What solutions does Veeam present to its enterprise customers in the region? Tell us also about your experience at GITEX.

Veeam offers modern data protection solutions to customers across the enterprise portfolio. Another one is cloud solutions include Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) with very reliable and simple recovery standards.

At GITEX, we held a live demonstration of these latest innovations. Besides, we showcased the ransomware protection solutions we offer as it is one of the hot topics in the post-pandemic era. We offer robust and solid solutions for ransomware protection to help our customers from data loss and financial risks. Our demonstrations also included: the hybrid cloud acceleration to help our customers protect their workloads when moving to the cloud, which is critical as cloud adoption is rapidly growing in the region. Moreover, on our stand, we demonstrated Kasten (acquired by Veeam back in 2020) which is a data protection solution that is purpose-built for Kubernetes environments.

Kinda Baydoun, Manager of Channels & Distribution – ME at Veeam

Elaborate about the data management solutions Veeam offers

At Veeam, we ease customer challenges by offering seamless and comprehensive data management and mobility solutions, across the public and private cloud with 100 percent data portability. Wherever this data is kept, we ensure it is protected even while it moves from one environment to another.

We presented VMware Orchestrator, with which our customers can automate disaster recovery planning as well as help them meet the objectives of DRI for business continuity and compliance. Similarly, we had recently acquired Kasten, which facilitates easy-to-use data backup and recovery.

Excellent, thank you for giving us comprehensive input on your solutions. What is your regional strategy and which are the industries you focus on?

We wish to focus on all industry verticals and our solutions are also made to fit most industries. We are getting requests from all verticals as data is becoming very precious and needs to be protected. It is important for all businesses including telecom, banks, oil and gas, hospitality, etc.

We have a very solid SMB customer base and they raise high demands for stable and solid solutions.

Being the Manager of Channel and Distribution in the Middle East, what are your priorities?

I have been in this role for the past six months and my priority is to evaluate our current channel ecosystem and segment this into four categories, which takes into account the size of the channel partner from a VEEAM revenue perspective vs. their level of commitment. The channel ecosystem consists of our partners, distributors, and service providers who provide growth and reach for Veeam products. As I come from a channel background, I have deep knowledge about the market. So, my focus also is to onboard some new names in the market, especially in the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) space.

Tell us how did the COVID-19 Pandemic impact Veeam’s business?

The pandemic had created an unpleasant situation for all of us. At Veeam, we had orchestrated a shift in our approach from centralization to decentralization because most of our customers mandated their employees to work from home or work remotely. We had quickly responded to our customers’ needs. Thus, it didn’t take a toll on our business operations.

The post Veeam Offers Modern Data Protection, Backup, and Recovery Solutions for SMEs appeared first on The Integrator.

COVER STORY

The cover story closely examines the scopes and challenges of hybrid work, the new model incorporated into work environments, worldwide.

Hybrid work has become a new norm worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic hit has structurally changed work conditions in most enterprises invariable on their size and strength. Working remotely wasn’t new to the tech industries. However, keeping the lowest and adequate strength at the office and letting the rest of the workforce contribute from the feasible locations could be the newest idea in the business.

The lessons learned during the pandemic are important for companies for any devastating situations of this kind. Therefore, steps are taken to configure and facilitate work and keep that unaffected in similar situations.

Workplace Shifting and Hybrid Paradox

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft rightly said, “The ongoing workplace shifting, hybrid paradox, and the great shuffle can be compared to nothing that happened in the last hundred years.”

The lockdowns imposed all over the world made workers shift from offices to homes overnight. The majority of businesses and enterprises were not prepared to handle the paradox that had been created. The workforces of these companies were uncertain about how, when, and why they work. The fascinating thing is these concerns have been addressed with technology and solutions within the past 18 months. Not only did they learn to conduct work or enforce business continuity but also reskilled the workforce and found ways to fix issues remotely.

Secure Work Environment

The concept of hybrid work hasn’t been brewed after the pandemic hit although the pace of work towards the model has been accelerated due to it. Tech companies in the US and elsewhere in the world suggested the model of work, in which employees can collaborate and contribute to respective projects irrespective of their work location.

Mr. Amanulla Khan, Managing Director of Linksys – META says, “the work culture started to change well before the pandemic. Solutions that accommodate office and remote work have been in development for a while now. However, business continuity plans of the companies after COVID-19 hit accelerated the need for remote working solutions, increased discussions on cyber security, and significantly blurred the line between consumer and enterprise, across the globe.”

When employees work from remote locations and access office networks from numerous devices, information security becomes a major concern. While traditionally rigid verticals, incorporating financial, healthcare, and educational enterprises, also have subscribed to remote/hybrid work options, the cybersecurity and information security solution providers also find new landscapes of business.

Coordination and Collaboration

Coordination of the workforce is highly important when it comes to working from remote locations. Similarly, customers also feel connected with service providers or product suppliers. Integration of efficient hardware and software is required to facilitate seamless communication between all stakeholders.

Microsoft, Cisco, Google, Zoom, and TeamViewer have been showing strength and dominance on the software side. Whereas, Jabra, Logitech, Epson, Poly, and numerous others including niche players influence the market with their hardware solutions.

Apart from the regular call, meet, and message features, the software applications host digital whiteboard, real-time collaboration, co-create, and content share within them. Similarly, hardware manufacturers trying to create intelligent videoconferencing enabling cameras with AI and machine language.

“Unlike static webcams, Jabra PanaCast cameras stitch visual inputs from at least three cameras, covering 180 degrees, and bring them to a single frame intelligently. They can handle pinpoint and shift focus to a speaker, capture whiteboards, screen-in-screen feature, count the number of members in a conference room, and calculate the time they spend on a meeting. All these actions seamlessly happen on a single screen,” said Abraham Mammen, Director – VC, Eastern Europe, Russia, CIS, Middle East & Africa, Jabra quoting the devices released by the company.

Desktop and Cloud Infrastructure

Hybrid work collaboration can be implemented successfully only if the supporting environment shows competency. Edge service platforms, virtual desktop infrastructure, cloud-native solutions, and data management tools play a vital role in this segment.

Large enterprises signaled that until 2025, they want to concentrate more on digital infrastructure than physical at offices. It appears the phenomenon persuades small and medium enterprises also to choose similar actions within their organizational range. Online huddle rooms, displays, and video walls are extremely becoming popular among companies that embrace the new-age technologies.

Solutions providers have diverse approaches on this matter. In the SME sector, Zoho helps companies to digitalize entirely with their 50+ pre-developed solutions after reviewing their business constraints. At the same time, VMWare, Infor, and some other companies offer end-to-end ERP solutions with single or multi-cloud support. SAP, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are competing in the top-line market. Resellers and product or (and) solution distributors offer both suggested and tailored solutions to businesses.

Conclusion

The unprecedented pandemic has impacted every sector. Initially, every business faced operating troubles. Some industries were competent to reorganize and ensure business continuity in the best possible way. However, customer satisfaction, reassuring of data security, and keeping up with profitability had dealt with their own challenges. The latest technologies and solutions have combinedly covered most challenges and inculcated top practices for the evolution of the new age in the tech and professional world.

The post Hybrid Work: The Beginning of a New Age and Sophisticated Practices appeared first on The Integrator.

Although enterprises chose the model for business continuity in the COVID-hit markets, it eventually had become a phenomenon worldwide. The elite videoconferencing has turned out to be a democratic and compulsory collaboration method and a lifeline that keeps human interactions alive.

Outside the corporate world, educators, doctors, attorneys, consultants, scientists, anyone and everyone had embraced new technological products and solutions to continue work and socialize. When workers access office networks from numerous remote locations, security, data protection, and privacy have become major concerns. Consequently, solution providers tailored their services to save networks from infiltration and phishing.

The GITEX Technology Week 2021 held at Dubai World Trade Center in October had witnessed a plethora of solutions and products facilitating hybrid work and online education. The November edition of The Integrator carries a detailed analysis, exclusive interviews, and selected stories on the hybrid work.

We are a step ahead of our counterparts in the industry when it comes to educating business customers and introducing the right products and solutions to them.

We continue doing it sincerely. Read and support!

Murali Margassery
Assistant Editor, The Integrator

The post Hybrid Work: Remarkable Resilience in Times of Crisis appeared first on The Integrator.

The public and private sectors have many differences, one characteristic is similar; that is cybersecurity and threats. Both sectors feel the pain of not having a sufficient community of trained and available security staff to hire, both are constant targets of phishing and related social engineering attacks and both are trying to balance the three-pronged attacks of the pandemic, the relocation of employees to work-from-home status and increased risks from attacks on cloud assets.

Wissam Saadeddine, Senior Manager – MENA, Infoblox

The following are considered to be the noted challenges for both government and private sectors:

• Workers are being required to work from home with available resources
• IT and security staff must provide WFH employees with new equipment, which has major implications for IT budgets
• Users are connecting to government networks from untrusted and often compromised home networks
• Users are employing personal equipment and IoT devices to connect to government networks and clouds that might not be secured to the governmental agency’s security standards

Government operations potentially can impact much larger groups of people than a corporate attack. Depending on the government entity targeted, the effect could impact critical infrastructure at all levels. The COVID-19 effect of draining critical financial resources to fund purchases of hardware and software for newly displaced employees, plus expenses for significant increases of cloud services and, in some cases, a forced digital transformation from the on-premises data center to cloud-based assets, is putting a strain on both financial and staffing resources.

From the citizenry perspective, the pandemic has opened the proverbial Pandora’s box of fake “official” websites devoted to COVID-19, misinformation from websites purporting to be the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other government and medical facilities that are watering holes for malware and ransomware attacks on hospitals delivered in emails purporting to be information about COVID-19.

What can government agencies do to defend themselves against such attacks?

While public and private sectors have some differences when it comes to issues such as disclosure and confidentiality, the basis is the same. At the core is user education. Helping government employees understand good cybersecurity hygiene is essential. With the vast majority of office-based government employees working at home, agencies need to focus on the basics of identity management; implementing zero trust to protect networks from untrusted users, devices, applications, and network connections; and ensuring that data is protected from unauthorized egress and access.

For those governmental agencies without existing threat intelligence capabilities, now would be a good time to invest in a comprehensive program that includes a mix of traditional data feeds, specialized feeds focusing on specific requirements for a given agency, an open-source intelligence (OSINT) feed, and greater emphasis on understanding the threat intel an agency already is generating from its existing SIEM systems and related log systems.

Government agencies also should take advantage of several emerging technologies to further enhance their existing security policies. For example, security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) enhance the speed and reliability of existing operations. For cloud-based operations, a cloud access security broker (CASB) is on-premises or cloud-based security policy enforcement placed between cloud server consumers and providers. It interjects enterprise security policies as cloud-based assets are accessed.

Continuous management and monitoring add another dimension to protecting government networks. As a key target of bad actors and nation-state cyber attackers, continuous monitoring is essential; any lapse can let attackers have access to a system, even if just momentarily.

The post Govt Agencies Can Prevent Cyberattacks Using Proper Cybersecurity Systems appeared first on The Integrator.

Mr. Nicholas Argyrides, General Manager – Gulf says, “As businesses embrace the hybrid workplace model in the light of the pandemic, technology firms have clearly adapted to the requirements of this new environment by focusing on security, connectivity, and accessibility. This has created new demand streams and, undeniably, new opportunities for all of us in the channel.”

Mindware hints announcing an extensive array of distribution agreements that the company has signed over the last year at the event. The distributor is also excited about the recent extension of operations into the African continent following the merging of three Midis Group subsidiaries into Mindware. Mindware will be exhibiting at GITEX stand H3-D1, Hall 3.

The post Mindware at GITEX: “Business Continuity” Into the Spotlight appeared first on The Integrator.