZURE

Customers Can Seamlessly Extend Nutanix Environment to Microsoft Azure

Nutanix, a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, announced the general avail ability of Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on Microsoft Azure, extending its hybrid cloud environment to Microsoft Azure dedicated bare metal nodes.

NC2 on Azure offers a seamless hypercon verged infrastructure and unified manage ment spanning private and public cloud environments to accelerate hybrid cloud adoption. NC2 on Azure enables customers to deploy and manage their workloads in their own Azure account and VNet enabling them to keep the operating model simple and consistent between Azure and on-premises.

With license portability of Nutanix termbased software and the ability to lever age all Microsoft Azure benefits, NC2 on Azure provides customers the investment protection and choice to run their work

loads in a hybrid cloud environment. NC2 on Azure is now generally available to customers on Azure dedicated bare metal nodes in North America Azure regions, with additional global Azure regions to follow in 2023.

“Organizations are embracing hybrid mul ticloud to easily scale from on-prem to the public cloud, optimize costs for perfor mant and secure workloads, and tap into a flexible subscription model,” said Rajiv Ramaswami, President and CEO of Nuta nix. “NC2 on Azure gives our customers a frictionless on-ramp to Azure with consis tent management of apps and data across their hybrid multicloud environment.”

Customers can now run workloads on NC2 on Azure and manage Azure in stances from Nutanix's management in terface. This enables customers to run hybrid workloads seamlessly across pri vate clouds and Microsoft Azure without needing to re-architect their applications. The expected result is simplified and con sistent IT operations across clouds, hybrid cloud adoption in hours, and lower total cost of ownership.

CPX HOLDING AND MICROSOFT TO ENHANCE CYBERSECURITY CAPABILITIES OF UAE ORGANIZATIONS

Both parties to collaborate in building, Go-to-Market, and selling Microsoft Security Solutions & Services jointly in the market.

CPX Holding, a leading provider of digital-first cybersecurity solutions and services, and Microsoft have signed a memoran dum of understanding to collaborate in helping organizations across the UAE to mitigate unprecedented security risks in an increasingly digital economy. Together, the two parties aim to es tablish joint practices and solutions built on Microsoft Security Technologies to serve the UAE market. This will include sharing relevant information and resources, while exploring go-to-market strategies that assist organizations in the enterprise and corporate space to reduce their exposure to digital threats and increase op portunities to innovate.

“At CPX we aim to help our customers collaborate in a safe and secure way and thrive in the UAE digital economy,” said Khaled Al Melhi, CEO of CPX. “We constantly aim to create awareness that organizations need more than reactive cyber security strat egies. Our ambition with partners like Microsoft is to create a security aware culture that enables an always-on protection, to ultimately establish a safe cyber security ecosystem. We serve in a unique domain, for what we do today adds value to others’ future.”

“At

Microsoft, we invest significantly to offer our customers trusted tools and solutions that bring security, compliance, identity and management together to address the most challenging threats fac ing the world today. Our partnership with CPX will play a pivotal role in enabling public and private businesses to innovate secure ly and strengthen the UAE’s digital economy.”

KELVIN MAPS TO HELP INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS MEET EMISSION TARGETS

The collaborative control software solutions enable companies to reduce carbon emissions through Industrial Intelligence

Amid a backdrop of global pressure to boost corporate sustainability, Kelvin Maps intuitively presents vital production data to engineers and operators – deliver ing visualization of the entire operations, including the impacts of any inefficiencies driving emissions.

This new category of software provides a unique view into the manufacturing and production processes – allowing com panies to quickly find emission source offenders and reduce carbon footprint, leading to boosted profitability and sus tainability.

“Global enterprises are struggling to cap ture emission levels across their supply chains and businesses. They must adopt a bottoms-up approach to boost transpar ency, visibility and measurement inside their operations,” said Peter Harding, Founder and CEO of Kelvin. “Kelvin Maps helps enterprises and their supply chain partners hit net-zero goals by visu alizing and optimizing the entire produc tion process in detail. Our product helps find your problems and fix them in rapid time.”

Kelvin, a leading collaborative control software company delivering industrial intelligence, has launched Kelvin Maps, one of the world’s first industrial solutions for measuring, monitoring and reducing enterprise carbon emissions.

Kelvin Maps patent-pending technology seamlessly identifies bottlenecks, prevents failures, and enables improved operations through the simulation of production sce narios.

“Kelvin Maps accelerates emissions dis closures and boosts the global emissions control movement to meet their 2030 and 2050 emissions targets. With Kelvin, you can collaboratively find and fix production and operational issues that impact your carbon emissions,” explained Harding.

SOPHOS’ MDR NOW COMPATIBLE WITH 3rd PARTY CYBERSECURITY TECHNOLOGIES

Integrates Telemetry from Third-Party Endpoint, Firewall, Cloud, Identity, Email, and Other Security Solutions with Sophos Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem

Sophos has launched new third-party se curity technology compatibilities with Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR) to better detect and remediate attacks with speed and precision across diverse customer and operating environ ments. The service with more than 12,000 customers now integrates telemetry from third-party endpoint, firewall, cloud, iden tity, email, and other security technologies as part of the Sophos Adaptive Cybersecu rity Ecosystem.

Joe Levy, chief technology and product officer at Sophos said, “As with a shield, cyber-risk mitigation technology can aid in defense, yet unless you use that protec tion to react, the system will eventually fail; a determined attacker will eventually defeat technology alone. Our teams of ex perts can now detect and remediate threats across a broad range of environments, in cluding complex, multi-vendor scenarios,

before those threats turn into something more damaging, like ransomware or a wide scale data breach. MDR is often the difference between defense success and failure in real-world situations.”

Sophos MDR is now compatible with security telemetry from vendors such as Microsoft, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Net works, Fortinet, Check Point, Rapid7, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Okta, Darktrace, and many others. Telem etry can be automatically consolidated, correlated and prioritized with insights from the Sophos Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem and the Sophos X-Ops threat intelligence unit.

Leveraging bespoke data processing and correlation techniques across this broad set of telemetry, the Sophos MDR oper ations team is able to quickly understand the who, what, when, and how of an at

tack, and is capable of responding to threats across customers’ entire ecosys tems within minutes.

CHECK POINT SOFTWARE UNVEILS CHECK POINT QUANTUM TITAN

Check Point Quantum Titan, the new release of Check Point’s cyber security platform revolutionizes IoT security and threat prevention, by leveraging AI and deep learning technology to protect against the most sophisticated attacks

deliver advanced threat prevention against advanced domain name system exploits (DNS) and phishing, as well as autono mous IoT security. Check Point Quantum Titan is now one of the industry’s only platforms that can provide both IoT de vice discovery and automatically apply zero-trust threat prevention profiles to protect IoT devices.

curity and Trust, “Check Point looks to pre vent these elusive cyberattacks with Titan, the newest release of their Quantum securi ty platform. Check Point innovative threat prevention, automation, threat intelligence analytics, and unified security management to simplify operations and increase security effectiveness across the network, data cen ter, cloud, endpoints and IoT.”

Check Point Software Technologies, a leading provider of cybersecurity solu tions, introduced Check Point Quantum Titan, a new release of the Check Point Quantum cyber security platform. The Quantum Titan release introduces three new software blades that leverages artifi cial intelligence (AI) and deep learning, to

“Cyber threats have become more sophis ticated, frequent, and costly. The expan sion of IoT devices and multi-cloud has dramatically increased complexity and the opportunity for more impactful breaches. Therefore, enterprises must apply securi ty measures that are not only effective but efficient, leveraging security analytics and automation to prevent the stealthy cyberat tacks that are common today”, said Frank Dickson, IDC Group Vice President of Se

Eyal Manor, VP Product Management at Check Point Software Technologies said: “Keeping up with the ever-evolving threat landscape is becoming more complex and challenging, especially when traditional network security management tools need weeks, if not months, to process updates. The new Quantum Titan platform, powered by AI and deep learning, is faster and more effective, bringing together innovative ca pabilities to help stop even more threats”

SOFTWARE AG, IMPULSE LAUNCH FIRST IOT

PLATFORM IN KUWAIT

The in-country IoT platform hosted and managed in Kuwait will enable Smart Technology adoption across all public and private sectors

Impulse, a venture capital company that brings technology and business solutions into the region and Software AG have an nounced a strategic partnership to launch Kuwait’s first IoT platform. The initia tive, led by Impulse and implemented by Vision Valley as the Systems Integrator, aims to accelerate IoT implementations in the country and enable organizations to become truly connected utilizing Software AG’s leading IoT solutions.

The agreement was signed by Rami Kichli, Senior Vice President, Software AG Middle East & Turkey, Housam El Dokany, General Manager Sub-IoT and Integration, Vision Valley and Yasmeen Abualrub, Business Head-IoT, Impulse International. The collaboration will fur ther strengthen Impulse’s position as a technology and business enrichment solu tions provider by leveraging Software AG’s Cumulocity IoT technologies. The

collaboration will also drive the adoption of IoT as a turnkey solution that is cus tomized with seamless integration with the enterpirse’s systems and applications. Smart cities, smart facilities, asset track ing, waste management, energy consump tion ,healthcare use cases, and many more can all be developed using this in-country IoT platform.

The in-country IoT platform will provide a horizontal model enabling the expansion of services and prod ucts to multiple industries and wider range of business segments as enter prises digitally transform with speed and agility, in line with the data pri vacy protection regulations of the country.

RISEUP WITH SERVICENOW PROGRAM TO SKILL ONE MILLION PEOPLE BY 2024

ServiceNow to help close the “opportunity gap” and create equitable paths to digital careers for all ServiceNow has announced RiseUp with ServiceNow, a global program designed to skill one million people on the company’s platform by 2024. The program will fuel a new economy of in-demand, job-ready talent with an emphasis on faster, more equitable career paths in the high-growth ServiceNow ecosystem.

ServiceNow’s reach and scale offer cus tomers, partners, and prospective talent the opportunity to help tackle some of the biggest problems facing business leaders today. The Now Platform spans the entire enterprise, offering opportunities in bur geoning new sectors such as data analysis, platform development, workflow, and ex perience design.

RiseUp with ServiceNow builds toward a more diverse, inclusive workforce by cre ating meaningful opportunities for candi

dates to gain the skills necessary to land highly coveted technical roles.

“We live in a region where government programs such as the UAE’s National Program for Coders are driving the de velopment of digital skills and laying the groundwork for private sector enterprises to do their part in bridging talent gaps. But being ‘job-ready’ requires more than just having the right technical skills. Soft skills and purpose driven value is what will matter to candidates and employers,” commented Mark Ackerman, Area VP for Middle East & Africa at ServiceNow. “Ri seUp with ServiceNow will ensure that young people can develop their ‘whole selves’. In fact, according to a 2021 Im pact Study by IDC, Certified ServiceNow professionals are 38% more productive and 30% more influential. In the era of digital transformation, RiseUp with Ser viceNow will provide a foundation for young people to become skilled and valu able contributors in the digital economy.”

SCAD TAPS IBM TURBONOMIC TO ACCELERATE THEIR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT

More than 3000 automated actions executed, saving over 500 hours of manual work.

Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi (SCAD) and IBM have discussed boosting coopera tion to fuel SCAD’s growth, accelerate its digital footprint, and drive sustainable de velopment across various operations. The collaboration enables SCAD to leverage IBM Turbonomic Application Resource Management (ARM) to automate process es, optimize digital infrastructure perfor mance, and minimize costs.

SCAD is responsible for building an in formation network and a unified channel that serves the statistical ecosystem in Abu Dhabi by organizing, unifying, and managing all aspects of the Emirate's sta tistical data. SCAD develops a leading statistical ecosystem to empower decision makers and users in the government, pri vate sector, and society.

SCAD selected IBM Turbonomic to scale intelligent automation capabilities to run

across any hybrid cloud environment.

Over the duration of three months, IBM Turbonomic executed over 3,000 au tomated actions, including continuous placement for virtual machines, contain ers, and scaling infrastructure resource saving SCAD more than 500 hours of manual work with a projected expectation to save 2,000 hours over 2023.

The partnership between SCAD and IBM is aligned with efforts to reach a balance between carbon neutrality and application performance. Through le veraging IBM Turbonomic, SCAD will be able to minimize energy consump tion and reduce carbon footprint by 17 tonnes.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS LAUNCHES DATA-AS-APRODUCT ECOSYSTEM

National carrier modernises its Enterprise Data Platform and governance powered by the Microsoft Cloud

heavily leveraged Azure’s innovative intelligent data platform.

“By leveraging Microsoft’s suite of services, we will be able to democratise our data consumption by creating data products for all of our business units that serve their specific needs. said Frank Meyer Chief Digital Officer, Etihad. “A large part of our efforts focused on the formulation of a robust data governance frame work which will give us a solid foundation to push a data-driven culture that fuels innovation at every touch point.”

Etihad Airways worked towards modernising its Enterprise Data Platform, with a view to serving current and future needs while re ducing costs and increasing agility. This resulted in implementing data-as-a-product, shifting from its legacy data-as-an-asset approach.

Etihad Airways announced the launch of a new, modern analytics & intelligence platform allowing the global carrier to implement a data-as-a-product ecosystem.

Etihad’s Enterprise Data Platform team worked closely with Mic rosoft on the UAE national carrier’s digital transformation, which

Enabled through Microsoft’s UAE-based cloud regions, Eti had’s modernisation project leverages Azure’s cloud-native data services, such as Azure Databricks, Azure Synapse, Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake, Event Hub, Azure Cosmos DB and Microsoft Purview.

Dell Technologies unveils Project Frontier Software Platform

Dell Technologies has introduced Proj ect Frontier, which will deliver an edge operations software platform, integrated with Dell’s edge portfolio, for customers to more securely manage and orchestrate edge applications and infrastructure for deployments at global scale.

The complexities of edge operations—in locations from manufacturing floors and retail stores to remote wind turbines—are growing as more organizations want to manage and secure data at the source but have limited IT support to do it. According to a 2022 IDC survey, 42% of businesses say the most challenging aspect of edge deployments is putting together an entire edge solution1. With the amount of data generated growing nine times annually and expected to reach 221 exabytes by 20262, organizations need a simple and effective way to manage and secure the diverse ecosystem of edge technologies.

With the Project Frontier edge operations software platform, customers can expect:

• Their choice of software applications, IoT frameworks, operational technologies (OT), multicloud environments and future technologies supported by an open design that will consolidate existing and new en terprise edge use cases.

• Zero Trust-enabled security protection across edge applications, data and infra structure, from design to deployment, backed by end-to-end supply chain secu rity measures.

• Greater efficiency and reliability of endto-end edge operations with centralized management, zero-touch deployment and secure device onboarding.

• Minimal need for IT expertise in the field with automation to streamline edge deployments and operations across poten tially thousands of edge locations.

• Integration of edge compute and storage hardware with workloads for ease of ser viceability and increased security.

• Global planning and support services

across 170 countries to help design edge deployments and create a roadmap for scaling customers' edge infrastructure to meet new demand.

As an example, Dell Technologies is one of the world’s leading technology manu facturers and manages one of the largest global supply chains. Dell plans to deploy the edge platform to deliver increased pro duction line efficiencies by simplifying operations, securely connecting critical data from the production floor to IT infra structure and enabling real-time reporting of automation data. Additionally, with the Dell Edge Design Program, Dell is collab orating with customers to help design and shape the development of Project Frontier to meet their specific needs.

As Project Frontier comes to life, Dell is expanding its current edge portfolio to help businesses scale and manage their edge deployments.

• Edge analytics and operations: Manu facturers can remove complexities and streamline how they deploy edge appli

cations with an enhanced Dell Validat ed Design for Manufacturing Edge. The solution now includes new Dell-validated partner applications to support advanced edge use cases and improve factory pro cesses and efficiencies, while reducing waste and raw materials usage for more sustainable operations.

• Edge compute and analytics: The Dell PowerEdge XR4000 is 60% shorter than traditional data center servers, and its mul tiple mounting options allow it to be in stalled in a rack, on walls or ceilings, sav ing valuable floor space. The multi-node, 2U chassis server can survive unpredict able conditions like heat waves or falls. While small, the XR4000 is a high-per formance server capable of supporting a wide range of edge workloads and is de signed with Intel® Xeon® D processors with multi-operating system as well as optional GPU support.

• Edge data collection: Built to withstand the most demanding edge locations, the Dell Latitude 7230 Rugged Extreme Tab let is arguably the industry’s lightest, most powerful, 12” fully-rugged tablet.

Dell expands end-to-end edge portfolio, empowering customers with simpler, more secure edge deployments and global support

TOSHIBA TO ENHANCE SI, VAR AND VAD CHANNEL AWARENESS WITH ‘BUILD YOUR OWN

CENTRE’ INITIATIVE

Toshiba has rolled out its ambitious ‘Build your own Data Centre’ ini tiative that intends to educate the channel including System Inte grators, VARs and VAD in helping their en terprise customers ramp up their Business critical Enterprise Server Storage Systems , Cloud Storage , Industrial Server and Stor age systems with high-capacity hard drives and meet their growing Data Centre storage requirements.

The first of the awareness and training events was recently unveiled in the UAE and more events are to follow across Saudi Arabia, South Africa and other key Middle East and Africa markets. The events will help enhance the awareness of both sales and pre-sales teams belonging to system integrators about the building blocks of enterprise level storage, especially with

respect to high capacity and purpose-built storage hard drives. Toshiba believes that a more aware channel will be capable to address market requirements more specif ically for use cases such as surveillance or back up or for Big Data storage and more by recommending the right fit solutions.

As part of the current initiative, Toshiba intends to reach out to as many SIs and storage resellers across the target markets, making them understand what enterprise storage is about, making them aware of different kinds of storage frameworks such as RAID or NAS for instance in more detail.

Santosh Varghese, VP at Toshiba Gulf FZE said “We want the data storage chan nel ecosystem to be aware about the kinds of storage backup companies need. We see

many companies even now using Tape as a storage backup option, but a hard drive is the first choice for storage, because the cost per GB is still very low compared to SSDs that are used in the large serv er farms of Facebook, Google etc. As of 2021, 63% of data storage is still on HDD and by 2025 58% of data storage will hap pen on HDD.”

By the year 2025, 58% of data storage is expected to on hard drives with SSDs accounting for 16% of data storage and NAND making up 10% of the storage. By the year 2030, the hard drives will still ac count for the majority share of data storage at 48% with SSDs expected to grow to 29% and NAND to 12% of the total data storage.

With 166 Zettabytes of Data forecast to be produced by 2025, the storage market will continue to see steep growth that needs to be addressed. Toshiba in 2018 launched the industry first Helium 14TB enterprise Server HDD and continues to launch ad vanced, new generation -technologies to bring larger storage capacity drives to meet the growing Data Centre needs. Toshiba expects to bring to market 40+TB enterprise hard drives by 2026.

Santosh add, “The training programs we have rolled out are good opportunities for technical sales people from the system integrators to come and learn about the opportunities and the technologies and how to integrate the high capacity drives into the barebone enclosures etc as well as how to scale up. The whole program is themed ‘Build your own Data Centre’.”

The ‘Build your own Data Centre’ initiative follows an earlier successful initiative by Toshiba to educate the market about the need to use robust hard drives specifically built to weather tough out door conditions as well as be able to run 24/7 without down time for surveillance use cases. This ini tiative saw Toshiba

make rapid strides in taking a significant market lead in the surveillance storage seg ment within 6 months after launch in Saudi Arabia.

Santosh said, “The market has matured quite a bit in the past couple of years in terms of their appreciation of the need to invest in the right kind of storage. During the peak of COVID, where people start ed working from homes on remote basis, many businesses were caught unaware from a storage point of view as they did not have the necessary cloud storage in frastructure. The challenges they faced has forced many Businesses including Banks and other large enterprises as well as SMBs to rethink their strategies. That taught many businesses to accelerate their investments in cloud including cloud stor age, while earlier they may have only paid lip service to the idea of the cloud. We have witnessed demand growth for highcapacity storage in hybrid cloud invest ments and want to ensure our channel is ready to address that requirement.”

Santosh also elaborates that the cost sav ings are substantial when you opt for solutions including NAS and JBOD based storage in private cloud investments as it provides them the opportunity to choose and scale up capacities as needed at any point. Toshiba also has partnered with NAS barebone suppliers to offer greater value propositions to Businesses looking for enterprise grade cost effective storage options but the challenge was to ensure

that the channel is ready to educate the market about how they can avail cost sav ings by getting to build their own storage instead of buying off the shelf.

“We have partnered with leading vendors who provide JBOD enclosures. However, we then found the market lacking aware ness around that because they were not able to make headway in convincing CIOs and IT managers as to why they need to opt for these solutions. It is a fact that if they buy these enclosures and populate them with enterprise hardware from, vendors like, for example, Toshiba, there’s almost 30% saving vis a vis buying off the shelf options. This also offers high scalability and the TCO is much lower. We therefore embarked on the idea of reaching out to channel partners and educating them about this invaluable proposition so that they in turn can reach out to their customers with a more convincing go to market approach.”

Toshiba’s high-capacity enterprise drives under the MG series provide the most reli able storage solutions for enterprises. The MG Series offers formatted capacities as high as 18 TB with interface options in cluding SATA and SAS and delivers 24/7 operation at a workload of 550 TB/year. Further, a 20 TB drive is part of the road map. The MG Series is ideal for enterprise storage array and industrial server and storage systems and provides the capaci ty and advanced technologies to meet the special demands of datacentre and cloudscale infrastructures.

SUSTAINABILITY IN THE FOREGROUND

With an increasing focus on sustainability the urgent need of the hour, there is a race towards delivering solutions that increase efficiencies and reduce carbon footprint at the same time.

AVEVA has been Integrating sustainability into its oper ations, culture, and core business strategy and this has been at the forefront of its efforts. The company is fo cused on taking the lead in sustainable innovation and collaborat ing and partnering with likeminded organizations to create a more just, net-zero world for the coming generation.

Evgeny Fedotov, Senior Vice President and Head of EMEA, AVEVA says, “We are committed to implementing sustainable business practices within our operations; therefore AVEVA’s 2025 Sustainability Goals build on our prior commitments and help accelerate the positive impact we can have on sustainable development throughout our value chain. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) further underpin our sustainability efforts, and we have mapped our ESG strategy to the SDGs most relevant to AVEVA and will contribute to advancing them through our work.”

As of 2021, AVEVA has invested in sustainability-themed hackathons and academic partnerships, as well as launched the Sustainability Customer Advisory Board. AVEVA also joined the WEF 2030Vision and the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), and via their strategy and activities, looks to continue to collaborate with other members and advance the UNGC's uni

versal principles of human rights, labour, the environment, and anti-corruption. Evgeny adds, “This year, our priorities are to establish a baseline and goals for measuring the sustainability impacts of our soft ware, leverage the learnings from our external partnerships and collaborations to support and improve our impact and actively engage with R&D to embed principles of responsible design and use throughout the product lifecycle. We also attended the Unit ed Nations Climate Change Conference this year, and we'll keep looking for chances to speak out in favour of the reforms and pol icies required to keep global warming to 1.5°C as well as to join forces with other organizations to curb global carbon emissions.” AVEVA intends to mitigate the impact of its own operations and to support their customers in leveraging AVEVA’s product solu tions to further their net-zero journeys.

“As a global industrial software company, it is vital that our solu tions inspire and support our customers in creating a positive en vironmental and social impact through their business. AVEVA’s extensive portfolio is being used by our clients to hasten their tran sition to a lower-carbon and more circular future,” says Evgeny.

Examples include cutting back on the amount of energy and raw materials they use, speeding up the generation, transmission, and management of renewable energy, and utilizing new technologies like advanced biofuels, clean hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage. Going forward, AVEVA intends to keep collaborating with partners and customers to expand the sustainable applica tions and reach of AVEVA technology.

AVEVA is helping drive the focus towards building resilient net-zero economies with its solutions and collaborations

“Ultimately, we manage sustainability through three important lenses – our technology handprint, our operational footprint, and our inclusive culture. First, our technology handprint is where we believe we have the biggest opportunity to make a positive global impact with our solutions, as it motivates our customers to transform the environmental and social impacts of their busi ness through our trusted and secure software. Then, we demon strate our operational footprint by exemplifying ethical business practices and environmental governance across our value chain. Lastly, we guarantee a culture of inclusion, well-being and oppor tunity for our people and communities,” adds Evgeny.

AVEVA believe that a major focus of any digital transformation initiatives needs to be around sustainability and in fact sustain ability is driving digital transformation today. A recent AVEVA survey found that 85% of industrial leaders plan to drive sustain ability by increasing their investment in digital transformation over the next three years. To put it simply, digital transformation initiatives need to be created with sustainability in mind.

“We help thousands of customers along their digital transforma tion journeys with our pioneering engineering and operations technology. Our solutions provide real-time data, overlaid with AI and predictive analytics that can support industries in improv ing efficiency, circularity, traceability, and resilience. Two-thirds of organisations believe the ability to share data sets across teams in real-time will have the greatest impact on sustainability, while significant sustainability gains can also come from solutions such as data monitoring. And to achieve these capabilities, digital solu tions such as cloud computing, machine learning, artificial intelli gence, and digital twins are necessities,” says Evgeny.

AVEVA has already enabled 19 of the world’s top 20 petroleum companies to embrace digital transformation and realize signif icant business and environmental benefits. As requirements to remain competitive and deliver value while meeting climate tar gets pervade the energy sector further, organizations must make a conscious decision to begin their digital transformation journeys and take advantage of data and innovative automation tools to evolve and thrive.

Critical sectors including manufacturing and Energy need digital transformation that have sustainability at the core. AVEVA part ners with some of the world’s top energy companies.

“We strive to be at the forefront of energy innovation aligned with digital transformation initiatives. Our software has a crucial role to play in the transition to a greener, renewable-based future. Utilizing the strength of our ecosystem to improve engineering, operations, and performance, we help our customers achieve their sustainability priorities and advance their digitization. We also intend to continue leveraging our industry expertise and connec tions in the oil and gas sector to assist them in their energy tran sition by unifying data silos and providing real-time operational intelligence,” says Evgeny.

For manufacturing, on a global scale, a holistic and sustainable digital transformation of the manufacturing sector is paramount to improve business and environmental performance.

“AVEVA’s technologies are helping companies capture and uti lize sustainability-related data at speed, and we were recognized for this by Fast Company and named to the prestigious annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2022, rank ing #4 in the Manufacturing category. An important first step is enabling engineers to think more holistically about designing feasible, trustworthy, and profitable facilities that are also more sustainable and assisting them in designing sustainable processes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. AVEVA Process Simulation is one such software that can do this. Additionally, with our tech nology, we help bridge the gap between the human workforce and AI. The best business decision is guided by root cause analy sis, optimum solutions, and risk assessments. They can also gain the insight required to determine the best course of action for in creased efficiency and profitability,” elaborates Evgeny.

AVEVA is one of the sponsors of the Climate Innovation Zone at COP27 and believes trusted data-led technologies are essential to decarbonization, driving responsible use of the world’s resourc es and delivering innovative, climate-forward products in the net-zero economy. AVEVA is one of the first 50 companies in the world1 to have its net-zero commitments validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

“We are firm believers that public-private partnerships are vital when breaking down silos in the development of new low-emis

sion products and solutions, considering the development of en tirely new supply chains will require a wider ecosystem approach that allows room to share collective risks. We are also eagerly anticipating COP28, to be held in Abu Dhabi next year. The UAE is committed to green projects that counter the challenges of cli mate change. The UAE has won the bid to host COP28 in 2023 and AVEVA trusts in the capacity of the country to build a global consensus around securing a safe and sustainable future for us all,” says Evgeny.

Solutions that drive efficiency and sustainability

AVEVA is also raising the stakes with its AVEVA Operations Con trol software that helps enhance greater efficiency and workforce collaboration. AVEVA Operations Control is a first of its kind in the industrial software sphere that enables a new level of work place efficiency by simplifying the day-to-day routines of teams by aligning workers around common digital threads of informa tion. It delivers the data and insights they need to drive growth at every level through increased agility and reliability. Moreover, rich visualization technologies, analytics and development tools deployed within a hybrid cloud and on-premises environment allow customers to ensure performance consistency, remove the opportunity for human error, and improve operator insight and reactions to process deviations. Not only can critical information be retrieved faster, but inbuilt flexibility provides greater scaling – of data, users, or routes to reveal the right decision.

Evgeny says, ““Operations control 2023 is the first major re lease of our combined software portfolio, which offers com prehensive capabilities to drive beyond HMI/SCADA and helps organizations achieve greater efficiency and workforce collaboration through holistic operations control. It further supports the delivery of AVEVA Operations Control, a flexi ble, subscription-based solution of integrated capabilities that promotes greater efficiency and workfore collaboration at the scale that best suits the business.”

Further, AVEVA’s Unified Operations Center converges OT and IT systems into a single pane-of-glass that contextualizes action able information to improve decision-making, enhance collabo ration, and support knowledge management and sharing. It is the foundation of providing real-time operational performance man agement through enterprise visualization to optimize operations for infrastructure and process industry organizations.

“In terms of sustainability objectives, AVEVA’s Unified Oper ations Center mitigates environmental footprints as it ensures better control over operations to reduce and avoid waste, and operating assets in an autonomous, and often remote, way to reduce site visits and personnel on ground. Organizations can contextualize their energy, smart manufacturing, renewable power, water, and smart city operations in one place with AVE VA’s Unified Operations Center,” says Evgeny.

Take for example the Nava Raipur Smart City in India. AVE VA experts connected the city’s eight primary operational sys tems into an integrated command and control centre (ICCC) powered by AVEVA Unified Operations Center. With real-time insight and management of critical infrastructure systems

across the city, it allowed for better management of supply and demand for crucial civic services including water, sewerage, street-lighting, and electrical. It further reduced environmen tal footprints with better control over operations to minimize GHG emissions, avoid waste and decrease travel and person nel onsite. Moreover, assets were operated in an adaptive and autonomous way to continuously optimize supply chains and processes against sustainability metrics such as energy usage.

With the cloud being pivotal to all such transformation, AVE VA has strengthened its cloud portfolio.

“At AVEVA, we recognize the necessity of cloud solutions in accelerating digital transformation and connecting data and communities. In line with this, we strengthened our AVEVA Connect platform with the launch of the AVEVA Data Hub earlier this year, a software-as-a-service offering that enables businesses to boost operational efficiencies, enhance sustain ability, and drive digital transformation with data-sharing ca pabilities. AVEVA now offers a common cloud-connected in formation infrastructure that our customers and partners can leverage to build valuable applications and meet their most difficult sector-specific challenges.”, says Evgeny.

A cloud-native SaaS that provides real-time data to users in remote locations or outside the company's network, AVEVA Data Hub eliminates barriers to data-sharing using the scale and flexibility of the cloud. AVEVA Data Hub is ready to use from the get-go and can be expanded on demand without addi tional infrastructure or IT staff. Companies can transition their industrial data to the cloud at their own pace, explore AI and predictive analytics, reduce the cost and effort of monitoring assets outside their control network, and enhance the collab oration between remote workers with any device, from any location, while leveraging real-time operational data.

AVEVA recently conducted a global study called "Connecting the Future," released in collaboration with Wakefield Research, which surveyed 650 executives at international companies in the chemicals, manufacturing, and power industries across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. More than 8 in 10 top executives claim that key business decisions are being made without full data visibility and insights from their plants and assets and discovered that most investments to reduce this gap are driven by cloud analytics and AI, demonstrating how crucial it is for businesses to adopt cloud solutions. Over three out of five top executives listed cloud computing (63%) and analytics and AI (62%) as their top priorities for increased in vestment over the upcoming 12 months, and nearly all (98%) see the addition of cloud capabilities to their current industrial engineering and operations workflows as essential. These find ings endorse the fact that AVEVA is poised well in terms of its cloud services and hybrid SaaS solution focus and offerings to its customers.

In summary, AVEVA with its extensive portfolio of solutions is also well placed to drive home the message of how digital technologies are driving responsible use of global resources to build net-zero economies.

DELIVERING AN INDUSTRY SPECIFIC FOCUS

tion, and directive towards growing these two segments. So we want to be really very equipped with all the resources, all the tools and the expertise to support these sectors.

Which are the markets of focus in the region?

Our focus is the Gulf region. So it's the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the rest. We do also have a focus in Turkey, and in South Africa. These are the key regions within the Middle East and Africa that we are growing. Of course, we do cover the rest of the Middle East and for our ecosystem, one of our strategic pillars in here is also to grow our partner ecosystem, to make sure that we are having better coverage, and we get closer to our customers, either directly or through our partners.

What were your key objectives at GITEX?

Discuss your focus in the region?

Since we came into this region twelve years ago, our mission has been to deliver on promises made to companies in the manufac turing and distribution sectors by other vendors. We see a good opportunity with the focus of the economies in the region to grow the contribution to the GDP of the local economies from these industrial sectors.

We do offer industry specific CloudSuite solutions in these spac es, in manufacturing and distribution, where we bring the best practices from all over the world. And we hope and aim to partner with the companies and enterprises in the Middle East, to help them get better, more resilient, and agile.

Why is it that manufacturing, and logistics are key sectors of focus? Infor supports a wide spectrum of industries, but it was a rational decision here in our region and as a go to market strategy to focus on distribution and manufacturing, because there is a significant addressable market for them. And there is a governmental direc

At GITEX, the focus was to reinforce the message that we that we kicked off, at the beginning of 2022 globally, that we want to lead with business outcomes. We want to engage with our cus tomers, based on what matters to them; not based on what they desire to have, but based on what they need to have, which are the pain areas that they got in their business, and how important than addressing these. So, it's the engagement and the delivery approach, which is a changing game. If I may add here most of the ERP projects globally, fail not because of the products they fail because of the deployment and implementation. I call this the business of delivering and Infor today is having special meth odologies and protocols, which we call as Infor agility to drive success when it comes to delivering our ERP.

How do you see the acceptance of cloud delivered ERP? Has the pandemic accelerated a shift to the cloud?

Over the last 48 months, we have noticed that our business is now 80% SaaS based compared to five years ago, when it was 20 to 30%, SaaS and the rest was on premise. It's not because we had a mandate for it but we have been actually following the market trend and the market here is now fully aware and fully ready to embrace the cloud.

The pandemic helped companies accelerating their digital agen das eight times faster than the normal, that we were living in be fore. We have all witnessed the necessity to be available all the time and to have the system accessible anywhere, at any given point. More importantly, it also underlined the need to be on a smart application and a smart solution that can help you manoeu vre through the tough times like the pandemic.

ENHANCING CYBER RESILIENCE THROUGH AI

Taj

South at Vectra AI discusses how the vendor’s unique AI enabled approach to security speeds up detection and response

Elaborate on the AI focus in your secu rity solutions?

For a little bit over a decade, we started our engagement into the market by being the first AI enabled network detection re sponse. The idea behind our inception, was to strengthen the security postures of orga nizations, from the context of augmenting a lot of the human manual security analy sis, and behavior anomaly analysis. When we started engaging more and more, AI, as you know, feeds, and gets trained, with the more exposure it has. With over ten years in, we have become the core of this seg ment, by simply enabling all those securi ty operations centers, and security profes sionals, to be able to leverage our platform to detect threats that are both known and unknown. We were able to support a lot of the analysts through automation, by be ing able to detect and score the different threats by providing them very high fidel ity and much less noise.

How has Vectra extended its focus?

Our core functionality provides high fi delity, threat detection, which means less noise, but we're also able to remove our selves from the network only detection and response into a wider range of the spectrum. We do SaaS threat detections, cloud threat detections, and identity threat detection. We moved from a MDR product into a full-fledged platform and that plat form enabled us to increase the coverage of this ever-growing attack surface. Vectra became the core of this, because one of the key facts is we can start detecting from the moment we are plugged in to the network. Whereas alternative technologies need weeks, sometimes months, to create that baseline, for them to start making sense of all the detection. The time to detect, and time to value is extremely fast with Vectra.

Discuss your strategic partnerships and

integrations?

We've tied up with some of our cloud pro viders. Our SaaS offerings are delivered from AWS. Now that, you know they've opened up in the region, you know, we're going to be able to offer our cloud SaaS from AWS. We have a very strong detec tion and response platform that focuses on SaaS, and particularly, Microsoft 365, with all these components.

From an identity point of view, we know that Microsoft Azure Active Directory, both on premises and on the cloud need, some sort of monitoring and visibility. We also provide identity threat detection response. Our technology has got both flavors, an on-premises version, which is usually used for sensitive military sensitive security or ganizations and critical infrastructure and then we've got a cloud version for those that are very cloud centric.

Over the years, we've been able to create extensive integration in a strong ecosys tem. And we were able to branch out from a product to a full platform. We have a lot of none, a lot of native integrations with the market leaders in EDR and in SIEM. We natively integrate with SentinelOne, CrowdStrike, Microsoft Defender and etc and with the likes of Splunk, QRadar as well with other leading firewall vendors including Fortinet, Palo Alto etc, to name but a few.

What are the key value propositions that Vectra offers?

When we start thinking about sort of key value propositions, there are three things that we have proven over the years. The first thing is, the attack surface is a huge, which is giving attackers the scope to cre ate very sophisticated attacks, that allows them to penetrate from any single point. Customers don't need more tools to spread out on their attack surface, what they need is need better coverage and a solution that goes from network to cloud. Organizations also need clarity. That's where our attack signal intelligence comes in and that's what we're pivoting into right now. We are mov ing from a traditional threat detection and response approach to a concept of Attack Signal Intelligence, where we are a plat form that thinks like an attacker and un derstands all the different threat techniques and procedures that attackers execute. It's all automated through our AI algorithm. We prioritize how certain and how much of a high risk an attack is through a dashboard, so that we can enable the SOC profession als to focus on what matters and not waste time on the noise. This is a very critical value-added proposition. Finally, there is the control we offer. Through automation, and through machine learning, we can au tomate the operational aspects for detection and response.

TOWARDS SMARTER CLOUD ADOPTION

How has the approach to cloud adoption changed? What the whole market and industry has started with a while ago, was a cloud first approach. Now, this cloud first ap proach ended up being a cloud chaos approach that created a lot of chaos, a lot of people entered the cloud without know ing what exactly that they needed. The new trend is instead of a cloud first approach, there is a cloud smart approach, and that's a paradigm shift and a change in the approach, because the objective is not to be on the cloud, the objective is to be more efficient, more agile and more cost optimized. That's the objective. Now being on the cloud, is the way to get there. So a cloud first approach ended up becoming a cloud smart approach and that's where the hybrid cloud and multi cloud come in.

What is the value proposition VMware brings in the multi cloud era?

VMware plays an important role in the next phase of cloud adop tion or cloud smart approach. At VMware, there are mainly three pillars that we have focused on and we're always working on these three main fronts.

For companies, governments or institutions or anybody using technology, they need to have visibility and understanding and tools to know, what are they consuming and where are they con suming it? Are they better off maybe leaving some workloads on the cloud, to their own Premises, or the other way around, or even moving to one certain cloud versus another? As not all the clouds are the same, some clouds are better in some areas more than

Ossama Eldeeb, Senior Director, South

VMware discusses how cloud adoption trends are changing

others. To have this information and observability in an easy way on a dashboard to help make decisions on where you move your workloads is an important aspect of the Cloud Smart approach and this is an area where VMware is leading.

The second focus is around modern applications. All companies, organization and institutions are now using a lot of applications and so there is an explosion of number of applications. Now, these applications need to be built, run and managed, and. So, you need a console and the tools to help build, test and you need to test, run and manage them. We have also the central console that can allow you to do that in very simple way that more than ever before. You can build applications very powerful more than ever before with these tools.

The third pillar has to do with the hybrid workplace. Now, one of the accidental benefits of the pandemic although there have been a lot of negatives, is the acceleration of hybrid and remote work. But even now, with many of the workforce that got used to the remote work, their efficiency can be improved. They can get a lot more done. A lot of the security issues came up as well when more people start working remotely. We are now in a much better position to have the right combination of flexibility and at the same time, you want to have security, which is a very difficult combination, because the more security you have, the less flex ibility. We managed to integrate security as part of the design of the product, not as an add on. So that's the third pillar to comple ment the other two.

Elaborate on your partnerships with other public cloud pro viders?

At VMware, we believe in being the originator of the cloud. Businesses don't want or need to be tied to one single cloud or one type of cloud. And that's a trend in the whole industry. We partner with AWS, Microsoft, Google and others – while we may be competing with them in some areas, we have a lot of collab oration as well. The market needs innovation and that requires collaboration between the different companies out there to better serve the market.

Do you see customers more receptive to all the solutions, new, newer enhancements you have been bringing?

There had been a massive uptake over the last three years, fueled by the pandemic, and was one of the few benefits that we saw because many companies needed to move very fast to ensure the continuity of work and to avoid disruption to the work that they're doing. This helped to accelerate the adoption of the technology. There are typical ly four phases in Technology adoption - the early adopters, the early majority, the late majority, and the laggards. For a long time, we were stuck in the early adopter stage. Now, when the pandemic came, we moved fast from the early adopters to the early majority. And we're sort of getting to the end of the early majority phase. So that helps the IT industry at large. Of course, VMware has benefitted from this surge and our partners have grown alongside us.

How was GITEX this year?

This was one of the busiest GITEX editions ever. Now, of course, there are a lot of reasons as last year wasn't that busy and was subdued during the pandemic with many people not travelling. And now more people have travelled but that's only half the story. The other half is that when the pandemic came, and a lot of com panies, governments and organizations discovered that they are way behind in technology adoption, so many are playing catch up to get to where they should be.

Ossama Eldeeb Senior Director, South EMEA Partner Organization, VMware

"As not all the clouds are the same, some clouds are better in some areas more than others. To have this information and observability in an easy way on a dashboard to help make decisions on where you move your workloads is an important aspect of the Cloud Smart approach and this is an area where VMware is leading."

RATIONALIZING THE CLOUD JOURNEY

Tariq Halawani, Executive Director, Enterprise Solutions Microsoft speaks about Microsoft’s focus on industry clouds and metaverse

What were the highlights of Microsoft’s participation at GI TEX this year?

How do you see the pace of adoption of new technologies in the UAE?

We see the shift in UAE, to cloud services, to digital transforma tion happening very quickly. The UAE is a leader at the global stage in terms of adoption of new technologies, and in terms of adoption of cloud, especially to address challenges or capture op portunities that will impact Businesses and society. We've been partnering very closely with the government, with the commer cial sector, in their digital transformation journey. Our customers include the government, Emirates Airlines, FAB, MAF etc who are disrupting their respective domains on the global stage with technologies. We are very proud of being a strategic partner for them, powering the digital transformation journeys with cloud services offered from UAE cloud data centre. We are in fact cel ebrating the third anniversary of our UAE cloud datacentre and around 90-95% of our global cloud services are available through the UAE datacenters.

Are many of the large enterprises from different sectorss , moving their critical workloads to cloud? What is an ideal strategy?

While organizations are moving to cloud, however, we don't see cloud as the only place for every single application. We work with regulators and with the customers to classify the data, un derstand exactly what fits in cloud and what doesn't fit in cloud and then move on accordingly. And this is the shift we're seeing in UAE. We're rationalizing the cloud journey for our customers, and we help them throughout the journey throughout the process.

Microsoft is a partner led company, so we strive always to de liver our best services through our partners. And like every other GITEX, this year we had around 26 partners, sharing the booth with us. These included global ISPs, regional ISPs, and also some system integrators. So we had a healthy mix of our partners. We demonstrated and showcased some of our industry cloud services through those partners. The showcase included industry solutions for fintech, retail, education, cybersecurity, smart cities, and en ergy and utilities. Cutting edge sustainability solutions were also showcased. So customers in the healthcare industry and the fi nancial services industry in the education sector were able to see some of the latest technologies like Metaverse, and what impact and what use cases we can bring in for that particular industry.

The theme of our booth during GITEX was around the metaverse ‘Believe the hype, it’s real. Enter the next Digital Universe’ and fo cusing on the reality side of it. The focus has been on where it makes sense and what use cases can bring industry impact, societal impact, and business impact. There was a significant focus on Metaverse technologies. We partnered with Kagool to introduce a new use case for its HoloLens 2 device, that utilizes advanced Metaverse technol ogies to create a unique experience for tourism, allowing visitors to experience Dubai attractions virtually using Microsoft AI capabilities. So that's one big area and we have seen announcements, even at a global level through our event Ignite in that domain.

Elaborate on the industry clouds focus?

We also focused on showcasing our industry clouds. And we started to build first party industry solution from Microsoft for healthcare in cluding some telemedicine platforms, symptom checkers, available as services from our cloud. For financial services, we started to put in some onboarding journeys, payment hubs. So you will find some first party and some third party services, for different industries available on our clouds and we merge that with the Metaverse.

There are a lot of use cases that are no longer just infrastructure as service or platform as service on cloud; it's actually an end-to-end solution for an industry that is cloud native. So we have a market place or a catalog, with first party solutions that we offer for every industry that is available today. And that's where the momentum is, at the regional level and even on a global level.

GOING DIGITAL

Santhosh John Thomas, CIO at African Eastern discusses the ongoing digital trans formation initiatives at the company

How had digital transformation been a priority at your company?

Digital transformation has been on our agenda for quite some time. We started our digital transformation journey, proba bly in 2019, where we found that that's a very positive disruption which needs to be done in Africa and Eastern. And we need to change the ways of working because the traditional revenue model had seen changes while we were seeing an uptrend in the digital revenue. So based on that un derstanding, we started our journey and a lot of initiatives have been taken. We in fact, coined the tagline ‘go digital’ and based on the go digital platform, we have been undertaking various digital transfor mation initiatives. There have been vari ous integrations which we've done with our vendors and suppliers. We had faced a couple of challenges and the obvious first challenge was to change the mindset of the people. What we tried first is to have the digital culture embedded within the or ganization. It's a top-down approach and with agreement of the leadership, we start ed down the path. It has been a wonderful journey to date, and we are continuing that journey.

What are the digital transformation ini tiatives that the company has rolled out until today?

Diffusion of Innovation and acceptance of digital transformation within the organiza tion are key which we are focusing on. We have initiated various digital transform initiatives like implementing workflows RPAs to name a few. And as part of the new initiative, the latest one which you have done is we have integrated with our big hotel groups over here, an end-to-end solution called DCI (direct customer in tegration), and we coined under the plat form called ANE Connect. Under ANE Connect, we have the system-to-system integration done, where there is no manu

al intervention at all. The purchase orders coming from the customer end gets direct ly integrated through the middleware to the end systems without any intervention and therefore without any possible hu man error. Another initiative we have in the pipeline is to have Insta ERP or Smart ANE, where all the robotic process auto mations and the mobility solutions are all coming to be managed under this Smart ANE solution. It's been quite a pleas ant journey and I think that we have just touched the tip of the iceberg in the trans formation journey.

What are some of the new features add ed to your services?

One of the key services is implementing workflows, internal and external, within the organization. With the internal work flows, we talk about user onboarding, customer onboarding, knowing your cus tomers. These are a couple of internal on

boarding sessions which have been done as part of the workflow implementations. Externally, we have created a partner portal, where any information towards us as a customer, from the suppliers, is routed to the partner portal and it's a one place a one stop where users can join us and can post their queries. We have ini tiated our B2B and B2C initiatives and it's all going wonderfully well under the digital transformation initiatives.

Do you have a multi cloud strategy at African Eastern?

We do have multi cloud environment in African Eastern. We do have a prima ry cloud solution provider, Microsoft Azure, and we have with Oracle also. The challenge is the seamless flow of data between the two clouds. That's one of the challenges which we are seeing be cause we are talking about a single sign on solution. So it's a challenging way of handling it, but both systems are mature cloud solutions. We have actually gone a long way with Microsoft Azure and in fact, Microsoft is looking forward I mean to have a case study with us because, we have recently done a DR as a service, where many of the customers probably have done a drill on seeking the things which are working on the cloud. We just didn't do the drill alone but also made sure that whatever transactions done on the cloud, we reverted back to the on premise, which was the fail-back option. And we successfully did it after running for 72 hours in the cloud as part of the Drill. So Azure was very stable in that respect. We had complete support from Microsoft and our partners. We have our supply chain applications running on the Oracle Cloud infrastructure (OCI), we have our supply chain applications running on the OCI, Oracle Cloud. And it's also been quite stable. We don't have much of a challenge with that.

ONWARDS WITH DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

What have been some of the digital transformation projects that Emirates hospitals have undertaken?

We have taken up digital transformation at all levels possible especially in the ar eas of customer service and customer sat isfaction or patient satisfaction and at the backend administration level. So, when it comes to customer experience, we have completely automated the way a patient books their appointment and cancels or reschedules. They can also opt for earlier availability, which is a feature, not readi ly available in most of the booking apps. So at the convenience of his fingertips, the patient has the ability to book their appointment and cancel or reschedule at any given point. This also helps the healthcare industry to reduce the number of no shows by almost 40 to 50%. And secondly, in terms of the back office, we have implemented a complete end to end barcoding solution which is unique as of presently in the UAE. No one else has done it before here. So, we are able to track the consumption of a medicine or a consumable right from the purchase until the last mile of consumption. This has really helped us track exactly the how

much we we're consuming, reduce the wastage and reduce the variance. These two are the major digital transformation projects undertaken. Apart from that, we are trying to make our hospitals 100% paperless. At the moment, we have been able to achieve at least 90 to 95% of go ing paperless targets and with our ongo ing digitalization journey, we are looking forward to achieving a 100% paperless system.

How important is digital transforma tion for healthcare?

With digital transformation, it's not only about the digital experience, but it's also about the digital data that it generates. Any industry that does not have digitized data, cannot foresee the future and do any analytics on it. Digital transformation is very important, because firstly, it eases the journey of a patient, of the end user and the business. And second, digital transformation is the way forward be cause it is it reduces the time and increas es operational efficiency. So definitely it is very important to especially health care where you do see patients waiting in queues. When the digital services are implemented from for their end to end patient experience, that really increases their satisfaction level as well as their the waiting time for the patients.

What is the focus on cybersecurity in your IT investments?

Cybersecurity which was not given due importance in the past has really gained a lot of traction, especially during COVID, when there were millions and millions of attacks, especially in health care. And that has really triggered the need to im plement robust cybersecurity protocols applications and ensure the end user

awareness about cybersecurity. However, we should not just limit ourselves to in creasing end user awareness. We need to have necessary controls in place, need to adopt the latest technologies that that can protect us from these kinds of cyber-at tacks including Zero Trust. You need to have a security operations center that does the monitoring for you whether it be in house or is outsourced. This prevents and alerts you of anything suspicious that is going on in your environment.

Do you have substantial workloads on the cloud? Do you have multi-cloud implementations?

We do have substantial workloads on the cloud. Our entire email platform and our entire ERP platform runs on the cloud. However, we do have a hybrid environ ment, wherein the most mission critical data resides in house but the business critical and business normal workloads are on the cloud.

How did the learnings from the pan demic challenge as well help the IT teams?

One of the major outcomes of the pan demic is that the IT team now has earned the trust of the top management. Remote access and remote working became quite a normal trend during the pandemic. The industries and those entities which were not prepared to cope with the challenges suffered but for those who were prepared, it was pretty much a seamless transition for them. But yes, the challenges from the pandemic has really encouraged and necessitated not only technical upgrades but also cybersecurity investments. It has in a way helped make it easier to gain the board approvals for more funds towards IT and cyber security investments.

Ramakrishnan Natarajan, IT Head at Emirates Hospitals Group discusses how digital transformation initiatives have helped gain significant operational efficiencies

A CONSTANT PURSUIT OF TRANSFORMATION

Khalid

ICT

at GARMCO speaks about the company’s focus on digital transformation

How important has digital transformation been for the com pany?

Being a local manufacturing firm with international subsidiaries and global customers, it is crucial to have the best technological support system which are robust, reliable, and scalable to sup port the business, customers and to stay in competition. In this current era, its only possible with right and timely investments and continuity with digital transformation initiatives. The year 2020 had impacted global businesses but those who had long term DX strategies implemented, were comparatively less affect ed than others. The year 2020 may be a history in many parts of the world, but history repeats itself always. Therefore, it’s very important to have the right and long-term DX strategies and the strategies must be reviewed with time. Our DX journey started 10 years ago with Technology-First and Cloud First mindset, and it has been a continuous journey for us.

Discuss the progress on the digital transformation front your organization’s perspective?

From server boxes to virtualization and now to cloud, from desk tops to now virtual desktops, from a paper-based office to work flow and now an almost paperless office, are few of the strategic steps we had taken in our organization that helped a smooth and successful digital transformation journey.

The key drivers of our journey have been continuously working towards eliminating human errors, making best and efficient use of technology, improving the speed of responses to customers, continuous monitoring, and improvement on governance, lower ing downtime and contributing towards Industry 4.0.

How digital twins can be utilized in the manufacturing indus try? Do you see the need for it in your industry now or going ahead?

Digital twins can help manufacturing industry in many ways like, improving energy efficiency, power consumption management, loss prevention and preventive maintenance planning in advance etc. However, the adoption rate is low still in our segment of man ufacturing. More awareness is still required, and more applica tions need to be showcased so that the manufacturing industries can see the relevant examples and application.

Elaborate on the need for IoT deployments in making manufacturing smarter? What can be the benefits?

IOT and IIOT are the catalysts for smarter manufacturing and play an important role towards Industry 4.0. The IoT and IIoT

sensors and applications are adding multiple benefits and not lim ited to online traceability and trackability of inventory, collecting data from manufacturing devices, PLCs and SCADA platform which are used for data analysis and contributing towards Big Data and decision-making support systems. Various IoT and IIOT applications are developed for Employee safety. They contribute in automating and automation controls. Sensors are being used for predictive and preventive maintenances as well as in tempera ture and humidity control applications.

What are the cybersecurity challenges that manufacturers need to address in their IT investments?

Cybersecurity challenges for manufacturers is endless. For example, hackers penetrate to the OT Network through IT systems and disturb the manufacturing processes and harm the production and the ma chinery. The risk of IT/OT Network communication is always high.

Although cloud-based services are relatively lower than the past, but many still running their critical systems on prem with higher investments and risks.

On the other hand, corporate are forced to buy expensive cyber security insurance policies. IT audits and certifications are expen sive and multi-layer solutions are expensive as well. These are the few common challenges.

LEVERAGING STRONG PARTNERSHIPS

airports, and retail outlets. We saw a huge potential in B2B and B2C market for AV solutions and we plotted our strate gic plans towards these two areas which helped us in becoming as a next-gen AV solutions distributor in the region. By le veraging our strong partnership with Sam sung, LG, PeopleLink and Logic AV, we are offering solutions in the areas of audio and video conferencing solutions, audio visual integrations (for classrooms, board rooms, training rooms, and public places), interactive TV solutions, digital signages. Customers from retail, hotels, corporate, educational institutions, and government sector are the main beneficiaries of our comprehensive AV portfolio, which has helped them in changing their business models to digitised and more ROI. Tri gon has executed iconic projects for Expo 2020, Burj Khalifa, Royal Atlantis, and Dubai Airport, and the very recent one is the implementation of LED screens in the control room of the Meydan racecourse in Dubai.

Discuss the value additions that you provide in AV installation projects?

Discuss how Trigon has transformed its distribution business over recent years? What are the major product lines of fo cus for the company?

This year marks the silver jubilee of Tri gon. Sensing and responding to market needs enabled the company to grow from a monitor distributor to a leading ICT distributor and solution provider in the Middle East region. In recent years, we put a lot of focus on providing turnkey and cutting-edge technology solutions to our customers by strengthening our stra tegic partnerships with the world’s largest brands like Samsung, LG, Acer, Asus, Brother, D-Link, Netgear, PeopleLink, Transcend, Philips, AOC and many more. Today, we are actively engaged with more than 500+ channel partners and system Integrators, with offices in 4 countries, and a distribution network spanning 17 countries. Trigon’s major product focus areas are infrastructure solutions, indoor/

outdoor LED display solutions, NextGen video communications, interactive dis plays, Audio- Video solutions, wide range of Networking solutions, PCs, Monitors, Printers and Kiosks.

Elaborate the focus on AV solutions dis tribution- how is the demand growing in the region?

These days, any new building or project requires an AV solution. The biggest fac tor behind the increase in the AV market is the rising demand for networked AV products due to the integration of AV and IT technology. The economic boom across the UAE has pushed up demand for AV products, especially in the hospitality, fi nancial, government, retail, and education sectors. Digital signs are the latest tech nology in the AV industry. Most of the static signs are replaced with LED boards and transparent screens and these screens had a huge demand at malls, showrooms,

We are continuously investing to strength en our supply chain to ensure 100 percent customer satisfaction. We have a 19-mem ber team who looks after the after-sales services covering areas such as In house repairs, onsite support, 24X7 support, sys tem integration and annual maintenance contracts. We have our warehouse and dis tribution services located in Dubai, Jebel Ali, Riyadh, Manama, and Muscat and these locations serve as a strategic gate way for all our customers.

How has Trigon coped with the past two years of the pandemic and your growth outlook ahead?

The year 2020 challenged us, as it did many. Through the 2020 adversity, we were able to take two steps back to take five giant steps forward in 2022. In the last two years, we were equipping our selves to address the new normal trend by providing a variety of solutions covering areas such as face recognition, non-con tact temperature detection technology and next-gen video communication solutions. Trigon has strong plans in place that re volves around our customers and partners. We will continue to invest heavily in new technologies to address the market needs which will set the stage for an even bright er, more impactful future for Trigon.

Kamran Khayal, General Manager at Trigon LLC discusses how the distributor has evolved its focus around several key areas of ICT distribution

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF EMAIL COLLABORATION

Emerging technologies and changing work cultures are transforming the email landscape in a number of ways. Due to the pandemic, we've all been forced to re think the way we work, and many of us have come to realize that remote work is here to stay. The email landscape is chang ing rapidly, with more and more compa nies looking to adopt new collaboration tools. This shift is driven by employees who want more options for collaborating with colleagues, as well as by the need for companies to stay ahead of the curve in terms of budget ownership, product in vestment, and security risk assessment. As the workplace evolves, so must the way we collaborate. Email and its associated tools are key pillars of this change, and companies need to carefully consider their options when it comes to selecting a com pany-wide strategy. When making this de cision, it is important to weigh the costs and benefits of each option, as well as to assess the service agreement and data-cen tre credibility. Investment in transforming workplace collaboration will continue for years to come, and companies that are able to stay ahead of the curve will be well-po sitioned to succeed in the new landscape.

Remote working has become an integral part of the growing number of hybrid workspaces around the globe. This shift has put new pressure on email collabora tion tools, which now need to be able to facilitate remote work as well as in-person collaboration. The way we collaborate with each other has changed dramatically in recent years, and email has been at the forefront of this transformation. With the rise of cloud-based and hybrid enterprise email solutions, businesses are able to take advantage of the latest technologies to improve the way the workforce com municates and works. Email is no longer just a tool for sending messages back and

forth; it has become a platform for collab oration and communication. With features like shared calendars, task management, and document sharing, email is now an essential tool for businesses of all sizes. According to a recent study, the average worker spends nearly four hours each day checking email. That’s nearly 20% of the workday! We’re now checking email around the clock, even when we’re not at work. This constant connectivity has led to a change in the way we communicate with each other. We’re now sending more messages than ever before, but they are often shorter and less formal. Email has become the go-to communication tool for many of us, and it’s not just for work any more.

In today’s fast-paced world, businesses need to be able to communicate quick ly and efficiently. They need to be able to share documents and ideas, and they need to be able to do it from anywhere. With the modern collaboration tools that are now available, businesses can take advantage of the latest technologies to improve communication and collabora tion. IceWarp, for example, is a pay-forwhat-you-use, cloud-based collaboration software that allows firms to manage and collaborate on emails and team chat from a single dashboard. It offers a comprehen sive and affordable solution for businesses of all sizes that provides enterprise email, real-time office document collaboration, online meetings, and team chat – all in a secure cloud environment. The safe cloud service may be used from anywhere, mak ing it perfect for remote, hybrid, as well as in-office work.

Virtual desktops are another trend that is reshaping the email landscape. They are becoming increasingly popular, as they of fer a more flexible and collaborative way

of working. As more and more employees access their work email from personal de vices, the line between work and personal email is becoming blurred. This makes it even more important for companies to have a clear email collaboration strat egy in place. They should also carefully analyse the SLAs, costs, and other factors associated with each tool. Companies are also focusing their budget ownership, re search, and investment on software-based platforms and workplace designs that en able collaboration. In the end, the goal is to create a workplace that is both produc tive and collaborative.

Pramod Sharda, CEO, IceWarp Middle East & India discusses how email collaboration tools now need to be able to facilitate remote work as well as in-person collaboration

EVERY DAY IS PHISHING SEASON!

If a burglar wanted to gain entry to your home, they could force their way in - perhaps by picking a lock, breaking a window, or some other means. If a neighbor heard noises or saw strange activity, they might call the police. This might result in the burglar getting caught, of course.

On the other hand, the burglar could try to convince you to hand over your keys willingly. Perhaps by posing as a delivery or re pair person, or inspector, or by telling a plausible story. If the bur glar can get their hands on the keys, they can simply walk right in - as if they are doing so legitimately, and no one suspects a thing. In the digital world, phishing is how burglars (cybercriminals) gain entry to your home (your critical systems and sensitive data). Successful phishing attacks provide attackers with stolen creden tials that allow them to simply ‘walk into’ your business and gain access to the targets they have set their sights on.

How come phishing is so effective? Well, for starters, phishing attacks have evolved significantly in recent years. Whereas they

Josh Goldfarb, Fraud Solutions Architect for EMEA and APCJ at F5, on why you can’t afford to ignore a well-known and growing menace

once were primitive, full of typos, and not particularly convinc ing, nowadays, even experts have trouble distinguishing phishing emails from legitimate emails. Phishing sites also look remark ably like the legitimate ones they are designed to imitate. It is no wonder so many users are fooled into providing their credentials to the attackers. In other words, handing over their keys willingly. As many businesses continue to go through a digital transforma tion, the use of this method of attack has greatly accelerated, and the resulting damage spreading. An increased online presence means a bigger online attack surface and risk. Attackers don’t need to devise complex schemes to force entry into businesses these days - they can merely invest in convincing unsuspecting users to hand over their valid credentials.

That said, what can businesses do to protect their online applica tions from security and fraud incidents?

Simply rooting out the phishing sites is not enough to combat cre dential theft. Attackers can create phishing sites with ease. When we take one down, another one pops up elsewhere. This can often devolve into a never-ending battle of attrition that rarely makes our online applications more secure or protects them from fraud. Instead, if we assume that a certain percentage of our legitimate users will fall prey to phishing attacks and will have their creden tials stolen, we can adapt accordingly. When we shift our perspec tive and take this approach, we realize that identifying and miti gating security and fraud attacks that result from credential theft becomes one of our main focuses. Adapting our approach helps us to protect our online applications from the array of phishing attacks that are likely being launched against them on a regular basis.

There are likely many approaches we can take to mitigating risk due to credential theft. Here are a few of them:

• Eliminate automation. Attackers build databases of sto len credentials that they amass from a variety of sources, phishing among them. Those stolen credentials are often tested in bulk using bots. The credentials that are valid are then often used to commit Account Takeover (ATO) and manual fraud. Eliminating these automated attacks not only mitigates this risk, it also reduces infrastruc ture costs going to undesired non-human (bot) traffic.

• Stop ATO. Attackers that can leverage valid stolen credentials to log in to stolen accounts and masquer ade as legitimate users can use that access to commit fraud. This manual fraud, of course, results in loss es incurred by businesses that fall victim to these in cidents. Detecting and mitigating Account Takeover (ATO) stops these fraud losses, saving businesses money.

• Reduce friction. Increased risk of fraud often results in businesses instituting more stringent authentication and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) requirements.

Unfortunately, this approach adds friction for legitimate custom ers without significantly reducing fraud losses. Attackers are re sourceful, motivated, and adept at finding workarounds. If we can reliably identify automation and manual fraud, we can also reliably identify desired legitimate traffic. Once we know the

traffic we want, we are less likely to inconvenience legitimate customers and can focus on stopping the attackers instead.

Phishing attacks are here to stay and will likely continue to in crease in number. Fortunately, we have means to combat them. By zeroing in on the risk of credential theft, businesses can focus their efforts on reducing losses due to security and fraud inci dents. While there is no way to mitigate all risk, taking steps to eliminate automation, stop ATOs and reduce friction can ensure that businesses keep a steady stream of revenue from legitimate customers while reducing losses from bots and fraud.

"Simply rooting out the phishing sites is not enough to combat credential theft. Attackers can create phishing sites with ease. When we take one down, another one pops up elsewhere. This can often devolve into a never-ending battle of attrition that rarely makes our online applications more secure or protects them from fraud."

AI

BUILDING AI MATURE ORGANIZATIONS

For a region swept up in the winds of change, artificial intelligence (AI) might seem like a great way to ride the trends all the way to victory. But every ambition needs a plan. And those who implement AI without due dili gence come to realize that in painful retrospection.

It is true that AI will be the great enabler in the years to come and that regional organizations have come to believe this en masse. For example, according to a 2022 IBM report on worldwide AI adoption, 38% of organizations in the United Arab Emirates (higher than the global average of 34%) have deployed AI in some form and 40% are exploring it for future implementation.

But we must ask ourselves how many of these deployments went according to plan. How many of them added value? Here, I share the six main drivers of success in becoming an AI-mature organi zation with a culture of Everyday AI.

1. VALUE

Through implementation of a use-case qualification framework,

organizations should appoint people to project roles that can champion change that focuses on value creation. Domain experts should steer projects, as they are the closest to the issues that AI should seek to address.

At this stage, KPIs must be agreed. Metrics to measure outcomes cannot be ad hoc. Indeed, they must guide progress as much as they measure it. KPIs should, where possible, be designed to quantify value beyond the use cases themselves, venturing into areas such as reuse and capitalization across projects.

At this quick-win stage, successful enterprises will break down silos to build an Everyday AI culture that infuses every part of digital transformation, from the informal projects of the early days to the more mature activities of MLOps.

2. VISION

Successful AI-driven businesses will, at the outset, carefully as sess their maturity level. A strategy for Everyday AI must account for the starting point and the ultimate maturity point before draw

Gregory Herbert, SVP & GM - EMEA at Dataiku discusses 6 drivers that will allow any business to build a value-adding culture of Everyday AI

ing a roadmap. Even if it turns out that the starting point is behind you, a maturity assessment is still valuable, because it allows the legs of the journey to be defined.

During every stage of every phase — design, implementation, and the rest — the organization’s leaders should get together in regular executive workshops for knowledge transfer and ideation. Each use case that is implemented will be done in consultation with the map. Different projects will belong in different phases according to the or ganization-wide capabilities that have been built up to that point.

3. DATA

Of course, employees need access to the data that helps them make better decisions in their daily work. But early on in their AI maturity initiatives, enterprises should commit to the democ ratization of data access. Non-IT employees have a lot of insight to offer if they are granted insights themselves. By understanding key metrics and gaining an overall view of the corporate strategy on AI, staff outside the core project teams could happen upon an idea that might otherwise be missed.

Such access requires a robust infrastructure and clear metrics around the accuracy and useability of data. It also requires strong governance around privacy and other security issues.

4. SYSTEMS

If Everyday AI is to work, then the infrastructure must support the tools and platforms that are being introduced. Infrastructure transformation must be designed in parallel with AI projects but implemented ahead of them. It should support the bandwidth and scaling requirements of Everyday AI in terms of both compute and storage capabilities and be implemented in such a way that the organization avoids technical debt down the road.

If infrastructure is deployed ahead of AI scaling, then organiza tions can experiment — first with AI platforms and solutions and later with individual use cases — to see how the infrastructure copes with the collaboration of teams and the new business pro cesses put in place to raise the AI maturity level.

5. TALENT

The region suffers from skills gaps in technology fields. This is well known among business and IT stakeholders. While a range of government initiatives have been devised to solve this prob lem, many of these may take several years to bear fruit. In the here and now, enterprises that want to build an Everyday AI cul ture can look to their own talent pool.

The challenge is in driving the AI program forward while de livering an employee experience that can attract and retain the right skills to make it happen. One way of doing this is to appoint citizen developers — non-technical staff who build AI solutions using low-code platforms. This gets the AI initiative up and run ning while creating a rewarding environment for non-IT staff and relieving AI specialists and data scientists of the workload that comes from being shorthanded.

6. GOVERNANCE

Digital transformation is a wild beast without oversight. Good AI

governance ensures that data is useable, accessible, and secure. It strikes a balance between auditability and permissions that allows the organization to scale its use of data.

If the progress of AI systems is not monitored, performance can degrade. People must be appointed to ensure responsible AI — to measure the progress of models and ensure their operation is not becoming detrimental to the business and other parties. This work should be carried out in consultation with legal experts, where practical.

Governance also covers a range of other risks, from the security of data to the continuity of Everyday AI during a crisis.

MATURITY AND LONGEVITY

An AI culture has become the most reliable way to rise above crowded marketplaces and react rapidly to their changes. A ma ture AI framework can serve a business in several ways, deliv ering actionable intelligence that allows everything from simple cost cutting to the introduction of new goods and services. If ap proached with open eyes, the result can be a culture the lives and breathes business intelligence — a culture of Everyday AI.

THE SHIFT TO CLOUD-NATIVE TECHNOLOGIES

There is widespread consensus in the IT industry across the region, that we’re entering into an exciting new era of innovation. Technologists are beginning to turn their attention from constant fire-fighting — as re quired during the pandemic — to a more proactive and strategic approach to innovation.

This is supported by findings from the latest Cisco AppDynam ics, ‘Agents of Transformation 2022’ report, that explores the changing role of technologists across a wide range of indus tries, as countries like the UAE move on from the worst of the pandemic and organizations move forward into what is still a hugely turbulent and unpredictable marketplace. It identifies the key tools, skills and support that technologists will need to

thrive in the future, and to deliver on their organizations’ digital transformation objectives.

According to the research, quite interestingly, 25% of all busi nesses have already switched back to a strategic approach to digital transformation, and more than half are now in the pro cess of making this shift.

Organizations across all sectors are recognizing that, in order to meet constantly evolving customer and employee needs, they must find ways to embed the required speed and scale of innova tion into their everyday operations. Technologists are starting to take a longer-term view on digital transformation and are look ing to implement new technologies, platforms and processes

which will help them to deliver rapid digital transformation on a sustainable basis.

Reimagining applications with cloud-native technologies

As several organizations continue to offer remote and hybrid working options, global technologists agree that there is a need for organizations to reimagine applications over the next 12 months to meet the changing needs of customers and employ ees.

And for most part, these digital transformation initiatives will require an accelerated shift towards modern application stacks, based on cloud-native technologies, which can provide the speed and scalability of innovation that is now required to com pete. Indeed, Gartner predicts that cloud-native platforms will serve as the foundation for more than 95% of new digital initia tives by 2025.

However, while the shift to cloud-native technologies offers businesses huge potential benefits, technologists are under standably concerned about incorporating these new technolo gies into what is already a fragmented and increasingly complex IT environment. Many IT teams are already struggling to man age IT availability and performance across a hybrid IT estate, without the full and unified visibility they need to identify issues quickly and fix problems before they impact end users. Tech nologists are being inundated by performance data from every corner of the IT estate — 66% admit they feel overwhelmed by data noise — and they can’t cut through the noise to make informed decisions.

Now the situation could become a lot worse. Cloud-native tech nologies are built on highly distributed systems which rely on thousands of containers and produce a huge volume of metrics, events, logs and traces (MELT) telemetry every second. Most IT teams don’t have the tools to cut through this crippling data noise when troubleshooting application availability and per formance problems caused by infrastructure-related issues that span across hybrid cloud environments.

Digital transformation success requires cloud-native observability

Against this backdrop, it is essential for technologists to im plement a cloud-native observability solution, to simplify the complexity of cloud-native application architectures and pro vide visibility into highly dynamic and complex cloud-native applications, landscapes and architectures. If technologists are to truly understand how their application is performing, they need visibility across the application level, into the supporting digital services (such as microservices or Kubernetes) and into the underlying infrastructure-as-code (IaC) services (such as compute, server, database and network) they leverage from their cloud providers.

Evidently then, as organizations look to reimagine their appli cations and accelerate their digital transformation plans, they need to ensure that they are providing their IT teams with the tools that they need to manage availability and performance, in

a sustainable way, and deliver the world-class digital experienc es that end users now expect at all times.

This will mean investment in a number of areas, from appli cation security and application availability and performance, through to building a resilient and agile IT infrastructure and linking IT performance to business outcomes.

Encouragingly, technologists are acutely aware of the critical need to implement observability solutions for cloud-native ap plications and infrastructure in order to future-proof their or ganizations’ digital transformation plans. The research finds as many as 85% of technologists stating that full-stack observabil ity is now core to sustainable transformation and innovation in their organization.

These are extremely exciting times for technologists as they fi nally move beyond the firefighting and relentless pressure of the last two years and think about the incredible possibilities that lie ahead. However, a word of caution — before IT teams rush head-long into new innovation initiatives, and in particular wholesale adoption of cloud-native technologies, they should ensure they have the tools they will need over the coming years as the next era of innovation gathers pace. This will avoid se rious problems down the line and enable them to deliver maxi mum impact for their organizations.

D-LINK DWR-3000M

The new DWR-3000M 5G customer prem ise equipment (CPE) serves as a powerful networking focal point for homes and offic es. The DWR-2000M CPE integrates LTE Advanced standard, which combines with leading edge 5G to dramatically elevate connection speeds. Wi-Fi 6 innovation pro vides users with simultaneous and seam less access to voice, data and video content.

It helps connect with next-generation 5G speeds up to 3.2 Gbps1 and experience lightning-fast downloads, lower latency and reduced congestion. With Dual band support ( 2402 Mbps (5 GHz) + 574 Mbps (2.4 GHz), there is plenty of bandwidth for video streaming, cloud storage, social media, and downloading. Its Gigabit Ethernet ports provide High-speed connections for wired devices and wired broadband. With support for upto 128 devices, you can easily connect

all of your home’s Wi-Fi devices to share a single broadband connection. Simply insert your SIM card to share your mobile broad band connection throughout the home. It is future-proof and compatible with the next generation of Internet standards (IPv6).

Highlights:

• Next generation 5G connectivity speeds up to 3.2Gbps1

• High Speed WiFi 6 AX3000

• 4 Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports and 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN port

• 1 RJ11 Voice Port with the support of VoNR, VoLTE, CS and VoIP

• 1 USB 3.0 Port

• Connect up to 128 devices to your home Wi-Fi network

• Latest Wi-Fi security with 128-bit encryption

LOGITECH’S BRIO 500 SERIES WEBCAMS AND ZONE VIBE HEADPHONES

A recent study showed more than 89% of work-from-home adults struggle with unflattering camera angles, poor light ing conditions, and field-of-view limitations when using a built-in laptop camera. Brio 500 webcams and Zone Vibe headphones address the challenges users face when work ing from home, while modernizing work and play experi ences. Both make it easier for IT managers to equip their organizations’ remote and hybrid workforces in an environ mentally sustainable way. Brio 500 series and Zone Vibe headphones are certified carbon neutral, which means the carbon impact of the products has been reduced to zero due to Logitech’s investment in carbon-offsetting and removal projects.

Brio 500 Webcams

Created for those who want enterprise-grade audio and vid eo quality, personalization, and more engaging experiences

on video calls, Brio 500 series (Brio 500 and Brio 505) is a new class of webcams that solve the most common vid eo conferencing challenges. Brio 500 series introduces the Show Mode feature that makes it easy to share sketches or other physical objects on the desk. For IT teams outfit ting employee workstations and home offices, Brio series is plug-and-play, compatible with most video conferencing platforms and certified for Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom. Logitech Sync integration with Brio 505 allows IT admins to update firmware and troubleshoot problems so hybrid teams can collaborate without missing a beat.

LINKSYS HYDRA PRO 6E

Linksys Hydra Pro 6E, a Tri-Band WiFi 6E Mesh Router unleash es maximum WiFi speeds and supports more than 55 devices at a time. The new 6 GHz WiFi band offers multi-gigabit, low-latency speed for your latest 8K streaming, VR gaming, and work from home devices. Velop Intelligent Mesh technology combined with WiFi 6E is designed to deliver gigabit WiFi speeds to every cor ner of your home or business.

The Linksys app makes setup simple. Once set up, you can access your network from anywhere, and view or prioritise which con nected devices are using the most WiFi. This works with all In ternet Service Providers and is 100% backward compatible with WiFi 5 and older devices. With extremely low latency, massive capacity, easy setup, advanced security and parental controls, the Linksys Hydra Pro 6E is an essential upgrade to any home that needs the most reliable, interference-free high-speed WiFi.

Highlights:

• Intelligent Mesh & WiFi 6E with access to the new 6 GHz

band unleash maximum speeds and reduce interference.

• 5 Gb WAN port makes the most of ISP’s multi-gigabit speeds.

• With 4x** the channels of current WiFi router systems, the 6 GHz band can handle all the traffic from the busiest smart homes using heavy-bandwidth devices all day, every day

• Easy setup and control through the free Linksys app.

• Works with your existing modem

• and internet provider.

• 3-Year Limited Product Warranty.

Highlights:

• With an innovative mounting sys tem and built-in sensor that allows users to tilt the camera down to focus on objects,

• Brio automatically flips the image to render the correct orientation into video calls.

• Stylish design and fashionable colors–graphite, off-white, and rose–give individuals the freedom to customize their workstation to suit their personality and taste.

• RightSight technology (enabled through Logi Tune) automati cally frames the user, even when moving around, while built-in innovations like RightLight 4 automatically correct substandard lighting.

ZONE VIBE HEADPHONES

Zone Vibe Wireless presents the opportunity to offer employees enterprise-grade audio that’s easy to use and looks stylish for multiple types of users so they no lon ger have to trade “looking good” for “sounding good.” And because of compatibil ity with video conferencing platforms and the ability to push updates through Logi Tune and Logitech Sync, IT has fewer hassles and help desk tickets to manage.

Highlights:

• Logitech’s new Zone Vibe series are the first wireless headphones in the market to combine business-grade performance with comfort, style, and affordability.

• Also available in graphite, off-white and rose colors, they are designed to be comfortable for all-day collabora tion with colleagues and connecting with family.

• These lightweight over-the-ear headphones weigh just 6.5 ounces, and feature soft-to-the-touch knitted fabric and memory foam

CIO SURVEY REVEALS THE NEED TO ACCELERATE TIME TO VALUE FROM DIGITAL INVESTMENTS

The 2023 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey gathered data from 2,203 CIO respondents in 81 countries and all major industries

expectations from different stakeholders. To drive financial outcomes, CIOs must reconcile siloed initiatives by using a vi sual metrics hierarchy to communicate and demonstrate interdependencies across related digital initiatives.

CIOs should connect with functional lead ers for each digital initiative to understand what ‘improvement’ means and how it can be measured. Creating a picture that reflects the hierarchy of technical and business outcome metrics for each ini tiative will help identify the chain of ac countability that will collectively deliver the dividend in focus.

Contribute IT Talent to a Business-Led Fusion Team

CIOs and IT leaders must take action to accelerate time to value and drive top- and bottom-line enterprise growth from digital investments, according to Gartner, Inc.’s annual global survey of CIOs and technol ogy executives.

“The pressure on CIOs to deliver digital dividends is higher than ever,” said Dan iel Sanchez-Reina, VP Analyst at Gartner. “CEOs and boards anticipated that invest ments in digital assets, channels and dig ital business capabilities would accelerate growth beyond what was previously pos sible. Now, business leadership expects to see these digital-driven improvements reflected in enterprise financials.

The 2023 Gartner CIO and Technolo gy Executive Survey gathered data from 2,203 CIO respondents in 81 countries and all major industries, representing ap proximately $15 trillion in revenue/pub lic-sector budgets and $322 billion in IT spending.

The survey analysis revealed four ways in which CIOs can deliver digital dividends and demonstrate the financial impact of

technology investments:

Prioritize the Right Digital Initiatives

Survey respondents ranked their execu tives’ objectives for digital technology investment over the last two years. The top two objectives were to improve op erational excellence (53%) and improve customer or citizen experience (45%). In comparison, only 27% cited growing rev enue as a primary objective and 22% cited improving cost efficiency.

The survey revealed that CIOs’ future technology plans remain focused on op timization rather than growth. CIOs’ top areas of increased investment for 2023 include cyber and information security (66%), business intelligence/data ana lytics (55%) and cloud platforms (50%). However, just 32% are increasing invest ment in artificial intelligence (AI) and 24% in hyperautomation.

Create a Metrics Hierarchy

The survey found that 95% of organiza tions struggle with developing a vision for digital change, often due to competing

While strategic engagement with business unit leaders is necessary to accelerate dig ital initiatives, the survey exposed an IT mindset of “go it alone” regarding solu tion delivery. For example, 77% of CIOs said that IT employees are primarily pro viding innovation and collaboration tools, compared with 18% who said non-IT per sonnel are providing these tools.

Loaning IT staff to fusion teams that com bine business experts, business technolo gists and IT staff will catalyze a team that is focused on achieving digital business outcomes, while also opening the way for reciprocity, such as integrating sub ject-matter experts from the business into an IT-led fusion team.

Reduce the Talent Gap with Unconventional Resources

Many CIOs continue to struggle to hire and retain IT talent to accelerate digital initiatives. However, the survey identified numerous sources of technology talent that are untapped. For example, only 12% of enterprises use students (through in ternships and relationships with schools) to help develop technological capabilities and only 23% use gig workers.

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