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

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“Hundreds of thousands of machines are joining botnets every month. Most of these botnets are used to propagate spam or distribute malware that can be used in cyber espionage. Some of them are used in DDoS attacks or as proxies to commit other cybercrimes.Botnets are a major threat to both the average user and corporations; however, the countermeasures we take are about as much use as measures a tiny mouse might take in protecting itself against a tiger: immensely inadequate. They utilise and exploit systems in any way they want – to commit crime, earn money, etc. Clearly we need changes to improve the situation and make a difference to the cyber-threat landscape.”

New .ae domain infrastructure

WHAT’S INSIDE

Almasa reinvents itself

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Red Hat yesterday announced that .ae Domain Administration (.aeDA), the regulatory body and registry operator for the .ae domain name, has standardised its registry infrastructure on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 operating system with support from Red Hat Network Satellite.

\Mohammad Al Zarooni, Director, .aeDA said, “The mandate from the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) was clear. Our department had to create a state-of-the-art .ae Country Code Top Level domain (ccTLD) registry

based on international standards and best practices that was to be a pioneering model for operating registry within UAE as well as the Middle East region. A Top Level Domain (TLD) registry is a 24x7x365 mission-critical operation as it is the base for various Web sites and communication methods used by government, financial, health and other public and private sectors.”

Clearly, the technology had to be robust and highly available as

VENDOR FOCUS

Work like an Egyptian

Choice dilemmaWith so many cloud vendors claiming to provide the best of services, David Taber highlights the elements that serve as a basis to evaluate different cloud provisions and what suits your organisation.

Almasa II Distribution has seen its revenue falling over the last three years at a negative CAGR of 12%.

Over the last few years, Egypt has made itself central to the development of ICT in the Middle East and Africa region.

Thanks to Vitaly Kamluk, Chief Malware Expert, Global Research and Analysis Team, Kaspersky Lab.

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The value focus has existed within Almasa IT Distribution for some years now. Why spin it off at this stage?

When you are a division in a bigger machine of distribution driven by components and volume, you are not getting the right level of focus, leadership, investments. Definitely it has been a tough year in the past. The company has been restructured by Mehdi Amjad. We concluded we would make it an independent and stand alone business unit in the company in order to focus on value, vendors and go to market activities.

Why have revenues been falling?

Almasa IT Distribution used to do a lot of HP in the last ten years, but decided to reduce the focus on HP and only stay with the networking and security portfolio. That is why

you see this trend. We have also picked up some new products and in Saudi Arabia we have moved away from volume play to only doing value. The focus is now on resizing and refocusing on new markets.

Considering the number of

distributors already operating in the added value space and their headstart, is it not late for you?

It is never late. When I joined Avaya eight years ago, we said no one knows Avaya and no one knows the brand. Was it too late? No! There is always room for another player.

What differentiated value proposition are you going to offer to your partners?

Most of the players are offering similar values. But it is going to boil down to people, speed, taking decisions and delivering results consistently. A lot of vendors are

under pressure. We want to be there to support this pressure and really deliver to the market. Yes we lost a bit of share but we are ready to take it back.

Do you think UC is being underleveraged by vendors?

Absolutely, it is definitely an area of growth. Social media players like Facebook and Skype, iPhones and e-mail on the move, are changing the way we communicate today. Everyone in the SME and mid-market want to leverage their business and personal tools and get the most out of unified communication space.

Almasa reinvents itself Almasa II Distribution has seen its revenue falling over the last three years at a negative CAGR of 12%. It has been restructuring itself to move out of the volume and low margin business into the more profitable area of value added distribution. Initially brought in as consul-tant to advise Mehdi Amjad, President and CEO of Almasa Holdings, on the restructuring, Roger El Tawil is now full time Executive Director of its new independent value added business unit. He spoke to Reseller Middle East’s Arun Shankar on the way forward.

“Every vendor goes through the process of revisiting and consolidating their distribution strategy. This is very normal these days.”

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Work like an Egyptian

NAO, the humanoid robot

New .ae domain infrastructure

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.aDAe needs to serve Internet users from any part of the world.

“We chose Red Hat as the company is the leader in the Linux enterprise server operating system market.,” he continues. “The vendor’s solutions are comprehensive and stable and the technology is well supported by the open source community. The timely and regular software updates from Red Hat have been instrumental in the smooth functioning of the registry.” .aeDA turned to Red Hat’s network of ISVs to acquire its subscription and related services.

The .aeDA registry infrastructure based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 allows real-time processing of transactions so that registrants can easily acquire their desired ‘.ae’ domain names on-the-spot. Acquiring an online presence under ‘.ae’ is now fast and straightforward with the comfort of purchasing via an entirely online process provided by most of the accredited registrars. By enabling businesses and individuals to obtain their .ae domain more easily, they are now able to launch themselves on the Internet faster and make changes real-time to match their product or service requirements. With the increasing penetration of the Internet, compelling opportunities exist to reach out to users.

The .ae registry is spread across three interconnected sites which comprises of around 50 physical systems, a SAN and a backup library. With Red Hat Network Satellite, a powerful centralised systems management platform, the installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, along with custom configurations and applications, was completed in a few hours. Once the system was implemented, training was imparted by the Red Hat solutions and services team.

Over the last few years, Egypt has made itself central to the development of ICT in the Middle East and Africa region. ITIDA (Information Technology Industry Development Agency) was an initiative launched by the government in 2004 to solely standardise the process surrounding e-signature technology.

This scenario has changed; ITIDA now focuses on developing the local ICT market. According to Ahmed Reda, media and international relations manager at ITIDA, through various services and incentives, ITIDA is committed to supporting the numerous companies that have already invested in Egypt and to growing and developing Egypt’s position as a leading outsourcing destination.

“We have subsidised about 85% of the participation costs for over 70 Egyptian IT organisations so that they can showcase their products and services at GITEX 2011. These range from embedded and automated software development companies, mobile application development businesses, data warehousing providers among many others,” Reda said.

Most notably, according to Reda, ITIDA has been critical in the development of the business process

outsourcing industry in Egypt. The country currently ranks fourth globally in the BPO industry and the country’s BPO revenue stands at a credible $1.1 billion, expected to rise as high as $10 billion by 2020.

ITIDA focuses on the development and adoption of e-signature services across the public sector in the larger Gulf region, in addition to educating governments across the globe in the importance of Public Key Infrastructure for the robust functioning

of e-government services. ITIDA recently announced the launch

of the e-Signature competence centre to simplify processes surrounding the adoption of Digital Identification services and e-citizen services.

“The centre, the first of its kind across MENA, will provide significant support and services to countries across the region looking to implement e-government initiatives and digital identity projects in a secure and safe way,” said Reda.

Ever watched Star Wars and wondered if R2 D2 and C3-PO could be a reality? Real 21st century humanoid robots at GITEX Shopper, powered by Intel and Aldebaran Robotics. Intel is calling on all tech enthusiasts to meet NAO, a 58cm tall humanoid robot powered by Intel Atom technology, along with four of his robot friends.

NAO and company are performing a specially choreographed dance routine to both Arabic and Hindi pop music daily from 11am to 11pm. If your dance moves are looking a little

out dated, NAO might have some new ones for you!

Commenting on the futuristic display, Nass Nauthoa, General Manager, GCC, Intel “NAO has special characteristics of fluid movements, the ability to sense and avoid obstacles and the capability to be fully programmed to act out difference scenarios. NAO is a stunning display of the power of technology and is a unique combination of hardware and software design. NAO and friends are a sight not to be missed!”

“We have subsidised about 85% of the participation costs for over 70 Egyptian IT organisations so that they can showcase their products and services at GITEX 2011.”

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Paramount – The regional leader in Information Security

www.paramountassure.com

Suite 102, Building No 1, Dubai Internet City

P.O Box 25703,Dubai, UAETel: 971-4-3918600

Email: puja@pcsuae.com

www.maxxcomgulf.com

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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

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Choice dilemma

It’s axiomatic that in software of any complexity, the ecosystem of plug-in products, tools, compatible APIs, and developer community can become really important.

In certain software product categories, the importance of the ecosystem can swamp any feature advantage that an upstart product may have, leading to what economists call a natural monopoly.

This doesn’t apply to all product categories, though. And in very mature technologies, it is possible to unseat the established leader’s ecosystem with a “good enough” substitute. Think “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” and then think Linux, Open Source and Google Docs.

But if you look at cloud computing, there’s no part of it that could be called very mature. The argument can be made that the cloud is all based on Web services, so the ecosystem doesn’t matter as much as it did with traditional software. But that argument is naïve, at best: at the detail level, cloud vendors’

APIs are proprietary, and learning curves can be quite steep. And that isn’t going to change.

So the number of tools, plug-ins, and developers can really matter when evaluating cloud vendors. Where in the clouds is the ecosystem critically important? The general characteristics of these segments include technical, social networking, advertising, gaming and commercial platforms in addition to toolkit services.

For cloud vendors that span two or more of these characteristics, there’s a doubling of the ecosystem’s impact. The valuation of Facebook and Linked In doesn’t come just from the number of eyeballs.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are lots of cloud services where the ecosystem isn’t critically important, such as e-mail, storage, news feeds, or photo sharing. And certain kinds of cloud apps such as invoicing, banking, or HR can get away with just a couple of connectors to popular accounting packages.

Measuring ecosystemIn any vendor competition,

there’s the stuff that counts and there’s noise. The same goes

with the ecosystem. For example, Microsoft can probably claim the most APIs of any vendor, the largest developer community,

With so many cloud vendors claiming to provide the best of services, David Taber highlights the elements that serve as a basis to evaluate different cloud pro-visions and what suits your organisation.

P7@cpiatgitex

the most plug-in products, and the most consultants. But almost none of that applies to the cloud at this point, and nobody thinks they have the strongest cloud ecosystem.

So the first part of measuring the strength of the vendor’s ecosystem is clearing away all

the obvious marketing chaff. Next step is to look only at the part of the ecosystem that’s relevant to the cloud service you will actually be using. What remains still needs to be vetted, as there will plenty of obsolete or uninteresting “information” about the ecosystem. For example, you

may find 100 vendors who are nominally partners, but if only 20 of them are in your country and you’ve never heard of them before, some additional scrutiny is warranted. You may find lots of partner products and services that may not have been updated in a long time.

A strong ecosystem has vendors who have not only been there a while, but have released several versions of their products or services. If the ecosystem has a vendor ranking and rating system (Salesforce.com’s AppExchange is a great example of this), look for the quality and

recency of customer feedback.The two major axes for

measuring the ecosystem are products and people. In my experience, the number of people committed to the ecosystem is more important in the long run than the product. If there is plenty of demand and a good supply of practitioners, the plug-in and add- on products will be forthcoming.

Handicapping early scramble

It can be tricky to evaluate cloud vendors when the category is in its early days and there is no clear winner, either in features or ecosystem.

If the cloud category you’re looking at is strongly impacted by ecosystem effects listed above, you need to gauge the size, growth rate and relative happiness of the developer community; size and growth of the number of plug-in products or services; number, quality and profitability of vendors participating in the ecosystem; number, scope and quality of relevant APIs; the vendor’s investment in the platform and scope of growth of the ecosystem in addition to the quantity of staff that vendor has dedicated to that growth.

This might seem like you’re a Wall Street analyst trying to predict the future. And in a way, you are--so it won’t hurt for you to see if any of them has opined on the vitality of the cloud vendors in the category you’re working with.

The two major axes for measuring the ecosystem are products and people. In my experience, the number of people committed to the ecosystem is more important in the long run than the product.

David Taber is the author of the Prentice Hall book, “Salesforce.com Secrets of Success” and is the CEO of SalesLogistix, a certified Salesforce.com consultancy focused on business process improvement through use of CRM systems.

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