Author: Business & Lifestyle Publishing

A snapshot of all things lifestyle by Island girls Shereen Shabnam and Natasha Dury.

End of year sales and celebrations planned across Abu Dhabi and Al Ain Malls by Line Investments & Property LLC

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Shopping malls in Lulu Group’s Line Investments & Property LLC portfolio in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain have planned a wide range of fun activities and events during the festive season leading up the New Year celebrations.

Mr. Wajeb Al Khoury, Director of Line Investments and Property LLCsaid, “We achieved numerous milestones this year and have planned an exciting festive season filled with shopping, dining and entertainment across our eight malls and look forward to an even better 2020 as we welcome new partners, retailers as well as visitors from every age, culture and background.”

Al Wahda Mall will have a Winter Wonderland Parade on the 24thof December and continue the festive celebrations with different entertainment activities each day until the 4thof January. Mall activities include activations with Santa and elves, Wonderlanders, LED Drummers, Toy Soldiers and Ginger Elves.

Khalidiya Mall will be having Season 3 of the much-awaited winter themed Toy Factory winter castle from the 25th of December until the 25th of January 2020. There will be entertainment performances by international artists for Christmas and New Year and kids can donate toys for the needy. Kids can also learn how to make toys at a workshop during this period.

Mushrif Mall will be having a winter display at the mall from the 16thof December till mid of January and a Spin and Win contest in the last week of the year.

Al Raha Mall in Abu Dhabi will have festive decorations on 25thof December, Al Raha mall and Orange Wheels will have kids’ activities that include Arts & Crafts, Festive Face Painting, Balloon Bending, storytelling and festive music from 6pm to 9pm.

In Al Ain, Barari Outlet Mall will have kids’ activities with Roaming characters, stilt walkers, mascots and balloon bending during the weekends and well as mall wide sales from the 26thDecember 2019 till February 8th2020. Mazyad Mall will have Santa Claus visiting from the 22nd to on the 24thof December in the evenings from 7pm to 9pm. Families will have photo opportunities with Santa Claus.

Al Foah Mall in Al Ain will have kids’ activities with roaming characters, mascots and balloon bending in the weekends leading up to the New year as well as attractive winter sales.

Madinat Zayed Shopping Centre will be having Santa Claus, various roaming activities, with live band, mascots, Balloon twisters, clowns and face painting during the festive period.

Line Investments & Property LLC malls in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain join ‘RAD Winter Season campaign

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Shopping malls in Lulu Group’s Line Investments & Property LLC portfolio in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain have planned exciting events and attractive sales during the RAD Winter’ campaign in collaboration with DCT Abu Dhabi from 26th December 2019 to 8th February 2020.

The participating malls in the RAD Winter Season Campaign include the Al Wahda Mall, Mushrif Mall, Khalidiya Mall, Al Raha Mall, Mazyad Mall and Souk Madinat Al Zayed in Abu Dhabi plus the Barari Outlet Mall and Al Foah Mall in Al Ain.

Mr. Wajeb Al Khoury, Director of Line Investments and Property LLCsaid, “Our RAD campaigns entice shoppers to the mall and leads to a higher footfall as we deliver the best shopping, dining, events and promotions across our malls in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.During the RAD winter sales, mall patrons will also enjoy irresistible offers, special discounts and win prizes in our malls as part of the promotion.”

“As part of our ongoing commitment to provide unparalleled retail offerings and experiences to the capital’s residents and visitors, we are launching the Retail Abu Dhabi Winter Season, anchored by a unique programme which will give shoppers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own exclusive items for the price they want,” said Ali Hassan Al Shaiba, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications at DCT Abu Dhabi. “This will be in addition to the wonderful shopping experience that customers will enjoy as part of the festive offers that over 1,000 retailers will provide this winter season.

For every AED 200 spent at any of the malls, customers of Line Investments Property LLC malls will have access to the “Global Pool’ of prizes by visiting http://www.bestinyourmall.aeand registering online. Customers stand to select prizes of their choice and bid after validating their spend at the Mall’s customer service desk and getting the number of bids they can activate based on their spend. Winners will be selected via a randomizer.

The malls under the Line Investments & Property portfolio will further enhance the campaign with exceptional retail experiences and events.

Customers Choose Fortinet Secure SD-WAN for a Cloud – Ready Branch

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By Alain Penel, Regional Vice President – Middle East, Fortinet.

Why a Healthcare Agency in the Middle East Chose Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN Solution to Connect Nearly 150 Clinics to their Private Cloud

Organizations increasingly rely on new business applications to deliver valuable resources and services, and nowhere is this more critical than in the healthcare industry. This is especially true for remote clinics and offices where access to data, resources, and time-sensitive information is essential for patient care. However, because so many applications in use are latency-sensitive – such as video conferencing tools used for consulting, or bandwidth intensive – such as those used for reviewing test or lab results where large files need to be accessed and reviewed, performance is a growing concern.

Recently, Fortinet had the opportunity to work with a major government agency tasked with providing and overseeing health services in the Middle East, provided through nearly 150 branch offices connected to their private cloud by MPLS. These MPLS connections were designed to provide 50Mbps of connectivity, but as the organization adopted new business applications and services over CitrixXenApp, their links had become saturated. However, replacing them with 1Gbps connections was cost-prohibitive.

They also required direct internet access at each branch office, which required the addition of NGFW solutions to secure connections and data. And at the same time, they needed high-speed connectivity to their private cloud for their SaaS applications and other resources, which meant that an optimized experience was required when accessing their datacenters.

Designed to Meet Current and Evolving Requirements

One of our first concerns was making sure that any proposed solution was designed to meet current and evolving requirements. The Fortinet team interviewed doctors and nurses at one of their clinics and then designed an SD-WAN proof of concept which provided direct internet connectivity as well as a high-performance connection back to headquarters and their private cloud. This solution was built around the new FortiGate 100-F, which includes the industry’s first SD-WAN ASIC, a purpose-built processor designed to enhance application steering and performance.

Optimizing the connection between end users and cloud applications requires an application-centric routing system that can support things like link classification. When a user wants to use Office365, for example, the SD-WAN solution needs to be able to automatically recognize and classify the first packet with the proper application information to ensure that all subsequent traffic is dynamically steered to the right link. The resulting link and application performance optimization can produce speeds multiple times faster than non-optimized connections, while also better enabling end-to-end security.

After a short trial, the staff reported that application experience and performance had increased exponentially, and were very happy with the results. The IT director not only liked the increased performance and security, but was also pleased with the seamless management and orchestration system that tied security and network functionality into a single interface.

Why Fortinet Secure SD-WAN

In spite of deep discounts offered by their incumbent vendor, Cisco Systems, Fortinet won this opportunity around three basic advantages: 

  • 91% WAN cost savings/year: First, the customer realized that the Fortinet Secure SD-WAN solution would save them 91% of their WAN costs when compared to upgrading their MPLS connections using other SD-WAN solutions.
  • Faster Application Steering & High Performance: With Fortinet’s industry-first SD-WAN ASIC, we demonstrated our ability to support and enhance their connections to over 3,000 applications to improve productivity and user experience.
  • Secure Local Breakouts at the Branch: The customer also liked the ability to increase the security posture at their nearly 150 clinics, especially given their Direct-Internet-Access use-case. The integrated NGFW capabilities built into the FortiGate 100-F appliance helped them avoid product sprawl, while the integrated single-pane-of-glass management solution reduced management overhead for both network connectivity and security functions.

Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN solution brings connectivity, performance, and security together in a highly optimized package. As a result, organizations are able to not only enjoy unparalleled price/performance advantages, but ongoing cost of ownership savings due to its unique integrated security and networking framework combined with a powerful unified management interface.

Nutanix Appoints Thomas Rollin as Director Global Accounts EMEA

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Customer centricity and partnerships to form the cornerstone of the EMEA global accounts team following appointment of senior director in the region

Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX), a leader in enterprise cloud computing, today announced the appointment of Thomas Rollin as Director Global Accounts for its EMEA region. He will focus on heightening customer service delivery for the company’s global accounts, accelerating sales growth and providing trusted advisor services. 

“I am very excited to join Nutanix and look forward to working with such an experienced team to propose a new generation of solutions for the hybrid world,” says Rollin. “After 16 years at NetApp, I am looking forward to building a best in class EMEA organisation, focused on customer experience. One that delivers a white glove experience to customers as we help them on their journey to the cloud.”

In his time at NetApp, Rollin was tasked with driving sales, delivering exemplary customer experiences and growing the company’s C-Level engagements and relationships by establishing himself as a trusted advisor to their businesses. 

At Nutanix, Rollin will work with its global customers to identify the right fit solutions for these accounts. This will include delivering solutions and services that can scale across geographies, meet different compliance needs, and unlock hybrid and multi-cloud opportunities. 

“Nutanix best serves the needs of its large international customers through partnerships and relationships. Through regular feedback and insights, our global account teams continually orchestrate customer development and growth,” says Sammy Zoghlami, Senior Vice President of Sales EMEA at Nutanix. “With his focus on customer centricity and his hands-on approach, Thomas will help to provide customers with a better understanding of how the Nutanix offerings can facilitate innovation in technology, skills, processes, and support to the business.”

AESG Launches ‘Pathway to Net Zero’ Design Tool to Advance Region’s Uptake of a Sustainable Built Environment

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From 2020 onwards, AESG’s newly launched design tool will be applied free of cost to all of the company’s design projects 

As signatories to the World Green Building Council’s ‘Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment’ and to further the net zero agenda under this commitment, AESG, a world leading Specialist Consulting, Engineering and Advisory firm, today unveiled its new ‘Pathway to Net Zero’ tool. Designed to determine and evaluate the options available for reducing both the embodied and operational Carbon footprint of buildings, this tool conveniently provides AESG’s clients with an optional pathway to achieving net zero carbon buildings.

With buildings contributing upwards of 40% of global CO2emissions, the widescale adoption of net zero principles by the sector has the potential to reduce worldwide emission by up to 43% within the next decade[1]. However, perceived costs, extreme climatic conditions and a general lack of expertise in design and implementation are currently key factors incumbering net zero projects in the Middle East. By applying its new Pathway to Net Zero tool free of charge to all its design projects from 2020 onwards, AESG hopes to address most misconceptions around the concept and thereby incentivize its clients. 

“Much of the resistance to change can be eliminated by providing developers with a clear picture of their journey to net zero, the short-term investments it will entail, and the many long-term operational and commercial benefits they’re likely to enjoy. As industry leaders within sustainable development, and a signatory to the WorldGBC’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, AESG acknowledges its responsibility to facilitating a more sustainable future. We hope that by providing a convenient and well-defined pathway to net zero on all our projects, we will be able to stimulate the transition to decarbonising the construction sector,” said Phillipa Grant – Head of Energy & Sustainable Development at AESG.

AESG has meticulously followed key industry standards in the development of its tool. These include EN standards for the embodied carbon assessment, as well as the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) standards for the operational carbon assessment. The tool assesses buildings based on a myriad of factors such as the typology and planned usage, and location and size, along with any additional project requirements specified during the briefing stage. 

AESG has successfully provided construction support for the Sustainability Pavilion at Expo 2020, which will be a net zero building, and enabled Multiplex, a premier global construction company, to achieve nearly zero energy consumption at its construction site offices. Based on this proven track record, AESG is confident of its Pathway to Net Zero tool’s applicability to all design projects that it provides services for.

[1]https://www.worldgbc.org/advancing-net-zero

End of the year bargains at Khalidiyah Mall as it celebrates 12th Anniversary

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Khalidiyah Mall

Grand Anniversary Sales in selected stores held with competitions online

Khalidiyah Mall will be celebrating their 12thyear anniversary with attractive sales on popular brands from the 17thDecember to 21stDecember 2019. The Grand Anniversary Sales in selected stores across the mall is perfectly timed for shoppers looking for end of year bargains for the festive season.

MayankM Pal, Mall Manager at Khalidiyah Mall said,“We are thrilled to celebrate our 12thanniversary with milestones that has positioned Khalidiyah Mall as a vibrant destination with diverse options to eat, shop and play. We look forward to more years of celebrations as we continue to build on our strong retail lineup with new events, entertainment offering and attractive sales.”

Over the last 12 years, Khalidiyah Mall has truly transformed itself with enhanced retail experiences, new F&B concepts and events that brings the local community together.

Khalidiyah Mall is located at the nerve centre offering patrons three levels of elegantly laid out outlets ranging from fashion to furnishing and cosmetics to consumer electronics. The mall’s multicultural food court offers an intriguing array of international cuisine, alongside a number of cafes, restaurants plus an amusement centre with arcade games, a cinema and a bowling alley.

 

Carbon Emissions Per Passenger Decrease

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TheInternational Air Transport Association (IATA)published information confirming that carbon emissions per passenger have declined by more than 50% since 1990. Much of the improvement has occurred because the industry has achieved an annual fuel efficiency improvement of 2.3% over the period since 2009, some 0.8 percentage points ahead of target. 

This progress is a combination of investments in more efficient aircraft and operational efficiencies.

“Cutting per passenger emissions in half is an amazing achievement of the technical expertise and innovation in the aviation industry. But we have even bigger ambitions. From 2020 we will cap net emissions. And by 2050 we will cut emissions to half 2005 levels. Accomplishing these targets means continued investment in new technology, sustainable fuels, and operational improvements,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

Airlines have invested some $1 trillion in new aircraft since 2009, and in addition have signed forward purchase agreements for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) amounting to approximately $6 billion. In addition, the introduction of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) will ensure carbon-neutral growth on international flights from 2020 and raise around $40 billion in climate finance.  

Alternative measures are inefficient and fail to cut carbon

Analysis from IATA shows that efforts to deliberately suppress air travel through punitive passenger taxes are inefficient and largely ineffective at reducing carbon.

The CORSIA scheme’s effectiveness lies in its global scope. It is estimated it will reduce emissions by around 2.5 billion tonnes over the lifetime of the scheme. But global goodwill towards implementing CORSIA is being compromised by governments introducing a patchwork of carbon taxes. A series of decisions or proposals have been made in recent months to levy air passenger taxes, including in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

“Taxation aimed at stopping people from exercising their freedom to fly will make travel more expensive but do very little to reduce emissions. It is a politician’s feel-good solution, without taking responsibility for the negative impact it has on the economy or the mobility restrictions it imposes on people with lower incomes,” said de Juniac.

Long-term, aviation is aiming to reduce emissions with cleaner technology. This will require a financially sound airline sector capable of funding the significant investments that will be needed to make flying sustainable.

“Governments must focus their efforts correctly. Flying drives prosperity. It is not the enemy. Cutting carbon must at the forefront. And government leadership is needed to incentivize the commercialization of sustainable aviation fuels, drive efficiencies in air traffic management and support research into next generation low-carbon energy sources,” said de Juniac. 

Fortinet Placed Highest in Ability to Execute in the Challengers Quadrant of the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure

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Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, today announced its position as a Challenger with the highest ability to execute and furthest completeness of vision in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure. Fortinet was also recently named by Gartneras one of the highest three vendors in worldwide market share for enterprise SD-WAN equipment by revenue for 2Q19, experiencing 234% growth in revenue quarter-over-quarter between 1Q19-2Q19 to reach $46M in 2Q19.2Fortinet believes its placement in the Gartner Magic Quadrant and market share placement is largely due to its commitment to helping customers reduce WAN complexity and cost while enhacing application experience by delivering advanced security and SD-WAN functionality in a single easy-to-use offering available in an appliance or virtual machine in all six major cloud providers.

“As one of the highest ranked vendors in enterprise SD-WAN market share worldwide with one of the fastest growing revenue shares, we believe enterprise organizations recognize that Fortinet delivers the best approach to SD-WAN”said John Maddison, EVP of products and CMO at Fortinet.“Based on industry validation, customers can feel confident in knowing that Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, powered by the only purpose-built SD-WAN ASIC in the industry, providesthe fastestapplication steering and best user experience. We believe our position in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure1further highlights Fortinet’s leadership in the SD-WAN market.”

Fortinet Solves Customers’ Biggest WAN Challenges

Fortinet Secure SD-WANhelps customers tackle some of the biggest challenges facing WAN deployments by enabling three key use cases:

  • Simplify Operations:Enterprises deploying SD-WANoften experience complexity as they try to manage disperate point-products that aren’t inherently built to work together. Fortinet delivers routing, SD-WAN and advance security in a single offering to simplify operations and allow for unified management. Fortinet Secure SD-WAN’s deep API support enables advanced analytics for network health monitoring and automates compliance reporting to meet industry regulations and security standards. Zero-touch provisioning further reduces complexity andallows customers to deploy a new branch in minutes instead of weeks. Customers can also extend the security of Fortinet Secure SD-WAN to the enterprise branch via Fortinet Secure SD-Branch.
  • Reduce Costs:Choosing FortiGate Secure SD-WAN allows customers to consolidate point-products into one enterprise-grade solution to significantly reduce capital costs. Augmenting MPLS with broadband reduces operational costs whilea full stack of integrated security functions – including NGFW, IPS, anti-virus and anti-malware, web filtering, SSL inspection (including TLS 1.3), and sandboxing – ensures security without compromise and limits the potential costs related to a security breach.
  • Enable a Cloud-Ready Branch:Customers are often challenged with poor user experience, which is often a result of backhauling traffic back to the data center, leading to ineffective connectivity to their multi-cloud environment. On-ramping branch offices and other remote locations to the cloud through Fortinet Secure SD-WAN enhances customers’ application experience and extends the cloud’s power, flexibility, and productivity gains to all users. An integrated CASB service protects SaaS applications and traffic to prevent problems related to Shadow IT and is enhanced via Fortinet’s custom-built SD-WAN ASIC to allow for faster application prioritizing and steering to further enhance user experience and accelerate cloud connectivity.

Fortinet Secure SD-WAN is Recognized by Customers 
Fortinet’s NGFW solution has received the most reviews of all vendors in the Gartner Peer Insights WAN Edge Infrastructure Market as of December 3, 2019. Fortinet believes that this customer recognition further highlights Fortinet’s leadership in the SD-WAN market.

Additional Third Party Recognition of Fortinet’s SD-WAN Innovation
The FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall, an integral part of the Fortinet Secure SD-WAN solution, was recently named a Leader in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls3. Additionally, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, FortiGate Next-Generation Firewalland FortiGate Next-Generation IPShave all received “Recommended” ratings from NSS Labs. Fortinet believes this additional recognition underscores its commitement to SD-WAN innovation and focus on delivering the best performance and advanced security to truly transform our customers’ WAN edge.

Infoblox Announces Acquisition of SnapRoute to Accelerate Delivery of Cloud-Native Network Services

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SnapRoute’s cloud-native network OS together with Infoblox’s cloud-native network services platform promise to deliver a next level network experience

Infoblox Inc., the leader in Secure Cloud-Managed Network Services, announced the acquisition of SnapRoute, the creator of the industry’s first Cloud-Native Network Operating System (CN-NOS). SnapRoute’s talent and technology add significant depth to Infoblox’s suite of offerings and will help the company to radically simplify networking and deliver groundbreaking services more quickly and efficiently.

As business environments continue to evolve as part of digitalization efforts, they become more decentralized, and operate across multiple platforms and devices in a hybrid cloud architecture, technology and service providers will need a new platform/architecture to deliver and manage network and security services at scale. Infoblox’s BloxOneTM platform is built around cloud-native architectural principles, enabling the delivery of cloud-managed secure network services at scale. With SnapRoute’s cloud-native OS, Infoblox will now be able to accelerate the development and delivery of additional network services on its platform.

This July, Gartner released a report predicting that the WAN edge and network security markets will converge into a new market, built on the secure access service edge (SASE) model. The report also asserts that the ideal platform for SASE will be built around a cloud-native architecture and will support the delivery of edge services via a SaaS based deployment model.

With its BloxOneTM Threat Defense solution and recently released BloxOneTM DDI solution, Infoblox has already delivered DDI and security centric services built on the SASE architecture. SnapRoute’s technology, IP and exceptional talent will accelerate Infoblox’s ability to expand the suite of SASE services offered on this cloud-native architecture.

“We recognize that the future is in the cloud, and to meet customer demands for flexibility, scalability, adaptability, enhanced security and speed, it will become increasingly important for network and security services to be cloud-native,” said Jesper Andersen, President and CEO of Infoblox. “We are thrilled to welcome the SnapRoute team as we work together to leverage their innovative technology and IP to rapidly expand the services we offer on our BloxOne platform.”

“Building from a cloud-native foundation is essential to providing the scalable and flexible services that businesses demand today,” said Dom Wilde, CEO of SnapRoute. “Infoblox is the only company that has invested in building a truly cloud-native platform for networking and security services complementary to what we built at SnapRoute, and we couldn’t be more pleased to join the Infoblox team to help expand their services and capabilities.”

Buyers Lab Recognizes Kodak Alaris for Outstanding Achievement in Innovation

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Alaris INfuse Smart Connected Scanning Solution hailed as a ‘groundbreaking’ solution 

Keypoint Intelligence – Buyers Lab (BLI), the world’s leading independent evaluator of document imaging software, hardware and services, has recognized the Alaris INfuse Smart Connected Scanning Solution with its Outstanding Achievement in Innovation awardin the Document Imaging Software category. The coveted honour acknowledges products or capabilities that stand out for a particular innovation that moves the product category forward.

“Capture and workflow solutions are nothing new. But delivering a truly customized, automated solution typically entails server- and workstation-based software at the client site, training of end users on how to use the solution, and hours of on-site setup and ongoing maintenance for the integrator placing the system. Alaris has changed all that,” said Jamie Bsales, Director of Solutions/Security Analysis at Keypoint Intelligence. “The INfuse Smart Connected Scanning Solutionlets Alaris partners deploy turnkey business process solutions to their customers that turn complex tasks into, essentially, a press of a button on the INfuse AX scanner. And even the scanner setup is automated.”

To create this unique solution, Alaris combined several key technologies into a groundbreaking distributed scanning ecosystem. At the customer site (or sites), INfuse AX Scanners are the touchpoint for end users. These smart network scanners require no PC or software/drivers, and securely transfer data, metadata and finished image files directly into a cloud-based business process created and hosted by the Alaris channel partner or solution provider (typically an ISV or integrator). The scanner employs Alaris’ exclusive EasySetup technology, so configuring device settings is as easy as scanning in a cover sheet. The system also includes INfuse Management Software, which provides Alaris partners with easy end-user set-up, remote configuration, and fleet management.

“The inspiration for INfuse comes directly from channel partner and end user feedback,” said Don Lofstrom, President & General Manager, Alaris, a Kodak Alaris business. “Kodak Alaris is pleased to be recognized by Buyers Lab and our customers for our leading-edge technology and innovation.”

In addition to the Outstanding Achievement in Innovation award, in the past year, Buyers Lab has also recognized the Alaris E1000 Series Scanneras winner of its Summer Pick award for Outstanding Scanner for SMBs and the Alaris S2040 Scanneras winner of its Winter Pick award for Outstanding Departmental Scanner.

To learn more about the Alaris INfuse Smart Connected Scanning Solution, please visit alarisworld.com.