FUTURE TECHNOLOGY
been particularly defining as GE Digital
partnered with clients in driving digital
transformation of assets. Across the UAE,
Saudi Arabia and Turkey, most notably,
GE Digital rolled out a series of Industrial
Internet of Things initiatives that will have
a long-term effect in driving productivity
and operational efficiency.
Across the region, GE Digital partners
are leveraging digital applications such as
Asset Performance Management, which
tracks and optimises assets, and ServiceMax
which allows field service engineers’ time to
be utilised more efficiently.
Opportunities for channel
in forensics
One of the major achievements for
Credence Security in 2017 was the creation
of a dedicated business unit for digital
forensics market segment and the addition
of 12+ vendors into its forensics portfolio.
“Digital forensics and case investigating
software are also a profitable area for
channel partners to focus on. Artificial
intelligence and case management
now come with many forensic software
platforms, and customers can optimise
their resources better and more efficiently.
Channel partners also have profitable
consulting opportunity by offering this to
their customers,” says Chris Wiese, Regional
Channel Manager at Credence Security.
In terms of growing the solution
portfolio, Credence Security signed
partnerships with additional strategic
vendors to provide reseller partners with
turnkey solution offerings. Some of the
most recent partnerships include Thales
e-Security, BlackBag Technologies, and
Blueliv. Credence Security also made two
significant acquisitions in 2017 including
INTACT and A-tek Distribution.
Cybersecurity will remain a
strategic priority for every company
and organisation. As security risks and
targeted attacks increase, irrespective
of whether it be cloud or on-premises
platform, customers know that legacy
point products are incapable of protecting
their businesses. As such, it is in the
channels’ interest to offer end-to-end
solutions that mitigate all threat areas.
Supporting digital workloads
with flash
Pure Storage added a number of benefits
to its P3 solution provider programme and
also introduced a new category for service
providers. For some select P3 partners,
Pure Storage now offers beta testing to
provide early hands-on access to upcoming
products, solutions and features.
“Pure Storage partners are leading the
way into new workloads and use cases and
the related feedback is valuable as Pure
Storage continues on the path of developing
technology for the cloud era. Pure Storage
has a history of successful partnerships
with service providers globally, including
a number who also have hosting practice,”
adds Christian Putz, Director of Emerging
Markets EMEA at Pure Storage.
At an EMEA level, in October Pure
Storage signed a pan-EMEA distributor
agreement with PNY Technologies. The
deal enables PNY Technologies to offer
modern flash storage to its established high
performance computing partner network.
Based on the results from Pure
Storage’s recent Evolution 2017 survey,
73% of businesses in the Middle East
and Africa region are committed to being
information-based companies and as such,
are embracing digital transformation. But
despite this growth, technical complexity
53% and reliance on IT to deliver strategy
41% have prevented businesses in the
Middle East and Africa region from truly
becoming digital.
Public, private and hybrid cloud,
SaaS and traditional on-premises
all have momentum, but businesses
still lack confidence in where to place
specific workloads. Interestingly, 76% of
businesses in the Middle East and Africa
region think that cloud and on-premise
should complement one another rather
than compete.
Securing email in the cloud
Businesses in the Middle East and
globally, run on email. Unfortunately,
attackers know this, which is why 91% of
cyber-attacks start with a phishing email.
Cyber-crime in the region is on the rise and
organisations have begun to understand
that email security is a non-negotiable.
“Businesses in the Middle East rely
heavily on security technologies but
these are only as good as the people
configuring, utilising and maintaining
them. Another challenge faced by the
technology industry is the fast pace of
changing technology. Malicious threats
are constantly evolving, which means
security vendors are constantly having to
adapt solutions to address new threats,”
explains Jason Roos, Channel and
Alliances Director at Mimecast.
The shortage in specialised IT and
cybersecurity skills is a global problem
that affects companies in every industry
and region, not just in the Middle East.
Mimecast added two main distributors
in the Middle East regions, as well as some
strategic direct partners. Mimecast selected
Bulwark and Nuvias as distributors because
of their network, adding to the existing
agreements with IDC, Quintica, Dimension
Data, and EtherGulf.
Mimecast launched the Mimecast
Cloud Archive which delivers an all-in-
one cloud service that integrates a secure
data repository, built-in data recovery,
storage management, e-discovery and
compliance capabilities. Mimecast Cloud
Archive is designed and optimised for
the cloud, offering the scale, performance
and advanced features needed to manage
email today.
This launch was supported by a state
of the industry virtual event on cloud
archiving. It targeted individuals and
businesses who wanted to understand how
the multipurpose archive enables customers
to access their email archive anywhere,
anytime, and on any device in record speed.
Taking privileged access
management into the cloud
From a regional perspective, BeyondTrust
concentrated on cementing relationships
with strategic partners in 2017.
BeyondTrust’s focus has gone into
improving their ability to sell and deliver
services for BeyondTrust. BeyondTrust has
also developed close relationships with the
global SI’s and delivered a number of high
profile projects with them.
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