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

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Reinforcing its dominant leadership in the cloud computing space, Etisalat today announced its collaboration with Zservices - Zscaler Middle East Cloud - to bring Managed Security Services to the cloud. The soon-to-be-launched service that is currently being showcased in GITEX, will provide an ultra-low latency, SaaS managed security solution to businesses without an investment in hardware nor software infrastructure - thereby offering a cost-effective solution towards secured business transactions.

The latest Managed Security solution, in partnership with Zservices, will offer anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, URL filtering, Web 2.0 control, bandwidth control, mail flow control and DLP services to businesses. It will be powered by Zscaler’s multi-tenant, policy-based cloud security architecture - leveraging advanced NanoLog, PageRisk and ByteScan technologies for advanced threat protection and real-time reporting. The service will be delivered from the Etisalat Cloud assuring high performance, reduced risk, lower cost, higher resource utilisation and simplified IT

administration. Commenting on the partnership,

Abdulla Ebrahim Al Ahmed, Senior Vice President, Business Solutions at Etisalat said: “The cloud computing platform is a transformational phenomenon that is changing the way ICT services are provisioned and consumed by businesses. Security, being an intrinsic component for business, needs the same flexibility, scaleability, cost-effectiveness and technology refresh, as offered through the cloud, to ease the level of threats faced by businesses. By providing next-generation security solutions on the cloud, through our partner Zservices, Etisalat will enable businesses to access a diverse array of security specific solutions and extend their IT infrastructure capabilities with minimal cost, significant flexibility and speed.”

Etisalat and Zservices ME to offer cloud services HP helps

people make an impactAlyssa Sutherland has been on the move throughout GITEX 2011, shuttling between the Shoppers and Technology Week venues.

The HP On campaign is a shout to HP customers that the company will continue to grow its PC business, according to Antoine Barre, vice president, PSG, EMEA at HP.

“Managed IT services and the business benefits of adopting the pay-as-you-go model in the region are the key offerings that eHosting DataFort (eHDF) showcased during its participation at GITEX. eHDF leveraged the ICT exhibition platform to promote its new service offerings:* Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Services* Penetration testing services* Remote Managed Security Services * Managed Exchange integrated with Microsoft LyncThemed ‘Think Managed IT Services’, eHDF’s stand is in a specialised ‘Cloud Confex’ area at GITEX 2011. eHDF is elaborating on the advantages of utilising experts and State of the Art IT Infrastructure in order to convert IT capital expenditure (capex) to operating expenses (opex), with a specific focus on reducing costs and the time spent on mundane IT functions.”Sachin Bhardwaj, Head of Marketing and Business Development, eHosting DataFort

HP On!

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HP helps people make an impact

Sharp Middle East recorded increased interest in its LCD solutions compared to last year, as the inaugural InfoComm exhibition became part of GITEX.

The largest exhibitor at InfoComm, Sharp saw a marked increase in the percentage of business leads compared to GITEX 2010: more than 50% increase over last year. The focus on end-to-end solutions, saving costs for customers and improving return on investment, targeted at the professional AV industry during Infocomm helped boost the improved numbers.

“The addition of Infocomm to GITEX has paid dividends, with an increased interest in our new products and solutions from Audio Visual industry professionals,” said Gautam Chakrabarty, Deputy General Manager - Marketing, Business Solutions Division, Sharp Middle East. “Seeing our latest applications making an immediate impact on their debut in the region has been a huge plus, with the interactive venue maps being an excellent example of how our touch screen LCDs can provide flexible solutions to almost any industry.”

Alyssa Sutherland has been on the move throughout GITEX 2011, shuttling between the Shoppers and Technology Week venues. As Inkjet and Web Solutions Business Manager, she manages relationships with leading IT super retailers including Sharaf DG, CompuMe, Plug-Ins, Emax and E-City as well as HP’s newest introduction of web solutions. While most of the super

retailers participating at Shoppers admit the deals at the fair are no different from those at their outlets, it is the sheer volume of sales in a span of a few days, albeit with marginal profits, that justifies their presence. And then it is top of mind brand awareness that all visitors get exposed to you at the Shoppers venue.

On another note, speaking at the European leg of a worldwide tour, Vyomesh Joshi, Executive Vice President, Imaging and Printing Group, HP announced new Web-connected hardware and software innovations that deliver an enhanced printing experience for professional graphics, enterprise, SMB and home users. “I’m excited about the many ways in which technology is changing our lives and transforming the whole cultural landscape. HP is not only in the printing business – although that is an integral part of what we bring to the world – we are here to help people make an impact in meaningful ways.”

The HP On campaign is a shout to HP customers that the company will continue to grow its PC business, according to Antoine Barre, vice president, PSG, EMEA at HP.

Barre said that the PC business is a huge cash cow for the company and therefore it is not making any plans associated with a spinoff of the PSG line instead, “We’re in a phase where we’re deciding whether we should look at the HP business as a whole or work out a dedicated strategy for PSG. Whatever the decision, our commitment to the PC business is rock solid and we will continue to invest in research and development to create products that encompass every customer segment and cater to every customer need.”

He pointed out that the recent appointment of Meg Whitman to replace Leo Apotheker as the organisation’s CEO is a testament to HP’s commitment to growth across all product and service categories. “The way we see it, making changes when things are going good is an intelligent way to approach success. We don’t

HP On!

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Worldwide PC shipments totaled 91.8 million units in the third quarter of 2011, a 3.2% increase from the third quarter of 2010, according to preliminary results by Gartner. These results are slightly lower than Gartner’s earlier projection of 5.1% growth for the quarter. The EMEA region contributed to lower-than-expected growth led by a weak Western European market.

“The inventory buildup, which slowed growth the last four quarters, mostly cleared out during the third quarter of this year; however, the PC industry has been performing below normal seasonality,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst

at Gartner. “As expected, back-to-school PC sales were disappointing in mature markets, confirming that the consumer PC market continues to be weak. The popularity of non-PC devices, including media tablets, such as the iPad and smartphones, took consumers’ spending away from PCs.

As the PC market faced a slowdown, vendor consolidation has become a more apparent trend in the industry. Lenovo’s recent merger with NEC, and its acquisition of Medion, as well as HP’s announcement that it may spin off or sell its PC business, underlined this trend during the quarter.”

HP, the No. 1 vendor based on global PC shipments, grew faster than the industry average, and its market share reached 17.7% in the third quarter of 2011. Despite announcing in the middle of 2Q11 the potential spinoff of its PC business, HP experienced strong growth in the US, while outside the US, growth was relatively weak or average.

Lenovo became the second-largest PC vendor in the worldwide market for the first time. Dell’s performance was below the industry average

in most regions, as the company faced intensified competition in the professional space, where Dell has been traditionally strong. Acer mostly cleared its inventory buildup in the EMEA region by the third quarter of 2011. However, channels have been adopting a conservative position in regard to placing orders following the inventory issues. Asus widened the gap with Toshiba, the sixth-largest vendor. Gartner’s early study shows that Apple experienced the strongest growth among the top five vendors in the US PC market.

PC growth in EMEA reached 26.6 million units in the third quarter of 2011, a 2.9% decline from the second quarter of 2010. It was the third consecutive quarter that the EMEA region has experienced negative growth.

“Our main focus, this year has been on adding more partners to our growing channel and generating interest from the Middle East. At the same time, we’re delighted to announce the launch of ESET Version 5 which comes with a lot of new features like Parental Control, Improved Removable Media Scanning, Cloud Powered Scanning with advanced HIPS functionality and gamer mode for advanced users. GITEX also helps us to create brand awareness, educate customers and users and also provides us with opportunities to meet our existing and potential partners.”

Sachin Bhardwaj, Head of Marketing and Business Development, eHosting DataFort

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wait for a slow down to make changes in our strategies because by then its too late. HP’s move has clearly been a proactive approach as opposed to a reactive one,” added Barre.

Barre was in Dubai to attend GITEX and said that the Middle East is a large and growing market and events like GITEX bring to the forefront the position of strategic importance IT holds across all industry sectors in this region.

“There are economic cycles where IT is considered a cost centre and IT investments are made to reduce those costs and then there are cycles, where IT investments are made to enhance profitability and enable growth,” he added. “IT professionals in this region are clearly making the transition towards investing in technology to sustain growth and innovate business operations,” Barre said.

Today at GITEX, VMware announced the hiring of Sam Tayan as its new regional director for MENA. The appointment comes at a time when organisations in the region are increasingly looking to virtualisation and cloud computing to control costs and become more efficient.

Based out of Dubai, Tayan will be responsible for delivering VMware’s

sales strategy and customer service operations in the region. With over 20 years experience in the IT industry across Europe and the Middle East, Tayan will work closely with customers to drive VMware’s leading evolutionary solutions that enable organizations to lower costs, enhance security and increase business agility as they look to benefit from virtualization and proceed

on their journey to the cloud. “I am very excited to lead VMware’s

business strategy in the MENA region. Middle East businesses are keen to accelerate their move towards more virtual environments, enabling accessibility while enforcing security,” he said. “VMware’s approach to IT as a Service will enable them to control critical elements as they build infrastructures tailored to address their unique challenges.”

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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

APW President, now part of Schneider Electric (IT Business Division), is displaying its latest IMPress cabling side car and other data centre and networking solutions at the GITEX.

“The IMPress family of solutions being introduced to Dubai is especially designed to address the major challenges faced by today’s data centre managers. It is the result of a radically new design approach which sets it apart from other conventional designs. IMPress introduces several highly customer-centric features, the result of valuable feedback from our customers and our in-house design team gathered over many years,” says Reginald Borges, Business Leader – Middle East and Africa, APW President Systems.  

The IMPress family for the

housing of servers and networking equipment has been developed keeping in mind the problems faced by system integrators and installers. Based on an ‘Open

Frame’ concept, IMPress provides unmatched all-round accessibility, making equipment installation and cable management much easier than is possible with conventional four corner pillar enclosures.

IMPress Family features IMPress Cabling side car, a unique cable management solution to address the growing demands in networking. It provides a pre-defined path for the cable to route there by reducing cable clutters and air flow obstruction. The Cabling Bay can be installed between two Impress 600 mm wide cabinets or at the end of the row as a networking solution. “IMPress cabling bay is a unique concept developed by APW President to for its customers it is a future proof product launched first time here at GITEX by us,” added Borges.

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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

APW President debuts data centre solutions

Cisco and Citrix Systems have entered into a strategic alliance to develop and deliver solutions that help customers simplify and accelerate large-scale desktop virtualisation deployments. They will drive innovations that simplify the deployment of high-definition virtual desktops and applications and improve end-user experiences over a highly secure Citrix HDX-enabled Cisco network.

The companies will also continue to enhance and build upon their data centre solutions and cloud technologies to help accelerate deployment of cloud services.   

As the industry transitions from the PC era to the cloud era where mobile work forces need to access media-rich applications from any device, anywhere, anytime, enterprises are turning to desktop

virtualisation to give them the benefits of the security, flexibility and cost-savings by delivering desktops and applications as a centralized service. Innovative solutions like Cisco VXI with Citrix XenDesktop span desktop virtualisation, networking, datacenter, multimedia and endpoint devices to support customers through this transition.

Cisco and Citrix form

VENDOR FOCUS

Ixia today announced its Egyptian partner Medsciences has been awarded the contract to supply ten Gigabit Ethernet IP test solutions to TE Data – the data communications and Internet arm of Telecom Egypt.

TE Data uses Ixia’s IxNetwork and IxLoad to validate the performance of its MPLS control plan, and ensures services are not impaired when transported over the MPLS network. TE Data recently extended the Ixia solution to include 10GE emulation capability for testing 10GE MPLS in the network core.

“The MEA region is going through explosive growth in the delivery of IP-based, value-added services. Successfully deploying and delivering services requires comprehensive verification tools to test new infrastructure and services before they are deployed, while continuously monitoring both QoS and QoE. Ixia’s solutions assist service providers such as TE Data in proactively validating their networks and services both pre- and post- deployment,” said Chris Mlynarczyk, general manager of Ixia Middle East Africa.

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Dubai-based German Imaging Technologies (GIT) which produces compatible toner cartridges and provides printer management services is set to expand its operations in the region.

In 2012, the company is planning to open a sales office in Abu Dhabi as well as two foreign offices, one in Qatar and the other in Saudi Arabia.

Speaking about the growth of GIT, its Managing Director, Dr. Sassan Dieter Khatib-Shahidi, commented: “The company has evolved a great deal in the past couple of years, from being a manufacturer of a product which is focused on commodity to the being a service provider. Today we provide any element which is related to document printing, whether you want printers, short term or long term, management

packages, services on the side anything like that, recognition of the company has been very good on the market.”

According to Khatib-Shahidi, his company has 2,500 active customers ranging small set ups like grocery to very large ministries and financial institutions.

GIT has been a part of GITEX thrice in the last ten years but this year it is managing the printing of 60 Mins, CPI’s popular hourly offering that covers the exhibition in great detail.

“The staff is doing a formidable job, everybody is happy. Most importantly, if CPI is happy then we are happy that we have done the job right. It is exciting to be at the show and exciting to have people watch us work live.”

GIT is also a sponsor for DIFF and will set up printers and print infrastructure as well as staff to handle every consumable aspect at the festival.

GIT set to expand Middle East presence

“We are here at GITEX to showcase our latest products and the Edifier image and we believe that a passion for sound can be seen in all the products we are exhibiting. We are looking for new partnerships from the GCC.”

Abhijeet Patale, General Manager, Edifier

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“As demand for mobile satellite communications services continue to grow in the Middle East, Inmarsat is committed to providing customers with cost-effective and high-speed mobile technologies. Our portfolio of land services offers a variety of performance options to suit different applications. Services are accessed through a range of portable, fixed and vehicular terminals, and you can use the same device worldwide.”Drew Brandy, Land Mobile Director, Inmarsat.

Cisco, EMC and VMware announced that the Executive Affairs Authority (EAA) in Abu Dhabi has chosen the VCE Vblock Infrastructure Platform from VCE to increase business agility through greater IT infrastructure flexibility, and lower IT, energy and real estate costs through pervasive data centre virtualisation and a transition to private cloud infrastructures.

David Scott, executive director, EAA said, “The EAA was impressed by the capability of VCE and Cisco’s Unified Computing System to unite compute, network and virtualisation resources into a single cohesive system. Among other advantages, Cisco’s decision to team with EMC and VMware leveraged

the capability of experienced Eco-system partners to reduce the energy requirements of our systems.”

VCE is the Virtual Computing Environment Company formed by Cisco and EMC with investments from VMware and Intel. Through the Vblock platform, VCE delivers the industry’s first completely integrated IT offering with end-to-end vendor accountability.

The contract, represents the first Vblock Infrastructure deployment in the UAE, involving the strategic collaboration that combines best-of-breed virtualisation, networking, compute and storage technologies.

The EAA, a specialised government agency mandated to provide strategic

policy advice to the Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, will benefit from the Vblock’s single support for all the three companies for fast remediation of any technical issues or support requirement, the companies said. Furthermore, the Vblock Management tools will help the EAA to dynamically provision compute and storage resources based on their changing business needs.

Said Akar, district manager, EMC, South Gulf added, “One of the primary motivations for adopting a converged IT infrastructure such as Vblock is to achieve cloud readiness and to reduce the overall complexity that is associated with enabling a fully virtualised infrastructure. This will enable EAA to capitalise on their virtualised infrastructure’s inherent potential to serve as an agile, demand-driven platform that can deliver dynamic IT services with unprecedented levels of control, security, compliance, reliability, and cost efficiency.”