As we emerge out into a post pandemic period where corporations are trying to adjust into a new normal, it is becoming more evident that there will be some major shift in consumers and corporates to a more secured but agile digital ecosystem.

Let’s take a recap of what we saw in the last 4 years.

2019 – Corporates trying to find the opportunity to scale and grow with basic increase in Technology while still carrying significant Tech-Debt from years of just barely investing in major transformation.

2020 – The world got surprised and to a large extent shocked by the Pandemic. Businesses did not have a choice but to survive in a world where they needed to transform into a lesser face-to-face interaction. Businesses had to transform at lightning speed to survive and yet with minimal investment or spending which became an existential crisis. Business Partners need to create new ways to do business in a safe, secure and at times remote/non-touch way.

By far businesses, who had outdated and old technologies, struggled the most and perhaps also was one of the reasons they took more time. Other businesses had to create the means of operating remotely and hence finally had no choice but to modernize digitally.

Here are our convictions for 2023 and beyond.

2023 will be the beginning of the emergence of Digital Disruptors!

• Several disruptors will emerge replacing the traditional businesses that have not made progress or made slow progression on Digital Transformation.
• Consolidation: The ones that have made progress on digital transformation thanks to the pandemic forcing them to will perhaps acquire others consolidating several industries
• Elimination: There will be forced elimination of tech debt by organizations that re-think their STRATEGY to gain operational efficiency as well as Digital advancement. This will also mean industries like healthcare will begin hiring Tech and Digital experts from other industries that have made more progress on this front such as banking.
• Transformation: Business transformation will mean “Change” in the way businesses will run and operate which will bring changes to leadership, board & workforce who will embrace technology and digital investments hence making them more adaptable & resilient to changing economic conditions. This will mean more focus on strategy than BAU (status quo)
• Revolution: Several new technology digital based organizations will emerge providing a digital ecosystem, focused on not only to sell to the consumer but also earn their loyalty with utmost operational efficiency. Consumers will also become more aware of their data and information causing them to be more varied in the information they share. This will force businesses to change their posture on Security, safety, and permissible use of consumer data.

To summarize, I believe it is time for businesses to take a fresh look at the current state of their operating model and redefine their strategy to be more aligned to the digitally proficient consumer who they serve. This would also mean:

Making hard decisions to divest in old tech and operational process.

• Board representation of Digital & Technology leader
• Bringing on digital & tech leadership to lead strategy and transformation
• Business Performance measurement should reflect top line and bottom-line efficiency improvements from technology i.e. ROI (not cost benefit analysis). Technology ROI should be a metric highlight on the balance sheet.
• Revise strategic planning frequently.

About the author -Bharath Raigangar is the Board Advisor & Thought Leader of 1CXO, launched by Finesse, a suite of six services designed to help organizations implement and secure Digital Transformation. 1CXO CoE’s are headed by experienced leaders supported by subject matter experts to help organizations in securing their digital transformation journeys .   Bharat has over 25+ Years of leadership experience in the field of Corporate Service, Cyber Resilience Risk, Compliance, Audit and Assurance including Strategic Advisory and Mentorship.

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The digital gaming sector is one that many compare to a rollercoaster; experts describe it as a hit-or-miss market. Similar to a roller coaster, the gaming industry experiences spikes in demand during certain seasons and drops to near-zero sales during other times.

As people were confined to their homes and had to turn to internet entertainment during the pandemic, the video game industry experienced a significant uptick in growth. The pandemic also witnessed multiple new gaming companies jumping into the pile to take advantage of the massive and sudden demand.

However, once everyone resumed their typical routine of returning to the office and most physical grounds and sections had opened up after the pandemic, most video game firms reported their lowest-ever quarterly profits. The gaming business previously reported a drop in its fortune due to the pandemic squeeze. The US gaming sector reported a dip in video games of 11%, with a further decline of 8.7% projected for this year.

Additionally, this year had the lowest sales for consoles, including Nintendo, Sony’s Playstation, and Microsoft’s Xbox. The digital gaming market is not invincible and tends to prosper only during specific times of the year. This puts brands under a lot of pressure to make the most of the demand while it lasts.

How can gaming businesses ensure they have the proper financial support to capture the $3.14 billion MENA gaming industry?

Despite the ups and downs, it is predicted that the MENA gaming sector, particularly in the UAE, KSA, and Egypt, will increase to $3.14 billion by 2025. It is well known, however, that obtaining quick capital for a business is difficult despite the market potential, and it is critical to get your foot in the door when demand is high.

Opening a bank account specifically for an SME can take up to a year, and getting a loan is considerably more challenging because SMEs lack collateral and track records. This begs the question, what is the best alternative method of securing funding, especially when time is of the essence?

One way is to sell your receivables rather than apply for a loan. Loans are a time-consuming and complicated process, especially when it comes to financing an industry that is purely based on the right timing.

Selling your receivables can make better financing possible. In a financial transaction known as “accounts receivable financing,” a business sells its invoices to a factor.

3 things to consider when looking for financial solutions for the gaming industry:

1. Opt for accounts receivable financing rather than loans

In a general setting, most games go without promotions as developers usually put all their money into making the game/app and have nothing left for promotions. Obtaining loans in these cases is often complicated as, other than predicted revenue, there needs to be more proof or collateral for the banks to rely on. This is where accounts receivable financing or trade financing is the most beneficial. A trade finance company can pay you for the predicted income upfront, which generally takes at least 90 days. The instant cash flows help the gaming industry clear up its bills and concentrate on other aspects of the business. Trade finance is an excellent substitute to fill the gap between when you issue an invoice and when you will receive the money. It also allows you to concentrate on other aspects of the business.

2. Opt for simple and quick bankless finance methods

Banking has always been an intense procedure for new or upcoming businesses. According to a survey by the Pearl Initiative GCC in the first half of 2022, 39% of SMEs cited a shortage of cash or finance as one of their key challenges. A straightforward bank account can become complicated since banks see SMEs as a risky industry and have high minimum balance requirements and bureaucratic processes.

Therefore, as an upcoming business, starting with a financing company that does not require intense banking is good. In fact, there is no need to have a bank involved in a factoring or accounts receivables transaction – all transactions are handled through the trade finance company. It is one of the simplest and easiest methods for gaming companies to get the funding they need to ensure all finances go well.

3. Choose a source that provides multiple injections of finance rather than just one major initial injection

A steady income stream is essential if one is working in the “prone to hiccups” gaming industry. The major problem with traditional financing is that it never produces constant cash flow because traditional accounting is based on a one-time sizable initial investment in the company. This makes it challenging to keep the wheels running after the initial investment is used and the accounts receivables still need to be submitted.

On the other hand, trade financing is a constant stream of capital into the business and is not dependent on a one-time injection. This occurs when a trade finance company purchases accounts receivable so that you can begin working on your next project immediately and avoid waiting 90 days. You will have consistent revenue from trade finance as long as you continue to serve your clients and have bills to collect.

The post How Trade Financing Can Help the Gaming Industry Overcome Their Financial Woes? 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.

The pandemic accelerated remote work for many Saudi organizations. 91% of organizations now have remote employees, up from just 34% in early 2020.  Moving forward, the vast majority of organizations (91%) plan to adopt this remote working model permanently.

To facilitate the new world of work, cloud adoption has surged. Seventy-seven percent of Saudi organizations have moved business-critical functions to the cloud — including human resources (80%) and accounting and finance (60%).

However, this change to working practices has increased organizations’ risks. By their own admission, 63% of Saudi organizations are prepared to support new workforce strategies from a security standpoint, while 67% believe moving business-critical functions to the cloud exposes the organization to increased cyber risk.

When looking at the impact of this increased risk, threat actors are taking advantage. Ninety-eight percent of organizations experienced a business-impacting cyberattack in the last 12 months, with 33% falling victim to five or more. Fifty-seven percent of Saudi organizations said these attacks targeted remote employees.

“Remote and hybrid work strategies are here to stay and so will the risks they introduce unless organizations get a handle on what their new attack surface looks like,” said Amit Yoran, CEO, Tenable. “This study reveals two paths forward — one riddled with unmanaged risk and unrelenting cyberattacks and another that accelerates business productivity and operations in a secure way. CISOs and CEOs have the opportunity and responsibility to securely harness the power of technology and manage cyber risk for the new world of work.”

IT and security teams are quickly rolling out tools for connectivity, collaboration, and productivity, while also moving business-critical data to the cloud to support a remote and hybrid working environment. Organizations must reevaluate their approach to maintaining security, aligned to the business, to effectively reduce the risks introduced.

“The pandemic has seen the corporate perimeter shattered,” said Maher Jadallah, Senior Director Middle East & North Africa, Tenable. “Cloud adoption and remote working practices were being cautiously adopted in Saudi, but in the last eighteen months, this transition has exponentially accelerated. Attackers have seized on the opportunity, as this study reveals, which means understanding what poses a risk to the business and managing that risk effectively is imperative.”

Forrester Consulting conducted an online survey of 20 security leaders, 37 business executives, and 47 remote workers (i.e., full-time employees working three or more days from home) in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These are a subset of a wider study of 426 security leaders, 422 business executives, and 479 remote workers as well as six telephonic interviews with business and security executives, to explore shifts in cybersecurity strategies at large enterprises made in response to the pandemic. The study was fielded in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, the UK, and the US in April 2021.

The post Saudi Organizations Suffer Cyberattacks Due to Vulnerabilities in Technology appeared first on The Integrator.

It’s been a year and a half since we first learned about Covid-19, but the pressure on businesses to accelerate their digital transformation (DX) efforts has not abated. Of particular note is the rise of the hybrid work model.

There are two things the pandemic has proven about the ‘new’ workplace:

1) DX in businesses is essential, and

2) Technology was intrinsic to a transformational overhaul of this scale.

That technology is edge computing: The ability to optimize and extend the capability of cloud computing by bringing computation and data storage closer to the devices where it’s being gathered. It’s a fairly amorphous concept that has been around since the 1990s, but thanks to the pandemic, it has given rise to edge computing’s dark horse: the remote worker.

The pandemic has hit each market across the Middle East differently but a common theme regarding the workplace is that data is increasingly born, created, and modified in different places. While the future of work is well and truly here, businesses are still navigating uncharted waters in this space.

This begs many questions of decision makers: What’s the best way to capture and protect data? Does my edge approach meet privacy and security needs? There has been a significant shift in the approach to remote work and there’s a way that businesses can best set their employees up to ensure business continuity. It lies with edge computing – a key technology to futureproofing the new workplace environment.

Don’t Let Implementation Dictate the Outcome

According to Juniper Research, edge computing is on a growth path to U$8.3 billion spend globally, in less than five years. This has no doubt been exacerbated with the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices.  According to a report by AT Kearney Research, the IoT solutions market in the GCC will be worth $11 billion by the year 2025, generating potential value for the economy of nearly $160 billion.

As our new workplaces constitute more and more remote points of presence – mobile, tablet, smart speakers – which sees a vast amount of data being generated on the outer edge of computing networks, the task of implementing an edge strategy may fall into the too-hard basket for many, and simply out of reach for some. However, the key to edge computing success lies in focusing on the outcome, before looking at implementation.

Every business wants to analyze and activate their data, at speed, but the power of edge computing does not mean all data has to be analyzed and activated. Rather, it helps businesses ascertain at which aggregation points is best to consume data, preserve it, make inferences from, where analytics is applied, and knowledge is gleaned from. For one business, the impact could simply be installing on-site servers capable of real-time analysis. For another, it could be installing IoT sensors to help transmit data from security cameras.

Like any technology solution, implementation for the sake of doing so is not going to benefit any business. However, the edge is relevant for any business that has digitally transformed its processes, especially in the last 12 months. Edge computing allows businesses to focus on how to get the most out of their most important data, and in turn, keep up with the pace at which the workplace is transforming.

Securing the Edge

An edge strategy doesn’t mean data protection, security, and compliance efforts have to be more complicated. Traditionally, endpoint backup has been the most underrated rack of technologies but as the benefits of edge computing gain traction, its use case takes on a whole new level. And the good news is that there isn’t much ‘reinventing the wheel’ involved.

Why? The edge isn’t entirely new – it’s an extension of what we’ve known. As an accelerant of digital transformation, it’s breaking down the data center walls and pushing cloud capabilities outwards. Businesses need to remember that the edge must be treated as part of hybrid cloud architecture, of which technologies are already being used by employees to provide a seamless and secure IT experience.

Edge computing is critical to ensuring a seamless transition from the traditional workplace setting to the future of work. It is here now, and it’s hybrid. To realize its full potential, businesses must focus on the outcome rather than the implementation of the technology.

The post The Democratization of the Workplace Through Edge Computing appeared first on The Integrator.

The pandemic’s acceleration of cloud migration within enterprises has, at this point, been well documented. Last year’s Flexera 2020 State of the Cloud Report suggested that more than 90 percent of enterprises now have a multi-cloud strategy.

Even in times of great urgency as we have experienced over the last 18 months, enterprise-wide cloud transformations don’t simply happen overnight. In the rush to get their multi-cloud environments off the ground and enable remote connectivity for their workforces, many enterprises will not have suitably adapted their IT and network infrastructure to support applications in a multi-cloud connected environment. Because of this, they will likely now be facing numerous challenges around the performance of mission-critical SaaS applications, automation of cloud security services, and integration of WAN applications in the public cloud, to name just a few.

When it comes to meeting and addressing these challenges, enterprises could consider the benefits of an SD-WAN platform which, through a mixture of optimization, orchestration centralization, and automation can provide a firm foundation for enabling a successful, performant, and secure multi-cloud environment.

Ensuring User Experience Through SaaS Optimization

In a time when applications were hosted in corporate data centers, routing all application traffic from the branch to the data center made total sense. Today, however, with most applications in modern enterprises delivered through SaaS, backhauling cloud-destined traffic to the data center only serves to increase latency and impact application performance.

Recognizing this, enterprises could reduce said latency by looking towards a modern, best-of-breed Edge-based SD-WAN platform, which should offer SaaS optimization features to seamlessly and securely connect users from branch sites to SaaS applications, while simultaneously monitoring the SaaS Quality of Experience (QoE).

Key functionalities that any SD-WAN purchaser should look out for include first-packet identification, wherein applications are identified and classified on the first packet, which enables traffic to be routed dynamically to its intended destination (be that the data center, cloud provider, or cloud security). This, in turn, reduces latency and ensures security policies are adhered to. Similarly, Microsoft Office 365 API integration enables secure internet breakout to the closest Office 365 entry point, thus ensuring the best Office 365 performance available.

Intelligent Local Internet Breakout

Different classes of application require different kinds of treatment to adhere to security policies and controls. As mentioned above, first-packet identification has a part to play here, but other functionalities within leading SD-WAN platforms can bolster security without impacting application performance.

Different applications can be mapped to virtual WAN overlays, each supporting various QoS, transport, and failover characteristics. For instance, trusted business SaaS such as Office 365 can be mapped to an overlay that traffics straight to the closest SaaS instance over the internet, whilst untrusted or unknown traffic is sent to the headquarters-based firewall for closer inspection.

Speaking of firewalls, having a unified zone-based stateful firewall at the WAN Edge is essential to ensure complete, secure local internet breakout. A WAN Edge firewall can connect directly to trusted SaaS applications and IaaS from branch offices, whilst also blocking any unauthorized traffic attempting to enter the branch network from the enterprise LAN.

Network Simplification Through SD-WAN Integration

Complexity is the enemy when it comes to network management, and this is most true for particularly large, global networks with many AWS Virtual Private Clouds or Microsoft Virtual Networks (VNets). However, an Edge-based SD-WAN platform can greatly simplify the management of such large networks.

By connecting directly to public cloud providers’ global backbone networks, reducing the number of point-to-point connections, and connecting branch locations directly to regional points of presence (POPs) the complexity of the SD-WAN overlay is reduced. An SD-WAN overlay should also support branch-to-branch communication without virtual gateways at each Virtual Private Cloud.

The Emergence of SASE

The emergence of SASE has had a profound impact on SD-WAN. Just as SD-WAN is transforming the network infrastructure with uninterrupted connectivity and simplified workflows, SASE takes the logical next step by placing cloud-native security controls closer to the end-users where the data is being generated (at the network Edge) and is, therefore, most at risk.

Although SASE is not a technology on its own, as an architectural framework it offers organizations the capability to bring together security and networking functions into a single, cloud-based service model. In 2021, SD-WAN should form the foundation of a SASE solution: a cloud-programmable networking platform for orchestrating and centrally managing the network, security, and SASE components.

As part of this, any quality Edge-based SD-WAN must integrate with third-party cloud security services from best-of-breed cloud security firms. Advanced API integration within the SD-WAN platform can enable network managers to fully realize enterprise-wide automation of consistent, network-wide security policies. In this way, they can combine the advantages of an advanced Zero Trust WAN Edge on-premises, whilst also enjoying the flexibility and freedom of choice to enjoy the benefits of cloud-delivered security services from their preferred security vendor.

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