Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 10 | Page 17

ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY Vendor partner training is vital, especially to usher in emerging and transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, machine learning and the Internet of Things. Deepak Narain, Regional Presales Manager – MENA, VMware Deepak Narain, Regional Presales Manager – MENA, VMware cross-cloud analytics solutions that best meet their customers’ business needs. Big Data and high-performance computing are driving a significant percentage of our growth globally and in the MENA region, with double-digital growth in utilization of private clouds to run data analytics workloads. VMware remains committed to enabling our partners to provide the best combination of flexibility, agility, and efficiency for running Big Data workload types, with more announcements to follow at the upcoming VMworld. FIREEYE Mohammed Abukhater, Regional Director, Middle East and Africa, FireEye Organisations are fighting an asymmetric battle with keeping their data secure. Adversaries are elusive, polymorphic, well-funded and when they bypass legacy security technologies, critical data can be infiltrated. According to Gartner, datacentre systems will see an overall growth of 6 per cent in the MENA region in 2017. This compares to a flat performance in 2016, due to an increase in demand for servers and unified communications. Data is the new oil of today’s economy, as essential to modern business as steel, motors and coal were to the last great industrial revolution. However, the sheer size and magnitude of Big Data can leave it vulnerable to security threats. This large breadth of data can make it difficult to validate endpoint security, opening up Big Data to cyber attacks. This can disrupt businesses, steal information and intellectual property, and cause a loss in reputation. Another challenge is that Big Data usually comes from several sources that can be difficult to consistently monitor and authenticate. Most solutions use open source code, which can lead to several back door weaknesses and default credentials for attackers to use. Moreover, employees themselves can create challenges for Big Data security if they are careless in how they handle information. An employee’s lack of security awareness can lead to serious security threats to the entire organisation and its data. To protect data in an age of advanced, targeted attacks, organisations need a defence that is equally sophisticated. Traditional signature-based defences are no match against today’s malware. However, by securing content, offering forensic analysis, sharing intelligence and continuously monitoring systems for new threats, organisations can overcome it. First and foremost, it is important to continually have file staging threat checkups for all external data. It must go through an advanced non-signature-based threat analytical forensics checkup and 17