Terry Greer-King, Vice President Of Europe, Middle East And Africa (Emea) Sales

Armed with an authority on cybersecurity and with extensive experience in the technology industry, Terry Greer-King is currently SonicWall’s VP of EMEA Sales.

Terry has extensive experience providing cybersecurity solutions to partners and customers across the EMEA region with a dedication to direct touch results and business growth hence we speak to him about his current role and trends in the area of cyber security.

Which countries in the Middle East is SonicWall most active in currently?

Sonicwall has been in the region for over one and a half decades now. We therefore have vast experience and a huge customer base throughout Middle East. Since we are a fully dedicated channel company, we cover all countries in the region, supported by our distribution partners and their technical and business skills.

Our team is based in Dubai, while we attempt to grow our presence to Saudi Arabia and also in other countries. Our business focus today is on UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and Oman from a Middle East perspective.

What type of threats are most common in the Middle East?

2018 was a year of high focus on the Middle East’s cyber threats. The strengthening economy, the additional wealth and an increased level of travel resulted in a malware surge mid-2018. This year, Middle Eastern governments have been working successfully on reducing the key threat vectors. Consequently, we saw a 60% decline this year of malware attacks, to 15 million malware attacks of our customers throughout the region in 2019, which we have blocked for our customers.

Dubai has been a focus target, and we expect a high interest during Dubai 2020 Expo and assume a sharp increase of attacks in 2020. Key malware variants detected were Trojans and viruses, that could be blocked with our technology, working in thousands of customer locations in Middle East.

What is driving your company’s business growth this year?

I would say there are two main drivers that are leading our growth. One, our ever-improving partner base that is armed with the technology, ability and knowledge to protect their customers by adding SonicWall services to our solutions and adopting the layered security needed.

Two, the push to the cloud. This will change the perspective of customers on their security immensely. Today, SonicWall is more than just a firewall vendor. Our solutions comply with  our customers’ need for micro-segmented networks with a mix of Hardware and virtual Firewalls, Endpoint security at the next-generation level, Cloud Application Security and Hybrid environments. Our customers also benefit from a single pane of glass management, a reporting and analytics platform for ease of use, and seamless integration into existing SIEMs and other tools. 

What challenges have you and your partners faced recently?

Legacy thinking about cyber security is probably the biggest inhibitor for every next-gen security vendor. “We don’t need security, there is no budget left to secure to current levels, we hear what you say, but we have not been hit yet”. What I like to say, if you secure your business with an old security solution, you will be protected against old threats.

Since cyber-attacks advance quickly, this is obviously not the right approach. Hence, we provide a bi-annual update of our threat report, to ensure, our partners can tell what is happening and support CISOs and IT Managers in their attempt to get the right budget. Security is not living in a silo in companies anymore. It is a matter of trust, brand, and business continuity more than ever. It has become a real matter for the board. This is not understood by some customers yet.

Can you talk about the strength of your comprehensive enterprise collaboration, vendor portfolio?

Our business exists to a major part due to the threat data gather every single day globally from our 1.1M sensors in over 215 countries and territories. This is the database of threats we use to protect our customers and advance our solutions. This is seamlessly integrated with all our products. A mix of on-premise and cloud solutions offers a variety of solutions for almost every use case.

Why is this important? Only a security solution, which is less complex, automated and can detect and prevent data breaches and other cyber-attacks, can deliver the least vulnerable security solution. Our layered security solution and platform, from the network perimeter to the cloud to the endpoint, discovers the known and unknown malware attacks, brings to light shadow IT use, protects against attacks using non-standard ports and easy deployment of encrypted traffic inspection.

All of that is managed through a single pane of glass, reducing complexity and increasingly visibility

In order to ensure right deployment, we not only have a number of skilled partners but, we also offer professional services delivered by partners. A simple starting point is the Network Health Check, which is a standardized check of current settings and deployment of the security solution. From there, a SonicWall Solution Architect can help to draft the best possible security layout.

What does the future products and services entail for SonicWall?

Being one of the most agile vendors in the security space, we have launched already 54 new products and capabilities in the past two years, with 160 Million lines of new code. This is a massive undertaking, but we will not stop. Look out for the coming announcements

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

Businesses across the region are now in the process of rapidly enabling teleworking and remote productivity solutions to maintain business and operational continuity with high levels of security. This can be a complicated process when expediency is so critical. To complicate the process further, businesses in the region need to provide a growing number of remote workers with more than just a secure connection back to the core network or datacenter resources they are used to be remotely connecting to.

As an increasing number of applications are also being hosted in the cloud, organizations need to consider providing secure remote connectivity directly to those applications rather than backhauling those applications through the core network. Direct connectivity will not only reduce the load on the network, but also improve overall user experience, especially for high-bandwidth or latency-sensitive applications.

A Unique Secure Solution for All Deployment Scenarios

Deploying large-scale VPN solutions for remote users enable simple access, segmenting users based on role, security profile, and the content and resources they require are first-order tasks.

Teams also need to identify users that require special access to resources, like power users, such as system administrators, IT support technicians, and emergency personnel who require a higher level of access to corporate resources and the ability to operate in multiple, parallel IT environments. Or workers that process extremely sensitive and confidential information or require advanced access to confidential corporate resources, such as administrators with privileged system access, support technicians, key partners aligned to the continuity plan, emergency personnel, and executive management, and those users that require site-based access.

These considerations require thinking about the entire network architecture, from cloud to on-premise to endpoint. Fortinet addresses these and similar requirements by providing a flexible operating system that is consistent across form factors – whether deployed in the cloud, on-premise, or in a power user’s home office – and whose management can be centralized for policy orchestration, VPN templating, and user segmentation.  

Enabling a Multi-Pronged Security Approach

Our customers who deploy FortiGate solutions in the cloud, on-premise, or at remote locations are able to take advantage of its single pane of glass management, enabling the control and orchestration of multiple firewalls across locations to establish and maintain consistent security and user experience. We understand that business performance largely depends on user productivity, access to content and applications, at any location, at any time. With remote access and the ability to manage performance across locations using Secure SD-WAN as a core capability the Fortinet Security Fabric securely provides flexible options for mobile and fixed access to cloud resources at massive scale. 

Leveraging Existing Innovations

Addressing new or increased capacity requirements due to growing demand for applications hosted in the cloud as well as SaaS services can seem like a significant challenge. But by leveraging the innovation and capabilities in their existing technology investments, organizations can often address a majority of their requirements without significant additional overhead. Businesses that have invested in Fortinet’s Security Fabric architecture have access to all the necessary tools in a single pane of glass management system. It enables them to fine tune their existing configurations and environments to address urgent and increasing needs, while addressing critical business requirements, providing the organization with the lifeline they need to effectively and securely support their increased remote worker communities.

Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX), a leader in enterprise cloud computing will be hosting Nutanix NOW – a live digital event for organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to learn about the latest trends and the most innovative technologies in the field of data centre and enterprise cloud computing: hybrid cloud, hyperconvergence, data management and end user computing. The virtual event will take place on April 13, 2020 at 10:00 am.

The exciting 3-hour online event with the theme ‘Bringing the Cloud Inside’ is planned for attendees to learn how to easily solve the cost and complexity issues associated with legacy infrastructure. Nutanix executives will discuss the key skills needed to develop a winning hybrid cloud strategy and how to use artificial intelligence-based lifecycle management and machine learning to deliver ideal experiences for customers and employees.

“Legacy technology that wasn’t made to work together leads to slow, manual, unstable, and expensive infrastructure—and IT teams and businesses suffer as a result,” explains Aaron White, Regional Director, Middle East at Nutanix. “Nutanix provides cloud technologies that combine the ease-of-management and usability of the public cloud, with the security, control, and performance of on-premises infrastructure. Our vision is a seamless enterprise cloud experience: One-click simplicity. Freedom to choose your hardware, hypervisor, and clouds. With Nutanix NOW we want to offer answers and solutions to IT modernization needs with the adoption of a successful hybrid cloud strategy.”

In addition to the vision of regional leaders of Nutanix, this important virtual event will see the participation of the company’s top management starting with the opening keynote address by Dheeraj Pandey, Founder, CEO and Chairman of Nutanix, followed by Tarkan Maner, Chief Commercial Officer who will illustrate Nutanix’s multi-cloud vision; Monica Kumar, SVP Product and Solutions Marketing who will talk about the future of data; and the reflection of Wendy Pfeiffer, Chief Information Officer, on ‘IT in the time of COVID-19’.

The event will also feature product demos, customer success stories and live Q&A sessions.

Participation is free upon registration at the following link – https://www.nutanix.com/company/news-events/nutanix-now/uae#agenda.

Mindware, one of the leading Value Added Distributors (VADs) in the Middle East and Africa, has extensively strengthened its security capabilities and portfolio. This will enable its channel partners to address the growing cyber security needs of enterprises across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.

Following the acquisition of Arrow ECS, Mindware inherited a large portfolio of security vendors. Among others, the revamped portfolio now includes Barracuda Networks, Forcepoint, McAfee, RSA, and Trend Micro.

Mr. Nicholas Argyrides, General Manager – Gulf at Mindware explains, “For today’s CIOs, IT security has become one of the highest priorities considering the increasing number as well as sophistication of cyber threats. As organizations undergo digital transformation and expand their digital presence, they, unsurprisingly, become more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Technology trends such as Cloud Computing also increase similar risks. As such, the security shielding of companies needs to evolve, so as to include the latest security solutions coupled with best practices. This will ensure that the organization is not compromised in any way.”

“Against such scenario, we see the security business as being one of the major growth drivers for Mindware and our partners. Our focus in this segment will, of course, mean an increased investment in resources, training and certifications.”

Mindware has been steadily building out its security team and, by now, has a healthy spread of security specialists installed in every key country across the region. They work with partners to ensure that the various security vendors in Mindware’s portfolio are well-represented and promoted. The team comprises of product managers assigned to the various security vendors. These product managers work closely with the vendors to plan and implement strategies to increase market penetration. In addition, there is a parallel team of certified and highly skilled pre-sales engineers. These engineers are not only proficient in helping partners conduct proof of concepts (PoCs) but, upon request, also supporting when it comes to the actual implementation. This is especially helpful for those partners that are yet to develop their skillsets for particular solutions or technology verticals.

The distributor has also developed robust capabilities in conducting demos and PoCs pertaining to every single one of its security vendors, always in conjunction with its system integrator partners.

“These PoCs carried out by Mindware and our partners are often executed by deploying the product in a virtual setting in the end customer’s datacentre, which is fast becoming the favoured mode when it comes to testing. Alternatively, we also support partners in conducting PoCs by physically installing products on prem. These demos allow potential customers to test the solutions prior to a full-fledged implementation, which is invaluable in demonstrating the effectiveness of a particular offering,” said Mr. Argyrides.

The Cloud team at Mindware is currently working to identify and add relevant security solutions to the recently launched Mindware Cloud Marketplace in order to create co-sell opportunities for partners using the platform. These solutions are typically those that complement the Microsoft products currently available on the Marketplace and can be sold as a bundle.

Mindware also has agreements with its various security vendors to act as their Authorized Training Centre (ATC). The company regularly conducts training and certification programs across the region for end customers as well as channel partners.

“When it comes to IT security related skills, the general consensus is that there is a need for continuous education in our region. To help enhance skills, we plan and conduct a very dynamic series of seminars and training programmes every month, which are typically attended by both end users and partners. These sessions take into account the constantly evolving security landscape and the specific market needs at that point in time.”

Fortinet’s Engage Partner Program Offers Channel Partners New Enablement Initiatives and More Flexibility to Drive Business Growth

News Summary

Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity solutions, recently introduced its new Fortinet Engage partner program. The program provides partners with specializations focused on growing markets, including SD-WAN and cloud, customized support and engagement flexibility to accelerate their business growth and expansion.

John Maddison, EVP of products and CMO at Fortinet

“With today’s digital innovations being a catalyst for organizations to evolve their networks and security strategies, we have transformed our partner program so partners can untap new opportunities and rising markets, including SD-WAN. Building on our investment in our partners, the new program offers specializations, updated enablement initiatives and tailored support for unique business models to further partner success.”  

Helping Partners Keep Up With Digital Innovations

Organizations are rapidly evolving and expanding their networks to keep up with the digital economy. By 2023, IDC predicts that the global economy will finally reach “digital supremacy” with more than half of all GDP worldwide driven by products and services from digitally transformed enterprises. As organizations transform their networks, security plays a critical role and also needs to evolve to keep up with new business demands.

Recognizing this, Fortinet designed new enablement initiatives and specializations, allowing partners to take advantage of digital innovations and this changing landscape. Fortinet’s Engage partner program provides greater flexibility on partner engagement, offers customized support to partners’ business models and allows partners to specialize in emerging areas through tailored training and certifications.

Expanding Partner Opportunities Through New Partner Program

Fortinet’s Engage partner program addresses the required technology and sales skills needed from new network ecosystems, such as next-gen branch offices and dynamic cloud environments comprised of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud. The new program is based on three main concepts, including:

• Specializations: Partners are able to select an area of specialization to receive additional support and benefits in their chosen areas. These include: Dynamic Cloud, Secure Access and Branch, Secure SD-WAN and Data Center. Customized training and certifications are available for each of these specializations to help partners upskill in emerging areas, further enabling partners to capitalize on growth opportunities.   

• Business Model: Fortinet offers specialized support for partners that fit the following three business models: MSSP partners, Market Place partners and Traditional Integrator partners. By offering customized support for these unique business models, Fortinet is evolving its partner program to further embrace growing business areas such as the selling of managed services. 

• Engagement: Partners have greater flexibility when determining the level of engagement they want to have with Fortinet. They’re able to select the type of expertise they want developed, the benefits and the revenue stream. This allows partners to select how they want to work with Fortinet to grow their business. As a result, there are four new levels of partnership outlined in the program ranging from Fortinet Advocate, Fortinet Select, Fortinet Advance and Fortinet Expert. More information about what these levels entail is available here.

Partner Supporting Quotes

“As a longtime Fortinet partner, Infosec Partners has been providing our customers with advanced security through the company’s Security Fabric platform approach. Just as the security landscape is everchanging, so are the business needs of our customers. Recognizing this, Fortinet’s new partner program allows us to take full advantage of the growing opportunities that the expanding digital marketplace provides through extensive, tailored support and specializations in areas like SD-WAN, Secure Access and Branch as well as bespoke decoy and deception controls”

Mark Oakton, CISO, Infosec Partners

“Fortinet has the unique combination of product innovation and partner enablement initiatives. Fortinet’s new partner program builds on its existing initiatives, providing specializations focused on high growth areas to enable partners like us to further expand our business. We look forward to leveraging enhanced aspects of the program as we continue to invest in our partnership.”   

– Koshy Oommen, Director – Infrastructure and Security at Intertec Systems LLC 

“As the Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) market has grown and evolved Fortinet has maintained a steady presence, providing new and innovative solutions to Layer 3 Communications. This enables us to meet the security requirements of our customers. Seeing the new partner program add more incentives for different business models is a true testament of Fortinet’s commitment to helping MSSPs like us grow our managed security services, ultimately leading to maximizing profitability.” 

-Rodney Turner, President & CEO at Layer 3 Communications

“As our customers migrate to the cloud, they depend on NuSpective Solutions to help design and deploy their cloud environment for optimal scale, performance and security. With security being a critical part of our customers’ cloud strategy, Fortinet has been an invaluable partner in helping us provide greater value to our customers in this endeavor. We are pleased with the Dynamic Cloud specialization and the additional training available to us through the new partner program. This enables our team to expand our knowledge and expertise in this growing space.” 

 -Dave McMorrow, Principal and Co-Founder at NuSpective Solutions

“We’re excited about Fortinet’s new partner program. The Missing Link has heavily focused on leveraging Fortinet’s NSE Institute training and certification to become a leading provider, and the results speak for themselves. Fortinet has consistently been one of our fastest-growing vendors, year after year. The granularity and specificity of this program lets partners choose which areas and capabilities they wish to specialize in, including growing markets like SD-WAN. We look forward to continuing to invest in Fortinet to ensure The Missing Link can continue to provide the best level of service, innovation, and security to its clients.”

– Aaron Bailey, Chief Information Security Officer at The Missing Link

“Fortinet continues to provide MSSPs outstanding support as it evolves its new partner program’s enablement to further focus on modern business models like ours. Fortinet has been instrumental in our business success, and we look forward to building on our partnership as we continue to expand our managed services offerings and deliver ever-increasing value to our customers.”

-Brian Page, Chief Technology Officer at Xiologix

Mindware, the prominent Value Added Distributor in the Middle East and Africa, announced today the signing of a distribution agreement with Mitel®, a global leader in business communications. As per the agreement, Mindware will market, distribute and service the entire range of Mitel’s cloud and premises-based Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) solutions across the Gulf region.

Mitel’s cloud, enterprise and next-gen collaboration applications power more than two billion business connections globally. It is the undisputed leader in cloud communications. The company’s public, private and hybrid cloud solutions have made it the choice of nearly 4.7 million business users worldwide. Mitel is the only brand recognized across the Gartner Magic Quadrants for Contact Centre, Unified Communications and Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS).

Speaking about the partnership, Mr. Nicholas Argyrides, General Manager – Gulf at Mindware said, “Business communications is the lifeline of any organization today, particularly these (challenging) days, when an organization’s physical premises are typically not the preferred workplace for most of us. Recent research has shown that business professionals spend over half of each working day in communications activities. Needless to add, a company’s communications and collaboration practices and technology immensely affect its productivity. And this, in turn, impacts the organization’s bottom-line.”

“We have been looking forward to working with Mitel since such all-around product range nicely rounds off our portfolio as we add top-class UCC to our offerings. With the current anaemic trends in the market, productivity tools such as those offered by Mitel will inevitably become an integral part of organizations’ digital transformation plans.”

With Mitel looking to increase its footprint in the region, Mindware will provide its more than 2,000 Gulf partners access to the vendor’s solutions. The distributor will also actively seek to recruit new partners having strong capabilities in business software integration, unified communications, cloud computing, mobility, and virtualization. As part of the ramping up process, Mitel will extend full support and conduct training and enablement sessions for the Mindware team. In addition, Mindware will set up a Mitel ‘demo lab’ to enable partners to ‘test drive’ the solutions and get an in-depth understanding of the product technicalities.

With Mindware betting heavily on the Cloud this year, they see a tremendous potential opportunity for the regional adoption of Mitel’s cloud communications offerings. The VAD will be soon be listing Mitel’s cloud solutions on its newly launched cloud marketplace.

Feras Zeidan, Managing Director, Middle East & Africa at Mitel said, “Mitel MEA is honoured to build another growth milestone pillar and sign a regional GCC distribution agreement with Mindware. I am convinced that our new partnership with Mindware will fulfil the partners’ voice, video, UC & CX projects profitably and into the cloud. While working with Mindware’s in-country teams on enablement, fulfilment & post-sale support, our partners & customers will get local value addition, better design services, middleware integration, training and support. In partnering with a solid VAD like Mindware, technology partners will also gain faster fulfilments, fit-for-purpose solutions & roadmap entry into our software & services world.”

“The Mindware & Mitel partnership in the Middle East and Africa is extremely strategic in terms of executing our strategy for hospitality, healthcare, contact centre & SME/ mid-market. We are creating our go-to-market with Mindware, built around these segments to effectively communicate with partners. Channel enablement, trainings and PoCs will be very instrumental in building strong channel landscape with Mindware for Mitel business,” concluded Asif Khan, Channel Director, Middle East & Africa at Mitel.

To coincide with the occasion of Mother’s Day, taking place on the 21^st of March, AESG today announced the implementation of its new maternity policy aimed at fostering more equitable and gender-neutral career growth opportunities across its organisation. The policy generously extends on the UAE’s labour laws by offering 90-days paid leave, with an additional 90-days of optional unpaid leave, to its female staff in the UAE.

According to AESG, the policy is in line with its commitment to being an equal-opportunity employer which has organically resulted in its industry-leading gender ratio with women representing 46% of office staff and 42% of senior leadership positions. While the announcement will stand to make employment at AESG a more attractive proposition for aspiring female professionals in the construction industry, the company has cited its desire to empower its female employees to ‘thrive in both work and family life’ as the foremost reason for this decision.

“It’s all too common for women to have to place their careers on hold following their decision to have children. This is a contributing factor to why we see gender disparity, especially in senior management and leadership positions, in our sector,” explained Phillipa Grant, Director of Energy and Sustainable Development at AESG. “We are proud of the fact that women at AESG – by virtue of their merit and our company’s fairness policies – are already well represented in senior positions. With the implementation of these new provisions, we hope to ease the transition into motherhood while giving our female employees the confidence that the hard-work and progress they have made in their careers will be safeguarded.”

While making this announcement, AESG reiterated that it follows world-class project management workflows that incorporate industry best-practices which ensure that the quality of its services and progress of projects will remain unimpacted by the new policy. “We have always implemented a ‘soft-handover’ process with a sufficiently long duration. This has served to ensure that newly assigned team members have an in-depth understanding of the project and their responsibilities much before the actual transition takes place,” said Grant.

Following the global success of its solution, the company has now unveiled the Smart Platform in the region with purpose-built use cases for the energy, oil & gas, utilities, retail, healthcare, manufacturing and hospitality sectors

Dimension Data, a leading global systems integrator and managed services provider, today launched its Smart Platform in the Middle East. Having successfully expanded on its award-winning Smart City and Smart Sport solution – which has enhanced public safety, emergency response, situational awareness, and urban planning in modern cities – the company has now tailored the Platform for application in the energy, oil & gas, utilities, retail, healthcare, manufacturing and hospitality sectors.

At its core, Dimension Data’s Smart Platform is a big data analytics and machine learning engine that collates and analyses vast amounts of data to generate problem solving insights and predictions that enable organizations to meet business objectives such as data monetisation, user experience improvement, safety enhancement, marketing optimization, and client satisfaction and retention.

“To succeed in the data economy, businesses need to unlock the potential of their data. For this, they need enterprise-class tools that break down silos and transform the deluge of data into rich actionable analytics,” explained Redouane Gaouar, Director Go-to-Market Practices and Strategic Partner Alliances at Dimension Data Middle East. “We help clients to develop and execute their innovation agenda by using new and emerging technologies to disrupt existing business models and achieve business outcomes faster. Our Smart Platform is the result of our co-innovation with partners and clients. It has proven its ability to help governments and organisations use their data more effectively to make informed decisions.”

Dimension Data’s Smart Platform has been purpose-built to offer the utmost flexibility, scalability and agility, enabling organisations to integrate advanced technologies like IoT, connectivity, edge computing, security, storage, data processing, analytics, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) into the solution at the pace that is right for their business.

The system is based on a model that combines elements which perform recognition and detection at the network edge to analyse and predict trends using AI. It is a smart behaviour analytics platform that leverages machine learning for real-time processing, discovery, understanding, analysis the continuous time-serial data collection from agnostic sources. In this way, it enhances the predictive power of machine learning models, allowing clients to focus on deriving business insights and enhancing business decisions making.

The Smart Platform is interoperable with multiple technologies, facilitating its integration within different environments. It thus allows businesses to protect their existing IT investments, while utilising the Platform’s open architecture to design, implement, integrate and operate at the highest levels of automation and flexibility. As it is built from the ground up as a cloud-native application, with the utilization of micro-services and open APIs, the Smart Platform enables integration with any third party system for data extraction, normalization and application of AI, ML and Analytics functions for any use case. The Platform includes Dimension Data’s in-house developed multi-orchestrator which gives the ability to manage complex infrastructure environments and deploy the Smart Platform anywhere – on-premise in private data centres, on public clouds, or in hybrid cloud environments.

Dimension Data will extend full maintenance and support services for its Smart Platform. For customers that choose to act autonomously post-deployment, the company will offer a comprehensive training regimen that fully prepares in-house IT teams to independently support and maintain the system.

“We’re excited to offer businesses across a myriad of industry verticals a convenient and cost-effective path to realising the full value of their data. The tailored use cases we have designed for the urban planning and administration and the different industries greatly simplify roll-out of the platform while accelerating ROI and driving tangible business outcomes. The clients and partners that we have engaged with so far in the Middle East are acknowledging a lot of uniqueness in our Smart Platform value proposition. We put our society at the forefront of our consideration, and we are excited with the idea to bring value to our citizens, public and private organisations by leveraging such outcome-oriented proven solutions,” concluded Gaouar.