An ITP Technology Publication Licensed by Dubai Media City

Network Middle East Innovation Awards 2010

JUNE 2010 VOLUME 16 ISSUE 06

REVEALING THE WINNERS

DATA WAREHOUSINGKey considerations for data warehouse deployments

IP SURVEILLANCEThe potential of IP-based surveillance systems

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17 The march to virtualisation brings with it its own security challenges, says Juniper’s EMEA Network Strategist Trevor Dearing.

In depth: Juniper

35 Cloud computing places certain requirements on corporate networks, says Lionel Reina of Orange Business Services.

38 Abhijit Pendse of Cedar Management Consulting International discusses key strategies for data warehouse implementations.

Expert’s Column

13 Peter Job, CEO of Intergence Systems explains how the company is helping customers to get the most from their infrastructure.

In depth: Intergence

2 The latest news from the IT infrastructure sector, including Juniper’s CEO on Cisco, American University of Sharjah video deployment, Cisco Capital deal, EMC VPLEX, Aruba buys Azalea, HP on Innovation Gridlock

In brief NME Innovation Awards20 The sixth annual Network Middle East Innovation Awards recognized the leading projects, people and companies in the regional ICT infrastructure sector.

I Spy IP Surveillance28 The uptake of IP-based surveillance systems is growing in the region, bringing both new applications and demands on the network.

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The founder of Juniper has lashed out at arch-rival Cisco at its EMEA press summit, claiming that Cisco’s Unifi ed Computing System initiative is too ambitious to achieve. Pradeep Sindhu, director, founder, and vice chairman of the board, also believes customers are rejecting the technology, preferring to stay vendor neutral.

Juniper is still hard at work on its own multi-year Stratus Project, which aims to ‘fl atten’ datacentre networking into a single layer, making infrastructure less complex to administrate and implement. Sindhu says planning for the project started as far back as 2006.

“We started the conception of the Stratus project in 2006 and started earnestly the design work in 2008. It took us two long years of trying to understand the

problem, fi gure out what role Juniper could play. Juniper is a pure-play networking company - we don’t want to build computers and storage devices,” he declared.

For Sindhu, Cisco’s solution of building its own servers in addition to its current range of networking gear is an unwieldy solution: “This problem is insanely complicated, and for any company to think that they can solve the problems in computing and storage as well as people who specialise in the [individual technologies] is a tall order. They’re trying to bite off more than they can chew – there’s no question in my mind.

“You’ll end up with average solutions. If you look at UCS for example, it completely misses the problem of large-scale organizations. It’s a solution

which is intended to solve Cisco’s problem, which is: how do you increase your revenues? It doesn’t solve the customer’s problem, it forces the customer to get locked into Cisco solutions,” he added.

Sindhu says his customers have not expressed an interest in UCS.

“My discussions with customers is that they want to run away as fast as possible. There is one attraction [of UCS]: you have a one-stop shop. But the opposite of attraction is really the fear that they’re going to get completely locked into a proprietary and old solution. That’s the fear that’s being realized as we speak,” he said.

Juniper execs at the event declined to set a date for when products and services based on Stratus would be available, beyond general availability in 2011.

Juniper CEO questions Cisco UCS strategy

AUS rolls out video servicesImplementation

Industry

The American University of Sharjah (AUS) has introduced a range of new video services for teaching and information, with the deployment of the Cisco Digital Media Suite (DMS).

The University, which is the fi rst in the UAE to roll out DMS, is using the system to distribute lesson content, to provide visual networking and to deploy campus-wide digital signage.

The DMS platform, which utilizes video, IPTV and digital signage, allows AUS to deliver a range of live and on-demand lectures and other educational content to students, anywhere on campus, and also enables video collaboration and the delivery of richer lesson content.

AUS is also the fi rst university in the Gulf to use Cisco Show and Share social video system, which enables ‘visual networking’ whereby students and teachers have access to a library of video content, which can be shared, to complement lessons. Students will also be able to create content using the Cisco MXE 3000 Media Experience Engine.

George J. DeBin, vice chancellor for fi nance and administration, American University of Sharjah commented: “Today, video is increasingly becoming one of the most important forms of communication and entertainment both in the UAE and globally. At AUS we realize the benefi ts of bringing digital media into the classroom and the campus environment and Cisco’s Digital Media Suite will provide the university with the capability to utilize video communications in order to greatly enhance our students’ experiences as well as accelerate their learning.”

DMS also enables AUS to replace traditional signage and bulletins, with video services to deliver schedules, news, emergency messaging and other information around the campus.

Wayne Hull, general manager, Cisco, UAE said: “The Cisco Digital Media Suite at the American University of Sharjah is the fi rst step towards helping transform how students learn, grow, communicate, and collaborate.”

The leading individuals and companies from the Middle East IT networking sector have been honour at the Network Middle East Innovation Awards 2010.

Nearly 200 IT managers, vendors, channel partners and service providers attended the awards, which recognized the best projects, individuals and

companies operating in the IT infrastructure sector in the region.

The awards, which are now in their sixth year, were presented at a gala dinner, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Dubai. “The NME Innovation awards are the longest running awards for the networking sector in the Middle East, and they represent

the very best that the region has to off er. The quality of the projects that were nominated, and of the companies and individuals, stand as proof of the levels of expertise and professional standards that are to be found in the industry in the region today,” said Natasha Pendleton, publisher of ITP Technology group.

NME Awards recognize industry leadersIndustry

Sindhu says that customers are afraid of getting locked in

to Cisco solutions.

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Cisco Capital, the fi nancing arm of Cisco, has announced its fi rst ever deal in the UAE, which has been done with airline and travel specialists Emirates Group.

The Emirates Group has signed a three-year contract, fi nanced by Cisco Capital, to purchase Cisco SMARTnet support services, and network optimisation services. The deal is intended to provide fl exible fi nancing to the group, to develop its network infrastructure as necessary.

The services will be provided by Cisco Gold partner Gulf Business Machines, as well as Cisco itself.

The deal is the fi rst since Cisco

Capital was established in the UAE in July last year, although Cisco Capital was fi rst announced for the MEA region at the start of 2008.

Patrick Naef, divisional senior vice president IT, Emirates Group commented: “The Emirates Group is always looking to expand its portfolio with strategic ventures that will enhance its commercial proposition, revenues and reputation. The fi nancing through Cisco Capital will help us to continuously deliver the necessary fi nancial enhancements to our information technology

infrastructure to service our ever growing customer needs and maintain a competitive edge.”

“The Cisco Capital fi nancing for Emirates Group marks a major step forward in the way Cisco does business with organisations in the U.A.E. as we increasingly seek innovative new business solutions to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers. As a result of this we will be able to build on the existing agreement for future projects and solutions, enabling the Emirates Group to proceed with future projects jointly with Cisco,” said Wayne Hull, general manager, Cisco, UAE.

Cisco Capital funds fi rst UAE deal

SAP goes mobile with Sybase dealIndustry

Services

SAP has announced its intention to buy database and business software company Sybase, for $5.8 billion in cash and stock.

SAP stated that the main benefi ts of the deal will be in using Sybase mobility solutions and expertise to deliver SAP applications to mobile devices.

“With this transaction, SAP will dramatically expand its addressable market by making available its market-leading solutions to hundreds of millions of mobile users, combining the world’s best business software with the world’s most powerful mobile infrastructure platform,” commented Bill McDermott, co-CEO of SAP and member of the SAP Executive Board.

The deal will see Sybase continue as a standalone business unit, retaining the Sybase name and the company’s management. Product roadmaps for both companies will continue as planned, and both companies’ R&D teams will remain intact.

Sybase has a portfolio of access, management, development and security tools as well as a variety of mobile messaging service, focused on the enterprise. SAP says that it will use this portfolio to extend the reach of its applications, driving further adoption of SAP applications and adding value to existing users. Sybase mobile platform is also able to deliver a range of other business applications to mobile devices, and its messaging network connects to four billion mobile subscribers through over 850 operator relationships around the world.

Sybase also brings greater expertise in analytic, primarily for the fi nancial sector, which can be extended to SAP applications.

The deal will also give Sybase access to SAP’s in-memory database technology, which uses main memory for computer data storage rather than disk storage mechanism, for faster performance, to enhance Sybase’s core database business.

Analyst response to the deal was broadly positive, with most seeing good synergies in the technologies held by both companies.

Companies in the region are lagging behind on the use of proper project management tools and expertise, according to project management specialists Collaboration, Management and Control Solutions (CMCS).

The company recently completed a Middle East survey which highlighted a wide range of reasons for project failure, with improper planning and methodology cited as the leading cause of failure, with 78% of respondents saying it is an issue.

Other causes of project failure included lack of communication (75%), and unrealistic target

completion dates (67%), identifi ed inadequate commitment and involvement from senior management (59%), insuffi cient budgets and resources (56%), too many assumptions and unknowns (51%), project politics and confl icts (38%), lack of set targets or measurable results (45%), and wrong project teams (27%).

CMCS said that the results refl ect a region-wide under-investment in project management tools and a lack of skills and training.

“The downturn revealed a lot of fl aws in the way the region manages its projects. By this time project-based businesses should

have already learned their lessons, and yet our survey results show that many still adhere to poor practices and either delay or avoid key project management investments,” said Bassam Samman, CEO and founder, CMCS.

Other factors identifi ed as causing problems were lack of motivation and control of the project team, insuffi cient risk analysis, weak IT infrastructure, slow decision making, lack of alignment with strategic goals, delays in engineering and procurement, wrong choice of contractors, design changes, and economic instability.

Region lags behind on project managementIndustry

Emirates has signed a three year deal for a range of Cisco services

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EMC has launched a new technology that it says will enable virtual storage to be extended over long distances, to allow new models of distributed data centres and cloud computing.

The VPLEX technology will allow companies to non-disruptively move thousands of virtual machines and large volumes of data over distances of thousands of miles, allowing companies to use computer facilities in more cost eff ective, or disaster resilient locations, and to pool the capacity of multiple data centres.

The company says that VPLEX will enable the movement

and processing of data on an intercontinental basis, with implications for cloud computing.

“VPLEX is groundbreaking technology and that will change the way data centres are designed and managed. The ability to share, move and access large amounts of data regardless of location is a key element of the journey to the private cloud,” said Patrick Gelsinger, president and COO, EMC Information Infrastructure Products.

A key component of VPLEX is the federation of distributed storage arrays, which transparently pools the resources of multiple storage systems, locally and over

distance, and allows them to work together. Federated storage is not only more effi cient than its physical predecessors; it also allows IT organizations to aggregate separate data centres and service providers into a single virtual data centre, with federation of compute and storage resources together, manageable as a single resource.

The fi rst products to use VPLEX are EMC’s VPLEX Local and VPLEX Metro which are designed to operate within a single site or data centre, and on multiple sites up to 100km apart respectively. Solutions for multiple worldwide sites are planned for 2011.

EMC VPLEX extends virtual storageInfrastructure

Juniper Networks has unveiled a new set of software, services and solutions, which it says will enable companies to improve data centre performance, without adding complexity or additional layers to the infrastructure.

The new solutions are based around innovations in automation, virtualization and fabric technologies, which Juniper says can cut time to operation by up to a half, and eliminate up to 35% of data centre networking capital expenditure.

The company also announced new 10 gigabit Ethernet switches and routers that yield up to a fi ve-

fold and eight-fold improvement in network performance, respectively

Juniper aims to allow companies to simplify legacy data centre infrastructure, using its Virtual Chassis fabric, to reduce from three layers to two at present, and in future to reduce to one layer with its Project Stratus fabric.

Juniper also introduced four new applications to automate data centre networks. The applications are based on Juniper’s Junos Space software platform, and include Virtual Control software to manage physical and virtual systems from a common orchestration platform; Ethernet Design and Security

Design software to enable rapid confi guration and deployment of data centre networks and security policies; and Service Now with Service Insight to enable fast and proactive detection, diagnosis and resolution of network issues.

The company has also announced a new partnership with VMware, to use its open APIs for Virtual Control.

Juniper also released its new AppTrack software, which has been designed to provide application and user visibility. to better manage data fl ows and pinpoint bottlenecks, and Juniper Care Plus services portfolio.

Juniper aims for data centre simplicitySolutions

EMC VPLEX will help with the move to the private

cloud, says Gelsinger.

Mobile broadband specialist Greenpacket has launched Interact Collabright, a new personal area network (PAN) technology.

Built on Intel’s My WiFi Technology, the Interact Collabright will allow users to set up a secure device-to-device network, without the need for network infrastructure.

The application allows multiple users to share documents and audio-visual fi les, chat and share screens for presentations and whiteboard applications.

Kelvin Lee, senior general manager of Greenpacket said that advances in wireless technology have made Collabright possible.

“Interact Collabright, in combination with Intel My WiFi Technology, innovates information sharing without the need for conventional network infrastructure or expensive AV equipment. With the rapid increase in data transfer, this application which makes sharing easy will be welcomed by users today. Collabright is like a big meeting room connecting people beyond four walls.” he said.

Greenpacket unveils PANInfrastructure

STME bought by Saudi’s MICIndustrySystems integrator STME has been acquired by Saudi investment group MIC.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

STME was founded in 1982 and has a base of over 400 customers across the Middle East and Pakistan.

Salah Abu Shaar, who has been appointed as new CEO of STME commented: “The acquisition will strengthen STME’s position in the regional IT sector as we can eff ectively leverage advanced, well- established and industry-proofed solutions. Our role is to help businesses of all sizes to manage, store and protect data eff ectively and cost-effi ciently. We continually assess new technologies and bring them to the region to enhance our portfolio and off er our customers value added services.”

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Avaya has unveiled a new range of solutions which are tailored to meet the demands of modern unifi ed communication systems.

The new products are intended to deliver better performance for specifi c UC applications, with a ‘Fit for Purpose’ approach with systems designed for certain applications and business requirements.

Kevin Kennedy, president and CEO, Avaya commented: “The days of the ‘one size fi ts all’ network solutions are over. The Avaya Data Solutions business is positioned to play a critical role in Avaya’s growth as we lead the industry to ‘Fit for Purpose’ data and SIP-based communications technologies that will redefi ne the IT value proposition and off er the best

return on investment for business communications.”

The new solutions include Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 8800, which has been designed to help enterprise campuses and data centres to boost capacity to handle UC, wireless and virtualisation solutions; Avaya Wireless LAN 8100 Series 802.11n wireless solution to deliver UC applications to mobile users and the Avaya Advanced Gateway 2330, a fl exible SIP gateway to provide voice services for branch locations.

Avaya also launched the Avaya Unifi ed Communications Management (UCM), Confi guration and Orchestration Manager (COM), a high-density, high-performance and resilient network management application

that is part of the Unifi ed Communications Management (UCM) solution that can more eff ectively manage multi-user confi guration, provisioning and troubleshooting for a wide range of enterprise technologies.

Joel Hackney, president of Avaya Data Solutions said: “With the introduction of Avaya’s data solutions, we can help enterprises more easily adapt to business needs by delivering immediate and long term value. With solutions that provide seven times more resiliency, 20 times better performance, 40% more energy effi ciency and approximately 50% better total cost of ownership, customers can count on us to improve the value they derive from their technology investments.”

Avaya launches ‘fi t for purpose’ systemsSolutions

The new solutions are intended to meet the demands of specifi c applications and businesses, says Kennedy.

Aruba buys China’s Azalea IndustryAruba Networks has announced the acquisition of outdoor mesh network provider, Azalea Networks, for $40 million.

Aruba will pay stock and cash to gain Azalea’s expertise in mesh networks for vertical sectors with outdoor, industrial operations.

The deal will include Azalea’s operations centre in Beijing.

Azalea’s technology utilises mesh networks, where data packets hop wirelessly from radio to radio, to provide solutions tailored to industries including oil and gas, logistics, manufacturing, mining, petrochemical, public safety, smart grid, and transportation sectors.

Hitesh Sheth, COO of Aruba said: “This acquisition brings our customers and prospects innovative new solutions for real-time outdoor applications like video surveillance. Enterprises need a secure, reliable link between their assets and the people who use them, wherever they work or roam. Outdoor networks need to cope with a wide range of environmental factors, and this challenge is compounded when video and voice need to be sent over long distances in real-time. Azalea has made outdoor mesh work in industrial enterprise applications that cut across a wide range of vertical sectors.”

Azalea has developed mesh technology to handle video and voice with full fi delity over long distances. The company provided a network of 600 mesh nodes for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, enabling voice, video and wi-fi access over a 19 square mile area.

“Joining Aruba opens Azalea’s unique mesh solutions to a broad new set of markets that are underserved by traditional mesh vendors,” said Frank Wang, Azalea’s cofounder and Co-CEO. “It also provides continuity to our existing customers, who are assured of uninterrupted support from Aruba’s award-winning customer care. A tradition of innovation drives both Azalea and Aruba, and this is refl ected in the highly diff erentiated, customer-focused products we build. All of us at Azalea are delighted to be part of Aruba Networks.”

Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity & Water (MEW) has announced plans to switch its data centre Linux deployment, with a move from Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

MEW will migrate mission critical systems running its Automated Meter Infrastructure and Geographic Information System,

along with HR, business intelligence and CRM applications.

The utility, which serves more than 800,000 customers, cited the lower TCO of Red Hat, and its ability to keep infrastructure stable and secure and running to key service levels, as reasons for the switch.

Ali AlWazzan, undersecretary for IT at MEW said: “With Red Hat

Enterprise Linux, we’re off ered a valuable subscription model, a robust certifi ed ecosystem and high-performance technology to fi t our business needs. With a strong Red Hat Linux base, we will additionally be able to investigate future plans to utilize virtualization and cloud computing technologies in our IT infrastructure.”

Kuwait ministry switches to Red HatImplementation

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6 Extreme Networks has announced the introduction of 40 gigabit Ethernet (40 GbE) networking solutions to its infrastructure range.

The company has launched the VIM3-40G4X, an upgrade which will bring 40 GbE capability to its Summit range of stackable data centre switches.

The new introduction is intended to allow customers to access the emerging 40 GbE standard while maintaining their existing infrastructure. Extreme says 40 GbE serves as an aggregation technology, to allow for a smooth upgrade to the greatly increased demands of data centres server performance for virtualisation, storage and other high performance tasks.

The VIM3-40G4X will add four 40 GbE connections to Extreme’s Summit X650 Top-of-Rack stackable switches for $3,995, or less than $1,000 per port. The module will bring 40 GbE speeds to all of the features of the Extreme XOS operating system, including Layer 2/Layer 3 forwarding, redundancy and resiliency features such as EAPS.

Extreme gets 40 gigabit EthernetInfrastructure

Brocade focus on vertical sectorsIndustryBrocade is increasing its focus on key vertical sectors, with new dedicated channel programs for major sectors.

The new programs, open to all members of the Brocade Alliance Partner Network (APN), has been designed to help partners to better target major verticals, and to diff erentiate themselves in competitive markets.

The program, which targets verticals including healthcare, higher education, public sector and fi nancial markets, will included end-to-end marketing communications campaigns, special discounts and extended support from Brocade’s channel sales teams, and an incremental deal registration program that provides deal protection for projects that partners bring in.

Almost half of all companies are unable to innovate in IT because funding and resources is tied up in servicing legacy systems, according to new research carried out for HP.

The worldwide survey of 560 business and technology executives found that 46% of respondents said their organisations suff ered from ‘Innovation Gridlock’ – where the business in blocked from driving innovation as the majority of funding is consumed to maintain the existing infrastructure.

The companies surveyed on average spent just 30% of their budget on new initiatives, versus 40% on mission critical systems, 30% legacy systems. Half of respondents said that too much budget went to spending on maintain operations to prevent investment in IT innovation, although fears about the economy (53%) was an equally signifi cant factor in not investing.

Innovation gridlock cost almost all of those surveyed in terms of lost opportunities, lost time and lost eff ort from resources. In specifi c areas, 70% said gridlock stops them from investing in new technologies to meet changing business needs, 64% said it prevented them from creating fl exibility in operations, and 58% said it stops them from keeping up with competition. Just under half said that innovation gridlock also stops them from meeting

compliance and regulation requirement or generating rapid change to meet changing business needs.

John Hoonhout, managing director of HP Middle East said: “We sampled 560 executives globally, including some in the UAE, and the main fi nding is that companies are suff ering from something we have termed ‘innovation gridlock’, where IT organisations are struggling to introduce innovation, because the majority of their funding, and the majority of their resources are consumed by running their existing environment.

“Almost one in two respondents say that innovation gridlock is preventing them from keeping up with the competition, 95% of respondents said that it was causing lost opportunity. Innovation gridlock is real, and it is eff ecting a big proportion of the industry,” he added.

Hoonhout said that HP was looking to address the situation by giving organisations tools and services to create self-funded projects – essentially removing unnecessary costs or resource burdens from existing IT applications and infrastructure, and then using those cost savings to fund innovation projects, without the need to increase current IT budget.

“We can help the customer to look at the opportunities to improve their applications,

make their infrastructure more effi cient and focus on re-directing investment into innovation areas,” Hoonhout said.

To tackle innovation gridlock HP is off ering an Applications Modernisation Transformation Experience session, a hands-on service which will show customers how they can modernise, or replace their legacy applications to reduce complexity in their IT environments. HP is off ering the fi rst 25 customers who respond the chance to get this assessment for free, while other companies will also be able to access HP’s full services portfolio.

Also in services, HP has launched a new Cloud Service Automation software and services solution, which is intended to help clients to assess and plan how they can use public or private cloud computing for greater effi ciency.

HP is in the process of introducing fi nancial services for the Middle East region, which will provide HP Modernisation Funding Options, to help customers to fund investment in new technology.

The initiative also includes the launch of two new HP ProLiant servers, the DL360G7 and DL380G7, which have been designed to increase effi ciency and cut costs. HP is further improving server performance through improvements to its HP Insight Control server management software.

Innovation Gridlock cripples companiesIndustry

Companies are using budget just to maintain

legacy systems,leading to ‘Innovation Gridliock’ says HP.

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Celebrating

Years

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A Decade Of Success “Delivering Technology That Builds Business”

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Edito

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In this issue, you’ll fi nd full coverage of our NME Innovation Awards 2010. In the process of compiling the nominations for the awards, one thing stood out for me - while the region still has some high profi le greenfi eld deployments, after 18 months of

recession, almost every project nomination highlighted the value of their IT systems to the organisation, in terms of productivity gains, new revenue generating services or cutting costs.

It is the same story with the vendors - almost every message now is around value, whether it’s a major server vendor, a specialist consultant or a cabling manufacturer, everyone is really talking about solutions which off er real business value or help to manage costs.

There may be some vendors who haven’t adjusted their licencing schemes or that want to sell an entire new infrastructure when an upgrade will do, but the most interesting stories of the past twelve months, for me, are those where end user

organisations have worked in partnership with vendors and systems integrators to get the most out of what they have, or to align a new project with the most pressing needs of their business.

Spending trends have aff ected product development too. Vendors are creating solutions that off er better power management, more automation, better bandwidth usage, or off ering add-on services and fi nancing options to their customers. Channel partners are looking at new models of delivery for

services, such as cloud computing.For IT managers and CIOs, these off erings

are helping them to deliver the systems to deliver best practice and meet business needs, without breaking the bank. It is this sort of value and contribution to their organisations, and to the industry as a whole, that we aimed to recognize with the awards, and I believe that our winners, both for the projects and the vendors, represent those that have achieved this the best.

I’d also like to use this space to announce that Network Middle East magazine has a new editor, Imthishan Giado, who takes on the role from June, I’d like wish him well with the new position.

Mark Sutton Group Editor, ITP Technology

Proving valueNME Awards winners represent the best

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CIOs must deliver systems to meet business needs, without breaking the bank

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Peter Job, CEO of Intergence Systems explains how the company is helping companies in the region to get the most from their existing infrastructure

Optimal Performance

NME: Intergence have made some in-roads into the region, what is next from you?Peter Job (PJ): This year is an exciting year for us, we have got good growth in the business, there are new products coming out through to October and beyond, and there are lots of other products in the pipeline as well as around cloud computing. We are seeing 2010 as pretty positive, despite some of the gloomy predictions.

We are building our own product, that we are launching at Gitex. That has been a two and a half, three year development program. The reason we have done it is because as we were going out, talking to clients about optimizing their infrastructure, we were using our own tools and processes to do that, using best of breed tools, and there were some gaps, where we couldn’t really do the job as well as we wanted to, so we were having to do a lot of manual work. Essentially what this does is automates the whole process of optimizing your infrastructure. It covers networks, data centres, security, it allows you to see the whole infrastructure in one place in real time. That will have a green part

to it, if you have things like CPU usage, areas where you might have overlaid applications that are running across the network ineffi ciently, or if you have bandwidth constraints, which we tend to see across the region, then this will enable you to plan eff ectively and troubleshoot.

NME: Will this new product be standalone software, or appliance based?PJ: It is appliance based, the research we have done with our clients is that they tend to prefer an appliance. As we move through the cycle, it may well be that people want some fl exibility to be able to procure some of the services across the internet, or just download it, but certainly at the moment our view is that customers want an appliance, they want to be able to see it in their data centre, and they want to be able to manage it from that central appliance.

NME: How will you take that to market?PJ: We are going to be using a number of indirect channels, obviously we have a lot of expertise ourselves, so we will be one of the channels to market.

We have ten development partners already, two of which are based in the Middle East, so our commitment to the Middle East is pretty large. The great thing about the product is that it covers any sector, public, private, any types of business that has a reasonable sized IT estate, between 1,500 nodes upwards, that has an expanding infrastructure, across multiple sites as well.

NME: What resources are you putting in to serve the Middle East?PJ: We are up to 14 of us now, a reasonable sized business. We like to think that had the downturn not been quite as severe, we would have been 20 plus now, but we are still quite pleased with the way things are going. We complement that with local people based here, and also we have specifi c resources that we can get from other parts of the region or the UK.

NME: Are you gaining local customers, or is it still mainly international companies with branches here?PJ: We have been quite pleasantly surprised. We have got the usual suspects, the big

global players, including BT, Cable & Wireless, Reuters, Vodafone, but we have also a number of local organizations that we have signed up.

NME: Is it still typically big companies looking at region or international connection?PJ: They are mainly UAE based, mixed with the more international ones.

NME: Does that make a diff erence to what you do for them?PJ: I think that the problems that all of the clients have, whether they are based in Europe, or here, are quite similar, there’s not an awful lot of diff erence. They are still looking at things like skill shortages, still looking at areas around data centres, networks and security. Those are the areas where people tell us they are struggling to get good solutions. The optimisation products we have seem to be quite unique, there are lots of traditional systems integrators that would probably do an infrastructure build, but when it comes to actually tuning an existing infrastructure, that is where you start to have to have real specialist expertise.

Fine tuning an existing infrastructure is more technically demanding than a new data centre build out, says Job.

14 June 2010 Vol.16 No.6

That expertise can only really come from working in some really exacting environments, whether they be big international service providers like BT or Cable & Wireless, or the big banks, they really want quite stringent processes and procedures in place.

NME: Is Intergence mainly involved in existing sites, or are you working on new deployments too – and would you have been able to grow the business if companies weren’t having to make the most of existing IT due to budget constraints?PJ: Even in those areas where there has historically been money to spend, such as new data centre builds, there is still a requirement for the type of services we off er. One particular example is voice readiness assessments, people looking to put in new converged networks. The problem is, even if you go into a new site, very often actually having the know-how to work out if you are going to get good quality voice across your new infrastructure is actually quite diffi cult to work out.

NME: Do you face particular challenges with regional customers?PJ: I think bandwidth is probably number one, followed closely by process. There have been some good moves afoot in the last couple of years to improve good IT process, we are starting to hear more people talk about ITIL, eTOM from a service provider perspective, but I think there is a lot more to do on that, and it is

having the expertise of people who have worked in those rigorous environments and are comfortable doing that. Because the region is still very much maturing, some of the resources don’t have that expertise or skills, and that is really where we can add a lot of value in terms not just of the technology, but the processes around best practice and how you implement that technology.

NME: Are you providing knowledge transfer to your customers or do you go in, optimise, and then leave them to it?PJ: Knowledge transfer is something which we are very keen on, in terms of how we add value to our clients. Most of our engagements, we don’t want to be saying ‘thanks very much’ and that’s the end of the engagement, we want to be explaining to people how they can get ongoing value from the money they have already invested with us. We had one example recently where a customer was really struggling with his bandwidth, and it turned out that when we went in and put our particular tools and processes into place, the real problem was the number of clients using Facebook, which was slowing down the application. We explained that we could put processes in place that only allowed access at certain times

of day, so it doesn’t then impact the own business. We have shown them how they can keep that up-to-date in terms of only allowing access at certain times.

NME: Are you fi nding people in the Middle East to help build your local skills base?PJ: We are fi nding some good people, but it is a struggle, but that is also the case in Europe, it is no easier. If you look at the bench mark we are setting, it is usually ten to fi fteen years experience of designing and building big infrastructure projects. Those sorts of people are diffi cult to fi nd anywhere. One of the things we are looking at is what can we do with Emiratisation, we are looking

at the moment to see where that could be used with the product we are developing in the UK.

NME: You mentioned the ‘green’ impact of your services, is that in demand here?PJ: It is probably early days here, there is a green awareness, but one of the diff erences in the drivers between here and Europe is that the costing structures around energy consumption are somewhat diff erent here. The drivers in Europe are much

stronger, although I think you will tend to see that same drive for green process change will start to happen here. Wherever you are in the world, there is a move to more eff ective energy consumption. That will be driven by cost. We are looking at some fairly smart green metering solutions, which will integrate into the new product, to give you real time power output monitoring.

NME: Are customers looking to get their infrastructure to certain compliance standards themselves, or do you have to lead them to standards?PJ: Just taking data centre standards, I think lots of people

are aware of the tiering standards in data centres, what we tend to fi nd is somebody here will say they need a tier 3 or tier 4 data centre, but if you were to compare them to European standards, they still have got a way to go, and that is where we can bring our own expertise, and really get them up to the next level. I think there is a willingness to get there, and an awareness of the standards, but it’s not always completely clear how those standards will be implemented.

Having the know-how to work out if you are going to get good quality voice across your new infrastructure is actually quite diffi cult to work out

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Companies looking to virtualisation need to consider the security angle, Trevor Dearing, EMEA Network Strategist, Juniper Networks, tells NME.

Securing the virtualised environment

NME: The industry has been very keen to promote virtualisation, but you have been speaking about some of the security concerns – what are those?Trevor Dearing: The cost benefi ts of virtualising servers is fairly obvious and people are becoming very enthusiastic about that, but some of the challenges are the eff ect that then has on everything else that you do. Historically, when you created a security policy you would deploy a fi rewall, and control the fl ow from this IP address which is that physical device to this IP address which is that user on that physical device. In the virtual space, that goes away and that IP address can be move around, it can appear and disappear; the applications can move, the users can move, things like this.

The result of that is you have to do things diff erently with your security; you have to virtualise the security, and you have to almost turn security into a service. You have to manage fl ows of data, protect the application, you have to protect the virtual machines,

the hypervisor and things like that and you have to automate the process. So the thrust or the message to the CIO is really before you go rushing down the track of virtualisation, make sure you take the security with you. If you don’t, you could end up in some real problems. The same is true of the physical network infrastructures as well, because if you don’t apply a level of virtualisation to that you end up with just a big mess that’s unmanageable.

You need to simplify the hardware as much as possible and make a lot of it more software controlled, so eventually, what you actually want is just a completely simple fl at network infrastructure that you can then lay over the top of that, virtual fl ows based on applications and where users are and things like this.

NME: Is Juniper helping companies to realise that?TD: We are making some very powerful hardware that can be virtualised to a huge extent from both security aspects and the network aspect. Also what we have done is open up our

operating system to third party developers and we have done that at several levels, it’s either directly on the box, either directly on the client side and also Web 2.0 interface platform, That means that companies can develop automation software, they can develop provisioning software, they can develop all sorts of applications to make the whole thing work better together. The result of all of this is that all those things that we are doing are driving support for virtualisation, and ultimately cloud.

NME: Have companies already made the mistakes of virtualisation or is it a realisation that there could be problems in future?TD: There is a bit of both. People claim that 30% of all new servers are virtualised - I would have thought it would be more than that. To a certain extent I think people have done it in a low risk environment so far, and I think they have done it in a very quite a simplistic way and they have hand cranked a lot of the security stuff .The scalability will grow and

also there is the internal issue if you are virtualising everything, of who owns the storage, who owns the application, who owns the servers? Is it the people that own the server own the virtual machine?

The other part that’s next to that is the cloud is a virtual world and there have been some issues, where people have put information into the cloud and the provider they have done it with has gone broke. There is the whole responsibility and the compliance issues around who owns the data, where is the data, how you control it, those things that are going to be important.

Hopefully we are early enough in the cycle that people will worry about security, over the last six months I have seen it move up the scale of people’s concerns.

NME: Are you seeing a diff erence between Europe and Middle East, Africa on that awareness?TD: There is very little diff erence between various parts across the whole Europe, Middle East, Africa region. My personal view

Protecting a virtualised environment requires security to be virtualised too, says Dearing.

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would be that Middle East may be actually a bit ahead because there is not so much legacy infrastructure. We are having the same conversations with CIOs here as we have the CIO as anywhere else.

NME: Are the CIOs in the region listening to the message?TD: A lot of CIOs we talk to here are much more hands-on and technically aware of all the issues probably more so than in some of the bigger, multinational organisations, and obviously it is an issue that people are aware of and are concerned about.

NME: And what sort of questions are CIOs asking you about this topic?TD: A lot of the questions are about what other people are doing, what skills do I need, and how easy is this to do. It’s very easy to do virtualisation of a server, but the other thing they are interested in, is moving to virtualisation in the network, and whether security will cost more than what they are doing in network and security now. The reality is that the benefi ts of virtualising security in the network are the same as the benefi ts of virtualising a server. You end up with less devices to manage, so you are taking cost out the network.

NME: We are seeing a few hosted service providers

coming through in this region, what does the CIO or IT manager need to be doing to prepare their infrastructure to work with a third party like that?TD: It depends on what sort of service, whether it’s hosted, whether it’s co-lo, whether it’s software as a service, application as a service, platform as a service. If it’s purely hosting where you are using the space, you are extending your domain space into someone else’s building then it’s very easy, you just put your stuff and your policy on that. If they are providing an application, so platform as a service and also you are taking maybe storage, like the Amazon model, then to a certain extent you have the capability to extend your security policy across to them. If you are almost taking it as a piece of wire, the processing is done by someone else, you require a stringent security policy.

The challenge with that is historically you would have sort of one point in, one point out of your network and you would stick a fi rewall and intrusion prevention there and away you go. But because the newer model is to the multiple access points to that it means you have to distribute that intelligence around a lot more,

which sort of means you need to have more intrusion prevention, more powerful fi rewalls and data leakage protection and all of these sort of software-driven type things. You need to have and manage a consistent policy across that, which might have a cost implication there.

Also, while you can outsource

your processing, you can’t outsource your risk, the risk is still yours and you’ve got to guard against that, so you do have to be careful what information you are letting out.

NME: In terms of the next trends of virtualization and securing that, how are you aligning to take companies to massive use of the cloud and the more extreme ends of things?TD: I think the key thing is we are providing security and infrastructure. Whatever you are doing, there are three things you need to know: you need to know the identity of the user, the location of the user and

the application, and as long as you can identify those things it becomes easy to defi ne policy. Execution and enforcement of security will happen in more points, so every device will need to be secure, everything will need to be much more tied to tracking the identity of the applications and the users.

The collation of all that information into some sort of automation process is going to be the key, so, again, we are opening up our operating system for third party development, which will just accelerate the capability to do that. We are doing that not only with our enterprise Ethernet switching but also within the service provider. Technically you could defi ne a policy that goes right across the service provider network as well. I think it will just become a lot more automated so that ultimately whatever device you pick up, wherever you are you have got that secure, reliable access.

A lot of CIOs we talk to here are much more hands-on and technically aware of all the issues, probably more so than in some of the bigger multinationals. IT is an issue that people are aware of.

www.f5.com/about/contact

Contact information for F5:

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The winning line upThe 2010 Network Middle East Innovation awards brought together some of the leading players in the region’s ICT infrastructure sector to honour the innovation, technological leadership and commitment to the highest of standards in projects and solutions across the region

This year marked the sixth year of the Network Middle East Innovation awards, held to recognize the very best in the network and IT infrastructure sector in the region, and once again, the standards of entrants was very high, refl ecting the expertise of the region to deliver world class projects, even in tough economic conditions.

Seventeen awards, were presented, split between project awards, for the best deployments in the region; product awards, for the best vendor off erings available in the Middle East; awards for networking channel

players, individual awards for the best networking professional in the region, and the overall best networking vendor in the region.

In a close decision, HP was selected as the Networking Vendor of the Year, while Basj Wijne of OSN won the Networking Professional of the Year.

An honourable mention also goes to the Department of Finance, Abu Dhabi Government, which won the award for Best Data Centre Deployment, with its project to deliver a high level, multi vendor project to create the infrastructure to store and protect critical data.

June 2010 Vol.16 No.6 21

Best

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rWinner: Yas Marina CircuitNokia Siemens Networks was responsible for implementing this wireless network, to connect 15 sites across Abu Dhabi’s new F1 circuit, completing the project in a very short time frame, to deliver connectivity across the whole of the circuit. NSN worked closely with telecoms operator du to connect the island circuit to du’s countrywide network.

Pictured: Kalle Autto, KT Head, du, Khaled W. Saif, Senior manager IBS Implementation technology, du.

Winner: ITE DistributionThis Cyberoam appliance deployment helped ITE Distribution tackle the challenges of managing remote offi ces and mobile users, cutting spam, boosting network security and improving corporate policy enforcement all while simplifying its security infrastructure at its Jebel Ali HQ and other UAE sites.

Pictured: Surender Kumar Bishnoi, regional manager - sales, ME, Cyberoam.

Winner: Roads & Transport Authority The Government of Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority took home this award, for their new headquarters project, which included taking an existing multi-tennant premises, and creating a large-scale structured cabling network, active network implementation, wireless and voice services, all executed with strong eye for process and procedure.

Pictured: Abdulla Ali Abdul Razak Al Madani, CEO corporate technical support services and the RTA team.

Winner: Bas Wijne, Orbit Showtime NetworkThe winner of this award showed both a good range of technical skills and strategic ability to steer the IT side of the merger of Orbit and Showtime, with the seamless migration of both customer databases, customer services centres and back office operation, without losing customer focus.

Pictured: Bas Wijne, director of information services, OSN

Deployment Awards

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Winner: Alcatel-LucentAlcatel-Lucent impressed with its wide range of solutions and its strong pedigree in the sector, along with its commitment to technological innovation and R&D at the highest end of the spectrum, and its impressive green credentials. The company also showed growing market and customer traction in the Middle East, and strategic channel development.

Pictured: Baher Ezzat, head of account sales, Alcatel Lucent

Winner: EMCEMC won the award for storage solution range, in recognition of its continued dominance in the storage sector, with depth of range, excellent technological innovation, commitment to industry initiatives, diversity of portfolio and a customer list that represents some of the biggest names in the Middle East across many diff erent sectors.

Pictured: Said Akar, district manager - South Gulf, EMC

Winner: Meru Networks Meru Networks took the award for best wireless solutions range, for showing consistent technology leadership in key areas like 802.11n and virtualisation, along with a comprehensive range of solutions and strong placing in key market analytics.

Pictured: Zakir Lokare, regional sales director, ME and Africa, Meru Networks

Winner: LevitonIn a close field, Leviton stood out with a very broad range of copper, fibre and power solutions, and a strong commitment to technology innovation, holding a number of patents in emerging product segments. The company also shone through with strong local customer testimonials, proving its dedication to meeting customer needs.

Pictured: Arafat Hasan, Area Sales Manager, Leviton ME

Company Awards

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geWinner: Avaya Avaya won out in a close decision, with the award presented based on the strength of product portfolio, including the recent acquisition of Nortel EBS, diversity of range and vertical expertise. Avaya was also notable for its strength of operations and customer base in the region.

Pictured: Roger El Tawil, managing director for the Gulf and Pakistan, Avaya

Winner: Kaspersky LabKaspersky Lab won the award for best security application range, based on its range of end point protection and wide range of platform compatibility, along with its targeted business solutions to provide protection for specific components of a network.

Pictured: Tarek Kuzbari, managing director, Kaspersky Lab Middle East

Winner: Cisco Systems In another closely contest sector, Cisco’s market leadership and comprehensive portfolio of solutions, particularly in secure borderless network architecture, saw the company take home the trophy. Cisco also stood out for proven leadership in key market analytic matrices.

Pictured: Rabih Dabboussi, systems engineering director, Cisco Systems

Winner: CyberoamWith a strong, innovative product range, highly rated by analysts for vision, and a diverse Middle East customer base across a range of segments, the award for best security appliance range went to Cyberoam, making a double win for the company in this year’s awards.

Pictured: Surender Kumar Bishnoi, regional manager - sales, ME, Cyberoam

Company Awards

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rWinner: SymantecSymantec’s strong presence in key verticals such as finance, along with comprehensive integration across different network functions to manage business critical data gained it the award for best network and data management solutions range. The company’s proven ability to support business critical infrastructures also counted in its favour.

Pictured: Peter Rae, corporate communications manager, Symantec

Winner: Westcon Middle EastWestcon took the award for best networking distributor in the Middle East, based on its focus on understanding and serving the needs of the fi nal end customer, alongside the breadth of its services and solutions to support its partners and a broad portfolio of industry leading vendors.

Pictured: Venu Menon, sales and marketing director, WestconME

Winner: Alpha Data Alpha Data clinched the trophy, based on the strength and depth of its expertise, particularly in diverse vertical segments, involvement in many top level deployments across the Middle East, and its commitment to delivering new services to its customers across the region.

Pictured: Michel F. Harb, business development manager airport systems, Sandeep Nair, networks and telecom sales manager - hospitality, Alpha Data

Winner: HP NetworkingHP has already made its mark in the networking environment, but with an expanded product range, a growing customer base and strong roadmap for innovative, cost effective technology, not to mention a major merger under its belt, this vendor stood out as the best networking vendor in the region.

Pictured: : Gautham Raj, sales manager ME and Africa,HP Networking

Company Awards

I spy IP surveillance

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The switch from analogue surveillance systems to IP-based systems has brought new capabilities to the IT organisation, but IT managers need to understand the requirements of this technology too, writes Piers Ford.

The Middle East’s IP surveillance market is booming as businesses rush to take advantage of evolving compression standards that allow them to operate HDTV-based technology across their networks eff ectively for the fi rst time.

One of the region’s main players, Sony Professional Solutions, predicts the Gulf market will break the $100 million barrier by the end of the year.

Projects like Aqaba Logistics Village’s recent investment in an IndigoVision HD IP solution to protect its tax-free hub in Jordan are leading the way as organisations exploit the distributed architectures, ease of integration and scalability of a

new generation of IP surveillance platforms.

But all this good news for the security manager poses a challenge for network professionals who must accommodate the extra data streams that are heading rapidly for their infrastructures. Many industry watchers say the time has come to let the network manager in on the act as far as commissioning surveillance systems is concerned – and for network managers to ease up on their reluctance to get involved.

“Historically, network managers have been typically reluctant to allow video onto their networks,” says Peter Stanton, CCTV specialist

at security product vendor ADT.“This is born out of a huge void

in the embryonic stages of IP CCTV between the bandwidth required and the expectations of available resource from the organisation’s network manager. In recent years, the introduction of new, more effi cient coding technologies such as H.264, have put this issue to bed, as higher quality video is now achievable with a minimum of bandwidth.”

Stanton says working closely with the network manager on surveillance system projects is essential. Whether to operate the system across the corporate network or give it its own private network, how the data is

transported and which network switches are implemented, are all issues central to understanding which infrastructure will suit the network and maximise the performance of the proposed system.

“The input of the network manager in the whole process, from design to implementation, is absolutely paramount, as it makes for smoother installation and commissioning, and ensures that they are comfortable with the proposed system,” he says.

But as responsibility for the surveillance network shifts into the network manager’s territory, it brings with it a host of additional responsibilities. Brian Sims,

June 2010 Vol.16 No.6 29

were concerns around security and quality of service. But over time, the technology has proved itself and integrators and end-users have been widely specifying IP solutions for a number of years.”

And as ADT’s Stanton explains, most modern IP video products implement functionality like SNMP that is comfortingly familiar to network managers. This brings additional benefi ts for them, as well as the business.

“Dispersed analogue CCTV systems could go for months without operating correctly, either by unwitting or deliberate actions, until an incident occurs and the user discovers their site is unprotected,” he says.

“This simply isn’t the case with IP CCTV: it is just another device on a network managed almost identically to their other servers and devices. Centralising control and administration of dispersed CCTV systems can also realise resource savings.

“Capital investment may be reduced where the IP system can provide economise at the initial deployment in reduced cabling, and where Power over Ethernet reduces the need for bespoke CCTV power supplies. At a system level, eff ectiveness can be measured by improvements in overall system up-time and more eff ective use and control of the images being captured.”

Takashi Miura, general manager, Sony Professional Solutions MEA FZ LCC, points out that by integrating IP video surveillance with the network, it becomes much easier to monitor or automate functions from any access point, increasing effi ciency for multi-site businesses which might have thousands of cameras

an international surveillance technology expert and editor of the journal, Security Management Today, says the $64,000 question is, how can security professionals ensure that IT practitioners’ concerns are also addressed when positioning IP video surveillance solutions?

“Capacity and storage are probably the two major concerns of the network manager,” he says. “How will they deal with increased data over their network? What are the storage implications of video and audio created by surveillance systems? And without doubt, there will be network security questions surrounding the transmission and storage of IP video images on the corporate network, and to remote sites.

Sims says compression technology should reassure resistant network managers, simply because they allow such a signifi cant reduction in fi le and data stream size, and video fi les can now be shared across the network without impacting on capacity or compromising image quality. The latest standard - H.264 - can reduce bandwidth and storage requirements by up to 80% compared with Motion JPEG format, and up to 50% compared with MPEG-4.

“When calculating bandwidth and storage requirements, it’s important to consider the number of cameras, the number of hours recording per day, the length of time the data must be stored and whether triggered events, for instance, using built-in motion detection only or continual recording is required,” he says, adding that there are plenty of readily available and easy-to-use tools that take all of these parameters into account.

“When it comes to putting network managers’ minds at rest, you can liken network video to VoIP,” says Sims. “Initially, there

and a software-supported monitoring process.

“Top of the line IP cameras are equipped with innovative features and functions like intelligent motion and object detection,” he says. “This opens up a new world of capabilities where these functions can combine video analytical software to the degree of sophisticated algorithms, with computers that can read video

output and automatically send alerts when abnormal behaviour is detected.

“With these features, IP systems can enable you to run business intelligence applications, including functions like measurement of customer traffi c or analysis of customer behaviour.”

One potential hurdle for incumbent network managers, however, could be back-engineering their infrastructure to meet the IP standards required for state of the art surveillance. Ironically, it is probably less costly – and certainly less complicated

- to start from scratch in new facilities. According to Miura, the reduced cost-of-ownership benefi ts of IP-based surveillance could eventually pay off the initial investment.

“Other cost eff ective advantages of IP systems are their ability to work on the same, standard IT infrastructure as the rest of the company,” he says. “There is no need for closed circuit systems

or additional appliances because cameras running IP over Ethernet have data and power going through the same Ethernet cable.

“One of the biggest advantages of IP systems are their diverse connectivity and the possibility to run on cost eff ective hybrid solutions, thus allowing you to keep various parts of your original analogue equipment and include them in your new IP-based system,” he continues.

“This allows the servers to record and integrate a wide range of camera formats, from modern IP and megapixel cameras to more

IP surveillance systems make better use of bandwidth than earlier generations, says Stanton, but network managers must still be involved in their design.

One of the biggest advantages of IP systems are their diverse connectivity and the possibility to run on cost eff ective hybrid solutions, allowing you to keep original analogue equipment.

30 June 2010 Vol.16 No.6

traditional analogue cameras. With a slightly bigger budget, intelligent encoders could be added which would convert the analogue picture into a digital signal, allowing you to record on higher frame rates as well as update your current system with functions of intelligent video analysis.”

Brian Sims says the strategic deployment of encoders can often enable a more cost eff ective hybrid solution than the wholesale investment in a new Ethernet infrastructure just to accommodate IP surveillance – a hard sell to the CFO in more austere times.

“It isn’t always necessary to install a whole new surveillance system if the end-user wants to make the move to IP,” he says.

“In many instances, the introduction of an encoder – either per camera channel or as a server rack solution – can create what is referred to as a hybrid system, making use of the existing analogue investment while reaping the many benefi ts of network-based video. Such an encoder solution can be located either at the edge of the surveillance network close to the camera, or centrally, in a monitoring or recording location.”

Sony’s Miura says this hybrid approach is currently “the industry’s best kept secret” but it is surely the answer to any corporate reluctance to commit to an investment in an IP network where the necessary IT infrastructure isn’t

already in place.According to Sims, vendors are

clearly striving to provide strong integration capability, linking low-end access control software with entry level digital video recorders to give end users ‘one seat’ control of their specifi ed access and CCTV systems.

“Integrating two or more security systems across the IP network provides the end-user with far greater benefi ts than could be achieved from the individual, standalone system,” he says. “Add this to the already long list of advantages a distributed IP video system delivers and the end result is a very compelling argument for integration.

“The ability to pass alarms and events between each system across the network is the key to the power of integration. Any alarm in one system can trigger a number of events in another.”

Network managers could fi nd that by embracing IP surveillance, they are able to extend their infl uence into unexpected new strategic areas of the business. The technology can be used for much more than managing CCTV cameras, particularly in the retail sector, for example, where monitoring footfall and ensuring suffi cient staff are on duty are so important.

Ultimately, Sims suggests, the march of IP surveillance will echo the progress of IP telephony. “IP-based telephony solutions are now commonly at home and in

Storage for IP-based surveillance brings its own challenges to the network manager, both in terms of the sheer volumes of data that need to be stored, and other factors beside.

“IP based systems have enabled many complementary technologies within the surveillance system like software aided recording and analysis of high resolution images, networking systems to more effi ciently mirror and archive, or burgeoning technologies such as smart sensors and biometrics. Such advanced systems require higher capacity storage, high performing recording, faster archive and retrieval thus automatically increasing demand for high performance, reliable hard drives,” says Khwaja Saifuddin Ahmad, director of sales for Middle East, Africa & South Asia, Western Digital.

“When we are talking about 24X 7 applications like video surveillance in environments like banking, retail, commercial, corporate, government, or law enforcement, these environments require demanding features which include universal compatibility, low power consumption, high reliability and the ability to simultaneously record multiple audio and/or high-defi nition video streams,” he adds.

The company has developed a dedicated range of storage solutions for digital video surveillance that takes these operational factors into account, Ahmad expains, with features such as the fi rst 2TB drive which enables surveillance systems with two or more cameras to record high levels of clarity, up to 30 frames per second, at a broad range of resolution settings, while enabling storage of up to 30 days or more of video footage.

Drives need to be able to handle up to 10 simultaneous audio-video streams for multiple cameras. Environment also plays a factor in drive design, with some drives needing to function in environments with lots of vibration in some cases, or in environments that require quieter operations.

The drive range also features reduced power consumption, through WD GreenPower Technology, for more cost eff ective operations, and a one million hours Mean Time To Failure (MTTF), which the company says is a 60% improvement over standard desktop drives.

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the workplace,” he says. “This is primarily a result of Network and IT managers understanding the benefi ts of the technology and how it can be easily and securely managed.

“At the end of the day, video and voice is just data running over a data network. I suspect it will only be a matter of time before IP surveillance becomes commonplace.”

Hybrid systems can prove cost eff ective for companies with existing analogue recording set ups, says Sims.

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Best Wireless Implementation Yas Marina Circuit du network, implemented by Nokia Siemens Networks

Best Fixed Network Implementation Roads & Transport Authority

Best Data Centre/Storage Deployment Department of Finance, Abu Dhabi Government

Best Security Implementation ITE Distribution, Cyberoam appliance deployment

Best Fixed Networking Solution Range Alcatel-Lucent

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Best Storage Solution Range EMC

Best Cabling Solution Range Leviton

Best Enterprise Telephony Range Avaya

Best Data Centre Security Range Cisco Systems

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Retailer Jacky’s Electronics has deployed SonicWall’s unified threat management (UTM) solutions to improve connectivity and bandwidth usage to its stores and warehouses in the UAE.

The company has installed a SonicWall NSA 4500 appliance at its head office, with TZ180 appliances at 12 retail stores and several warehouses across the country, to optimize performance and security, and control usage of bandwidth at remote sites.

The company reports that it saw immediate ROI from the UTM deployment.

“In the first year of operation, SonicWALL’s solution gained us an ROI of 15%, if the initial outlay is considered. Looking at the long term, the solution will offer an ROI of approximately 60% on savings experienced from the cost of data lines alone,” said Ashish Panjabi, chief operating officer of Jacky’s Electronics.

The project was initiated with a prototype network environment installed at the company’s Sharjah City Centre outlet, which mirrored Jacky’s infrastructure. The proof of concept showed a high degree of bandwidth optimization with minimal disruption, leading to live roll

outs, beginning with smaller stores before progressing to major retail outlets.

Jacky’s also said that it has been able to use the SonicWall application firewall to develop usage policies, to block inappropriate sites, which resulted in better use of bandwidth and less virus and malware intrusion.

“We look forward to developing a stronger relationship with Jacky’s, which is one of the leading visionary retail companies in the region,” said Shahnawaz Sheikh, SonicWall regional sales manager for MEA.

Jacky's deploys SonicWall UTM

Bosch Security Systems has a launched a new web site to help companies manage compatibility of IP video security systems.

The IP Video Compatibility Zone details a wide range of IP video devices, firmware versions and features supported by a variety of software offerings from Bosch and third party suppliers, to enable companies to create best of breed IP security systems, along with planning tools.

"Seamless integration is just one step in Bosch’s efforts to advance the science of surveillance, which focuses on image usability,” said Dieter Jöcker, senior product manager for IP products, Bosch Security Systems.

Bosch aids IP security

Jacky's saw improvements in bandwidth usage and policy implementation following the roll out, said Panjabi.

Companies not taking care of old data Organisations in the Middle East are not taking enough care to protect their data at the end of the hardware lifecycle, according to data erasure specialist Blancco.

The Finnish company says that many organisations in the region are disposing of old hardware, without ensuring that data is properly wiped from drives.

Sami Saarinen, regional sales manager for the Middle East said: "Companies spend an amazing amount of money on AV, firewalls, encryption and so on, but at the end of the lifecycle, they are really giving a computer full of data to someone - all their investment in IT

security is useless. It happens due to ignorance."

Saarinen says that Blancco is looking to educate regional organisations about its data erasure software, which can provides certifiable erasure of data from IT assets at end of lifecycle, or when assets are being reassigned within an organisation.

Blancco's solutions are in use with many government organisations around the world, including NATO, US Department of Defense, National Security Testing Lab and meets military and intelligence grade standards, along with standards from programs including

Japan's Refurbished Information Technology Equipment Association (REUSE).

The software scales up to data centre level, and is capable of handling multiple drives of all types. The company also has a solution for mobile phones.

The software creates detailed, authenticated reports to prove erasue of data, a requirement that is being added to several compliance standards, Saarinen said.

Blanco is looking to raise awareness of the issue in the region, and to possible partnerships with IT Asset Disposal (ITAD) companies and reseller in the region.

STC secures mobilesSaudi Telecom Company has done a deal with Kaspersky Lab to provide security services to its mobile phone subscribers.

The agreement, which has the potential to reach millions of subscribers in the Kingdom, will offer customers a fully Arabised version of Kaspersky Mobile Security (KMS). The service will be offered as a monthly subscription for SR 12 ($3).

Kaspersky Lab's Saudi partners iAxcess and NOMD are in charge of the implementation process and will also handle technical support enquiries from customers.

"In response to the rapid growth in subscriber services and the increasing popularity of mobile-based Internet, as well as the ever-increasing range of sophisticated mobile devices for transferring data, STC has made security and convenient subscriber services a priority addressing a growing need in an environment where data communication is becoming the core of most customers' transactions," said Abdulla Al Kanhal, service development director at STC.

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ESET buys COMDOMSecurity solution provider ESET has increased its anti-spam capabilities, with the acquisition of anti-spam specialist COMDOM Software.

ESET will add the expertise of Slovak company COMDOM to its existing range of anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-spam and personal firewall solutions.

Miroslav Trnka, ESET CEO "ESET is a research and development-oriented company that is going to benefit from this merger by tapping into the potential of this manufacturer of advanced anti-spam solutions. Building on the team of skilled programmers and researchers, we envision introducing new activities, along with injecting new potential into the development of security software.“

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition is ESET’s second in recent years, following the purchase of Czech-based information security services company Setrnet.

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), the first Islamic bank in Qatar, has qualified for ISO 27001:2005 certification relating to its electronic banking.

Salah Jaidah, CEO of QIB said that the ISO standard was a logical step to build on three years of investment by QIB in new banking systems and technology.

“Receiving this ISO certification ensures that the development of QIB’s banking techniques and constant upgradation of information technology, which is the backbone of the bank’s services and administration, becomes our strategic priority," said Jaidah.

QIB worked with strategic security partner, Paramount Computer Systems to conduct a

detailed risk assessment before ISO testing, with elements such as intrusion testing and simulated hacking attempts, and studies of how employees across differenent sites had access to physical locations such as the main IT centre and back up locations, as well as access to core systems. Paramount then developed and enhanced the bank's policies and procedures to improve security.

Hammad Al Zamli, assistant general manager, Operations and IT group commented, “The ISO 27001 certification is the result of establishing the Information Systems and Technology Center in 2008, which is equipped with all high-end technical specifications

such as operating systems, surveillance systems, security and protection systems. All this provides high performance and capabilities with non-stop, continuous operations”.

The bank was awarded the certification after assessment by TUV, which examined standards, procedures and compliance.

Premchand Kurup, CEO Paramount Computer Systems said: “The ISO 27001 certification assures QIB’s customers, associates and stakeholders that it now owns very high-end technical systems and an excellent IT environment that provides the highest level of banking information security as well as enhanced banking services."

QIB gets ISO for electronic banking

Symantec is buying out VeriSign's security business for about $1.28 billion in a deal that's expected to close this September.

The acquisition will see Symantec take over the division of VeriSign that sells security technology to websites including the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate Services, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Services, VeriSign Trust Services and VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) Authentication Service.

Symantec's security solutions protect more than one billion systems around the world

and the VeriSign deal will see them helping companies incorporate identity security into their framework so that new computing models such as cloud computing, social networking and mobile computing can be adopted securely.

"With the combined products and reach from Symantec and VeriSign, we are poised to drive the adoption of identity security as the means to provide simple and secure access to anything from anywhere, to prevent identity fraud and to make online experiences more user-friendly

and hassle-free," said Enrique Salem, president and CEO, Symantec.

The VeriSign check mark is a recognised symbol of trust online with more than 175 million impressions every day on more than 90,000 websites in 160 countries.

Symantec will be adding the VeriSign check mark in a new Symantec logo once the transaction has closed ‘to convey to users that it is safe to communicate, transact commerce and exchange information online'.

Symantec buys Verisign's security arm

Trend looks to netbooksTrend Micro has launched a new dedicated security solution for netbooks. Trend Micro Titanium Security for Netbooks has been designed to provide protection from malware without taking up too much hard drive space or processing power.

The new software includes anti-virus, anti-spyware and web threat protection, with automatic removal of harmful files and an easy to use security widget to control the software.

In order to minimize the footprint of the software on the client device, and to provide real time protection, the solution uses Trend’s Smart Protection Network, a cloud-based security service that uses reputation technology, feedback loops, and TrendLabsSM researchers to provide a constant watch for emerging threats.

The software has already been endorsed by Asus, which will ship Titanium with it eeePC netbooks.

Premchand Kurup of Paramount (l) and Salah Jaidah of QIB.

Network automation is needed to create dynamic infrastructure that avoids bottle necks, says Reina.

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Cloud-ready networking The eff ects of cloud computing on networksLionel Reina, VP EEMEA, Orange Business Services, discusses the requirements and challenges posed to corporate networks by cloud computing

Cloud computing is currently without doubt one of the hottest topics in IT. For many companies, especially those with highly variable IT needs, flexible, virtualised clouds offer a low-cost alternative to conventional IT resources. The cloud and the way it is accessed can take many different forms: with the public cloud, customers access a cloud provider’s applications on the web; in this case, the resources

are shared between the multiple customers of the provider.

Via a ‘shared’ private cloud, a limited number of companies share resources that are held by one company or by a service provider. In private clouds operated by larger companies, the cloud resources are dedicated to one company and stored in the company’s or a service provider’s data centre. The cloud is then accessed via the Internet

or preferably a VPN to maximize security and performance.

Many diff erent applications, such as online trading, customer support, data analysis and monitoring, transaction processing and so on, are nowadays handled in clouds. One thing is for sure: without a network, no user can access the cloud. To ensure that cloud computing actually works, the connections to it need to be

readily available, easy to manage and be fast, secure and fl exible. Cloud computing is inconceivable without network and service providers that satisfy these prerequisites. Issues such as quality of service with end-to-end service level agreements, 24 x 7 managed service, usage-based billing, end user service management and compliance are therefore key areas of focus for customers.

36 June 2010 Vol.16 No.06

Service level agreements for cloud computingJust how cloud computing impacts on networks depends primarily on three key factors: where the source data is kept, how the source data is updated and secured by back-ups, and how geographically distributed are the users who are accessing the cloud and its data.

If the data is stored in the public cloud, customers incur more than just costs. Many companies also have concerns regarding security and data protection. The alternative – namely of keeping data in the company’s own data centre – is however also associated with costs, and they can be more diffi cult to calculate. No matter where the data is stored, though, short response times, regardless of the volume of data involved, have a crucial role to play. Ultimately, people require a very fast, high-availability network with an excellent quality of service (QoS) and end-to-end service level agreements (SLAs) to link applications and data or to use them on a shared basis. The Internet, however, is not capable of supporting end-to-end SLAs because its availability, response times and speed are extremely variable. If end-to-end SLAs are wanted, a dedicated infrastructure needs to be established via a service provider or a private cloud.

connection to the cloud is inadequate, it aff ects more than just the application. Much rather, the synchronisation of the data between the cloud and the company’s own storage system could be impaired and, in certain circumstances, this could necessitate expensive, complex restructuring. For this reason, a private, dedicated data connection to the cloud is the best solution in this case.

Open stage for providersThe networks are the network providers’ responsibility. And therefore, telecom operators are ideally positioned to provide secure and resilient cloud services answering enterprises’ need for pervasive connectivity to virtualized assets, backed with robust performance guarantees and transparent monitoring tools.

The entire system becomes even more complex if the data sources for the cloud are highly dynamic or need to be connected to the company’s other data sources. In this case, the connection needs to be extremely effi cient and dynamic.

Network bottlenecks It may be easy nowadays to generate, move and automate server provisioning for a cloud application using virtualisation, but the actual bottleneck comes from the networks. They are still poorly automated and often are still being adapted manually to more complex demands. While servers and terminals are becoming more powerful, more dynamic, more mobile and more automated, innovation in the network sector so far has primarily focused on speed and transfer rates. The automation of servers and desktop now needs to be followed by the automation of networks, with the ultimate goal of creating a dynamic infrastructure.

If the performance of a

While servers and terminals are becoming more powerful, more dynamic, more mobile and more automated, innovation in the network sector so far has primarily focused on speed and transfer rates.

Companies such as Orange Business Services have already geared their network towards the cloud concept. A ready infrastructure and application as a service with improved security and performance are the result of the work put into cloud-ready networking. Orange Business Services will also improve its infrastructure’s VPN functionality.

With VPN Gallery, a new gateway, the company will be able to integrate cloud computing providers into customers’ private networks. The strategic ports package, comprising VPN Gallery, shared Ethernet access, application performance management and burst options, will be the next step to signifi cantly improve the security, performance and fl exibility of cloud computing.

A true enterprise data warehouse deployment requires careful consideration, says Pendse.

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Business Intelligence has been a popular buzzword among the C-Suite executives in the past couple of decades. The business folks always look towards it as a panacea for all analytics, but for the CIOs it has been a perennial headache. Balancing the business expectations and the technology possibilities within an acceptable timeframe is a game which not many CIOs

have won in the complex maze of dimensions and cubes of data warehouses.

Data Warehouse (DW) projects are huge and typically the implementations run over a couple of years costing 5-10 million dollars. However these projects also have a very high failure rate. As a result choosing the right architecture and the implementation approach

becomes critical before venturing into a DW project.

Even before start of the project, the fi rst decision the CIOs have to take is whether to implement an enterprise data warehouse (EDW) or to go with a tactical solution. The business requirements and the existing technology architecture play an important part in this decision. If the business requirements

are operational in nature, then in majority of the cases, a tactical solution with a Business Intelligence tool deployed on top of an operational database should suffi ce.

However if such a tactical solution is not going to serve the purpose and an enterprise data warehouse has to be implemented, then a completely new set

Data Warehouse: Key ConsiderationsUnderstanding the requirements and strategies of data warehousing is the key to a successful deployment, according to Abhijit Pendse, Senior Engagement Manager, Cedar Management Consulting International

June 2010 Vol.16 No.06 39

of attributes have to be considered.

DW Design AttributesThe fi rst critical attribute in the design of a DW is the architecture. In a distributed architecture, the data is stored between diverse, heterogeneous and loosely related data stores. In a centralized architecture, data is stored centrally in a hub and spoke model. A centralized architecture is the preferred choice of the majority due to ease of maintenance, data consistency and optimized interfaces.

The second attribute is the design methodology. In the Bill Inmon ‘top down’ design approach, the EDW is created fi rst and the dimensional data marts are carved out of the EDW. The ‘bottom up’ approach proposed by Ralph Kimball recommends creating the data marts fi rsts which are later joined to create the EDW. While there are pros and cons associated with both the approaches, the majority of implementations have used the Inmon top down approach.

Third attribute is deciding the refresh rate. The fi rst generation data warehouses of the 1990’s usually had a monthly refresh rate. Over the years, there has been a gradual shift from monthly to a daily refresh. With new requirements like fraud detection, risk management and dynamic dashboards

taking business priority, the need has arisen for real time or near real time refresh. A real time refresh requires higher storage, bandwidth and faster server infrastructure. While the industry standard at this moment is the daily refresh, a real time refresh rate is worth considering as the analytical possibilities and applications are endless in this option.

The fourth key attribute is the data model. Custom build data models have been the preferred choice. Most CIO’s believe that their organization is unique and hence a pre-built off the shelf model will not serve their purpose. However this belief may not be true. Also the pre-built models have matured over a period of time, are faster to implement and are regularly upgraded by the DW vendors.

Implementation ConsiderationsChoosing the right DW design is half the battle won. While it is a prerequisite to the success of the DW project, it needs to be appreciated that DW implementations are diff erent from the regular IT projects and some key areas need to be

planned intelligently.Information Quality - Root

causes of bad information quality are invalid, incomplete and incorrect data. Lack of attention to data quality issues in the source systems can

result in an outright failure of the project. A data cleansing exercise must be a part of the implementation exercise and has to be planned tracked.

Subject Areas Prioritization - When subject areas are prioritized, high value ones (avoiding the complex ones) need to be chosen in the initial implementation phases. Once a subject area is chosen, KPI’s that are essential to operate the business need to be picked and the standards and governance should be build keeping them in mind.

Quick Wins- In the lengthy process of DW implementation, quick wins and tangible benefi ts have to be constantly shown to the project sponsors

to retain their interest and confi dence through the project. One way of achieving it is using the iterative approach to the implementation instead of the traditional waterfall. In this approach, by delivering

functionality and business value with each iteration, one can integrate data, create reports, train users and built up on the lessons learned. The other way of achieving it is by temporarily creating a quick data mart in a couple of months and allowing the users to explore it. This has two benefi ts - the users can immediately get some reports from the system and more importantly it will train the users and bring them up the learning curve on the DW project.

The key design and implementation considerations outlined above if handled properly, will ensure a smooth and successful DW implementation.

A real time refresh requires higher storage, bandwidth and faster server infrastructure... a real time refresh rate is worth considering as the analytical possibilities and applications are endless in this option.

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NEXT ISSUEJuly 2010 volume 16 issue 7

VIRTUALISATION TRENDSUnderstanding the next stepsVirtualisation has made a major impact on many businesses, but so far, uptake has often been limited to some small scale server virtualisation. With networking experts predicting a lot more to come from this game-changing technology, we take a look at what comes next for virtualisation.

SMART CITIESConnected constructionThe Middle East has seen the announcement of several large real estate developments that promise to deliver on a vision of ‘smart cities’ and ‘intelligent buildings’ but what technology is really going into new construction, and how much of a diff erence can these solutions make to the companies that operate out of smart offi ces and intelligent premises?

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