Costa Boukouvalas, Chief Executive Officer at Agility Grid, an IP surveillance solutions provider, discusses the company’s focus in partnering with leading security vendors

How do you help customers take advantage of latest solutions without undermining their existing IP surveillance investment?

There has been an increasing focus on video analytics capabilities to be able to more proactively use the data being captured. These new technologies provide much earlier detection of abnormal behavior and security issues. All of our products, add-ons and plug-in modules have been designed to easily integrate into existing platforms, enhance your existing IP surveillance system and improve its performance and ROI. Big data analysis is also driving a lot of purchase decisions – it is one thing to record video images for a specific period of time, but what can end customers learn from this data and how can this data analysis drive performance changes within their companies.

Who are the vendors you partner with for IP surveillance?

We pride ourselves in providing the most technologically advanced solutions with a proven track record of performance under a one stop shop theme for video surveillance solutions. All performance is benchmarked and we are the first company in the industry to offer KPI’s for Video Surveillance. In terms of hardware we partner with Rasilient, a US international manufacturer of award winning servers, storage and workstations and we work with Sony, Abus and Axis cameras depending on the requirement. We also have a range of best-of-breed video analytics software including facial recognition, abnormal behavior detection, suspect tracking and automatic number plate detection and in many cases, we are the exclusive partner for the Middle East and Africa region. These have all been custom designed to fully integrate with each other as well as the VMS platform. For VMS we work closely with Milestone and are an official distributor worldwide.

Icetana and Viakoo are two of the brands you are associated with- discuss demand for such niche tools in IP surveillance deployments in the region?

These products provide early warning systems for video surveillance. Icetana looks at patterns of behavior within your environment to quickly detect abnormal behavior. It greatly assists Management of large private and public areas such as Public Transport, large office buildings, hotels and shopping malls, to mitigate risks. Viakoo is a proactive monitoring tool that monitors every frame that travels from the camera, through the switch infrastructure, via the cables, server and all the way through to the hard disk. This helps to quickly diagnose hardware and software performance issues, so you can act on them before they become serious or cause a failure. Niche products such as iCetana require extensive eduction at both the end user and consultant level to fully help to explain the difference and potential savings, that these solutions can provide. To this end, we are focussing more and more on end users and consultants via direct early engagement and this is supported with our fully certified professional services team that can help with solution design, training, implementation, integration and consulting services.

Elaborate on your key territories of focus as well as key customer segments?

We are based in Dubai and have customers throughout the Middle East and Africa. There is still a lot of growth happening in the UAE and Qatar, particularly with the number of prestigious events coming up in both countries. Due to customer demand, we are currently expanding our reach into South Africa and Morocco to address the wider African market and also into Turkey and Iran. We service a wide range of customers in the Public and Private Sectors including law enforcement, transportation, banks, hotels and retail and education sectors.

Elaborate on your partner reach and market focus in the Middle East?

Our partner network is very important to AgilityGrid and we have over 600 partners across the GCC and Africa region. Our professional services team works hand in hand with our partners to offer services to consultants and end customers during the pre and post sales process as well as ensuring that all our key partners are trained and certified on our products and solutions. We align many of our partners to specific verticals so that we are sure that we are always providing the best solution and delivery of our products to our end customers.

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According to the vendor that manufactures solutions in the IP Surveillance, Wireless, Switching, Storage, Security, Cloud, VoIP, Print Servers, Structured Cabling, Digital Home, 3G/4G Routers, Power over Ethernet Kit, Powerline, KVM, Structured Cabling and Digital home offerings, the router comes with mobile connectivity allowing easy access to mobile broadband networks.

Sakkeer Hussain, Director – Sales and Marketing, D-Link Middle East and Africa (MEA), said D-Link with its passion to innovate for the past 30 years and being the world’s pioneering networking leader is launching a high-performance 4G LTE router for business solutions that are integrated with the Internet of Things (IoT).

Hussain said the new product will be available to channel partners and their end-user customers at the end of June.

“The DWR-925 4G LTE VPN Router comes in a robust metal housing and lets users connect to a 3G/4G mobile connection with fast downlink speeds of up to 100 Mbps and uplink speeds up to 50 Mbps, giving users the speed they need for fast, responsive Internet access,” he said.

He added that with regards to redundancy, the auto-failover feature automatically switches between mobile broadband and fixed-line broadband to ensure a user stays connected to the Internet in case one connection fails.

“The serial port of the DWR-925 can connect to 56K modem as a failover option or be configured as a console port if necessary, providing extra flexibility and versatility,” he pointed out.

Hussain said the DWR-925 can encrypt all wireless transmissions using WPA or WPA2 to protect the wireless network against unauthorised access. In addition, he said encryption technology also protects the network from online intruders and potential attacks over the Internet with dual-active firewall protection using Network Address Translation (NAT) and Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI).

Other features according to Hussain include the powerful set of security features ensure that you can set up a wireless network with an Internet connection without worries. “Wireless connectivity is covered by 802.11 b/g/n. It has 2 x external LTE antennas and 2 x external Wi-Fi antennas,” he said.

Hussain explained that in launching the latest router, D-Link is aware that many companies prefer to keep their data and software running on servers that are in their own offices, not in the cloud. He said that means employees need a way to easily and securely connect to the office when they’re out and about. “This device allows users to create a private network from the home or office with a simple setup and advanced configuration options that guarantee security and easy access to mobile broadband networks,” he emphasised. “It lets users create a secure high-speed Virtual Private Network (VPN) for access over the Internet or a wired network connection. It supports IPsec, PPTP, L2TP, and GRE protocols in Server Mode, and also handles pass-through traffic,” he reiterated. “Advanced VPN configuration options can be set using the comprehensive setup wizard and includes multiple encryption options, key management, negotiation modes, and VPN authentication support using an internal user database. With the DWR-925 you’ll have all the tools you need to create the ideal VPN solution for your network.”

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While talking to VAR Magazine, Santosh Varghese, general manager of Toshiba Gulf, emphasized on company’s priorities and market trends.

Edited excerpts:

What are the key priorities does Toshiba has?

Toshiba is known for it’s ICT hardware capabilities and expertise. We are now getting aggressive towards solutions based market. Since IT infrastructures are becoming complex, devices are growing exponentially so as the data, it is high time for bringing solutions that can help the users to manage their ICT infrastructure in an efficient manner. Toshiba has ‘hardware plus’ strategy for ensuring ease of ICT management. We are getting more focused on solutions and cloud-based services. Surely, we would like position ourselves a hardware plus brand.

What is the key driver behind such strategic shift?

We understand priorities of our users. There are millions of devices in corporate environments and households. All of these devices are supposed to get managed smoothly and efficiently.  This often becomes a pain point for the common household consumers as well as for IT managers. This user challenge became the driver for Toshiba to innovate and come up with some unique solution which can bridge this gap.

Please throw some more light on Toshiba’s cloud solutions?

Toshiba Cloud Client Manager (TCCM) and Toshiba Smart Client Manager (TSCM) are powerful IT management services developed by Toshiba with IBM Endpoint Manager. Both will empower IT administrators to improve a company’s productivity.

The solutions are designed to give better control to the end user and will also provide effective monitoring of the ICt infrastructure around.

Which are the key market segments that Toshiba is targeting through it’s cloud solutions?

We are focusing on small and medium businesses. With these cloud-based solutions we tend to offer cost-effective solutions which becomes a great enabler for the small & medium business.

What was the key highlight at Gitex 2015?

At Gitex, our highlight launch is the Toshiba Zero Client Secured, a unique solution that allows business users to save all sensitive data to a secure server as opposed to a physical device in order to maximize security through complete prevention of unauthorized data access. A user needs to login to be authorized; once he or she is done with the work and logs out, all access is disconnected and whatever data used on the computer used is erased. So, with this, Toshiba extended its commitment towards ensuring security of data.

What are the key attractions that Toshiba showcased at Gitex?

We presented the Toshiba Cloud Client Manager, which customers can use to remotely control everything in an IT infrastructure – from security to power management – through the cloud.

The launch of the Toshiba’s IP video surveillance systems, which is uniquely positioned in the IP video industry, was also showcased at this year’s Gitex show. With this announcement, Toshiba announced the launch of video surveillance as a service. As a matter of fact, no other manufacturer matches this offer, as it covers all platforms: enterprise, analogue, hybrid, network and mobile.

IP Surveillance has become an important focus for Toshiba. What is Toshiba’s outlook towards IP surveillance market?

IP video surveillance has become a major trend in the market, right now. Being a lucrative multi-million business across the world, security and redundancy of IP surveillance solution has become prime concern. We, at Toshiba, understand this market demand and also developed a solution which is the need of the hour for consumers of IP surveillance.

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