“GITEX has changed so much,but the stage to showcase our evolution has remained the same” says Vasant Menghani, MD, Quality Gulf who founded Quality Computers as a small showroom establishment showcasing PC peripherals in 1988.

Menghani has been part of largest regional ICT exhibition since its very inception and says that since then the company’s goal behind participation has

remained largely the same. “We are a homegrown ICT brand that has grown exponentially over the last 23 years, manufacturing tablet PCs, HR and accounting software in addition to a much larger range of PC peripherals. We pride ourselves on our origin and our loyalty to the region and the UAE in particular, where better to honour this commitment than GITEX,” he says.

Homegrown and proud

60 MinsShow dates: 14-18 October 2012, Dubai World Trade Centre | AT GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK | Exhibition hours: 11am -7pm

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WHAT’S INSIDE

Red Hat to exhibit with SAP

DEWA leads the way in eServices

IT leaders honoured at ICT Achievement Awards 2012

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With participation at both GITEX Shopper and GITEX Technology Week, 2012 has been a rather busy year for the company that has recently launched four new kinds of tablet PCs in addition to a Smart TV dongle. “We have always focused on bringing cost effective innovation to the masses and have successfully expanded our tablet PC range to encompass 25 varied models that cater to a much wider audience. Our aim here is not to compete with the ‘iPads’ or ‘Galaxy’ tablets but cater to the medium to low income segment of consumers. We worked hard and we worked smart at creating products that delivered the experience of a much more expensive brand at half the cost. This is our USP and today, Touchmate tablets, speakers, monitors and a whole host of other products are available across almost all the major hypermarkets and are distributed across 70 countries,” he says.

Touchmate, located in Hall number 8, is showcasing its new range of tablets including a 3G calling 7 inch tablet, a 9.7 inch tablet that runs on the Android Jellybean 4.0 platform and boasts

Pow e r i n g I T a h e a d

Vasant Menghani, MD, Quality Gulf

my gitex

Gemalto to focus on cloud securityGemalto is using its part icipation at GITEX this year to educate Middle East enterprises on the benefits of cloud computing and prepare them how to do it securely.

Marc Hudavert, SVP Global Sales and Marketing, Gemalto, said he bel ieves the reason why some organisations are not taking the dive into the cloud comes down to awareness, rather than the rel iabi l i ty of the technology itself.

“Talking to different people, I think there is a lack of confidence, which is probably a matter of perception more than anything else. We need to explain to people so they can understand the big picture and the r isks. At the same time, there are more and more companies creating their businesses either by hosting it through the cloud or straight from scratch through the

cloud. For small companies it is extremely valuable,” Hudavert said.

“The key message is that technology is there. So it’s not a matter of technical stuff, but of being conscious of what you want to protect and adapt a level of security appropriate to your applications. To start with you have to analyse your applications. So there is no technical problem, or even implementation problem, it’s just a case of educating organisatons on these technologies,” he added.

Whilst most cloud adoption appears to be coming from small companies, Hudavert said others are fol lowing suit.

“There is a lot of hype and discussion around cloud. The good news is that we are start ing discussions with large telcos and systems integrators in the region because they

have some demand from enterprises and services providers. The demand from largest enterprises is definitely growing. It’s a matter of when, not i f,” he said.

He pointed to legal issues as a main barrier in cloud adoption.

“The key point is to protect the data legal ly. People want to know, legal ly-speaking, where their data is and how they can protect it. But in the last 12-18 months we’ve seen local and national clouds being created al l around the world. The best solution is to make sure that your data is local ised and posted in your country. That’s about data protection. The other major topic is who is accessing the data. It’s al l about proving the identity of the individual who gets access in the cloud,” he concluded.

Gemalto is exhibiting in Hall 2.

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“Almost every company visiting GITEX 2012 – regardless of size or industry -- needs a highly flexible strategy which reflects current trends while enhancing communication and collaboration – this is exactly what Avaya provides.

Nidal Abou-Ltaif, VP of Middle East, Africa & Turkey, Avaya.

The open source solutions provider Red Hat, in cooperation with SAP is looking to strengthen business in the Middle East through its participation at Gitex Technology Week. Red Hat will be exhibiting from the SAP stand number MAC6-57, located in Hall 6. The companies will be demonstrating how their solutions can help solve customer needs in the cloud or on premise.

Running SAP® solutions on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization helps enterprises address the challenges

of flexibility, performance, reliability, scalability and security. Using JBoss Developer Studio Portfolio Edition, companies can increase the speed of development to create custom applications to call out services for SAP solutions.

George DeBono, General Manager, Middle East & Africa at Red Hat says, “We are looking to engage in discussions with potential customers at Gitex and educate them about how they can leverage Red Hat and JBoss products in support of SAP solutions to get the best out of their implementations. Solutions from SAP and Red Hat enable real-time innovation. Red Hat provides a scalable, standardized, highly available platform in support of SAP solutions that’s cloud-ready. Red Hat’s integrated support services for SAP solutions make the entire enterprise easier to manage.”

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 is certified to run SAP applications and includes the infrastructure software stack enterprises need for the best possible operation of SAP applications, including enterprise-

class service and support. To offer customers the best possible support, the two companies have established a co-operative support agreement designed to speed issue resolution and streamline customers’ communication.

Recently, at the Red Hat Summit and JBoss World 2012, Red Hat announced new steps in its collaboration with SAP focused on virtualization. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization offers a comprehensive virtualization management solution for server and desktop virtualization. With version 3.0 delivered in January 2012, Red Hat delivered the first enterprise-ready, fully open source virtualization platform. Today, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization is certified for running SAP business applications on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. With this, customers gain a virtualization platform with the ability to scale to support growing numbers of workloads and users as well as compatibility between Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and SAP solutions, all based on open source virtualization technology.

Zservices to launch cloud-based Web security service

Red Hat to exhibit with SAP

Zservices is launching its Zscaler Middle East Cloud, the region’s first in-country web and email cloud security service, which is being carried out in partnership with large Middle East service providers

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the world’s fastest dual core processor with speeds up to 1.6 Ghz and a pocket sized 6 inch tablet for those who are constantly on the go. The company is also showcasing a demo unit of a 11 inch tablet that runs on the Windows 8 platform, an innovation that Touchmate is eager to bring to the market. “I believe the launch of the Windows 8 platform will change the dynamics of this market significantly with customers just waiting to get their hands on the latest products built on this fantastic platform. As Microsoft partners, our roadmap includes a range of Windows 8 tablets and we are excited to see how they will be accepted by our audience,” Menghani states.

At GITEX Shopper 2012, the company partnered with Jacky’s Electronics who according to Meghani purchased over 20,000 units of Touchmate tablets to create innovative bundle offers for its range of cameras, notebooks and other products.

“Our retail partners have significantly contributed to the growth of our brand; they have helped us reach out to a wider audience and constantly encouraged us to keep innovating,” he says.

According to Menghani, while Touchmate partnered with Jacky’s Electronics for promotional offers on the event floor at GITEX Shopper 2012 it also worked with Carrefour, Sharaf DG and Lulu hypermarkets to boost sales outside the event floor alongside the exhibition. “It’s good to see such a positive response from our customers and partners who believe and support our vision. GITEX offers us a platform to showcase our products, engage our customers and strengthen relationships with our many distribution partners. It is with the support of our customers and partners that we have been able to break the stereotypes and positively influence a customer’s decision even in the face of heavy competition,” he says.

Jay Chaudhry, founder and chief executive officer, Zscaler

George DeBono, General Manager, Middle East & Africa at Red Hat

such as Etisalat, at GITEX. The service facilitates in-cloud traffic termination while meeting telecom regulations and delivering high-speed security processing.

Now participating at GITEX for a second consecutive year, the company sees the exhibition as a unique opportunity as Mr. Jay Chaudhry, founder and chief executive officer, Zscaler, who is visiting the exhibition from the United States points out, “GITEX is the region’s premier ICT event and presents the ideal platform for customers, vendors, distributors and channel partners to interact and forge mutually beneficial relationships. Our business model is one that relies on the dedication and success of our service provider partners and our presence

at this event is a reflection of our commitment to both our partners and customers.”

Migration of IT security services to the cloud offers companies an unmatched level of flexibility. “While there has been plenty of buzz in market about cloud services, we are the first vendor to actually hit the ground running. The Zscaler Middle East Cloud solves some of the most complex network security problems facing large enterprises. Companies can now secure their remote offices with no on-site hardware, view corporate internet activity across the globe through a single reporting portal, and apply corporate policy to every employee, regardless of whether they are accessing the internet from headquarters, a coffee shop or a foreign country,” says Nidal Taha, managing director, Middle East, Zservices (Zscaler Middle East Cloud).

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Digital Forensic Investigations of Any Kind

Incident Response & Remediation

Training and Services

Geoff BrooksRegional Sales Manager - Middle East, India & Africa

PO BOX 211364, Dubai UAEMobile No : +971 506 527659

gbrooks@accessdata.com www.accessdata.com

DEWA leads the way in eServices

In fulfillment to Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s (DEWA’s) plan and Dubai eGovernment’s strategy to increase the usage of eServices, DEWA is showcasing the latest customer service technologies during GITEX 2012 – one of the world’s top three ICT (Information, Communication, and Technology) exhibitions –this year, which kicks off today in the Dubai World Trade Centre to encourage customers to benefit from eServices.

One of the most customer-centric tools introduced by DEWA this year is the eConsumption graph, which allows customers to view and compare their electricity and water consumption on a

monthly and yearly basis. Aside from that, it also allows customers with multiple accounts to compare the consumption of up to ten accounts simultaneously.

Another added feature is DEWA’s upgraded online bill payment service including the Pay for Friend feature, which enables registered customers to pay their friends bills. The autoPay mPay feature was added in cooperation with Dubai eGovernment; enabling automatic bill payments via mobile phones where customers can now specify the period in which their bills are paid, as well as specifying the maximum amount to be paid automatically every month.

After being well-received across the Emirates, DEWA is also focusing on its ‘Neighbourhood’ campaign, which was launched two years ago and raises awareness of the importance of conservation in electricity and water consumption, and protecting the environment in residential areas. The campaign is continuing to hit more successes and will conduct more visits to more Neighbourhoods in Dubai with the participation of the DEWA Conservation Team, which visits communities in a specially-built green bus to spread awareness about utility conservation.

“We are always interested in being involved with leading exhibitions and GITEX 2012 is no

exception, DEWA’s participation is in fulfillment of its vision to be a sustainable world-class utility and supports Dubai’s status as an economic multi-sector hub for finance, business, trade, and tourism,” said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO, DEWA.

In a move to take forward its recently-launched ‘Serving you more with eConvenience’ campaign, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) is showcasing its latest technology products at GITEX 2012, as part of its strategy to offer excellence in customer service and in fulfillment of its standing as a leading government provider of eServices.

Publisher Dominic De Sousa, COO Nadeem Hood, Managing Director Richard Judd, Commercial Director Rajashree R Kumar, Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan Editors Pallavi Sharma, Ben Rossi Sub-editor Joe Lipscombe Circulation Manager Rajeesh M, Production Manager James Tharian, Design Director Ruth Sheehy, Senior Designers Analou Balbero, Froilan Cosgafa IV, Glenn Roxas, Digital Services Manager Tristan Troy Magma

Web Developers Erik Briones, Jefferson De Joya Photographer and Social Media Co-ordinator Jay Colina

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IT leaders honoured at ICT Achievement Awards 2012The third annual CNME ICT Achievement Awards were held last night to honour the achievements of the major players from industry within the Middle East.

The ceremony, held at Jumeirah Emirates Towers, capped off the opening day of GITEX, as end-users and industry vendors gathered to commemorate the year’s best performers in a number of categories.

In the end-user category, Ahmed Ebrahim Al Ahmad scooped the prestigious CIO of the Year award following a successful first term with Nakheel, whilst aeCert gained the sought after title of IT Team of the Year.

Future CIO of the year Award went to Alok Srivastava of Masdar and CNME granted the University of Sharjah the Editor’s Choice award.

In the vendor category, the big names such as Brocade, EMC and SAP proved once more why they’re industry leaders. Brocade accepted Hardware Vendor of the Year, SAP took home Software Vendor of the Year, EMC scooped

Storage Solutions Provider of the Year and EMW, Systems Integrator of the Year. After a 12 month period where security has been a major talking point, Blue Coat was awarded the Security Solutions Provider of the Year award, and Injazat Data Systems took Managed Services Provider of the Year. This left Consultant of the Year which was deservedly picked up by PMK International.

More big names featured in the deployment category with Atlantis taking the Hospitality and Tourism Deployment of the Year award, the Abu Dhabi Department of Finance taking the Government Deployment of the Year award and Emirates NBD Group taking the BFSI Deployment of the Year award.

Retail Deployment of the Year and Telecommunication Deployment of the Year went to Bindawood Group and

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Mobily, whilst King Hamad University Hospital took Healthcare Deployment of the Year. Ministry of Education, KSA, scooped the Education Deployment of the Year award, and Sorouh and Petrofac were awarded the Construction and Real Estate Deployment of the year and Energy Deployment of the year awards.

Over 280 nominations were received during a robust and busy year for the ICT sector.

HID launches iOS security solutionHID Global has announced a solution for government agencies interested in securing iOS devices with access to sensitive data at GITEX Technology Week 2012. The solution combines the recently announced ActivClient Mobile Software Development Kit (SDK) for iOS with two sleeves from Precise Biometrics: the Tactivo iPhone sleeve and the Tactivo iPad sleeve.

This solution enables government agencies of all kinds to use their Common Access Card (CAC) or Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards to secure communications and access to sensitive information by encrypting it through standard

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) encryption methods.

“The massive popularity of iOS devices has completely changed the way organizations of all types, including government, approach how these devices access information,” said Thomas Marschall, Precise Biometrics President & CEO. “Our solution with HID Global takes a pragmatic approach to the problem, ensuring that the CAC and PIV cards already in use can now secure the mobile devices government employees are already using.”

For government agencies interested in deploying a more

integrated solution, HID Global offers a solution leveraging “derived credentials”, a concept recently introduced in the FIPS 201-2 PIV standard, which is currently in draft form. The integrated approach taken by HID Global applies the “derived credential” to a secure microSD card, a secure element with the same cryptographic services as the CAC or PIV smart card. This microSD format can be connected to iPhones with a sleeve. This approach brings both significantly increased convenience and security to the iPhone BYOD scenarios.

Julian Lovelock, vice president of product marketing, Identity Assurance, with HID Global