Computer News Middle East

WHERE TECHNOLOGY MEANS BUSINESS

WWW.CNMEONLINE.COMISSUE 241 |FEBRUARY 2012

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Starting a journeyThe trouble when you start working on any event is that you never know how it is going to turn out.

You try and control it as far as possible. You schedule every invite to go

work the nominations to ensure the right people are chosen to win, you

know how it will turn out. As they say, hindsight is always 20:20. And your doubts and possibilities of error increase tenfold when it is the

However, I am proud to say that we pulled off a grand show at the CIO 50 Awards and Forum 2012 which was conducted in January.

makers from the region, CNME announced the leading lights in IT leadership

In the past we had conducted Awards ceremonies where we would

improvement in their quality.

the trophy home. This was when we decided that we needed a forum to

from the Middle East, attended the CIO 50 Awards and Forum 2012, in the hopes of taking one of the precious trophies home with them.

can get familiar with the winners in the cover story of this issue, starting page 35).

taking a group photo.

com). And our social media platforms have continued to break some internal records.

As I have been telling several industry stakeholders this month, there is no way for CNME to go now but up. And as we travel the route, we are setting the bar constantly higher for the levels of interaction between vendors and

You can read about it on page 42.)

articles to write and more online platforms to strengthen the industry. In

Happy reading!www.cnmeonline.comwww.twitter.com/computernewsmewww.facebook.com/computernewsme

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EDITORIAL

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Talk to us:

Making way for 4GThere are approximately six billion mobile subscribers in the world today, and last month a milestone was achieved when the number of 3G subscribers

access to fast mobile internet, boosted by faster networks and the growing popularity of smartphones. To put this in perspective, the number of mobile broadband subscriptions was around 500 million at the end of 2010, which has

billion by 2015, and it seems there is no limit to the demand for mobile broadband.

mobile broadband by the industry. It is billed as the faster wireless network, with

gained much quicker uptake in our region, and at the last count, there have already

large is how successful will this new service platform be in the Middle East? The

regulators have not been able to give a clear picture on the spectrum issues, which could seriously hinder the growth of this mobile broadband technology. A case in

to the lack of spectrum in the country. In the UAE, Etisalat is using 2.6 Ghz spectrum

and renders it almost impossible to deliver true 4G speeds. Unless the regulators

it seems to have failed to catch the fancy of mobile masses in developed markets. Industry pundits attribute this to a couple of reason. First, 3G is now robust enough

Second, there is no new killer app that can only run on a 4G network. It begs the

some answers for that this year.

Jeevan ThanpakkanSenior Editor

E-mail:[email protected]

EDITORIAL

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WHERE TECHNOLOGY MEANS BUSINESS

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ANALYSIS

8 Health in the fast lane The recently conducted mHealth conference highlighted the concerns

and issues facing technology usage in health. Ben Rossi writes.

10 Embracing digital media

enterprises in the Middle East have not understood the full importance of new technology and how it can impact their business.

11 Big data is nothing new

IBM’s Jeff Barber says that whether we call it big data, or by any other name, organisations need to learn to capitalise on their data to move

12 Protecting your virtualised assets

latest solutions related to virtualisation, cloud and big data across their businesses, are they aware they are opening themselves to more cyber attacks?

14 Dynamic growth

the company remains positive about its ERP solution in the region.

16 Round-up

CASE STUDY

28 Organised for speed

30 Technology on wheels

effective communications, offering its business a competitive edge.

NETWORK WORLD

46 Winning with consolidation

want to know is, what can it do for your business and is it worth investing in? Ben Rossi reports.

ContentsISSUE 241 | FEBRUARY 2012

CIOs in the region.35 Top 50

STORAGE ADVISOR

54 Survival of the fittest

The past year has given enough reason for regional enterprises to

strategies. Pallavi Sharma speaks to regional vendors to report on the state of affairs.

6 Computer News Middle East FEBRUARY 2012 www.cnmeonline.com

SECURITY ADVISOR

62 Extending identity

access management is fast becoming an integral part of corporate security armoury.

TELECOMS ADVISOR

70 The journey to 4G

Now that carriers have done the big work of getting 4G wireless networks up and running, it’s time to understand what these deployments and services mean to you.

72 Racing towards the digital economy

Accelerated by government policies and increasing demand from

could lead to a total overhaul of the ICT industry.

INTEGRATION ADVISOR

78 Cloud app integration: the best path

integrated with the rest of your infrastructure and enterprise

CAREERS ADVISOR

84 New kids on the block

growing IT skills gap in the region through its range of professional IT courses. Pallavi Sharma speaks to students as well as staff to discover

90 Turbulent turnover

INTERVIEW

92 The silver lining

RSA security chairman Art Coviello says customers still want to hear details about how the company so quickly detected the data breach

have been slow to pick up on new security models, many touted by RSA, that would help reduce the impact of successful breaches.

PRODUCTS

96 CNME gets down in the dirt with the latest gadgets and productivity tools, and brings you the verdict.

LAST WORD

98

7Computer News Middle EastFEBRUARY 2012www.cnmeonline.com

ANALYSIS

The mHealth conference, held last

in the Middle East market – when it comes to new technology, the region somewhat lags behind other parts of the world. Nevertheless, the key message conveyed throughout the event was that mobile health is here and will change the way people receive health care and interact with their doctors.

Santana Biswas, eHealth services director at du and chairman of the conference, kicked off proceedings at

of new technology.

“The world is going digital. The world is going social. Phenomenon like Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, are creating a huge impact on their own. It is a shift we need to understand and leverage for

the way technology is changing and adapt it to the dialogue between patient and doctor,” said Biswas.

“Mobile health is really about leveraging mobility. However, we have to make sure it is health we focus on and the relationship between the patient and doctor, with mobility and mobile phones as the enabler. Penetration of mobiles and the internet in this region is one of the highest in the world.

Health in the fast laneThe recently conducted mHealth conference highlighted the concerns and issues facing technology usage in health. Ben Rossi writes.

Month in view

This is the digital society that we live in and we need to capitalise on this to help improve healthcare in this region,” Biswas added.

The notion of mHealth revolves around patients using their mobile phones to receive healthcare information and advice, connect them to the right information faster, and have their overall health care managed in a more

speaker at the conference. “There is massive growth in mobile cellular networks in this

are living in a highly connected digital world in the GCC, and the UAE is leading that trend.


televisions are all converging. This offers a unique and profound opportunity for mobile

system,” she said.“The health care delivery system

and industry generally has been slow in changing and adapting to new technology. In essence we are trying to increase access to

medical education and training will be key deliverables that we can get from mobile health,” she added.

will be some challenges.“Strong partnerships among technology

providers are critical to provide successful and scalable mobile health. Accessibility is another factor, the cost of these applications will be critical in the adoption. Also the

different stakeholders have to buy in to the effectiveness of this application and must be willing to fund it long term,” she said.

“mHealth has to deliver measurable goals, and the collaboration between the different organisations involved in delivering

need to eliminate the fears of the patients themselves, like reassuring them they will not be losing contact with their physician and showing them how this will be effective,” she added.

There should be relevant training

said, including ensuring there are people with clinical backgrounds involved that understand the users’ needs.

emphasised, it is vital the health care

better care for the future.

is in the process of implementing the Hospital at Home initiative, in partnership with the John Hopkins University School of Medicine.

happening as we speak. Patients can phone

in and physicians can give advice and also refer these patients to clinics or hospitals.

where they can actually call someone in the middle of the night,” she said.

“It’s also going to improve the quality of the physicians because they won’t have to take calls in the middle of the night unless it’s an emergency, in which case the patients will then be referred to them,” she added.

John Hopkins University School of Medicine,

been implemented in several health systems

“The idea is to take care of people in their homes rather than in the hospital. This sort of care can be enabled by mHealth. I think it will start to shift the paradigm from thinking about the hospital as the only place where you can get health care. It may start to enable a focus towards primary care and to a

spoke about bringing her company’s initiative to the Middle East. She said mobile health will not only give patients more health awareness and information, but will also change the way doctors operate in the region.

physicians in the region must change their way of thinking to adapt to new technologies.

“Medical school trains you in a very rigid

at coaching people to lose weight because they don’t have enough time to spend with people. So you need to celebrate nurses, education programs and other technologies that allow you to be a doctor and not try to be what you’re not,” she said.

“If we can use the technology to allow us to be a doctor and let us involve other team

to let it go a little bit and loosen up, and be willing to use the technology and go there, as opposed to thinking I’m captain and stay off my ship. It can’t work that way,” she added.

“I think it’s going to be small steps at a time in the Middle East. There are paradigms in each country and I’ve been around the Middle East now for two years, and the paradigms here are very different. There’s going to be slow change but I do think it’s

had a lot of people talk about how it won’t

to have a locally based initiative. Physicians who are local and a system designed to help develop integration with the physician that the patient seeks. Most people would agree, access to care is a problem and with mobile health we hope to change this,” she added.

The conference involved a range of people from different parts of the health care industry talking about mobile health and its evolution in the Middle East.

Mobile health is really about leveraging mobility. However, we have to make sure it is health we

focus on and the relationship between the patient and doctor, with mobility and mobile phones as the enabler. Penetration of mobile and internet in this region is one of the highest in the world.”


The two-‐day Digital Media Forum, held at the Habtoor Grand Hotel in Dubai on January 25 and 26,

involved people from all aspects of business coming together to discuss how the digital revolution is changing business and the new opportunities it presents.

that these opportunities are not being fully

Tribe. He said businesses are failing to

users and company. “I don’t think a lot of businesses really

there are a lot of companies developing applications to suit their business goals,

mobile revolution will be a huge opportunity

for a lot of organisations, but it will also be a very destructive force,” he said.

in businesses possessing the wrong reasons to get an app, and a bad approach can even

app because it’s cool. If you’re going to build an app you should really think about what the key purpose and behind it is. If you don’t have a purpose, don’t bother wasting your or your users’ time. There’s plenty of rubbish out there on the app store already,” he said.

“There are a lot of companies that are bombarding their users with evasive marketing messages, not respecting their

and say no. So the idea that mobile has arrived and brands really get it, couldn't be further

ANALYSISMonth in view

Embracing digital mediaIf the Digital Media Forum 2012 proved anything, it was that enterprises in the Middle East have not understood the full importance of new technology and how it can impact their business.

Another area the Forum highlighted where enterprises are not taking advantage of new technology is in digital research.

said digital approaches to research offer better insight than traditional forms, and companies in the Middle East need to catch up with this.

“The role of research that was very traditional in the past is changing. It

to online panels, developing more research communities and understanding what they are all about,” Makarem said.

“Traditional research that takes three or four weeks to gather and determine

because things are changing at a much faster pace. It’s now all about the real time understanding of what’s going on,” Makarem said.

communities you are actually looking at developing the connections and engaging

basis. It’s getting more insight into their lifestyle, attitude and behaviour, and gains a better feel of what is going on in the market,” she added.

in the area of social media at the Forum

& Northern Emirates, denied that ROI is

many businessmen claiming the contrary. The common stumbling block in

enterprises really embracing social media is uncertainty over whether it provides real ROI and how that can be measured.

ways to manage ROI? Money going out there,

from? There are tools in place. It’s really

“The tools you can do this with are very

what these services are. There’s nothing dramatic about it. If you can match up

people spending certain amounts of time on

he added.


Many people are talking of the benefits and importance of consolidating data centres. Jeff

Barber, director of worldwide storage product sales, systems and technology group at IBM, goes a step further. He says he actually pities companies that are not virtualising.

“I pity the company that isn’t taking

something they can actually use to their advantage. It’s a phenomenally important competitive advantage if you’re turning data into useful information,” he says.

“In the very competitive world it’s so much more important that you take that data and you make sure you have the right products on the right shelves based on the buying patterns of your customers,” he adds.

Barber also laughs at the circulating predictions that earmark 2012 as the year of big data and virtualisation. He says it has been out there a lot longer than people realise and is astounded there are still companies that have still not embraced it.

“Big data has been out there for years. I think somebody coined a term that people think is very catchy, and all of a sudden we’re

phenomenon is not stopping. All the various outputs of information, like Facebook or Twitter, are not going away. People’s use of the

really think that it’s important to bring true

it in place basically since 2003,” he adds.

leave some businesses wondering why they didn’t virtualise sooner, he highlights the importance of not rushing into it and advises a careful approach to do it right.

Big data is nothing newIBM’s Barber says that whether we call it big data, or by any other name, organisations need to learn to capitalise on their data to move further in the next few years.

“If I give anyone any advice, I’d say this

bang. People like to think they can go and buy a product, implement it and suddenly they’ve

there is an awful lot of work you have to do bringing applications in at the appropriate time when you have the appropriate windows,” he says.

“You get the basic infrastructure built and then you start migrating applications as you can. The beauty of it is once you’re at that point and you virtualise an application, you then have the ability to add capacity and things like swapping vendors can happen over a weekend,” he adds.

Simply conducting the act of virtualising your data centres is pointless if you don’t then use that new platform to gain more information from it, Barber says.

You’ve got to understand what your data is and what can be turned into information. So there’s the rationalisation process, there’s the tooling to make you able to go into those databases and create something useful out of it,” he adds.

He also emphasises security as an aspect that must not be ignored when virtualising. IBM has recently developed its own security division in its software group data.

“Hacking is a new form of terrorism and it’s not going away. You really need look into security, because if you don’t have those

down that cloud path and you haven’t spent time making sure that you have security over

yourself,” Barber says.Most people don’t take the time to invest

in the people who truly understand the

taken a little bit of time and gone to people who know, they could have avoided 90% of

Whether we call it big data this year, or information explosion three years ago, the phenomenon is

not stopping. All the various outputs of information, like Facebook or Twitter, are not going away. People’s use of the Internet and information is not going away. We really think that it’s important to bring true storage virtualisation to the market. We’ve had it in place basically since 2003.”

Je! Barber, director of worldwide storage product sales, systems and technology group at IBM.


Month in view

ANALYSIS

Protecting your virtualised assetsWhile everybody is trying to come to grips with implementing the latest solutions related to virtualisation, cloud and big data across their businesses, are they aware they are opening themselves up to more cyber attacks?

That is the question posed by Kaspersky Lab, which offers Kaspersky Internet Security and

Kaspersky Antivirus to protect users and companies from such threats.

The year of virtualisation and cloud certainly presents many opportunities for enterprises, but Kaspersky says that it opens them up to bigger attacks than ever before as well.

“In my opinion, virtualisation means that more servers will be available in the same physical place. Therefore, if somebody manages to break into a data centre, they will have more data to steal,” says Costin Raiu, director of global research and

The same concept applies to the cloud, where all the customers’ data is stored in one place and this means bigger incidents, because in the cloud you have all of the customers’ data in one place, readily available for hackers to steal over a high speed internet link. This means that cloud hacks in the future will be much bigger than the small incidents of the past,” he adds.

Raiu says that cyber attacks are set to

more opportunities, but also because of the low risks and high gains involved for hackers.

a lot of money through cyber crime. Also very few of these people actually get caught and it’s easy for them to get away with the crime,” Raiu says.

sized enterprises should ignore general conceptions that cyber attacks are typically targeted at larger companies.

“Attacks are often targeted towards big companies because they have more interesting information, but in 2011 we saw many smaller companies targeted as well. So it’s not true that only big companies are affected,” Raiu says.

Industries that have previously rarely been targeted by cyber attacks should no longer dismiss security solutions, Raiu says, as hackers are constantly seeking new


hacked in 2011. The energy sector particularly lacks in security awareness, but also oil companies, chemical companies, government contractors, media companies and political entities. I think that, in order to break into industrial systems hackers will develop new tools, and already we have seen this happen,” Raiu says.

help companies protect themselves from cyber attacks.

“A good security solution is the answer.

much naked in front of these sorts of attacks. So companies should install a good and reputable security solution. I’m not saying that Kaspersky is necessarily the best, but businesses should definitely look into independent tests and see what they say about different products,” he says.

“Besides a good security solution I recommend education and security awareness for the users. It’s necessary to have a full security policy, that includes user awareness and good security products. Companies must make sure all the software is updated, because the best security software in the world is simply

access to some website that was blocked for whatever reason,” he adds.

The scariest thing that Raiu talks of is the rise of cyber warfare. He says that it has become the third, and most worrying, motive in cyber attacks, after financial gain and activism.

“Cyber warfare is a growing concern as a way for military and intelligence entities to attack their enemies,” he says.

Raiu says the Internet is becoming a cyber war ground that he believes

companies and users will get caught in the middle of.

“It involves super powers fighting each other in cyber space in a kind

conventional war tactics. Basically we are

they want to collect information about the enemy and sabotage their systems,” he says.

Nobody has admitted they are conducting these types of attacks, Raiu

says, but if it continues it could lead to a real war amongst some of the world’s most powerful countries.

“The USA, in the past, got upset about several incidents that involved China. They said if these incidents continue they will consider them as real world declarations of war,” Raiu says.

“I spoke to several people from the Chilean air force and they said according

person who is hacking another institution is wearing a military uniform it is no longer about cyber crime or hackers, but becomes a military operation and can be considered a reason for war,” he adds.

Raiu proposes that new rules and procedures need to be introduced to prevent any of this from happening, and to protect users and businesses.

“That is why one of the ideas we are pushing is to make the Internet a military

entities from the Internet,” Raiu says.

engagement on the Internet because currently there is nothing and everybody

as they want,” Raiu rightly says.The 2012 editions of Kaspersky

Internet Security and Kaspersky Antivirus are currently available in the region, with the release of their 2013

“They will have a lot of interesting new technology and more integration with the cloud. For 2012 we wanted the cloud integration to be more feasible to

a new program into your system you can find out how many other people are using

2013 products,” Raiu says.

Attacks are often targeted towards big companies because they have more interesting

information, but in 2011 we saw many smaller companies targeted as well. So it’s not true that only big companies are a!ected.”

Tamer Elhamy, business solutions lead for Microsoft’s Gulf region

CNME has wingside seats at KasperskyLab's Cyber Conference discussing IT security in the age of warfare Follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/computernewsme) for live updates with #Cyberwar. Check online www.cnmeonline.com for the latest stories.


Month in view

ANALYSIS

With 2012 being marked by many analysts as a tough year for enterprises, Microsoft believes

that with Dynamics it has brought a product to the Middle East market that can substantially reduce costs for businesses.

package, which includes CRM and ERP modules, provides an integrated repository of information across a company. The software streamlines the supply chain of information so all departments have immediate access to it.

Tamer Elhamy, business solutions lead for Microsoft’s Gulf region, says Microsoft

and make our total cost of ownership more affordable for our customers,” he says.

Elhamy emphasises the ‘total Microsoft

he says, the costs and time associated with training staff to use the software is

Dynamic growthDynamics is part of a complete Microsoft picture, and has continued to grow in adoption even during the recession. Ben Rossi finds out that the company remains positive about its ERP solution in the region.

“That encompasses everything. It combines the user interface, the ease of use, the ease of deployment and the ease of training. So the entire package becomes the main selling feature, and that is what the customer appreciates most from the many things we are offering on the table,” he says.

“There are a lot of productivity gains

people instead of doing, let’s say, three transactions a day, will be doing 15 transactions a day. So people can perform more transactions, they can respond faster, they can be more proactive and give better

we have seen customers reduce their procurement cost by 20%,” he adds.

Elhamy states that whilst the price of the initial licence may not be as low as other available solutions, when all costs are

“The thing that really rates us much better than the other solutions is the cost involved in implementing the solution,


getting trained on the solution, upgrading the solution, customising it and adding new reports. So in terms of total cost of ownership, we are usually 50% less than other vendors in the market,” he says.

Since there is a high staff turnover in the region, Elhamy says he has seen some

help rectify this situation.

training free of charge. So when you buy the licence, you are instantly connected to all the training material you need, which is a substantial investment from Microsoft and is

from a lot,” Elhamy says.“Also, the training has been done in

a way so you are not sitting on an online

training session is around 30 to 45 minutes,

everyone,” he adds.

driven organisation, all implementations are conducted through partners. Elhamy says Microsoft’s partners train selective members of the customer’s team to be equipped to

solution within a company, one or two members of staff will become the ‘super users’. These people get a higher level of training verses the others so that they can guide new employees and support the learning curve,” Elhamy says.

He calls these training implementations “conscious decisions for reducing costs” for their customers. As for the perception

large enterprises, Elhamy says he hopes to broaden that soon.

product, but we want to add to that

offering into an SME offering and enterprise offering. Now AX 2012 is a product positioned for the enterprise offering, and

and CRM,” he says.

says, is key for business intelligence.“People can get dashboards and key

he has his own dashboard and his welcome screen with the main KPIs that he’s looking at,” Elhamy says.

“It’s very important that we are

Elhamy says he believes by implementing

their customer relations management.“They hated going into a system and

inputting whatever happened during the call because the system used to be complicated. But now they can get an outlook interface that they can run on their mobile or laptop, and

and it goes to customer relations,” he says. Service provision is very much on the

radar for Microsoft right now. CRM online is available in 20 countries around the world, which Elhamy says has been hugely successful. He also says that Microsoft is investing heavily in preparing its partners for this new consumption of technology.

we showed them that it’s all or nothing, either you have everything online or it’s not worth it. Some of our customers started migrating their services into the online world, so when the ERP online comes in they will be ready,” Elhamy says.

we invested more than $50,000 of training for partners to become online ready. This

6,000 man hours of training of our partners,

than 50% already,” he adds.

over 2,500 enterprise customers in the Gulf region and is adding up to 200 every

continue in 2012.

There are a lot of productivity gains with Dynamics. E"ciency gets higher - people instead

of doing, let’s say, three transactions a day, will be doing 15 transactions a day. So people can do much more transactions, they can respond faster, they can be more proactive and give better customer service. For example, on average we have seen customers reduce their procurement cost by 20%.”

Tamer Elhamy, business solutions lead for Microsoft’s Gulf region


Month in view

ROUND-UP

King Faisal Specialist Hospital opts for Dell’s virtualisation solution

Internationally recognised hospital and the biggest research facility in Saudi Arabia, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, has selected Dell to deploy its complete virtualisation solution, Dell announced today.

physical servers down to 50 with 450 virtual servers, which will simplify IT management, increase the centre’s processing capacity and allow the hospital to quickly integrate a medical cloud computing environment in the future.

their highly available solutions and are relying on their support for our total IT infrastructure,”

manager at King Faisal Specialist Hospital.

suite of services as part of the Kingdom of

Faisal Specialist Hospital aims to continue to

the growing number of public users with

that has become vital to the hospital as the number of devices connected to the network

Compellent arrays for production and disaster recovery, Brocade FC Switches and

virtualisation consulting and implementation support, technical training for the hospital staff, onsite knowledge transfer, ProSupport, and continued infrastructure support. To improve security and availability, the hospital has also built a separate disaster recovery

solutions.“King Faisal Specialist Hospital relies on

solutions, and they needed the best and latest solutions in keeping with the highest

to help support the hospital in making a

servers in Saudi Arabia with the highest

compared to Q3 2010.

Spending on enterprise network equipment will grow by 8.7% in 2012, as companies continue to turn to enterprise mobility, video consumption and cloud infrastructure, IDC predicted.

The additional factor of many companies’

equipment purchases and upgrades coming to an end, means worldwide enterprise network revenues will reach $39.4 billion by

certainly cloud, mobility and video will drive

centre Network services.

continued growth of smartphones has led to mobility on the network.

“As we saw last year in 2011, mobility clearly made a lot of waves, raised a lot of

handheld growth from a technology perspective and from a business perspective, while empowering users with the devices

director of Enterprise Communications Infrastructure.

will also grow as a result of consumer

predicted. In 2011, an estimated 590 million people watched streamed video over the

to social media and entertainment sites more often, the amount of video content employees access on the company network is set to rise.

of video, which will range from digital marketing initiatives to the growing trend in videoconferencing, video will be the main driver for enterprise network upgrades in

A change in the way businesses approach the cloud will lead to a large increase in

said that in 2012 the enterprise migration to the cloud will become so dynamic that businesses will reach a breaking point and

cloud deployment.“It’s really about moving away from the

current piecemeal approach to bringing the

level of simplicity to the network architecture so it’s easier to manage,” Borovick said.

Spend on enterprise network equipment to grow in 2012: IDC


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Computer_News_Middle_East_UAE_14949p.indd 1 2012-01-31 09:59:43

Month in view

ROUND-UP

Qatar’s public health system to be automatedHamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and Cerner have signed a landmark agreement to digitise the entire public health system of Qatar, including all HMC hospitals and primary health care centres (PHCs). Acting as a prime contractor and CIS integrator, Cerner will deliver cutting edge health IT solutions and third party suppliers that will bring the HMC Hospital Information Management into

project in the region to digitise an entire country’s public health system on a single computing platform.

Using the Cerner Millennium architecture,

enable Qatari health professionals to elevate

and improve the clinical care processes. In addition, Cerner solutions will provide the foundation for medical research initiatives related to population health management,

other chronic health conditions.Cerner will also work with HMC to lay the

foundation for a national health framework which will allow for a personal health record for every citizen in Qatar. Using Cerner solutions, HMC will help individuals better connect with their care team and engage in their health. Individuals will be able to

schedule appointments, send messages to their doctor and create a personal health record to better manage their health. Moreover, HMC will have the ability to capture and research health data across medical encounters and medical facilities providing vast repositories for ongoing research and disease management for the Supreme Council of Health.

“Access to the latest evidence based clinical information will ensure best clinical guidelines and healthcare practices and

Information System to be implemented soon, this technology will be at the clinician’s

Medical Corporation hospitals and primary healthcare centers, allowing them to make

informed decisions about their patients,” said

medical, academic and research affairs for Clinical Information Systems at HMC.

director of Health Information Systems, added: “The creation of this partnership with Cerner is a key stepping stone in our

implementation of technology.”

will be the foundation of the health technology

HMC Hospitals and PHC’s will integrate

third party solutions, encompassing clinical, technical, operations, and administrative areas, to support HMC in achieving clinical

“Strong regional partnerships and supporting government initiatives to develop the health care industry are key pillars of Cerner’s growth strategies in the region.” said

director, Cerner Middle East and Africa. “Through a seamless electronic

health record system, HMC will have the opportunity to enhance the safety, quality

delighted to support their transformation into one of the leading academic health systems in the world.”

Carpet and rug manufacturer Al-‐Sorayai Group has completed its six-‐month implementation of Oracle Retail merchandising and stores applications to support its expansion into home furnishings in Saudi Arabia.

Retail applications to automate retail processes between head office and retail outlets, and to collaborate better with suppliers to ensure supply meets demand of their new furniture retail concept, HomeStyle.

“Oracle’s accelerated implementation

enabled us to deploy a retail platform

achievement,” said Abdulatif Bakhahdlag,

“In addition, the Oracle applications provide a holistic view of our business, enabling us to make decisions that continually improve the customer

shareholders, as we grow,” he added.

a standardised store operations platform comprising several of the Oracle Retail applications to provide a

implementation was based on insight into store and item performance and customer purchasing decisions, and was

EMEA at Oracle Retail.“The Oracle Retail platform

enables organisations to optimise their operations, make decisions based on actionable business insights and connect customer interactions to drive that

the growth of the business,” he added.

Al-Sorayai Group implements Oracle Retail


Month in view

ROUND-UP

Oman Air adopts SITA’s resource management solution

Oman Air will introduce a new resource management system to manage their 2,500 employees at Muscat International Airport, it recently.

It has opted for air transport

completed early in 2012.The new system will allow Oman Air

work crews to be reached using mobile communications. It also captures operational

American University of Sharjah (AUS) has selected SunGard Higher Education, a provider of technology solutions for universities and colleges, to help manage relations with its alumni and other key stakeholders.

AUS will use SunGard Higher

institutions, to help manage alumni relations programs, business processes and corporate relations. The solution is designed to help higher education institutions engage constituents more

help AUS integrate its processes from

to improved communication, information access, corporate partners management, tracking and reporting. The integrated system will also help simplify access to

accurate and timely information for alumni

points’ with corporate partners more relevant and productive.

SunGard Higher Education because of its track record of success among some of

“The best universities and colleges worldwide have very effective systems for alumni and stakeholders relations, and AUS is looking to benchmark best

and Alumni Affairs, American University of

Mathew Boice, vice president EMEA and India, SunGard Higher Education said, “The ability to develop and nurture lifelong

relationships with alumni and other key stakeholders is one measure of an institution’s success. AUS is building this capability with the adoption of Advance, and we are pleased to be part of this

AUS currently performs all functions related to alumni and some key

between the University and its different audiences including industry leaders

strives to ensure continued growth of the institution while providing key initiatives,

and relevant outreach programs to

services to prepare a broadly educated and talented workforce.

AUS selects SunGard to manage alumni program

“SITA’s sophisticated resource management solution will help Oman Air optimise all ground operations and lead to

ways of working while improving aircraft turnaround time with automated work scheduling capability and direct communication to ground crews using mobile devices. It will help us to validate

calculate accurate costs for all our ground operations. The quality of decision support and operational transparency will also greatly improve our ability to handle any disruptions,” Hunter added.

Middle East to deploy SITA’s system since

said: “SITA’s resource management solution is

like Muscat International Airport. Most airport

rostering is essential to be effective.”


Month in view

ROUND-UP

Al Hilal Bank deploys digital pen technology

Al Hilal Bank, a progressive Islamic bank, is using state-‐of-‐the-‐art digital pens developed in the UK to revolutionise its document-‐

complements the bank’s strategy of using best-‐in-‐class technologies such as thumb

level of security in banking transactions and enhanced customer satisfaction.

The digital pen is currently used by Al Hilal Bank’s direct sales team as

well as office staff involved in credit finance, finance operations, and sales coordination. The device includes a camera and a GPS that digitalise and automatically import the written documents to Al Hilal’s systems. Al Hilal

printed copy of a particular document with the digital pen, which automatically records the handwriting in its memory. The recorded ink is then downloaded and matched with the image of the original

photocopied. The digital copy can then be easily saved, sent, archived, copied, deleted or retrieved depending on the bank’s requirements.

The digital pen technology facilitates the movement of captured customer data along with all supporting documents and photos through secured lines to any Al Hilal branch. The bank can then process

the request and swiftly reply back. By using the integrated digital system, Al Hilal Bank instantly digitises its workflows

BSTechnologies.

our commitment to using technology to increase services and convenience for our customers. Al Hilal Bank intends to adopt more digital systems offered by industry leaders such as BSTechnologies in line with our efforts to tap modern tools for the convenience of our mutual customers.

banking,” said Mohamed Zaqout, head of personal banking, Al Hilal Bank.

Al Hilal Bank is fully owned by the Abu

Hilal Bank currently has 21 local branches and 112 ATMs across the UAE as well as three overseas branches in Kazakhstan.

As end users bring their own devices to work, download apps and sign up for cloud services, it’s getting harder for IT to maintain application visibility and control performance. In addition to introducing IT management blind spots, trends such as consumerisation, mobility and cloud computing are also increasing business risk, according to a survey of CIOs from around the world.

business and IT is at risk of widening,” said Steve Tack, CTO at Compuware, which commissioned a study into the impact of consumerisation. “Employees are clearly hungry to use the same technologies in their business environments that they are already using in their personal lives. This is creating more challenges for those responsible to keep these technologies up and running,” he added.

they worry that further consumerisation of IT will lead to greatly increased business risks. At the same time, consumerisation is blurring the lines of

polled, CIOs said consumerisation fuels

start assuming IT will address tech issues that sit outside the core infrastructure.

that having insight into how applications are performing for end users is important; it helps improve IT maturity,

However, a lack of transparency into the performance of cloud and SaaS providers is reversing that maturity, 64% of CIOs said.

For instance, more than half of CIOs said adequate support for employee mobility is almost impossible due

which make it much harder to control

their IT departments are currently prevented from supporting SaaS and social media applications because they

business.At some companies, a lack of

application performance management capabilities will wind up restricting the

CIOs). At others, end users will simply circumvent IT departments. At 64% of enterprises, for instance, CIOs said

ahead without the full involvement of IT.The International CIO Study on

Impact of IT Consumerization was

Bourne, which polled 520 CIOs from large

Pacific.

Consumerisation creates management blind spots: survey


Worldwide master data management (MDM) software revenue will reach $1.9 billion in 2012, a 21% increase from 2011, according to Gartner. The market is forecast to reach $3.2 billion by 2015.

“This is the biggest annual growth

Colleen Graham, research director at Gartner.

in a heterogeneous IT environment are

data across multiple sources. In addition, the increasing governance, risk and compliance regulations are forcing organisations to focus

required for dealing with the challenges of social data, ‘big data’ and data in the cloud,” Graham added.

From a regional perspective, North America and Europe will drive the demand

in 2013 for North America and in 2015 for

revenue will increase by 30% from 2012 to reach $209 million.

than half the revenue is driven by products

the market continues to favour specialised solutions over “generic” offerings. However,

vendors will continue to acquire for this specialisation while smaller vendors will acquire each other to build market share and increase the functionality within their portfolios,” said Chad Eschinger, research director at Gartner.

However, the variety of technologies

leaves the door open for the entrance of data integration and data quality providers, in particular. As more midsize organisations

years, they are demanding lower prices and

capturing this market will be focused on areas such as open source, as well as cloud computing or software as a service.

predicted to more than double in size over

market, as well as retain customers and

billion in 2015.“The increased demand for more

improving the timeliness and accuracy of

supports these goals by ensuring the high quality of key data needed at the point of decision, removing uncertainty and

Month in view

ROUND-UP

Data management revenue to grow 21% in 2012: Gartner

FVC, a MENA based VAD, has signed a partnership agreement with Zoho, a private company offering a comprehensive suite of online business, productivity and collaboration applications, the company has announced.

added distributor for their online cloud applications like Zoho CRM, Zoho HRIS,

very valuable addition as an online cloud

visions has always been to bring emerging cloud services to the region and equip our channel community with a comprehensive range of cloud services they can offer their enterprise customers. Zoho brings

applications as they have more than 32 online applications serving the technology needs of more than 50,000 customers worldwide.”

veryimportant as it will help us increase our services in the MENA as cloud computing gains momentum across this region. Customers are continually looking

for ways to simplify their IT environments and with this partnership we are trying to enter the market in the MENA region”, said

technical resources in MENA region.Just recently Zoho’s online services

it’s data centre. Zoho resolved the issue and a couple of hours after the failure tweeted that its service was back up and technicians were working to restore the company’s

many of the company’s customers were affected by the power failure.

FVC and Zoho to bring emerging cloud apps to MENA


Blogs: Analysis: Reviews:

CNME Poll:

The cloud CIO

http://bit.ly/wzqJGc

Enterprise Hadoop

Read more online

http://bit.ly/xrOnnaRead more online

Lost and found

http://bit.ly/xQu7HIRead more online

Pallavi Sharma,Assistant Editor, CNME

Why is technology entrepreneurship low among most Middle East nations?

Find us online

www.cnmeonline.com

Disappear not on social mediaBen Rossi. Sub Editor, CNME

http://bit.ly/xOAmSYRead more online

Photo Gallery:

It’s been a big year for Apache Hadoop, the open source project that helps you split your workload among a rack of computers. The buzzword is now well known to your boss but still just a vague and hazy concept for your boss’s boss. That puts it in the sweet spot when there’s plenty of room for experimentation.

Insight:Crowd computing-the future?

http://bit.ly/yRkNSWRead more online

21%Lack of an entrepreneurial mindset 7%Absence of an ecosystem that includes venture capitalists and angel investors 7%Inadequate support by the government for local enterprise 7%Attitude that all regional enterprise requirements can be met by solutions from global providers 57%A mix of the above


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Organised for speedWith a centralised and high-performance architecture, Al Shirawi Group is getting a handle on IT complexity and diversity.

CASE STUDYAl Shirawi Group


The UAE-‐based Al Shirawi Group is one of the largest manufacturing, engineering, distribution,

contracting and services industries conglomerates in the Arabian Gulf. Very

companies wage a battle against IT diversity and related costs. For MN Chaturvedi, CIO of the Al Shirawi Group, the challenge is the same.

“Best practices for one business unit may not be relevant to another. The

without compromising the IT service levels.

applications that suit all our business

development team,” he says. Recently, Al Shirawi retired its legacy

infrastructure built for the business with high availability, better control and reliability.

challenge was to build an infrastructure that

provide application availability, security and visibility,” says Chaturvedi.

The central IT system now caters to an

System, among other applications. The technology infrastructure is based on HP enterprise servers running on a network

built on Cisco routers and Catalyst switches.

“Centralising our infrastructure has helped to improve business continuity and

the dependency on obsolete hardware by completely refreshing the backbone technology,” says Chaturvedi.

data replication at server level. Tape is

network and the group has deployed its own

with TRA approvals.

solution in remote locations where the ISP

resulted in bandwidth and performance issues,” says Chaturvedi.

for the Al Shirwai group, a fact that is

Advanced cryptography is being used on

solution with open conditional content access management on IPS. It has also helped Al Shirawi group to optimise its network bandwidth usage.

now busy rolling out virtualisation across the data centre, laying the ground work for

systems virtualised and the plan is to have a 100% virtualised environment, which will help evolve a chargeback model and

matrices,” says Srinivas Rao, manager of IT infrastructure at the group.

now and having a converged IP network for both voice and video.

Data security is one of the top priorities for the Al Shirwai group, a fact that is reflected

in its multi-layered defense model. Advanced cryptography is being used on hybrid VPN links, which is further fortified with IPS and IDS, and distributed firewalls layered below a load balancer.

Srinivas Rao, Manager of IT Infrastructure, Al Shirawi Group


Emirates Driving Institute (EPI), part of the Belhasa group of companies, is one of the largest

driving institutes in the region with 1000 employees and 800 vehicles. EDI has 60 branches primarily in Dubai, and a sister company in Fujeirah. Technology underpins everything that EDI does to improve its services to the students and helps it set the benchmark for other institutes to follow. “At EDI, IT is not just a business support function. It actually is a business differentiator. We have 3000

new customers every month and we keep adding new services to our portfolio, which mandates a really good IT infrastructure,” says Imad Taha, Group CIO.

users and the most critical applications running on it include Orbit ERP system based on an Oracle platform, and applications related to the Roads and Transport

all these applications are mapped together

CASE STUDYEmirates Driving Institute

Technology on wheelsFleet tracking technology isn’t new. But, Dubai-based Emirates Driving Institute uses existing technology in a unique way for timely and e!ective communications, o!ering its business a competitive edge.

onto a single network using routers and

contact centre based on Avaya technology. Security is another important element

we are working with the RTA, we have to meet very stringent security regulations

the process of putting in place an intrusion prevention system, as we are going to offer services online,” says Mohamed Shakil

data on the servers itself but uses a NAS,

has catapulted it into a different league. The new system allows the company to track its assets in real time from a central operations control centre.

“The idea came about when we were looking for a tool to improve services. Ours

are cars, instructors and most importantly

feedback for services and also at the same time, predict business growth and eliminate human errors related to operations,” says

over a GPRS network.

in real time the movement of our cars and also assess and evaluate the skill levels of students. Earlier, we didn’t have any control over cars and had supervisors on the road to keep an eye out. Now, everything is completely automated and the system is designed to store information in real time.

for that matter, GPS. It was a case of using

business logic,” says Taha.

Belhasa Group CIO Imad Taha (on the right) with Mohamed Shakil Ahmed, IT manager of EDI


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COVER STORY

Dr Saif Al Ketbi from Abu Dhabi Ports Company Mohammed Younes from Abu Dhabi Education Council(representative)

Mohammed Saeed Al Shehhi from General Civil Aviation Authority

TOP 50CIO 50 Awards and Forum 2012, the event honouring the leading

lights of IT leadership in the Middle East, came to a grand close with

the awarding of 50 of the top CIOs from the region.

The CIO 50 Awards celebrated the top 50 organisations, and

their IT heads, that are using information technology in innovative

ways to deliver business value, whether by creating competitive

advantage, optimising business processes, enabling growth or

improving relationships with customers.

“The winners here have demonstrated their ability not only that

they have executed their project well, but that they have done so in

uncommon, innovative ways: pioneering a new technology, applying a

familiar technology to a new purpose, setting the bar higher for their

competitors. And they have demonstrated business value beyond a

mere positive ROI, to show how the project changed the way they

do business (whether internally or externally) or repositioned them

competitively,” said Sathya Mithra Ashok, senior editor of CNME at the

welcome note.

“We had more than a 100 CIOs in the room, and it was wonderful

to see the participation from the audience as we went through

the forum and the discussions of the day. They were especially

responsive to the panel discussion, which centred around the

changing investment priorities from CIOs, and how vendors and

service providers address these changes in the best way possible,”

said Richard Judd, MD of CPI Technology and Business.

The CIO 50 Awards and Forum 2012 was supported by CNME’s

Strategic ICT Partner Etisalat, Platinum Sponsor EMC, event partners

Emitac and Key Information Technology, and table sponsors Aptec

and ITQAN.

The winners of the CIO 50 Awards (in random order) are:


CIO 50 Awards and Forum


COVER STORY

Ahmad Almulla from DUBAL Abdulla Al Bastaki from the Roads and Transport Authority, Dubai (representative)

Juma Al Ghaith from Dubai Customs Abdulsalam Bastaki from Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority Robert James Pickton from SEHA, Abu Dhabi

Sadiq Panjwani from Shuaa Capital Dr Jassim Hussain from Gulf Air Esam Hadi of ALBA, Bahrain

Imad Taha of the Belhasa Group Bas Wijne from Orbit Showtime NetworkArun Tewary from Emirates Flight Catering




Kirit Shah from the Landmark Group

Wassim Hamwi, Meydan (Dubai Racing Club)(representative)

Alok Srivastava from Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company)

Sebastian Samuel from AW Rostamani

Hind Hasan Abdulrahim AlZarouni from Dubai Public Prosecution

Entesar Al Hosani from Environment Agency, Abu Dhabi Muhammad Ali Albakri from Saudi Arabian Airlines (representative)

Dr Tarek El Ahmady ElTobely of the Ministry of Higher Education in Egypt

UVK Kumar from Doha Bank, Qatar

Muhammad Javeed from Paris Sorbonne University, Abu Dhabi.

Fadi Chehayeb of the National Bank of Kuwait

Abdulla Hassan from the Department of Economic Development in Dubai



COVER STORY

Mohamed Roushdy from Siraj Finance

Fayez Maaraawi of Dubai World (representative) Hamdan Alkalbani at Methaq Takaful Insurance Khalid Lootah from the Ministry of Health, UAE

Ali Al Ali of Health Authority, Abu Dhabi Richard Rhodes from Mafraq Hospital Arnab Debroy from Metito Overseas

Sa’di Awienat from the Qatar Foundation

Thameem Rizvon from Kamal Osman Jamjoom Group John Loomis from the Arab National Bank, KSA

Sami Al Dekheel of Kuwait Finance House

Trevor Moore from Abu Dhabi University




COVER STORY

Deepak Kalra from Safeer Group

Abdullah AlAttas from SAMACO, KSA

Abdulrahim Almudhareb from Dubai Courts Javed Abbasi from the Gisba Group in KSA

Amal Al Kuwari from the Supreme Education Council in Qatar

AT Srinivasan from Qatar Airlines

Saji Oommen from Al Batha Group


Ali Radhi from the MBC Group

David Teklit of the Jumeirah GroupAbdulla Hashim from Etisalat (representative)

Mubaraka Ibrahim from the Department of Health and Medical Services, UAE

Mahmood Shaker from Qatar First Investment Bank



COVER STORY

At the CIO 50 Awards and Forum 2012, IT decision makers from across the region got together

to discuss the changing investment priorities in the region. Many CIOs expressed their desire to see more from vendors going forward.

increased this year. And we are looking to spend that budget in the most productive

providers will be able to help us reach the goals that we want to this year,” said Arun

Catering, who was one of the panellists at the event.

He stated though that vendors for the most part try to make a CIO’s life more

only answer to troubles or challenges facing them at any point in time. This might not often be the case, but they still continue to present a solution as a panacea.

Ashi Sheth, director of IT at the American

should improve their support offerings in the region as well.

with certain vendors, their support levels were not as high as we desired. However, I must say that over the last three years, many providers have worked consistently to improve on the services that they offer on top of the solution sets, and this is starting to pay off. I think going forward more efforts in this direction would be welcome,” said Sheth.

organisation that looks for the highest standards from vendors and stated that more often than not they received what they wanted.

As of now, I doubt the reliability of most consultants here, as well as the resources they have on hand. There is a huge gap in their services that needs to be addressed,” said Adeel.

discussion, with heated statements about

the highest priority being contrasted by others pointing out that things have changed, and that they are working on transforming themselves as well.

pointed out that decision makers should

CIO investment prioritiesbut as a part of their corporate revenue and

the region should consider IT spend not in watertight compartments, but in comparison to other departments and spend across the company in order to get the true picture.

also got involved pointing out that vendors should offer customers more options to turn

Stating their priorities for the year and going forth, the CIOs on stage demanded more automation, better data management

based solutions and service delivery for 2012 and beyond.

“The question is not about how much an organisation spends. It is about deriving continous value from whatever the spend is. If your IT solution does not let your people work more effectively or help them achieve their targets, then no matter what you have

our priorities for 2012,” said Adeel.Sheth emphasised that his focus would

be on enabling mobility across all of the students in the university. “They are my customers, and I want to ensure that they can get the information they require, or access the classes they need to wherever they are, whenever they want to, through whatever device they wish to,” he said.

Basil Ayass, enterprise product manager

IT game and started by agreeing that vendors

mind, and they do have targets to meet as well. But the only way they are going to do that is by ensuring that customers get the solution they require, or the service they want, and that this works for them in the most effective fashion. If they fail at that task, then they cannot go anywhere and cannot achieve their targets either,” he said.

Panelists at the CIO 50 Awards and Forum 2012 who engaged in a heated discussion on the investment priorities for the year.




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NetworkWorld

Tcentre consolidation are simple. Anybody trying to sell you the shift

(especially with virtualisation) would have told you over and over again that it provides you with clear cost reduction – and with analysts predicting another

something that rings very sweetly in the ears of company executives.

“IT organisations are aggressively deploying server virtualisation in data centres to consolidate applications and improve resource management,” says Samer

“The limitations in current network technologies have often prevented organisations from meeting the performance,

Winning with consolidationData centre consolidation is a term being thrown around in 2012 almost as much as virtualisation, cloud and big data. You’ve heard people singing its praises and you’ve heard a few disaster stories too. What you really want to know is, what can it do for your business and is it worth investing in? Ben Rossi speaks to industry experts to present you all you need to know.

Data Centre Consolidation

NETWORK WORLD


availability, security and mobility requirements of server virtualisation. The cost savings resulting from increased asset

application deployment meets the business mandate to do more with less,” he adds.

Cost and energy reduction aside, the underlying business foundation of making the switch is to provide a better return on investment. The idea is that with a more consolidated and integrated virtual environment, and storing organisational information in one place, companies can have

communication from the IT team with other

on the face of it, data centre consolidation is a very attractive business prospect.

It has also recently become far more popular in the Middle East. Eight months ago Oracle released research showing this region to be ranked bottom in terms of data centre

organisations in 10 regions around the world

showing the Middle East to have overtaken

table position. Those with “very little” consolidation in

those with less than 10% of their IT estate virtualised was down from 52% to 16%. Those doing “nothing” about consolidation

improvement in feedback from organisations that had already committed to consolidation. Those who said they had seen “no impact” were down from 42% to 16%, and Oracle

concluded that organisations that had moved to a consolidated data centre had better visibility of future workload requirements.

“Encouragingly, this research suggests businesses realise they have a need to catch up on data within their organisations. The unique challenge of big data represents the coming together of many IT trends

devices, systems and individuals, in both the consumer and business world, creating vast amounts of structured and unstructured

businesses in the Middle East are becoming aware of this and are rapidly trying to get on

that direction,” he adds.

Challenges

to data centre consolidation, and Oracle’s

that it is the right move for your business. However, what are not as widely circulated, are the risks and challenges associated with the shift.

Striding into a move like this without care or concern for the risks could lead to a potentially bad situation.

“Even those with the most advanced approach to data centres, doing all the necessary planning, still have a lot of things to consider in terms of risks,” says Ayman Abusaffaqa, deputy GM of data centres at Emitac Enterprises Solutions.

The most common challenge associated with consolidating your data centres is how

Virtualisation means that more servers will be available in the same physical space. So if

somebody manages to break into a data centre, they will have more data to steal.”

Samer Ismair, MENA-systems engineer at Brocade

BY THE NUMBERS Source: Oracle data centre study, January 2011

17% 16% 16% 16%ME organisations with

“very little” consolidation in place, down from 37%

eight months ago

ME organisations with less than 10% of their IT estate

virtualised, down from 52% eight months ago

ME organisations doing “nothing” about

consolidation, down from 37% eight months ago

ME organisations who had seen “no impact” from

consolidation, down from 42% eight months ago


to deal with the server down time that is necessary while the transition takes place. Companies must prepare for how they will offer their services and deal with situations while the servers are down. Problems can arise when businesses do not prepare for this, or when this transition period takes

The risks can reach further than this, and there are many things that IT departments do not consider prior to virtualising their data centres.

“Consolidation has to be done right

cases where people have attempted certain

manager for Turkey, emerging Africa and Middle East at EMC.

turned into nightmares when IT managers converted physical servers to virtual

thought to how this consolidation would impact storage and backup components. This

is why it’s key to always develop and follow

Ahmed Youssef, business development manager of network infrastructure at Alcatel

challenges and how they can be prevented. “One of the biggest risks is not looking

properly at the big picture and, since an

that’s related to the data centre, they don’t talk to each other. So the application developers don’t talk to the infrastructure management, who are not talking to the storage group. That lack of coordination is a big challenge in properly designing the data centre,” Youssef says.

“Another thing is protecting the network, meaning the risk involved in disaster recovery related to the data centre. As data centres grow, especially when you start to have multiple data centres, you have to plan for disaster recovery and many people don’t,” he adds.

In fact, security is a key aspect that many companies are ignoring as they become more virtualised this year.

Costin Raiu, director of global research

businesses are so busy trying to keep up with trends like data centre consolidation, that they don’t realise they are opening themselves up to bigger cyber attacks.

“In my opinion, virtualisation means that more servers will be available in the same physical space. So if somebody manages to break into a data centre, they will have more data to steal,” Raiu says.

“There is also the connection to the cloud. In the future, we will see more attacks against the cloud. Clouds mean bigger incidents because you have all of the customers’ data in one place, readily available for hackers to steal over a high

speed internet link. This means that the cloud hacks in the future will be much bigger than the small incidents of the past,” he adds.

Change managementAnother aspect that must be considered is how companies handle the cultural issues that arise from the internal change management, which is inevitable from data centre consolidation.

organisation, such as with a data centre, there will always be someone who may be worried about the introduction of this

that work places may move with the data centre,” says Nicolai Solling, director of technology services at Help AG ME.

Abusaffaqa adds, “If you’re going to tell a staff member that through data consolidation

going to create issues. But if the customer’s strategy is to go for cost reduction then that is what will happen. The political and cultural issues that arise as a result of data centre consolidation are very sensitive in this part of the world, but this is something that the customer must manage internally within the team.”

However, regardless of all these challenges, Marc Heger, senior director of

Zaher Haydar, regional pre-sales manager for Turkey, emerging Africa and Middle East at EMC

Nicolai Solling, director of technology services at Help AG ME

Even those with the most advanced approach to data centres, doing all the necessary planning, still

have a lot of things to consider in terms of risks.”


NETWORK WORLD


MENA hardware sales at Oracle, thinks the

generation of data centres at all.“One of the dominant trends at the

there is a massive amount of data becoming available. I think if you don’t have a plan in place to take advantage of that in the coming two or three years, many Middle East

again and some international companies

of that big data and local companies aren’t, there is a clear business risk,” he adds.

Preparing for the future

cycle of data centres to range from three to 10 years. However, regardless of the current condition and how long it is likely to last, the resounding advice is to virtualise your data centres to adequately prepare for the future.

“The cloud computing and ICT convergence era is a driver in enhancing ways that data centres can add even greater value to the business. Server virtualisation, storage virtualisation and network virtualisation will transform the way companies across the enterprise market

operate for the better,” says Steven Huang, director of solutions and marketing at Huawei ME.

It is also advised that companies should not go through logical and physical consolidation before rationalisation.

“That’s the key thing, because it has to be properly designed from a bigger picture. A lot of people are focusing on the data centre from within a particular organisation in one particular location, but they’re not

locations,” says Youssef.“So consolidating in the single data centre

like open standards and not tying yourself to a single vendor, because any decisions you

20 years. You have to be very careful in really making the right decision in the core of the network, the data centre fabric,’ he adds.

Youssef also adds that when it comes to metrics, it’s initially all about the saving on

immediate costs, especially in elements such as energy. “The easiest way to measure the value of data centre consolidation is to look at the immediate savings in utilities,” he says.

term metrics and companies must not forget

for new technologies and trends.

consolidation, it is simply something companies must turn to. It is not a case of if they should do it, but how they can

stage. Enterprises have to set themselves

centre consolidation is vital in allowing them to take advantage of 2012’s rise of virtualisation.

improvement in the Middle East’s implementation rate of this new generation of data centres, but it is important to note there is still a way to go, and stopping or

changing world of business.

ourselves on the back, because we still haven’t surpassed the standard in mainland Europe at this stage. But now companies in the Middle East are looking in the right areas and have people looking at these technologies,” says Heger.

about how long can it take or should it take to reach that level, I think we have to reach that level. Our advice to enterprises is that they really need to adopt new technologies

to work with integrated solutions that allow them to consolidate, virtualise and move

the big data boom that is to come,” he adds.

Marc Heger, senior director of MENA hardware sales at Oracle

Ayman Abusa!aqa, deputy GM of data centres at Emitac Enterprises Solutions

Any decisions you make are going to a!ect you for the next 10 to 20 years. You have to be very

careful in really making the right decision in the core of the network, the data centre fabric.”


NETWORK WORLD


CLOUDACCELERATE THE JOURNEY TO YOUR


StorageAdvisor

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Business continuity & disaster recovery

STORAGE ADVISOR

Survival of the fittestThe past year has given enough reason for regional enterprises to begin investing in a robust business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) strategies. Vendors believe that the appearance of big data and regional regulations has had a significant impact on these strategies. CNME speaks to regional vendors to report on the state of a!airs.

Picture this. A multinational enterprise -‐ that is worth a couple of billion dollars and provider

a key service to thousand of people

and personal information for future reference. In a moment’s notice the organisation’s data centre is breached by gang of experienced cyber criminals who use the holds of customer information for identity theft or to access their bank accounts, leading to hefty personal losses. Would you be concerned? Would you be willing to work with the organisation again?

Now picture an alternative scenario. The organisation’s entire infrastructure is immobilised due to a natural disaster due to which the service it provides to you is discontinued. Now imagine this service is to do with the provision of electricity or email.

more than slightly inconvenienced?From the popular PSN attack and

earthquake in Japan to the Amazon cloud outage, over the last year a number of prominent organisations have suffered the long drawn effects of negative publicity, lawsuits and customer dissatisfaction.

Some would say, it’s about time then that businesses began to realise the importance of investing in a clear business continuity and disaster recovery strategy. The need for these strategies is driven even further in a competitive environment, where margins are small and compliance standards are stringent.


Muhammed Salama, technology

steadily moving up the CIO’s list of priorities due to the competitive nature of the Middle East marketplace, demanding customer

across neighbouring Arab Spring countries."

sectors need to invest in a clear BC and

markets, multinational organisations based in the Middle East need to create these strategies to adhere with the country’s regulations,” adds Steve Bailey, regional

but more about complying with international standards and achieving corporate governance. “Organisations today, are also looking at safeguarding their own interests as well as those of their stakeholders. So, while we do have companies spending more

and provisioning workspaces should a

enterprises in the Middle East currently

capabilities with some investing in sites positioned outside the primary geographic area.

Anthony Harrison, senior principal solution architect, EMEA, Symantec adds, “Many organisations start with a basic cold

keep a copy of their data offsite. However,

today’s modern data centres, companies are

need a fully functional application stack to access the data and continue to run your

the production ones; they may be on older or less powerful hardware but they should run the same versions of operating system, database and application.”

Harrison says that there are too many things that can go wrong between a primary

hundred metres away from the production one, but this only provides a limited geographical separation and could still leave

continuity for all but the most severe of events.”

Salama adds that the way regional

with regards to distance and topologies. “In

sites are usually located within the greater

However, in a country like the UAE it is

Salama adds that in the UAE while

implementations are fast gaining ground. “In

topologies, sites are usually located across the larger spreads of cities such as Riyadh,

Bailey believes that the appearance of big data has also impacted the creation of

enterprises handle data management.

BY THE NUMBERS

1750 70% 43% 89%

IT decision makers surveyed

of UK organisations are not very confident of their ability to fully

recover their systems

of organisations in Europe su!ered

downtime

stored a back-up copy of data o!site

Source: European Disaster Recovery Survey 2011, conducted by Vanson Bourne commissioned by EMC

Sachin Bhardwaj, head of marketing and business development, eHosting DataFort (eHDF)


“In the past, organisations simply created and stored information but did not work especially hard to use and mine it. Today, more organisations have begun to invest in data mining, in collating data from multiple sources, prioritising and analysing

server with critical data, the damage will be

strategy,” he says.

companies are moving to disk for its reliability and faster recovery time, others have IT processes stored in tape applications. and therefore need a virtual tape library that allows them to move their processes on

an increasing trend whereby organisations are using real time data replication solutions to replicate data from a production site to a

Basil Ayass, enterprise product manager,

reason why regional enterprises have so far

robust strategies is associated with the lack of regulations regarding data movement and ownership in the cloud. “Customers are waiting for various government and regulatory entities in the region to introduce legal frameworks before they start leveraging

inhibitors for public cloud in the region

the event of any dispute or termination of a service contract with a cloud provider.

copies of data leaving the country and potentially being accessible to third parties, with or without the consent of the customer or service provider.”

Laying it out

step towards creating an effective BC and

between the two concepts.

and BC are the same. It should, however, be understood that BC is a framework that allows the undisrupted continuity of business operations under adverse conditions, including but not limited to

as hardware, human error or any other

policies and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure critical to an organisation after a disaster. This can be

subset of the entire BC framework,”

“For business continuity, organisations must not only look at technical solutions

For instance, a BC would imply minimum dependency on a particular individual to operate and maintain a critical service, so that the system remains unaffected and

even if one person is unable to effectively

Symantec’s Harrison adds that while most organisations focus their efforts on the infrastructure and physical aspects of setting

is often overlooked.

provide access to the applications and the data that the business needs to operate, so we always advise customers to start by answering questions like is the application able to failover between servers? Is the data

many redundant components) so that the application can move between servers?” he

According to Harrison, a mature operation will have a detailed set of recovery procedures for each application. It will specify which applications should be brought

to provide access to the replicated data volumes or the appropriate servers, and then bring the applications online in the correct

Anthony Harrison, senior principal solution architect, EMEA, Symantec

Basil Ayass, enterprise product manager, Dell Middle East

STORAGE ADVISOR

Too many vendors try to push customers into a one-size-fits-all technology choice that means

vastly over-provisioned systems that do not deliver value in proportion to their business importance.”



tier application that needs the database to be

a web server. Such a ‘virtual business service’ can be brought online automatically by the latest generation of management tools, regardless of whether individual servers are physical, virtual or even on different platforms,” Harrison says.

business and application requirements

with the data. “Businesses should start by

“Based on their RTO and RPO vendors can then translate these requirements

Organisations can then decide for instance that it wants to use synchronous replication only for the most critical systems and for

can use different ways to get a copy of the data offsite. For instance, they can

backup using hourly snapshots or even down to good old tape. Too many vendors

provisioned systems that do not deliver value

in proportion to their business importance,” adds Harrison.

More to come

while stringent international compliance standards will only drive the adoption of BC

technologies will perhaps most impact these

data centre virtualisation technologies, as well as private and public cloud computing models aimed at improving service levels, reducing cost and increasing business agility, it will no longer be acceptable to leave

where they may or may not be utilised once or twice a year. In addition to this, more stringent service levels and regulations will drive organisations towards the adoption of fault tolerant solutions where downtime is simply not accepted even during a disaster situation,” says Salama.

used for testing or development, on the understanding that in the event of a disaster,

as production servers instead. The maturing of virtualisation has made this easier to

the replicated copy of the production ones instead. I also think that more and more companies will get closer to the goal of 100% virtualisation, which is a key enabler

means we will witness the mainstream adoption of public cloud provisioning as

strategy; while some applications will stay in house in a private cloud to deliver the ability

HarrisonBailey concludes that as organisations

come to terms with economic crunch, tougher competition and political turmoil, decision makers within these organisations

order to help them attain sustainable growth margins in the long run which in turn will lead vendors to new heights of innovation.

infrastructure is not too far away. There are already many technologies that are focusing

development of complementary technologies that constantly monitor the ‘heartbeat’ and health of the infrastructure, and applications running on them to ensure a ‘zero’ interruption of service scenario, and this is

concludes.

STORAGE ADVISOR

Steve Bailey, regional operations director at CommVault

Many organisations start with a basic cold DR site and use array-based replication to keep

a copy of their data o!site. However, given the complexity and interconnection of today’s modern data centres, companies are realising that the data is not enough – you need a fully functional application stack to access the data and continue to run your business. That means that your DR servers need to match the logical configuration of the production ones; they may be on older or less powerful hardware but they should run the same versions of operating system, database and application.”



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With QlikView, businesses can take insight to the edges of their organization, enabling every business user to do their jobs smarter and faster than ever.

SecurityAdvisor

Identity and access management

SECURITY ADVISOR

Extending identityWith the advent of cloud computing and virtualisation, identity and access management is fast becoming an integral part of corporate security armoury.


The focal point of enterprise

malware and outsider threats, while most of the breaches these days are accounted for by insider threats. This is where identity and access management (IAM) solutions step in, which basically is a centralised and automated approach to regulating access to resources by employees and other authorised individuals. The primary objective

an identity for each user, associating attributes with the identity and enforcing a means by which a user can verify

identity. Once implemented, IAM systems support single sign-‐on (SSO), the ability of a user to access all network resources after authentication.

Though the concept of IAM has been around for a while, it is a cool idea that hasn’t really caught on among enterprises. But, now that is beginning to change with IAM being

managers this year, partly due to regulatory compliance reasons and the need to give access to information to the right people at the right time. “IAM is driven for the most part by the requirements for compliance in enterprises and institutions, compliance

address access to sensitive or critical information. They also seek to make the process of requesting access to information

automate those activities associated with the creation, maintenance, use, and retirement of digital identities,” says Earl Perkins, research

Erwin Martin, technical consultant with Secureway, says enhanced productivity

processes, delivering quick response times

tasks,” he says.

Enterprises across all industries are facing the same common challenges when considering an IAM solution. “Firstly they want to ensure their enterprise security, meaning that the right people have access to the right information at the right time. This is easier said than done given that people might have the full right to access information, we don't know how they are using that information . Increasingly we find enterprises asking what people are doing with the information they are allowed to access,” says Franz Erasmus, practice manager for information security at CA MENA.

Perkins from Gartner says regulatory

enterprises, namely questions such as who has access to what who gave the user or partner that access and when was it given; and what level of access was given. “IAM is a process that spans multiple business “silos” such as enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, supply

IAM is driven for the most part by the requirements for compliance in enterprises and institutions,

compliance to internal and external regulations that address access to sensitive or critical information.

Earl Perkins, research VP, Gartner

Franz Erasmus, practice manager , information security, CA MENA


for accountability, transparency, and control of access. Providing a common process and approach to managing identity in those silos

silo often has its own view of IAM,” he adds.

associated with IAM today is how do you manage identity and access across physical, virtual and cloud environments. “You need to

turn the concept of identity on its head,” says

that they’re still rooted in the physical world.

change comes slowly. The model is simple

placed at the boundaries, and once placed they are likely to live a long productive life

boundaries are much more elastic, change is constant, new endpoints are appearing faster

a fact of life,” Narain adds.Erasmus from CA echoes a similar

opinion, “The introduction of virtual and cloud environments have presented business with immense value and business opportunity. However, the risk of losing control over such environments by means of rapid proliferation and associated identity

Those shopping around for IAM solutions

challenges, there are technology vendors that have accumulated in one place the products often required to build a comprehensive IAM program. These vendors, known as IAM suite or portfolio vendors, provide access, identity administration, and intelligence functions in two or more IAM products and provide

partners) to integrate those functions within an IAM program. There are smaller IAM vendors that touch in partnerships with other IAM vendors to compete against the suite concept. It is an active and vibrant market for solutions,” says Perkins.

IAM solution should grow as an enterprise grows. The challenges faced by a 100 employee organisation are both the same and vastly different from ones faced by organisations with 10,000 employees. Any IAM solution should be robust enough to both economically tackle your challenges today, and be able to be used as a foundation for tomorrow’s opportunities.

Given the fact that each organisation is unique from the standpoints of IT and workforce environments, the right IAM

to each organisation’s policies and risk or compliance posture, according to Chris

Manager at BMC. Selecting an IAM solution also means selecting the appropriate long

not only your requirements as an enterprise but the architecture and ‘philosophy’ of the enterprise. Perkins from Gartner

investments with considerable deployment times, and choosing a partner that will be a

to come is critical. Criteria such as viability, the availability of integration partners, strong regional support, and technology

SECURITY ADVISOR

BEST PRACTICES CHECKLIST FOR IAM

The solution should be able to map policies

to users, computers, locations and specific

business processes or application content.

access to systems.

reduce identity theft.

risk management authorities.

authentication tools that are integrated with

the organisation’s IT security framework.

third-party access and interfaces.

authentication.

longer authorised to access an IT system.

security access systems.

applications by limiting access to: valid users

Source: Imprivata

Identity and access management

Diyaa Zebian, MD, Novell Middle East


that addresses your requirements are all important. In addition, a partner that understands the process and organisational needs of the enterprise to support and use IAM is considered critical.

A daunting task

initiatives are considered high value but notoriously problematic to deploy. Yet

30% or more of the total information security budget of most large organisation,

the very people and process breakdowns IAM automation is meant to solve, such as too many or too few people involved in authorising requests, a lack of documentation for access requests and approvals, connecting to target systems with “dirty” or obsolete data, and so on. This conundrum has led to the rise of what is called identity governance.

processes that are most critical to the

root access to the server hosting an ERP

that grants that access? How does that

and for how long? How can we report on it during an audit?

Getting your organisation’s governance processes locked in is a tall order, but well

identity governance is that it pinpoints which

of attention.

making efforts to simplify the process. “Traditional IAM systems have earned a

generation IAM solutions have addressed many of the shortcomings that plagued early

for common tasks such as access request, approvals and reviews that business users

commonly need. This minimises the need

In addition, our solution is designed to be

offer integration modules to third party provisioning solutions, access management products, and help desk products. In other words, we complement previous investments by adding friendlier UIs and better business

Erasmus from CA says his company has

and has developed a number of services

and tools that assist an enterprise with deployment of IAM solutions on business,

implementation service deploys CA Identity Manager in an initial bounded deployment that delivers results quickly. CA architects and consultants work with the enterprise to develop solution design and integration

and test plans. Technically CA has also developed a tool that facilitates system integration via a wizard style interface.

need for manual coding of the solution to enterprise systems, he adds.

IAM implementations promise big rewards but demand big investments, and don’t ever underestimate the amount of

environment for a smooth implementation before you get on the bandwagon.

Within the security community, IAM initiatives are considered high value but notoriously

problematic to deploy. Yet despite IAM’s complexity, it represents 30% or more of the total information security budget of most large organisation, according to IDC.

SECURITY ADVISORIdentity and access management

Jackie Gilbert, Co-founder and VP, SailPoint

Chris Rixon, principal solutions marketing manager, BMC


TelecomsWorld

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Ever since its inception three years

in our region. KSA and UAE are now leading the pack ahead of even many European

itself has matured through standardisation.

of choice for 4G mobile networks as

and Africa at Nokia Siemens Networks,

technology of choice for 4G demonstrated by

any previous wireless technology before.

already been launched with several hundreds of devices completing the ecosystem so that operators can provide a full and versatile solution to their subscribers. All in all, the economies of scale for both network and

attractive technology solution," he says.

In a nutshell, you can expect wireless services that support data transmission speeds as high

prioritisation to boot. With such features, it becomes possible to imagine a mobile employee using a cell phone to participate in a video conference or tune into high-‐quality streaming video.

Though several technologies have played a role in 4G as it developed, including

to the technology of choice for 4G, the whole industry can remember discussions

suited for connecting people in the future. This contest has been clearly decided in

strategy and market development, mobile broadband, MENA region.

of media and telecommunications which started in the last few years, and this was driven largely by a strong demand for devices like smartphones, tablet computers and laptops. All indications point to further growth in demand and our belief is that we will have as many as 50 billion connections

presents an opportunity for 4G in 2012 and

we will look at ways to make the most of this demand," he adds.

Christelle Toureille, Marketing Director for telecommunication solutions at Gemalto Middle East

Andreas Krenn, head of strategy and market development, Mobile Broadband, Region Middle East and North East Africa

4G

TELECOMS WORLD

Now that carriers have done the big work of getting 4G wireless networks up and running, it’s time to understand what these deployments and services mean to you.

The journey to 4G

All indications point to further growth in demand and our belief is that we will have as

many as 50 billion connections by 2020. We believe that in the future everything that will benefit from being connected, will be connected. This definitely presents an opportunity for 4G in 2012 and beyond and as the global leaders in the field we will look at ways to make the most of this demand.”


current technology and local spectrum landscapes are essential parameters to be considered. For a cost effective network deployment, operators may want to use

spectrum in rural areas where coverage is more critical than capacity. Considering the scarcity of low spectrums in many countries,

only option. However, this is not an easy choice and it has to be done carefully taking into account many factors, such as cost and

other spectrums, reduced capacity of other technologies, etc.,” he says.

For operators, it is also equally important to evolve a backhaul strategy

bottleneck. “Spectrum is not necessarily the backbone of this mobile broadband

boost to the radio access network, trouble

the backhaul portion of the network. The rise in bandwidth requirements means that carriers need to rethink their network

capable of meeting increases in customer demand,” says Saad Khan, regional marketing director of Ciena.

networks have been optimised to provide high throughput and good quality service.

devices coming to market this year coverage will continue to grow,” he adds.

Spectrum conundrum

availability with enough bandwidth and

fact that is becoming increasingly obvious as demand for them keeps growing. For

farming solutions are crucial in reallocating frequencies, while controlling interferences

frequencies. Actual coordination between

challenge that can be addressed through

solutions and marketing, Huwei. Hilal Halaoui, partner with Booz &

Company, says it also depends on the

will continue to evolve in parallel. “Many operators have deployed 3G networks already, and will continue to upgrade their

in spectrum licences and network equipment," says Christelle Toureille, marketing director for telecommunication solutions at Gemalto Middle East.

and many services can be deployed on top

is also looming large on the horizon of wireless technologies and we are likely

Network manufacturers such as Nokia Siemens Networks are already delivering and deploying network equipment to their

a short timeframe to offer cutting edge technology to their subscribers and remain the leaders in their markets.

Dirk Busse, Mobile Broadband Solutions Architect and LTE Head of Middle East and Africa at Nokia Siemens Networks

Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Azzam, Country Senior O!cer of Saudi Arabia, Alcatel-Lucent

Hilal Halaoui, Partner with Booz & Company


The telecommunications market across the Middle East is set to change dramatically over the next

10 years. Increasing demand for bandwidth is starting to exceed the physical limits of legacy access networks. The roll-‐out of NBN

massive investment with long pay-‐back periods. Recent studies suggest that the external effects of broadband investments on GDP growth and employment exceed

by far. As a result many countries in the Middle East have developing broadband strategies including industrial policy support, subsidies and direct government investments in telecom related policies. The key to a successful national broadband strategy lies in having an investment friendly regulatory framework and

policy measures.

Some governments are changing the course of deregulation more seriously by taking a direct role as investor and operator. A

region to have 100% broadband penetration by 2012.

A number of countries, mainly in the Middle East, are thinking along the same lines. Recently in Qatar the Q.NBN company

Leo Xiu

Accelerated by government policies and increasing demand from consumers for more bandwidth and video-centric applications, Leo Xu, VP of solutions

and marketing Middle East at Huawei, investigates how the roll-out of national broadband networks (NBN) could lead to a total overhaul of the ICT industry.

Racing towards the digital economy

OPINION


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signed an agreement with Qatar Telecom and

the three organisations can work together to realise the Qatar Government’s goal to bring high speed broadband services to 95% of households and 100% of government bodies and businesses in Qatar by 2015.

Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman are also

nationwide NBN.

Challenges

operators some time to achieve nationwide

longer than governments would like for reasons of economic recovery and national competitiveness.

The blended average revenue per

with little regional variation. In contrast the investment per home decreases strongly with

worth noting that more than 60% of the Middle East population live in “dense rural” and

As a consequence, operators have little

outside urban areas. Studies suggest that under current ARPU and cost conditions

for about 25% of Middle East households,

conditions. In a competitive environment, the investment opportunity would be even

basic idea to solve sector problems through liberalisation and privatisation.

The new approach

of the incumbent’s market power and the support of service competition as their main task, their focus is now shifting to fostering investments in broadband access networks.

This demands adapted and new regulation, while the increasing “digital divide” between urban centres and rural areas demand a new

In principle three types of markets can be determined:

can compete with interactive networks and

regulated infrastructure competition could

standards for interoperability and symmetric access obligations.

In smaller cities and suburban areas

faced by the infrastructure investor should

prices allowing either risk sharing by price structures that reward long term rental and high capacity commitments.

not viable, the only market solution could

4G networks, but service quality will be well below the broadband strategy’s high speed targets. Here the regulator needs to develop

spectrum to be auctioned in rural areas so that operators can offer higher bandwidth. The current practice of subsidising local community

operability of the individual networks.

NBN development trends The trend for growing bandwidth demand remains unbroken across the Middle

and video intensive social networks are driving data rates per household well beyond the physical limits of legacy copper access

As a result, national broadband

the predominant infrastructure and as a

its services to sectors such as government, healthcare, education and business. It will

and future data and communication

speed Internet access, leased line service for enterprises, and backhaul for mobile broadband services. In the very near future, members of a single family will be watching

class lectures and social networking.As the race to compete in the digital

economy continues, national broadband network technology is a key driver of national competitiveness as it will provide universal access to high speed broadband services and

OPINION

Leo Xu, VP of solutions & marketing Middle East at Huawei

Leo Xiu


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IntegrationAdvisor

Cloud apps

INTEGRATION ADVISOR

Cloud app integration: the best path

Cloud-based or SaaS applications need to live in an ecosystem, integrated with the rest of your infrastructure and enterprise applications. Sure -- but

what integration strategy actually works best?


There’s a lot of noise from vendors of every stripe about the cloud. Unfortunately, in the vendors’

efforts to show how all their products are cloud-‐based, there’s a lot of blurring about the specifics of what it means to be a cloud application. Consequently, this article will apply differently to every cloud vendor. (And for the purposes of this article, let’s keep the discussion to SaaS and cloud-‐based apps from a vendor or integrator, not ones you build yourself, although some of the same principles apply.)

of the distinguishing characteristics of cloud software is the variety of ways it can be integrated. As most cloud applications

oriented architecture, even if they don’t

right toolkits and development attitude, you can integrate cloud applications with a variety of techniques and use as many of them concurrently as you like, even in the same application. Of course, you have to understand the limitations of each

as layers of an onion.

Layer 1: On-‐Screen Integration

Otherwise known as mashups, this style of integration is the ultimate in quick and dirty.

with lots of parameters for grabbing the goodies from the other cloud. This is the baseline method for pulling images, maps, news items, and data feeds from publicly available services like Google or Yahoo. This method will become increasingly powerful

packages and other document services

become commonplace as cloud services. AJAX can give the pages a modern, intuitive, and responsive UI. Unfortunately, mashups don’t inherently offer much in the way of security, so you’ll have to look at tricky

for sensitive data, and you’ll probably

infrastructure to control access without irritating users. So the tradeoff at this layer

Layer 2: Presentation Layer Integration

may have a programming layer on the server side which provides fertile ground

mashup strategy works almost entirely in

is great for stitching together entire

or graphic to a layout), integrating at the presentation layer shines in its ability to add individual fields within a section of a

an indication of “how many days overdue is a customer payment” to the summary area of the CRM account page, but this field

might only be available in your accounting system. Pulling this in at the presentation layer gives the users what they need to

integration. Of course, the strength of this approach

is also its weakness: that payment overdue indicator would not be stored anywhere in the CRM system, so it wouldn’t be available to support reports, alerts, or other functions. This approach is usually used

layer may not have the kind of security infrastructure available in the rest of the system. It all depends on the language

mechanisms when integrating at the presentation layer.

Layer 3: Business Logic Integration

This is where the heavy lifting of integration gets done, because this is

cloud applications apart is the richness and ease of their APIs: do they support

In many cloud systems, there is no real way to directly access this level because it’s really

not safe for writing. Even for read integration direct database access can be problematic, as the table has no indication of application state or transaction coordination. That said, for bulk reading of data (for example, to replicate it for an on-prem data warehouse or a cloud-based analytics tool), nothing beats the speed of direct database access."


APIs, or only simpler conversations with

productivity, there’s no substitute for accurate documentation and code samples...so evaluate cloud vendors on this basis.

Most cloud applications’ integration architecture is quite loosely coupled and based on a request or response model. Frequent polling is rarely a good idea,

phase commit) are tough. In situations

where a cloud must push a message, your developers will have to create logic within that application to trigger sending the message. Your developers will also need

dedicated integration server) to handle network timeouts, application downtime, and guaranteed message delivery.

At this layer, integration code will have

so security will be essential.

Layer 4: Data Integration

This is dealing directly with the cloud application’s database. In many cloud systems, there is no real way to directly access this level because it’s really not safe for writing. Even for read integration direct database access can be problematic, as the table has no indication of application state or transaction coordination. That said,

beats the speed of direct database access.At this layer, security is an issue because

the application’s security model transcends what’s visible in the tables’ access controls. In most cases, data integration will be done

to standard users.

INTEGRATION ADVISOR

Most cloud applications’ integration architecture is quite loosely coupled and based

on a request or response model. Frequent polling is rarely a good idea, and tight integration loops (like two-phase commit) are tough.

Cloud apps


MINDWARE FZ LLCTecom, Cayan Business Center, 10th floor,

PO Box 55609, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesTel: +971 4 450 0600, Fax: +971 4 450 0678

MINDWARE SAUDI ARABIAOlaya Street (opposite Olaya Mall next to

Bank Aljazeera, LG Building, 1st floor), P.O.Box: 10586,Postal Code 11443, Olaya, Riyadh, KSA

Tel: +966 1 215 3126, Fax: +966 1 215 3127

MINDWARE LEBANON6th Floor, St Georges Center,

Main Road, Horch Tabet, Sin El Fil, Beirut, Lebanon,Tel: + 961 1 499 399, Fax: + 961 1 490 274

MINDWARE EGYPTSameh Kandil, Country Area Manager

M: +2 010 141 6916, E: [email protected]

www.mindware.ae

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CareerAdvisor

Dubai International Academic City has been home to the prestigious Heriot Watt University since

University to have set up a campus in Dubai.

to be rated as one of the top 25 universities

in the UK for research grant awards.According to Stephen Gill, academic

head, School of Mathematical and Computer

internationally recognised computer science degrees since the 1960s in the UK. At it’s

offered only three post graduate diplomas

until the start of 2012.

“As part of our initiatives for 2012, we moved into a 300,000 square foot

a challenging yet supporting learning

body,” says Gill.

study of computer science.”

Heriot Watt University

CAREERS ADVISOR

New kids on the blockThe Heriot Watt University is making e!orts to help address the growing IT skills gap in the region through its range of professional IT courses. We speak to students as well as sta! to discover exactly what the international institution’s Dubai campus has to o!er.


According to Gill, students at the

university’s specially tailored programmes

internationally recognised and accredited by the relevant industry bodies.

“In addition to this, students can qualify for one of our many scholarships and

hosts 11,200 students from across the world and engage in multiple student sport and social activities,” Gill adds.

Crux of the course

graduate programmes that on a one year full time or two year part time basis. Gill says

graduate students are industry professionals looking to improve core skills or pursue

tutorials for these courses are conducted in the evenings and over the weekends.

that Gill says aims to impart the skills and

infrastructure and networks as part of the support services of an organisation.

“The course includes the selection, installation, maintenance and support of a wide range of computing technologies, and is based on recommended computing and management methodologies,” says Gill.

The second post graduate diploma

concerned with the use and application of

and deployment of software. He says, “The course focuses on practical application of theoretical concepts learned in lectures and

course also includes studies in data bases and network applications in addition to mobile communications, programming and security.”

is to impart the understanding and skills

Gill. Evidently, the course looks to tap into the fast paced world of online businesses, website operation and maintenance. The

In the fast paced world of technology, as businesses continue to expand and digitise complex operations,

it is essential that IT education programmes stay up to date on the latest technology trends and developments. This means equipping students with the skills needed to operate and maintain the latest systems, software and solutions. The ability to provision this need by basing our programmes on global industry research is definitely our USP.”


CAREERS ADVISOR

a successful and secure website business and encompasses a combination of relevant technology and management methodologies

According to Gill, while the two former courses require that a student undertake

students to undertake a dissertation in

University has added a Bsc. in Computer

programmes. “The course is designed to give students a strong foundation, as well as applied and professional computing skills

they would need to pursue a successful career in IT,” Gill says.

a blend of interpersonal and technical skills to meet the needs of the organisations of the future,” he adds. Upon completion of the under graduate programme students can then choose to pursue an Honours year in the

they choose.“Currently, 59 post graduate students

are spread evenly across our three masters diplomas and 21 students are enrolled for

are, however, anticipating this number to

Faculty note

others are industry professionals who work with the University on a part time basis.

not only a team leader and senior systems

STUDENTS SHARE

Vivek Sharma - 1st year Bsc. Computer Systems

18 year old Vivek Sharma

became fascinated with

the world of computers at a

tender age of five, a feeling

that was amplified when he

went on to play his first PC

game- Prince of Persia.

“I remember wondering how the empire’s

enemy in the popular game retaliated based on

the empire’s move, and I noticed then that no

two o"ensive attacks were ever the same. I was

taken aback at the fact that a mechanical device

was able to perceive its environment and adapt its

attacks in response to decisions made by a human

being. Research then introduced me to the concept

of artificial intelligence (AI), the field I now hope to

specialise in,” he says.

Sharma believes that this field has yet a long

way to go. “Computerisation is inevitable and the

creation of the ‘child robot with biometric body’

(CB2) or the infamous bipedal humanoid robot

codenamed, TOPIO that can play table tennis

against a human being are examples of some

of the greatest achievements of the decade, but

they’re definitely not the very last,” says Sharma.

“The course at Heriot Watt provides me

an opportunity to pursue my interest in software

engineering without much focus on hardware

development and operations, and was therefore my

primary choice,” he explains.

Sharma says that with the help of his teachers

he is now well versed with SQL and the development,

operation and maintenance of complex and varied

databases. “The course is based on the use of the

latest technologies and coding languages. What’s

best is that we are guided by lecturers who are more

than willing to support us through our subject matter

and eventually guide us in the right direction to

pursue a successful career in an IT field of our choice,

“he says.

Sharma considers Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs

his role model and is inspired by his quote, “Thinking

outside the box and giving the world what they don’t

have but what they really want”. He intends to go on

to attain a Doctorate in AI and ultimately contribute to

research associated with AI at large.

Reshma Archa Sunil - 1st year Bsc. Computer SystemsHaving completed her GCSE’s,

Sunil decided to pursue a

degree entry programme at

the Heriot Watt University to

capitalise on time and acquire

an internationally recognised

degree. “At the time the

university didn’t o"er a degree in computer science

and because I didn’t want to waste any time I decided

to pursue a degree in business and engineering.

Following the completion of this programme I

then went on to pursue a Bachelor in Business

Administration (BBA) only to realise that the field didn’t

interest me,” she says

It was then that Heriot Watt announced

the addition of the Bsc. Computer Systems to its

extensive list of undergraduate courses ,and Sunil

who describes herself as being immensely tech savvy

since her high school days, jumped at the opportunity

and switched courses.

Now in her first year, Sunil describes the course

as no easy task. “The course requires a great degree

of interest and determination to learn. While the

teachers do a great job of supporting our interests

and career plans, we have to learn to manage time

between course work (assignments and projects)

and study sessions (theories and methodologies).

In addition to this, we are encouraged to enjoy

the campus experience and indulge in a range of

extracurricular activities,” she says.

Sunil believes that the course provides a

blend of core technical skills and soft interpersonal

skills that are essential for a successful career in IT

moving forward. “The programme brings together

the use of the latest software, coding languages

and system management methodologies, while

also placing IT in context of varied business

environments,” adds Sunil.

Sunil intends to pursue a career in the

specialised field of gaming after completing her

degree at the University.



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programmer. The other member focuses on teaching the advanced network applications and protocols for software and web development,” says Gill.

Gill believes that while the importance

denied the relevance of the course material to current industry standards must never be ruled out.

“In the fast paced world of technology, as

education programmes stay up to date on the latest technology trends and developments. This means equipping students with the

skills needed to operate and maintain the latest systems, software and solutions. The ability to provision this need by basing our programmes on global industry research is

To enhance the learning environment, the university has provisioned a fully equipped computer lab based on the latest

a dedicated IT helpdesk to assist students and staff with their queries associated with accessing and using the institution’s virtual

well resolving any software problems.True to its international reputation,

that provides students access to a wide range of resources and information

consciously make the effort to add to the

throughout the academic year in response to requests from both our staff and students to ensure that the students have the latest reference material on hand. In

addition to this, students can also access

our database,” Gill says.

Footnote

charity in the UK and much of the additional

in research and teaching. The IT programmes we look to offer draw very much on the strength of the research activities carried

students in the UK. The research brings together a combination of the latest IT methodologies and policies, and current

technology news and developments. It takes into account recommendations of industry

and otherwise) and analysts on the latest

As yet in its infancy, the university is working towards establishing industry partnerships in the region.

“Having only recently begun our undergraduate programme we are still in the process of building industry relationships in the region to offer

for our students and graduates. Through active participation at regional career fairs such as the annual Gulf Education and

conducting our own career fairs, welcoming industry partners to visit the campus and

of specialisation that they are looking to hire in, we hope to be able to provide our

association with some renowned partners,” he concludes.

CAREERS ADVISOR

TEACHER TALK

Stephen Gill is teaches

a range of computer

science subjects

encompassing the

areas of databases,

systems management

and system security.

His research interests

cover the subject of data mining and student

learning di!culties particularly in academic

writing. Gill is a former IT manager and has

more than 10 years of teaching experience.

Subashini Priya

Manimaran is the

director of post graduate

studies at the Heriot Watt

University. Manimaran

has a MSc. in Information

Technology and M.Phil in

Computer Science and is

also currently pursuing

a PhD in the same. Her research interests

include software requirements engineering

for service oriented systems and E-commerce

web personalisation.

Dr. John Kanyaru has

a BSc. in Computer

Science with First Class

Honours and a PhD in

Software Engineering.

He teaches within the

broad area of software

engineering, in

particular software development, interactive

systems and web systems development.

His research interests are within software

requirements engineering, in particular, the

use of automated prototyping to support

validation of requirements and specifications.

Other areas of research include model driven

development, and medical informatics.

The course is designed to give students a strong foundation, as well as applied and

professional computing skills they would need to pursue a successful career in IT.”



Analysis

CAREERS ADVISOR

Turbulent turnoverCIOs lament twenty - something techies who quit after a year

Louis Trebino, CIO and senior VP at the Harry Fox Agency (HFA), is

on his Web development team.No sooner does he hire a Java

programmer and train him in the company’s music industry niche, than the programmer is recruited away for a higher salary.

Trebino to respond to HFA’s changing business model as the music industry moves online.

“IT staff turnover is probably my most

the past 12 to 15 months,” Trebino says. “It puts us in a really uncomfortable

position to have this kind of turnover because knowledge keeps walking out

bringing them up to speed to where they

need to be, and boom they’re gone. That has been my biggest struggle and concern of late,” he adds.

to retain younger IT professionals.“They are looking for much

more aggressive career development opportunities and the ability to learn new

for CIO Research.


“Traditionally, it took two or three years

in an organisation. They want to be on a faster track than that. They don’t want to

months,” she adds.

to the organisation,” Mok says.

or 20 or 30 years.That’s not going to happen,” Mok says. “They will stay with you as long as they see certain things, including personal growth or personal value enhancement,

aspirations. If nothing happens, they will

HFA’s Trebino says that while his RPG

working with the company for a longer period

Java developers have been here for less than a

based team. It’s a younger workforce. They have different needs, different requirements and different desires than our slightly older workforce. I see them being much more transient. It’s much more challenging to get the newer generation of folks interested in

look at technology,” he adds.

in a developer to work on a module. These

me, that’s a great opportunity. You’re getting to learn all the different pieces of something and you get to own something. But they’re

something out, especially if they’re inheriting somebody else’s code. There have been a number of cases where we have had a system

be a challenge for a developer to own it. But

start over. There’s a whole different mindset,” Trebino adds.

“It’s very interesting to me. Certainly,

entitlement. Often, younger people coming into the organisation believe they should be

the ropes is not as interesting to them. The newer folks want us to provide them with

Trebino says that his Java developers

out for better opportunities with more

better pay grade.

turnover in 2012, Trebino says. “There’s a bit more stability, but I don’t think we’ll see drastic changes unless our business were to change. The new folks coming in all have similar mindsets and drivers. One of our newest and strongest Java developers is actually not in that younger generation. He is

assignments and change our application owners because we’re not going to change the personality of the workforce.”

ownerships by teaming people up to look at our most key systems to make sure they

a different sense of ownership. They’ve got

we’re working more closely with folks to determine their strengths and desires, and align them to the right systems. Third, as new developers come in, we are teaming them with a business partner to help them understand the impact of their system on

engage them in where the company is going,”

his IT staff in 2012. “The biggest point is to get them aware of and engaged in the new business opportunities here,” he concludes.

Don’t expect them to stay with you 15 or 20 or 30 years. That’s not going to happen.

They will stay with you as long as they see certain things, including personal growth or personal value enhancement, whether that’s financial reward or career aspirations. If nothing happens, they will leave after their first year of employment.”


Art Coviello

INTERVIEW

RSA Security chairman Art Coviello says customers still want to hear details about how"the company so quickly detected the data breach that last year compromised its SecurID tokens. He also says businesses have been slow to pick up on new security

models, many touted by RSA, that would help reduce the impact of successful breaches.

THE SILVER LINING

RSA Security Chairman Art Coviello


Here is a partial transcript of a recent conversation Coviello had on those topics as well as

cloud security, managing risk and the limitations of the press. Q: What’s the fallout been from the data breach at RSA?A: If there’s a silver lining to the cloud that was over us from April through the summer, it is the fact that we’ve been engaged with customers at a strategic level as never before, and they want to know in detail what happened to us, how we responded, what tools we used, what was effective and what was not.

Q: What are those conversations like?A: Again, a silver lining to us being attacked, I’ve heard it time and time again, “If it can happen to you then I guess it can happen to anybody,” or, “My CIO said, ‘Oh my god if it happened to them let’s redouble our efforts, let’s review everything we’re doing.’” It’s kind of gotten to even a CEO

money centre bank in Europe at the CIO’s request to talk to the CEO of the bank and his whole management team about the

They brought me because they were doing an overhaul of their IT infrastructure which included the development of a private cloud. Even though it’s an internally controlled cloud he wanted the management group

the infrastructure change that the bank was about to go through. I’m at a [similar] level with Fortune 10 oil and gas, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals. I’ve always had pretty good

illustrates, but I’m getting in at levels that are unprecedented in terms of the contacts and the people I’m talking to. It’s so ironic. I’ve never been in more demand as a speaker or in front of internal audiences. I would

but not a CIO level or even higher. I think we are turning from awareness of the problem

two or three years ago before a lot of these celebrated breaches took place.

By the way, it’s not going to get any easier. To me it shouldn’t be a shock that we have this level of breach, this level of

basically taking advantage of the openings that have been created and yet we’ve reacted too slow to adapt these perimeter defences to this new reality. Until now we’ve come full circle back to why you have to have a far

security. It’s not a question of whether or if you’re going to be attacked or whether or if you’re going to get breached. There’s so much interdependence, there’s so much interactivity from one company to the other that you absolutely have to be able to spot these problems, be able to anticipate who’s going to attack you, what they’re going to go after, and again, be in a position where you’re reacting

time and minimising the damage of what could be the inevitability of an attack.

Q: You say you’ve been promoting a security model that calls for automating threat analysis and response for years. Why haven’t more people adopted it?A: You would like to think that people would come to these conclusions and act on them more quickly but there’s such competition

initiative, whether it’s overhauling their own infrastructure, whether it’s this crazy

as fast as you think it should or could.I’m in a position now where as much

as I’ve preached for three or four years that we have an opportunity to get it right this time as we virtualise our environments and we go to cloud [by building] security in, it

same mistakes all over again. I don’t fault the

the way the world works sometimes that

technology wave and don’t always think

Q: Why do you think CEOs – people outside of IT – want to speak to you now, and are they driving better responses from the IT people?A: themselves and how much their businesses have changed in having more reliance on the

not oblivious to the impact of technology on their operations. They’re clearly

looking to not only take more advantage of technology but also to wring cost out of these ridiculously outdated IT infrastructures

old ways of doing things and not getting mileage out of their IT infrastructure dollar.

They’re also seeing younger people within the organisations and people within divisions not wanting to wait for IT to take

To me it shouldn’t be a shock that we have this level of breach, this level of theft and this level

of attack. People are just basically taking advantage of the openings that have been created and yet we’ve reacted too slow to adapt these perimeter defenses to this new reality, until now. We’ve come full circle back to why you have to have a far more nimble intelligence-driven approach to security.”


advantage of technology and the number of

to communicate and work with your customers and do innovative things. Increasingly, the more mature companies get that as never before, and then they see

think there is better and better awareness, so they themselves are less reactive and they’re more proactive in wanting to know

that technology in terms of the operational risk to business.

Q: You say awareness of the breach problems is high, yet adoption of new defences remains slow. Do you think that

CEOs you talk to?A: I don’t think there’s any question of that, and as I’ve said, I’ve seen it time and time again in discussions I’ve had with people and the silver lining to our breaches is people literally did say if it could happen to those guys we’ve got to be more aware of it, which is really giving us an entree to having these strategic discussions as never

attack I think people are actually impressed with the speed with which we were able

unable to keep [hackers] from getting away with at least something. But we were able to

minimise the damage, and more importantly, get to our customers timely enough so they could protect themselves to mitigate risk

a tremendous amount of credit with our customer base that we certainly haven’t gotten in the press. Customers do understand that we were able to handle that attack and

mitigate the damage better than anyone and that’s put us clearly in demand to talk to a lot of customers.

Q: Does being a victim give RSA more credibility in a way with customers?A: Yeah. Believe me we are not the only

forthcoming but for us to have handled it any other way would have been kind

lot of credibility for going public, helping customers mitigate the loss, helping them to understand in what was absolutely a

press. The press has to cover a story like this but you know yourself that the accuracy of a lot of the press reports is not always that good. So wh en you got to talk to customers

get across in a short article in the press on

different view.

When we go into detail about the attack I think people are actually impressed with the

speed with which we were able to see the attack in progress. We were still unable to keep [hackers] from getting away with at least something. But we were able to minimise the damage, and more importantly, get to our customers timely enough so they could protect themselves to mitigate risk associated with the damage.

INTERVIEWArt Coviello


Karl Hougaard, Commercial DirectorTel: +971 50 8818577

Email: [email protected]

Rajashree R Kumar, Commercial DirectorTel: +971 55 1053782


Jeevan Thankappan, Senior EditorTel: +971 55 1053774


Sathya Mithra Ashok, Senior EditorTel: +971 55 1053783


Nominations close 15th February 2012

www.cnmeonline.com/nwmeawards

PRODUCTSMobility

Lenovo ThinkPad TabletPerformance and accessoriesThe battery gave a reasonable performance

estimates a running time of a little over

The charger was a medium sized unit with

charge using a standard USB connection but it’s a lot slower.

and accessories for this tablet, including a keyboard folio case that connects through the USB port and an optical pointer that looks

VERDICT: Aye. Lenovo might not have factored in the weight and size issues when designing the ThinkPad Tablet, but they have brought us one of the best tablets the demanding business consumer can ask for.

Lenovo joins the Android Tablet club with two news devices, the IdeaPad K1 as consumer

oriented tablet, and it’s more professional sibling the ThinkPad Tablet which we will be looking at this issue.

Fans of the ThinkPad franchise will really

was an IBM ThinkPad so I really appreciated the throwback to that legendary device.

the “ i “ on the logo at the back has a dot that glows when the tablet is switched on, and the red tipped pen brings back memories of the good old rubber type pointing device that was the signature of all ThinkPad laptops.

The screen is a gorilla glass 10.1 inch

standard Android buttons at the bottom in portrait position, with a resolution of

Honeycomb tablets in the market. It is also one of the biggest in size and thickness

and performance.

Core 1GHz processor with a 1 GB memory running Android 3.1. It comes with 16, 32 or 64 GB of internal storage, and adding more storage has never been easier on a tablet as

USB thumb drives thanks to its full sized USB

Cameras and Speakers

good quality images. The photos had a vintage feel to them due to low saturated colours,

software feature but not a full time thing. Compared to other tablets, the ThinkPad

speakers weren’t as great either. After all, as mentioned previously, this tablet is meant for the business consumer.

The pen

tablet so it’s disappointing that it has to be

battery), which means that you can use it simultaneously with your hands for input, allowing you to comfortably rest your hand on the screen as you use the pen without

it for the red tip we mentioned previously.The handwriting recognition is good

enough if you use manuscript block letters; it wasn’t as effective with cursive handwriting.

Software This tablet is packed with apps. From

documents, and “PrinterShare” which lets you print basically anything from your laptop, to communication apps like “eBuddy” and “oovoo” for online instant messaging and video chat. This device also has eBook readers, movie and music streaming tools and a bunch of games. Basically, this machine is geared to go.

This review was done by Fahed Sabbagh – proud geek and passionate blogger. You can catch him wax poetic on all things geeky at www.nerdyface.com.


Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet

Once again, Samsung has pushed the edge of the mobile industry standards by presenting us with

the Galaxy Note, one of the largest mobile phones (apart from the really early ones) with more features that you could possibly need.

was surprising to see how big the device is with its massive body and super large 5.3 inch screen. It is also one of the thinnest

Holding the phone for the first time felt a little weird. For years companies have been trying to make phones smaller so that we’ve forgotten how to actually hold a phone of this size. The advertising for

a phone or a tablet but creates a whole new category of its own, a step that was perhaps a little premature.

That said, once we switched the phone on, we were amazed at the vibrant colours

protected with Gorilla Glass.

T

RAM, and runs Android Gingerbread 2.3.5, this makes it one of the fastest phones available. It comes with 16 or 32 GB of

with support for up to 32 GB.

Cameras and speakers

phone, the camera performance is really

great image quality in both daylight and night photos along with quick and accurate

Even though the video quality was

were not as saturated as they are in the still photos and contrast was a little bit lower. The video was also a little shaky because of the lack of a digital video stabiliser.

good quality loud speakers and a set of decent quality earphones that also function

Software

bunch of software features that support the

Note) and good handwriting recognition. There are also a few applications that children can play around with, like painting with like Hello Crayon, Hello Color Pencil and Hello Chalk.

of the functions of the device like clicking and holding the stylus to take a screen capture

photo editor, allowing you to make all sorts of changes, scribble more stuff over them,

Performance and accessories

we have ever tried; the overall performance is very impressive whether it’s video playback, gaming or many other tasks. Most

The large screen and fast processor makes using this device an absolute pleasure. The

over 12 hours of talk time over 3G networks.

VERDICT: Nay. When it comes to features, the Galaxy Note is one of the best phones available in the market. However, the oversized screen is a bit of a throw off, it’s not something you get used to easily. If you don’t mind holding a massive phone against your ear, and if you have a considerable amount of space in your pocket or purse, you’re in for a great phone. Otherwise, you’ll need to look at the other smaller –just as good– alternatives that Samsung has to offer.

This review was done by Fahed Sabbagh – proud geek and passionate blogger. You can catch him wax poetic on all things geeky at www.nerdyface.com.

Samsung Galaxy Note


and tightening budgets for Middle East enterprises.

Telecoms WorldMicrowave backhaulCNME investigates the potential of microwave backhaul in the region, and analyses how

CareersTraining programmes: what are vendors doing In the careers section, we look at the various training programmes that vendors have

Last word

Next issue

EventsNetwork World ME Awards

http://www.cnmeonline.com/nwmeawards/

Online

What we’rereading

The power of FoursquareBy Carmine GalloBook Monetisng location-based social media is a hot topic for CIOs, and this book shows how checking in can be a useful tool for brand distinction. Gallo gathered insight from merchants, marketers and the founders of Foursquare. She also shares case studies from companies such as Jimmy Choo, which had employees check in at fashionable hangouts and rewarded customers who met them there.The Power of Foursquare: Seven Innovative Ways to Get Your Customers to Check in Wherever They Are

(McGraw-Hill)

Break your own rulesBy Jill Flynn, Kathryn Heath and Mary Davis HoltBook As more women move into leadership roles at top companies, they gain the power to not only influence the future of their companies but also change the mind-set that says men must rule the world. The authors, who have coached over 5,000 women, believe that once women make up 30% of the top leaders in America, the country will reach a tipping point wherein women will have lasting influence. But until we get there, women should be careful to put their needs first, as that’s critical to their success.Break your own rules: How to Change the Patterns of

Thinking that Block Women’s Paths to Power (Wiley)

March 2012

Solutions WorldApplication optimisation

invading our environments. The question then, is how can enterprises optimise their apps to perform better in the changing IT

way forward.

Storage AdvisorWorking with legacy systemsAsk a vendor, and their answer to every

For the latest in news, analysis, features, case studies, and blog articles on trends and issues in the ICT industry across the globe and in the Middle East, please visit www.computernewsme.com

problem might be to ask the enterprise to invest anew in hardware and solutions. Yet, if budgets limit it, an organisation will have to work with the legacy systems it has in house. CNME asks how enterprises can get more

can make their legacy systems last longer.

Security AdvisorSIEMSecurity information and event management

investigates.

Integration AdvisorForming contracts

can get the contract right with your partner to get the most out of it for yourself, without

Network WorldUnified communications

changing nature of data, data usage patterns,


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Gutenberg had more pressing issues than THE e-book

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We believed from the start that Mobile Broadband was such an invention. That itwould come to revolutionize how the world communicates. Today, 20 years aftercoining the term and filing the first patents, we think we’re finally there. MobileBroadband has become a whole new way of doing business, and it’s time toexplore its full potential.

Computer News Middle East

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