The Review October 2015

REVIEWTHEOCTOBER 2015

An in-house publication by Aptec – an Ingram Micro Company Business insights for IT solution providers

12Oracle Enterprise-grade cloud solutions

16MicrosoftCloud prospects in the channel

23VMwareStreamlining cloud deployments

INSIDE

GITEX 2015Meet Industry leaders at Ingram Micro GITEX stand (Hall 4, A4-3)

Vendors and Contact Information

APTEC – GCCDubai Internet City, Dubai, UAEPO Box 33550Tel: +971 4 3697111Contact: Svetlana SorokinaE-mail: [email protected] APTEC – Egypt11 JAber Bin Hayan StreetParallel to Abbas El Aqad StreetNasr CityCairo, EgyptTel: +202 2 240 1 7046Contact: Mohamed SelimE-mail: [email protected] APTEC – LebanonSt. Georges Sq, LebanonTel: +961 4 718891Contact: Elie Abou EmaanE-mail: [email protected] APTEC – OmanKnowledge Oasis Muscat Building 4PO Box 100, Rusayl, OmanTel: +968 96429250Contact: Mashook RehmanE-mail: [email protected]

APTEC – TurkeyBayildim CadAcelya Sok. No:2/3Macka BesiktasIstanbul, TurkeyTel: (90 212) 259 0064Contact: Hulya ErkmenE-mail: [email protected] APTEC – Saudi ArabiaPO Box 94609Riyadh 11614Tel: + 966 11 460 1950 Fax: + 966 11 460 1933Contact: Mohammed SheikhE-mail: [email protected]

INGRAM MICRO - MoroccoLot.33, La Colline 2, Immeuble les Alizés, Bureau 302, Sidi Maarouf, Casablanca, MoroccoOffice : +212-522 786 171 +212-522 786 223Fax : +212 522 786246 INGRAM MICRO - PakistanOffice # 511&512, 5th FloorNational IT Park, Caesars Tower,Shahrah-e-Faisal,Karachi, PakistanTel: +9221 32786675/ 32783209

Contact Information

Published by

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Introduction

Discover integrated solutions offering from Veritas

Dear Partners,

The adoption of cloud and related sales in the region have been slow. That being said, the market is growing at an escalating rate with vendors such as Microsoft, opening up the market and with companies such as Oracle, McAfee, IBM and VMware following suit. The region is not short of service providers in general, so vendors and cloud service providers like Ingram are planning local hosting in a number of countries to improve latency and allay fears of data security being hosted outside the region.

In order to provide a fully automated cloud platform that enables resellers to offer a wide range of solutions to their customers, there is a very high barrier to entry. There is a significant cost for developing, running and supporting such a platform. Ingram Micro has made substantial investments to develop an automated cloud market place. We are running a number of educational programs and plan to launch the Ingram Cloud University very soon. It will offer three levels of certification - Silver, Gold and Platinum. The courses, available in multiple languages, can be taken online and have a large selection of material including videos, recorded webinars, course material and presentations.

Once the Ingram Micro platform is launched in the region, a 24/7 advisory and support service will be available for free to resellers and can be sold for a fee to end users. The service will cover all products on our platform.

Come see us at Gitex 2015 where our focus will be on the launch of Ingram Micro Cloud and all the services we plan to offer.

Sincerely,

16How partners can optimise cloud opportunity with Microsoft

06

12

24

Learn more about Oracle’s enterprise grade cloud solutions

Consolidate with HP’s flash arrays

Ali BaghdadiSVP & Chief ExecutiveIngram Micro META

Aptec Distribution’s Managing Director, Bahaa Salah, has been awarded the prestigious Outstanding Executive of IT Channel Award 2015 at CPI’s Reseller Middle East Partner Excellence 2015 awards ceremony, which was held on 3rd June 2015 in Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Bahaa Salah said, “It was an honour to receive such a prestigious award. It has been a wonderful 18 years so far dealing with the channel in the Gulf and I enjoy and cherish every year of it.”

Ingram Micro opens subsidiary in Casablanca, Morocco

Aptec news

Aptec Ingram Micro 2015 Accolades

Bahaa Salah receives Outstanding Executive of IT Channel Award 2015

Ingram Micro has announced the opening of a subsidiary in Casablanca, Morocco. This office is the company’s first legal presence in French speaking North Africa and will service one of the fastest growing IT markets in the region.

The company aims to support IT resellers in the country by delivering the best-in-class IT solutions and value-added services through its rich product portfolio. The Ingram Micro North African subsidiary launches its business in the country with four distribution contracts of well-known and leading IT companies: Microsoft, Oracle, Juniper Networks and NetApp. Ingram Micro is also planning to bring other vendors to the North African region and are currently in negotiation with them.

Ingram Micro will deliver to local IT resellers and systems integrators in Morocco the best offerings in cloud, networking, security, data center, software and services. Its services to the channel will cover pre-sales, marketing, financial and technical support. Ingram Micro is positioned in the META region as a technology solutions Value Added Distributor (VAD) supporting IT resellers and systems integrators in their mission to realise the promise of technology for its customers.

Ali Baghdadi, President Ingram Micro Technology Solutions, META region, said, “We are delighted to launch Ingram Micro North Africa. Ingram Micro had been long-standing supporter of North Africa from our operations in France and now with a local entity and a substantial investment and local management, we seek to help the IT channel to realize the promise of technology.”

Salah has more than 30 years of IT industry experience in technical, sales, marketing, business development and general management fields.

Salah has been working in Aptec from 1996 when started as Sales & Marketing Manager in Aptec Egypt, he moved to Dubai in 1997 to manage Aptec Distribution business for the Gulf region. Under Bahaa’s leadership, Aptec Distribution was achieving year over year growth and today is recognised as the leading Value-Added Distributor in the Middle East.

MEDIA AWARDSAptec Ingram Micro• Value-AddedDistributoroftheYearaward

– CPI’s Reseller ME Partner Excellence 2015 • VisionaryVADoftheYear2015–VAR’s

Integrator ICT Champion Awards

Aptec Saudi Arabia• Value-AddedDistributoroftheYear–ITP’s

Channel Magazine KSA Awards 2015 VENDOR AWARDSSchneider Electric MEA Distribution Conference 2015• DistributoroftheYear-Gulffor2014• ProductManageroftheYear2014–Tamer

Hassan, Product Manager, Aptec, North East Africa

• BusinessDevelopmentInitiativeoftheyear2014 – Saudi Arabia subsidiary

VMware Partner Summit MENA 2015• VMwareDistributoroftheYearAward


Ingram Micro Middle East has announced its partnership on training solutions across MEA with Intel Security, a leading provider of comprehensive security.

Intel Security offers a range of comprehensive product training and security education services to help security professionals successfully deploy and manage Intel Security solutions and gain critical skills to improve overall endpoint, data, and network security. As one of Intel Security’s distributors, Ingram Micro delivers a set of Intel Security’s most popular courses across MEA including Endpoint Protection, Network Security,

Security Information and Event Management Administration, and Data Protection products.

“Adding Intel Security to our portfolio of vendor-authorised training is a significant step marking the increased demand for cyber security solutions across the region,” said Zornitza S. Hadjitodorova, Head of Ingram Micro Education Services for Middle East and Africa. “Considering MEA is emerging market, IT training is essential for our partners to have the right level of knowledge to both sell and install, configure, manage and troubleshoot Intel Security products.”

Intel Security emphasises the essential hands-on classroom instruction to give a holistic picture of network security implemented in a variety of environments. Hamed Diab, Intel Security’s Regional Director, said, “We are confident that our partnership with Ingram

Micro Training Middle East and Africa will be of a great benefit to businesses, organizations, and individuals in the region by equipping them with the skills critical to stay protected with Intel Security solutions.”

Taught by the region’s foremost network security experts and featuring interactive demonstrations and hands-on lab exercises, classes at Ingram Micro Training are in-depth sessions in the classroom or virtually via online lab to gain all the skills needed to successfully manage Intel Security solutions.

Registrations are taken either through here or by contacting directly [email protected]. Ingram Micro Training is a one-stop shop for the skills development needs of IT professionals worldwide and a global strategic partner to technology vendors.

Aptec continues to educate the market with its series of solutions forums

Over the last few months, Aptec has hosted a series of Solution Forums to educate their partners on different technology solutions.

Ingram Micro acquires largest value-added KSA technology solutions distributor

Aptec signs up Emerson for Gulf countries

Ingram Micro announces MEA training partnership with Intel Security

Ingram Micro has announced that it substantially completed the acquisition of the business assets of Arabian Applied Technology, the largest value-added technology distributor in Saudi Arabia. The business will operate as Aptec Saudi Arabia and is a part of Ingram Micro’s META region led by Dr. Ali Baghdadi, President of the company. The Saudi Arabia operation is expected to contribute annual revenue of approximately $200 million and be modestly accretive to Ingram Micro’s earnings in 2015.

Aptec Saudi Arabia will offer a robust enterprise solutions portfolio with products and solutions covering data center, storage, security, networking and software categories including technical services. Its staff has vast channel development experience in the SMB market, credit services, training and other professional offerings. Aptec Saudi Arabia will carry on collaborative culture and long-lasting customer and vendor relationships under the experienced management team.

“The acquisition of the business of Arabian Applied Technology in Saudi Arabia, is another excellent addition to Ingram Micro’s expanding presence in the rapidly growing and higher value Middle East market,” said Alain Monié, Ingram Micro Chief Executive Officer.

Aptec news

Aptec-an Ingram Micro company has expanded its product portfolio with a new vendor partner, Emerson Network Power. Since July, Emerson

Network Power’s single phase uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), racks and power distribution units are part of Aptec group portfolio. Aptec offers Emerson’s small and medium business (SMB) single phase UPS solutions to its customers and partners as the selected distributor in Gulf countries: U.A.E, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. Aptec will focus on promoting and distributing Emerson products through its vast reseller network.

As part of the ongoing enablement initiative, Aptec launched Virtualization roadshow in multiple cities. The roadshow aimed to educate the partners on the benefits of virtualized systems. The forum delivered an intense series of well-run, information-rich speeches and discussions, and a lively, business-oriented networking environment between sessions.

Other solutions that were showcased at various other forums included VersaStack and Flexpod. These forums have been conducted in Qatar, Dubai, Kuwait & Oman. Together, all events saw a gathering of over 200 people from reseller community, representing more than 90 IT reseller companies, mostly senior executives and owners.

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e .c o m O c t o b e r 2 0 1 5 5

1One Integrated Solution: Hardware, software, and support are all managed byVeritas.Youwon’tneedtounbox,

load, install, test, manage, and support multiple solution elements such as a server, storage, operating system, backup software, and network connectivity. There’s also no need to integrate with solutions from other suppliers. Equally important, both source and target deduplication is provided by one integrated solution. Veritas provides end-to-end technical support for the appliance. There is one phone number to call if you need assistance.

2Cost Efficient: NetBackup Appliances can deliver immediate CapEx savings by consolidating multiple backup

solutions with one platform, reducing the use of tape for backup and disaster recovery, and delaying or avoiding additional hardware purchases. Since common administrative tasks associated with installing, configuring, and supporting target dedupe storage system are eliminated, immediate and long-term OpEx savings can be realized. Finally, Veritas licenses the use of the appliances with a perpetual front-end capacity based licensing model. This

The Business Value of Integrated Appliances

approach can not only reduce the total cost of ownership when compared to other hardware-based deduplication appliances, but also provides customers with investment protection as their software licenses are transferable to either supported hardware platforms or future appliances.

3Simple to Manage: For existing NetBackup customers, there is no new interface to learn, the appliance

delivers the familiar NetBackup administration console. Day-to-day monitoring of the appliance hardware requires minimal intervention from you which may also reduce operational costs. Veritas AutoSupport automatically monitors key hardware components such as disks, memory, power supplies, and fans, and will open a support ticket and contact the customer in the event of a detected hardware problem. All hardware and software patches as well as software upgrades are controlled by Veritas and can be deployed in a few simple steps.

4Fast Performance and Scalability: NetBackup Appliances have high backup and recovery performance

via distinctive multidimensional scalability, and performance can be scaled to run tens of thousands of backup jobs per day (with multiple appliances). The ability to distribute both backup and deduplication processing to multiple media servers and clients and unique technologies like NetBackup Accelerator enable organizations to meet their service level agreements.

5Flexible: NetBackup Appliances are compatible with existing software and can be mixed into an existing

environment. No complex or disruptive migration process or time-consuming retraining is needed. The appliance supports source based and target-based deduplication, in-line or post-process deduplication, and virtual and physical environments. Thousands of Veritas NetBackup customers have already embraced the value of our integrated backup appliances. With tens of thousands of appliances deployed in more than 60 countries, our approach to improving the end-to-end process for backup and recovery is making a positive impact on many organizations.

NetBackup


With more than 40% of organisations across EMEA increasing IT budgets this year and a further 29%

maintaining the same level ensuring that money is well invested has never been more important.•WithBackupExec,VeritasTechnologies

LLC cuts the cost, complexity and unaccommodating nature of limited, niche products

•Customerinstallsuccessratesarearound98%making the ownership experience quick and simple

•Veritaspartnersareofferingmanagedserviceswhich allow IT teams to increase agility and drive up productivity.

“Most Backup systems are antiquated and designed for environments that are no longer the norm” — This Gartner reference is not specific to product, though reviewing the currency of existing backup tools is advisable, but to the processes that organisations use every day in order to secure their data. The advent of server virtualisation into mainstream IT ten or so years ago saw the start of a major change in the way production servers and storage were architected. Almost 80% of organisations have adopted some level of server virtualisation and the trend is continuing.

Cloud adoption is also being adopted more and more rapidly with over 50% of EMEA organisations making use of cloud already. For many, the adoption of cloud technologies is specific to web and email hosting (80% and 60% adoption respectively) with backup and recovery being used in just over 30% of instances. Uptake is also very much weighted to smaller businesses, but it’s entirely possible that those figures also reflect the way in which we view ‘cloud’, the terminology we use and the perceptions of individuals interviewed.

Veritas performs a constant process of customer research to understand areas of difficulty and of satisfaction not just in relation to

Extending into the Cloud – Backup Exec-as-a-Service

Veritas

products but the wider IT environment.From this research three areas of customer

concern become clear: trust, planning and performance.

Trust:1. Customers do not trust their backup process

(not product-specific)2. Customers are not confident in their ability to

fix problems

Planning:1. Customers do not know how to plan their DR

and backup strategy2. Lots of iterative steps required to build a

working system

Performance:1. Customers want improved performance2. Customers do not know if their performance is

optimally tuned

It’s time to think differentlyCustomers already recognise the superior performance, flexibility and reliability that Backup Exec brings to their environments and are now also able to extend those characteristics to making use of backup as a service. There are three key terms used distinguished as follows:

Private Cloud Typically, but not restricted to larger organisations, this is taken to refer to the internal hosting of servers and storage for backup and recovery purposes provided as a service to non-IT functions. In this sense, the term ‘cloud’ refers largely to an abstraction that enables the organisation to benefit from the economies of scale that a central IT function and purchasing brings - very much leveraging the benefits of ‘virtualisation that someone else does for you.’ In this respect, large and multi-site environments may be seen to profit more from such a concept

with a central IT team delivering and managing those services.

Hybrid CloudCombining local servers and storage with an off-site duplicate of protected data arguably offer the strongest answer.

These solutions are often delivered by the partner community providing an off-site datacenter as the secondary storage location. The skills that a provider of managed services can deliver eliminates concerns of ability to manage and diagnose the backup environment, provides disaster recovery as a standard and enables regular restore testing and could even extend to site outage disaster recovery hosting. Additionally those managed services providers are ideally placed to manage and optimise performance, while all the time the IT Team are in a better position to focus on those aspects of the business that drive agility and productivity and ultimately, profit.

Public CloudMuch of the existing uptake in cloud backup has been around moving or duplicating storage repositories from local storage to public cloud providers. This delivers potential advantages for site outages in terms of maintaining a copy of data but is best delivered when combined with a more local recovery mechanism for rapid restore of larger quantities of data. When combined in this way, with remote management from a services provider we see again, that the problems highlighted in customer research begin to be solved; much more so than use of public cloud storage for backup on its own. Importantly though, for those organisations with production data stored with public cloud providers, a secondary copy of that data could be outside the cloud environment helping to mitigate the risk of network or cloud outage.

Evaluate your optionsAccelerating the use of cloud services for data protection has the potential to:• Increaseproductivitydespitedatagrowthand

application complexity by automating more of the process.

•Drivedownriskbyenablingbetterplanningand, importantly, testing of disaster recovery processes, which are otherwise often forgotten.


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BREAK THE STATUS QUO:

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Kaspersky Security Solutions for Enterprise

Oracle Cloud is the industry’s broadest and most integrated public cloud, offering best-in-class services across software

as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and data as a service (DaaS). Oracle Cloud provides the assurance you need to ensure that your data is safe. Secure data isolation and unified access controls backed by the leader in cloud security mean you can rest easy when your public cloud is Oracle Cloud. It helps organizations drive innovation and business transformation by increasing business agility, lowering costs, and reducing IT complexity. Enterprises demand enterprise grade technology for high performance, reliability, scalability, availability, security and portability/interoperability based on standards before moving important workloads to a public or private cloud. Delivering benefits around these, Oracle’s approach to the cloud is embodied in each category of Oracle Cloud services.

ORACLE CLOuD SERVICE MODELS: SaaS Software as a Service. Offering the most complete portfolio of any public cloud, Oracle Cloud’s SaaS delivers modern cloud applications that connect

ORACLE CLOuD DEPLOyMENT MODELS • Private Clouds – For exclusive use by a single organization and typically controlled, managed and hosted in private data centers. The hosting and operation of private clouds may also be outsourced to a third party service provider, but a private cloud remains for the exclusive use of one organization.

• Public Clouds – For use by multiple organizations (tenants) on a shared basis and hosted and managed by a third party service provider.

• Hybrid Clouds – When a single organization adopts both private and public clouds for a single application in order to take advantage of the benefits of both. For example, in a cloud bursting-scenario, an organization might run the steady-state workload of an application on a private cloud, but when a spike in workload occurs, such as at the end of the financial quarter or during the holiday season, they can burst out to use computing capacity from a public cloud, then return those resources to the public pool when they are no longer needed.

Oracle Cloud

business processes across the enterprise. Covering everything from customer experience to enterprise resource planning, human capital management, and more, Oracle Cloud’s SaaS offerings are everything you need your business to be: personalized, connected, secure.

PaaS Platform as a Service. Delivering the industry’s #1 database (Oracle Database) and #1 application server (Oracle WebLogic Server), Oracle Cloud’s PaaS is the industry’s leading enterprise cloud platform. Built on proven Oracle technology that runs everywhere, Oracle Cloud’s PaaS helps organizations drive innovation and business transformation.

IaaS Infrastructure as a Service. Offering a comprehensive set of infrastructure services—including elastic compute and storage—Oracle Cloud’s IaaS lets businesses run any workload in the cloud. Best of all, it does so in a fully integrated environment that has been optimized for the cloud and provides a unified security model.

Benefits of Oracle Cloud

HIGH PERFORMANCE RELIAbILITy

AVAILAbILITy

PORTAbILITy / INTEROPERAbILITy

SCALAbILITy

SECuRITy


ORACLE CLOUD


Oracle cloudWhy it is crucial for our partners to make the transition to Cloud now to prepare their businesses for the future.

Resell Oracle Paas & SaasPartners can sell Oracle Cloud services and build a recurring revenue stream.

Requirements to Resell Cloud Services

• BeanOraclePartnerNetworkmemberingood standing (Gold or higher) with a valid OPN Agreement

• Meettheresalecompetencycriteriasetforthwithin each of the Knowledge Zones (listed below)

• ExecuteaFullUseProgramDistributionAgreement (FUDA) from the Oracle Partner Store

• ExecuteaCloudServicesDistributionAddendum (CSDA) to the FUDA via Oracle Partner Store

Develop and Integrate with Oracle CloudLeverage Oracle Platform as a Service (PaaS) to develop, deploy

and scale your applications in the cloud. Also, learn how your company can publish innovative applications that extend Oracle Cloud Applications on Oracle Cloud Marketplace - an online store dedicated to market value-add business applications and professional services for Oracle Cloud Applications and offered by OPN partners.

Architect and implementPartners can deliver Services for Oracle Cloud by developing a fixed scope cloud service implementation

offering or have certified cloud professionals by becoming a specialized OPN member.

Oracle Cloud Incentive Program:The Oracle Partner Network Incentive Program is Oracle’s industry-leading back end rebate

program that rewards resellers for delivering solutions based on Oracle technology.InFY16,Oraclehasintroducedrebateson

Cloud services which go up to 10%. These rebates are applicable only for tier two transactions.

bHARATH b NATARAjANDirector, Channel Go-to-Market, Worldwide Alliances & Channels, Oracle

“In the last year, Oracle has delivered the most

comprehensive and financially meaningful cloud related channel programs. Our cloud solutions are best in class and enterprise grade thereby spanning all business needs, customer size and vertical. Whether customers are looking for SaaS, PaaS, or IaaS solutions, partners can now deliver the entire stack through the cloud and with the power of our engineered systems. I’m really excited about what we are doing with the partner community!”

juLIE VARGHESEOracle Business Unit Manager, MENA, Aptec-Ingram

“When you invest in Oracle Cloud, you get a unified environment providing flexible cloud infrastructure,

a powerful standards-based platform, and a comprehensive portfolio of business applications—all on a subscription basis. As Oracle VAD for MENA region, we are working with Oracle channel to create awareness and demand for the next generation cloud offering where enterprises can gain all of the benefits of the cloud without sacrificing security or ceding control of their data.”

APTEC INGRAM OFFERING TO CREATE AN ORACLE- CLOuD FOCuSED PARTNER COMMuNITy

Partner Lifecycle Management

Coverage Operational Excellence

o Awarenesso Recruitmento Channel Readinesso Marketing & demand

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o Order processingo Financeo Compliance

Channel Opportunities in Oracle Cloud

Cloud power

Editorial

Ali baghdadi, SVP & Chief Executive, Ingram Micro META, outlines an overview of the regional cloud market and the prospects for channel partners around it.

In the META region (Middle East, Turkey & Africa), cloud adoption and sales have started from a very low base. Microsoft led

the market, although, other vendors such as Oracle, McAfee, IBM, Symantec and VMware are catching up quickly. There has been an increase in the number of born-in-the-cloud resellers as well as ISVs developing their own SaaS applications. The UAE seems to be leading in the growth, but we expect other countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan to catch up rapidly. The industry has seen over 100% growth so far this year compared to 2014.

The region is not short of services providers in general, so vendors and cloud service providers like Ingram are planning local hosting in a number of countries to improve


year on acquisitions, 500 developers and a substantial 24/7 multi-lingual support service.

“In fact, similar cloud services on a global basis are at least 1-2 years behind Ingram should they make similar investments. What we do see in the region are standalone Cloud SaaS applications developed by ISVs. We look to select some of these and add them to our 70+ vendors currently on our platform.”

SMBs and start-ups are the first adopters. It clearly has the benefits of replacing CAPEX with OPEX, hence lower capital outlays. Larger enterprises and government entities are also starting to adopt at a slower rate. More hybrid solutions are being introduced, which makes the decisions easier for such organisations. In addition, there are many SaaS applications that large enterprises may adopt within certain departments such as HR, CRM and Learning Management systems.

Baghdadi says, “At Ingram, we engaged our Business Intelligence unit to research the type of organisation and department that will best benefit from cloud services. We have identified over 50 types of organisations that will be the early adopters of cloud.”

Some examples of this are dentists, investment banks, accounting firms, learning

institutes and many others will be able to purchase bundles, which are linked together through APIs. For example, this could be an Office365 + Acronis back-up + migration software + dental records management all in one. Or buy an accounting SaaS (Software as a Service). Other SaaS applications, like HR and Payroll can horizontally apply to SMBs as well as large enterprises. Moreover, instead of buying their own servers and support, they can buy their online servers, processing power and storage as an IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), he adds.

Companies like Microsoft and Oracle, aim to have cloud revenues reach 40% of license sales in the next 18 months. In spite of this, we do not anticipate a decline in on-premise license sales. “There will be many new adopters for the cloud model, which the users will find affordable. Also they will be unable to use illegal copies as it happens with in-house licenses. Moreover, tightly bundled solutions from multiple vendors for vertical market segments will be a great motivator for new users,” Baghdadi says.

Ali baghdadi, SVP & Chief Executive, Ingram Micro META

latency and allay fears of data security being hosted outside the region.

Existing systems integrators are gradually adopting new strategies to offer cloud services to their customers.

“We at Aptec and Ingram Micro globally, have prepared technologies and a platform that can be white-labeled or inserted into the websites of our partners to accelerate the service to end users. We also see a growing number of ISVs, born-in-the-cloud specialist resellers and telcos demanding this service,” says Ali Baghdadi, SVP & Chief Executive, Ingram Micro META.

In order to provide a fully automated cloud platform that enables resellers to offer a wide range of solutions to their customers, there is a very high barrier to entry. There is a significant cost for developing, running and supporting such a platform. Moreover, you need to be an authorised distributor for a number of major SaaS vendors such as Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, McAfee, Symantec and Amazon.

Ingram Micro has made substantial investments to develop an automated cloud market place. For example, over $100M last

Key points• Thereisanincreaseinthenumberof

born-in-the-cloud resellers as well as ISVs developing their own SaaS applications

• Existingsystemsintegratorsaregraduallyadopting new strategies to offer cloud services to their customers.

• SMBsandstart-upsarethefirstadopters.It clearly has the benefits of replacing CAPEX with OPEX, hence lower capital outlays.

• Theregionisnotshortofservicesproviders in general, so vendors and cloud service providers like Ingram are planning local hosting in a number of countries to improve latency and alley fears of data security being hosted outside the region.

• IngramMicrohasmadesubstantialinvestments to develop an automated cloud market place.


“What we do see in the region are

standalone Cloud SaaS applications developed by ISVs. We look to select

some of these and add them to our 70+ vendors currently on our

platform.”

Avenues of growthMohammad Salameh, Senior Product Manager, Aptec - an Ingram Micro company, elaborates how partners can profitably sell cloud solutions.

What are the opportunities you see in the region with respect to cloud computing?

Cloud solutions have transformed business operations all across the globe.

IDC has worked with Microsoft on understanding profitability and success in the cloud. Insight from IDC’s research reveals the proven potential of leading with the cloud.

Worldwide Public IT Cloud services revenue in 2016 was $98.4B

Middle East is considered a high potential market for cloud spending. According to a recent report from the research firm, Gartner, $4.7 B will be spent on cloud services in the MENA region from 2015 to 2018.

Can you elaborate on Microsoft’s cloud offerings?Aptec- An Ingram Micro initiate exclusive promotions for the partners who are actively working on Microsoft’s Cloud business, which can reach to buy them a Delivery Van for their company and valuable Vouchers for the salesman who is working on the opportunity.

How can partners best optimize the prospects present in the region with Microsoft products?Aptec- An Ingram Micro along with Microsoft took the initiative to launch multiple programs, promotions, and trainings to make sure that all our partner community are participating in this exciting journey to cover the addressed market and make our partners benefit from these opportunities.

Aptec- An Ingram Micro offer full support to the partners who are willing to address their prospects with us to give them full training and engage the right expertise for their customers with free implementation for some cases.

What kind of training initiatives are available for partners in order to be able to take advantage of these opportunities?Aptec- An Ingram Micro with Microsoft are planning to bring some global expertise in the Microsoft’s cloud business like ‘CONSALTA’ who deliver workforce enablement with enterprise mobility suite, business continuity, deploy scalable Websites on Azure

And we also have continuous training and enablement for any new partner throughout the year.

Cloud computing


What kind of growth can partners expect to achieve with Microsoft’s cloud products?The impressive business performance numbers on this page come from two different surveys, though we saw similar results. Cloud-oriented partners are outperforming their peers in gross profit, revenue per employee, new customer acquisition, and growth.

What are some other plans or initiatives partners can look forward to in the cloud space?Door opener — Partners repeatedly tell us, cloud offerings act as an excellent way to meet new prospects, and close new deals. Cloud is topical, companies are perplexed about options, and they need advice. Further, cloud deals are typically easier to purchase because of smaller upfront fees, paid over time, and usually out of operational expense (OpEx) dollars.up-sell opportunity — After acquiring new customers, partners find that their upsell opportunities, both for cloud and on-premise offerings, are materializing. Partners especially feel this is true with the Microsoft stack. The hybrid model is the reality — Customers will have a mix of on-premise, hosted and cloud solutions. An earlier statistic validates this - about 74% of customers want the ability to move a cloud offering back to on-premise, if necessary.

Developing and marketing home grown offerings — Cloud enables partners to differentiate by bundling their own IP alongside other cloud offerings. Cloud software is easier to develop and take to market. Applications don’t break when a new operating system or database version emerges. And with SaaS and marketplaces, distribution of software has become considerably easier than just a few years ago. Azure opens the door to entirely new solutions — Partners can now solve business problems in new, innovative ways not even considered before. Partners tell IDC that today it’s both possible and affordable to use 100 servers for one hour once per week.Market expansion — Partners managing complex on-premise assets (i.e. software and hardware) at customer sites are constrained to work within geographical boundaries. With the ability to manage cloud services remotely, partners tell us about successes far beyond their traditional borders.

Anything else you like to add?There is a lot to consider and internalize while planning for change. Here is guidance as you begin, or continue, your journey into the cloud. Happy selling.

EXPLORE AND DECIDE ON WHAT CLOuD OPPORTuNITIES TO PuRSuE. What workloads and what services do you want to specialize in? How will you differentiate?

INVEST NOW TO ADD CLOuD TO yOuR PRACTICE. Most partners are somewhere on the cloud journey - Do not get left behind. Aim for 50% or more of your revenue to be cloud related. Commit.

GET TRAINED. GET REFERENCES. Beyond getting trained, gain the experience you will need. Use the software at your company. Obtain some reference solutions, even if it’s a free solution for a charity.

OPTIMIZE yOuR SALES AND DELIVERy APPROACH FOR CLOuD. Consider how delivering solutions in the cloud can affect your project team structure, and how you can profit from it.

PREPARE FOR A POSSIbLE CASHFLOW CRuNCH AND OTHER CHANGES. Carefully consider how transitioning to the cloud may impact your cashflow, and in what timeframe. Be prepared to educate your customers in the sales cycle.

Mohammad Salameh, Senior Product Manager, Aptec - an Ingram Micro company


Azure in OpenVolume Licensing

Azure in Open Licensing is designed to simplify doing business on Azure, with a familiar licensing option that enables you to easily add cloud services along with your other on-premises solutions. Microsoft is the only vendor that offers a complete platform for delivering customer solutions across on-premises, virtualization, and the cloud. So you can build once, and deploy in whatever way best meets the needs of your customers. With Azure in Open, you can take advantage of this opportunity with a new licensing model designed to help you build a profitable business while helping customers migrate to the cloud in the way that’s best for them.

Azure is an open and flexible platform that provides all the building blocks to quickly build, deploy, and manage cloud-based solutions. Azure offers a wide range of usage-based services across applications, compute, storage, and network. You can build applications using any language, tool, or framework on a fully automated self-service platform that enables the provisioning of scalable resources within minutes. The following are great examples of Azure-based solutions partners are providing today:

Aptec - an Ingram Micro company P.O.BOX: 33550 | Dubai Internet City - UAETel: +9714 3697111 | Fax: +9714 3697110 | Website: www.apteconline.com

Why Microsoft Azure?

Microsoft Azure

Aptec recommends Microsoft® software

Backup Datain the Cloud

Azure provides durable cloud storage, backup, and recovery solutions for large and small data. It works with the infrastructure customers already have to cost- effectively enhance existing apps and business continuity strategy.

• Use for a range of applications, including file servers, SharePoint, SQL Server, Exchange, and BizTalk Server.

• Rely on encrypted backups and geo-redundant global datacenters

• Quickly and easily provision storage as needed

Deploy Applicationswithin VMs

With Azure you can use your existing tools to create and quickly deploy apps without the time and cost of managing infrastructure.

Azure offers secure and flexible development, deployment and scaling options for any size application. Server applications are validated to run on Virtual Machines.

Host Websites

Grow your business helping customers move their websites to the cloud with Windows Azure

• Quickly build, deploy, and manage websites on a flexible cloud platform

• Instantly scale to meet fluctuations and spikes in site usage

• Offer the peace of mind from hosting on a global network of Microsoft- managed datacenters

• Avoid capital expense for infrastructure

• Reduce IT management burden • Scale as needed

+971 4 880 9022 www.dlinkmea.com

W I - F IC A M E R A

Whether it’s a burglar or a raccoon, you want to know about it. This camera protects yourspace and gives you the peace of mind of being there – even when you’re not.

DCS-935L

W I - F IMOTION SENSOR

The Wi-Fi Motion Sensor lets you know when motion is detected. With its compact size, you can place it virtuallyanywhere in your home.

DCH-S150

W I - F IWATER SENSOR

The Wi-Fi Water Sensor alerts you to potentially damaging water leaks. Notifications sent to your phone allow you to know of a problem before it becomes a disaster.

DCH-S160

W I - F ISIREN

The Wi-Fi Siren emits noise and delivers a push notification to your phone when certain things happen around the house.Scare away potential intruders and always know what’s going on at home.

DCH-S220

W I - F ISMART PLUG

The Wi-Fi Smart Plug lets you turn your devices on and off, wherever you are. Plus, you can track your energy usage to save a few bucks on your next bill.

DSP-W215

Keep Your Home SafeWhile You’re Away

Control your devicesand appliances from

anywhere

Wi-Fi Camera

Wi-Fi Siren

Wi-Fi Smart PlugWi-Fi Motion

Sensor

Wi-Fi WaterSensor

Home is where the smart is


W I - F IC A M E R A

Whether it’s a burglar or a raccoon, you want to know about it. This camera protects yourspace and gives you the peace of mind of being there – even when you’re not.

DCS-935L

W I - F IMOTION SENSOR

The Wi-Fi Motion Sensor lets you know when motion is detected. With its compact size, you can place it virtuallyanywhere in your home.

DCH-S150

W I - F IWATER SENSOR

The Wi-Fi Water Sensor alerts you to potentially damaging water leaks. Notifications sent to your phone allow you to know of a problem before it becomes a disaster.

DCH-S160

W I - F ISIREN

The Wi-Fi Siren emits noise and delivers a push notification to your phone when certain things happen around the house.Scare away potential intruders and always know what’s going on at home.

DCH-S220

W I - F ISMART PLUG

The Wi-Fi Smart Plug lets you turn your devices on and off, wherever you are. Plus, you can track your energy usage to save a few bucks on your next bill.

DSP-W215

Keep Your Home SafeWhile You’re Away

Control your devicesand appliances from

anywhere

Wi-Fi Camera

Wi-Fi Siren

Wi-Fi Smart PlugWi-Fi Motion

Sensor

Wi-Fi WaterSensor

Home is where the smart is


DCS-935L WIRELESS 11AC IP CAMERA

DCH-S150 MYDLINK WI-FI MOTION SENSOR

DCH-S160 MYDLINK WI-FI WATER SENSOR

DCH-S220 MYDLINK WI-FI SIREN

DSP-W215 MYDLINK WIFI SMART PLUG

See up to16ft in complete darkness

Remotely monitor using your mobile device

Simple setup takes just a few minutes

Receive push notifications when water is detected

Full length of cable detects water for added protection

Easily connects to your existing Wi-Fi network

Easily create on/off schedules for your devices

Local and remote control with a free app


Receive push notifications when motion is detected


High resolution sensor detects motion up to 26ft away


Receive push notifications when siren is activated

Six different sounds allow you to customize based on trigger


D-Link Launches Further Smart Home Devices For More Peace Of Mind

mydlink™ Home. It is smart home technology at its most futuristic.

DCH-S150mydlink Wi-Fi Motion Sensor

Automate your connected home devices wirelessly using a PIR motion detection sensor with the D-Link DCH-S150 mydlink Wi-Fi Motion Sensor. With the DCH-S150, you can automatically turn on devices attached to D-Link Smart -Plugs wirelessly throughout your home. Even more, stay updated with instant notifications to your mobile device while you’re away from home.

DCH-S160mydlink Wi-Fi Water Sensor

The mydlink Wi-Fi Water Sensor is a wireless sensor that keeps your home safe. You can install the probe anywhere and it will help you detect water leaks before serious flooding. If the water sensor is triggered, a 70dB alarm will sound and an LED will blink to give you audio and visual warnings. Lastly, you can stay updated with instant push notifications to your mobile device while you're away from home.

DCH-S220mydlink Wi-Fi Siren

The mydlink Wi-Fi Siren is a wireless siren that makes your home safer. You can set an alarm via the mydlink Home app so when you're away, the mydlink Wi-Fi siren will be enabled and ready to receive signals from a trigger such as the mydlink Wi-Fi Motion Sensor (DCH-S150). When the siren is triggered, it will generate a 100dB (max) audio alarm for deterrence while pushing instant notifications to your mobile device, so you can stay updated from anywhere.

DSP-W215mydlink Wi-Fi Smart Plug

The DSP-W215 mydlink Wi-Fi Smart Plug is a multi-purpose, compact, and easy-to-use device that allows you to monitor and control your home’s electronic devices from wherever you are. Scheduling provides a helpful way to save power while you’re at work or asleep, and the mydlink app provides an easy way to check usage, set up alerts, or turn a device on or off. Most importantly, the DSP-W215 will safeguard against damage to your home and appliances due to overheating, giving you peace of mind.

DCS-935LHD Wi-Fi Camera

The DCS-935L HD Wi-Fi Camera makes it easy and convenient to watch over your home no matter where you are. Place it anywhere with Wireless AC connectivity, and stay informed with built-in motion and sound detection. Equipped with night vision and infrared illuminators, the DCS-935L is ideal for all-day surveillance. It’s also mydlink-enabled, so you can check on your camera anytime over the Internet through the mydlink website or the handy mobile app.

Visit us @ OCTOBER18-22, 2015

Za’abeel HallStand ZL-D6

Organizations need ways to seamlessly migrate workloads or create virtual machines (VMs) in the cloud. VMware vCloud Air Network o�ers a multi-pronged approach.

of IT and business executives say the cloud will have a profound e�ect on their organization.

say Cloud computing is most likely to increase IT's reliance on outsourcers and managed service providers,

It is also more likely to require restructuring departments than any other technology/trend.

Unprecedented levels of

Choice Extensibility Flexibility

Enabling Innovation

Improving Customer Support or Services

Other Key Benefits:

Creating a strategy for moving to the public cloud is the top priority for 34% of IT executives.

(State of the CIO 2014)

(State of the CIO 2014)

Cloud computing has evolved into a mandatory strategy for agile, mobile, global businesses.

Cloud Driving Change

VMware vCAN benefits driving change

Why VMware vCloud Air Network

Lower TCO is a top selling point for both Private & Public Cloud. (IDG Enterprise Cloud Study 2013)

Speed of Deployment

Enabling Business Continuity

Gaining a Competitive Edge

vCloud Air Network Service Providers

Securtiy and Compliance

VMware vCloud Air Network Service Providers can support twice as many operating systems as Azure and AWS combined (Includes legacy operating systems

and more flavors of Linux)

VMware enterprise-class security and data sovereignty through more local providers, in more countries, supporting more OSs than the competitors.

Located in more than

compliance certifications and accreditations

To Learn more about how VMware can help you navigate the cloud,

visit vcloudproviders.vmware.com

Nearly 4,000

Partners

VMwareAir Network

25 Partners

27 Countries

836 Partners

8 CountriesOver 100 Countries

600,000

HP 3PAR StoreServ 8000 Storage

Looking to consolidate onto an enterprise-class flash array without compromising performance, scalability, data services, or

resiliency? HP 3PAR StoreServ 8000 Storage with a starting all-flash price of $19,000 USD delivers the performance advantages of a purpose-built, flash-optimised architecture without compromising resiliency, data services, or data mobility. A flash-optimised architecture reduces the performance bottlenecks that can choke hybrid and general-purpose disk arrays.

However, unlike other purpose-built flash arrays, 3PAR StoreServ 8000 doesn’t require you to introduce an entirely new architecture into your environment to achieve flash-optimised performance. With unmatched versatility, performance, and density, HP 3PAR StoreServ 8000 Storage has you covered.

What’s neW

•Meetgrowingenterpriserequirementswithindustry-leading density of 5.5 PiB usable capacity per floor tile.

•Addressunpredictablebusinessdemandswitha Flash-optimised architecture featuring the HP 3PAR Gen5 Thin Express ASIC for greater than 1M IOPS @ <1ms* latency.

Flash array

•EliminatecomplexitywithiSCSIforEthernetandspeedconfigurationwithautomateds•torage networking.

•Consolidatewithconfidencewithenterprise-class BC/DR using new Async Streaming for HP 3PAR Remote Copy.

•Supporton-demandcomputingbyeliminatingcomplexity with HP 3PAR Peer Motion for federated bidirectional data mobility.

Features

LoWer Your Cost oF storage bY up to 75%

•All-flashaslowas$1.50perGBusablewith5-year warranty on all SSDs.

•Cutcapacityrequirementsbyupto75%withdata compaction technologies.

•Simplifystoragemanagementandreducefootprint by 67% with unified block and file.

•Getindustry-leadingdensityof5.5PBperfloortile.

DeLiver perFormanCe Without

Compromise

•Eliminatebottleneckswithaflash-optimised,scale-out architecture and > 1 million IOPS.

•EnsureservicelevelswithQoSoptimisationand consistent, sub-millisecond latency.

•Supportmixedworkloadsandaccelerateperformance with the Gen5 Thin Express ASIC.

•Boostflashperformanceby35%andreducelatency by 2.5X with 16 Gbps Fibre Channel.

eLiminate DoWntime anD ConsoLiDate

With ConFiDenCe

•MaintainhighavailabilityandTier-1resiliencywith a complete set of persistent technologies.

•Achievenear-synchronousRPOswithflexible,transparent, model-agnostic remote replication.

•Simplifybackupandrestoreswithapplication-aware, storage-integrated data protection.

responD eFFortLessLY to

unpreDiCtabLe anD Changing DemanDs

•Growwithfreedominanydirection,fromaslittle as 3.6 TB to 7.3 PB usable in a single system.

•EliminatecomplexitywithiSCSIforEthernetand speed configuration with automated storage networking.

•ModerniseyourEMCandHDSstorageinfrastructure with painless, no-cost data migration.

•Optimisestorageatthedatacenterlevelwithseamless data movement between arrays.

For more details, please contact: [email protected]


Partnership

As mobility trends continue to transform the way we communicate, collaborate and access information, enterprises are

taking a wireless-first approach to connectivity. They need mobile networking solutions that allow enterprises to easily accommodate smartphones, tablets and other personal devices on internal networks, while keeping them safe with the most robust security features available.

While ‘bring your own device’ is great for the user, CIOs are faced with the challenge of transitioning legacy systems to the wireless edge while providing enterprise-class security and an optimized mobile application experience.

At the same time, the industry is about to go through the next major wave of wireless protocol roll-out with 802.11ac, ushering in another significant change in wireless performance. Over the next 3-5 years, we believe this wave will drive a massive network refresh not just to our customers’ wireless access points, but to their campus switches as well.

All of this creates a tremendous opportunity in the industry – and that’s where HP & Aruba comes in.

better together (1+1=3)Combining Aruba and HP creates a leader in enterprise mobility, positioning HP to enable

HP and Aruba combine forces to create an industry leader in enterprise mobility

and accelerate our customers’ transition to a converged campus network. The two companies are highly complementary – Aruba brings best-of-breed mobility software and WLAN hardware, and HP has a leading networking portfolio. This potent combination will enable enterprises to easily, quickly and securely deploy end-to-end mobile solutions, including the latest multi-gigabit wireless technology, across their campus. Together, HP and Aruba will offer a unified solution with value-added software features, including policy management, security and orchestration.

Simplifying the complex Aruba boasts a highly regarded innovation engine and specialized sales, marketing and channel model, complementing HP’s leading networking business and broad go-to-market reach. The purpose of this combine force is to bring together the best of both HP and Aruba technology to offer the most robust WLAN solutions available. Focusing on simplicity, including highly

interoperable solutions and combined policy models, means that customers will have one network to manage. This saves time, cuts capital costs and accelerates the delivery of network services – allowing enterprises to realize the benefits of the cloud more quickly.

Importantly, the simplified, converged solutions will be easier for channel to sell, and Aruba’s specialized go-to-market can support campus solutions with the entire portfolio. HP is uniquely positioned to deliver both the innovation and global delivery and services offerings to meet customer needs worldwide.

Tackling a growing marketUltimately, with Aruba’s leading wireless LAN technology and differentiated software solutions, coupled with HP’s robust switching portfolio, HP Networking will have market leadership in the $18 billion and growing campus networking market. Today HP is an innovative, agile vendor ideally positioned to solve customers’ toughest challenges in mobility, security and networking.


HP Aruba Instant Access points


HP Software as a ServiceSaaS, or Software as a Service has become

a fundamental and proven approach to delivering IT and business application

solutions that help organisations innovate digitally and deliver an outstanding customer and user experience. CIOs surveyed by Gartner Research estimate they will migrate more than 50 percent of their transactions to IaaS and SaaS models by 2020. Whether it be private or public cloud implementation, SaaS is proven to deliver rapid returns and optimise resources so that you and your teams can focus on the innovation to drive your business outcomes through the efficacy of the SaaS approach.

The reason for this growth is that SaaS offers IT professional’s confidence that this cloud model will help them respond to ever-increasing calls for rapid change, more efficient resource utilisation, and assurance that IT delivers greater business value to the organisation.

Why HP SaaS?The fundamental value of SaaS is in its delivery as an easy-to-use service. This requires experience and an attention to detail beyond the means of most IT vendors. Enterprises cannot afford to risk their critical IT infrastructures to a SaaS approach that will not scale.

The popularity of SaaS in end-user application categories such as customer relationship management has seen a flurry of innovation. In IT management too, startups have emerged, while some established players have rebadged their original non-SaaS offerings to meet IT departments’ growing interest in SaaS.

SaaS

For SaaS to deliver promised benefits and meet enterprise-class SLAs, vendors not only need robust servers and networks, but they also have secure and available data centers to serve business-critical software.

For SaaS to deliver promised benefits and meet enterprise-class SLAs, vendors not only need robust servers and networks, but they also have secure and available data centers to serve business-critical software. For HP SaaS, this means annual ISO 27001 process certification (issued by IQNet, the world’s largest network of leading certification bodies) of our data facilities by the Standards Institution of Israel (SII), including organisation, processing facilities, customer data and privacy, technology and services, marketing, financial, and HR data. Only HP—with a SaaS portfolio based on more than a decade of experience working with and delivering for the world’s leading brands—can credibly offer enterprise-class levels of availability and security.

At HP, we’re always expanding and refreshing our offerings to help transform IT so it better serves the enterprise. These products and services include leading HP application lifecycle and business service management solutions. In addition, these offerings integrate with other HP Software solutions, both on-premise and delivered as a service, to create even more comprehensive solution sets. Among

the innovative HP SaaS solutions are:• HP Service Anywhere—a SaaS-based service

desk that is quick to deploy, easy to use, and simple to maintain, and includes unparalleled configuration, incident, problem, and change management.• HP ALM on SaaS—a SaaS solution that accelerates application transformation by empowering application teams to plan, build, and prepare for the release of applications, components, and services with fewer delays and better quality. It offers scalability, support, and cost savings to help users focus on

innovation.• HP Agile Manager—a SaaS-based project

and development management solution that aids in developing and managing application development using Agile methodology.

• Network Node Manager i—Unify fault, availability, and performance monitoring. This network management software helps you improve network uptime and performance, and increase responsiveness to business needs.

• Operations Bridge—Understand what’s going on with your IT systems and determine root causes. This business service management (BSM) software consolidates and correlates events, metrics, and topology data from multiple tools.

Few providers can point to HP’s decade of SaaS delivery on a global scale or guarantee the robust long-term delivery of service with 99.9 percent availability for most HP solutions. For many customers, working with an experienced solution partner from our extensive SaaS channel provides additional benefits. These experts, who are already familiar with the partner’s business processes, can accelerate the move to SaaS and orchestrate service delivery.

HP SaaS has the most experience of any leading enterprise SaaS vendor in the market. Since 2000, HP SaaS has delivered proven enterprise software applications via the cloud and served many of the Fortune 500. With an annual renewal rate above 90 percent, HP SaaS enjoys the confidence of today’s leading IT organizations.



Master the mobile moment

Mobility

What do users want? Everything, now!Youdon’tneedananalystreportto tell you there’s been a seismic

shift in the way people use mobile apps. Just look around. People count on mobile apps for everything. They use them everywhere. And they have zero patience for mobile apps that don’t work as expected.

It impacts not only the success of the app itself, but also the image of the brand and the business.

Mobile app measurement: What’s the best approach?

Many tools are available to measure various aspects of the user experience—but most provide an incomplete or inaccurate picture.

HP designed its mobile monitoring software, HP AppPulse Mobile, to adhere to three core tenets:

Measure from the user’s perspective, completely and in real time, and measure everything that impacts the user experience, including performance, stability, and resource usage.

Focus on the most important issues. HP AppPulse Mobile reports on problems in the context of what the user was doing at the time theproblemoccurred.Youcanseeataglancehow many users were impacted, with which user action, on what device, operating system, or app version.

Improve what matters most. HP AppPulse Mobile provides accurate, relevant metrics that can be used to prioritise QA/development efforts for mobile apps according to business impact. Youcanquicklyidentifyandfixwhatmattersmost to the user.

HP AppPulse Mobile, a mobile monitoring software product, makes it easy to monitor your success with the ‘Measure, Focus, Improve’ approach through a graphical, real-time scoring system called the FunDex.

build mobile apps that build loyalty through a great user experience.

TOP SIX THINGS TO MEASuRE AND TRACK1: Measure launch time, including start time and resume timeThe launch time—when the mobile app was not running in the background already—usually takes longer than a standard action, so it’s important to measure both start time and resume time. That way there are accurate metrics about the user’s experience, even if the mobile app was already running in the background.

2: Measure the uI response timeMeasure mobile app performance in terms of UI response time, the way it’s perceived by users. The traditional approach is to measure it in terms of network request time. The problem with that is a network request often does not impact the user at all.

3: Measure crashes and their business impactOf course it’s important to track crashes, because they can be fatal to the success of your mobile app. But some solutions track the “exception stack trace” or “error type,” metrics that are not directly relevant. Instead, the solution should identify the user actions that caused the crash, then count the number of unique users affected by this crash, then group the crashes according to their impact on the business. This enables mobile product managers to prioritize which are most urgent.

4: Measure errorsTrack the user actions that result in errors, such as an HTTP error from a specific URL. Specifically, capture the total number of users who received an error, the user action that resulted in the error, and the percentage of actions that resulted in at least one error, along with the app version number. In addition, monitor the daily average of users with errors on app launch.

5: Measure the battery consumptionUsers are very sensitive to their battery life; to some it feels almost like oxygen. Everyone has experienced the frustration of knowing that some mobile app is draining the battery way too quickly, but not knowing which one. So make sure to measure the battery consumption of your mobile app, along with other critical resources such as data plan impact and disk space usage.

6: Measure the cellular data consumptionIf it bothers you when a mobile app devours your cellular plan’s data allotment, you’re not alone. In fact, 20 percent of survey respondents said heavy data usage has caused them to stop using a mobile app. So it’s important to pinpoint which user actions consume the most data. Specifically, you need to measure the kilobytes of data consumed per minute of use, and you need to track the percentage of data consumed by a specific user action.

Follow the ‘user Flow’ screen by screenHP AppPulse Mobile monitoring software tracks the User Flow through the funnel of user interactions with your mobile app. Development and QA teams can see a graphical view of user engagement and see key metrics one screen at a time. For each screen, it shows you the total number of sessions and the most popular user actions. Youcanthendrilldownintometricssuchasuser actions that were slow, or actions that resultedinerrororcrashes.Youcanalsoseethe number of users who exited your app—so you can quickly determine how to optimize the user experience and keep users fully engaged. It gives you the option of seeing data over various time periods, for a particular version number, or for all versions.



Documents

The Review October 2015