Dimension Data today announced that it has joined the SAP PartnerEdge® programme, through which it will resell SAP solutions to organisations across the Middle East region. Through this engagement, Dimension Data can provide complete solutions that encompasses all facets required for successful implementations, including software licensing, implementation services, training and documentation, staffing and optimisation and support.

“Today, companies are seeking flexibility, and the SAP PartnerEdge Programme offers engagement models that fit the way we work and engage with our clients. The standardised fees, consistent benefits, harmonized discounts, and simplified contracts reduce administration and ensures the programme grows along with our business and ambitions,” says Mohammed Hejazi, Managing Director, Dimension Data Middle East

“Our focus for the next couple of months will be centered around SAP S/4 HANA and helping our clients migrate to the Cloud, SAP Customer Experience and eCommerce, Ariba, Integrated Business Planning (IBP), Human Capital Management (HCM), SuccessFactors (SF) and SAP S/4 HANA transformation,” says Hejazi.

“This is the right time to be investing in this partnership as our clients are revisiting their core business strategies and looking at how to use intelligent technologies and solutions to gain a competitive advantage in the market,” continues Hejazi.

As an SAP partner reselling of an array of SAP solutions to clients across the Middle East region, Dimension Data is well positioned to help organisations achieve their objectives of improved growth, lower costs and a better understanding of business processes.

“Our aim is to drive enterprise-wide digital transformation for our clients, and the SAP PartnerEdge Programme will enable us to help our clients optimise their SAP investments, by reducing costs, improving agility, flexibility and speed and ensuring complete compliance and governance,” concludes Hejazi.

CRN^®, a brand of The Channel Company, has acknowledged Kodak Alaris in its 2021 Partner Program Guide. The annual guide provides a conclusive list of the most distinguished partner programs from leading technology companies that provide products and services through the IT Channel. The 5-Star rating is awarded to an exclusive group of companies that offer solution providers the best of the best, going above and beyond in their partner programs.

Given the importance of IT vendor channel programs, each year CRN develops its Partner Program Guide to provide the channel community with a detailed look at the partner programs offered by IT manufacturers, software developers, service companies, and distributors. Vendors are scored based on investments in program offerings, partner profitability, partner training, education and support, marketing programs and resources, sales support, and communication.

“Our customers face numerous challenges associated with inefficient, disconnected, manual document workflows,” said Don Lofstrom, President & General Manager of Kodak Alaris. “Partnering with Kodak Alaris helps our channel vendors find new ways to deliver solutions that accelerate digital transformation, while expanding their offerings and tapping into new sources of profitable revenue.”

With the widespread adoption of IoT and cloud-based solutions, Kodak Alaris has been increasingly focused on partner expansion. “Our goal is to continue to be a premier technology vendor for existing partners while establishing new relationships with the ISVs, SIs and developers who can help us deliver INfuse – our next generation, smart, connected scanning solution,” added Lofstrom.

Another reason partners are attracted to Kodak Alaris is the firm’s top-rated service and support organization, which has a 95% customer satisfaction rating and a 92% first-call completion rate. Their partner program has earned CRN’s 5-Star rating four times in recent years.

“As innovation continues to fuel the speed and intricacy of technology, solution providers need partners that can keep up and support their developing business.” said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. “CRN’s 2021 Partner Program Guide gives insight into the strengths of each organization’s program to recognize those that continually support and push positive change inside the IT channel.”

The 2021 Partner Program Guide will be featured in the April 2021 issue of CRN and online at www.CRN.com/PPG.

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today announced an expansive set of cross-portfolio edge-to-cloud security integrations for Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform). The new advancements include the integration of the ClearPass Policy Manager secure network access control platform with the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform, formerly Silver Peak, the integration of Aruba Threat Defense with the EdgeConnect platform, and the expansion of the Aruba ESP multivendor security partner ecosystem, providing enterprise customers with the freedom to deploy best-of-breed, cloud-delivered secure access service edge (SASE) security components of their choice. Today’s Aruba ESP advancements will enable enterprises to fast-track their digital transformation journey from edge-to-cloud.

As organizations contend with challenges resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and a new “work from anywhere” normal, the adoption of cloud-hosted services will continue to accelerate. This shift is intensifying the urgency to transform conventional data center and MPLS-centric and VPN-based networks to a cloud-native SASE architecture that features more dynamic provisioning of secure network services while protecting data from end-to-end.

In parallel, digital transformation is causing a significant increase of IoT devices connecting to the network, presenting new challenges that are not addressed with cloud-delivered security alone. Since IoT devices are agentless, IT departments cannot install security clients or redirect device traffic to cloud security services; therefore, Zero Trust security must be applied at the WAN edge.

To realize the full potential of the cloud and digital transformation, organizations require a new WAN edge that combines on premises and cloud-delivered security, delivering on the promise of SASE to protect users connecting to SaaS and public cloud platforms, and to safeguard IoT devices that require Zero Trust identity-based security. Through the new Aruba ESP integrations being announced today, enterprise customers now have the ability to apply granular-level, identity-based security policy from edge-to-cloud to safely connect and protect both users and devices.

A recent report from communications research firm 650 Group highlights the growing emphasis on SASE while explaining the need for enterprises to re-examine their security approach in light of the current technology evolution. Chris DePuy, founding technology analyst at 650 Group states, “As enterprises shift toward Zero Trust and SASE architectures, they are increasingly evaluating and deploying multi-vendor cloud-delivered security services, and it’s not necessary for all the SASE components to come from a single vendor. Aruba’s approach strikes a balance between delivering on-premises security functionality at the WAN edge and providing customers with the freedom of choice to integrate leading cloud-delivered security services from partners like Zscaler, Netskope, and Check Point. This multi-vendor partnering strategy provides enterprises with the flexibility to continue working with existing vendors or shift toward ‘best-of-breed’ systems.”

ClearPass Policy Manager Integration with Aruba EdgeConnect

The integration of ClearPass Policy Manager with the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform augments application intelligence by adding identity knowledge of users, IoT devices, roles, and security posture to form the basis of a SASE WAN edge. Combining role and security posture intelligence with advanced dynamic segmentation capabilities eliminates the complexity associated with implementing hundreds of VLANs for each class of user and device, dramatically simplifying network administration and management. Integrating ClearPass Policy Manager with EdgeConnect provides a consistent and automated definition of roles that can be enforced network-wide from the user’s device, through the LAN, and across the WAN.

Aruba Threat Defense Integration with Aruba EdgeConnect

The integration of Aruba Threat Defense with the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform extends advanced intrusion detection and prevention (IDS/IPS) capabilities to EdgeConnect physical and virtual appliances. This allows the EdgeConnect platform to leverage the Aruba threat infrastructure, sharing critical threat information between Aruba Central and EdgeConnect to deliver full visibility across the network. These advanced unified threat management (UTM) capabilities enable enterprises to deliver east-west lateral security as well as secure local internet breakout from branch locations and can be deployed centrally on premises or in the cloud. By leveraging a common threat infrastructure and threat feeds across Aruba ESP, network and security managers can centrally apply and enforce threat management policies enterprise-wide.

Freedom of Choice through a Multivendor Partner Ecosystem

As enterprises shift toward a Zero Trust and SASE architecture, they are increasingly evaluating and deploying multivendor cloud-delivered security services. A new Ponemon Institute security best practices survey affirms this, revealing that over 70 percent of respondents would opt for a best-of-breed, cloud-delivered security solution over an all-in-one approach,[1] in order to architect a comprehensive Zero Trust and SASE infrastructure.

With a new Service Orchestration provisioning workflow, the Aruba Orchestrator management console, formerly Silver Peak Unity Orchestrator, now includes pre-configured default information regarding the cloud security partner’s proximity-based cloud security services. Network administrators can quickly and easily associate Aruba branch locations with the partner’s points of presence (POPs) and cloud-data centers. Leading security vendors such as Check Point, Forcepoint, McAfee, Netskope, Palo Alto Networks, Symantec and Zscaler are currently a part of Aruba’s extensive technology alliance partner ecosystem.

“The integration of ClearPass Policy Manager and Aruba Threat Defense with the EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform allows us to deliver a consistent identity-based policy framework across the Aruba secure edge portfolio,” said David Hughes, founder of Silver Peak and senior vice president of the WAN business at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. “This powerful combination will enable customers to move at their own pace, from legacy data center-centric network architectures, with perimeter-based security, to a cloud-centric WAN with security based on the principles of Zero Trust and SASE. Enterprise customers can deploy our on-premises EdgeConnect WAN edge platform to enforce policy from the edge, and easily integrate with leading cloud-delivered security services from the vendor of their choice, all centrally controlled within Aruba Orchestrator.”

Comprehensive Secure WAN Edge Portfolio Spans Hybrid Work Locations 

The Aruba ESP platform offers customers the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of secure wired, wireless and WAN edge solutions that enable customers to adapt to today’s new normal and tomorrow’s unknowns. The WAN Edge portfolio includes:

• Virtual Intranet Access Client (VIA) – maximum mobility for work-from-anywhere users whether connecting to private or public networks
• Remote Access Points (RAPs) – minimal footprint for mobile, remote and temporary workspaces, delivering secure connectivity to the corporate enterprise network
• SD-Branch – maximum integration and simple unified management across WLAN, LAN and SD-WAN with Zero Trust security
• EdgeConnect – optimal QoE (Quality of Experience) from edge-to-cloud with an advanced SD-WAN edge platform and unified SASE components

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[1] Ponemon Institute, The State of SD-WAN, SASE and Zero Trust Security Architectures, April 2021