computer news middle east august 2015

STRATEGIC ICT PARTNER

city of tech order in the court

capital innovation

Ajman Municipality and Huawei partner to support the quality of urban life in the Emirate

Dubai Courts streamlines services

Waha Capital overhauls their technology infrastructure

issue 283 | august 2015WWW.CNMeONLiNe.COM

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city of tech order in the court

capital innovation

Ajman Municipality and Huawei partner to support the quality of urban life in the Emirate

Dubai Courts streamlines services

Waha Capital overhauls their technology infrastructure

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EDITORIAL

Muddied waters

data lake is touted as a panacea for modern day data

management challenges and

Big data projects.

I am always surprised by the enterprise storage industry’s seemingly inexhaustible supply of fancy marketing terms. Those who have been tracking this segment of the IT market for the last ten years or so will remember terms such as ILM, ICM, ATS, data dedupe, and the latest buzzword from vendors is the concept of data lakes. The hype around data lakes is growing day by day and it is often mentioned in the context of Big Data, which itself is on the peak of its hype.

Walk into any conference on data management and business intelligence, you are likely to hear this term being bandied about by vendors. So what is a data lake anyways? It is defined as a massive storage repository that holds all kinds of data in its native form, allowing for cross-functional analysis. The idea behind data lakes is rather simple – instead of storing data in a purpose-built data store, you move it in raw form into a large data pool, in which

schema and data requirements are not defined until the data is read. Data lakes, say the vendors, offer a very cost-effective way to meet modern day data challenges and do away with the upfront costs of data ingestion, which is the process of obtaining, importing and processing of data for later use in a database.

Is data lake really all its cracked up to be, and a panacea for all your data management ills? Gartner has recently warned IT leaders about getting sucked into the hype, as it says there is very little alignment between vendors as to what constitutes a data lake

or how to get value out of it. The IT research firm says, like data warehouses, data lakes are a concept, not a technology, adding that you can use several technologies to build a data lake.

From what I gather from the industry, architecting a data lake is easier said than done. It requires intense technical know-how and business acumen to customise to suit what a particular enterprise needs and the infrastructure it already has, as it is meant to be used by all users in an organisation, not just IT. If you are a CIO, you might want to dip your toes into this pool with caution at the moment.


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Annie Bricker Editor

The Middle East has become a decidedly youth-focused region. Educational initiatives and social media usage rates are evidence of a large, and increasingly socially productive youth population. There are new music scenes, new art galleries and foodie restaurants.

As young people come of age and turn into entrepreneurs, the Middle East is entering the start-up era of technology. Many of these new companies are supported by seed incubators like the DP World funded TURN8. The result of these initiatives are becoming readily apparent in the companies that we use in our day to day lives.

For the first time in this region, consumers are beginning to look to start-ups to lead the way in innovation. Like the GCC, start-ups don’t need to worry about legacy systems or processes, they simply find new

solutions. This greenfield environment is perfect for burgeoning start-ups and projects.

We can see these changes every day in the region. Companies such as Careem are coming into play, walking in the footsteps of their international counterparts. The Yelp of the Arab world, aptly named Jeeran, launched in April in Egypt to help consumers

make decisions about local companies and their services.

I think that this change – this focus on start-ups – is a positive and lasting change for the Middle East. It gives the youth of the region a chance to make a difference, and a new chance for the Middle East to show that it is a leader in technology.

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With customer satisfaction and your profitability on the line, choosing a stable technology partner is a critical business decision. While other technology providers in the industry are splitting apart, Dell is committed to remaining a true source of end-to-end solutions. Certainty in an uncertain world — now that’s a choice you can make with confidence.

Sell with confidence. Sell with Dell.

To learn more, visit Dell.com/partner/yoursuccess

One company. One source. One focus.

16 On the ball SAP announces a deal to become

the cloud provider for City Football Group to bring enchanced operations.

20 The middle men Gigamon EMEA Vice President

Andy Zollo dicusses how the company is leveraging its partner relationships to drive local performance.

21 Under the radar Content Delivery Network specialist

Akamai has arrived in the UAE. CEO Dr. Tom Leighton explores the opportunities in the Middle East.

31 Court is in session Dubai Courts proves it continuous

effort to support the national vision to shift into smart governance.

44 Back to layer one As enterprise IT thrives, a network's

physical layer is at risk of being overlooked. What can be done to ensure good PLM and a well-managed data centre?

52 Above and beyond Over The Top (OTT) telecom

services presents both threat and opportunity. But, how does it really impact the telco market?

57 Bridging the gap Huwaei ME President of Carrier

Business Group James Wu on mobile and digital transformation.

61 The "I's" have it CIOs are no longer just the

technical guys. The IT chiefs are evolving to become innovation and integration leaders.

Contentsissue 283 | august 2015

36

32

18

AJMAN MUNICIPALITY

CXO CORNER: MEDICLINIC CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

wAHA CAPITAL

24SEHA CIOGEORGE YACOUb

Our Strategic Partners

Strategic ICT Partner Strategic TechnologyPartner

Strategic Innovation Partner

6 august 2015 www.cnmeonline.com

World Wide Web is born

The Internet of Things

More than one million PCs sold every day

m = millions sold

2003

0.4m

The Internet is evolving, again. Everyday, billions of people connect to the Internet through billions of devices - PCs, smartphones and TVs to name just few. While the PC remains at the centre of this evolution, Internet connectivity is now embedded into cars, fitness equipment, factory robots and vending machines. This smarter, connected world has the potential to change how we live.

Here, Intel has produced a quick snapshot of how the number of connected devices has exploded since the birth of the Internet and the PC, as well as glimpse forward to 2020. The Internet may already be huge, but it’s about to get a lot bigger.

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Source: Intel

Mainframes, PCs & Laptops

Smart TVs

Tablets

Smartphones

E-book Readers

Smart Energy Metres

Games Consoles

Automotive

93,0

47,7

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2 B

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Intel 4004, the first commercial

processor, is launched

First connected frameware is born

First connected game console, the Sega Dreamcast

is launched

Launch of first mass market home

PC and PC modem

BMW manufacturesfirst connected cars

Sony LIBRIe arguably the first e-book reader,

launched

Launch of Xbox Live

Introduction of the first smartphone, the Palm Kyocera

First laptop, the Osborne is built

Facebook is founded

First Web-base email service,

Hotmail is launch

Google founded

2004

0.5m

2005

0.6m

2006

0.6m

2007

0.7m

2008

0.8m

2009

0.8m

2010

1.0m

2011

1.1m

2012

1.3m

2013

1.4m

2014

0.4m

First connected smart energy

metres are available

Tablets take off with the launch of

Apple iPad

First connected TV, The Roke Netflix player

is avaibale

31 Billion devicesand 4 Billion

connected to the Internet by 2020

Launch of Google TV andbest-seller Freebox Revolution

Launch ofAmazon Kindle

BMW offers full in-car Internet

Sales of laptops overtake desktop

PCs for the first time

Founded and operating in the region since 1990, Gulf Business Machines (GBM) is the number one provider of IT solutions, leveraging industry leading technologies to drive real business results for clients.

GBM brings the power of the world’s most renowned technology providers, IBM from its outset and the addition of the Cisco portfolio in 1999. GBM today holds both the Master Collaboration and the Master Security Specializations from Cisco, the only partner across Gulf to be awarded these distinctions.

GBM lives the ever-evolving culture of the local IT landscapes in which it operates, continually investing in training and development to ensure its experts can fully understand and interpret the growing needs of their clients. As a result, GBM is always well-equipped to address the ever-evolving, industry-specific IT demands in every market.

www.gbmme.com

GBM offers an extensive range of IT infrastructure solutions

ABU DHABI • BAHRAIN • DUBAI • KUWAIT • OMAN • PAKISTAN • QATAR

CNME & RME Advert.indd 1 4/19/15 12:33 PM

COLUMN

A ll good things come to an end, and Windows Server 2003 is no exception.

Microsoft has finally ended support for the operating system, meaning security updates and application patches for the OS are no more.

Indeed, Microsoft has been keen to stress that for those who do wish to persevere with Server 2003, a number of its partners are on hand to manage the migration.

However, a number of questions first spring to mind for those who haven’t migrated. Security sits at the top of that list, with server migration predicted to take 200 days, and application migration 300.

The Middle East’s skills gap makes this a concern, in equal measure to the amount of legacy apps and software in circulation.

Some months back, CNME

hosted a roundtable in partnership with Microsoft and Dell – one of Microsoft’s migration partners - to discuss the pitfalls and opportunities of the migration. A mixed bag of opinions and experiences were brought to the fore.

As is the case across the world, the organisations represented at the discussion were at varying stages of migration. Some had made the jump to Windows Server 2008, some to the 2012 version, while the deadline loomed for others.

Microsoft counted 24 million instances of Windows Server 2003 running in July 2014. Whether that’s a blessing in disguise is anyone’s guess. True, weaker security poses a problem for regional organisations, but if other high profile targets around the world are also exposed, they are also in the same boat and attacker’s focus is

equally likely to land there.The upside - if it can be labelled

as such - is that users may not suffer as much as when Microsoft ended support for Windows XP last year.

But rising from the potential threats of the situation for those who haven’t migrated may lie an unforseen opportunity - the significant boost the migration can provide to IT infrastructures, if handled correctly.

Granted, finding updated versions of applications can be a tough task, but the chance to update this, as well as other legacy technology is fantastic. True, the situation needs to be carefully handled with senior management figures, but there is a strong business case in virtualising infrastructure, enhancing security and consolidating data. It’s key that this cut-off is used to look forward, not back.

threat or opportunity?

James DartnellDeputy Editor, CNME

august 2015www.cnmeonline.com 11

CIO SOUNDbITES How important is social media

to your organisation?

George Yacoub, CiO, SEHA

“Social Media is extremely important to my organisation and I would say to any

organisation which offers any services. It is a very common, widely used and accepted

method of communication these days. It also ensures you can deliver the message

to the community almost in real time.”

Mehmet Akdeniz, director of it and AV, Emirates Palace

“Social media is key to interact with people, our core business is service and interaction with our guests. Nowadays social media is

the key to satisfy the needs of guests”

Mn Chaturvedi, CiO, Al Shirawi Group

“Organisations are made of people, people are social animals and have to be sociable, social media is the platform to interact and all organisations need social media to vent the feeling , express what they feel in

democratic free society. Hence, social media as platform and is necessary for every organisation . If you look on

the perspective of business then social media is to devised encouraged to integrate the customers ,

employees and others who influence the view of products and services of organisation

and hence passive effect on sale and thereby business.”

Bahrain_CNME_270x207mm_LaserJet_Rs2.pdf 1 8/2/15 9:52 AM


Bahrain_CNME_270x207mm_LaserJet_Rs2.pdf 1 8/2/15 9:52 AM

Plans have been revealed in Dubai for the world’s first fully functional 3D printed building.

HE Mohamed Al Gergawi, Chairman, UAE National Innovation Committee, said the UAE aims to deploy the latest technologies to improve people’s lives and to develop its economy in line with the country’s National Innovation Strategy.

“The idea of 3D printing buildings was once a dream, but today it has become a reality,” he said. “This building will be a testimony to the efficiency and creativity of 3D printing technology, which we believe will play a major role in reshaping construction and design sectors. We aim to take advantage of this growth by becoming a global hub for innovation and 3D printing. This is the first step of many more to come.”

The ‘Office’ will be approximately 2,000 square feet in size and will be printed layer-by-layer using a 20-foot tall 3D printer, then assembled on site in Dubai in just a few weeks. All interior furniture, detailing, and structural components will also be built using 3D printing technology, combining a mixture of Special Reinforced Concrete (SRC), Glass Fiber Reinforced Gypsum (GRG) and Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP). This combination

will make it the most advanced 3D printed structure ever built at this scale and the first to be put into actual use.

The building is the result of a partnership between Dubai and WinSun Global along with architecture and engineering firms Gensler, Thornton Thomasetti, and Syska Hennessy.

Toshiba PresidenT quiTs over $1.2 billion aCCounTing sCandal

SHORT TAkES Month in view

in a reCenT idC rePorT, idC revealed ThaT worldwide PC

shiPmenTs in The q2 2015 deClined

11.8 PerCenT ComPared To The

same Period a year ago. overall,

manufaCTurers shiPPed 66.1 million uniTs worldwide.

Executives at electronics and industrial giant Toshiba have resigned after a committee reviewing its earnings said the company padded its operating profit by about $1.25 billion over six years to the end of 2014.

Leaders at the company, which makes everything from vacuum cleaners to nuclear power plant equipment, were part of a “systematic” effort to embellish the earnings, according to the report by the independent committee, which Toshiba commissioned in May. The sum includes about ¥4.4 billion of incorrect earnings discovered in an internal probe by Toshiba.

As the company announced his resignation, President Hisao Tanaka apologised to a packed news conference at Toshiba headquarters in Tokyo.

“I recognise there has been the most serious damage to our brand image in our 140-year history,” said Tanaka, who is to be succeeded by Chairman Masashi Muromachi. “We take what the committee has pointed out very seriously, and it is I and others in management who bear responsibility.”

Toshiba said former presidents Norio Sasaki and Atsutoshi Nishida would also step down from executive positions to take responsibility for the accounting irregularities.

The firm said it would correct its earnings reports in light of the findings by the outside panel, which was scheduled to hold its own briefing.

It added that the company president and subordinates “continuously implemented inappropriate accounting practices”. The scandal is the biggest accounting fraud to rock corporate Japan in years and comes less than two months after Japan introduced new corporate governance rules to attract more foreign investment. The rules call for listed companies to have independent outside directors.

Dubai to builD worlD’s first 3D printeD office


euroPean union CiTizens will soon be able To use Their

smarTPhones wiThin The eu wiThouT

surCharge, as The euroPean

Commission and ParliamenT agreed ThaT roaming fees

levied by neTwork oPeraTors will be

eliminaTed by June 2017.

Five individuals who reportedly were involved in the high-profile 2014 computer hacking of JPMorgan has been arrested in the US.

Three of them were arrested for stock manipulation while the other two were arrested for running an illegal Bitcoin exchange, according to the FBI.

Grand jury indictments that were unsealed recently did not mention the JPMorgan attacks, but sources told both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg that all five individuals are people of interest in the FBI’s investigation of the JPMorgan attack.

The perpetrators of that attack stole the login credentials of a JPMorgan employee and used it to access 90 of the company’s servers.

They subsequently stole details including names, email addresses and phone numbers for about 76 million households and seven million businesses. No financial information was compromised, according to JPMorgan, though the attackers accessed multiple systems.

The attackers also penetrated the systems of other banks, according to reports. Initially, JPMorgan suspected the Russian government was involved, though subsequent investigations had ruled out the possibility.

According to recent reports, Qualcomm will lay off about 15 percent of its workforce and may separate its chip and patent businesses as part of major realignment within the company.

The move aims to cut the company’s annual costs by about $1.4 billion. Qualcomm will cut back its investments in new product areas and focus those efforts on data centres, small cells and the Internet of Things.

The mobile technology juggernaut is also shaking up its board of directors as part of an agreement with investment company Jana Partners. Jana, which owns a chunk of Qualcomm’s stock, has pressured the company to spin off its chip division from its patent licensing business.

The realignment was announced as the tech company reported its profit fell by nearly half in the April-to-June quarter on revenue that declined by 14 percent from a year earlier.

“The changes we are announcing are designed to enable us to right-size our cost structure and reposition Qualcomm for improved financial and operating performance,” Steve Mollenkopf, CEO, Qualcomm, said in a statement.

The company had 31,300 employees at the end of its last fiscal year, so the layoffs would amount to about 4,700 workers.

Qualcomm is currently reviewing alternatives to its corporate structure with outside advisors, and expects to finish the review by the end of this year.

JPmorgan haCking Case susPeCTs arresTedQualcomm

to cut workforce by 15 percent

IbM TO OFFER wATSON TO MENAIBM has partnered with Abu Dhabi company Mubadala to offer its Watson-based data analysis services to the Middle East and North Africa.

Under the partnership, Mubadala will introduce Watson to its network of regional companies, entrepreneurs, start-ups and application developers, hoping to entice them to use Watson to build new products and services.

Mubadala subsidiary Injazat, an information technology services company, will act as the preferred provider of Watson technology in the region.

Initially, IBM and Mubadala will pitch the Watson services for use in the healthcare industry. The analytics services could be used to build systems that offer

personalised recommendations, based on user data.

Regional retail, education and finance companies could also be early adopters of the service, IBM predicted.

Watson debuted in 2011 as the first computer-based competitor on the US ‘Jeopardy’ game show. IBM has since commercialised Watson through a number of offerings, including the IBM Watson Developer Cloud on Bluemix, which offers 25 different general use artificial intelligence-based services. It also offers Watson Health, a set of services focused on helping the healthcare industry.

In 2014, IBM pledged $100 million to bring Watson to scientists in African countries, in an initiative called Project Lucy.


Since buying Manchester City Football Club in 2008, HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan,

Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE, has poured over $1 billion into the team and its off-pitch campaigns. The result? Two English Premier League title victories in 2012 and 2014, an FA Cup triumph in 2011, and a state-of-the-art training facility that sits next to the club’s Etihad Stadium to boot.

Owned by Sheikh Mansour’s private equity firm Abu Dhabi United Group, and with Khaldoon Al Mubarak as Chairman, the next big investment for City Football Group (CFG) – comprising Manchester City, New York City F.C, Melbourne City F.C and Yokohama F. Marinos – will be in technology, as CFG announced plans to use SAP as its cloud provider.

Back in 1863, when the Football Association was formed, the sport’s approach to technology was practically non-existent. Enterprising coaches may have used a pencil and clipboard to assess player performance, fans would be crammed in in all-standing terraces, and the infamous ‘magic sponge’ would be used to treat anything from a seeping gash to a broken neck. Indeed, it seems apt that City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann famously finished the 1956 English FA Cup final in such a state.

Speaking at the club’s 16.5-pitch Etihad Campus training complex,

Ferran Soriano, CEO, City Football Group, said of the partnership, “For us, success means having all four of our teams winning by playing beautiful football. We need technology to manage this, as well as running our business and giving fans more opportunities to enjoy and understand the game. Fans want to get more insight into the way tactics are played out on the pitch. They want to know why their team is losing the ball too much, why they’re missing goal scoring chances.”

The former Barcelona F.C. Board member went on to add, “In the past, coaches have been reluctant to use technology, but now they are using data on performance and their opponents to good effect. We also believe we can do more with talent scouting and injury prevention to get value for money in a hugely inflated transfer market.”

CFG is implementing a variety of cloud-based solutions powered by the HANA platform, including SuccessFactors, the Jam social software platform and the Simple Finance solution. A variety of solutions will also be leveraged to enhance the fan experience in CFG stadiums, including an interactive digital insights wall at the Etihad Stadium that will bring real-time analytics and insights to fans.

SAP will also co-innovate with CFG on new enhancements in talent management, football performance

and human performance for future versions of its Sports One solution. The app provides coaches with a platform to manage their team’s training sessions, and incorporates a calendar tool to oversee injury recovery programmes. A partnership with statistics firm Opta will also allow for video performance analysis across different key aspects of the game, including number of shots, dribbles and tackles within a game or training session context. In the last few years CFG has collected scout reports from 1600 Group club matches, and 900 opposition fixtures, and now wants to boost its analysis potential with the solutions.

Off the pitch, CFG will use SAP’s analytics solutions, including Predictive Analytics software and BusinessObjects business intelligence solutions, which will analyse ticketing merchandising and other types of data.

Although the partnership is not exclusive to CFG, it is SAP’s first of its kind with a Premier League club.

Franck Cohen, President, SAP EMEA, said, “The partnership with CFG is unique, as it is the only truly international football organisation with its four clubs, which complements our worldwide strategy. It’s an incredibly exciting venture and a continuation of our fantastic relationship with the Abu Dhabi authorities.”

EVENT saP

On the ballSAP recently announced a deal to become the cloud provider for City Football Group, the quartet of soccer clubs owned by Abu Dhabi United Group. The partnership aims to build on the success of English club Manchester City, and bring enhanced footballing operations, fan experiences and business administration to CFG.


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CASE STUDY Waha

Upgraded OppOrtUnityFady Sleiman, CIO, Waha Capital, does not see areas of weakness. Instead, he prefers to see opportunities. When he had the opportunity to streamline the technology infrastructure in the office, he and his team went all in.


were, we then needed to identify what opportunities we had to improve.”

As it happened, Waha Capital had many areas that they wanted to optimise to support and drive business. They decided that the ERP system needed to be completely overhauled to match the needs of their principle investments. “We looked at going back to basics,” says Sleiman, “the foundation needs to be sound, and we need to build upon that.”

Moving beyond front-facing technology, Sleiman realised that streamlining the back office operations would enable the staff of Waha Capital to perform their duties at the highest level. “We have a small staff but have high-calibre individuals here,” says Sleiman. “Employee experience is key.”

To meet the demands of the staff, the IT department automated payroll and other functions of the HR department. They began to take telephony to a new level as well. “It isn’t just telephony anymore,” says Sleiman, “we want the whole picture – a true collaborative experience.” As such, with the help of Cisco, they have installed the most effective and useful tools in collaboration, including video conferencing solutions.

Waha Capital had the bandwidth to take on a project that would change the way the company does business. “One of our most interesting updates has been the automation of the portfolio management that we have for our trading platform on equity and fixed income,” says Sleiman. The company opted to partner with SunGuard to implement Hedge 360 – a private cloud solution. Waha Capital was looking for a complete transformation across their many modules – trading, accounting and finance and risk.

Prior to the update, Waha Capital’s traders were still doing things manually,

using complicated Excel sheets to generate reports. “We wanted more transparency, quicker reporting processes and less segmentation between divisions,” says Sleiman. With these goals in mind Waha Capital took on the project in July 2014. As the new system was rolled out, the IT department needed to not only implement the solution, but ensure all end-users were on board. “There was some expected resistance,” recalls Sleiman, “but as users began to understand the time savings and benefits of the system, it was an easy transition.” What helped, he says, was working with capital market director to bring in support and understanding.

SunGuard’s solution is the first of its kind in the region. “Many companies may have part of the system automated, but not end-to-end,” says Sleiman. “We, on the other hand, have three

very complicated modules all automated through on vendor.”

The new system will be going live this month, and the results are already apparent. The new system will affect the 20

some traders on the floor, freeing them up to concentrate on developing the core business. Post implementation support from the vendor has also been key. “SunGuard has provided training and support throughout. With safety nets on both sides of the partnership, the project has been a success.”

Partnership is the key phrase for Sleiman. “We need to have a partnership with vendors – a relationship that will last even after the implementation is complete,” he says. Sunguard has provided that kind of partnership, with post implementation support and training. Now with automated reporting, Waha Capital can concentrate on the business of doing business.

Waha Capital is one of the largest investment firms in the region. Its principle investments and co-

investment interests span a wealth of sectors, including aircraft leasing, financial services, healthcare, offshore oil and gas services and infrastructure. If it is happening in Abu Dhabi or the Emirates, chances are, Waha Capital is involved. The company also has a strong showing in capital markets through its own credit portfolio. Recently Waha Capital is investing in high-quality light industrial real estate through the ALMARKAZ project in Abu Dhabi.

Established in 1997 under the name “Oasis International Leading Company PJSC”, Waha Capital has grown significantly in the past two decades. Initially, the company was a leasing company of high-value assets, such as aircraft, ships and infrastructure. Over the last five years, the company has turned into an investment company, deploying its regional experience and investment expertise to add value through organic growth opportunities and co-investment partnerships.

In 2007, the company went through its first major change, opting for the moniker “Waha Capital.” In 2010 the newly named Waha Capital took on another shift, exchanging the majority of its aircraft assets for a 20 percent stake in the New York-listed AerCap Holdings NV.

To support its growth and change in the market, Waha Capital knew it would not only have to change their business, but change the way they were doing business as well. In 2014, Fady Sleiman came to the company as Waha Capital’s new CIO. The company, under his leadership, undertook a comprehensive assessment of its information technology needs across the group. “We needed to assess the opportunities to grow and adapt. We wanted to use technology to drive business transformation,” says Sleiman. “Once I identified where we

“We need to have a partnership

with vendors – a relationship that will

last even after the implementation is

complete.”


Congratulations on launching your regional office. What can you bring to the Middle East?

Media delivery is a business with huge potential here. Application acceleration has lot of potential – the ability to click and have instant access. Security is our fastest growing business.

Enterprise networking is something we are very excited about. Looking forward, there are a lot of global enterprises here so that is relevant for them. We’ve had servers deployed here for years but we’re now formally opening our first sales and services office here. We expect very strong growth and revenues, and over time we will open other offices.

Right now we’re starting here, but will look at other hubs in the region. We have no current plans for a second office but it will happen. Riyadh and Doha are obvious options we’d consider.

How do you plan to grow and establish your presence here?We want to offer excellent service to leading brands in the media, travel, financial, hospitality and commerce sectors, to offer the world’s best service for delivery, acceleration and security.

Enterprise networking and security are saturated markets, what can you bring to table?A cloud service that scales, and is far less expensive. Today’s approach to security is to buy devices and put them in your data centre. You can no longer defend yourself with that strategy. The scale of attacks is so large that you swamp out your data centre. In future, the only way to successfully defend yourself is in the cloud.

Attacks are getting larger now, with more and more devices that have a powerful CPU and are well connected; they are tremendous resources to bring large scale attacks against any data centre. As security moves into the cloud that’s where we’ll evolve and excel.

How can you convince regional customers that security in the cloud is indeed the best approach?I think that’s needed on a global

basis. We’re starting to see with our web security business - which protects web apps – was zero a few years ago zero, and is now expected to be a $250 million business, and we expect to see the same for enterprise security.

If you look at enterprise networking, today you still have a private network, where everything goes through the corporate data centre, but now people want to put video and other things on there, the world is turning upside down. People wouldn’t initially have thought that you would put enterprise applications on the cloud but now you are. That means the enterprise network changes. You need a different approach to it and require security in the cloud to do it.

Tell me about your Akamai Intelligent Platform.We have servers located in thousands of places around the world. We’re present in 13,000 networks, and deliver content to end users on behalf of our customers. If you go to any top commerce or media sites, you’re going through an Akamai server near you. If you login to see your bank balance, you go to the origin data centre, but

we’ve built our own virtual Internet on top, to make things fast, reliable and secure. Our software in branch offices and device JavaScript-based for a better UX.Leading enterprises know about us, but the public haven’t heard of us. We don’t have a consumer brand and we’re behind the scenes. Half the time users are coming to our servers and they don’t even know it.

akamai INTERVIEw

If you look at enterprise

networking, today you still have a

private network, where everything goes through the

corporate data centre, but now

people want to put video and other things on there,

the world is turning upside down.

Under the radarContent Delivery Network specialist Akamai has arrived in the UAE. CNME visited the firm’s Dubai Marina office upon its opening, and sat down with company CEO Dr. Tom Leighton, who says the firm’s services are used on a vast scale but are relatively unknown.


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The ET-10 (known as the Epson Elf on the U.S. market) was the world’s first commercial liquid crystal pocket colour television. In August 1984 the ET-10 was put on the market. It combined Epson’s existing semiconductor, LCD and high-density assembly technologies with the company’s new technologies, including colour filters and TV circuits. The pocket TV was followed by a succession of other devices that harnessed the polysilicon TFT liquid crystal technology developed for the ET-10.

This ground breaking television was easily portable thanks to a conveniently small, thin shape that allowed it to be slipped into a pocket and taken anywhere. The independently developed TFT liquid crystal colour display was announced at the international SID (Society for Information Display) conference in May 1983. This display measured 2.13 inches and had 57,600 pixels. In each of the pixels was a transistor for driving the liquid crystal. To enable the display to render a wide range of colours, an RGB colour filter matched to the pixels was formed on the interior face of the glass, and the light passing through the filter was controlled at each individual pixel.

Epson ET-10

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AUGUST 2015www.cnmeonline.com 23

the jet setGeorge Yacoub, CIO, SEHA, has spent more time than he would have liked commuting - to the point that an airport became his temporary office. Now that he has found a home in Abu Dhabi, he reflects on his many successes, his love of helping people, and what it takes to be one of the region's top CIOs.

CIOSpotlight


George Yacoub, Group Chief Information Officer at SEHA in Abu Dhabi, has always been prone to

tinkering. When he was young, much to the dismay of his mother, she would often find him on the floor of the store, having expertly taken apart a toy. “I wanted to see how things worked,” Yacoub recalls, amused. When he was older, his habit graduated into pulling extra landlines through his house. He was always looking to optimise.

His need to investigate the inner-workings of things came into play when he decided he wanted to become a mechanical engineer. Though he excelled in his courses – maths in particular – Yacoub admits that his passion was on the court. “I loved basketball,” he recalls. “I played on the national team for three years. I knew I wasn’t necessarily going to make a career of it, but I thought I could use it to gain a university scholarship.” However, his plans were set askew when a leg injury put him on the bench. “It turned out to be a good thing,” says Yacoub. “With all the time it took to recover, I actually focused on my studies.” While laid up, he found a passion for calculus and data structure courses.

In 1977, his hoop dreams became a thing of the past, he decided to take on a course in business management from the Higher Institute for Management Studies. To augment his studies, he also took on a minor in accounting.

In 1984, with some compute skills under his belt, he moved to HSBC. “My father was a banker, and he helped me find the job,” admits Yacoub. Though he began in the archive department, it became quickly apparent that his computer science

knowledge would be invaluable to the future of the branch. “I lead data centre night operations,” recalled Yacoub of his early days. “In the end I established the bank’s first personal computing and client-server computing group, computer/server-based network infrastructure and developed the first operational and support policies,” he says. Essentially, he says, he was the original “desktop-support guy.” “Back in those days, if you wanted to do something in duplicate, you had to print it on two-ply paper, and if you made a mistake and actually needed four copies, you would have to do the whole processes again. It was a nightmare.”

While working at the bank, Yacoub decided to take on a Master’s degree in Computer Science at American University. “Throughout 1985, I would take classes during the day, and then work at the bank in the evenings. I barely got any sleep.”

In 1989, with his Masters course completed, Yacoub was ready for a change. “I had relatives living in the US, and I wanted to move there to see what I could do,” he recalls. He stayed with his uncle in New Jersey, who had lived there for a number of years. “At that time, I didn’t have a plan for a job. I really just took anything. I ended up working for Alpo, the dog food company for a few weeks to get by,” he recalls.

It wasn’t long, however, before he landed a job at the Greif Group of Companies, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, as a server systems

manager. There, he continued his career of introducing personal computing to the business world. “At Greif I helped introduce personal computing which resulted in the reduction reliance on expensive mainframe operations,” says Yacoub.

After a few years, Yacoub moved to Shared Medical Systems – SMS, a worldwide leader in outsourcing and application services for the healthcare industry with international operations supporting a global customer base. “The thing that I instantly enjoyed about SMS,” says Yacoub, “was the realisation that what I was doing was directly

helping people.” His efforts as the Director of Technology Services and Integration may have been machine focused, but Yacoub never lost sight of the good he was doing for the staff and,

ultimately, the patients. At this point, however, Yacoub

had started a family, and his commute was becoming a burden. “I was on the phone with my wife, who was doing laundry,” he recalls. “My daughter, who was young at the time said to me, “Daddy, I miss you – I’m wearing your shirt because it smells like you.” It broke my heart.” The leadership at SMS encouraged him to move closer to the office, and he and his wife set to look for a house closer to the office. “Just as we were about to put a down payment on the house, the company had a change of plans,” said Yacoub. The change was drastic – they wanted Yacoub to move to London.

The thing that I instantly enjoyed about SMS, was

the realisation that what I was doing

was directly helping people.


Though they looked for property in London, they never purchased anything. “We just kept saying we would buy on the next trip,” recalls Yacoub. “What that turned into was a longer commute than ever. I would spend three weeks in the UK and then return to Allentown.” He spent so much time commuting, he recalls, that the restaurants at Heathrow airport became his second office.

During that time, SMS entered into a deal with Albany Medical Centre. His trips to London were over, but he still commuted – this time a weekly jump to New York. After a few years going back and forth, Yacoub still couldn’t decide where to settle. His family was still in Allentown and his project in Albany was coming to an end.

He continued to specialise in healthcare IT, moving from SMS, to Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and eventually landing Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. Though he had every intention of moving his family to Detroit, once again, Yacoub jetted back and forth from Allentown. Again, he and his wife looked at houses in Detroit, determined to settle down. However, as it would have it, as they looked, the economy in Detroit was crumbling around them.

It was at that point, in February 2010, that the UAE came calling. “No really,” says Yacoub. “The CEO of Corniche Hospital in Abu Dhabi called

me every Sunday for six weeks. But I was reluctant to leave the US.” Finally, Yacoub agreed. Corniche hospital, owned by SEHA, took Yacoub on as CIO. Unwilling to make such a commute, his family moved to Abu Dhabi with him. “My wife had actually spent her senior year of high school in Abu Dhabi, and she had loved it, so it was an easy sell,” says Yacoub.

Yacoub found a home in SEHA, and moved just across the street to the SEHA headquarters as Corporate IT Advisor in January 2013 and then, more recently in November 2013, took on the role of Acting

CIO at SEHA. His successes with SEHA have been immediate and apparent. “We have brought all our 12 hospitals up to worldwide standards of excellence,” says Yacoub. “I’ve told my staff that we owe it to our patients to be the

best we can possibly be, and that is what we are striving for.”

As for other professionals that strive to take on the role of CIO – “For dedicated professionals, I recommend it. It can be a lot of sacrifice, but it can also be very rewarding.” As for now, Yacoub is happy to have a home base in Abu Dhabi. “My daughter is in college now in the US, but she comes back every summer.” Yacoub never gave up his love of tinkering. “Right now I’m trying to centralise all of my home’s media on one central storage area. We have so much stuff, I think it would be better if it were all in one place.”

CIOSpotlight

2003Moved to

Thomas Jefferson University in Philidelphia

2010Moved to Abu

Dhabi

1989Moved to

Pennsylvania

1981Graduated

with a masters in Computer

Science

1996Joined SMS

2006Began commuting

to Detroit

1984Joined HSBC

tiMeline

We just kept saying we would buy on the next trip. What that turned into was a

longer commute than ever. I would spend three weeks in the

UK and then return to Allentown.


Ten years ago, an IT journalist asked Paul Coby, then CIO of British Airways and about to embark on a massive

overhaul of the airline’s core IT systems, what his plans were. Coby’s response was brief: “Understand the process and simplify it. Complexity will kill you.”

The work he undertook did not just generate operational IT savings of 40 per cent and improve technology functionality, quality and integration across the business. It transformed ba.com and, in doing so, changed the way we travel by air.

It can be easy for CIOs, increasingly part of the core leadership team, to get drawn into commercial priorities that include business growth, competition and the disruptive impact of changing customer behaviour. With their focus on the role of technology as an enabler of customer experience, mobility and collaboration, growing numbers say they would prefer to delegate operational IT.

This is the paradox at the heart of IT. On the one hand CIOs want and need to spend more time adding strategic value and less time managing the IT infrastructure; on the other hand a well-managed IT infrastructure is vital for current and future business success.

The world is changing, and the next few years will see it change further and faster. Boundaries are blurring: between sectors and between economies; between the real and the virtual; between different digital channels and devices; and even between ‘things’. The world is a computer now and everyone and everything moves around within it, generating clouds of data that can be captured, processed, analysed and stored.

Whether you’re in the business of rubber bands or robotics, these changes will impact the way you innovate, manufacture, sell, engage with customers and compete. They also have far-reaching implications for your IT infrastructure.

Many firms have over time ended up with complex and disconnected IT systems, where more than half (57 per cent) of the IT budget is spent just keeping the lights on. But such complexity slows down innovation, reduces productivity, uses up valuable IT expertise and leaves an organisation poorly prepared for the kind of responsive, agile, integrated and creative IT they need to succeed.

One way of addressing this could be to replace siloed IT systems with a streamlined converged infrastructure. An integrated offering that brings together the company’s disparate compute, storage and network technologies to take charge of the IT infrastructure in a way that makes best use of the available resources and capacity.

The business imperative for such integrated IT systems is not hard to find. One example is the need to better connect with customers.

In its technology predictions to 2020, industry analyst Forrester highlights the spectrum of customer-focused activities that are now dependent on integrated IT. This includes innovative, customer-centric, contextual services, underpinned by connectivity solutions that can reach customers in ever more ways across ever more devices. These services and solutions demand advanced analytics as well as software acceleration platforms and tools that ideally allow for a ‘let’s try this’ approach to development and

support the rapid deployment of new services and applications.

All of this will stand or fall on the quality of the enabling infrastructure. Forrester predicts that for a growing numbers of firms this will be an agile, powerful and converged IT infrastructure. The best of these will use advanced capabilities such as virtualisation, software-defined technologies and the cloud for maximum operational efficiency and flexibility.

According to a sponsored IDC paper on leveraging convergence for business agility, such converged IT systems are already delivering proven benefits. These include a four-fold increase in speed to market for new products and services, around a five-fold increase in the number of applications that can be developed and delivered to the business, IT costs saving of a third and a 41 per cent reduction in maintenance and service time – freeing up IT expertise for value-added strategic initiatives and innovation.

In the light of all this it is hardly surprising that the adoption of converged systems is growing. IDC estimates that in 2015 around one in every $10 spent on IT infrastructure will be invested in integrated systems, rising to one in every $6 by 2018. For many firms, when it comes to their IT infrastructure, the future is already here.

The fact is that the world is changing and IT needs to change with it, because what got us here won’t get us there. A place to start is with the cocoon of operational complexity IT departments have built up around themselves. It is time to shed the weight and reclaim simplicity, the world is complicated enough as it is.

the counterintuitive CiO


bLOGNigel Moulton, CTO, EMEA – VCE

H.E Expert / Tanish Eid Al Mansouri, Director General, Dubai Courts

INTERVIEw dubai CourTs

30 AUGUST 2015 www.cnmeonline.com

Court is in sessionDubai Courts was established in 1970 under a clear vision aimed at pioneering in the courts justice, equality, creativity, excellence, team spirit and independence.

‘Al-Salfa’ programme, e-Publishing, e-Notary and the ‘Smart Seize’ programme, which has been nominated for the 2015 WSIS Project. These accomplishments have inspired us further to keep working improve our services; saving time and effort for our local and resident customers.

What are the benefits that the use of smart services is currently offering? What are their impact on employees and customers?Dubai Courts offers a comprehensive portfolio of smart services. These services have played a significant role in raising the level of customer and society satisfaction from 69 per cent to 58 per cent, respectively, in 2014. Customer satisfaction reached a total of 92.3 per cent according to the Dubai Government Excellence Programme 2015.

The benefits of our legal and judicial smart services include maintaining faster and more efficient courts work, facilitating litigation and improving the speed and accuracy of settlements, adjudication and implementation of orders, in addition to providing effective, round-the-clock channels of communication with customers. The smart app also helped reduce the waiting time and facilitates online submission of requests.

How much time did it take to launch the solutions? How was it implemented?We believe in systematic corporate work and don’t make random

changes. The above mentioned programmes and solutions were implemented based on a well-defined action plan comprising study analysis of the internal and external environment, prioritising areas of improvement and arranging programmes within a timeframe which started in May 2014. These developmental solutions were subject to a series of phases: Development Status, Demo Application, Result Measurement, Improvements, Inclusion after taking into account all requirements, and finally Continued Indication Measurement.

What are the capabilities that Dubai Courts now has and didn’t have before?We have made robust efforts to enhance our services, including:• Establishingmotivational

programmes, activities and awards for human resources.

• Implementingcontinuedlearning programmes and activities for our team work to enlighten them about local and international best practices.

• Encouragingcreativeideastowards continued learning and honouring them.

• Buildingintegratedenvironment and technical infrastructure which allow us to issue and implement developmental decisions, mainly relying on our highly skilled human resources.

What are the issues or developments that have led to establishment of the

new smart services?The move towards smart services is part of our commitment to support the national efforts to shift into smart governance. Our efforts have successfully paid off as we have launched a bundle of ‘smart services’ that are offered via the world’s first judicial and government-based smart service app. This underlines our commitment to the concept of smart operations in the management of all cases.

Today, Dubai Courts continues to be steadfast in improving the quality, efficiency and reliability of judicial and legal services through our smart app. In fact, the app has recently won the 2015 .GOV Awards, which features an integrated portfolio of over 100 interactive smart services.

What are the implemented solutions so far and how were they selected?Dubai Courts has come a long way in its move towards e-transformation. We succeeded in establishing strong foundations to offer interactive smart services based on standards of excellence and innovation, with the aim to prompt smart transformation across the judicial and legal system and achieve the objectives of the National Innovation Strategy.

Some of our services and solutions that we now offer includes the

AUGUST 2015www.cnmeonline.com 31

Healthy foundationsIn any 21st Century industry, technology provides the foundations for operational efficiency, business agility and increased bottom line. However, in no sector are lives impacted more than in healthcare. Michele Rosso, Chief Financial Officer, Mediclinic Middle East, told CNME about the company’s partnership between IT and finance.


Healthy foundations

affects patient care as well as business performance; Rosso’s ability to drive financial results spells increased healthcare resources for the business. “The foundation of everything you do in the medical industry is technology,” Rosso says. “Operationally and financially it is pervasive. From laboratory information systems, radiology and the management of medical outcomes to revenue reporting, it is essential.”

With this in mind, Rosso is currently partnering with the IT department to deliver enhanced data workflows and document storage via a private cloud. “Our lab-generated data, patient scans and financial systems are currently all standalone functions,” she says. “If we have an image, invoice or purchase order at one unit, they are paper-based and therefore not easily accessible across sites.” As well as providing a huge value-add to the firm’s IT and finance processes, the changes will boost Mediclinic’s drive towards sustainability. “It’ll help us make savings on the cost of paper which for us is large at the moment,” she says.

Arguably creating the greatest unity between finance and technology at present is Big Data, and its importance is not lost on Rosso, both in terms of its ability to improve patient experience and the quality of medical care. “It’s fair to say that in Dubai and everywhere else in the world, most organisations are data rich, but information poor,” she says. “That ability to extract data and turn it into readable and usable templates by the end-user is vital, and

CXO Corner

is so important both for the commercial side and for providing reliable and accurate info for our medical teams.” Rosso believes that in time, this precision will be a matter of necessity. “As the economy and environment matures, that entrepreneurial, ‘gut feeling’ strength that Dubai has may not suffice, so we need to make sure we move with the times.”

As CFO, Rosso faces a daily battle to ensure that this instinct is in harmony with prudent financial thinking. As well as being responsible for keeping a watchful eye on the company’s books, Rosso is ever mindful that

she and other appropriate stakeholders are the only ones able to do so. “If technology is not implemented and managed correctly, it poses a huge security risk to the organisation,” she says. Patient privacy ranks even

higher on the list of company priorities.

“The confidentiality of patients cannot be put at risk. We

need to ensure we’ve got state-of-the-art data security, firewalls and network security. From a financial and operational perspective, we can’t allow for mistakes.”

As a woman in a senior management position within the UAE, Rosso is one of 14 per cent. She sees that it will take time to raise the number of female business managers, but believes that technology has a part to play. “There’s no question things won’t happen overnight, but I do believe that if you look at what the Internet and smartphones are doing for business, they can act as a real catalyst in awareness and education and opportunities for women.

“the foundation of

everything you do in the medical industry

is technology. from laboratory information

systems, radiology and the management of medical

outcomes to revenue reporting, it is

essential.”

Like any modern day CFO who seeks to be a major player in their business’ performance, Michele Rosso

views her relationship with her corresponding CIO as preeminent in initiating organisational progress. “As CFO, my role is heavily involved with Mediclinic’s use of technology,” she says. “I have a very close relationship with the CIO, and our open-door policy here means we speak all the time, on top of our face-to-face meetings.” Together, they form an integral part of technology – and business – decision making processes. “We both sit on the Strategic Projects Committee and Change Approval Board,” Rosso says. “The SPC covers strategic IT initiatives, including operational tech, encompassing hospital expansions and clinical upgrades. CAB covers front office changes.”

Although Rosso has so far been highly enthused with her ten-month stay in Dubai, she does feel that the Emirate is making timely enhancements to some of its archaic processes. “This is an interesting place to be, because although some technology is ultra-sophisticated, some is ultra-backward, which presents challenges and opportunities in equal measure,” she says. “It came as a surprise when I discovered that Dubai runs on the antiquated cheque system. When I was first brought a trolley of boxes and told there were 1,200 cheques that needed hand-signing in there I was gobsmacked. For us it’s absolutely imperative that we implemented an up-to-date EFT payment method, which is now 90 per cent complete.”

Outdated processes aside, technology’s impact on Mediclinic – and the medical industry as a whole - is understandably profound. The overlap between the management of medical care, technology and finance


Can you tell us about your concept of ‘software-defined visibility’?

In the security industry there are currently a number of challenges both from a security and control perspective. The concept of being ‘safe’ with firewalls is undermined by APTs and embedded attacks. A lot of customers are building multi-layered security architectures, which have components like encryption. However, we’re doing things that can prevent those components from

working. We provide a security delivery platform that can decrypt SSL traffic and deliver the tools needed to protect. Gigamon interacts with boxes and acts as a control system to implement filters.

You’ve only recently opened an office in Dubai. How do you plan to boost your presence and what are your thoughts on your prospects here?We opened our office here nine months ago but have been doing business in the region through our partners for three years now. It’s

an absolute truth that to be taken seriously in the region you need to have resources here, but our operations are in a nascent stage locally. We’re looking at 40 percent year-on-year growth, as we feel our services are especially fit for a number of sectors here, including telco, government, finance and utilities.

We’re started to offer more technical certifications so our partners can move to the next level of their capabilities. We’re trying to do it in a layered approach, but we believe that having technical guys over here is a huge advantage to engage customers in the region. There’s no panacea of build all, end all in this respect.

How are your products equipped for scalability?A lot of cleverness in our product is around the capability to add smart features. Very basically, there are two types of products we have, dumb and clever. They scale from 1RU through to an 8-slot chassis, with a range of speeds from a one port 100 gig card, and 16x100 gig ports in a single chassis. They can be clustered to make a bigger chassis, so you can build quite big platforms into a single unit. To add smart capabilities you only need to add one unit. That’s what makes us different, we can generate net flow, identify applications, timestamp, and do other things that makes the difference. Our partners can also wrap services around our Security Delivery platform, which makes it very attractive to them.

You’ve also mentioned the concept of ‘visibility-as-a-service’?It’s in its early days, and is about creating roles-based access control of virtualisation in the system to allow a hosting company to slice up visibility fabric and deliver that to customers. The level of cloud service adoption is not going up as quickly as first thought so the concept will take time.

gigamon INTERVIEw

the Middle MenNetwork visibility and security firm Gigamon’s platform is an analytical intermediary to security hardware. We spoke to the company’s EMEA Vice President Andy Zollo about how the company is leveraging its partner relationships to drive local performance.

july 2015www.cnmeonline.com 35

Slicker city

CASE STUDY aJman muniCiPaliTy

Yousuf Mohammed Al Shaiba, Director of Smart Services Department, Ajman Municipality and Planning Department


The road to Ajman Vision 2021 has already begun, the initiative demanding a happier, greener emirate driven by a ‘distinguished government’. A key partner of the project is city planner Ajman

Municipality, whose increasingly mobile employees needed a sharper Wi-Fi solution to catalyse the mandate’s ambitious objectives.

Slicker city

”Our work is key in delivering the Ajman

2021 Vision. In order to do this, our

employees need high quality network access

– on-the-move – for them to deliver their

best work.”

As one of the largest entities in the emirate’s Government, Ajman Municipality’s

responsibilities range from environmental projects, granting building permits and construction and infrastructure services. The group’s work has a direct impact on much of Ajman’s administration and development. “We influence a large number of aspects of the city,” Yousuf Mohammed Al Shaiba, Director of Smart Services Department, Ajman Municipality and Planning Department, says. “Our role is crucial – that of a go-between from the citizens to the city itself.”

Defined by the UAE’s leadership in 2010, the nation’s UAE Vision 2021 mandate includes turning the country’s economy into one that is knowledge-based, whilst also prioritising the enhancement of education and healthcare services, and boosting environmental

sustainability. Closer to home, currently underpinning a large number of infrastructure enhancements is the goal of satisfying the localised targets of the Ajman Vision

2021. The Government of Ajman aspires to build “A happy society contributing in building a green economy backed by a distinguished

government in harmony with the spirit of the Union.”

Announced earlier this year by Sheikh Ammar Bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, Crown Prince of Ajman and Chairman of the Executive Council, the proposed changes focus on developing initiatives that can improve the lives of the emirates’ citizens.

Al Shaiba is clear on his department’s responsibility in driving the change. “Ajman Municipality is one of the largest organisations within our government,” Al Shaiba says. “As such, our work is key in delivering the Ajman 2021 Vision. In order to do this, our employees need high quality network access – on-the-move – for them to deliver their best work.” With this in mind, in what would be the first phase of a future roadmap, Al Shaiba wanted to enable wireless Internet across Ajman Municipality’s main office and six remote organisational sites for 700 internal users.


The overarching aim of the project would be the provision of automated services that could enhance productivity. IT infrastructure would inevitably play a key role in this enablement. “We looked at the various challenges we faced as an organisation and realised we had to initiate changes,” Al Shaiba says. “Employees always had to return to their desks for network access, which is the complete antithesis of the concept of mobility. People need to work independently, and a mobile-enabled infrastructure is an important pillar in this aim.”

The outdated, wired IT infrastructure in the Government buildings had proved a nuisance for the Municipality’s IT team. Legacy technology meant that if a new implementation was approved, laborious physical changes had to be carried out on the building itself. “We underwent processes that seem completely needless,” Al Shaiba says. “Breaking down walls, relaying cables; the installation process was primitive. We always needed to enlist cabling structure companies to carry out the work. Where installation should have taken half a day, it was taking weeks.” With employees having to work across offices, which often entailed moving workstations in the midst of departmental rotations, seamless connectivity was a must; this hassle had to stop.

Having undergone a rigorous screening process for potential technology partners who could carry out the changes, Al Shaiba and his team eventually opted for a Huawei Wi-Fi solution. Beginning in November 2014 and completed by January, the implementation itself

was a smooth success. Al Shaiba says the project faced “normal issues” but no major stumbling blocks. “Site preparation was something we had to consider, and required a fair degree of work,” he says. “We needed the actual physical infrastructure that is necessary for wireless itself. Ajman Municipality’s employees need to be able to work seamlessly on tablets, mobiles and notebooks and that in itself needs the right infrastructure.” Al Shaiba also recalls security and capacity issues, but both were easily resolved. “Security always adds another hit, so we had to add encryption to the network segment, while Huawei assisted us by upgrading our servers,” he says.

The benefits of the changes can easily be summed up, according to Al Shaiba. “Three words: easy, secure access,” he says. A centralised Wi-Fi management system now means that Al Shaiba and the Municipality’s IT team are not tasked with ‘looking after’ single access points. In line with the goals of the 2021 Vision, the Municipality now has an infrastructure that can support sustainable development and network growth, meaning a greener approach to IT.

Al Shaiba is delighted with the organisation’s progress in moving from a wired to wireless environment, and lauds its impact.

aJman muniCiPaliTy CASE STUDY

“Not only has it had a positive impact in enabling employees to do things on-the-go between our buildings, but it’s proved to be a massive value-add as a time saver,” he says. He highlights that the implementation is part of a long-term roadmap that will drive

the Municipality’s productivity and offer its workers increased flexibility. “We are aiming to have inside-out mobility two years from now,” he says. “That means that all our infrastructure and systems will be designed to support mobile.”

Al Shaiba credits Huawei’s support and expertise as key in delivering the changes. “They have the vision of how to help the customer reach out through the product in a unique way,” he says. “This includes integration with third party products. Their implementation has been cost-effective and high value. They can provide the bandwidth that we need, and can always add more access points.”

Looking forward, Al Shaiba believes the changes have provided Ajman Municipality with the foundations for scalability, and further IT infrastructure enhancement initiatives. “What we have done so far is just phase one,” he says. “This is purely for internal users in the buildings themselves. In future we will hope to provide farther reaching and even better network access for people in this city.”

“We are aiming to have inside-

out mobility two years from

now. That means that all our

infrastructure and systems will be designed to

support mobile.”


Planning

soluTions world

The handling of IT projects is of paramount importance to the IT department and the business as a whole. How should CIOs engage other stakeholders and what KPIs need to be monitored to ensure a project reaches its full potential?

prudent plans


It requires a certain type of personality to be an effective project manager. Organised, attentive and capable of engaging all relevant

stakeholders, an IT PM must put these traits into practice and overcome a series of inevitable obstacles that can always throw things off course. So what is the recipe for success in project management? What processes and strategies are needed to get the best out of the investment for IT and the business? Kumar Prasoon, Chief Information Officer, Al Safeer Group, believes that process precision is key. “Given the progress that the region is currently making, Gulf businesses are extremely dynamic,” Prasoon says. “As such, processes need to be customised depending on the industry. Inter-process dependencies mean processes shouldn’t be mixed and matched.”

According to Jai Mulani, CEO, Intelligent Business Technologies, setting out clearly defined parameters for success – and ensuring they are seen through – is key. “From the CIO’s perspective, in order to execute a successful project, the most important element to be taken care of is the expectations and deliverables,” he says. “Selecting the right partner to implement the project is a big challenge. CIO’s have to ensure they are dealing with right company with the capabilities to deliver the project and have enough experience in similar or larger project executions.”

Ashish Dass, President, EMEA, 3i Infotech, believes in organisation and precision. “For the successful execution of an effective IT project some of the basic ground rules that need to be followed are adherence of the timeline, within the specified budget and the overall quality of the project,” he says. “These basic rules, which can be benchmarked with the guidelines issued by ‘The Project Management Institute’ can help mitigate the risk and ensure effectiveness of the project.”

In order to achieve success within an IT project, CIO’s cannot operate alone. With IT’s evolving status as the undercurrent of business performance, forming strong relationships with the right stakeholders is now more important than ever. Prasoon has a unique take on who holds project influence. “The main stakeholder of any project is the customer,” he says. “Customer segmentation is essential for any success, along with the participation of a range of other senior figures.”

Dass places importance on a trident of stakeholders. “Primarily there are two or in some cases three key parties involved – the vendor, the client and the integrator,” he says. “Within these exist other layers of stakeholders from project managers to IT Managers to heads of department. I considering the client, vendor and the project managers allocated by both as the four key stakeholders, the people who benefit most from the implementation of the solution.”

Hugh Haskell-Thomas, Owner, Azimuth WLL, believes that the interaction from the integrator to end user is what makes the difference in hitting targets, and ensuring that IT translates to business value. “We have found in almost all of our projects that early and continuous engagement of business users is a critical success factor in the successful completion of the project and its long term benefit to the organisation,” he says. “It is their input and satisfaction that ties the solution deeply into the processes of day-to-day business operations, as well as the necessary parallel work to alter related policies and procedures.”

“Selecting the right partner to implement the project is a big

challenge. CiO’s have to ensure they are dealing with right company

with the capabilities to deliver the project and have enough experience in similar or larger project executions.”

Jai Mulani, CEO, Intelligent Business Technologies


In an ideal world, projects run to timelines, within budget and expectations are met. However that is far from the reality of any project, let alone one with the technical complexities and business dependencies of IT. Haskell-Thomas believes a lack of practical understanding is greatest banana skin in delivering successful projects. “The most common factors affecting the success or failure of projects are, most generally, a complete misunderstanding of the functional requirements of the project and the amount of time needed from the users,” he says. He also sees the value of having specialised staff who have experience within a particular vertical. “What we have found most beneficial in recent years is to have an internal team of SME’s that have come from the business vertical in which we are implementing a solution. Their ability to transform user conjecture into technical functional requirements has been critical to the successful implementation as well as the user acceptance and adoption of the final solution.”

Mulani feels that poor planning and strategy have the potential to create problems at various stages of a project. “The most common stumbling blocks in IT projects are expectations, deliverables and mis-commitment or over-commitment,” he says. “Quite often, projects are awarded to an IT partner, and in the middle of the project or near its end, it fails because of self-explanatory stumbling blocks.”

“the most common factors affecting the success or failure of projects are, most generally,

a complete misunderstanding of the functional requirements of the project and the amount of time needed from the users.”

Hugh Haskell-Thomas, Owner, Azimuth WLL

“More often than not, by the time one solution has matured,

another set of products has arrived that render it obsolete.

Major it investments need to be driven by use cases that meet individual business requirements.”

Kumar Prasoon, Chief Information Officer, Al Safeer Group

An overarching concern of any IT project is the longevity of the resulting solution or outcome. Vast ‘progress’ can all be in vain if technology is outdated by the time it has been fully integrated. As such, IT leaders are compelled to ensure their investment is well considered and will stand the test of time. “It’s ultimately something of a catch 22 for CIOs and the business,” Prasoon says. “More often than not, by the time one solution has matured, another set of products has arrived that render it obsolete. Major IT investments need to be driven by use cases that meet individual business requirements. It’s also crucial to map customer requirements.”

Dass sees the pitfalls of delving into very complex detail. “The constantly changing and ever-evolving dynamics of technology have always been a major concern,” he says. “If applications are customised from scratch, long development cycles render some of the features obsolete by the time application development is complete.”

Mulani thinks this can be avoided through clear communication to ensure that solutions can stand the test of time. “This is where a good partner comes into play,” he says. “When expectations and deliverables are explained by a customer to a partner, it becomes the partner’s responsibility to design a solution which is most suitable for the client in terms of budget, lifecycle, and future growth.”

soluTions world Planning


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Physical layer

neTwork world

Managing a network’s physical layer is a task that requires technical expertise and precision. With investments made to last the long haul, getting the basics right makes a fundamental difference for a well-managed data centre.

back to layer one


As enterprise IT thrives, and hype surrounds the likes of cloud, Big Data and mobility, it can be easy to forget the importance the

infrastructure that powers it. What’s more, it can be even easier to overlook the most principle aspect of networking – the physical layer. An innately complex and specialist subject matter, PLM requires dedicated and skilled individuals, and careful management from Chief Information Officers.

Renjan George, Managing Director, DVCOM Technology, gives an overview of the main hurdles in dealing with layer one. “One of the biggest challenges is the staggering costs and even higher requirement of time and resources,” he says. “These costs and time requirements tend to increase further as the physical layer becomes more complex. Environmental changes are another notable challenge while managing the physical layer, especially in extreme weather conditions.”

Although IT decision-makers will have varying habits and rituals regarding their

own organisational skills, they cannot always keep track of those within their team. Network Managers or staff working in network operations centres can have their own way of running things, which – in spite of their undeniable technical expertise - can cause problems for a data centre over time.

“In many current installations, the physical infrastructure is managed with ‘on-board tools’ such as excel spreadsheets and visio graphics,” Shibu Vahid, Head of Technical Operations, R&M Middle East, Turkey and Africa, says. “Sometimes, even paper, pencil and post-it notes are used. Unfortunately this approach is flawed as 50 percent of all documented data becomes inaccurate after a time span of five years. Documentation is very important and keeping correct information there after moves, ads or changes is very crucial for data centre health. At the same this, carrying out these tasks manually is extremely labour-intensive and prone to errors.”

The heavy investment in the physical layer is not one that should be taken lightly, with the long shelf-life of equipment, and the challenges of replacing it taken into account. Networking experts are always wary of the need to ensure that layer one investment stands the test of time. “Although the physical infrastructure represents just three to five percent of the total network investment, it is the crucial backbone on which the entire network runs,” says Vahid. “Unlike active equipment which is subject to four to five year refresh cycles, the cable infrastructure itself is much more complex to replace and will typically stay for 20 to 25 years. So one of the main criteria during evaluation of layer one solutions should be quality for longevity.”

George thinks that comprehensive evaluation of infrastructure is the best means of deciding on layer one options. “The best approach is to have a deep understanding of the organisation’s existing IT infrastructure, their core business

StRAtEGiC innOVAtiOn PARtnER

“While the cost of cabling only accounts for

4-5 percent of the total expense

of the data centre, Gartner reports have shown that 65 percent of system outages are related to cabling and patching mistakes cause of 28 percent of downtime in data centres.”

Shibu Vahid, Head of Technical Operations, R&M Middle East, Turkey and Africa

requirements and the width of operations,” he says. “This will enable the integrators to develop a strategy and identify the best possible options for layer one. Evaluation of all available options is not feasible, however most of the time IT goes for the best and most cost-effective solution.”

Smart product lifecycle management can give the NOC power to maintain uptime, security, and create efficiency in their data centre networks. It can also provide circuit mapping, alarming, and reporting and crisis management. A relatively new investment on the block is remote monitoring, whose greatest advantage is being able to quickly eliminate threats and protect the enterprise’s IT infrastructure.

George believes that remote monitoring is imperative in a 21st Century physical layer. “Modern data centres require advanced physical layer monitoring tools where the traditional methods won’t work most of the time,” he says. “Most of the reported connectivity issues are essentially from the physical layer, which points out the importance of advanced diagnosis tools for physical layer and ability to remotely monitor the same.”

Vahid is keen to highlight an alarming statistic that shows the importance of going beyond manual network monitoring tools. “While the cost of cabling only accounts for four to five percent of the total

expense of the data centre, Gartner reports have shown that 65 percent of system outages are related to cabling and patching mistakes cause of 28 percent of downtime in data centres,” he says. “With such high risk, it becomes essential to quickly pinpoint issues. Since cabling deployments tend to scale and grow in complexity over time, the complexity of a manual approach quickly escalates. This promotes the need for remote monitoring capabilities.”

He goes on to say how Automated Infrastructure Management (AIM) allows for faster access to data on the physical layer. “AIM provides a real-time physical connectivity monitoring, automatic and updated documentation for cabling infrastructure, along with the automated alerts on any unsolicited changes,” he says. “In an AIM system, the entire infrastructure is represented in a consistent database. Inquiries into resources such as server ports, space in cabinets as well as about energy requirements and cooling capacity are quick and easy to answer precisely with this database.”

Managed connectivity solutions are another option that is well worth considering in driving efficiency. Sunil Paul, Co-Founder and COO, Finesse, believes the benefits are widespread. “Managed connectivity solutions can bring in faster service response, greater asset utilisation, better network security, quick service restoration, quality control, better SLAs, and is great for mapping and monitoring physical layer connectivity changes,” he says. “They also help to document and report network reconfigurations, Identify and alarm unauthorised network access, Improve switch port and track a variety of network assets in real time.”

George is also a supporter of its benefits, “Managed connectivity can reduce the operating cost and time to nearly half by bridging the gap between the network and the physical layer,” he says. “This enables the network managers to transform the physical layer into a managed asset by providing them with a real-time status on all elements of the physical layer.”

Physical layer

neTwork world

“Managed connectivity solutions

can bring in faster service

response, greater asset utilisation, better network security, quick service restoration, and quality control.”

Sunil Paul, Founder and COO, Finesse

Cyber espionage

seCuriTy adviser

More and more, headlines are drawing attention to instances of cyber-espionage. Beyond basic hacking, cyber-espionage targets governments or companies with the goal of extracting information or trade secrets. In this secret world, what motivates these hackers and what can be done to stop them.

Spy games

Cyber-attacks, cyber espionage and cybercrimes are on the rise as the world becomes more and more connected. Targets can be either

governments or business, however, the end goal is the same – to gain information to bring a system down. Like all technology security trends, cyber espionage is an ever changing environment, and even the industry’s experts are caught off guard now and then.

“The first thing we need to acknowledge is that there is a continuum of threat actors out there with their own motivations, strategies and goals in mind. This is a complex and ever-changing landscape, from the ‘noise’ of the generic and simply opportunistic actors seeking short-term economic gain, to the more specifically targeted campaigns, explicitly aiming to extract data from organisations and various verticals,” says Simon Mullis, Global Technical Lead for Strategic Alliances, FireEye. Due to political circumstances, or even a simple changing of the guard, the lines between these groups can often be quite gray. What may start out as a non-targeted attack can quickly change focus

or fall into the hands of a more dangerous bad actor.

Cyber espionage takes on a number of forms these days. Whether government or corporate driven, in general, the individuals who carry out the attack are – for lack of a better word – independent contractors. “If a nation-state has limited capabilities or experience in cyberespionage – but clear motives and strategic imperatives – then the only option is to subcontract the activities to a private group,” says Mullis.

These hackers are now, more often than not, relying on behaviour-based attacks. “In this type of cyber-attack, a group of hackers – black hats in tradition definition – can launch a campaign against government departments or corporate networks,” explains Rohit Aggarwal – CEO and founder, Koenig Solutions Limited. “They approach the target using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and steal their sensitive information by sending malicious links to the victim. They are not doing it for themselves, of course, these hackers have been especially hired for cyber-espionage purposes.”

“The links between sophisticated nation-states and criminal groups seem to be proven


by the fact that we regularly see techniques, tactics, procedures and tools being used first by nation-states and later by criminal groups, and subsequently by hacktivists,” says Mullis.

As they are often times hired by governments or organisations, the motives of the actual hackers are easy to discern. But what of the motivation of their employers? “The motives for a cyberattack are many and we must understand that these tools and techniques are simply another way for attackers to reach their strategic goals. A

“this is a complex and ever-changing landscape, from the ‘noise’ of the generic and simply

opportunistic actors seeking short-term economic gain, to the

more specifically targeted campaigns, explicitly aiming to extract data from organisations and various verticals.”

Simon Mullis, Global Technical Lead for Strategic Alliances, FireEye

cyberattack is best understood not as an end in itself, but as a potentially powerful means to a wide variety of political, military and economic goals,” says Mullis.

Simon Bryden, Consulting Systems Engineer, Fortinet, agrees. “The motivation is generally to gain strategic information for political or economic gain. Examples include stealing of industrial intellectual property, both civil and military, information about trade negotiations and policy, and financial data. Other motivations may include the acquisition of data relating to political activist groups or individuals.”

In general, hackers – and the powers behind them – are looking for data and information, over monetary gain. Sometimes, however, a hack can simply be a way to distribute propaganda. Recently, there have been a number of attacks that

have resulted in the takeover of a political party’s web presence. The hackers replace existing information with misleading information, or their own agenda.

Though these attacks can seem innocuous, the gravity of such an attack should not be ignored. Many experts agree that partnerships – between governments and between private security firms – will be key in fighting such attacks. “Espionage driven cyber-attacks pose a great threat to national security. With this key concern in mind, governments are now seeking strategic solutions to help effect more data protection. This will have a major impact on private-public partnerships, since it will increase their demand in order to effectively address the current cyber security issues,” says Koenig.

Recently, many security firms have been partnering with entities such as Interpol to track and mitigate cyber-espionage attacks. There are benefits and risks to this kind of data sharing, however, most say the pros outweigh the cons. “Despite the obvious risk of entrusting the operations and resulting intelligence to a third party, such partnerships can allow access to new and innovative cyber technologies, which could take years to develop in-house,” says Bryden.

Mullis agrees, but takes the need to exchange information to the next level. “The sharing of threat intelligence data between enterprises needs to be automated, as much as legislation allows. Government can be a huge help in establishing the appropriate governance, legislation and the regulatory framework to allow their enforcement. The challenge is to ensure that these steps are initiated in as timely a manner as possible.”

As hackers blur the lines between nations and jurisdictions, regulatory agencies too need to see beyond traditional borders. Sharing of information between governments and private security firms may, indeed, be the key to protecting our respective nations.

Cyber espionage

seCuriTy adviser

“the motivation is generally to

gain strategic information for

political or economic gain. Examples include stealing of industrial intellectual property, both civil and military, information about trade negotiations and policy, and financial data. Other motivations may include the acquisition of data relating to political activist groups or individuals.”

Simon Bryden, Consulting Systems Engineer, Fortinet

OTT

TeleComs world

Over The Top (OTT) telecom services are a fantastic opportunity for consumers and the enterprise, but could pose a threat to

vendors themselves. How is OTT impacting the telco market and what impact will it have in the future?

AbOVe And beyOnd


in ASSOCiAtiOn WitH

Times are changing. Gone are the days when, to contact a family member or friend, you would be forced to pick up the phone, while video content is no

longer confined to a television set. The reality is that, for some time now, an array of service providers have been leveraging – perfectly legally – the existing resources of telecom providers, the result being Over The Top services. At an enterprise and consumer level, the delivery of a range of media – including audio, video and voice – over the Internet without the involvement of a telco operator has spelled success for a range of companies.

For OTT, 2015 has the potential to be a momentous year, with the streaming of on-demand content set to outstrip broadcast viewing figures, while Ericsson estimates that 80 percent of 16 to 45 year olds watch streamed content several times a week or more.

There is no doubting that OTT is a force to be reckoned with. “OTT is trendy – it is youthful, offers exclusivity - and in terms of targeting customers, it is aggressive,” says Rakesh Lakhani, Head of Mobile Broadband, Ericsson Middle East. “It also offers unique services and acts as a platform for emerging technologies. As customer needs are changing, OTT provides services that are adaptable to these needs.” Lakhani also believes the level of content precision is very attractive to consumers. “OTT offers a plethora of choice and

easy access to content, and a value-add in terms of the curation of content that is becoming more and more relevant to the interest of consumers,” he says. “Consumers are now given a seamless multiscreen experience that feeds their burgeoning video appetite.”

The drastic changes to the market have not come about by chance. While the telecoms industry has faced challenges including regulatory reforms and shrinking legacy service revenues, the Internet’s ubiquity has given rise to OTT services. Bocar Ba, CEO, SAMENA Telecommunications, believes that the goal posts have dramatically shifted when it comes to giving customers what they want, and that the Internet’s complexity and usage is central to the future of OTT services. “The Internet, having revolutionised modern communication and socio-economic growth in a unique, distance-independent way, has emerged among the strongest and most complex economic models,” he says. “In this economic model, value creation takes place at the customer layer. That is because the World Wide Web offers a worldwide broadcasting capability, a system for information dissemination, a medium for collaboration, commerce, and enables billions of transactions every single day, the extent to which such services are used and valued by the customer, determines the Internet’s true value and rationale for existence.”

With this in mind, it is essential for telcos to consider where they stand when it comes to OTT. The evolution of the Internet business model certainly poses a threat to telcos in this sense. If sustained, it is sure to impact the telecommunications industry in the long term, and as such, change is needed to ensure telecoms operators can profit from the Internet that they provide, which in turn provides online communications services for users. The shift to the emphasis on data traffic – which is continually growing and eating into revenues from voice and messaging services – meanwhile, is another thing that the telecom

“Companies should seek to enable cross-industry interaction, collaboration, and participation,

effectively creating an ecosystem that will sustain itself by generating more

demands for iCt services.”

Bocar Ba, CEO, SAMENA Telecommunications


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analyses, hands-on experience of its technical, engineering, HR, operations, and project-management professionals, to name a few,” he says. “Such assets need to be leveraged to allow the telecoms operator to play a role toward creating a knowledge ecosystem and intellectual capital, which can be transformed into financial capital.”

The role of cloud will play a key part in this evolving ecosystem. Telco providers who are already offering cloud services have an advantage in this respect, as the rise of digital services will be conducive to fresh platforms and solutions. Telco providers who can operate in the on-demand TV space, for instance, will have an advantage. Lakhani is conscious, however, of network challenges that could impact parts of the Middle East. “In many countries the broadband capability is not sufficient to replace a well-managed TV delivery ecosystem,” he says. “It will take time for technology to catch up with consumer demand, so operators now have a chance to enhance the delivery of OTT video traffic by providing capabilities in their own network.” He believes this is an opportune time to make change. “We believe the most successful operators will be those who react to the challenge set by OTT services by expanding their flexibility and implementing OTT within their offerings. In fact, these operators have an initial structural advantage that will allow them to create business models that are both agile and adaptable, to address evolving consumer behaviour.”

“Ott is trendy – it is youthful, offers exclusivity – and in terms of targeting customers, it is aggressive. it also

offers unique services and acts as a platform for emerging technologies.”

Rakesh Lakhani, Head of Mobile Broadband, Ericsson Middle East

industry must consider. This has led to a huge increase in traffic on fixed and mobile networks, with telco providers often blamed, as the core infrastructure provider, if services are not up to scratch.

However, while the rise of OTT services can pose a number of risks to telecom providers, if they take the appropriate strategic action, the transformation could stand to be hugely profitable; if they can view the transition as one of great opportunity, they could well come up trumps. In order for them to do this, they need to leverage their strengths, of which there are many, Lakhani says. “Telecommunications operators hold many key advantages over OTT service providers. These include an established reputation, proven reliability and skill, longevity, as well as full control over the network, which can be used to differentiate their offerings over those of OTT providers.”

Ba is also an advocate of creating new ecosystems that will spell success for telco industry partners. “Companies should seek to enable cross-industry interaction, collaboration, and participation, effectively creating an ecosystem that will sustain itself by generating more demands for ICT services,” he says. “By focusing on partners, operators can leverage existing relationships to bring value to existing customers as well as to both existing and new partners. Consequently, operators can help create a service-based ecosystem.” He also sees soft assets as being hugely advantageous in delivering change. “Every operator has intangible assets in the shape of industry and technology experiences, evolving expertise, lessons learned, customer data gathered, success and failure

OTT

TeleComs world

“telecommunications operators hold many key advantages over Ott service providers. these include an established reputation, proven reliability and skill, longevity, as well as full control over the network.”


+971-44-288-379 [email protected]

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Science meets Technology

bridging the gap

Since the first 4G LTE mobile network launched in 2011, the Middle East has seen these high-speed services adopted

as the standard of choice for mobile connectivity. Over the last four years the Gulf region has stayed on the forefront of this technological transformation. Today many consumers are enjoying 4G mobile services delivered up to 10 times faster than their earlier predecessors. Today that gap is less daunting as we approach yet another significant leap in mobile innovation. Expected to be launched in 2016, the commercialisation of 4.5G mobile broadband will inaugurate the Gigabit era—enabling people to enjoy increasingly connected and intelligent lives.

Key service enhancementsThe 4.5G standard represents the necessary bridge between today’s 4G mobile services and a long-term vision for 5G connectivity. There is already a lot of noise in the public domain about 5G, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. Real 5G is still far away from commercial availability. We’re talking a decade out, most likely to emerge between 2020 and 2030. This is an incredibly important yet understated truth. Meanwhile the public’s thirst for mobile is rapidly expanding.

Network frequencies are becoming more congested. The 4.5G standard is the only answer to addressing these requirements in the short-term.

Society’s digital transformationWithin the Gulf region, the advancement of 4.5G technology is perhaps no more apparent than in the parallel development of the region’s Smart Cities agenda.

It’s no surprise that these connected and intelligent urban landscapes will hinge on the availability of mobile broadband. It is estimated that 90 percent of cars will be connected to the Internet by 2020. By 2025, 100 billion connections will be generated globally due to enterprises becoming enabled by the Internet. Experts predict that smart homes and smart commercial buildings alone will represent 45 percent of total connected things in use in 2015, with that number rising to 81 percent by 2020. The enhanced capacity, number of connections, and latency of 4.5G will be essential in meeting these urban realities.

In a recent report conducted by Huawei and intelligence firm IDC, we found that many areas of city operations in the Middle East such as transportation, energy management, government services, public safety, and healthcare are already upgrading

networks as they begin to leverage the benefits of next-generation mobile connectivity. Moreover, local telecom operators are keen to publicly support governments’ ambitious smart city agendas. One of the immeasurable values of the birth of 4.5G is that it gives clear direction to operators and businesses as they grow their digital footprint. It’s one standard that builds on existing investments and paves the way for future innovations. It helps that current 4G networks are widely deployed in the Middle East with LTE-Advanced even being commercialised this year. Leading operators in the UAE, KSA and Kuwait have already announced plans for 4.5G networks to be commercialized as soon as the standards are released by industry regulators. At Huawei, was have been working with these regulators and local operators on a 4.5G vision that leverages experiences in LTE systems and which taps the $600 million that we’ve already allocated for 5G research by 2018.

To address the challenges brought about by our society’s digital transformation, mobile networks must be able to facilitate broader capacity, more connections, and instant service access. It is with this ambition in mind that we can look forward to 4.5G services in the very near future.

OPINIONJames Wu, President of Carrier Business Group, Huawei Middle East

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CIOs are quickly losing control of the applications and platforms their employees choose to use at work. Personal preferences

for cloud-based apps from Google, Box and Slack, among others, have spilled into the workforce at an astonishing rate during the past 18 months. Unsanctioned apps and services can negatively impact workflow and the general health of a company, but the potential damage can be offset with the right IT mindset, support and flexibility.

Consumers virtually have endless choices when it comes to cloud tools, but there are different dynamics at play in the workplace. Employee expectations don’t always blend well with the IT goals of the company, so many workers simply use the tools they want.

“We’ve been tackling personal preference for quite a while,” says Michael Hites, CIO, University of Illinois. “If we’re slow to get an enterprise solution out, the problem proliferates pretty quickly.”

Hites says CIOs and their IT staffs need to stay ahead of these challenges if they hope to resolve worker expectations and corporate technology requirements.

Resistance can be futileFinding the right data and information is still a complex for many employees, so they look to external tools for help, according to Vanessa Thompson, Research Director, Enterprise Social networks and Collaborative Technologies, IDC. Thompson says IDC’s latest research indicates that inefficient access to data from remote locations is undermining productivity, and she says it’s getting worse. For example, Thompson still hears from executives who email their work as attachments to personal accounts

because they can’t easily share work files or take them home from work.

It’s not always a bad thing for employees to use multiple collaboration platforms at work, but disparate sets of tools can negatively affect workflow and productivity, and threaten a company’s information assets. NetScout CIO Ken Boyd says he doesn’t mind his employees using different collaboration tools as long as the services meet IT requirements for security, compliance and auditing.

“Within the IT world, we don’t have much of a choice,” Boyd says. “One [set of tools] is always preferred but that’s just not the world we live in, employees have the ability to store anywhere they choose.”

Collaboration complexity increases IT complicationsThe University of Illinois’s Hites says has a proper understanding of corporate projects, the scale of collaboration involved and the capabilities of IT sanctioned tools can help offset the risk associated with employee use of consumer cloud tools. The more complex the project, the more resources CIOs need, according to Hites.

“If I’m in an individual department, and I’m collaborating with my staff members there then having redundant collaboration systems doesn’t really harm the enterprise that much,” he says. However, it can get confusing when employees use multiple platforms on projects that require campus-wide collaboration.

“If I’ve got one person using SharePoint, one doing Google Docs and one doing Box, that’s going to mess up the collaboration,” Hites says. “As long as you know how these things are nested within each other and which tool to use for which type of collaboration

everything’s fine. It’s really when you try to use something that wasn’t designed for that scale that you get into trouble.”

The range of employee choice has grown considerably, but the use of more than one platform in the enterprise isn’t new by any means. Large enterprises with sales, marketing, HR and customer support teams regularly use different applications to get work done, but there are a number of processes between the lines of business that don’t always get taken into account by IT, according to IDC’s Thompson.

The more cloud tools, the more IT challengesWithout a proper collaboration management framework, company data within employees’ personal accounts can be at risk if staffers leave the company. The disposal of junk files and redundant or outdated work stored in the consumer cloud can also be a burden for IT if left unmanaged.

“You start treating the cloud environment and the virtual world like the same file cabinet full of garbage that you had in the past,” Hites says. “It makes it hard to find it, it makes it easy to lose and you run a risk because you can’t get to those documents when you need them.”

The last thing IT wants is to lose control, but CIOs such as Hites and Boyd choose to embrace more flexible environments in order to meet the predominantly mobile-oriented needs of their employees.

“The fiduciary responsibility of IT is to protect the information assets of the company,” says Boyd. “That responsibility really requires us to lay down some standards and not to be burdensome. There are areas of flexibility, and where we can be flexible I think we are.”

Embracing it flexibility

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Dimensions, with infrastructure, integration, intelligence, influence, and inspiration all joining innovation as key areas of focus for the future-ready CIO.

Within the business sphere, there is a clear requirement for the CIO to become the Chief of Intelligence. Data is now global, comprehensive, and massive, and extracting value from this data and presenting it in the most appropriate form to business users is a critical challenge. My regular discussions with the region’s ICT leaders reveal that this priority already tops most of their agendas, with the vast majority of CIOs striving to empower their businesses with actionable insights. Big Data/analytics projects will change the way businesses make decisions, but many barriers — the high cost of technology, complexity of data integration, business and IT skills availability, and organisational maturity — must be addressed along the way, and responsibility for this lies firmly with the Chief of Intelligence.

The next aspect to consider is Leadership, something that has perhaps not been traditionally associated with the office of the CIO. However, with approximately 61 percent of IT investment funding already coming from outside the IT department itself, we are seeing a shift in the way CIOs and

INSIGHTJyoti Lalchandani, IDC’s Group Vice President and Regional Managing Director for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey

Toward the end of last year, I spoke about the need for the region’s Chief Information Officers to

prepare themselves for an evolution of their role, with the ‘information’ of their title eventually transforming into ‘innovation’. Indeed, with their roles already encompassing the identification of disruptive technologies for pilot projects, CIOs are perfectly positioned to take on the mantle of Chief Innovation Officer, tasked with empowering business strategies, generating new revenue streams, and enabling profitable growth through the innovative implementation of cutting-edge ICT solutions.

The ability to innovate has never been easier, more affordable, more possible, and faster than it is today. And in game-changing times such as these, it’s up to the CIO to take charge — or someone else will. But are there any other I-shaped strings that the forward-thinking CIO should be looking to add to his or her bow?

In short, yes. While the role of CIO as innovator is undoubtedly a crucial one, there are a whole host of other dimensions that must not be ignored as the ICT leaders of today strive to maintain their relevance in the ultra-competitive landscape of tomorrow. Broadly speaking, these can be categorised as Technical Dimensions, Business Dimensions, and Leadership

other senior executives relate and collaborate. If the CIO is not the decision maker, he/she can still play a range of roles — from co-decision maker to partner to trusted advisor. And regardless of the level of involvement, the IT department may end up fully accountable for the integration, support, and success of the technology being introduced, so it is critical that the CIO is not left sitting in the dark. To this end, the CIO must gain support and drive action through others, serving as a Chief of Influence who proposes, reasons, persuades, uncovers, or creates incentives, finds common ground, and shares visions with other decision makers.

The final new role I encourage all CIOs to embrace is that of Chief of Interpretation, taking on responsibility for translating technology concepts into business terms. This will require CIOs to develop a culture of collaboration and champion continuous change management for the betterment of their organisations. And most importantly in this regard, the CIO needs to lead by example. They can no longer remain at the conceptual level of technology and delegate specific technology understanding to experts; they need to share the experience and fully immerse themselves in the new world they are helping to build. Simply put, they must walk the talk and prove there’s more to their role than at first meets the I.

in the “i” Of the behOlderJyoti Lalchandani, IDC’s Group Vice President and Regional Managing Director for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, talks about how the CIO’s role is evolving to become an organisation’s innovation and integration leader.


A number of factors hampered their efforts in this direction, chief among them being the lack of organization-wide buy-in into these diversification initiatives, with many of the region’s telcos opting for a more tentative try-and-see approach rather than the fully concerted strategic drive required to succeed in unchartered waters. Ultimately, the necessary strategies, retraining, buy-in, guidance, metrics, and follow-through were lacking in many cases, which only served to dilute the impact of these adjacent markets on topline revenues.

ANALYST VIEw Sony John, Program Manager for Telecoms and Media at IDC

At the same time, telcos have been battling against rising cost pressures. Whether it is their drive to offer the fastest services first or the very real need to support rapidly growing data and video demands, telcos have been powering through in recent times with large-scale investments in next-generation networks. However, this increased capital expenditure to support higher data speeds has not resulted in a propionate increase in revenues for the telcos, forcing them to look for other ways of controlling their expenditure.

With such efforts delivering relatively limited success to date,

SecOnd Wave Of telcO tranSfOrMatiOn

Much like their counterparts elsewhere in the world, telecom operators here in the

Middle East understand the need to diversify into adjacent markets as growth continues to slow in their more traditional business areas. As part of the initial wave of industry transformation, we saw telcos branch out into the realms of IT services, media, ecommerce, and a host of other digital services, but regardless of the segment, the pace and success of this diversification was somewhat underwhelming.


it is no surprise that we are now beginning to see a new wave of transformation among the region’s telcos, starting with renewed efforts to monetize customer information. Telcos are privy to vast amounts of customer data, and significant opportunities await those that leverage this information in an anonymized fashion to deliver innovative products and services. Bundling existing solutions such as bulk SMS along with integrated marketing solutions is another way in which telcos are looking to extend their existing services

to become more attractive in the enterprise space.

Another aspect that certainly needs to change is the contribution of Middle East telecom operators as a channel for mobile devices. So far, their role in this area has been extremely limited, which is in stark contrast to the common global practice of telcos serving as key channels for the provision of mobile devices to both the consumer and enterprise segments. Focusing on actively becoming a channel for devices will enable the region’s telcos to open up further lucrative new revenue opportunities such as managed mobility, prebuilt apps, and even payment services.

Telcos should also look to move beyond the provision of traditional mobile device management solutions, as these are rapidly becoming commoditized and incorporated into leading mobile operating systems. Instead, the focus should be on providing a more end-to-end enterprise mobility management solution, as well as on expanding existing M2M technologies to a larger ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) market through the establishment of partnerships with other ecosystem players. The right services and strategies will need to be identified and correct partnerships formed, but dedicated IoT service plans, a strong vertical focus, and the provision of end-to-end managed services will all position telcos well to tap the growing IoT market.

This second wave of transformation should also see telcos looks to further exploit the numerous lucrative opportunities that lie in the region’s media space. Most telcos

currently focus on distribution and delivery (i.e., IPTV), but progressive telcos will look to backwardly integrate into this market by not only aggregating and acquiring content but also trying their hand at content creation. Multinational telcos or those that have a large subscriber base can also look to acquire premium content such as sports and reality shows in a bid to drive revenue returns on their fixed infrastructure costs.

Telcos can look to transform internally as well, especially in the way they operate. Emerging technologies such as software-defined networking and network function virtualization are enabling telcos to cut down on their operating expenditure in the long run and make their investments more future proof. All of this will, of course, require the implementation of a strong strategic roadmap that is driven by top management. And in terms of skills, new capabilities around professional services, systems integration, and solution selling will also need to be delivered.

If this new wave of transformation is to succeed, the lessons learnt during the first wave must be heeded. The drive to transform has to come from the top, because only then will it secure the buy-in of as many employees as possible. The entire workforce should be engaged in the process, with effective systems and procedures put in place for gathering valuable feedback and using that feedback to steer things back on course when problems arise. True transformation undoubtedly has the ability to open up a whole new world of opportunity, but only for those telcos brave enough to take the entire organization along for the ride.


Product: 360

Brand: motorola

What it does: Moto 360 proves that smartwatches can be as fashionable.Its Google Now-integrated software is functional, making it the first Android Wear watch worth strapping to your wrist. Its circular watch face takes cues from stylish designer wristwatches, not square-shaped smartwatches. Complimenting this traditional watch appearance is Moto 360’s always-on screen. It tells the time even when its backlit LCD kicks into a power-saving dimmed display mode.

What you should knoW: The latest information surrounding the second generation of Motorola’s smartwatch is that it could be launched in the coming months. The rumoured specs of the Moto 360 2 give it a 360 x 360 fully circular display, a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage and a 400mAh battery. Meanwhile, an event held last July 28th saw the launch of three new smartphones which are Moto X Style, Moto X Play, and Moto G.

Product: Chromebook Flip

Brand: Asus

What it does: The Chromebook Flip is pushing the envelope of what we consider a “standard” Chromebook, with extreme portability, good components and the option to convert into a tablet. At 10.1 inches and less than two pounds it’s quite compact. The specs offer solid performance while also keeping battery life long and heat to a minimum despite not having fans The LED backlit display looks slick while also packing good multitouch capability.

What you should knoW: ASUS launched the Chromebook Flip hoping to be a standout option, differentiating itself from the pack with higher-end materials, a new convertible form factor and a nice screen. An aluminum chassis stands out, and the nice touchscreen is easy on the eyes and folds back into a few different modes to expand your Chromebook experience. The whole package comes in under two pounds but retains full functionality, which is a tough feat.

Product: Xperia m4 Aqua

Brand: Sony

What it does: the phone measures in at 145.5 x 72.6 x 7.3mm, and is a nice halfway house for users who are fans of 5”+ screens, and those who prefer the slightly smaller iPhone-esque shape. The resolution of 720 x 180 pixels satisfies on a simple IPS LCD panel, and its colour is boosted by Sony’s Triluminos display and Bravia tech, providing added vibrancy. The 2400 mAh battery, supported by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Octa Core processor, really does go the extra mile. The device stays switched on for days at a time, and although it may not match up with that of the Z3 Compact, it’s still a key selling point for the device.

What you should knoW: Coming in single and dual SIM options, the phone features a microUSB 2.0 port for charging and data connections and offers LTE support and comes with Android 5.0 out-of-the-box. In terms of storage, the 16BG – as opposed to its 8GB counterpart – is preferable for obvious reasons. The user interface is intuitive, with apps laid out across multiple pages, on which they can be uninstalled, and more can be downloaded.

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Data Centre Build Road Show 2015Assembling a modern data centre is no easy task.

Supporting new holistic requirements is paramount, with infrastructure convergence, optimisation and automation all key goals, while saving energy and costs are also top priorities.

This September, CPI Media Group will host its third annual Data Centre Build Roadshow, following on the huge success of the previous two outings.

The conferences will reach Riyadh, Doha and Dubai, and promise to be a cornerstone of regional IT education.

Each conference is designed to educate technology professionals and business leaders on the best way to design, build and operate a successful data centre. Each of these single stream seminars will host a selection of speakers including analysts, industry experts and sponsor case studies and will bring together 80-100 senior IT professionals and business leaders who are responsible, for their organisation’s ICT strategy.

Register at www.cnmeonline.com/datacentrebuild

Organised by

RIYADH6th SeptemberAl Faisaliah Hotel

DOHA8th SeptemberW Hotel

DUBAI9th SeptemberThe Address Marina



[email protected]+971 4 375 5685+971 50 173 9987









[email protected]

+971 4 375 5678

For registration enquiries

CPI Events Team +971 4 440 9100

[email protected]


EVENT PARTNERS SECURITY PARTNER TECHNOLOGY PARTNER

W hen was the last time your computer crashed? How long has it been since you needed to

take your car to the repair shop? The answer to both of these questions is probably not that long. What brings these seemingly unrelated points to mind is this: Google’s been trumpeting the safety record of its driverless cars, and the media’s been falling all over itself to herald a new automotive era.

It's important to remember that these cars are being tested - and more importantly - maintained under ideal conditions that real-world auto owners won’t be able to duplicate. And when things go wrong, whether it’s the fault of the driverless car or the other party, we’re all going to see a storm of litigation that will keep lawyers fat and happy for decades.

To be fair, the safety record of Google's test car has so far been excellent, as documented in the first of its periodic reports on the issue. However, these are the very early days, and I have a lot of

questions about how autonomous vehicles can be maintained in the real world by real owners. Here are five questions that Google needs to answer before driverless cars hit the road at any sort of significant scale.

1Google has a cadre of mechanics who are keeping the mechanical parts of its car,

including cameras needed to monitor the road, in great condition. But ordinary drivers don’t always stay on top of auto maintenance. What will happen when equipment starts to fail, or when drivers neglect maintenance?

2Who is going to train today’s mechanics to work on these extremely complex vehicles?

Google? Even if car dealers get up to speed quickly, will drivers have to take their cars to specific, expensive dealers instead of their own trusted mechanics?

3Software is obviously key to the safe operation of a driverless car, and software is

notoriously fallible. If the software crashes, or is corrupted or hacked, will the car’s navigation system be disabled? Such a scenario could give new meaning to the phrase «blue screen of death.

4Just how reliable are driverless cars? Google hasn’t said how many times it has had to take

one off the road because of software crashes or hardware failures.

5How will insurance companies and the courts handle a wave of driverless

cars? Imagine the litigation when a driverless cars has a serious accident. Is the driver or the software at fault? The onboard computer, perhaps? Or the special hardware? How do you insure all of that?

Driverless cars may well be a success at some later date, but until these five questions, and many more, are answered, the nuts behind the wheel will still be you and me.

key questions Google needs to answer about its driverless cars

backlog

5By Bill Snyder


© Copyright 2015 Cambium Networks, Inc. www.cambiumnetworks.com

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