60 MinsShow dates: 9-13 October 2011, Dubai World Trade Centre | AT GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK | Exhibition hours: 10am - 5pm

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A key difference between emerging markets and mature markets is the big segment of resellers who address the service requirements of small businesses and small offices, also known as SBSO.

In emerging markets like the Middle East, this segment is less developed. In mature markets like Europe there is a segment of 100,000 resellers who address the service requirements of the fast growing SME segment of business. SME businesses usually of one to nine employees and even below 29 employees, very often do not have an IT department. They rely on the resellers to provide them value added services like maintenance, software consulting, backup, security, networking and so on.

“Today this segment of resellers is more grayish in countries like Vietnam, India, Middle East,” says Charl Snyman, HP PSG’s Vice President and GM for EMEA. Ten years ago European countries like Italy, France and even Greece, were characterised by the same grey absence of resellers and have since then progressed towards the services value added model. “The non IT managed SME in mature markets looks at the reseller as his trusted IT advisor,” clarifies Snyman on the changes that have taken place

across mature markets.“If we don’t have a channel to

address them, we may have to do it ourselves like Dell. Or we are going to be eaten by the Apples of the world in retail. I don’t want to be marginalised by retail especially when we have the best middle products and services.”

In the case of the Middle East, most small business and small offices actively make their purchases from the retail segment. “We would like to put our products in there. But it is not ideally a market where we would like to put our commercial products. Our commercial products are more to do with total cost of ownership, manageability and security.”

The relatively much smaller number of resellers in the Middle East, who are meant to grow out of fulfilling service requirements of small businesses, is therefore limiting the sale of HP PSG’s full portfolio of products.

Missing resellers

Informatica Qatar signs with Huawei

Managing cloud infrastructure and services is similar to traditional network management - only bigger, badder and more complex.

“GITEX is an important platform for Cyberoam and with high Internet penetration in the region, we have a very positive response to the launch of our revolutionary new routers. We also have plans to sign up a new distributor for the region and build on our market share for both routers and UTM lines. On an international scale, the year has been an extremely positive year for Cyberoam. Having achieved over 70% of our targets within Q1 and Q2, and with the new product launch and on-going channel enhancements, we expect to see a very strong growth this year.”Hemal Patel, CEO, Cyberoam

my gITEx

Each to their ownHas cloud computing reached its absolute peak in terms of hype?

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Informatica Qatar signs with Huawei

Informatica Qatar (iQ) has signed an agreement with Huawei to be the exclusive distributor and after-sales service provider in Qatar of Huawei mobile phones, including the Huawei IDEOS and the Huawei IDEOS X5. The partnership leverages iQ’s in-depth knowledge and extensive network in the regional ICT industry, providing the ideal platform to optimise the market potential of Huawei products in Qatar.

Wisam Costandi, General Manager, Informatica Qatar, said: “iQ has a dedicated team of industry

professionals with wide experience in the telecom sector from both the product and service domains, giving us a strong head start in our efforts to enhance the market presence of the Huawei brand in Qatar. Moreover, the alliances we have established with world-leading ICT companies are in line with iQ’s firm commitment to deliver quality solutions with best-of-breed technologies. We are therefore very excited to bring Huawei’s industry-leading technology solutions to Qatar as it will ultimately benefit our customers in the country.”

UrFilez has launched the first music-streaming application for the emerging markets. UrFilez is quickly revolutionising the way that music will be heard in the Gulf, according to CEO Hassan Miah.

With an experienced team of technology and music experts, UrFilez has developed a number of innovative digital music platforms for both mobile and Web users. The company offers licensed music from all major labels and is the leading company offering DRM-free MP3 service and cloud based music services in emerging markets. UrFilez’s innovative music

applications have enabled them to forge partnerships with major, international Telco providers such as Batelco, Zain and Etisalat, says Miah.

The UrFilez Music App is available for multiple platforms and devices, including iPhone, Blackberry, and Android phones. The UrFilez Music App can be easily downloaded from online stores such as Apple’s AppStore, Android Marketplace and UrFilez.com. UrFilez Music App uses a groundbreaking music recommendation engine that analyzes the beat, tempo and genre of the music being played. With a simple tap on the screen

users can tell the app which tracks they “like” and “dislike.” Based on this influence, it automatically chooses similar music and personalizes their radio channel according to their taste in music.

[Left to print] Wisam Costandi (General Manager, Informatica Qatar), Xiao Ning (Country Manager, Qatar branch office) and Ye Xi (Terminal Sales Director, Qatar branch office).

Another regional first

Each to their own

P4 @cpiatgitex

Has cloud computing reached its absolute peak in terms of hype? The topic makes for animated discussions at technology seminars these days and the hype seems to have reached a crescendo, making it really difficult to separate fact from fiction.

You know it’s trouble when a technology has more than 20 definitions and means different things to different people.

A while back, I’d the opportunity to talk to some of the high-profile CIOs from the region at a summit in Doha about cloud and whether it is really on their list of priorities this year. Despite all the hype and hoopla, CIOs

look askance at this new technology, which promises to revolutionise the way we deliver and consume IT resources.

There are many reasons why they are skeptical and said an emphatic no to the public cloud model. Not many are comfortable with the idea of sending their sensitive data beyond national boundaries and many cloud service providers still seem to be clueless about security. Regulatory issues, which are unique to the region, further compound the problem. Some of them who have put some applications on the cloud were even forced to take it back in-house

OPINION

because it didn’t work out really well. As one CIO told me, it costs

around $55-60 for hosting e-mail on cloud but the same would cost around $45 if provisioned internally. I

Article contributed by Jeevan Thankappan, Senior Editor, CPI

D-Link has announced the launch of a wireless display solution that allows consumers to experience content from their laptop or desktop computers on a standard or high-definition television (HDTV). The D-Link DHD-131 MainStage TV Adapter for Intel Wireless Display transfers audio and video content from a laptop computer to a standard or HD television over a wireless connection.

Consumers no longer need to restrict themselves to viewing multimedia content within the limited confines of their laptop screens. As a wireless solution, the DHD-131 eliminates the need for awkward and unsightly AV cables.

“Consumers today want to be able to enjoy their favourite videos, online movies, digital photos, music and more, from their computer on large screens without the need for cables or bulky equipment,” commented Harrison Albert, Regional Director at D-Link Middle East & Africa.

The D-Link DHD-131 makes use of Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) technology, suitable for use with laptops that implement Intel WiDi technology. By connecting the DHD-131 adapter to the TV or HDTV

and completing a few simple steps, consumers can experience a whole new world of entertainment from the comfort of their couch.

Joe Van de Water, consumer product marketing manager at Intel commented: “D-Link’s DHD-131 is a great example of Intel WiDi in action. Intel WiDi lets you wirelessly stream content to your HDTV with no cables or attachments to your computer.”

The DHD-131 employs a design which is suited for contemporary home entertainment equipment. Streaming of stunning 1080p video at 30 frames per second (FPS) is made possible using H.264 compression technology.

[Left to right] From Veeam, George Sidoris (VP Worldwide Sales) and Gregg Petersen (Regional Sales Manager, Middle East).

Veeam provides backup applications for virtualised environments including VMWare and Microsoft’s Hyper-V. Products include Management Suit, Essentials, Backup and Replication, ONE, Reporter, Monitor, nworks MP Microsoft Operations manager, nworks

SPI HP Operations manager. In the region Veeam works closely with channel partner Aptec Distribution.

Wireless solutions World’s first bandwidth-on-demand in UAE

guess the biggest stumbling block to public cloud at the moment is the lack of economies of scale.

Having said that, I must hasten to add that private cloud is indeed gaining traction in the region thanks to the onslaught of virtualisation into data centres. But the real question is there any single vendor out there who can provide all the software required to build a private cloud, which entails virtualisation spanning across servers, storage and networks, with a great deal of automation and orchestration. I am afraid the answer would be ‘no’, though vendors are increasingly creating their own definitions of private cloud to fit their product sets. So, are you ready for the bumpy ride?

In a world’s first for a telecommunication company, du and ReiverNet have signed a landmark partnership agreement to offer true bandwidth-on-demand solution for businesses and organisations in the UAE that have varying bandwidth requirements such as hotels, universities, hospitals, and other business verticals.

According to ReiverNet CEO David Stallworthy, “du shares our vision in service, focus and enthusiasm to enable CIOs to serve demanding users more easily by providing an on-demand tool that can turn bandwidth up or down on-the-fly.”

Commenting, Farid Faraidooni, Chief Commercial Officer of du, said:

“ReiverNet demonstrated a strong understanding of the importance of tailoring services to the needs of specific industry verticals. Their offering ticked all the boxes we sought in selecting a partner to deliver world-class on-premise and cloud based solutions in the UAE.”

With the partnership, an easy to use tool is made available to the hotel management to deliver on the promise of “at home” and “at work” Internet access experience. Within the hospitality industry, a recent research from Accenture showed that the number one reason why a guest would not become a repeated customer is due to poor Internet access experience.

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Paramount – The regional leader in Information Security

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Stay ahead of complexityManaging cloud infrastructure and services is similar to traditional network management - only bigger, badder and more complex.

P6 @cpiatgitex

Where once you had to deal with maybe one or two strategic outsourcers, in the cloud world you’re more likely contending with a dozen or more cloud service providers, be they software-as-a-service or infrastructure. Managing cloud infrastructure and services

is similar to traditional network management - only bigger, badder and more complex.

Where application workloads once moved over private links inside your data centre, now they’re flitting across the Internet. Where server and storage capacity once fell to IT

exclusively, now anybody can grab the resources they need, as quickly as they can pull up and fill out a Web form and enter credit card numbers.

So how are enterprise IT managers supposed to handle the supersized management challenges the cloud throws their way? Here’s

some advice for managing the cloud. Have consistent data modelsSounds simple, but don’t be fooled, says Beth Cohen, senior architect and consultant at Cloud Technology Partners, a cloud consulting firm.

Most companies have standard terminology in data records

Publisher Dominic De Sousa, COO Nadeem Hood, Managing Director Richard Judd, Sales Director Rajashree R Kumar, Editorial Director Dave Reeder Senior Editors Sathya Mira Ashok, Jeevan Thankappan, Arun Shankar Circulation Manager Rajeesh M, Production Manager James Tharian, Art Director Kamil Roxas, Designers Analou Balbero, Froilan Cosgafa IV, Glenn Roxas, Digital Services Manager Tristan Troy Magma

Web Developers Jerus King Bation, Erik Briones, Jefferson De Joya, Louie Alma, Jay Colina

OPINION

and databases to which cloud applications should adhere. This can be as basic as storing data with a standard ID number and using the same naming convention across CRM instances.

This is easy enough to control when IT is guiding the purchasing and the deployment, but what happens when the marketing department turns to Saleforce.com for its CRM needs, as does sales, but in a different project?

Business people bringing in applications via the SaaS model aren’t necessarily going to be thinking on that level. And IT has got to get out in front of this issue, Cohen says. “As long as the data models match when you want to orchestrate with other applications, either elsewhere in the cloud or internal to the enterprise, the integration process will be that much easier. And note, that is ‘when’ you want to do this, not ‘if,’ because this will be happening.”

Integration, she adds, is a real struggle point. “It’s not unsolvable; it’s a technology problem. But IT had to be aware of it.” Plan for data integrationWith integration of one sort or another all but inevitable as enterprise cloud use evolves, the smart IT department should be taking a lead on qualifying cloud providers with this tricky management issue in mind, Cohen says.

That could prove challenging, she says. “Most vendors haven’t been too proactive about the integration piece. They’re vertically focused and mostly concerned only about delivering their service and not about integrating with the ten or 100 other applications a particular company might have.” And knowing how a potential provider will integrate with current and future SaaS applications, how it will work with the organisation’s hybrid cloud-based single sign-on (SSO) environment and how it provides database access are imperative.

Create a provider ecosystemOne of the biggest management headaches of having SaaS applications intertwined with each other and internal applications is coordinating updates and fixing issues with one that might affect the others. This is an art, and where a strong, preferably IT Infrastructure Library-based internal service desk, is essential. For example, when one vendor has an upgrade, others have to be tested before a move

into production. These issues are slowly starting to crop up, and the more and more we have, the more important it is that we have a good vendor ecosystem. Build a DevOps teamOne of the hairiest infrastructure management issues for IT operations is actually not being able to manage resources at all. That scenario occurs when developers go around IT and grab resources in the cloud rather than wait on traditional internal provisioning processes.

Creating a DevOps team that can provide the rapid provisioning and super smart configurations required of today’s most agile, cloud-oriented developers is one of the best ways to circumvent this problem, says Rachel Chalmers, an analyst with The 451 Group. This means IT must embrace a change in mindset - to one of a service provider - and a new toolset.

On the later point, Chalmers encourages DevOps teams to use cloud infrastructure automation tools from companies such as Opscode or Puppet Labs. Go for drag-and-drop simplicityBeing able to capitalise on the use of a fully dynamic private or hybrid cloud infrastructure requires a management tool that lets you do things like reduce cycle times, provide better automation, get a handle on resource consumption for chargeback purposes, ensure adherence to security standards and, of course, quickly and easily spin up new environments and scale resources.

This means adding a cloud management layer on top of what a company already has in place for virtualisation management, says Dhiraj Pathak, director of PricewaterhouseCooper’s CIO Advisory Services practice. “This is a distinct layer of capability, one that allows for the efficient management of these virtualised resources. It’s still in its early days, with some parts of the layer maturing while others are yet to fully form.”

Account for multi-hypervisorsLook for an enterprise cloud management tool that will support multiple hypervisor - even if you’re only using one today, experts advise. Lots of companies have built their virtual data centers around VMware but will increasingly look to bring in other hypervisors to drive costs down and gain more flexible provisioning options as they migrate to the cloud.

Getting the right management tool is critical for a successful cloud deployment. Look for help on cost managementThe use of cloud resources, especially when business groups are making some of these decisions, seriously complicates the ability to capture and manage the total cost of IT, says Phil Garland, a partner in PwC’s CIO Advisory Services practice.

Integrating cloud fulfillment, particularly if resources are coming from the public cloud to the standard procurement process within the enterprise, is an area where people get surprised. It’s a difficult connection to establish, but it’s so important to be able to effectively track consumption of resources from the cloud and the cost of consuming those resources. So look for cloud management tools that incorporate financial engineering aspects of cloud services. That’s a major differentiator starting to emerge among tool makers, with some enabling mapping against specified service-level agreements.

And if introducing cloud services internally, IT needs to develop a consistent cost model. Transparency is a big expectation users have around the cloud, so you don’t want to be costing out every service on an ad hoc basis. Leave no discipline untouchedOverall, the challenges of cloud management are similar to traditional management, but bigger and badder. All the same disciplines enterprise IT organisations have applied to their legacy environments have a place here, too. This includes the application, network and systems management realms, as well as overarching programmes like governance, policy orchestration and SLA management.

So, power up on management capabilities before plowing into the cloud.

P7@cpiatgitex

Most companies have standard terminology in data records and databases to which cloud applications should adhere. This can be as basic as storing data with a standard ID number and using the same naming convention across CRM instances. This is easy enough to control when IT is guiding the purchasing and the deployment, but what happens when the marketing department turns to Saleforce.com for its CRM needs, as does sales, but in a different project?