Logicom spells out hottest trends

60 MinsShow dates: 14-18 October 2012, Dubai World Trade Centre | AT GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK | Exhibition hours: 11am -7pm

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What technologies are most in demand from your customers? The technologies that are most demand include the pre-orders for Windows 8 PCs and Notebooks. Microsoft’s new operation system has literally caused the market to slow down until the new release comes out at the end of October. The attraction of having an Operating System that works seamlessly across Notebooks, Tables and Mobile is creating a big buzz in the market and the pre-order demand is proving to be very large.

As more and more corporations turn to the cloud, we are also seeing an increased demand for data centre infrastructure. Servers, hard drives, virtualization, and security are all in demand. Collaboration technologies are also in demand as companies look to gain more efficiencies through better use of video, messaging and information sharing. In fact, the demand for collaborative solutions has never been higher. Increase in network bandwidth is making it easier and

easier for people to work at any location, yet still be fully functional with their workplace requirements.

What do you think is the most important technology for users to understand at present? Virtualization. Although server virtualization in now well established, its efficiencies are not being taken advantage of by many smaller sized

corporations. Desktop virtualization is also still in its early stages. Given the many efficiencies being touted by many of the virtualization providers, this technology should be well understood by every IT person in the market

Which technologies are over-hyped?Cloud today is both under-hyped and over-hyped. The over-hyped part of cloud technology today is all the vendors are naming technology they had in the past as Cloud technology due to the buzz surrounding the word. Many web mail solution providers have turned to labelling this technology as a Cloud solution. Although in strict sense of the term this is true, the technology has been around for a very long time. The under-hyped part of cloud is how you can literally run a company today without having any IT central infrastructure in place. Whether you need a CRM, security, or just a good-old Exchange solution, all this

Michael Papaeracleous, Executive Director of Distribution, Logicom

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Logicom spells out hottest trends

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Etisalat to offer GPS servicesWith the objective of providing mobile telecommunications solutions for Global Positioning Systems (GPS) services, Etisalat has signed a partnership agreement with GAPCorp FNI, a company that specialises in providing GPS services for vehicles.

The agreement with GAPCorp will allow Etisalat to offer a wide range of positioning services such as hourly vehicle positioning, monitoring, follow up with emergency assistance, a geographical barrier service, automatic warning in case of theft, emergency cases warning facility, low battery warnings and other services.

Several key managers from both parties attended the signing ceremony: from Etisalat, Abdullah Al Ahmed, Senior Vice President for Business Solutions, Abeer Norman, Vice President for Business Solutions, and Hamad Al Katbi, Manager Business Solutions; and

from GAPCorp, Nasser Watar, Chief Executive Officer and Director Majed Wattar.

Commenting on the signing of the agreement, Abdullah Al Ahmed said: “Etisalat will continually position its achievements in the Information and Communication Technology sector in a way that serves the business sector of the UAE. Etisalat’s agreement with a leading company like GAPCorp will help the business sector and particularly banks to complete its dealings and provide an easier safer flow of services.”

GAPCorp’s Chief Executive

Officer, Nasser Watar commented: “We are very pleased with this new partnership with Etisalat, which will utilize its well-developed network for mobile devices alongside our advanced GPS solutions. Through this collaboration we will be able to provide our clients with total peace of mind as we fulfill their demands and needs in line with the present market demand levels.”

Under the agreement, Etisalat will provide special data-supportive GSM cards for positioning mobile devices within the vehicles. The GSM cards are able to send and receive data through the leased line connection, also provided by Etisalat, which links the GSM cards and the communication center at the company.

In the first phase of the agreement, GAPCorp will sell around 100,000 GPS units, followed by a further 250,000, to reach a total of 350,000 units by the end of 2016.

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For visitors to Gitex, what ICT messages should they take away with them? What issues do they need to discuss with vendors? And what products or technologies should they make sure of seeing? Visitors to Gitex should take away messages based around their Return on Investment. The issues they should discuss with vendors is why to consider their solutions if the immediate costs associated do not translate directly into savings. In today’s tough economy, the name of the game is ROI. Technologies they should make sure of seeing are those can result in a paradigm shift for their organization such as virtualization.

GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK 2012 HIGHLIGHTS

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Digital Forensic Investigations of Any Kind

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Training and Services

Geoff BrooksRegional Sales Manager - Middle East, India & Africa

PO BOX 211364, Dubai UAEMobile No : +971 506 527659

gbrooks@accessdata.com www.accessdata.com

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Pact showcases business solutionsHow long have you been exhibiting at GITEX?We have been in GITEX since 2007, for the past 6 years.

What is the relevance of this exhibition to your business in the region?Established in 1998, PACT SOFTWARE SERVICES (P) LTD is an international software development company headquartered in India with its branches across Middle East.

We bring our considerable Business & Financial Management, Accounting and Technical expertise together to provide our clients a range of business solutions which include Business Accounting, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Warehouse Management System (WMS), Retail Management, Human Resources Management (HRM) & Payroll, Business Intelligence, and Point of Sale.

GITEX provides PACT the outreach to our middle-east clientele. It is one of the mediums through which we have seen consistent growth in our solution deployments in this region and also create new alliances with our partners.

What will you be doing special

Publisher Dominic De Sousa, COO Nadeem Hood, Managing Director Richard Judd, Commercial Director Rajashree R Kumar, Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan Editors Pallavi Sharma, Ben Rossi Sub-editor Joe Lipscombe Circulation Manager Rajeesh M, Production Manager James Tharian, Design Director Ruth Sheehy, Senior Designers Analou Balbero, Froilan Cosgafa IV, Glenn Roxas, Digital Services Manager Tristan Troy Magma

Web Developers Erik Briones, Jefferson De Joya Photographer and Social Media Co-ordinator Jay Colina

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this GITEX? We are launching our flagship product, PACT RevenU, this year at GITEX. It caters to business solutions needs of mid-sized enterprises.

How do you believe GITEX is an indication of the health of the ICT business in the Middle East?All major players in the ICT business treat GITEX as a premier event for showcasing their companies and flagship products

to the Middle East market. The commitment to their participation in GITEX provides a true parameter to the health of ICT business in Middle East.

What do you believe will be special about GITEX this year?GITEX is hosting a wide range of companies in the technology sector. The exhibitors have made all the efforts to attract visitors to experience the products in real time environments.

Are you planning on being back next year?Yes, we will be back to GITEX next year as well. We plan to create more interactive demos, show-case products with mobile and web based access, and explore cloud based solution alliances next year.

What are the key trends we can expect in the next two years?Mobile, cloud, security and services.

Ajay Singh, Director of Marketing, Pact Business Solutions

Getting the most out of SIEM

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Tell us about ManageEngineManageEngine is a real-time enterprise IT management software division of Zoho Corporation catering to over 60,000 customers worldwide including 3 out of 5 fortune 500 companies. ManageEngine delivers real-time IT management tools that empower an IT team to meet an organization’s need for real-time services and support. Our IT management portfolio has over 25 products covering Network Management, Application Management, Help Desk, ITIL Service Desk, Active Directory Management, Asset Management, Desktop Management, IT Security and Compliance Management.

Tell us about the product portfolio you represent? ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer is a log analytics and compliance-reporting software for Security Information Event Management (SIEM), which helps you Unlock the Real-value of Machine Generated Logs. ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer on the other hand is log analytics and configuration management software for network security devices like firewall, VPN, Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems.

Are there any interesting updates for your product that you would release during the GITEX Technology Week 2012? We have been participating in GITEX for the last six years and have often used it as a global platform to launch new product releases and updates to existing products. This year is no different; we have few exciting product announcements. We have launched Mobile Device Management capability to our device management software Desktop Central, and with

regards to the IT Security and Compliance Management product portfolio, we are providing a sneak peek into the Release Candidate version of our Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) product EventLog Analyzer.

Tell us more about your SIEM product ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer that you are previewing at GITEX?IT infrastructure generates huge amount of logs every day and these machine generated logs have vital information that can provide powerful insights and network security intelligence into user behavior, network anomalies, system downtime,

policy violations, internal threats, regulatory compliance, etc. However, the task of analyzing these event logs and syslogs without automated SIEM tools can be both time-consuming and painful if done manually.

Using EventLog Analyzer, organizations can now automate the entire process of collecting, analyzing, reporting, archiving and searching terabytes of logs from a centralized location. Unlike other SIEM solutions that are complex by nature and highly expensive, EventLog Analyzer takes pride in its ease of use, agent-less installation, instant reports and cost-effective pricing.

How has the response been for

EventLog Analyzer 8.0 Release Candidate at the Gitex?We are very excited about how well the launch has been received. Also about the fact that EventLog Analyzer 8.0 Release Candidate has aroused a lot of positive interest among the visitors, especially the Network Admins & IT Managers. The best thing about making such announcements and feature launches at events like GITEX is that, it paves way for immediate and direct, one-to-one feedback from end-users. This helps us feel the pulse of target audience and help us in determining the product roadmap. From that perspective, the response has been very encouraging.

Ajay Kumar KG, Marketing Manager, EventLog Analyzer and Firewall Analyzer, ManageEngine