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.

2020: THE YEAR FOR BUSINESS AVIATION

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MEBAA Show 2020 to Lead Regional Industry Promotion

2020 will be a good year for business aviation in the MENA region, according to Ali Alnaqbi, Founding & Executive Chairman of the Middle East and North Africa Business Aviation Association (MEBAA). With the MEBAA Show 2020 taking place in December, the event is perfectly timed to lead the industry in this year of opportunity.

Alnaqbi stated that the business aviation sector in the MENA region is achieving a positive growth rate of around eight to nine percent, higher than the global growth estimate of four to six percent, pointing out that the UAE has become the sector leader in the region.

“2020 will be a milestone in the history of business aviation and private aviation in the Middle East region in general, and in the UAE in particular, as a result of Expo 2020,” Alnaqbi said. He added, “The air traffic in Dubai is currently around 15,000 movements, and this is expected to double to at least 30,000 due to the event.”

There are two main driving factors for this growth, according to Alnaqbi: the official delegations travelling to the country for the expo, and the companies and business leaders attending the event.

The number of aircraft registered in the UAE market is almost 25% of the 600 aircraft registered in the Middle East. Investments in the sector are difficult to quantify as they are distributed among airlines, operators and buildings as well as airports. However Alnaqbi says the volume in the UAE is estimated at between $800 million and $900 million annually, with a contribution to GDP of around two to three percent.

In addition, the industry will benefit from government support for growth.The aviation sector is one of the main strategic sectors, targeted by government plans. It seeks to build a strong and sustainable economy, based on the diversification of sources of national income, and build a post-oil economy.

The MEBAA Show will take place 8-10 December 2020 at DWC, Dubai Airshow Site, and is expecting 500 exhibitors and 10000 trade attendees throughout the three days.

Among the companies already exhibiting at the MEBAA Show 2020 are Airbus Corporate Jets, Dassault Aviation, Gulfstream and Embraer, in addition to many other industry leaders. The event attracts key decision makers and VVIPs along with the whole supply chain of the business aviation industry.

“It’s very important to be close to our customers and to be part of the MEBAA Show,” Benoit Defforge, President of Airbus Corporate Jets, said at the last MEBAA Show. He added, “The Middle East is the number one market for ACJ and MEBAA Show is a very interesting venue because we have the proximity of the booths, the chalets and the aircaft.”

“2020 will be the year of business aviation in the Middle East and North Africa,” says Alnaqbi. He continues, “The MEBAA Show 2020 is the ideal platform for the entire industry to be part of it. I look forward to welcoming the key players in business aviation to Dubai in December 2020.”

Veeam Launches New AWS-Native Backup and Recovery Solution in AWS Marketplace

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NEW Veeam Backup for AWS makes it easy for customers and cloud service providers to natively protect, manage and recover AWS workloads;

Industry-first built-in Cloud Backup Cost Estimator tool enhances greater cost controls and savings

Veeam® Software, the leader in Backup solutions that deliver Cloud Data Management™, today announced NEW Veeam Backup for Amazon Web Services (AWS), cost-effective and secure cloud-native Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) protection,will be available exclusively through AWS Marketplace. Veeam Backup for AWS, a point solution to backup AWS to AWS with powerful Veeam recovery capabilities, is available in both free and paid versions in AWS Marketplace. The product is also now integrated with Veeam’s flagship product, Veeam Backup & Replication™,allowing Veeam users to manage all of their data, be it cloud, virtual or physical, within the same platform. As part of their Diamond sponsorship of the event, Veeam will demonstrate the new solution for the first time at AWS re:Invent 2019 in Las Vegas, NV, showcasing the easy, powerful, and cost-effective backup and recovery solution for AWS-native workloads.

Data loss can happen whether it is stored on-prem or in the cloud. A recent Veeam customer survey found that 53 percent of customers cite user error or accidental deletion as a leading cause of data loss[1]. Ultimately, it is the customer’s responsibility to make sure their data is protected.

Designed specifically for AWS, NEW Veeam Backup for AWSbrings the same simplicity, flexibility and reliability to AWS native-backup that earned Veeam recent industry recognitions. Veeam was recently positioned as a Leader in the 2019 Magic Quadrant for Data Center Backup and Recovery Solutions[2]. Veeam was also positioned as a Leader in the Forrester Wave. This new solutionmakes it even easier for customers and cloud service providers to natively protect, manage and recover their AWS workloads. Veeam provides the flexibility to store the data and recover data in the same cloud (cross-region or cross-account), on-premises, or in any other Veeam-supported environment – whether VMware V-Sphere, Microsoft Hyper-V or Nutanix AHV.

“Protecting data is not only essential to business continuity, but also to maintaining competitive advantage, complying with regulations, and maintaining brand reputation. While the cloud holds the promise of significant business benefits, IT decision makers must still take direct action to protect critical data and enable business continuity in the event of an outage, disaster or cyber-attack.,” said Ratmir Timashev, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Veeam. “Veeam’s latest cloud-native solution, Veeam Backup for AWS, available as a point solution in AWS Marketplace as well as now integrated into Veeam Backup & Replication, not only strengthens our commitment to be a leader in Cloud Data Management, but extends Veeam-powered data protection to AWS customers, making it easy for customers to procure and entitle the solution using the same APIs and subscription model used for other software.” 

Ease of use is built into the NEW Veeam Backupfor AWSwith turn-key deployment via AWS Marketplace, while powerful recovery capabilities are also delivered with features like file-level recovery for native snapshots and Veeam backups. An industry-first built-in tool, Cloud Backup Cost Estimator is designed to provide customers with greater cost controls and savings by simulating policy charges to avoid excessive costs before they start their backups.

For Veeam customers, integration with Veeam Backup & Replication™ will enable them to take control of their cloud data by protecting and managing AWS backups alongside their other cloud, virtual and physical data. Additional benefits include:

  • – The same trusted solution for on-premises backup now protects AWS workloads. Built for cloud-native workloads with support for native snapshots and Veeam backups. Cost-optimized for long-term data retention in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).
  • – Flexible with no cloud lock-in, restore or migrate any on-premises workloads directly to AWS and restore files or data from AWS back to on-premises or any other Veeam-supported environment (ex. VMware V-Sphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV).
  • – Helps customers to manage, backup, and recover all workloads from a single interface.
  • – Move workloads across cloud environments with a Veeam Universal license (VUL) that flexibly follows your workload. 

Pricing and Availability

General availability of Veeam Backup for AWS in AWS Marketplace is targeted for December 2019. Customers can get started by downloading the free edition, limited to backup of 10 instances, here: https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B081VXF1Q9. General licensing is based on pay per use only, starting at $40/year, per instance, and includes 24/7/365 support. For more information, visit: https://www.veeam.com/aws-backup.html.

[1]Veeam customer survey, April 2019.

[2]Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Data Center Backup and Recovery Solutions, Santhosh Rao, Chandra Mukhyala, Nik Simpson, 10 October 2019.

Nutanix Once Again (and Again) Named a Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Hyperconverged Infrastructure

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Nutanix(NASDAQ: NTNX), a leader in enterprise cloud computing, today announced it has been named a Leader by Gartner, Inc. in the November 2019 Magic Quadrant for Hyperconverged Infrastructure. Nutanix has been recognised in all editions of this Magic Quadrant since Gartner started it.

“We continue to be recognised by Gartner as a Leader in hyperconverged infrastructure again and again, and we believe it is because of our relentless focus on pioneering innovative technology and customer success,” said Dheeraj Pandey, Chairman, Founder and CEO at Nutanix. 

“Our goal is to make IT and cloud infrastructure so simple that it fuels innovation and business growth. Nutanix provides flexibility, not only via our products and solutions, but also from the freedom to choose the best HCI consumption model for the business, including software subscription licenses that are portable across hardware platforms and cloud environments.”

Nutanix was also designated as a March 2019 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice vendor for hyperconverged infrastructure. Based on detailed feedback from 264 customer ratings, Nutanix has an average rating of 4.7 out of 5. Additionally, 92% of respondents identified as willing to recommend Nutanix.

Nutanix customers said:

“In order to build for the future, you MUST implement the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform.” — Vice President Infrastructure Services in the Services Industry

“Great product, most importantly, great support.” — IT Manager in the Government Industry

Nutanix believes that enterprises continue to choose its products over competitors for its simplicity and flexibility, as well as the company’s exceptional customer service. Specifically:

  • Simplicity:Nutanix’s products allow enterprises to deliver all applications, at any scale, with simple one-click deployment, upgrades, scaling, troubleshooting and more.
  • Choice: By offering customers flexible licensing and consumption models, as well as the ability to choose among many hardware and virtualisation vendors, Nutanix provides customers the flexibility needed to grow, scale and achieve their business goals. 
  • Customer Focus:Nutanix’s obsession on ensuring the success of its customers has resulted in the company achieving an average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 90 for the past five years.

This news comes on the heels of impressive momentum Nutanix has seen over the last year, including surpassing 14,000 customers globally and $1.2 billion in revenue for its latest fiscal year. Additionally, the company announced deepened collaborations with Hewlett Packard Enterpriseand ServiceNowthat enable increased choice for customers seeking hybrid cloud solutions that fit their unique needs.

More information on Nutanix and a complimentary copy of the report are available at:www.nutanix.com/gartner

Source: 

Gartner, Inc, Magic Quadrant for Hyperconverged Infrastructure, Jeffrey Hewitt, Philip Dawson, Julia Palmer, John McArthur, November 25, 2019

Disclaimer:

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-user reviews, ratings, and data applied against a documented methodology; they neither represent the views of, nor constitute an endorsement by, Gartner or its affiliates.

NetApp Appoints Matt Watts as Chief Technology Officer, EMEA, and Promotes Johannes Wagmueller to Lead Solutions Engineering in the Geo

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NetApp, the data authority for hybrid cloud, today appointed Matt Watts to the newly created role of Chief Technology Officer (CTO), EMEA, and promoted Johannes Wagmueller to lead solutions engineering, EMEA. Watts and Wagmueller report to Alexander Wallner, Senior Vice President & General Manager for NetApp in EMEA, and join his executive leadership council. 

As EMEA CTO, Matt Watts will be the key interpreter of the company’s global technology strategy, advising executive teams internally as well as partners and customers on how to integrate transformative solutions, processes, and business models, and drive productive digital transformation. His key responsibilities include working with new buyers and their content needs, developing education and messaging inside and outside of the company, and helping to build and demonstrate the company’s strategic vision. Watts joined NetApp in 2004. Previously, he was global Director of Technology & Strategy for the company and helped teams on both sides of the Atlantic turn strategic messaging into quantifiable business success.

Johannes Wagmueller, previously acting as interim leader for the function, will lead the solutions engineering teams in the company’s EMEA markets. Wagmueller joined NetApp in 2002, eventually heading solutions engineering in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH). With the latest promotion, he extends his multi-country responsibility to oversee a large team of integrated technology experts. The team designs and manages NetApp’s hybrid cloud portfolio solutions for a wide range of cutting-edge applications such as hybrid multicloud deployments, artificial intelligence and cloud data services. The move underlines the importance of helping customers navigate a rapidly evolving technology landscape built on and around digital data.

Matt Watts says: “In a time of fast-paced digitally driven transformation it becomes crucially important to understand the hybrid cloud world and educate others about the value of our portfolio. I am happy to re-join the EMEA team and work with them and our partners and customers, discussing data innovation and the implications for enterprises large and small.”

Johannes Wagmueller adds: “NetApp is unique in the market in offering the only truly and fully fabric-connected hybrid cloud portfolio. With my team, we are in a prime position to bring its critical value to our customers, leveraging broad solutions, a vibrant partner network, and strong expertise at the technology and business level.”