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Dealing with the BYOD delugeBYOD is here to stay and set to bloom further across enterprises in the Middle East. CIOs now acknowledge the fact it is futile to fight the trend in the face of the exponential surge in the use of smart devices in the workplace. Though I have comes across a number of studies related to BYOD, the one released by Cisco at GITEX last month was particularly interesting because of its regional flavour. The networking behemoth released findings which are a little alarming—it was revealed that 65 percent of employees are putting their companies at risk by not understanding the security implications of personal devices in the workplace. The Cisco Visual Networking Index estimates that in the Middle East and Africa, there will be nearly 850 million mobile users by 2017, and it believes that “the region is rapidly approaching the time when nearly every network experience will be a mobile one.”

Among other things, the study highlights that 46 percent of all employees in the Middle East bring at least one of their own devices to work, and almost two-thirds of employees surveyed are allowed to use their devices to access the company server or network. There is no doubt, along with complexity and costs, security ranks as one of the top reasons why most IT managers are averse to the idea of embracing BYOD, which can actually be a double-edged sword. I am not sure how many organisations in the region actually have a formal BYOD policy in place. The trick here is to draft BYOD into the overall company security policy and focus more on securing sensitive corporate information than the device itself. And it should be a seamless programme that spans across laptops, tablets, smartphones, be it personal or corporate, so that it ensures employee productivity.

While there is so much fuss about security when it comes to BYOD, it’s also time to look at the implications of this trend on bandwidth and networks. To state the obvious, the growth in use of smart devices will lead to a quantum jump in the demand for bandwidth, which in turn, will have a negative impact on application performance. The biggest benefit of BYOD is touted to be employee productivity and it is tantamount to defeating the whole purpose if you don’t have a high-performance network in place before jumping on to the bandwagon.

CNME is all set to host the region’s first ever BYOD Summit in Dubai on 13 November, with real-world stories from the early adopters and we hope to address some of these burning issues at the event. So if you want to know how your company can take advantage of BYOD, reserve a front-row seat.

Jeevan thankappanGroup Editor

E-mail:jeevan.thankappan@

cpimediagroup.com

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FarewellIt is with much sadness that I sign this off as my 22nd and final

issue of CNME. Perhaps it is apt that my final issue is one of celebration. As we

reflected on the achievements of the Middle East’s top ICT players at the fourth annual ICT Achivement Awards last month, I was also reflecting on how fortunate I’ve been to be a part of a truly wonderful industry.

I will now be moving on to pastures new as I take the editor’s helm at another leading technology publication, but this time in the UK. I already know it will be a very different experience from the Middle East.

Never has technology played such a large part in enabling people to not just do business, but live their lives. And for that reason, amongst many others, it is an exciting time to work in IT, especially in a region as vibrant as the Middle East

When I first started working in technology journalism out here just over 22 months ago, a common phrase I heard was that the Middle East is behind the Western world when it comes to the adoption of new technologies.

I’ve been fortunate enough to talk personally to many of the 65,000 who make up our readership, and hear your fantastic stories of innovation. And I can now confidently and proudly say that I believe that trend of being behind has changed.

The global recession changed everything. Of course the Middle East did not escape the economic crisis, but there is a saying I once heard which I believe is appropriate: never let a good crisis go to waste.

For every disaster comes opportunity, and whilst the Western world has lingered in the wake of recession for many years now, the Middle East has bounced out and prospered. And if the projects by our readers that I’ve had the pleasure to share with the world are anything to go by, there is no doubt that this region is now at the cutting edge of technology and innovation.

I must finish with a note of thanks. To my terrific colleagues at CPI Media Group who play a part in CNME’s success; to all of the clients I have enjoyed excellent relationships with; to the unsung PR executives who help us gather content and contributions for every issue; and of course to all of our readers, who not only support us by reading our magazine and website, and attending our events, but by being the subjects of the magnificent innovation stories we report on in CNME.

I now leave the magazine in very capable hands, and I sincerely hope to cross paths with many of you again in the future.

Enjoy!

Ben rossiEditor

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@cpimediagroup.com

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Contentsissue 262 | november 2013

11 New levels of control At an exclusive roundtable with Riverbed, a

number of CIOs discovered that there might very well be an easier way of delivering applications in a virtualised environment.

14 The rise of cloud traffic In the third annual Cisco Global Cloud Index

(2012 to 2017), which was issued at GITEX Technology Week 2013, Cisco forecasted the MEA region to have the highest cloud growth in the world by 2017.

20 Transformation through experimentation Zubair Ahmed, Head of IT and Business

Innovation, Emirates Islamic Bank, has always been one for professional experimentation, and it was experience as a change agent that led him to become one of the most respected IT heads of the moment.

29 The achievers CNME’s ICT Achievement Awards 2013

brought together prominent industry stakeholders from across the region, as we recognise the feats of end-users and vendors across 22 different categories. These are the winners who have blazed new trails over the course of the year.

Our Strategic Partners

Strategic ICT Partner Strategic ITNetworkingPartner

Strategic IT Transformation and Big Data Partner

Strategic Technology Partner

20 TRAnsfORmATIOn ThROugh ExpERImEnTATIOn

24ThE AchIEvERs: IcT AchIEvEmEnT AwARDs 2013

11nEw LEvELs Of cOnTROL

6 Computer News Middle East november 2013 www.cnmeonline.com

HP SoftwareCIO Speaker seriesAbdulaziz Al-Duaij, ITM, Kuwait National Petroleum Co.

At Kuwait National Petroleum Co. we had a very rich experience with HP, having bought HP Open View in 1998. So when we wanted to adopt BSM, we decided to opt for HP Software tools. HP Software BSM offered us the kind of visibility we expected and now, we are looking at HP as a true solution provider for all our needs. Also, the real clincher was the fact that we worked directly with the HP Software teams. Often third party solution providers don’t demonstrate ownership. But in this case, everyone was equally involved.

Read more at www.hpsoftwaredelightme.com

52

64

mDm: ThE uLTImATE guIDE

ThE wORsE fOR mALwARE

Our Strategic Partners

Strategic ICT Partner Strategic ITNetworkingPartner

Strategic IT Transformation and Big Data Partner

Strategic Technology Partner

Features52 MDM: The ultimate guide With some commentators

labelling BYOD as unstoppable, organisations are now turning to mobile device management to ensure the security of their networks. We have the ultimate guide to MDM.

58 The Big Data reshuffle Can Big Data implementations be

run using traditional IT teams, or do organisations need to take a new approach to hiring?

64 The worse for malware With mobile malware proliferating

every day, and BYOD impossible to ignore, are Middle East CIOs keeping enterprises secure?

70 No surprises Nasty surprises often happen

despite the best planning and intentions. CNME investigates how to ensure that projects are completed on time and to budget, as well as how to minimise the risks of nasty surprises.

76 When in roam LTE has seen fast progression over

the past 12 months, but challenges still remain—particularly in the arena of roaming. CNME investigates the situation in the Middle East.

Regulars24 Short takes We round up the top stories to take

our eye in the last month.

82 Insight Six ways that social media can

boost your business.

86 Interview Ashish Kuthiala, Chief Marketing

Officer, Business Services Management Software, HP, speaks about the value of services.

88 Product Watch This month saw the launch of BBM

on other platforms, though we also saw super-sized offerings from HTC and Dell.

90 Column CNME’s man about town, Tom

Paye, worries about the dark roads down which technology can lead.

82 6 wAys sOcIAL mEDIA cAn bOOsT yOuR busInEss

Contents

86InTERvIEw:AshIsh KuThIALA

issue 262 | november 2013


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in depthRiverbed

New levels of controlAt an exclusive roundtable with Riverbed, a number of CIOs discovered that there might very well be an easier way of delivering applications in a virtualised environment.

While it may have taken a little longer than in other parts of the world, virtualised

environments are increasingly becoming the norm in the Middle East. The benefits of virtualisation are easy to see—it lowers the cost of running large data centres, adds more flexibility and helps to consolidate assets, just to name a few.

That said, IT departments still face large challenges when it comes to virtualisation. One of the biggest is the ability to quickly and effectively deliver services or applications in a virtualised environment, and that’s exactly what a roundtable session held by CNME, in partnership with Riverbed, attempted to tackle. And judging by the attendance list of around 15 of the region’s top CIOs, the subject seemed like an issue that needed talking about.

Brent Lees, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Riverbed, kicked off the session, which was held at Jumeirah Emirates Towers. He attempted to take on the main issues that CIOs are thinking about, asking the CIOs in the room whether what we was saying was resonating with them or not.

“There’s a lot of change going on with infrastructure, what with BYOD, Big Data and SDN [software-defined networking]. And we’ve still got business challenges, and some of your OPEX is spent on supporting those requirements. The real challenge is what you do today and what you’re going to do in the future. How do you transform your data centre to support requirements going forward?” he asked.

After an introduction to what Riverbed does as a whole, the conversation got more specific, and focused on the main point of delivering applications in virtualised environments. For this, the floor was handed to Nigel Rix, Regional Sales Manager, Stingray, Riverbed. Stingray is a product family of application delivery controllers,

Riverbed's biggest Stingray customer is the UK's

bt11Computer News Middle Eastnovember 2013www.cnmeonline.com

It’s time to build a better enterprise. Together. Data centers that power the internet can waste 90% of the energy they consume. That’s unsustainable. So working with IT leaders, HP has come up with a completely new kind of server: HP Moonshot. It’s 80% smaller, consumes 89% less energy, and costs 77% less. Building technology to power the next internet, it matters. hp.com/moonshot

Shrink the servers and everything else follows.

Source: James Glanz, “Power, Pollution and the Internet,” The New York Times, September 22, 2012.

Make it matter. Powered by Intel®

HP research comparing Moonshot servers with traditional x86 servers; cost comparison based on estimated total cost to operate.© 2013 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.


and so Rix confidently explained that what Riverbed offered was entirely relevant to the conversation.

“You don’t want someone waiting at the end of line, waiting to download a file, or waiting on your site. We want reliability, in the system and service, we want it to be secure, we want to make sure that services are delivered to right people, we want control of it, we want to manage it, and manage it in way that the business determines. It’s load balancing at its most basic level. It will sit between your data centre and your users, and we will manage how that information is delivered,” he said.

Rix then described some real-world uses for the Stingray application delivery controller. He spoke about the BBC’s website, which used the controller to manage the large amount of traffic that was generated through the London Olympics last year, before moving on to other examples.

"Our biggest customer is BT. Again, on that website, between the server and the users, we sit as a core part. BT in the UK recently launched a major site called BT Sport, delivering live Premiership Football to the community. At the core of that service is Stingray. It helps explain the nature of our tech, the way the BBC, BT, and Sky, are using it to control a service that you want to be delivering,” he explained.

Such use cases are rare in the Middle East, but Rix did a good job in making Stingray’s capabilities relevant to the CIOs in the room. He described Stingray as taking virtualisation to the next step, and explained that, with any service, it used to take weeks to deliver, but with Stingray, it takes only minutes. What’s more, his remarks about what F5 Networks’ application delivery controllers can and can’t do certainly seemed to resonate.

But perhaps the clincher that really got the roundtable attendants interested was the fact that Riverbed would allow the CIOs to test out the Stingray controller for a free trial period. Rix explained that, if they couldn’t find a use for it, no harm had been done, but he was confident that, if they tried it, they would come around.

“You have your cloud environment, and at the moment, you have to go to the F5 box, or even get a new F5 box, so you end up with lots of hardware devices. We were with a major bank and they were talking about this. They had about 300 F5 boxes, and a huge app development team and network team. The app team was producing everything, and then they’d have to pass it over to the network team, but it doesn’t work—it’s a big, head-to-head confrontation. Get rid of all that conflict—get both teams to use same platform. You can ask the development team, do you want application delivery control? There it is—you can download Stingray for nothing. Give every one of those guys Stingray,” he said.

By the end of the session, it was clear that Rix, Lees, and the rest of the Riverbed team in attendance had captured the interest of the CIOs present. And perhaps, right now, one of them might be toying with a trial version of the Stingray controller.

in depthRiverbed

LA_final_AZ_dream it_85x230_RZ.indd 1 11/7/13 1:50 PM

Cloud traffic to dominate regional data centres

Cloud traffic growth by 2017 (CAGR)

Cloud workload growth rate by 2017 (CAGR)

36%Central and Eastern Europe


57%Middle East and Africa


43%Asia Pacific

40%Asia Pacific

In the third annual Cisco Global Cloud Index (2012 – 2017), which was issued at GITEX Technology Week 2013, Cisco has forecasted the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region to have the highest cloud growth in the world by 2017.

Cloud traffic to dominate regional data centres

Traditional data centre workloads will also continue to grow up to 2017, but at a much slower pace

Increase in data centre workloads by 2017





43%Asia Pacific

24%Asia Pacific

Kaspersky Lab has revealed research results that show an increase in malware in the Middle East.

The data, provided by Kaspersky Security Network, reveals that the UAE had the highest rate of attacks in the region, suffering 34 percent of all local malware incidents.

Meanwhile, Turkey suffered

the highest prevalence of Internet-based malware incidents—slightly more than a third of its users (34.4 percent) were attacked by such threats in the third quarter of 2013.

Ghareeb Saad, Senior Security Researcher, Kaspersky Lab, said, “In general, the security threat landscape for the Middle East region is seeing increased activity

from hacktivism groups that use DDoS and web defacement attacks to deliver their political message. Although removable media and local networks are still the primary method for spreading malware in the region, there is an increase in the use of drive-by downloads, which exploit vulnerabilities in browsers and their plugins.”

Month in viewshort takes

BlackBerry ditches Ceo, accepts $1bn loan

kaspersky investigation shows malware is on the rise What’s hot?

Growth in iPhone shipments couldn’t prevent Apple from reporting a drop in profits for the

last quarter, as the iPad market flattened and Mac shipments fell. Apple announced new tablets earlier this month, including the 9.7-inch iPad Air and 7.9-inch iPad Mini with Retina display, both of which have a new 64-bit A7 chip.

Yahoo reported a 5 percent drop in revenue for the third quarter, with the money it

makes from display and search ads both continuing to decline. Revenue for the period was $1.2 billion, down 5 percent from a year earlier. Yahoo's profit for the quarter was $297 million, which was much lower than last year.

Samsung Electronics’ net profit in the third quarter

was up 25.6 percent year-over-year on record revenue driven by sales of its memory chips and smartphone products. The South Korean electronics giant reported a net profit of 8.24 trillion won ($7.8 billion), up from 6.56 trillion won in the same period a year ago.

SAP reported strong revenue growth in its HANA in-memory

database and cloud businesses as profit soared 23 percent in its third quarter to $762 million. Support revenue grew by 4 percent to a little over $2 billion, while overall software and software-related service revenue grew 5 percent year-on-year to about €$3.4 billion.

What’s not?

Yahoo

BlackBerry will change its CEO and accept a $1 billion loan from a consortium involving shareholder Fairfax Financial Holdings as it struggles with inventory and strategy problems. The company has abandoned plans to sell itself.

CEO Thorsten Heins will resign when the deal is complete, with former Sybase CEO John S. Chen joining the company as chairman and interim CEO, BlackBerry announced this month.

The $1 billion loan takes the form of convertible debentures, exchangeable for shares at a price of $10, a 28.7 percent premium over Friday’s closing price, the company said. Fairfax has agreed to acquire $250 million of the debentures, with other institutional investors agreeing to take the rest. If all the debentures were converted, they would amount to around 16 percent of outstanding shares. The investors could also purchase another $250 million of debentures, potentially raising their combined stake to 19.2 percent.

ACQUISITION WATCH

Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia has been cleared in India. The Competition Commission of India ruled that the combination

of the two companies will not likely have an "appreciable

adverse effect" on competition in India.

samsung

Apple is hiring Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to lead its retail business, choosing someone from a fashion brand rather than from a consumer electronics retail chain for the newly created position of senior vice president of retail and online stores.

EvEN ALLIES ARE SpIED oNThe US monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders, according to a National Security Agency document provided by its former contractor, Edward Snowden, The Guardian newspaper reported last month. The document is likely to add to concerns about NSA surveillance, including the agency’s monitoring of phones of political leaders.

apple

sap


experts warn against linkedin iphone app

abu dhabi airports, avaya seal 10-year deal

hp eyes Big data after networking success

The new LinkedIn iPhone app that embeds a link to an email sender’s profile on the professional network presents a number of security risks and should not be used, experts have warned.

Criticism of the app, called Intro, started soon after its release last month. The first to slam LinkedIn was security consultancy Bishop Fox, which accused the site of “hijacking email.”

Meanwhile, Jordan Wright, a security engineer at CoNetrix, said he was able to spoof Intro profile information, using a technique that a criminal could easily replicate for a phishing attack. And Neohapsis, which does penetration testing and risk assessment for mobile apps, said Intro users were taking on serious risks for a “marginal convenience feature at best.”

ACQUISITION WATCH

VMware continues to push its plan to virtualise the whole data centre, with the general

availability of its network virtualisation platform, and

desktops too, with the acquisition of desktop-as-a service company

Desktone.

surveY: Young emploYees put Companies at riskAccording to a new survey from Fortinet, a majority of younger employees are more than willing to ignore corporate policies if they don’t agree with them.

Fortinet surveyed 3,200 individuals between the ages of 21 and 32 in 20 countries. The respondents were all college graduates, employed full-time, who own their own smartphone, tablet, and/or laptop.

Fortinet’s survey found that a majority—51 percent of those surveyed—reported they would bypass or circumvent company policies that restrict the use of personal technology, cloud storage, or wearable technology for work.

ERIcSSoN cLoSES MEDIARooM DEALEricsson has completed the acquisition of Microsoft’s Mediaroom business and Tv solution. Together with Ericsson’s existing capability, the acquisition places the firm as the world’s largest, by market share, and the most experienced provider of IpTv middleware technology and solutions, the vendor said upon closing the deal.

Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally, considered a front-runner among candidates to replace Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, attempted to tame the accelerating rumours by saying he has "nothing new to add” to his plans to continue working at the automotive company.

HP has transformed its position in the networking space from a year ago and is now ready to do the same with Big Data, according to the head of its Middle East operations.

The company has now reached around 11 percent market share in networking, which places it at number two in the market, far ahead of those below it.

“The advantage this year over last year is that customers are now taking HP very seriously when it comes to software-defined networks,” said Eyad Shihabi, MD and Enterprise Business Lead, Middle East, HP. “I think networking will continue to be very strong for HP."

Abu Dhabi Airports and Avaya have announced the signing of a 10-year partnership to enhance the airport company’s customer-facing and internal workforce capabilities across its operations.

The agreement will see Abu Dhabi Airports (ADA) deploy Avaya solutions for IP telephony, video collaboration, and contact centre technology across its airports and organisations.

It is hoped the changes will increase performance, reduce costs and accelerate the transformation of customer service experience.

Avaya will also be introducing its latest solutions in video collaboration, which will enhance and improve internal and external communications for the aviation company, the companies said.

The new framework agreement will offer ADA the opportunity to work with a select number of Avaya’s partners located throughout the UAE to provide top-line services and solutions.

Tony Douglas, CEO, ADA, said, “Adding Avaya to our network of partners is another key element to ensuring we have the right tools and services that will support ADA’s vision to become the world’s leading airports group.”

17Computer News Middle Eastnovember 2013www.cnmeonline.com

Reviews:

Blogs: Insight:

Western Digital’s HGST fills hard drives with helium to inflate storage capabilities

Bolstering business security is becoming top priorityDan Smith, Head of Integrated Marketing for the Middle East and Africa region of Xerox’s Developing Markets Operations.

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Analysis:

The essentiality of optimising networksDany Sammour, Principal, Booz & Company

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Found: 30 unmanaged servers that shouldn’t be

Bugs & fixes: A round-up of Mavericks troubleshooting tips

Why Bill Gates needs to go

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Cio spotlightZubair Ahmed

Transformation through experimentationZubair Ahmed, Head of IT and Business Innovation, Emirates Islamic Bank, has always been one for professional experimentation, and it was his experience as a change agent that led him to become one of the most respected IT heads of the moment.


If there’s a new challenge to overcome, Zubair Ahmed, Head of IT and Business Innovation, Emirates Islamic Bank, is the one who’s likely to take it up. Over a career spanning more than

20 years in IT and banking, he’s always carried a desire to take on something new and exciting, and it’s exactly that quality that brought him to where he is today.

By his own admission, Ahmed is very much a product of the Middle East. Having been born in his homeland, Pakistan, his family quickly moved to Kuwait, where he spent his early years, and then to Dubai, where he grew through adolescence into an adult. That said, Ahmed did allow himself a brief stint back in Pakistan after completing his A-Level exams in Dubai.

“At that time, the universities here are not as we see them today. Options were limited, so then I went back to Pakistan, to a very sought-after school of computer science, and of emerging sciences. I did my computer science degree from there, then came back in 1992,” he says.

From the outset, Ahmed had pretty much decided that he wanted to be involved in IT. Ahmed’s interest in technology was born during a time when the field was much more humble that it is today. In those days, logical thinking and planning were the only ways to get your head around emerging technological trends, and he enjoyed putting his mind to the test when it came to conquering new developments. What’s more, his desire to jump into challenges head-first, which he still holds to this day, drew him to the emerging world of computers and IT.

“I had an analytical mind to start with. I was very, very interested in the designs and the mathematics of everything. Computers were coming about, there was a lot of buzz, even though there was no Internet and so forth, but I was of the reading kind. There was always a desire to venture into the unknown, which remains to this day. That desire is quite important to have, so you can have the appetite for experimentation, for innovation. That led me to computer science, and I think the timing was right because it was just about becoming mainstream,” he explains.

Ahmed looks back at those times with fond memories, he says, as he describes the first PC that he bought. The machine didn’t have a hard disk, so he had to boot it up using a floppy disk. “You tend to appreciate the technology even more if you come from those humble, early beginnings of IT,” he says.

Having attained his degree in computer science, then, Ahmed looked to test out his new skills in the banking sector. According to him, banking is the career of choice for many Pakistanis, and so he decided to combine his love of technology with the ideal career path. He joined Dubai’s Mashreq Bank in 1992, and began his long-spanning career through IT in the banking industry.

“The desire was to use technology in the most prudent fashion. Banks, as we know them even today, spend heavily on IT, so you might as well be associated with the type of business that really focuses on and utilises the strength of technology. Then you get to do more new things and so forth. Those were the two aspects that brought me to banking, and I have no regrets so far,” he says.

When Ahmed first started at Mashreq, he was programming ATMs and point-of-sale machines, largely using machine code. From this he gleaned invaluable experience on how automation works, and used it as the basis to carry on up the career ladder. Whether he had intended to or not, he ended up working up at Mashreq for 10 years, though he explains that his drive for new challenges and experimentation meant to that he got to see almost every aspect of the business.

“Every two years, I wanted to leave because I wanted change. Whenever I wanted change, the company provided me change internally, so that’s why I went from all sections of the bank—I understood the back office, the front office, the branches, the call centres, the retail, the corporate, the treasury, so that was fantastic and it was a great school for me,” he says.

In 2002, Mashreq gave Ahmed the biggest change of his career so far, asking him to help form a new company within the Mashreq group called Mindscape Information Technology. The idea was to bring together experts who really understood the banking business, as well as the technology that helped to drive it. The company would then provide solutions to local banks through partners, such as Oracle and Microsoft, as well as consulting services. It could almost be defined as a systems integrator for the banking industry.

Ahmed’s position in the company centred on enterprise quality, and the four years working at Mindscape would shape his outlook on professional and personal life. When the company started in 2002, the business heads decided to achieve Capability Maturity Model (CMM) certification, a prized framework on software quality started by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in the United States, and Ahmed would lead the internal transformation to achieve the certification.

“At that time, in 2002, there was no installation here for CMM except for one, which was the Saudi American Bank. There are five levels of maturity, so Saudi American Bank was the first one, and they had only reached level three. We gave ourselves a very aggressive target of becoming CMM-certified, not because of the label of it, but it was chosen to change the culture within,” he says.

A year later, Mindscape had achieved its level-three certification, and the process drastically changed Ahmed’s career. He describes himself as becoming a change agent during that year,


TIMELINE

1992

2002

1977

2003

2006

2011

1992

Joins Mashreq Bank as programmer

Helps to set up Mindscape Information Technology within Mashreq Group

Moves with family to Dubai

Graduates with degree in computer science

Helps Mindscape achieve cMM certification

Joins Dubai Bank

Following merger with Emirates NBD Group, becomes Head of IT for Emirates Islamic Bank

helping Mindscape customers and clients to develop software in a different and more productive way.

“That, for my career, really helped because I got into behaviour management with an IT focus,” he says. “I started leading that practice because there was a grave need in the market for it. Then I started getting responsibility on that line of business, for which I entered projects for a number of banks in the region—helping them, strengthening their quality.”

But after four years at Mindscape, it was time for another change—after all he had been at the Mashreq Group for around 14 years by this point. “You exhaust all options. It was a fruitful journey, but then the craving was there to do it differently, to do it in a place where you don’t know anyone, and then experiment a bit. Again, that experimentation and innovation thing kicked in,” he explains.

Craving an utterly new experience, then, Ahmed took up employment at Dubai Bank, where he stayed for four more years, before Dubai Bank was integrated with the Emirates NBD Group in 2011, becoming Emirates Islamic Bank. Ahmed’s role was solidified as Head of IT, and he has continued to remain at the bank ever since.

However, never one to renounce his desire for fresh thinking, Ahmed has also taken on the role of Head of Business Innovation, which keeps his hunger for experimentation well-fed.

“I have a function that works with businesses to innovate what matters to the business. It might use technology, it might not use technology. My thinking is that innovation is by trigger, it’s by choice, and it can happen regardless of your background. It’s all about pushing yourself to a space of creative thinking. We apply tools, we use idea tools for creative thinking from a formal perspective and we’ve done that in the last 12 months with tremendous success,” he says.

This way of formalising creative thinking is heavily influenced by the days working for Mindscape and the CMM-certification, Ahmed says. Indeed, he takes the concepts to heart so much that he has even been applying them to his four children. Having seen enormous success from the results of this experiment, Ahmed was persuaded by friends and family to write about this style of parenting, and so, in 2013, Ahmed’s first book, Power to Kids, was published in the US.

“It’s all about bringing management and quality principles to parenting. It’s all about root cause analysis that we do, the strategy and, the planning,” he says.

So, as a highly regarded IT and business head, a published writer, and CNME’s future CIO of the year (see page 47), what could Ahmed’s next challenge in professional life possibly be? He simply says that he is aligned with the goals of Emirates Islamic Bank, and that he will continue innovating in his current position for the foreseeable future.

“If organisations are good enough to capture your interest and your passion at the belief level, then people stay and they don’t stay back for money. I find myself exactly in that position because my direction is completely aligned with what an Islamic bank is aiming to do for itself,” he says.

Cio spotlightZubair Ahmed


The achieversI t has been a remarkable year for the Middle East’s IT industry. Whilst

the private sector has continued to utilise technology to reduce costs and generate new business value, the public sector has led the way in

innovation by giving the green light to some extraordinary projects which have shone on the global stage.

These days, the mandate for IT decision makers is to creatively use technology to make a real business impact, whether in the private, government or telecom sector. Many of this year’s winners exemplify organisations that know how to succeed in business—even under tricky conditions and sometimes with a limited budget—by experimenting and blazing new trails.

On October 20, 2013, we honoured the IT leaders who have

demonstrated innovation and leadership in the creation, deployment and management of technology to transform their businesses, as well as the vendors who have provided game-changing solutions to do so.

All of our winners were selected after a rigorous application and review process by a panel of industry-leading judges, and this year’s finalists are a heartening reminder of the great things that can be accomplished when determined people put their mind to a task, and harness the full potential of technology.

The star-studded ceremony, held at the Godolphin Ballroom in Jumeirah Emirates Towers, brought together prominent industry stakeholders from across the region, as we recognised the feats of end-users and vendors across 22 different categories.


The juDges

Ahmed Al Ahmed, CIO, Nakheel PJSCAhmed Al Ahmed is the current holder of the prestigious CIO Of The Year award from last year’s ICT Achievement Awards. Born and bred in the UAE, Ahmed initially learnt his craft studying computer science at the University of UAE, before taking a job at telecoms company Thuraya, where he went on to oversee the entire earth station

during one of the first ever telecommunication satellite launches. Ahmed left Thuraya as executive manager of IT in 2011, after 13 year with the company, to take on the role as CIO of Nakheel Real Estate, where he has since proved himself as one of the region’s leading CIOs.

M.N. Chaturvedi, Director of IT, Oasis Investment Co. (ask Erik for pic)M.N. Chaturvedi is the director of IT for Oasis Investment Co. (the holding company of Al Shirawi Group), which employs over 6,000 people. He set up the IT division of the group with a clear mandate from the board to provide IT services to 30 companies under the group,

and help the CEOs of these companies to leverage IT to create support excellence. He has also set up a software development support centre company, Oasis TechnoSoft, in India, which is a technical excellence centre and technical wing to develop and implement ERP applications.

Arun Tewary, CIO and VP of IT, Emirates Flight CateringArun Tewary is CIO and Vice President for IT at Emirates Flight Catering in Dubai. Emirates Flight Catering employs more than 6,500 people and is responsible for producing an average of 125,000 meals per day. Tewary’s domain expertise is in the

successful implementation of large ERP systems in complex business environments with a strong emphasis on implementing best business practices and organisational change management. He has more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry with Tata Steel, Essar Steel, Al Futtaim Group, and Emaar Properties.

Dr. G.V. Rao, Founder and MD, MpowerMEDr. G.V. Rao has been in high-profile industry positions for MNC brands across various verticals in the GCC for almost three decades. He was awarded twice as amongst the Top 20 CIOs by Forrester Group in the Middle East, and is a prominent figure in the technology media. He carries a wide spectrum of process experience

incorporated with IT, HR, SCM, production, manufacturing, logistics, procurement, sales, marketing, and various other disciplines. He is an MBA graduate and a PhD holder.


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With the rise of services, the global hardware market has faced difficulty in the last year, but in the Middle East it has remained firm. The judges praised the winner of this category for the strength of its customer testimonials, the multiple products it launched, and its impressive TCO.

harDware venDOr OF The Year

WINNER: BRocadE

The shortlist:Aruba Networks Avaya Dell EMC Fluke Networks HP SymantecHuaweiBrocade


The winner of this category has pioneered the charge and transition to in-memory computing with a platform that its CEO called the fastest-growing software product in the history of the world. This vendor continued its trend of double-digit growth in the MENA region this year, aided by some rather large customer wins.

sOFTware venDOr OF The Year

WINNER: SaP

The shortlist:Avaya CommVault Red Hat Teradata VMwareSAP


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With the threat landscape constantly evolving, the IT security market is a difficult and competitive one to be in, but one that has grown tremendously as end-users continue to recognise the need for next-generation solutions. The winner of this category is a world leader in high-performance network security and is widely adopted in the Middle East across all verticals.

The winner of this category continues to dominate market share and strengthen its already highly impressive regional presence. This company remains firmly at the centre of the most disruptive and opportunity-rich shift in IT history, propelled by the benefits of cloud computing, Big Data and trusted IT. These high-priority IT spending areas are core to its strategic focus, and represent market segments where EMC has established leadership positions and competitive advantage.

securiTY sOluTiOns prOviDer OF The Year

sTOrage sOluTiOns prOviDer OF The Year

WINNER: FoRTINET

WINNER: EMc

The shortlist:Aruba Networks BlackBerry Dell SonicWall FireEye

Fortinet InfoWatch Kaspersky Lab Symantec

The shortlist:DellEMCHitachi Data Systems


The cloud trend has continued to grow at a staggering speed, and with many Middle East CIOs wanting to embrace the technology whilst keeping their data in the region, it is the local managed service providers who continue to prosper. New and renewed contracts for this winner include Health Authority Abu Dhabi (HAAD), Emirates Nuclear Energy Authority, du, Executive Affairs Authority, Abu Dhabi Ship Building, and Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority.

The winner of this category impressed the judges with its strong regional presence and portfolio. But it was the continued growth and big customer wins from this SI which swung the vote, with clients including Khalifa Foundation, Abu Dhabi Sports Council, Civil Defense, Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Ministry of Labor, Naturalization and Residency Administration, UAE Identity Authority, Abu Dhabi Department of Finance, and Insurance Authority.

ManageD services prOviDer OF The Year

sYsTeMs inTegraTOr OF The Year

WINNER: INjazaT daTa SySTEMS

WINNER: aLRoWad IT SoLUTIoNS

The shortlist:eHosting DataFort IBT Injazat Data Systems

The shortlist:ALROWAD IT SolutionsEMWHelp AGIntelligent Business Technologies


Like last year, this category saw the largest number of nominations, which is testament to the investments the public sector is making towards innovation in this region. The winner of this category implemented an e-Signature solution to securely review, approve, archive and retrieve engineering drawings, and electronically issue all types of project permits for city construction.

The winner of this category modernised its virtualisation infrastructure using Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 in order to increase the availability, performance and efficiency of its servers.

gOvernMenT DeplOYMenT in The Year

hOspiTaliTY anD TOurisM prOjecT OF The Year

WINNER: aBU dhaBI MUNIcIPaLITy

WINNER: jUMEIRah GRoUP

The shortlist:Abu Dhabi Department of Transport (DoT) Abu Dhabi Judicial Department

Abu Dhabi Municipality Abu Dhabi Ports Company Abu Dhabi Police Dubai Customs

Dubai Municipality Dubai World Trade Centre Al Ain City Municipality General Civil Aviation

Authority (GCAA) Ministry Of Hajj, Saudi ArabiaMinistry of Manpower, OmanTECOM investments

The shortlist:Jumeirah Group Millennium Hotel Amman Rotana Group


© Copyright 2013 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

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In the pursuit for top-quality healthcare, the winner of this category implemented ITIL best practices and gained certification for the world’s most trusted approach to IT service management.

The winner of this award faced the challenge of integrating the IT systems of two large companies following a merger that created one of the largest listed real estate companies in the MENA region. The integration included a multitude of systems and applications, over 50 physical locations, multiple data centres, and historical data dating back many years.

healThcare DeplOYMenT OF The Year

cOnsTrucTiOn anD real esTaTe DeplOYMenT OF The Year

WINNER: zULEKha hoSPITaL

WINNER: aLdaR PRoPERTIES

The shortlist:Canadian Specialist HospitalMednet Zulekha Hospital

The shortlist:Aldar Properties AlecTrinity Holding


The winner of this category implemented an electronic training management system, which included training-needs analysis, various education mechanisms, and evaluation of outcomes.

The winner of this category successfully completed an end-to-end integration of two banks’ channels, IT systems, infrastructure, processes, departments and employees in just six months.

eDucaTiOn DeplOYMenT OF The Year

BFsi DeplOYMenT OF The Year

WINNER: EdUcaTIoN adMINISTRaTIoN, aBU dhaBI PoLIcE

WINNER: EMIRaTES ISLaMIc BaNK

The shortlist:Education Administration, Abu Dhabi PoliceHigher College of TechnologySupreme Education Council, QatarUniversity of Wollongong in Dubai

The shortlist:Amman Stock Exchange Bank AlBilad Bank of Beruit

Commercial Bank of Dubai Dar Es Salaam Investment BankEmirates Islamic Bank

Emirates NBD Kuwait International Bank Mashreq Bank

MedNet


With speed and organisation so important in this vertical, the winner of this category turned to enterprise content management (ECM) to simplify its information sharing and automated operations.

VIVA Kuwait has a long-term vision to provide the best mobile broadband user experience to customers in Kuwait through customer-centric business strategy.

With that vision in mind, VIVA Kuwait started to deploy a new LTE network and upgrade its existing 2G/3G networks to LTE in early 2013, refarming the 1,800 MHz spectrum. The upgrade and deployment of LTE networks only took two months, outpacing other operators in Kuwait. On 12 March, 2013, VIVA Kuwait announced the commercial launch of its fourth generation (4G) of high-speed mobile broadband network that runs on the technology of Long Term Evolution (LTE), to be made available to all customers.

energY secTOr DeplOYMenT OF The Year

TelecOMMunicaTiOn DeplOYMenT OF The Year

WINNER: ENoc

WINNER: VIVa KUWaIT

The shortlist:AdnocEmarat EnocMasdar Topaz

The shortlist:du EtisalatViva Kuwait


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The winner of this category utilised the cloud to transform the staff appraisal service for its HR department in record-breaking time.

reTail DeplOYMenT OF The Year

WINNER: Koj GRoUP

The shortlist:Jumbo Electronics KOJ Group Tejuri.com

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This was a very tough choice for our judges as the candidates were outstanding. However, there can be only one winner, and he has mastered an IT strategy designed to deliver value beyond technology while saving costs and bridging IT gaps, Our winner also achieved massive operational savings this year by dovetailing the IT team, business units and vendors.

ciO OF The Year

WINNER: aNWaR aBdULLa aLMULLa

The shortlist:Ali Hakam Ghunaim, Canadian Specialist HospitalAli Nimer, IRENAAmna Sultan Salim Alowais, DIFC CourtsAnwar Abdulla Almulla, Abu Dhabi PoliceEsam Abdulla Hadi, Aluminium BahrainMohamed AlJunaibi, Abu Dhabi Department of TransportSaif Al Ketbi, Abu Dhabi Ports CompanySamir Alamari, Alshamel TravelSreedhar K. Reddy, Aldar PropertiesTerence Sathyanarayan, Drake & ScullYounis Mohamed Othman, Dubai Customs


Tel +971 4 3754052

Many IT executives aspire to move up the ladder and evolve to the coveted position of a CIO. The people who really want CIO jobs are the ones who are focused on making a difference in how IT contributes to the success of the business. Within a short span of 14 months, Zubair Ahmed has led IT at Emirates Islamic Bank to unprecedented success, starting by developing an IT strategy in alignment with business. He played a leading part in the Emirates Islamic Bank and Dubai Bank integration project, which was one of the most challenging IT programmes in the Middle East in the last year, completed in a record time of just six months. The project was undertaken with meticulous planning and executed with precision.

FuTure ciO OF The YearWINNER: zUBaIR ahMEd

The shortlist:Amin Al Zarouni, Bee’ahDeepu Thomas Philip, Kuwait International BankFuad Mohamed, Emirates NBDFurqan Ahmed Hashmi, Emirates Investment AuthoritySamir Khan, African & EasternZubair Ahmed, Emirates Islamic Bank


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Whilst individual people can impart their vision, philosophies and leadership on a company’s IT practices, technology is of course always a team effort. The winning team comprises 43 highly skilled individuals who work collaboratively to manage systems and solutions that support the entire business. This is no easy task given the company’s 3,500-strong workforce, and production of 890,000 metric tonnes per annum of high-grade aluminium products. These team members are accustomed to facing intense pressure, and handling it with professionalism and affinity for their vocation.

iT TeaM OF The YearWINNER: aLUMINIUM BahRaIN

The shortlist:Abu Dhabi Ports Company African & Eastern Al Ain Municipality Aluminium Bahrain Emirates Islamic Bank Kuwait International Bank


The company was selected by the CNME editorial team for its implementation of enterprise architecture (EA). Deployments of EA tools have grown in Western parts of the world as organisations seek to obtain a complete view of their IT, but awareness and understanding has been lacking in the Middle East. The winner of this award sought to change that, and achieved great benefits in the process.

This company was chosen in recognition of an extremely important implementation in this region. Cloud computing has taken the enterprise by storm and offers tremendous benefits for those willing to transform how their businesses operate. In the Middle East, a fear of security and trust issues were severely holding back adoption, before this company came along and perfected the region’s first private cloud implementation.

eDiTOr’s chOice – enTerprise archiTecTure

eDiTOr’s chOice - clOuD

WINNER: dP WoRLd

WINNER: EFS FacILITIES SERVIcES


This editor’s choice featured on CNME’s cover back in March, with a cover star who was named CIO of the Decade by our sister IDG title in Europe, CIO Magazine. This particular deployment embraced the emerging trend of mobility by using HP tablets to create the ultimate working tool by pooling all tasks into one simple platform and smart device.

The recipient of this award is another company which jumped ahead by becoming the first in the region to utilise a new technology that has had the whole world talking. There has been no trend that has generated as much hype in the last year as Big Data, but adoption has been very slow due to CIOs not yet being able to prove the ROI to justify the hefty price tags on appliances. This organisation threw the rule book out of the window by developing its own solution for sentiment analysis using open-source software.

eDiTOr’s chOice – MOBiliTY

eDiTOr’s chOice – Big DaTa

WINNER: EMIRaTES aIRLINES

WINNER: GULF aIR


MDM:The ulTiMaTe guiDe

MDMFEATURE

With some commentators labeling the BYOD trend as unstoppable, organisations are now turning to mobile device management (MDM) to ensure the security of their networks. But how should MDM be tackled? We have the ultimate guide.


StratEGiC it NEtWOrKiNG PartNErnetWork World

“Remember when IT planned corporate-wide end-user technology roll-outs? Distributing company-owned, IT-managed devices was a very

controlled process. Employees had to get IT approval to use an unauthorised device, even if it was useful and increased productivity. IT was the gatekeeper of everything enterprise and it ruled the network with a combination of strict policies, purpose-built technologies, and a fully contained ecosystem. Those days are long gone.”

So says Ammar Enaya, Regional Director, Middle East, Aruba Networks. And indeed, it would be difficult to disagree with him. As smart mobile devices have proliferated over the past five years, organisations are finding it harder and harder to stop employees from accessing corporate networks with personal smartphones, tablets and even laptops. Some commentators call the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend “unstoppable”, and predict that, before long, most employees will be demanding to use their own, often top-of-the-range, devices for work purposes.

This has led to a problem for CIOs, though. After all, end-users can’t always be trusted to keep their devices safe from malware. What’s more, with so many people now using the Android operating system on their smartphones and tablets, and the alarming increase of malware being made for the OS, CIOs are right to be wary about these devices interacting with their networks.

“It is very important to have a clear view and control over devices accessing enterprise networks. Pre-BYOD, IT departments had more control over what devices are connected to the network, thus better control over security at end points. With the explosion of personal devices entering enterprise networks, it is

crucial that corporate data remains secure as ever. With BYOD, every user device becomes critical and requires equal attention to ensure protection from mobile malware and data leak prevention,”

says Mathew Pirlson, Head of Business Support, Momenta Global.

To gain the sort of visibility they need into networks now supporting BYOD—by choice or not—


MDM FEATURE

“iT was the gatekeeper of everything enterprise and it ruled the network with a combination of strict policies, purpose-built technologies, and a fully contained ecosystem. Those days are long gone.”

Ammar Enaya, Regional Director, Middle East, Aruba Networks

“with the explosion of personal devices entering enterprise networks, it is crucial that corporate data remains secure as ever. with BYOD, every user device becomes critical and requires equal attention to ensure protection from mobile malware and data leak prevention.”

Mathew Pirlson, Head of Business Support, Momenta Global

CIOs are now turning to mobile device management (MDM) solutions. The point of most of these solutions is to allow employees to use whatever device they want, but to control what data these devices can access, and how they interact with the network. Many solutions can also provide information, through a centralised dashboard, on how much data devices are consuming or uploading, what sort of data this is, and whether or not the device is likely to be compromised.

It sounds like a no-brainer, but according to Prilson, MDM penetration in the Middle East is still low, despite the high device penetration. However, he adds that Momenta Global expects to see increasing numbers of MDM deployments over the coming years, as mobile access and workflow become more important.

Indeed, it seems like companies need to wise up to emerging MDM technologies as more and more employees demand to access corporate networks with personal devices. That’s how Jatin Sahni, Vice President, Large Enterprise and Business Solutions, du, sees things, anyway.

“2013 has been a period of change and consolidation in the MDM market, and the trends emerging now will continue to shape it in 2014. Organisations of all kinds will continue to look for ways to negotiate the challenges of mobile consumerisation and BYOD, which are creating high demand for MDM services. In particular, they are pushing the ability to manage and secure data at the app level,” he says.

Indeed, Sahni claims that the threats facing organisations are very real when it comes to BYOD. He says that, while some companies might view MDM solutions as a bonus capability, very soon, more will

view them as a necessity. “The risk of losing data via a personally owned device is very real, and data loss could be very damaging from financial, reputational, and legal perspectives,” he explains.

However, MDM isn’t simply a way to reel in BYOD and to change things back to the way they were, as Enaya recalls. Organisations now need to tread a fine line between guaranteeing network safety and still providing employees with the freedom of working with their own devices.

“CIOs are worries about protecting their corporate information and enterprise network, not about the personal use of devices. A very clear boundary must be drawn while introducing MDM and BYOD into corporate culture. Separating personal data from corporate data is the key. Secure container is a way to go forward which helps movement of corporate data in a secure and controlled space within the devices. Corporates should have all the rights to control the secure container and leave everything behind,” explains Prilson.

Already, there are consumer devices that support the compartmentalisation of data. For example, when it launched its new range of BlackBerry 10 devices earlier this year, BlackBerry made a lot of noise about the ability to separate personal and corporate data from each other with the help of BlackBerry Enterprise Service. Meanwhile, a horde of iPhone and Android apps are also available to users wanting to separate their personal and work lives, though some are more effective than others.

Ethics also play a large part in the argument over MDM. What if corporate and personal data gets mixed up on a personal device? Does the employee have the right to move corporate data from one personal device to another? And does the organisation have the right

Demand for MDM solutions is being driven by the rise in popularity of

BYOD


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to remotely wipe a personal device? These are all questions that CIOs—and their companies’ lawyers—are wrangling with, simply because MDM solutions can control the outcome of any of these scenarios. But according Sahni, the right balance can be found, so long as appropriate and easy-to-understand guidelines are drawn up for both the company and its employees.

“IT should aim to use an appropriate level of management to ensure that data is secured without degrading the user experience for employees prepared to work in this flexible manner. Full mobile device management (MDM) solutions offer a lot of control over device activity, and are the most effective ways to secure data on multiple platforms, but for some users they can be seen as being too invasive. A lighter-touch approach, such as managing data at the application level rather than the device level, can also be considered as a way of managing BYOD behaviour in emerging markets, and, given the preference for strong privacy controls in certain mature markets, may offer an easier way to manage BYOD there, too,” he says.

“For businesses, particularly those operating in multiple markets, the challenge is to set the right levels of governance and manage BYOD behavior wherever it is happening.”

Aruba’s Enuya echoes the same sentiments, and explains that this is why Aruba has been working hard to produce solutions that help to fix the problem. He points to the vendor’s WorkSpace function, which he says is designed to simplify the process of securing, distributing and managing work apps on mobile devices.

“In addition to automatically pushing work apps to mobile devices, Aruba WorkSpace lets IT enforce contextual policies that control how the apps are used and data is secured. A VPN session is initiated

automatically whenever work apps are launched on a public network,” he says.

“On a personal note, WorkSpace eliminates liability issues related to privacy by preventing IT from accessing or viewing a user’s personal information. IT can only wipe or lock work apps and data—anything controlled by WorkSpace—while personal information stays private.”

Whether a CIO goes with Aruba for its MDM solutions or not, the experts stress that MDM need not involve an entire network redesign. According to Mike Goedeker, Director of Pre-Sales, ESG, CEEMEA, Sophos, all that’s needed to support BYOD and consequently MDM is a “rethink”.

“Smartphones and tablets are the new endpoints of the next century so we need to recognise that fact and secure access as well as devices correctly,” he says.

“We suggest creating an awareness campaign and security policy that helps secure and define what usage of data and security is appropriate for the company and its employees while accessing sensitive data on the go or in transit. Least privilege, auditing and monitoring are also a good start to general security processes. Lastly, many companies in the past have seen security as a non-revenue generating function. We believe (as others do, like Forester and Gartner) that security is a business- and revenue-critical process that needs the attention it deserves.”

That said, as ever, what works well with one company might not always work at another organisation. Certainly, the time to consider MDM as a suitable response to the BYOD trend is now. But how to go about implementing MDM must be decided on by the business itself.

“Decision-makers should evaluate the business needs and identify a suitable road map,” says Prilson.

MDM FEATURE

“Organisations of all kinds will continue to look for ways to negotiate the challenges of mobile consumerisation and BYOD, which are creating high demand for MDM services. in particular, they are pushing the ability to manage and secure data at the app level.”

Jatin Sahni, Vice President, Large Enterprise and Business Solutions, du

“we suggest creating an awareness campaign and security policy that helps secure and define what usage of data and security is appropriate for the company and its employees while accessing sensitive data on the go or in transit.”

Mike Goedeker, Director of Pre-Sales, ESG, CEEMEA, Sophos


Big Data planningFEATURE

The Big DaTa reshuFFleBusinesses are clamouring to get their hands on as much data as possible, and are taking advantage of emerging Big Data technologies to gain insight into their customers’ demands. But can Big Data programmes be run using traditional IT teams, or do organisations need to take a new approach to hiring?


StratEGiC tECHNOlOGy PartNEr

Earlier this year, projections by the McKinsey Global Institute said that, by 2018, there will be a need for 190,000 more workers with analytics expertise and a further

1.5 million data-savvy managers in the US alone. What’s driving this demand for data-oriented employees? According to the research firm, it’s all down to Big Data.

It might be something of a buzzword, but Big Data has certainly had the industry talking this year. Even in the Middle East, we’ve seen a number of high-profile Big Data implementations that have helped to transform the way that businesses look after their customers. And there are still plenty more uses for Big Data going forward.

According to IBM, the world is churning out 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day, and 90 percent of it has been created over the past two years. Such vast swathes of data should provide good insight.

storage advisor

However, it is incredibly difficult to leverage that data and turn it into something meaningful, hence the need for data-savvy employees. According to research firm Forrester, less than 5 percent of data is used effectively, and that’s mostly down to a lack of training and skills.

But do businesses looking to get serious about Big Data really need to shell out so much for expensive data scientists or sending existing staff on expensive analytics training courses? Well, according to Karthik Krishnamurthy, Vice President, Enterprise Information Management, Cognizant, it all depends on what you want to use Big Data for.

“Team alignmentputting the right team in placeis driven by an organisation’s use case landscape. When the majority of use cases are focused on business outcomes and objectives, the ‘right team’ requires a data science capability. On the other hand, if a company’s use cases are primarily positioned towards cost savings,

1.5mThe number of data-savvy managers the us will need by 2018

The Big DaTa reshuFFle


processing efficiency, and platform optimisation, the ‘right team’ does not require a data scientist,” he says.

“For example, a data scientist is needed when the business use case seeks increased customer value, cohort analysis, micro-market segmentation, or modelling customer behavior based on social media. The data scientist has the job of understanding what data is relevant, designing statistical models, and visualising the data to communicate business-understandable benefits. In this case, the data scientist is the critical member of the right team. For IT-oriented use casesETL offloading, data archiving, mainframe conversion, real-time operational data storingthe right team is the IT group and Big Data technologists. A data scientist is not required in order to achieve these benefits. Whether driven by outcomes and objectives or cost savings, the ability to leverage

“with traditional iT, it’s about requirements gathering and building, and you have more of an ask-answer relationship—if you don’t ask, they don’t answer. Big Data is more about agile development methods.”

“To understand the demand for data scientist, it is important to clarify the role and its responsibilities. There are five skills required of a data scientist: business domain expertise, analytical capability, data visualisation, communication skills, and technology acumen.” Karthik Krishnamurthy, Vice President, Enterprise Information Management, Cognizant

Big Data is contingent upon connecting the right use case to the right team members.”

According to Krishnamurthy, depending on the skills of a current IT team, many organisations might have talent that is cross-compatible with a Big Data implementation. That said, it’s unlikely that any pre-Big Data IT team will be 100-percent prepared for what’s ahead. For one thing, new Big Data tools and technologies are emerging all the time, meaning it is difficult for anyone to be seriously experienced in how to use them.

“The aspect of skill set gaps is a result of newer Big Data technologies. It requires different knowledge in tools such as Hadoopand its many componentsand NoSQL, and these are just the basics. Beyond the basics comes the need for programming expertise in Map/Reduce, Java, R, PIG and Javascript. Visualisation is another capability that IT teams don’t typically have in their toolset. Yes, they are familiar with user interfaces and application design. Yet, Big Data visualisation requires a new level of data interaction, and a data cartographer,” he says.

It’s important to distinguish between the skills of traditional IT professionals and Big Data pros, Krishnamurthy adds. He says that IT produces answers to tangible business questions, whereas Big Data is more about searching for answers for questions that might not have been asked yet. Because of this, Big Data pros have an alternative mindset, and tend to think a little more creatively, Krishnamurthy says.

“There is another contrast between traditional and Big Data teamsthe approach. With traditional IT, it’s about requirements gathering and building, and you have more of an ask-answer relationshipif you don’t ask, they don’t answer. Big Data is more about agile development methods, self-service and

190kThe number of anlaytics-experienced workers that the us will require by 2018



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business enablement through the development of solution platforms. You can incorporate most of the needed Big Data skills into an existing IT team, but you still have to plug the skill set and mindset holes. Companies can do this by cross-training the team and by bringing in new blood,” he explains.

So, if a Big Data project is going to be pursued, it would make sense that an organisation hires a data scientist to make sense of all that Big Data. But there might be a problem with this - according to a number of IT recruitment firms, data scientists are some of the most highly demanded employees of the moment. One magazine even rated data scientist as the sexiest IT job of the decade. This means that a good data scientist will be expensive.

But before organisations even start looking for a data scientist, Krishnamurthy believes that they need to work out what exactly they expect the new employee to do.

“To understand the demand for data scientist, it is important to clarify the role and its responsibilities. There are five skills required of a data scientist: business domain expertise, analytical capability, data visualisation, communication skills, and technology acumen,” he says.

“The data scientist is very important when it comes to Big Data. Having one person who knows how to find the right data sources and can then cleanse, merge, analyse and visualise the answer is extremely valuable. What also makes them valuable is not what they’ve learned but how they think. In kind with unstructured data, their thinking is also unstructured. Data scientists are creative, inquisitive and can see connections where others cannot. They are always looking for something interesting. Their ability to communicate their findings to others makes them even rarer. With the amount of complexity with which some insights are derived, results must be presented in a straightforward and

“what makes data scientists valuable is not what they’ve learned but how they think. in kind with unstructured data, their thinking is also unstructured.”

simple manner. Data scientists get this.” That said, there are a number of other positions

to fill if a Big Data project is to be taken seriously. Indeed, Krishnamurthy believes that one job posting is even more important than the data scientist one, and that’s the Big Data architect.

“The Big Data architect is the glue between the organisational goals, the Big Data engineers, and the data scientist. They have cross-everything knowledge, spanning domains, industries and functions. These are the people who see the project through from beginning to end, from requirements gathering to deployment and everything in between,” he says.

In addition to the data scientist and Big Data architect, Krishnamurthy advises looking at hiring data governance and security professionals. He says that these employees are becoming increasingly important due to the increasing power of Big Data. Regulations are tightening due to the availability of personally identifiable information, and this means that companies need to be careful about what they do with their vast swathes of data, as well as how the protect it.

What’s more, as companies search for Big Data talent, they’re tending to target application developers and software engineers more than IT operations professionals, says Josh Wills, senior director of data science at Cloudera, which sells and supports a commercial version of the open-source Hadoop framework for managing big data.

That’s not to say IT operations specialists aren’t needed in Big Data. After all, they build the infrastructure and support the Big Data systems. Critically, these employees will use tools such as Hadoop, setting up the infrastructure to allow for such in-depth analysis. IT staffers can quickly learn Hadoop through traditional classes or by teaching themselves, the experts say. And burgeoning training programmes at the major Hadoop vendors are proof that many IT folks are doing so.

It would seem, then, that to really sink your teeth into a Big Data project, you will inevitably need to hire new talent. Sure, some deployments across the region have been done on the fly using existing IT talent, but if the Middle East is going to get serious about Big Data, it would seem that having the right talent is essential.

“A take-away here is that Big Data is beginning to create a second wave of resource needs,” Krishnamurthy says.

5%The amount of data that is used effectively, according to Forrester



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In a region with the highest mobile penetration in the world, the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend cannot be ignored. But with mobile malware seemingly proliferating every day, are Middle East CIOs keeping enterprises suitably secure?

The wOrse FOr Malware

Mobile malwareFEATURE


Through the advent of mobility, smartphones and tablets are now more dangerous devices to enterprises than laptops and PCs.

Mobile malware continues to proliferate, and at the same time employees are insisting on bringing their personal devices to work.

On the surface, this is great for the enterprise. Employees are happier and more productive using their own devices in the workplace.

But this employee-driven trend poses a tremendous risk as cyber-criminals and hacktivists find new ways every day to expose vulnerabilities in smartphones and tablets.

This problem is even more apparent in the Middle East, where mobile penetration is the highest in the world.

“On average, smartphone adoption is approximately 30 percent in any given country,” says Mohammed Joueid, Consultant, Identity Assurance, HID Global. “As a proportion, smartphone penetration is relatively higher in the Middle East than any other part of the world.

“In the UAE this is approximately 26 percent of the population, and in Saudi, this is 60 percent of the country. This is influencing the use of technology at home but more importantly in the workplace.”

So are Middle East CIOs fully prepared for these issues? To put it simply, it would appear not.

Colonel Dr. Rashid Borshid, Director, UAE Criminal Investigation Department (CID), made many UAE businesses prick up their ears when he said they are all a prime target of international cyber-crime rings.

StratEGiC it ByOD PartNErseCuritY advisor

More worrying, however, is the use of malware in almost every stage of the alleged attacks.

“If we pay close attention to the new statistics coming from reputable anti-virus firms that saw a dramatic rise of about 50 percent from the same period in 2012 in mobile malware, what we get is a dangerous mixture of in-country risks, powered by an evolving paradigm shift from regular to mobile malware, which the local security industry is still learning,” says Marwan Abdulla Bin Dalmook, Senior Vice President, Technology Security and Risk Management, du.

According to Sean Newman, Field Product Manager, EMEA, Sourcefire, although much of the malware threats are still in their infancy, there is no doubt that criminals controlling most cyber-crime will see the move towards more mobile devices as an opportunity to make money.

Newman is also far more liberal in his numbers, predicting that malware targeting Android-based devices has increased nearly 500 percent in the last 12 months. Yep, you read that right—500 percent.

One thing is for sure, though. Of all the malware that is out there, the leading factor in the growth is back-door Trojans that steal personal data without the victim’s knowledge, along with malware that attacks user log-in information.

“Users are often unaware of the risks associate with the applications they download,” says Nicolai Solling, Director of Technology Services, Help AG. “The trend with mobile devices is that users place convenience above all else and give little thought to security.

“That IDC recently reported that just 5 percent

“costs can vary greatly depending on the extent to which BYOD access is granted. enabling access just to corporate email, and using an MDM solution to limit access to devices that are only using official apps and meet other key policy requirements, can be very affordable. MDM can be deployed for a similar cost as endpoint anti-virus solutions.”Sean Newman, Field Product Manager, EMEA, Sourcefire

in the last 12 months, some have predicted malware targeting android-based devices has increased nearly

500%


If you have any questions or concern please call us on +9715 50 600 7996 or email us on [email protected]

“On average, smartphone adoption is approximately 30 percent in any given country. as a proportion, smartphone penetration is relatively higher in the Middle east than any other part of the world. in the uae this is approximately 26 percent of the population, and in saudi this is 60 percent of the country. This is influencing the use of technology at home but more importantly in the workplace.”Mohammed Joueid, Consultant, Identity Assurance, HID Global

of smartphones and tablets globally have security tools installed is proof of this. Currently, there are a number of organisations in the region looking to support BYOD. However, the use of mobile devices for sharing corporate documents is far more prevalent, and is often carried out even though corporate policies prohibit such activities.”

It would therefore seem that enterprises in the Middle East are only just beginning to understand the real risks related to BYOD.

However, there are also challenges in rolling out comprehensive BYOD initiatives, including defining the risks, developing and implementing a practical policy, deploying the right technical solution, integrating with existing security technologies, and troubleshooting issues.

“Since the residual risk after deploying silo initiatives is high, there needs to be a holistic and integrated approach that raises the bar for a successful implementation,” says Niraj Mathur, Security Practice Manager, GBM. “Technology itself also needs further development to address all organisational security needs.”

Certain concerns can be attributed to corporate policy, which is lagging behind in putting the necessary processes and procedures in place to support BYOD.

Given the lack of even basic visibility, most IT security teams certainly don’t have the capability to identify potential threats from these devices.

“It is critical they gain the information superiority advantage in a mobile world, and so IT security professionals must be able to see everything in their environment, understand whether it’s at risk, and then protect it,” Newman says.

For most enterprises, he adds, the right solution

Mobile malware FEATURE

isn’t to ban BYOD strategies but to implement BYOD policies that clearly define the proper use of employee-owned devices in the enterprise.

Indeed, for all the talk and buzz surrounding BYOD, the actual number of implementations remains relatively low.

Solling says he would place security as the main cause of this, which he believes can be confirmed by any BYOD survey.

“Dealing with data loss, defining proper usage policies, and supporting the wide range of devices with their unique security nuances, are all challenges that IT departments face today,” he says. “Until CIOs are confident that these concerns can all be addressed and BYOD supported in an easy manner, the adoption rates will remain low.”

Another factor that has contributed to low uptake is that often it is only the executive staff who are seen as necessary candidates for BYOD support. And it is easier to provide company-issued devices with a greater set of restrictions rather than to implement a BYOD solution.

A question of AndroidIt remains no secret that the vast majority of mobile malware is found in Android; 99 percent, in fact, if the studied are to be believed.

With that in mind, it would be wrong to at least not ask the question, shouldn’t CIOs be avoiding this operating system altogether?

Yes, Android is the most adopted OS in the world—perhaps mainly because of its open nature rather than its popularity amongst users. But there are plenty of very competent alternatives from iOS, BlackBerry and Windows.

Does that mean Android should be excluded

99%of all mobile malware is targeted at the android operating system

If you have any questions or concern please call us on +9715 50 600 7996 or email us on [email protected]


entirely from enterprise environment? According to the subject expects, the answer is no.

“Admittedly malware for the Android platform does indeed outstrip that of other OSes,” says Raj Samani, VP, Chief Technical Officer, McAfee EMEA. “However, mobile threats go across all platforms.

“For example, consider the privacy issues associated with mobile apps. Whether you are on Android, or any other platform, the lack of visibility you have about what an app is accessing is very limited.”

In the Middle East, iOS and BlackBerry are prominent, particularly in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, whilst Android typically holds third place.

However, this is changing, and Joueid says he believes Android as a platform in fact still does have a lot to offer enterprises.

“If we look closely at the usage patterns in the Middle East across the smartphone landscape, then the use of email and applications are still prevalent,” Joueid says. “Therefore, it is important for CIOs to assess and review risk-appropriate measures and how this should be incorporated in an organisation’s security strategy.”

The brutal fact to the enterprise remains that, as the BYOD trend continues to take off, so will the proliferation of Android in the enterprise.

It is therefore clear that Android will remain the dominant mobile OS through these early years of BYOD adoption, and discounting the system altogether would almost certainly bring the trend to a grinding halt.

“Organisations should instead focus on educating employees about mobile threats as many users are still unaware of how big a threat malware really is,” Solling says.

Educating the massesFor now, the solution to the problem must come down to education. There is no doubt that IT decision-makers in certain enterprises could benefit from increased awareness of mobile malware, and training on how to combat it.

“Companies that have deployed BYOD, but haven’t focused on security implementation for BYOD, would benefit from this approach,” Marthur says. “Today, enterprises are required to take a practical approach to solving problems, which starts with conducting a risk assessment.

“This would provide the enterprises with the appropriate next steps to minimise risks, helping to address the threats holistically and provide the appropriate justifications for the enterprise to convince management on the next steps.”

Samani adds: “This is an emerging area, and the volume and sophistication of mobile threats are changing all of the time, so even if organisations feel they understand the threat landscape, working with a partner with world-class research is the best way in managing the risk.”

And whilst some organisations may be put off by the potential cost of protecting against mobile malware, they should bear in mind it is not much more expensive than traditional intrusion detection and prevention.

However, costs can vary greatly depending on the extent to which BYOD access is granted, Newman says. “Enabling access just to corporate email, and using an MDM solution to limit access to devices that are only using official apps and meet other key policy requirements, can be very affordable. MDM can be deployed for a similar cost as endpoint anti-virus solutions, for example.”

“if we pay close attention to the new statistics coming from reputable antivirus firms that saw a dramatic rise of about 50 percent from the same period in 2012 in mobile malware, what we get is a dangerous mixture of in-country risks, powered by an evolving paradigm shift from regular to mobile malware, which the local security industry is still learning.”Marwan Abdulla Bin Dalmook, Senior Vice President, Technology Security and Risk Management, du

60%The estimated smartphone penetration in saudi arabia

Mobile malware FEATURE


Avoiding surprisesFEATURE


integration advisor

nO surprises

It’s 12 o’clock, midnight. You’re hunched over a spare desk in the dimly lit room housing your company’s data centre. The only sources of light come from a few

overhead lights by the door, left on by the last employee to be sent home after a dismally long day, and the laptop screen in front of you. Against the backdrop of the whizzing and whirring of servers, the room is practically silent, and as you contemplate your surroundings, you come to a terrible realisation about the new implementation you’re supposed to have finished last week.

The numbers simply don’t add up—you’re way over budget.

For many CIOs and IT heads, this scenario is all too familiar. Despite even the most meticulous planning, some projects simply seem to have a will of their own, and that will often works against the end-users, throwing up delays and added costs. Sometimes it’s simply a case of overlooking something simple, while other times, problems with implementation come about because of totally unforeseeable circumstances. It doesn’t really matter

The last thing anyone wants when half-way through a new project is a nasty surprise. However, these often happen despite the best planning and intentions. CNME investigates how to ensure that projects are completed on time and to budget, as well as how to minimise the risk of nasty surprises.

what kind of technology you’re dealing with—at some point, any project can bring up a nasty surprise.

According to Marc Jessiman, Solutions Director, Dimension Data UAE, the statistics say that the majority of new implementations do not in fact meet time or budget requirements, meaning that most CIOs are often grappling with large problems.

“According to a 2009 study by the Standish Group, only 32 percent of all IT projects ‘succeed’, which means they’re delivered on time, on budget, with required features and functions. Forty-four percent are ‘challenged’ (late, over budget, and/or with less than the required features and functions) and 24 percent ‘fail’, meaning they were cancelled prior to completion or delivered and never used,” he says.

Jessiman explains that there are plenty of reasons for projects going over-budget or taking longer than expected. Indeed, sometimes the issues that arise are often thrust upon CIOs by outside forces.

“CIOs find themselves engaged in an on-going struggle to deliver their IT projects in line with


expectations. To stay at the top of your game, you need to constantly consider a myriad of new solutions,” he says.

“Managing an IT project is very much a juggling act. Information technology is always moving, changing. Limited staff, smaller budgets and fewer resources are some other key reasons for project failure. IT project management is complicated further by shifting business needs and demanding stakeholders, the combination of which creates the perfect storm for project inefficiencies and failures. And the problem only intensifies as IT grows ubiquitous.”

Despite the numbers being against them, however, there are things that IT professionals can do ahead of implementation to avoid falling into the ‘fail’ category. Surprises may come up, of course, but there are at least precautions that can be taken to minimise the effects of them. First and foremost, proper planning should be considered as a cornerstone to any successful project, Jessiman says.

“Successful projects don’t just happen. Without proper planning, organisations have little chance of completing their projects on time, on budget or with the required functionality. These are three common factors for project success,” he explains.

“Planning is critical for all IT projects. Organisation, rigour and discipline are non-negotiable. You need to consider the resources you need to devote to a project, the skills required and realistically consider the time it will take to develop, test and implement the project deliverables. Without proper planning, you will have little chance of completing your project on time, on budget or with the required functionality.

Using sound project management techniques and processes will increase the chances that your project will be completed on time, within budget, and to an acceptable level of quality.”

According to Jessiman, no matter what a new project entails, a standard planning framework should be applied so every eventuality can be accounted for. Naturally, it is up to the CIO to adopt the role of project manager, and he or she must establish the rules for going forward, while also managing the expectations of the line-of-business managers. For this, he says, CIOs should adopt what he calls a project management methodology.

“It is critical to adopt a standard approach to managing your IT projects. A project management methodology is a knowledge base containing guidelines, standards, procedures, tools and techniques to support the successful execution of IT projects,” he says.

“By adopting a standard approach to project management, you are able to establish ground rules and expectations for the project team. You’ll also provide project managers, functional managers and operational staff with a common language around project management that facilitates communication and helps ensure that everyone is on the same page.”

But before the project has even started, Jessiman says that proof-of-concepts and test runs are essential. He says that skipping the test runs is often at the root of many problems when it comes to implementation, adding that it tends to lead to a culture of rushing through things that need to be more carefully considered.

“successful projects don’t just happen. without proper planning, organisations have little chance of completing their projects on time, on budget or with the required functionality. These are three common factors for project success.”Marc Jessiman, Solutions Director, Dimension Data UAE

"ciOs find themselves engaged in an ongoing struggle to deliver their iT projects in line with expectations. according to a 2009 study by the standish group, only 32 percent of all iT projects succeed."



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Certified Data Centre Management

Certified Data Centre Management Professional

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ComplianceStrategiesPhysical


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Certified Data Centre Energy Professional

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Optimise & Improve Certification

Energy Topics Include:AnalysisProfiling

ImplementationManagement


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Certified Data Centre Audit Professional

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� udit Topics Include:Audit Compliance

Measuring & Testing Metrics

Evaluation


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New Castle CountyWilmington

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Email: [email protected] Training © MMX111

Certified Data Centre Technician

Certified Data Centre TechnicianProfessional

Core Unit - 3 Days

Professional Unit - 2 Days

Maintain & Transform Certification


Technician Topics Include:Measure, Monitoring & Auditing

Policies, Procedures & Compliance

Natural Career Path

Certified Telecommunications ProjectManagement

Full Program - 30 Hours Online

Plan & Control Certification


Process Topics Include:InitiatingPlanning

ExecutingMonitoring, Controlling & Closing

Certified Data Centre Design

Certified Data Centre Design Professional

Core Unit - 3 Days


Design & Build Certification

Design Topics Include:Management

EfficiencyCoolingPower


Certified Data Centre Management

Certified Data Centre Management Professional

Core Unit - 3 Days


Manage & Evolve Certification

Management Topics Include:Auditing

ComplianceStrategiesPhysical


Certified Data Centre Energy

Certified Data Centre Energy Professional

Core Unit - 3 Days


Optimise & Improve Certification

Energy Topics Include:AnalysisProfiling

ImplementationManagement


Certified Data Centre Audit

Certified Data Centre Audit Professional

Core Unit - 3 Days


Audit & Performance Certification

� udit Topics Include:Audit Compliance

Measuring & Testing Metrics

Evaluation


“IT projects often fail because they’re rushed. Because so many companies today rely on IT for a competitive advantage, they speed through development efforts and systems implementations in order to be first to market with new, IT-based products, services and capabilities. But projects that are tackled without sufficient time being set aside for planning, risk assessment and testing will be doomed from the start,” he explains.

So how do businesses avoid the risk of failure? According to Jessiman, it simply comes down to the project management methodology. He says that the framework should be built to be applicable to any project, but should also be flexible enough to accommodate the needs of any specific project going forward. According to him, this is the key to successfully implementing something on time and to budget.

“Good IT projects that are delivered on time and to budget are those that build a sufficient

degree of flexibility into its project management methodology. The project management methodology must be well-thought-out and customised both in terms of national and organisational culture,” he says.

Jessiman also adds caution when it comes to trying to replicate projects seen elsewhere in the world. After all, things work differently everywhere, so it might not be as easy as it seems to copy and paste ideas across companies. This makes a personalised project management methodology even more important.

“Remember what ‘fits’ in Europe or in Asia will not necessarily work in other regions, individual countries, economies or industries. It comes down to context. Success requires a project management methodology that applies to all projects, while allowing each kind of project to be performed in accordance to its specific needs,” he says.


LTE roamingFEATURE

LTE has seen much progression over the last 12 months, but challenges still remain—particularly in the arena of roaming. CNME investigates the situation in the Middle East.

when in rOaM


StratEGiC tElECOM PartNEr

teleComs World

”This trend will no doubt place additional pressure on mobile backhaul networks, which will accelerate the transition from TDM to Ethernet technology, as well as the expanded use of fibre and microwave access,” says Mervyn Kelly, EMEA Marketing Director, Ciena.

Indeed, LTE has already launched in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Lebanon and Iraq.

Furthermore, the Jordanian TRC recently issued an LTE licence tender, and it is therefore expected the Jordanian market will join the LTE league very soon.

Almost a dozen LTE networks have either already launched or are about to be commercially available in the region.

Driving this deployment has been the resolution of the previously major challenge of spectrum selection, as Jarrar explains.

“The release of iPhone 5 directs the operators in our region towards 1,800 MHz bands,” he says. “The next challenge was to clear, or re-farm, this band for LTE from the occupying GSM services, which was done successfully.

He adds that the next two major challenges will be to monetise LTE for most operators given today’s 3G ROI analysis, and for operators to direct their CAPEX to LTE rather than 3G.

It is therefore thanks to Apple that 1,800 MHz is the most popular band in the region, followed by LTE TD band 40 (2,300 MHz), which was relatively inexpensive to acquire and available for few operators.

This trend is supported by the latest GSA report, where LTE 1,800 MHz operations represent more than 40 percent of the global LTE networks, and 2,300 MHz is the number-one TD spectrum.

“Harmonising with the global LTE trends will help the region’s LTE ecosystems’ scale of economy, leading to relatively affordable terminals for end-users and telecom equipment for operators,” Jarrar says.

And whilst on the topic of iPhones, the new iPhone 5S and 5C are compatible with more LTE bands than any other smartphone.

Long term evolution (LTE), often marketed as 4G LTE, currently serves as the optimum standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile devices

and data terminals. With many regions in the world racing ahead

to fully embrace this 4G wireless service to complement the smartphone and tablet boom, the Middle East has somewhat lagged behind thus far.

Part of the reason for this can be attributed to the different ways operators have approached LTE.

Some operators have deployed LTE keenly as a capacity solution solving problems of 3G networks being under heavy loads.

LTE can help avoid many WCDMA (Wide Code Division Multiple Access) limitations, such as acquiring new spectrums or addressing capacity expansion-related technical difficulties. Whilst spectrum availability is an issue in the Middle East, most have yet to face issues of heavy loads.

Other operators see a technology edge in LTE and a tool of differentiation from rivals. According to Ala Jarrar, Mobile Broadband Manager, Ericsson, Middle East, whilst many have embraced LTE in the region, others have held back on account of monetisation.

“We see many successful launches in GCC countries in particular and the Middle East in general, where even some Wi-Max operators announced Wi-Max swap by LTE TD networks,” Jarrar says. “This is a great breakthrough when we look back to 2011, when it was considered a long shot.

“Some operators preferred to wait until they could assess the regional LTE frontrunners’ experience and also monetise 3G to its full potential, as they were late in launching WCDMA services.”

However, it remains the generally lower bandwidth requirements in the Middle East that have stunted growth, or at least left the region trailing behind the trailblazers.

Things are soon set to change, though. Bullish mobile data usage forecasts signal greater demand for LTE in the next few years.


“local telecom operators are business enablers and i feel they have a duty towards providing the best possible telecom solutions to encourage innovation and growth in the local market.”

According to Jarrar, this will lead to increased freedom in LTE band selection by operators, in addition to the possibility to have more than one LTE layer and perform some kind of load management between them.

“However, the latest iPhone5S and iPhone 5C lack some fundamental functionalities, such as VoLTE and LTE-A through carrier aggregations,” he adds. “Perhaps Apple decided to save these functionalities for the next iPhone release.”

Roaming aboutIn the arena of roaming, LTE has been largely limited in the Middle East, and indeed the rest of the world, due to several technical hurdles.

LTE roaming, as any roaming service, requires clear agreements and cost-efficient technical solutions. Despite its early launch in 2009, it has only been implemented by a limited number of global operators.

“Many operators recognise the value in LTE roaming and VoLTE roaming,” Jarrar says, “but they perhaps want to wait until LTE roaming matures with global references.”

Subsequently, the implementation scale and low customer base have led to a slow pick-up of LTE roaming in the Middle East.

But several operators in the region are preparing their infrastructures to be ready for LTE roaming.

“In the future, LTE roaming should not be an issue given the different roaming approaches, which can be either one-to-one agreements or agreements through roaming agents,” Jarrar says. “LTE terminal penetration and operator LTE GTM strategy will positively impact the operator LTE roaming strategy, if addressed properly.”

Indeed, data roaming is becoming essential for MBB users and there are no drawbacks in LTE roaming.

Furthermore, operators can still generate more revenue by LTE roaming, rather than losing such revenue to visited networks Wi-Fi operators.

Global roaming revenue is expected to grow by 43 percent CAGR for the period 2011 to 2016, reaching a value of $60 billion by 2016, which is equal to 5.15 percent of the total telco revenue at that time.

Data roaming is showing a CAGR growth rate of 14 percent, representing 2.6 times the 2016 voice roaming revenue driven by data roaming cap packages introduced lately by MBB operators.

And whilst risks for LTE roaming to exist, they appear less significant than the potential rewards that the capability offers Middle East operators.

LTE roamingFEATURE

”lTe roaming enables uninterrupted access to new applications made to be enjoyed on lTe networks. it’s only when the user has reliability and consistency that they will form new habits around usage. lTe roaming is a pathway towards changing usage behaviour with customers and i believe this will in turn create new monetisation opportunities for Middle east operators.”Joe Tawfik, CEO, Kinetic BPO

global roaming revenue is expected to grow by

43%for the period 2011-2016.


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”It is my opinion that that Middle East operators need to demonstrate leadership in the industry by focusing on what is right for the customer,” says Joe Tawfik, CEO, Kinetic BPO. ”Putting the customer at the forefront will ultimately lead to greater profitability.”

Built for speedThe fast nature of LTE roaming will naturally lead to greater customer satisfaction, which will in turn lead to greater usage over the long term.

Research by Kinetic indicates there is a 74 percent chance that customers will switch providers if they have a poor customer experience. But due to the limited options for customers to switch providers in the Middle East, there exists the temptation to delay LTE roaming.

”I feel this would be short-sighted as the Middle East is an emerging region requiring advanced telecommunications to help the economy develop,” Tawfik says. ”Local telecom operators are business

LTE roaming FEATURE

enablers and I feel they have a duty towards providing the best possible telecom solutions to encourage innovation and growth in the local market.

”LTE roaming enables uninterrupted access to new applications made to be enjoyed on LTE networks. It’s only when the user has reliability and consistency that they will form new habits around usage. LTE roaming is a pathway towards changing usage behaviour with customers and I believe this will in turn create new monetisation opportunities for Middle East operators.”

Whilst barriers must still be overcome before the Middle East is ubiquitious in LTE deployment, all avenues do point clearly in that direction.

The market now expects more operators to launch LTE, as well as an increase in LTE customer base driven by high-end device purchases.

“LTE traffic will grow and finally we also expect additional LTE coverage areas driven by the increased demand and better MBB BC,” Jarrar concludes.

“in the future, lTe roaming should not be an issue given the different roaming approaches, which can be either one-to-one agreements or agreements through roaming agents. lTe terminal penetration and operator lTe gTM strategy will positively impact the operator lTe roaming strategy, if addressed properly.”Ala Jarrar, Mobile Broadband Manager, Ericsson, Middle East

1,800MHzis the most popular spectrum band in the Middle east.

Distributing Innovative Technologies, Region-wide

Global Networking Strategies. Regional Implementation.

FVC is the leading Value Added Distributor for renowned IT vendors across theMiddle East and Africa. We bring you innovative solutions in Unified Communications, Information Security and Advanced Networking. We also deliver a range of professional services including Logistics, Implementation and Training Services; enabling us to meet the real-time infrastructure needs of your business enterprise.

Dubai, UAE. Tel: +971 4 4294900 | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Tel: +966 11 2813540 | Beirut, Lebanon. Tel: +961 1 699033 | Cairo, Egypt. Tel: +20 2 26435280

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insightSocial media

6 ways social media can boost your businessIf your company isn’t fully taking advantage of social media, it might be missing out on opportunities to connect with customers, gain market share and bring needed talent into the organisation.

Experts say virtually every type of business can benefit from using social media as a business tool.

“We really are seeing interest and the potential for business value across the board,” says Jeffrey Mann, Research Vice President, Gartner. “No one is immune, although it will be easier for some than others.”

The most likely to see value, Mann says, are knowledge-based and highly collaborative industries such as media, education, consulting and high technology; industries or organisations that aren’t hamstrung by regulation; and organisations with younger employees who are accustomed to working with social media.

Here are some ways organisations are leveraging social networking tools for business advantage.

1Customer acquisition/increased salesFor many companies, particularly

those aiming to reach a younger audience, having a strong social media presence can lead to increased revenue.

Spreadshirt, a fast-growing provider of custom T-shirts and other personalised apparel, is parleying popularity on Facebook into higher sales of its products.

“One of our main initiatives has been to convert visitors to our site into Facebook fans,” says Adam Lasky, Marketing Manager, Spreadshirt. “One of our goals [is] to increase our fan base with users who genuinely have an affinity for us, rather than merely acquiring low-value fans that never engage with our content.”

To gain traction on social media, it’s important to make links to your sites easy to find. Spreadsheet had originally placed a

Facebook fan icon low on its homepage, but once it moved the icon to a more noticeable location, it saw an increase in fans and social media engagement, Lasky says.

“With conversion rates holding steady, revenue has increased due to a larger audience,” he says. In its last promotion, the company saw 23 percent of all sales come from social media, which was an improvement from its previous promotions — due largely to the fact that Spreadshirt increased its Facebook fan base.

The company is looking to test exclusive offers on Facebook that contain deep discounts to standard products, starting with the basic T-shirt.

Another company, LoopLoft, an online business that records and provides a range of loop samples for drums and other


clients followed them after an initial contact offline and the length of time between contact and new client signing,” he says.

Until 2011, Modi says, the company’s policy stated that no professional communication was approved via social networks due to e-discovery and compliance requirements guiding the financial services industry. The requirements state that financial services firms must have a compliant archival mechanism in place for future discovery of any communications made by its financial advisers.

The firm deployed a compliance platform from Actiance, then launched its social media programme.

Social media “has become one of the most important prospecting and communication tools our advisers use,” Modi says. “My advice to other companies is don’t let the regulatory hurdles and bad [public relations] stories scare you. Yes, it takes some elbow grease and sweat to get a social media pilot running in your organisation. But with the right compliance platform, the right training and the right pilot programme, you’ll wonder how you ever did business without it.”

3Customer InteractionMany companies are finding that social media is ideal for interacting

with customers.Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop, a franchised

sub sandwich chain with more than 90 locations, uses social media not only to promote limited-time offers and special deals, but to create buzz around its sandwiches and events by engaging with its online fan base.

“We support our customers by listening and responding to their feedback and encouraging their passion for the Capriotti’s brand,” says Venessa McEvoy, Marketing Coordinator, Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop. “Social media provides a beachhead to reach out to our fans in emerging markets and to create conversations.”

Capriotti’s follows its fan community wherever it goes online, but particularly

Facebook and Twitter. “We build our community each day by monitoring our brand in real-time and treating people the same way we’d treat them in our shops,” McEvoy says. “Every day we read through posts looking for opportunities to engage our community by answering questions [and] providing support.”

For example, if a customer says he is grabbing a sandwich for a road trip, the company thanks him and wishes the customer safe travels. “If people mention they’re craving Capriotti’s, we talk with them about what they’re taste buds are in the mood for,” McEvoy says.

Capriotti’s measures the impact of its social media efforts regularly. “Our social media content management system, Social Office Suite [from Social Media Solutions], allows us to measure every post by category,” so the company can determine how particular posts perform.

“For a recent promotion, we were able to measure how many people engaged with the promotion, how many people we responded to, how many posts were sent out, how many of those posts had links, and how much traffic was generated to the landing

page,” McEvoy says. “Based on engagement from our community and this social media data, we have been able to determine more efficient promotional strategies.”

4Employee RecruitmentOrganisations are also turning to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and

other sites to find the talent they need.“There is a war for talent and that war is only

going to get more intense,” says Hannah Morgan, Owner, CareerSherpa.net, a site that provides advice on job searches, social networking, branding and other areas. “Employers have two missions: first, to hold onto their valuable employees, [and] second, to attract the right type of future employees,” she says.

Social recruiting is a hot trend for companies that want to compete for top talent, says Morgan, co-author of the book, Social Networking for Business Success. She

instruments, is seeing increased sales through social media.

“Both Twitter and Facebook have been instrumental in growing our revenue 300 percent year-over-year since we started,” says Ryan Gruss, Founder and CEO, LoopLoft. “Since we produce digital content for much larger music software companies like Ableton and Propellerhead, our YouTube and Vimeo video demos often receive retweets or shares into their social media channels.”

This sort of “piggyback” method is key, Gruss says, because it can instantly drive tens of thousands of targeted users to the company’s site, “without us spending a cent on advertising. I look at social media as our best initial source for getting potential customers into our sales ‘funnel’, and when those people are coming from software companies that we strategically partner with, the conversion rates are much, much higher.”

2 Client ProspectingSocial media can be an effective way to identify prospective customers. At

global investment banking and diversified financial services firm Macquarie Group, advisers use social media to communicate with clients, reach out to prospects and demonstrate thought leadership in the industry, says Silu Modi, Vice President of Digital, Macquarie Group.

Social media is “a fantastic, asynchronous avenue to communicate general updates and financial information with clients without being intrusive,” Modi says. “It frees up the email channel for information that’s ‘important’ to read, and leaves the social channels for non-essential items.”

The social communication forms the basis of prospecting, he adds. “Advisers using LinkedIn can see if a prospect browsed across an adviser’s profile, indicating interest after an initial meeting,” he says. “Combining social communication with other digital communication [such as an email campaign with blog content], serve the basis for Macquarie’s Targeted Convergence prospecting model that helps take a prospect from channel to channel, providing more compelling information in each touch point.”

While Modi couldn’t provide specific numbers about how the efforts have worked, “what I can say is that the advisers that have used social effectively have been able to track specifically which new clients made their initial contact via a social channel, which new

“employers have two missions: first, to hold onto their valuable employees, and second, to attract the right type of future employees.”


SEE YOU NEXT YEARlets create, disrupt & re-imagine together

12-16 october 2014duba i world trade centre

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notes that the recently released 2013 Social Recruiting Study by recruiting technology provider Jobvite shows that 94 percent of employers already use or are planning to use social networks to hire new employees.

“Companies are building pools of potential candidates by creating career-related Facebook pages,” Morgan says. “These pages allow companies to feature the company culture, star employees, and recent press releases in order to attract or lure potential employees. It also allows companies to engage in discussions with curious job seekers.”

By building communities or a pipeline of potential talent, organisations can save thousands of hours and dollars in recruitment efforts, Morgan says.

LinkedIn is a major source of talent that employers are eager to tap into. Recruiters and other human resources professionals can view candidates’ profiles and proactively reach out to try to recruit them, Morgan says. “The vast amount of information available on individuals on LinkedIn makes it the best fishing hole for employers,” she says.

Tweeting about jobs is another resource for employers. “It allows instant distribution at no cost among the millions of Twitter users,” Morgan says. “Tweetmyjob and other companies have risen to help distribute the job vacancies with more precision and greater reach.”

5Internal Communications and CollaborationOrganisations can deploy enterprise

social media platforms to enhance communications among employees and with business partners.

Consulting firm Deloitte predicts that by the end of 2013, more than 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies will have partially or fully implemented an enterprise social network, a 70 [ercemt increase from 2011. These networks are internal platforms designed to foster collaboration, communication and knowledge-sharing among employees.

Social tools such as Yammer and Sharepoint from Microsoft are popular tools for internal communication, Morgan says. “These enterprise social networks decrease the quantity of emails to employees; supposedly increasing productivity,” she says. “When embraced and used wisely, leaders can build trust and win loyalty among their employees by sharing information through these tools.”

Enterprise social networks were designed to be virtual water coolers, Morgan says, bringing together employees from different departments, getting rid of divisional silos for improved productivity and even uniting remote employees with their team members.

“Like any tool, education needs to be provided to employees at all levels on how to best utilise the new communication mechanism,” Morgan says.

6Business continuity/crisis managementSocial media can be an excellent

communication channel within a business continuity or crisis management programme, says Phil Samson, Principal, Risk Assurance, and Business Continuity Management service Leader, PwC, a consulting firm.

Social media can enable timely crisis event messaging to and from stakeholders

such as employees, customers, vendors and the media, Samson says. It can also be used to coordinate incident response and recovery activities among those responsible for crisis management, business continuity and IT disaster recovery; and to communicate with the government’s incident response organisations during crisis events.

“Even organisations with nascent and uncoordinated social media programmes can benefit from incorporating basic communication and monitoring elements into their business continuity/crisis management programme,” Samson says.

But PwC recommends avoiding the use of social media channels for certain critical communications that might compromise information and personnel security and privacy, Samson adds.

The firm is practicing what it preaches. “We have our own social media channels we utilise during a crisis to communicate an office status,” such as temporary closures and alternate work locations, Samson says. “We formally incorporated into our overall business continuity programme the monitoring of government’s incident response social media sites for information that helps us prepare and respond better to crisis events.”

insightSocial media

In june 2013, when it was seeking another round of funding, Uber was valued at

$150m



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+971 4 308 6468 / 6037 / 6620


Ashish Kuthiala, Chief Marketing Officer, Business Management Software, HP

Bring on the servicesThere is an increasing emphasis on service-aligned approach to IT operations so that CIOs can deliver on the promise of partnering with business. Ashish Kuthiala, Chief Marketing Officer, Business Services Management Software, HP, talks about the value of a services aligned view of IT.

Business service management usually means different things to different people. How do you define it?

The way I look at it, there are two parts to the answer. One is, businesses today survive by providing services, whether externally or internally. Every organization essentially today has become a software organization. If you think about it, it’s IT infrastructure and software that is delivering the business services to your customer. You need it to keep your business up and running, and push towards a competitive edge. So BSM at the very basic sense makes sure that your IT infrastructure is always up and running to provide these business services.

For example, if you look at some of the iconic businesses such as Blockbuster and Borders, they all have gone out of business. They were replaces by the likes of Netflix and Amazon. How did they change the model? It’s through the Web. It’s an app economy and competition is just a click away. BSM in a sense provides everything from the app experience, from both user and infrastructure perspective and every underneath it, right down to the memory and hard disk.

Second part of the answer is keeping the lights on and running. When I was here in Dubai

FaCe to FaCeAshish Kuthiala

twenty years ago, the skyline looked different. Today I am standing in the same place and I can’t relate to it because there is so much going on. IT is a bit like that because you have a lot of stuff that is new and you have to manage it. There is a lot of data being generated and IT uses structured, sequel data to driver business decisions. But that is not sufficient. Around 90 percent of the other information in the eco-system is not being taken advantage of. What we are trying to provide is connected intelligence, marrying unstructured data with structured so that you can start to make intelligent business decisions.

How do you actually take a services-aligned approach to IT operations and build a services catalogue?We have some underlying technologies that unique to HP and I don’t know if you are aware of our runtime service model. We have an engine- I call it the brain of the IT operations – that knows what is connected to what. If you take a simple services like email, it has got its apps such as Microsoft Exchange, clustering, servers, routers, disc drives, all connecting to make a business service. Typically the challenge for the customer

is not knowing what makes up a business service. We help you build a service map quickly using our automated discovery engine so that you can manage services versus managing network nodes or servers.

So it lets you monitor the health of your business services in real time?Yes absolutely and I call it the time machine for IT operations. Not only do we allow you to manage it in real time, we also give you the capability to have hindsight; the ability to know what happened in the past so if something went wrong you can quickly analyse it and fix it. In addition, we also have a product that looks into the future and predict what might go wrong by correlating all these millions of events in real time.

Can you manage non-HP environments?We are absolutely not biased towards HP software in any IT environment. The value we provide over any other vendor is that we will manage any kind of heterogeneous environment. Customers make investments worth millions of dollars in their IT systems and you can’t just go in there and say this will work only with our software.


Launches and releases PRODUCTS

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

PRODuCT: BBM VENDOR: BlackBerry

WHAT IT DOES: BlackBerry finally decided to open its notorious BBM messaging platform to Android and Apple users in October, and was rewarded with 10 million downloads in just over the first 24 hours of availability. Using it, people with Android and iOS can exchange messages with friends and colleagues using the BBM system. The system notifies users when each message has been read and indicates when someone is in the process of responding. Files and photos can also be shared over BBM, which boasts around 60 million active monthly users.WHAT yOu NEED TO kNOW: This launch is about more than just making it easy for people to message BlackBerry users. The company intends it to be the leading social network for those who want the reassurance of privacy, control and reliability when instant messaging. To do that, it is up against stiff competition from companies like Yahoo, AOL and Google, which have operated open instant messaging networks for years. Meanwhile, Whatsapp has come to dominate inter-smartphone commuication. BlackBerry’s app will also have to get people used to exchanging a BBM “PIN”, an alphanumeric code each user has that identifies them, instead of their email address.

pRODucT wATchA breakdown of the top products and solutions to launch and release in the last month.

Tom Paye

PRODuCT: C720 Chromebook VENDOR: Acer

WHAT IT DOES: Acer’s latest 11.6-inch C720 Chromebook will sell for $249.99, which is the lowest price yet in the newest wave of thin-and-light laptops with Google’s Chrome OS. The laptop will provide 8.5 hours of battery life and run on an Intel Celeron processor based on the Haswell microarchitecture. Intel’s Haswell processors were designed for PCs, and could give the C720 Chromebook a performance advantage over HP’s and Google’s Chromebook 11. WHAT yOu NEED TO kNOW: The price is a hike from the C720’s predecessor, the C710, which started selling earlier this year and is now priced starting at $199. At 19 millimetres thick, the C720 is 30-percent thinner than its predecessor. It weighs around 1.25 kilograms, its screen will display images at a resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels, and it will have 16GB of solid-state storage. Other features include a high-definition webcam, an HDMI port, an SD card reader and USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports.

PRODuCT: HTC One Max VENDOR: HTC

WHAT IT DOES: HTC’s newest phone, the 5.9-inch HTC One Max, includes a fingerprint scanner—although unlike the one in Apple’s latest iPhone, it’s located on the back of the device. The new smartphone, which will go on sale in the Middle East the first week of November, is the company’s latest attempt to revive its smartphone business. The Android handset is essentially a larger version of HTC’s critically acclaimed One flagship phone, with otherwise similar specs. WHAT yOu NEED TO kNOW: Unlike the HTC One, the One Max can be locked or unlocked with a touch on its fingerprint scanner. The scanner can also be used to launch up to three favourite apps, each triggered by a different finger. The phone has a 5.9-inch 1080p HD screen, a quad-core 1.7 GHz processor from Qualcomm, and 2GB of RAM. The front-facing camera has a resolution of 2.1 megapixels, while the 4-megapixel rear-facing camera uses HTC’s UltraPixel design, which the company says uses a larger image sensor to offer better low-light performance.

PRODuCT: Precision M3800 VENDOR: Dell

WHAT IT DOES: Dell is serving up long battery life and a touchscreen with its latest Precision 3800 laptop, which the company calls the “world’s thinnest and lightest” mobile workstation. The laptop has a 15.6-inch touchscreen and offers 10 hours of battery life, according to Dell’s measurements. It is 18 millimetres thick and weighs 1.88 kilograms. The laptop will be available worldwide starting at $1,799. Users can choose between the Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 Professional OSes.WHAT yOu NEED TO kNOW: The features of the M3800, including a high-end CPU, a separate graphics processor, and support for as much as 1.5TB of storage, match those of typical mobile workstations that are considered bulky and power-hungry. The laptop runs on a fourth-generation Intel Core i7-4702HQ quad-core processor, which is one of the fastest in the Haswell lineup. The Nvidia Quadro K1100M graphics processor has 2GB of video memory. The screen can display images at a resolution of 3,200 by 1,800 pixels, which is the best available for laptops today.

Launches and releasesPRODUCTS


CNME’s man about town gives his spin on the latest IT news and trends.

Tom Paye

Have you ever seen the TV show, Black Mirror? Created by UK-based writer Charlie Brooker,

the programme deals squarely with the dark side of technology, and the dire consequences we could find ourselves in, should we allow monumental innovations to catch on too quickly.

Regular watchers would be forgiven for feeling a little squeamish about emerging technological trends. For some, the invasion of the smartphone into almost every aspect of our private lives is already too much. But I’m afraid the worst is yet to come for anyone who feels uneasy about the pervasiveness of technology. On the first day of GITEX 2013, I glimpsed a future that could have been straight out of a Black Mirror episode.

Anyone who visited the Sharp stand in the InfoComm hall will know what I’m on about. The vendor was all about interactive displays this year, which was certainly interesting enough. However, what stuck in my mind was the fact that the solutions looked like a sort of pre-cursor to the depressing events in Fifteen Million Merits, the second episode from Black Mirror’s first season.

At Sharp’s stand, visitors could find an interactive video wall, loaded with apps that let you control what’s happening on screen simply by waving your hands. There was also an interactive mirror, which displays advertisements on its shiny surface, and there was a digital changing room, which covers an image of yourself in whatever you’re looking at buying.

No doubt it’s superbly fun to play around with this new technology, but are we taking this digital stuff a little too far? That’s what

Fifteen Million Merits tries to ask anyway—in it, a totalitarian regime forces people to reside in tiny rooms, which have giant screens for walls. Instead of living real lives, the population lives through digital lives, buying clothes and accessories for their avatars, liking things on social networks and playing interactive games with their screens. And because the screens react so naturally to their human stimuli, everyone is under the impression that such a relationship with technology is, well, normal.

Of course, it’s not normal to be all-consumed by technology, and I believe that most people realise the need for a healthy balance between physical and virtual interaction. But am I right in believing this? Head out to any restaurant in Dubai, and I guarantee you’ll see at least one set of parents placating their kids by simply giving them an iPad to play with at the table. Earphones in, eyes down, these children are left in their digital worlds while the parents relax and enjoy a lovely meal together. But isn’t it wrong to develop such a relationship with technology at such an early age? Given I’m not a parent, I can’t say, but it certainly makes me uneasy.

Now, I’m not saying that Sharp has a bleak future planned for all of us with its new solutions. All it was doing at GITEX was showing off the cutting edge of what’s currently possible. And there are many, much less nefarious, applications for these solutions, so the company should be commended for bringing them to market.

But such technology could lead us down the wrong path. Sharp has given us a glimpse into the future with its interactive displays. Whether it’s a bright or bleak future is entirely down to us.

Down uneasy paths

ColumnThe word on the street


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CIT_ANZ 41,4x27cm+5_3009_RZ.indd 1 30.09.13 16:55

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