Author: Dave Russell, VP of Enterprise Strategy, Veeam

In today’s rapidly changing digital landscape, organizations are increasingly facing the need to implement strategies to manage and protect their data, especially when the data growth rate is not slowing down. IDC reported that companies will have 175 ZB of data by 2025, which combined with a highly competitive environment can be the recipe for a business disaster.

Building strong digital foundations that focus on data availability will be vital to the future of every organization. They must implement effective intelligent data management strategies that help them being able to access the right data at the right time and recover it when it’s lost or damaged.

Building A More Intelligent Business

Veeam’s2019 Cloud Data Management report, found that most organizations (73%) are unable to meet users’ demands for uninterrupted access to applications and data, but almost half of reported individuals (44%) see data management as critical to their businesses’ success in the next two years.

For data management strategies to be successful, enterprises need to follow four core components that not only encompass the technology but the people and the data-culture of the organization.

Component 1: The rise of the cloud

Cloud Data Management, an intrinsic part of Intelligent Data Management, enables data availability across the business. Whether it is a hybrid, a cloud or a multicloud approach, leaders recognize the advantages, from reliability and flexibility to competitive costs and data security, the cloud allows them to manage and locate data where it will deliver the most value. 

An organization can aggregate large amounts of data but if it doesn’t have an efficient way to store it and make it accessible to business users, it will turn against them. Having data that is stored through a reliable and manageable process directly correlates to corporate stability and improves the ability to forecast and make better informed decisions.

Component 2: Your capabilities matter

Business leaders reported that they will spend an average of $41 million on deploying technologies to help transform their operations within the next 12 months. However, for technologies such as backup, disaster recovery and data protection to have the expected business impact, organizations need to invest in their talent, giving them the tools and training to nurture their skills to successfully manage new programs. 

The digital journey’s outcome is intrinsically related to the level of technological capabilities of its userbase. Upskilling employee’s digital skills will be vital to the success of the company and should not be overlooked when allocating company resources. After all, it is the people who make a company successful.

Component 3: Make it a data-driven culture

A corporate culture should be welcoming to innovation, support the introduction of new technologies and speed the process of digital transformation. 

As companies move through this transformation, their culture needs to become more data-driven. Businesses already produce huge amounts of data, but it is not about just gathering data anymore, it has to be managed, analyzed and used to inform faster and make more effective decisions. And it is in the hands of the C-level to convey this way of thinking, from top to bottom leadership should demonstrate the business relation and how technology supports the organization to uncover insights for better services and products. 

Component 4: Confidence is key

The level of confidence in an organization’s capability to meet digital challenges naturally increases as the businesses progress on their digital transformation. However, the potential risks increase as well. 

Addressing the first three components not only gives piece of mind internally but to customers and partners. Investing in robust, scalable and flexible solutions to address mission-critical issues, while allocating resources to improve internal skills will lay that much needed strong digital foundation. 

Maximizing the value of data, has never been as important as today, and as organizations take a leap onto their digital journey and work to become more intelligent businesses, they need to rely and trust their data will be available whenever is needed. Technology, people, new capabilities and a data-driven mentality will help take the steps towards enabling the next-generation of industry disruptors and innovators. 

By: Saadi Kawkji, Presales Director, MEMA at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

As students and teachers begin preparations for a new school year, many will expect to find changes to classrooms, such as new furniture or upgraded whiteboard displays. However, what will most likely go unnoticed is the hard work conducted by IT teams over the summer holidays to upgrade the school or campus network and the integration of new technologies in order to build the foundations for a fully-realized digital classroom experience.

School IT teams will be looking to future-proof their networks in preparation for an influx of new technologies. But with cutbacks in IT spending and a limited amount of time to actually make foundational changes to networks, what should school IT teams prioritize in order to prepare themselves for a digital future?

Getting the basics right

Internet access is now a necessity for the education sector. Both teachers and students rely on it on a daily basis to complete homework as well as in-class tasks. Most learning materials are housed online so that students can access it no matter where they are, and teachers’ lesson plans are increasingly being stored in the cloud as well, so having consistent Wi-Fi access is essential. 

However, implementing a site-wide Wi-Fi network that’s consistent, no matter if you are in a building or on the playing fields at the edge of the school grounds, is a far harder challenge for school IT teams than it would appear. The problem lies in legacy networks that many institutions are still using that were built to look after centralised IT suites, whereas now they are being asked to handle multiple IoT devices accessing the network at any one time. Whether educators like or loathe the use of mobile devices during school hours, they are increasing becoming part of the educational toolset. With this fundamental change to teaching, it must be a priority for IT teams to integrate enterprise-level Wi-Fi in order to handle this influx of devices, and manage their bandwidth efficiently, wherever they are on-site, in order to keep up with the expectations of staff and students.

By getting the basics right and untethering classes from having to be stuck with wired devices in classrooms, you open the door for teachers to think differently about how their curriculum works and try new ideas. With more and more digitally-savvy teachers and students who have grown up with mobile devices, we are seeing a greater drive internally to transform the classroom with new digital ways to engage classes. 

Build the foundations for the future 

There has never been a greater need to connect students, classrooms, and buildings. Student enrolment (who are always more tech savvy and more expectant than the year that preceded them) continues to rise, and the benefits of technology – better grades and greater staff well-being – are necessary if schools are to maintain high levels of performance during the challenging time of digital transformation.

According to IDC,more than 150 billion devices across the globe will be connected by 2025, and nearly half of those will be IoT devices. This development, which will impact educational institutions as these types of devices become a greater part of the curriculum, means greater stress on IT departments and will require proactive planning to manage. To ensure wireless coverage everywhere, schools need to start reviewing and testing Wi-Fi 6, the next generation of networking, which is designed for more demanding environments, like universities and campuses. 

With a fit-for-purpose wireless network in place, schools unlock the opportunity to digitally transform their workplace. Staff will be freed up from manual tasks, such as data input, to make faster decisions and engage students whose learning styles vary. For instance, Bryanston School in the UK has been trialling new technologies like ‘eLockers’, using them as a drop folder where teachers and pupils can upload resources and assignments, such as PowerPoint presentations and homework. With the greater level of network access, teachers at the school can use a Bryanston-built app called ‘eChart’ to mark pupils’ work, providing a more immediate and engaging feedback loop than by traditional methods

In a recent book, ‘Opportunities at the Edge’, from Fast Future, in collaboration with Aruba, it highlighted the possibilities of a boundaryless classroom when edge networking is integrated into the education sector.Edge computing, defined by Gartner as products that facilitate data processing at or near the source of data generation, delivers far speedier results than traditional architectures. For instance, students and teachers may be able to utilise mobile and devices and headsets to join a virtual classroom, no matter where they may be. Alternatively, by integrating AI into the classroom it could curate personalised lesson plans for each student and monitor whether may be struggling with a topic. The system could then provide additional explanation and guidance in the classroom, offering to replay video of critical parts of lessons and lectures during self-study outside the classroom.

Make sure security and safeguarding are key

The biggest challenge for institutions will be balancing technological innovation with the threat of security breaches. Schools, colleges and universities all want to prioritise providing the best possible education to students whose expectations around technology are growing exponentially. To connect with them in a meaningful way requires reliable, optimised, and personalised learning experiences. But with an influx of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, from phones and tablets, to smart speakers and VR, and a cohort that aren’t all trained in security best practices, the network could easily become at risk of intrusion. This not only could cause a data breach, but more seriously, puts young people at risk of communication from people who may wish to abuse, exploit or bully them. 

A worrying set of statistics from our ‘Digital Workplace’report from last year, highlighted that education employees don’t think their security practices are up to scratch. Just under half (49%) of teachers admit they rarely (if ever) think about cybersecurity, despite 91% acknowledging its importance. In addition, more than three-quarters (76%) believe there is room for improvement in the way connected tech is managed. 

In order to tackle this issue schools must implement new tools that go beyond traditional cybersecurity measures, such as User and Entity Behaviour Analytics (UEBA),which identify patterns in typical user behaviour and flag any anomalies. These kinds of solutions don’t hinder employee creativity, collaboration, or speed as many clunky security systems do. Instead, they provide real-time protection and enable quick responses should a network breach occur.

While I’m sure these priorities may feel overwhelming for schools to think about, particularly as we get closer and closer to the start of term, but by implementing a wireless network which can handle multiple devices securely and has the flexibility to adapt and evolve as new technology is added, they will be in a great position for the future.

With the right technology and a security strategy in place that allows educators to innovate without fear of cyber threats, there is huge potential for educational institutions to become efficient, productive and inspiring digital workplaces. 

Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity solutions, will highlight the importance of securing edge networks and showcase its Secure SD-WAN, SD-Branch, OT and Cloud Security solutions at GITEX 2019.

“The network perimeter is being replaced with new edge networks. As data moves between multi-cloud, IoT, SD-WAN and next-gen branch offices, and mobile devices, the challenge is ensuring security and consistency between these environments,” said Alain Penel, Regional Vice President- Middle East, Fortinet. “At Gitex we will further emphazise how the Fortinet Security Fabric delivers broad, integrated, and automated protection across an organization’s entire digital attack surface from IoT to the edge, network core and multi-clouds.”

Fortinet will be present in the Enterprise Networking and Security section in the Sheikh Rashid Hall Stand SR- C10, where it hold live demo sessions, where visitors can also hear from its product experts about how Fortinet solutions protect the entire end-to-end infrastructure without compromising network performance.

Fortinet’s key solutions at the show include:

• Secure SD-WAN: Best-of-breed next-generation firewall (NGFW) security, SD-WAN, advanced routing, and WAN optimization capabilities, delivering a security-driven networking WAN edge transformation in a unified offering.
• Security solutions for ICS and SCADA: application- and user-identity awareness, content security with integrated intrusion prevention, antivirus, web filtering, SSL encryption/decryption and advanced threat protection and remeditation.
• Multi-Cloud security: necessary visibility and control across cloud infrastructures, enabling secure applications and connectivity from data center to cloud.

Riding a wave of increased spending by the military and defence sector, and bolstered by the pressing need for Oil & Gas and broadcast organizations to streamline operations and optimize operational costs through the use of advanced technologies, VITEC, a global leader in end-to-end video streaming solutions, has doubled down on its investment in the Middle East. Earlier this year, the company established its presence in the region with the inauguration of an office in Dubai and has since expanded its workforce and customer base at an accelerated pace.

Outlining his organization’s rapid expansion in the region, Nicolas Pons, VP Business Development Middle East at VITEC said, “Given the space that VITEC operates in, the prevailing socio-economic conditions in the region have proven favourable, fuelling our growth. Across industry verticals, our expertise and future-proof, market-leading solutions are helping customers achieve their ambitious objectives with confidence in the quality and security of their investments. We have firmly committed to the region and will continue to invest in our presence here as we deepen our ties with customers, strengthen our channel, and help drive the maturity of the digital video delivery sector.”

Pons outlined two key technology focus areas for VITEC in the Middle East:

• Point-to-Point Broadcasting:Given the need for live reporting from the field to cover the near-constant stream of breaking news and events in the region, VITEC see this as an essential solution for broadcasters. VITEC takes the benefits of HEVC encoding out of the server room and into the field by integrating a high-quality, low-delay hardware codec into a professional appliance, reducing operating expenses and extending the reach of video services to remote destinations with bandwidth constraints. The company’s Point-to-Point broadcasting contribution solution is the industry’s only portable IP streaming solution for HEVC (H.265) MGW Ace Encoder, D265 Decoder, and EZ TV IPTV.
• IPTV & Digital Signage:Through its engagement with regional customers, VITEC has uncovered that being able to find secure, scalable cost-effective ways to distribute video is a key priority across a myriad of sectors, including enterprises, sports and entertainment, healthcare and government. VITEC’s award winning EZ TV platform offers the most advanced IPTV experience with live streaming, on-demand video, digital recording, mosaic player, time-shifted TV and customizable look-and-feel. EZ TV content security and user-access controls are certified by military units and broadcasters for local and multi-site applications. Furthermore, the platform’s Digital Signage module uses powerful hardware-based endpoints to deliver eye-catching digital content with dynamic data and full HD IPTV content.

Over the next year, the company intends to continue the expansion of its workforce, extend is channel partner ecosystem, and deepen penetration into key customer accounts across the Oil & Gas, Broadcast, and Military & Defence sectors, particularly in the UAE, Jordan and Turkey.

“2019 has been a remarkable year for VITEC and we intend to build on our business momentum. We have a clear strategy for the region and are eager to establish our brand as the partner of choice for all the digital video delivery needs of Middle East organizations,” concluded Pons.

Survey reveals how CISOs are shifting priotities and security strategies to manage increasingly advanced threats with limited resources 

Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, today announced a new report by Forbes Insights it commissioned titled “Making Tough Choices: How CISOs Manage Escalating Threats and Limited Resources.” The global survey polled CISOs across various industries about the biggest challenges they’re facing and strategies they’re putting in place to address these obstacles. 

The survey found that 84 percent of CISOs believe the risks of cyber attacks will increase and almost a quarter believe the capabilities of attackers are outpacing their ability to defend their organization. This issue is compounded with limited resources, including lack of sufficient budget and skilled professionals as well as a threat attack surface that is quickly expanding and becoming more sophisticated. Because of this, security leaders understand it is critical to have the right strategies in place as they face an arms race between the capabilities of attackers and their own defense postures.   

“The Forbes Insights survey echoes the primary challenges we hear directly from Fortinet customers and prospects. Today’s CISOs are tasked with the challenge of allocating limited funds and resources to the highest-return cybersecurity projects which can range from breach detection to response. These C-level security leaders must maximize security with finite resources, all while balancing strategic leadership responsibilities and tactical issues. Through the Fortinet Security Fabric, Fortinet is providing end-to-end security so that CISOs can navigate a rapidly changing cyber threat landscape day in and day out,” said John Maddison, EVP of products at Fortinet. 

Other key takeaways from the Forbes Insights report include:

• CISOs are increasingly implementing AI technologies to cybersecurity. Forty-eight percent of security leaders are focused on seamlessly integrating security into their network operations and 45 percent are shifting and changing their cybersecurity strategy toward advanced analytics for greater visibility into their environments. AI, like machine learning, and analytics relieves IT teams time away from monotonous tasks, so they can focus on business-critial tasks such as identifying anomalous behavior in their networks and responding to threats quickly.

• CISOs would like to allocate more of their budget to detection and response.According to the survey, security leaders are currently allocating an average if 36 percent of their security budet on response. However, in an ideal world, they would shift their resources from prevention to bolster detection and response. The survey found they’d increase response to be 40 percent of their budget. 

• Cybersecurity training and education for employees is key. The Forbes Insights survey found that CISOs believe talent and training constraints have a significant impact on their organizations. As a result, CISOs are paying more attention to educating their own employees on best practices and building cybersecurity awareness in order to prevent and reduce internal threats. 

• CISO are constrained by the lack of an adequate budget.While threats are expanding, CISOs find that there resources, including budget, remain limited. A third of CISOs surveyed in the report felt that the lack of an adequate budget is having a significant impact on their cybersecurity program. 

• A top priority for CISOs is safeguarding customer data and intellectual property.More than a third of respondents said protecting their organization’s brand is top of mind. More than 36 percent of CISOs selected customer data as the highest priority for protection. A majority of respondants also shared they are focusing on protecting intellectual property as one of the most important assets in their care, which they believe is another core target of most malicious actors.

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, has announced its participation at GITEX Technology Week taking place between 06 -10 October 2019 at the Dubai World Trade Centre. In its 10th appearance at GITEX, the company will be demonstrating its revolutionary Aruba Experience Edge Platform – that intuitively assimilates existing cloud, mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) data into a simple, single system to transform customer experiences at the Edge.

Commenting on the company’s participation at GITEX, Jacob Chacko, Regional Business Head – Middle East & Saudi at Aruba says, “Aruba’s Edge platform is designed to provide simple, secure and smart networking, to support integrated experiences without compromising simplicity for end users. Smart workplaces, schools, stores, hotels, hospitals, and factories can all deliver amazing experiences through this platform. GITEX, with its position as the Middle East’s largest tech exhibition and networking platform, is the perfect venue for us to showcase our technology innovations and drive key discussions with customers and partners.”

Aruba’s Edge platform powers the digital enterprise. Category leaders can take advantage of the experience and digital era and deliver smart experiences by blending mobile, cloud, and IoT. The following scenarios will become a reality:

• Workplace Productivity – Employees at work can collaborate instantly in smart meeting rooms
• Retail Engagement – Shoppers in stores will be able to use mobile personalized assistance in the palm of their hand
• Hotel Personalization – Guests in hotels can mobile check-in and check-out and get a personalized in-room experience as if they were at home
• Educational Excellence – Students can get state-of-the-art mobile and digital learning and stay connected whether in or out of the classroom
• Patient Satisfaction – Patients in hospitals can get the best care with connected in-room services that give doctors and nurses information at their fingertips

At GITEX, Aruba will showcase its latest technologies addressing the needs of the digital era including: 

• Wi-Fi 6 & Switching – Seamless, secure connectivity everywhere along with a breakthrough campus core switch that extends intelligence from the edge to the core.
• Cloud-Based Networking – Aruba Central is a unified network operations, assurance and security platform that simplifies the deployment, management, and service assurance of wireless, wired and SD-WAN environments
• Aruba AI-based Analytics, Assurance & Security – Harvesting data from the Edge for the optimal User- & IT-Experience, Aruba uses AI-Based in 3 key area’s – network-based analytics, user-based analytics and network security. 

Trade visitors to the Aruba stand at GITEX can also take advantage of Aruba’s Networking Product Wizard which provides an optimized network design in under two minutes. With a few clicks, it will recommend the right switches, access points and network management solution, right-sized for a particular business, based on number of users, location, network use and performance needs. 

Aruba will be exhibiting at stand number H7-A1 in Hall 7 alongside Hewlett Packard Enterprise. 

A10 Networks(NYSE: ATEN), today announced its participation as a Platinum sponsor at MENA Information Security Conference 2019, that will take place at the Crowne Plaza – Riyadh RDC Hotel and Convention Centre in Saudi Arabia, 9-10^thSeptember. This is the third year in a row that the company will be sponsoring the event and this year, A10 Networks’ focus will be on educating conference attendees about 5G, multi-cloud and DDoS security. 

As a platinum sponsor, A10 Networks will have a keynote speaking slot with the theme “Safeguarding the Edge of 5G and Multi-Cloud,” which will be delivered by the company’s Founder and CEO Lee Chen. Executives from the company will conduct a one-hour technical session ‘Redefining Mobile Network Security Strategies: Prepare for 5G and IoT.’ In addition to the keynote and technical session, there will be a company booth in the exhibition area where event attendees have the opportunity to meet with the A10 Networks’ team and experience the latest innovations and technologies that the company has to offer.

Speaking about the company’s participation at the event, Mohammed Al-Moneer, Regional Vice President of Sales – MENA at A10 Networks says, “A10 Networks has a very strong value proposition for government and private enterprises, including telco operators, by offering leading AI-driven application and network security solutions, including hyperscale 5G security, DDoS protection and multi-cloud application visibility, analytics and automation. Our portfolio of security and application services are essential to digital business today and to fighting the increasing cyber war. Key to the product portfolio is our drive to increase security efficacy, automate complex processes and provide intelligence, all at hyperscale, ensuring businesses can be agile and operate efficiently.”

“We see MENA Information Security Conference as the perfect platform to engage in high-level discussions with regional organizations about the security challenges of emerging 5G infrastructures, multi-cloud environments and DDoS cyber attacks and how they can prepare their networks today for the cyber threats of tomorrow. We are also looking to expose our brand and capabilities.”

A10 Networks is a leader in next-generation security technology for mobile operators worldwide—and the solution provider of choice for carriers undertaking 5G transformation. Its advanced converged firewall and DDoS protection solutions provide hyperscale, feature richness and AI-driven automation to meet the growing capacity requirements and complex management needs of 5G networks, while also improving the economics and performance of user plane and control plane security in today’s networks. A10 Networks’ 5G security solutions are recognized and embraced by mobile operators worldwide. The company secured five design wins in the second half of 2018 for its Thunder® 5G Gi-LAN converged firewall from operators planning commercial 5G deployments in early 2019.

MENA Information Security 2019 is an annual security conference, organized by VirtuPort and hosting world-class keynote speakers, panelists and delegates. For more information about the event, visit https://menaisc.com/

Veeam® Software, the leader in Backup solutions that deliver Cloud Data Management™, today announced its participation at GITEX Technology Week, taking place between 6 -10 October 2019 at the Dubai World Trade Centre. As part of the company’s ongoing commitment to help regional organizations transition to the cloud and embrace digital transformation, executives from Veeam will share its vision for Cloud Data Management, delivering live demonstrations of Veeam Availability Platform™– the most complete solution to help customers evolve the way they manage data, from policy- to behavior-based, and make it smarter and self-governing, ensuring it’s available across any application and any cloud infrastructure. 

Talking about the company’s participation at GITEX, Claude Schuck, regional manager, Middle East at Veeam said: “As the importance of data has grown to drive every aspect of the digital business, so has the need for solutions that ensure information is available at any time, no matter where it resides. There is a new expectation for data in today’s enterprise:Data must move to a higher state of intelligence and be able to anticipate need and meet demand. Data must also move securely across multi-cloud infrastructures andmeet the expectations of the mobile, always-on world.”

“Given our leadership position and market leading technologies, GITEX is an opportunity to turn the spotlight on the criticality of Cloud Data Management,” continued Schuck. “CIOs and IT managers need to understand that ensuring instant and reliable data availability requires an evolution in how it is managed from policy-driven to behavior-driven, leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to enable data to back up autonomously, migrate to the right location based on the business need and to secure itself during anomalous activity.”

According to the 2019Veeam Cloud Data Management Report,  72% of organizations are looking to embrace Cloud Data Managementand are transitioning to cloud strategies. As part of the same survey, 80% of respondents from the Middle East see productivity bene­fits of Intelligent Data Management. Only 24% of enterprises in the Middle East describe their digital initiatives as mature. To help them on their journey, at GITEX, Veeam will educate regional organizations on this journey and outline the 5 Stages of Cloud Data Management: 

• Stage 1: BACKUP – Protect all workloads using backups, complemented by snapshots and replication where appropriate, to ensure they are always recoverable and available in the event of outages, attack, loss or theft
• Stage 2: CLOUD MOBILITY – ExpandsStage 1 to include multi-cloud environments — backing up and moving data to, from and within the cloud
• Stage 3: VISIBILITY – View the full breadth of your data, accompanied by the infrastructure that it passes through and resides on, so you can pivot from reactive to proactive management for better business decisions
  Stage 4: ORCHESTRATION – Optimize data utilization across multi-cloud environments with workflows that ensure consistent execution of otherwise manual and complex recovery orchestration and data-management tasks
• Stage 5: AUTOMATION –  Data becomes self-managing by learning to protect itself with appropriate SLAs, methods and locations to meet business objectives or comply with broader IT initiatives.

Veeam will have its own dedicated stand #C20  in Hall 7 at DWTC. 

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) has announced that the City Seasons Hotel Deira has consolidated its communications infrastructure with a deployment of ALE high performance access points to boost network availability and management. The City Seasons Hotel is part of the UAE-based Bin Ham Group, which operates a number of hotels in key locations in the UAE and Oman. 

Access to high quality Wi-Fi is among the top priorities for travelers when choosing their preferred hotel. It became imperative for the City Seasons Hotel Deira to upgrade their non-enterprise Wi-Fi points that lacked the capability to provide secure login and network management. The hotel deployed 180 high performance 802.11ac Wave 2 in-room Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess® Stellar AP1201H WLAN Access Points for enhanced customer experience, in addition to the Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess Stellar AP1221 WLAN Access Points for common areas like the lobby, restaurants, and corridors. 

“As an existing ALE voice customer, we were familiar with the high quality of solutions, and after sales service. It was a natural decision to choose ALE to meet our network and Wi-Fi requirements as well,” said Ahmed Mohamed, Group CIO, Bin Ham Group. “After replacing our legacy Wi-Fi system, we now provide our guests with faster, safer Wi-Fi access. This has resulted in better ratings and reviews on popular travel review websites, which also encourages more customers to choose to stay with us.”

The OmniAccess AP1201H and OmniAccess AP1221 are managed by the Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista® 2500 Network Management System, the next generation management suite. It simplifies management for IT teams with an embedded controller-less architecture, providing user friendly workflows for unified access together with an integrated unified policy authentication manager (UPAM) that helps define authentication strategy and policy enforcement for employees, guest management and BYOD devices. The deployment was completed by ALE partner Siemcom.   “We are excited that City Seasons Hotel Deira has consolidated their communications environment with complete voice, data, and Wi-Fi solutions from ALE. The latest implementation has not only strengthened our relationship, but also delivered tangible return on investment, flexibility and scalability to enhance their overall communication system while improving their customer experience,” said Manish Punjabi, Channel Sales Manager – UAE & Oman, ALE.