Value plus october 2015

the
Redington Value is a value added distributor for the following brands in parts of Middle East & Africa:

BUSINESS
PARTNER
REDEFINE
SIMPLICITY
AGILE. SCALABLE. TRUSTED.
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please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com

OCTOBER 2015 / The Value Plus / 3
For more information please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
the
CONTENTS
0920
27
39
I
would like to congratulate
the Redington Value team
on its 10th year of suc-
cessful operations and I
hope that they continue
with their double-digit growth
streak. Looking back, it gives
me immense pleasure to see
the division scale up so fast
and become an integral part of
Redington Gulf. From just three
employees in its initial year, it
has grown to a 200 staff-strong
division. Looking at the success
that the division has achieved
since its inception, the last dec-
ade can justifiably be regarded
as a decade of dominance for
value distribution.
Right partnerships and
technology focus has helped
the division to grow by leaps
and bounds across the Middle
East and Africa (MEA) region.
It goes without saying that a
correct team combination as
well as a knack to capitalise on
market opportunities has acted
as a catalyst in its success.
The IT landscape has become
more dynamic with more dis-
ruptive technologies coming
into play, which complicates
decision making. Strategic
investments need to be made in
order to enhance the skills of
those involved in order to mini-
mise the risk while selecting
these technologies. Most of the
established companies invest
in technologies that help them
meet their current customers’
needs. The failure lies in miss-
ing out on solutions for future
customer needs, which might
be addressed by upcoming tech-
nologies. The ability to spot the
next generation technologies
that address future needs is the
key for survival in a disruptive
industry.
FROM THE DIRECTOR
RajShankar
ManagingDirector, RedingtonGulf
PUBLISHED BY
TheEvolvingEnterpriseServersand
StorageSpace
ConvergedInfrastructure:AGameChanger!
DigitalTransformation:
ANewEra
SoftwareandSecurity
LandscapeUpdate

4 / The Value Plus / OCTOBER 2015
A DECADE OF DOMINANCE
A DECADE OF
DOMINANCERamkumar Balakrishnan, President, Redington Value
Distribution, takes a walk down the memory lane and
talks candidly about the story of Redington Value
Distribution – from its inception, through the formative
years to when it became one of the most successful
value added distributor in Middle East and Africa.

R
edington Value celebrates its
10th year of operation this
year. When you started this
division, did you think about
what it would grow up to be in
10 years?
I don’t think I had a 10 year
view at that time, the first milestone was to
make this concept work which took almost
three to four years. A lot of people did not
believe that Redington can transform itself
from a pure volume player to a significant
player in the value added distribution busi-
ness. So to answer your question, no I did not
imagine what it would be in ten years at the
inception of value distribution as the first key
step was to establish this as a brand and to
prove that the concept behind Value Distri-
bution can work.
Tell us something about the start, how many
people were a part of your team, the first
contracts and some of the initial challenges
you faced.
Well, we started off with a small team of
four people. Our first contract was Sonic-
WALL in UAE and 3COM in Saudi Arabia.
One of the biggest challenge initially was to
convince people internally and externally
that there is real substance in the idea behind
Value Distribution. It was difficult to sell the
ideology to the vendors and I believe it took
15-16 meetings with a certain vendor to get
the right message across to the right person
because at that time when you said ‘Reding-
ton’ people automatically associated you with
Volume Distribution. The biggest challenge
was to remain committed to the cause with
firm conviction in the concept.
There have been many milestones through-
out the journey. What do you regard as the
first?
I believe the first milestone that I would
consider is when we won the contract for
Cisco in Nigeria. The reason for this is that
the moment you have a Cisco logo associated
with your brand, the context with which you
are perceived in the market begins to change.
How did it feel to cross a revenue of 100 Mil-
lion for the first time?
I still remember the moment when I found
out, of course it was very special. I remember
it was in February 2010 and I was travelling
at the time and when I landed, I had some 15-
20 missed calls. It was an amazing feeling to
cross 100M for the first time and the fact that
something that you started from scratch has
come so far, gave me an enormous amount
of satisfaction. Even the team, everyone as-
sociated with the project was overjoyed and
there was a feeling that they had achieved
something worthwhile.
How have you tailored the four business
units within Redington Value to ensure
that they maximize the opportunities
“ALOTOFPEOPLEDIDNOTBELIEVETHAT
REDINGTONCANTRANSFORMITSELFFROMAPURE
VOLUMEPLAYERTOASIGNIFICANTCOMPETITORIN
THEVALUEADDEDDISTRIBUTIONBUSINESS.”
available in the market
The four Business Units have been created
keeping in mind the specialization required
to handle the specific technologies under
each portfolio. The portfolio should include
complimenting brand offerings and there
should be a strategic fit between the vendors.
Partner profile and fulfilling their go to mar-
ket requirements have also been kept in mind
to better serve the channel community.
What do you think is the reason for this
team’s success, the driving factor behind
where Value Distribution is now?
I think the driving factor is the vision that
everyone shares - to see Value Distribution
reach new heights. Also there is an owner-
ship driven culture here, anyone who joins is
given ownership of a project he or she needs
to handle and then they are left to it. It is
up to them to complete the project in their
own way, which I believe helps them grow
and also tests their mettle and also for the
company, it throws up new, innovative ways
of getting something done.
The team what you started with and the
team that is there today, what makes them
unique?
In the beginning every dollar was a struggle.
Now the Redington Value brand has become
?

“THEDRIVINGFACTORISTHEVISION
THATEVERYONESHARES-TOSEEVALUE
DISTRIBUTIONREACHNEWHEIGHTS.ALSO
THEREISANOWNERSHIPDRIVENCULTURE
HERE,ANYONEWHOJOINSISGIVENOWNERSHIP
OFAPROJECTHEORSHENEEDSTOHANDLEAND
THENTHEYARELEFTTOIT.”
quite signiﬁcant, and our rich bouquet of
products attracts a lot of business on its own.
But in terms of the quality of people and what
we feel they bring to the table, I think that
the team we have today, is very similar to
the team we had in the beginning. I honestly
believe we have been able to retain the cul-
ture and the new faces coming in are able to
contribute to that. The people who are with
us are very passionate about what they do
and this passion is represented by the success
story of Redington Value.
Describe one moment where you felt ex-
tremely proud of Value Distribution?
Well I can’t choose just one here, there have
been several throughout the journey and I
believe there will be many more in the years
to come as well. Our employees put in a huge
amount of hard work into driving business
and when their efforts are recognized by
the industry experts, it makes me feel very
proud. Also, when we have won a contract
under severe competition it has been a
moment of immense pride because it tells
us that we are better than everyone else in
the market and it brings a great amount of
satisfaction.
What can you tell us about the business in
the current year and the opportunity for
growth and expansion of Redington Value?
The business in 2015 has been strong in spite
of difﬁcult market conditions. Redington
value division has managed to grow 25% YOY
till date in 2015. The business conditions in
Africa have come under a lot of pressure due
to forex issues and falling commodity prices
including oil. The business in ME has been
strong but there are early signs of slowing
down in the sales cycle of the government
sector.
In terms of growth areas, Saudi Arabia,
Qatar and Africa markets hold huge potential
and we expect to capitalize on that. In terms
of technologies we will focus on security,
hyper-converged infrastructure and cloud to
drive the business forward.
There are some regions in Southern Africa
and French-speaking Africa where Reding-
ton Value will look to expand in 2016.
enablement point of view. We are enhancing
our ability to create an incremental pipeline
partnering closely with the customers and
generating end user demand. We are also
focused on building a “converged infrastruc-
ture” specialty in value division. One of our
strategic objectives – to strengthen Value
Distribution’s security portfolio is reinforced
by the addition of Fortinet for the Middle East
region.
What can your vendors and reseller partners
expect from Redington Value going forward in
terms of technology additions?
Redington Value is a part of GITEX Technol-
ogy Week 2015 and will use the platform to
launch RedCloud – Redington Value’s cloud
program. We will also be focusing on EMC
VSPEX Blue: Hyper-Converged infrastructure
from Redington as well as advanced solu-
GOING FORWARD WE CAN EXPECT A
LOT MORE FROM THE VALUE DIVISION
ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO:
• Ability to showcase solutions from our
facilities (Solution centers)
• POC on many different technologies
• Authorized training center for key technol-
ogy vendors – training opportunities for
partners
• Joint marketing initiatives with partners
to generate demand
• Specialized Partner Programs
What are Redington Value’s main business
focus areas for the upcoming years?
Main focus for value division is in enhanc-
ing our ability and offerings in the channel
from a product offering point of view and
tions from the software and security division.

REDINGTONGULFTOPS
THEITPPOWERLIST
the

INSIGHT - MIDDLE EAST BUSINESS UPDATE
I
believe the Middle East Channel in today’s
scenario is quite blessed in terms of tal-
ent as there is an abundance of resource
inflow from neighbouring countries
wanting to expand their horizons. Key
in these markets, are still keen to look at con-
tinuing genuine progressive investments and
keeping the momentum running for the rest of
this year and for the next year as well.
The channel in developed markets like
US, Europe have to necessarily operate at
immense levels of efficiencies only to just
survive, leave alone growth and progress.
The ME Channel will soon start to experience
the pressure and the pain which comes along
with it in terms of large scale consolidation,
building efficiencies in operations in order
to get the extra juice out, professionalism in
deliverables and so forth. The ones who really
will survive this change are the ones who will,
T
he IT channel community has
matured more in the KSA region
since last few years as majority of
the partners are focussed on Mid
Market segment but we do see
some of them targeting the SMB segment. As
new disruptive technologies are entering the
market and changing the business landscape,
the channel community has realized the im-
portance of having the right technical skillset
and the ability to market them.
While there are major differences in the way
the channels operate across the GCC countries,
the interesting drivers for growth and recogni-
tion would be more or less the same. As more
business opportunities get commoditised, the
major driver for actually enhancing profit-
ability will come from the intangibles; service,
consultancy, training and support.
There is a dearth of quality services in the
KSA, one who provides them will always win
business. It is up to a partner to identify the
the three key thoughts – ‘Innovation’, ‘Value-
Add’ and ‘Speed’ are no longer a luxury.
As UAE and KSA contribute to and hold
the biggest share of business in the GCC,
the strongest channel is bound to exist in
these two countries. Channel will need to
specialize – develop skill sets internally and
right opportunity and capitalize on it.
With almost everything becoming soft-
ware defined, the channel definitely needs
to enhance their skill in such technologies in
order to survive into the future. Training and
support are most of the times outsourced to
vendors who in-turn look at distributors to
provide that support to resellers. If the neces-
sary technical skills are acquired, partners can
provide these as a value add and can enhance
customer loyalty. The partners who do not
scale up on these aspects will suddenly find
themselves irrelevant and would not know
how to manage the market. Redington Value
distribution using its extensive technical
work force engages with key partners to
make sure that they are vendor certified and
provide support to them in terms of pre-
sales, POCs and Demo activities which can
help them close deals.
Technologies like Virtualisation, Converged
Systems and Software defined solutions will
treat these as assets rather than expenses.
To address larger opportunities the channel
needs to find out ways and means to consoli-
date their finances and secure the ability to
skills to cross sell, enhancing technical offer-
distributors to promote some niche offerings
where margins can be protected is becoming
increasingly important.
While we as distributors continue to evolve,
our focus has always been on visualising
what’s ahead and gearing up for change. This
methodology has helped us stay ahead in the
game and we continue to scale up in order to
provide the necessary support and enable-
ment to the partners for them to see their
business grow. We are very keen to hear from
our partners of their growth plans and would
like to evaluate how we can be instrumental
in their growth strategies and ride the wave
together.
will see a lot of investments from customers
who are looking out for technology refresh.
While this is also almost getting commod-
itised, it has opened up opportunities for
partners to work on optimising virtualised
environments.
MIDDLE EAST MARKET OUTLOOK
AND UPDATE
RajeshMathrani,GeneralManager,MiddleEastSales&Director
Operations,RedingtonValueDistribution.
RashadBaradie,GeneralManager–KingdomofSaudiArabia,
RedingtonValueDistribution.
work on larger projects. Developing sales
ings around the same and partnering with
sooner than the others, accept the fact that
governments, who are the major stakeholders
continue to capture market share in KSA and

INSIGHT - VIRTUAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND CONVERGED SYSTEMS GROUP
V
irtualization is possibly the most
impactful innovation which has
changed and continues to change
the IT consumption model.
Several years ago virtualization
technologies were used mainly to test servers
and use resources more effectively. When
VMWARE released the hypervisor very few
vendors actually supported Virtual environ-
ments. But the Administrators soon realized
the massive wastage of server resources and
virtualization was the way to curtail that.
With growing pressure from users, vendors
were forced to support virtualized states. It
soon became the de facto standard for Data
centers and sparked innovations all around
the central concept of virtualization.
Now – we’ve entered the next frontier.
We’re way beyond simple server virtual-
ization and are exploring new avenues to
make virtualization an even more power-
ful platform. Today the technology has
expanded to Application Delivery, Hosted/
Virtual/Cloud Desktops: There is a re-
surgence of VDI and delivery of complete
T
he concept of converged in-
frastructure has of late gained
momentum with the growing
need for reduced operational
costs, enhanced productivity, agil-
ity and data centre flexibility. Its advantages
have been fully embraced in the region and
channel partners are benefitting from this
increased demand.
It is an approach to data centre manage-
ment that relies on a specific vendor and
provides pre-configured bundles of hardware
and software in a single block. VCE is built on
best of the breed hardware of Cisco unified
computing, networking and EMC storage
and brings converged infrastructure with low
TCO, low Risk, enhanced agility and high
availability with single point for support.
VCE has redefined converged infrastruc-
virtual desktops, Network Virtualization
also known as software defined networks
(SDN), Security Abstraction, User Virtual-
ization and Storage Virtualization.
The biggest challenge the resellers face
today is the rapid pace of change in the IT
industry. One has to constantly invest and
adapt to the changing models. We have a
ture with their Vblocks range and reformed
the IT sector by introducing hyper converged
solution with VMWare EVO RACK archi-
tecture. It allows the customers to look at
deploying modern applications on a very
large scale. This can simplify IT operations
and permit IT organisations to respond faster
to changing business demands.
Not many resellers are able to match the
rapid pace of changing trends in IT. There is
continuous need for partner enablement to
impart new and necessary skills. The partner
enablement process is simply too long due
to resource scarcity, reluctance to spend on
skills and lack of long term vision, hence
heavy dependences on vendor or distribu-
tion community. Channel development and
enablement are one of key focus & differenti-
ating factor for us in the MEA region.
highly qualified work force who are con-
stantly striving to help our partners at differ-
ent stages of the Sales Cycle. We have made
significant investments on people, in POCs
and demo equipment to help the sales cycle,
trainings and certification of partners to help
them get up to speed quickly and help them
adapt to the changes better.
The demand for converged and hyper-
converged systems is only going to grow in
the near future. We will continue to expand
the channel to manage the supply side. On
virtualization we will see more and more
adaption on the Network and Storage side
and move towards a true Software Defined
Data Centre. We have made serious invest-
ment in a build facility for EMC VSPEX Blue,
EMC’s hyper-converged offering which uses
VMWARE EVO RAIL architecture, the only
integration facility in the MEA region. We
will continue to focus and build on our con-
verged system practices mainly with VCE.
From Virtualization perspective the focus
will be on VDI, NSX, and VSAN, basically a
Software Defined Data Centre.
CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE:
A GAME CHANGER!
SayantanDev,VicePresident–VirtualInfrastructure&Con-
vergedSystemsGroup,RedingtonValueDistribution.
KosgalageDharshana,GeneralManager–VirtualInfrastructure
&ConvergedSystemsGroup,RedingtonValueDistribution.

EMC
E
MC Corporation, a global lead-
er in enabling businesses and
service providers to transform
their operations and deliver IT
as a service is looking forward
to a busy period ahead as the
market for converged infra-
structure continues to grow and evolve.
According to IDC, the converged infra-
structure segment grew 68.5 percent from
2012 to a US$1.4 billion market opportunity
IT infrastructure solutions provider, EMC discusses its
latest product, VSPEX BLUE and the unprecedented growth in the
hyper-converged infrastructure market.
EMC REDEFINES
SIMPLICITY
years due to a shift in the way customers are
consuming IT. Customers are increasingly
looking for systems that are simple to man-
age and easy to scale, provide elasticity, don’t
require advanced forecasting, and deliver on
the promise of software-defined everything.
To tap into this growing market, EMC
earlier this year, announced VSPEX BLUE,
its hyper-converged infrastructure appliance
(HCIA). VSPEX BLUE redefines simplicity
by delivering virtualisation, compute, and
storage in an agile, scalable, easy-to-manage,
HCIA. Available as a single, all-inclusive
product for easy ordering, EMC VPEX
BLUE accelerates time to market by enabling
customers to go from power-on to virtual
machine creation within 15 minutes.
Forrester Research has noted that the
transformation of virtual computing envi-
ronments into fully software-defined data
centres (SDDC) is disrupting the archi-
tecture of IT infrastructure. The recent
wave of converged infrastructure products
targeting purely virtualised environments
takes a markedly different approach from
in 2013. This market is predicted to expand
to US$17.8 billion in 2016. In addition to the
established Integrated Systems and Inte-
grated Reference Architectures, the emerg-
ing converged infrastructure market segment
defined as hyper-converged is gaining pace,
and presenting considerable opportunities to
EMC and its channel partners.
EMC estimates the available market for
hyper-converged infrastructure to grow at
an annual rate of 39 percent over the coming

EMC
the previous generation. These new sys-
tems, which Forrester calls storage-centric
virtualised infrastructure, are designed from
a storage-centric perspective that integrates
Intel x86 server and storage. Several vendors
are taking a major architectural departure
for the supporting physical infrastructure,
transforming IT.
The VSPEX BLUE hyper-converged
infrastructure appliance (HCIA) product is
a next-generation converged infrastructure
built with SDDC building blocks on Intel
Xeon processor-based x86 servers. It com-
bines compute, storage, network, virtualisa-
tion, and management into a single appliance
designed to address the unique needs of
midmarket and enterprise customers, and
aligns with EMC’s future growth strategy.
VSPEX BLUE’s architecture is a distributed
system consisting of common modular SDDC
building blocks that scale linearly from one
to four 2U/4 node appliances.
The VSPEX BLUE approach is suitable
for virtualisation of a private-hybrid cloud,
remote office-branch office (ROBO), test-
dev, and virtual desktops in midmarket,
enterprise, and managed services environ-
ments. The target customer profile includes
line of business owners, application owners,
IT directors or generalists, and ROBOs,
as well as test and development teams in
a mid-market and enterprise IT environ-
ments. In addition, EMC VSPEX BLUE
could be leveraged by managed service pro-
viders either on premise, in a co-location, or
their own data centres.
VSPEX BLUE provides great opportunity
to EMC’s partners to position a complete
infrastructure solution that is simple to buy,
install, manage, and scale. VSPEX BLUE
redefines simplicity by delivering virtualisa-
tion, compute, storage, networking, and pro-
tection in an agile, scalable, easy-to-manage
hyper-converged infrastructure appliance.
Available as an all-inclusive product for easy
ordering, VSPEX BLUE accelerates time-to-
value by enabling customers to go from pow-
er-on to VM creation in 15 minutes through
integrated software powered by EMC and
VMware EVO:RAIL. Designed for simplicity,
fully orchestrated installation, management,
patching, and upgrading, VSPEX BLUE pro-
vides linear scaling capability that grows or
contracts based on business needs.
Unlike traditional VSPEX in which part-
ners choose the components based on EMC
guidance, VSPEX BLUE is a complete EMC
design with EMC-specified components,
EMC value-add software, and EMC support,
and since this product is all EMC, it was
aptly named VSPEX BLUE.
EMC expects many value added resellers
to have interest in extending their current
converged infrastructure practice with
VSPEX BLUE and leveraging their existing
demand generation vehicles and marketing
initiatives around VSPEX reference architec-
tures with VSPEX BLUE.
VSPEX BLUE will also enable VARs to
stand out from the crowd of other EVO:RAIL
OEM partners because it brings unique dif-
ferentiators with the VSPEX BLUE appli-
ance by integrating EMC’s own software,
support and other leading solutions to pro-
vide a complete, all-in-one, Intel-powered,
hyper-converged infrastructure appliance.
EMC VSPEX BLUE MANAGER
EMC VSPEX BLUE Manager integrates with
VMware’s EVO:RAIL user interface and lev-
erages the same design principles to provide
a seamless and harmonious experience that
embodies the simplicity and ease-of-use
functionality that customers expect. From
the VSPEX BLUE Manager interface, users
can also conveniently access electronic ser-
vices (such as EMC Knowledgebase articles),
access a wealth of community-sourced on-
line and real-time information, and familiar-
ise themselves with EMC best practices for
“VSPEXBLUEDELIVERSCOMPUTE,STORAGE,
NETWORKINGANDMANAGEMENTINANAGILE,
SCALABLE,TRUSTEDANDEASYTOMANAGEHY-
PER-CONVERGEDINFRASTRUCTUREAPPLIANCE.”
optimal appliance operations.
VSPEX BLUE Manager provides deeper
hardware awareness than is available in the
native product alone and is the vehicle by
which alerts and notifications are displayed
to the user in a simple and easily under-
stood manner. The VSPEX BLUE Manager
leverages the underlying VMware Log
Insight product in EVO:RAIL to capture
events and to provide up-to-the-minute
holistic notifications about the state of their
virtual applications, virtual machines, and
appliance hardware.
VSPEX BLUE Manager also provides link
and download capabilities whereby users can
choose pre-filtered, appliance-compatible
EMC software titles that will enhance their
IT capabilities and experience. It simpli-
fies IT management by delivering patch and
software update notification that can be
automatically installed without interruption
or downtime so that the appliance software
is always up-to-date, and by enabling EMC
Secure Remote Services (ESRS).
EMC CLOUDARRAY
EMC recognises that many VSPEX BLUE
customers will want to expand their stor-
age capacity beyond their VSPEX BLUE
appliance and leverage third-party cloud
providers. VSPEX BLUE Manager’s link and
download capability includes access to EMC
CloudArray, which enables this capability
quickly and easily.
EMC CloudArray software provides scal-
able, cloud-based storage with a customer’s
choice of cloud providers, enabling limitless
network-attached storage, offsite backup and
disaster recovery, and the ability to support
both Block and File simply. Each VSPEX
BLUE appliance is offered with a free 1 TB
of local caching storage, which allows up to
10 TB of total storage when connected to a
public cloud provider. CloudArray provides
a simple solution to cloud storage with a
sophisticated bandwidth scheduler and data
reduction technology that minimises net-
work impact and keeps your VSPEX BLUE
running optimally.
Starting in March, EMC VSPEX BLUE has
been made available globally and although it
is an EMC product, it is brought to market by
selected distribution partners.

VMWARE
Cloud and virtualisation solutions provider, VMware discusses the company’s latest product
and its unique value proposition.
REDEFINING
VIRTUAL STORAGE
V
Mware’s software defined
storage vision and strategy
is to drive transformation
through the hypervisor,
bringing to storage the
same operational efficien-
cy that server virtualisa-
tion brought to compute.
As the abstraction between applications and
available resources, the hypervisor can balance
all IT resources, compute, memory, storage and
networking, needed by an application. With
server virtualisation as the de facto platform
to run enterprise applications. VMware is
uniquely positioned to deliver software defined
storage utilising the pervasiveness of this
software tier.
By transitioning from the legacy storage
model to software defined storage with vir-
tual SAN, customers will gain benefits such as
automation of storage class of service at scale,
self service capabilities which empower appli-
cation administrators with cloud automation
tool integration, simple change management
using policies, finer control of storage class of
service, effective monitoring and safeguard
existing investment.
The goal of software defined storage is to
introduce a new approach that enables a more
efficient and flexible operational model
for storage in virtual environments. This
is accomplished by abstracting the underly-
ing hardware into logical, pools of capac-
ity that can be more flexibly consumed and
managed in a virtual machine centric fashion.
The abstraction of the data plane enables ad-
ditional functions that an array may provide
to be offered as data services for consumption
on a per virtual machine basis. Data Services
can provide functionality such as compression,
replication, snapshots, de-duplication, avail-
ability, migration and data mobility, perfor-
mance capabilities, disaster recovery, and
other capabilities.
Another method is Implementing an auto-
mation layer that enables dynamic control
and monitoring of storage services levels to
individual virtual machines across hetero-
geneous devices, VMware refers to this as the
policy driven control plane.
DATAPLANE
The data plane is responsible for both,
storing data and applying data services
such as snapshots, replication, and caching.
While data services may be provided by a
physical array or implemented in software,

VMWARE
the virtual data plan abstracts the services
and will present them to the policy driven
control plane for consumption and applies
the resultant policy to the objects in the virtual
data store.
In today’s model, the data plane operates
on rigid infrastructure centric constructs that
typically are static allocations of storage
service levels independently defined from
applications.
In the VMware software defined stor-
age model, the data plane is virtualised by
abstracting physical hardware resources and
aggregating them into logical pools of capac-
ity that can be more flexibly consumed
and managed. Additionally, to simplify
the delivery of storage service levels for
individual applications, the Data Plane
makes the virtual disk the fundamental unit
of management around which all storage
operations are controlled. As a result, exact
combinations of data services can be instanti-
ated and controlled independently for each
virtual machines.
For each virtual machine that is deployed,
the data services offered can be applied indi-
vidually. Each application can have its own
unique storage service level and capabilities
assigned to it at its time of creation. This
allows for per application storage policies,
ensuring both simpler yet individualised
management of applications without the
requirement of mapping applications to
broad infrastructure concepts like a physical
data store.
POLICYDRIVENCONTROLPLANE
In the VMware software defined storage
model, the control plane acts as the bridge be-
tween applications and storage infrastructure.
The control plane provides a standardised
management framework for provision-
ing and consuming storage across all tiers,
whether on external arrays, x86 server storage
or cloud storage.
The policy driven control plane is the
management layer responsible for controlling
and monitoring storage operations. In today’s
model, the control plane is typically, tied to
each storage device, each array is oper-
ated in a different way . and implements a
bottom up array centric approach in which
storage service levels are aggregated into
physical tiers or classes of services, which
are static pre allocations of resources and data
services tied to the infrastructure.
Upon provisioning, an application is rigidly
mapped to these pre-configured storage con-
tainers. These storage containers are rarely
aligned to precise application boundaries,
and their capabilities need to be defined
broadly to encompass the requirements of a
broad set of applications.
This restricts the ability of a storage
container to be focused specifically on the
business requirements of an individual ap-
plication. To circumvent this problem, storage
administrators may be asked to create numer-
ous purpose built data stores, increasing the
management overhead and complexity associ-
ated with storage.
HYPERCONVERGEDINFRASTRUCTURE
A new approach to the software defined data
centre, called hyper convergence, is emerg-
ing. HCI leverages the hypervisor to deliver
compute, networking and shared storage from
a single x86 server platform. The software
driven architecture allows the convergence of
physical storage onto commodity x86 servers,
enabling a building block approach with scale
out capabilities. The use of commodity x86
server and storage hardware allows data cen-
tres to operate with agility on a highly scalable,
cost effective infrastructure.
The foundational components of VMware’s
hyper converged infrastructure solution are
VMware vSphere and VMware Virtual SAN.
Together they allow the convergence of com-
pute, storage and networking onto a single,
integrated layer of software that, can run on
any commodity x86 infrastructure.
VMware vSphere abstracts and aggregates
compute and memory resources into logical
pools of compute capacity while Virtual SAN,
embedded in vSphere, pools server attached
storage to create a high performance, shared
data store for virtual machine storage.
Customers can further extend vSphere to
achieve the convergence of networking using
VMware NSX which decouples network re-
sources from underlying hardware and brings
the operational model of a virtual machine to
the data centre network.
VMWAREVIRTUALSAN(VSAN)
Virtual SAN is VMware’s enterprise class
storage software defined solution for hyper
converged infrastructure. It is seamlessly
embedded in the hypervisor, designed to
deliver enterprise class, elastically scalable,
high performance shared storage for vSphere
Virtual Machines that is radically simple to
consume and manage Virtual SAN pools server
attached magnetic and flash devices to create
a distributed shared data store that abstracts
the storage hardware and provides a hyper
converged compute, storage, and network opti-
mised solution for virtual machines.
VMware customers can benefit from the
many unique values delivered by this trans-
formational technology through easy deploy-
ment, elastic scalability, high performance
and lower TCO.
From setup to ongoing management, Virtual
SAN is radically simple; it is embedded directly
in the hypervisor and does not require any ad-
ditional software to be installed, it can simply be
enabled in a few clicks.
By virtue of being software defined and
delivered from the hypervisor, Virtual SAN is
completely hardware independent and works
with any x.86 vSphere compatible server al-
lowing customers to continue leveraging their
server vendor of choice.
Now in its 3rd release, Virtual SAN has been
already adopted by a large number of VMware
customers in just a few months. Customers of
all industries and sizes, trust Virtual SAN to run
their most mission critical applications.
Virtual SAN 6.1 adds greater abilities around
availability and management that can perform
in the most demanding storage environments.
In this new release VMware continues to focus
on delivering high performance and increased
scale to provide enterprise class storage for vir-
tualised workloads, including Tier.1 production
and business critical applications.
VMwareisexpandingthecapabilitiesofVir-
tualSANasaplatformandisintroducinghigher
levelsofenterpriseavailabilityanddataprotec-
tionbyenhancingthereplicationcapabilitiesof
thesolutionaswellasprovidingfaulttolerance
supportformultiprocessorsvirtualmachines.
A critical aspect of Virtual SAN is ensuring
that data is never lost. Virtual SAN 6.1 stretched
clusters further enable the ability for no inter-
ruption in operations even in the event of a
complete site failure.

For more information or to place an order on VMware,

IT Agility Delivered:
Cisco Unified
Computing System
For more information or to place an order on Cisco,

SYMANTEC
S
ymantec is a global
leader in providing
security, stor-
age and systems
management
solutions to help its custom-
ers, from consumers and
small businesses to the largest
global organisations, secure
and manage their information
against more risks at more
points, more completely and
efﬁciently than any other IT
security vendor.
In its core businesses, consumer, end-point security, storage
management and backup, Symantec utilises its market leadership
positions to accelerate new growth opportunities. As the IT secu-
rity industry matures, Symantec pairs new technologies with its
core solutions to deliver integrated solutions that address evolving
customer needs.
Since its inception in 1982, Symantec has grown into a Fortune 500
company through a combination of internal development, strategic
acquisitions and partnering with industry leaders. It has over the
years expanded its footprint in the Middle East and Africa (MEA),
with Redington Gulf as the regional value-added distributor (VAD)
for its products in Africa.
As the IT threat landscape evolves and customers shift to adapt
to new technologies and technology consumption, Symantec
is investing in future growth areas such as mobility, virtualisa-
tion and SaaS, that will help to reduce cost and complexity for its
customers. The company leverages internal R&D, acquisitions and
partnerships to accelerate its long-term strategy.
With Symantec, customers can protect more of their informa-
tion and its technology infrastructure, in greater depth, wherever
information is stored or used. From securing a consumer’s online
identity and interactions to protecting an organisation’s mission-
critical data, Symantec offers the leading and best-of-breed security,
backup and recovery, data availability and data loss prevention
products and solutions in the Middle East and globally.
As a platform-independent software company without bias to an
individual operating system or hardware environment, Symantec
helps customers manage more technologies
with greater efﬁciency, on more platforms,
even in virtual environments than any other
IT security company in the market today.
Securing
information
Tackling
security threats
Sinceinceptionin1982,Symantechasgrown
intoaFortune500company.
R
SA, the security
division of EMC, is
the premier provid-
er of intelligence-
driven security
solutions. The company helps
the world’s leading organisa-
tions solve their most complex
and sensitive security chal-
lenges: managing organisation-
al risks, safeguarding mobile
access and collaboration,
preventing online fraud, and
defending against advanced
threats. RSA delivers agile
controls for identity assur-
ance, fraud detection, and data
protection; robust Security
Analytics and industry-leading
GRC capabilities; and expert
consulting and advisory ser-
vices.
RSA’s intelligence driven
security solutions help or-
ganisations reduce the risks
of operating in a digital world.
Through visibility, analysis,
and action, RSA solutions give
customers the ability to detect,
investigate and respond to
advanced threats; confirm and
manage identities; and ulti-
mately, prevent IP theft, fraud
and cybercrime.
RSA Security aims to bring
clarity to information driven
security with an advanced big
data security analytics archi-
tecture and the introduction
of RSA Security Analytics 10.4
and RSA ECAT 4.0 recognises
that secu-
rity teams need
help attain-
ing the right
level of visibility, analysing
mountains of data and turning
these activities into immediate
action.
RSA put a lot of effort into
understanding security ana-
lysts’ job responsibility and
instrumented RSA Security
Analytics 10.4 and RSA ECAT
4.0 with features and func-
tionality to help them improve
and au-tomate processes. For
example, RSA redesigned the
GUI and dashboards to help
analysts focus their investiga-
tions on suspicious activities
first.
Aside from the products
themselves, RSA is also com-
mitted to a modular security
analytics architec-ture. RSA
products such as RSA ECAT,
RSA Security Analytics and
RSA Security Operations Man-
agement can deliver value on
their own, integrate with third
party products like SIEMs or
work together to form a com-
prehensive big data security
analytics architecture. In this
way, CISOs can work with RSA
to ad-dress pressing require-
ments as they develop and
execute a two to three year
security modernisation plan
for their enterprise.
Its products in the Mid-
dle East are distributed by
Redington Gulf, a leading VAD
in MEA.
RSA makes the public key
infrastructure (PKI) encryp-
tion standards by which much
of the Internet’s secure com-
munications are run.
RSA SECURITY

PERNIXDATA
Virtual storage solutions provider, PernixData explains powerful
attributes of its trending storage software, PernixData FVP.
NEW ERA
IN SERVER
STORAGE
P
ernixData FVP is the lead-
ing software platform for
server-side, scale-out storage
acceleration. It was founded
in 2012 and its main product
is PernixData FVP, which
is software for virtualising
server-side ﬂash memory and Random Ac-
cess Memory (RAM).
PernixData FVP software is a fault
tolerant platform for scale-out server-side
storage acceleration. By putting storage
intelligence into high-speed server media,
FVP minimises VM latency and provides
storage performance that predictably scales
with compute resources.
With FVP software, storage reads and
writes are handled inside hosts using high
speed server media, like ﬂash and RAM.
This eliminates storage array bottlenecks
and maximises the performance of all vir-
tualised applications. At the same time, FVP
lets you use any shared storage hardware for
capacity. This avoids rip-and-replace head-

PERNIXDATA
aches, minimises storage upgrade costs, and
ensures that whatever storage you have will
always be the fastest.
Any shared storage platform can be used
for capacity, creating a decoupled storage ar-
chitecture that maximises design flexibility
and minimises storage hardware costs.
Increasing storage performance with FVP
software is as simple as clustering more
high speed server resources. This enables
storage performance to easily and predict-
ably scale with compute, and to cost effec-
tively grow with the needs of your business.
100% non-disruptive
FVP software integrates seamlessly with
existing servers, storage, hypervisors and
VMs, eliminating the need to rip and replace
existing infrastructure. This includes all
variants of server flash (PCIe and SSD) and
RAM, as well as any file (NFS), block (iSCSI,
fibre channel, FCoE), or direct attached
storage device.
Deployment of FVP software takes less
than 10 minutes, with no reboots or changes
required to VMs. Once installed, IT admin-
istrators simply create FVP clusters and
assign the VMs to each pool of resources.
As a VMware certified solution, PernixData
FVP software resides within the hypervi-
sor, avoiding performance and management
challenges that come with virtual storage
appliances (VSAs) and guest agents.
Compatible with all VMware operations
PernixData FVP software uses patent-pend-
ing FVP Cluster™ technology to allow a
VM resident on any host to remotely access
the flash or RAM on a different host within
the cluster. This enables FVP software to
seamlessly support all VMware features and
products (such as vMotion, HA and DRS)
without requiring changes to workflows or
impacting application, network or storage
performance.
PernixData FVP is the first in the industry
to accelerate write operations using both
server flash and RAM (in Write Back mode)
in addition to read acceleration (with Write
Through). To ensure that FVP can support
all workloads, including mission-critical
applications, data can be synchronously rep-
licated to 1 or 2 other hosts in an FVP cluster
for fault tolerance.
This is especially useful when accel-
erating writes using RAM, where FVP’s
Distributed Fault Tolerant Memory (DFTM)
feature prevents data loss even in the event
of host, device, or network failure.
With PernixData FVP software, custom-
ers can finally decouple storage perfor-
mance from capacity to build the storage ar-
chitecture they need, in the way they want.
PernixData Architect is a comprehensive
software platform for data centre design,
deployment, operations and optimisation.
It combines best-in-class user experi-
ence with robust descriptive, prescriptive
and predictive analytics to deliver unprec-
edented visibility and control of virtualised
applications and the underlying infrastruc-
ture. Design issues are avoided before they
happen, maximising VM performance while
minimising troubleshooting costs.
With Architect, the data centre is always
performing at its peak, with every aspect
of the IT lifecycle efficiently designed and
managed from a single intuitive platform.
FVP software puts storage performance
into high speed server media, while ena-
bling the customer to use any shared storage
for capacity. This decoupled storage archi-
tecture provides numerous advantages such
as fastest virtualised applications, minimal
storage costs, extended life span of existing
SAN/NAS and ability to add new hardware
wherever and whenever it is needed.
Architect ensures the success of strategic
projects by avoiding unexpected perfor-
mance issues when rolling out new applica-
tions or upgrading existing applications. It
allows users to proactively manage their
data centre by avoiding VM and storage
performance issues before they occur.
Architect aids in the design, deployment,
operations and optimisation phases of the
IT life cycle, which obviates the need for
separate, standalone software platforms for
managing these individual functions.
PernixData FVP software’s DFTM-Z
feature transparently reduces the data foot-
print required when utilising RAM to ac-
celerate virtualised applications. Leveraging
compression with minimal CPU overhead,
DFTM-Z offers the performance of RAM at
the price of flash with no user intervention
needed.
Similarly, Adaptive Network Compression
detects bandwidth-limited conditions and
transparently compresses write data before
transmitting. This enables the benefits of
FVP software to be realised without the
need for a costly network upgrade.
Intelligent I/O profiling helps identify
workloads that are not good candidates
for acceleration and allows it to be auto-
matically bypassed to prevent server-side
resource pollution.
By ensuring that the more performance
sensitive data remains server side, applica-
tions are guaranteed excellent and predict-
able performance.
Using topology-aware Write Back ac-
celeration with fault domains, the Pernix-
Data FVP server-side storage intelligence
platform can be aligned with existing data
centre architecture and best practices
(including various clustering options). FVP
also features built-in fault tolerance that
allows a decoupled storage deployment to
withstand any kind of outage, be it a host,
server device, or network. In addition,
PernixData FVP is VM-aware, allowing you
to configure, manage, and monitor VMs in
an unprecedented way with sophisticated
resource management.
PernixData FVP is supported on various
server platforms that include Cisco UCS se-
ries, Dell PowerEdge series, HP DL and BL
series, IBM xSeries platforms, and any other
server platform on VMware HCL.
It is also supported on the following flash
devices; Cisco, Dell, HP, and IBM SSD,
HGST Enterprise SS, Intel DC Series SSD,
Kingston SSDNow Enterprise SSD, Micron
Enterprise SSD, and any other flash device
on VMware HCL.
“BYENSURINGTHATTHEMOREPERFORMANCE
SENSITIVEDATAREMAINSONSERVERSIDE,
APPLICATIONSAREGUARANTEEDEXCELLENT
ANDPREDICTABLEPERFORMANCE.”

For more information or to place an order on VCE,

INSIGHT – SERVERS AND STORAGE
K. S. Venkatraman, General Manager – Servers & Storage, Redington Value Distribution,
talks about current changes within the Enterprise Servers and Storage (ESS) regional market,
and how resellers can improve their margins by offering holistic end-to-end solutions.
THEEVOLVINGENTERPRISE
SERVERS&STORAGESPACE
E
SS space is evolving glob-
ally and is under threat from
disruptive technologies. Serv-
ers and Storage are the most
basic components of an IT
infrastructure. This is an extremely mature
product set. Channel and customers are
knowledgeable, the GTM models are well
defined and vendors are fully engaged. The
main challenge facing this segment is the
existence of already established suppliers,
commoditization of the products leading to
low margins and difficulty in establishing a
USP.
Disruptive technologies are shaking up
this space and in a way proving to be both
a boon and a bane, as suppliers have to
compete with a completely differentiated
solution instead of a product. Hence there is
a need to focus on selling solutions emerging
in the landscape. ESS products need to be
seen as part of a larger solution and the re-
seller needs to build his portfolio of services
which can help him address the complete
customer requirement.
As a VAD, we are focusing on channel
community and providing them with the
know-how and means to come up with solu-
tions for the end customers. Our guidance
to resellers is to look for emerging busi-
ness segments like CCTV solutions which
may benefit from their expertise or move
to an altogether new area such as Hyper-
converged solutions where current market
knowledge / skillsets are all relatively low.
Traditional IT deployments will continue in
the SMB space, however use of technologies
like Virtualization will see per deployment
revenue shrink.
We are looking to develop solutions for
specialized segments and obtain reference
accounts for newer approaches such as
Hyper-convergence and build the practice
based on this. Being a multi-vendor division,
we are better equipped to provide alternative
solutions to the channel. This will help us in
growing opportunities for the channel.
“DISRUPTIVETECHNOLOGIESARESHAKINGUP
THISSPACEANDINAWAYPROVINGTOBEBOTHA
BOONANDABANE,ASSUPPLIERSHAVETOCOM-
PETEWITHACOMPLETELYDIFFERENTIATEDSOLU-
TIONINSTEADOFAPRODUCT.HENCETHEREISA
NEEDTOFOCUSONSELLINGSOLUTIONSEMERG-
INGINTHELANDSCAPE.ESSPRODUCTSNEEDTO
BESEENASPARTOFALARGERSOLUTIONAND
THERESELLERNEEDSTOBUILDHISPORTFOLIO
OFSERVICESWHICHCANHELPHIMADDRESSTHE
COMPLETECUSTOMERREQUIREMENT.”

HP ENTERPRISE
Global business and technology services provider, HP Enterprise
discusses new digital trends for enterprises and its expertise to
bridge the gap between old and new.
DIGITAL IS THE
NEW STYLE
OF DOING
BUSINESS
A
s technology continues to
change at a rapid pace and
digitisation pushes both IT
and business boundaries,
your IT infrastructure, op-
erations, and organisation
must change. HP believes
that successful enterprises with traditional
IT systems now need to navigate a way to
evolve their infrastructure and operations in
order to enable growth, increase agility, and
boost innovation.
In a recent HP survey, 81 percent of IT
respondents and 84 percent of line of busi-
ness respondents, said they believe that the IT
function is proactive at bringing new ideas to
the business for it to leverage and seek ideas to
meet its changing needs.
IT is no longer viewed as just a cost centre
but now has a seat at the table to inﬂuence
the direction of the business. HP sees this as

HP ENTERPRISE
a turning point and believes that IT must use
that influence to help the business meet its
goals of introducing not just technology, but
the processes and workflows to help enable
growth, improve profitability, increase agility,
boost productivity, improve the customer expe-
rience, increase innovation and reduce risk.
Leading companies are moving to the new
style of business, using new digital technolo-
gies such as: mobility, cloud, big data analytics,
and security, to meet their business goals.
CLOUD:RAPIDLYDEVELOPANDDELIVER
APPLICATIONSANDSERVICES
Moving to the cloud helps organisations
become more agile and better cope with the
pace of change. In the same survey, 85 percent
of IT groups in organisations identified as digi-
tal leaders are more effective than external IT
service providers in keeping up with the pace of
change, while only 48 percent of laggards are.
HP has seen that moving to a hybrid
infrastructure and DevOps principles, helps
organisations better engage with customers,
employees, and supply chains by delivering
applications faster and more efficiently.
“Many start-ups today don’t own data
centres or infrastructure and do everything
through a public cloud, which lets them scale
up or down quickly. This helps them leapfrog
competitors who are bogged down dealing
with legacy infrastructure. But even if you can’t
start from scratch like a start-up, moving to the
cloud can still bring significant gains in agility,
productivity, and customer satisfaction,” said
Mark Linesch, vice president, strategy and
operations, Enterprise group CTO office at HP.
MOBILITY:ENABLEEMPLOYEES,CUS-
TOMERSANDDATA
Mobility is a revolution that started with con-
sumers and is now expanding rapidly within
the enterprise. Consumers increasingly use
their mobile phones to accomplish tasks such
as banking, depositing a cheque, for instance,
by taking a picture of it with their phone, rather
than visiting an ATM or a bank branch. That
means, the mobile device is often the first face
of the enterprise to a customer and therefore a
critical part of the overall customer experience.
HP has seen that traditional enterprise
applications such as CRM tend to
handle many operations, while mobile apps,
such as a “find a customer” app, tend to be
specific to a particular task. To enable your
organisation through mobility, focus on the
business processes that matter most to the
success of the organisation and move them
to a platform that is dynamic, scalable, and
accessible through mobile technology.
BIGDATA:DATADRIVENTOGENERATE
REAL-TIMEPREDICTIVEINSIGHTS
Big data analytics are fundamentally chang-
ing the way organisations do business. Colin
Mahony, senior vice president and general
manager, Big Data group, HP Software, stated:
“New companies are reinventing industries
by leveraging analytics to drive their business
models. Others are using big data to better
understand their customers, supply chains, or
operations to lower costs or generate
additional revenue.”
Entertainment companies are ingesting
and constantly evaluating massive amounts
of information about their content or events
to improve the customer experience.
Telecommunications companies gather and
analyse thousands of pieces of data about the
performance of every call to assure quality.
Financial services companies are taking data
from the stock ticker in real time back testing
it against historical data to gain insights to
make better trades.
SECURITY:PROACTIVEINTHEFACEOF
THREATS,FAILUREANDRISK
HP cautions that when moving to a new
environment for the new style of IT, organi-
sations must take security into account up
front and build it into the environment in
a holistic fashion, with people, process and
“MANYSTART-UPSTODAYDON’TOWNDATA
CENTRESORINFRASTRUCTUREANDDO
EVERYTHINGTHROUGHAPUBLICCLOUD,WHICH
LETSTHEMSCALEUPORDOWNQUICKLY.”
technology considerations.
In the past, security was very much about
protecting the perimeter of the data centre, but
today with mobility, the cloud, and the Internet
of Things (IoT), a perimeter no longer exists.
Security in this environment should move be-
yond firewalls and take a wider IT perspective.
According to Lois Boliek, CISM, CISO,
global portfolio strategist, IT Assurance and
Security, Technology Services Consulting, HP,
said: “Security practitioners need to under-
stand from an architectural level how to embed
security into every aspect of the environment.
And beyond their technical skills, they must
have an innate curiosity to help understand
an adversary that is constantly changing and
becoming increasingly unpredictable.”
As recently as five years ago, IT was meas-
ured on how well it delivered a base level of
service for the lowest cost. Today, HP sees a
new imperative: align people, processes, and
technology for rapid service delivery to make
the entire organisation more agile. In terms
of infrastructure, which provides the founda-
tion for all the technology changes, HP sees
IT moving from physical, general purpose ele-
ments to a converged, software-defined, hybrid
delivered infrastructure that becomes an agile,
flexible service.
But with converged infrastructure comes the
need for a converged organisation made up of
people with converged skills. Jan De Clercq,
senior architect, Technology Services Consult-
ing at HP, said: “Software-defined infrastruc-
ture will require new skills around automation,
orchestration, programming, and scripting, as
well as a better understanding of the business,
because instead of focusing on just the nuts and
bolts of technology, IT staff will need to focus
on the rules, the policies, and the business logic
behind how the infrastructure configures itself.”
Clearly, IT is at the heart of business, and IT
needs to transform to generate greater business
outcomes. IT needs to be more exploratory and
experimental and must be able to pivot quickly
when it discovers that something is not work-
ing. HP provides modern architectures and
solutions built to provide organisations with
that level of agility. It provides workshops to
help organisations discover the art of the possi-
ble and can help them move to the New Style of
Business to speed the delivery of value to their
businesses.

The right compute:
HP ProLiant Gen9 Servers
Whatever the workload, HP ProLiant servers deliver the right
compute for the right workload at the right economics…every time.
HP ProLiant has been the
#1 server brand for
73 consecutive quarters—
that’s over 18 years.1
50%
of IT budgets are
spent supporting
operations2
$9.5 billion total
addressable market
(TAM) opportunity for
new and refresh
HP ProLiant server
sales through FY164
$100,000s
in lost opportunities
result from slow
IT project turnaround
time3
HP ProLiant Gen9 Servers:
your compute advantage
In the compute era, processing is not
and silos. HP ProLiant Gen9 Servers
are designed for this new era, driving:
Lower costs
Faster time
Higher value of
service delivery
Intelligent HP ProLiant Gen9 Servers
HP ProLiant servers are built for any size
business, for any size workload, in any
environment, with:
per watt than Gen8 Servers with previous
generation processors5
acquisition costs6
automation, saving admin time and reducing
errors from manual steps7
performance so customers can get to their
data faster8
1
2
3
4
Internal HP estimate.
5
6
HP internal analysis. Virtualization includes the cost of vSphere. Performance numbers calculated internally from public benchmarks. Number of servers in brackets compared to 64 ProLiant Gen8 Servers; downtime costs included. Includes
7
8
Triple compute capacity while
reducing cost of ownership
Compute that delivers
service in seconds
host of features to drive down the cost
of IT service while providing more compute
capacity to run core applications. With
more processing capacity, more storage,
networking, and power—all coupled with
consumption—you get more capacity and
a lower cost of IT service.
can clone virtual machines in seconds and
speed infrastructure provisioning by up to
7
It’s IT service delivery at the speed
of cloud.
HP ProLiant Gen9 Servers do more than
provide a service—they speed up the
applications that run the business and
help fuel growth. Faster workloads allow
core business applications to keep pace
with business mandates to grow revenue,
margin, and customer satisfaction.
ProLiant Gen9 performance boosts span
Boosts workload
performance by up to 4X2
HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
Learn more at hp.com/go/proliantgen9
How HP ProLiant stacks up against
the competition
Blade
server
(BL)
Rack
server
(DL)
Tower
server
(ML)
Density
optimized
(BL)
Software-
servers
(Moonshot)
Rack-scale
computing/
HPC
(Apollo)
Dell
IBM
Lenovo
Cisco
Limited po
choices compared to HP
For more information or to place an order on HP,

FUJITSU
Building data centre infrastructures is increasingly complex, error-prone, time-consuming, risky
and expensive. FUJITSU Integrated System PRIMEFLEX reduces complexity and risk, shortens time
to value and reduces cost.
SCALING WITH PRIMEFLEX
T
he job of an IT manager
is not easy, management
expects maximum flexibility
from corporate IT in order
to respond quickly and
effectively to ever changing
business demands. This
often requires adjustments to existing IT
services or even fast delivery of new services.
At the same time, financial managers are
looking for more efficiency. This includes
less complexity and lower costs, in addition
to more cost transparency and predictability,
minimised risks and full compliance with IT
directives and legislation. End users on the
other hand expect highest service levels as a
prerequisite for highest levels of productivity
and satisfaction.
One of the tasks IT managers are
faced with again and again is building IT
infrastructures for their data centre, which
often proves to be complex. When building
the infrastructure in a do-it-yourself (DIY)
approach, you first of all need to select
the right components from a myriad
of possibilities, procure and configure
them, before you integrate the individual
components onsite.
All these activities are time-consuming
and expensive, while presenting businesses
with multiple risks. A deep knowledge of
all components involved is required, and an
understanding of their various dependencies
on each other.
In other words, a DIY approach can cause
serious headaches, which in turn is certainly
in conflict with the business requirements
previously discussed.
This is exactly what integrated systems is
about. An integrated system is a pre-defined,
pre-integrated and pre-tested combination
of data centre components, such as servers,
storage, network connectivity and software.
Integrated systems relieve you from all
possible pain caused by building data centre
infrastructures on your own, because they
help reduce complexity, time and risk, while
increasing operational efficiency.
Fujitsu Integrated System PRIMEFLEX is
one of the broadest portfolios of integrated
systems. Together with its add-ons, you
get all you need for fast time to value, and
more. PRIMEFLEX covers all areas that
are relevant for Fujitsu clients, be it server
virtualisation or desktop virtualisation,
private cloud or high availability including
disaster recovery, big data and analytics or
HPC, or SAP and Microsoft environments.
Thus, PRIMEFLEX currently represents
one of the broadest portfolios of integrated
systems in the market.
The PRIMEFLEX line-up comprises
traditional integrated systems and hyper-
converged systems. PRIMEFLEX includes
both delivery options, ready-to-run systems
for highest speed and reference architecture
for high flexibility, and even a combination
of both, due to its staging centre capabilities.
For reference architectures, installation and
configuration guidelines are available as a
standard.
Fujitsu Integrated Systems PRIMEFLEX
are built from best-in-class components,
either from Fujitsu or leading technology
partners, and they are based on best
practices and extensive project experience.
Fujitsu provides supplementing, flexible
services such as consulting, deployment,
integration into the production
environment, lifecycle management and
solution support, as well as data centre
services and financial services.
Fujitsu’s technology and services vision is
about the human-centric intelligent society.
To achieve this vision, there are three main
activities that relate to people, information
and ICT. These are creating innovation
through people, powering business and
society with information, and optimising
ICT systems from end to end.
FUJITSU Integrated System PRIMFLEX
significantly contributes to optimising
ICT systems from end to end, thus clearly
supporting Fujitsu’s vision.

LENOVO
Global technology giant, Lenovo discusses the latest trends in the devices market and its future
strategies to maintain its edge in the saturated market.
DRIVING THE DEVICE ERA
L
enovo is one of the world’s
leading personal technol-
ogy companies, producing
innovative PCs and mobile
internet devices. The com-
pany currently ranks 286 on
the fortune 500 list, and is the
world’s largest PC vendor and fourth largest
smartphone company.
While the Lenovo brand came into exist-
ence in 2004, a spin-off of Legend Holdings,
which was created in 1984 in a guard house
in China with US$25,000, today, Lenovo is a
US$39 billion personal technology company
with more than 54,000 employees in more
than 60 countries serving customers in more
than 160 countries. Lenovo is incorporated
and headquartered in Hong Kong, with
operational centres around the world, the
largest ones being in Beijing and Morrisville.
The company has grown faster than the
market for more than four years owing to
the growing superiority of its products.
Lenovo’s customers use innovation to bring
progress to the world, and therefore it
designs and builds its products with this in
mind, taking inspiration from the drive and
imagination of the people who make things
happen.
Lenovo’s technology is helping those who
do, do better. Whether a PC, smartphone,
tablet, smart TV, server, workstation or
storage, Lenovo makes the products that
customers need, from smart connected to
infrastructure devices. Lenovo is creating
real differentiation from the competition,
thanks to its vertically integrated end-to-
end business model. This model is unique
among major technology companies and is
a significant source of competitive advan-
tage, enabling it to bring more innovation to
market, more efficiently, and aggressively
embrace the PC plus opportunity.
Lenovo has strongly invested in various
markets across the globe and it most recent-
ly increased its footprint in the Middle East
and other parts of the African continent,
hiring teams of skilled local experts to better
serve this growing, yet diversified market.
What this means for local businesses,
education and the private and public sector
is that they now have a single technol-
ogy partner, who is locally present and
fully committed to cover a full enterprise
hardware portfolio. While Lenovo’s main
competitors are in the process of dividing,
Lenovo is growing closer together to offer
a true end-to-end top class solution in the
commercial space.
With the acquisition of IBM’s x86 Server
division last year, Lenovo has significantly
increased its commercial offering for
customers in Middle East and Africa, now
ranging from PCs, Tablets, Servers, Storage,
Networking to Service and Support Solu-
tions. Lenovo is driven by a desire to provide
the best possible solution, while working
closely with the world’s leading software
providers including Intel, Microsoft, SAP,
VMware and more.
A proof point of this is the fact that Leno-
vo has maintained the number 1 position in
PCs since 2013, and has reached number 3 in
servers worldwide being recently acknowl-
edged by Technology Business Researcher
(TBR). Lenovo has ranked top in reliability
and customer satisfaction for the last four
out of five quarters.
Lenovo is striving to be seen as the one-
stop technology partner for all businesses,
with products catering to the different needs
and preferences of a wide-range of custom-
ers, allowing all clients to have a smooth
tech environment where devices seamlessly
work together.
As Lenovo expands globally, it is establish-
ing even deeper roots in each major market,
investing not only in sales and distribution,
but also in local domestic manufacturing,
R&D and other high-value functions.

For more information or to place an order on Dell,

INSIGHT - CONVERGENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Cherian John, General Manager – Convergence and Infrastructure, Redington Value Distribution,
on the digital transformation that is taking place in the workplace and enterprise across the MEA
region.
DIGITALTRANSFORMATION:
A NEW ERA
T
he adoption of Internet in our
daily lives especially in the way
we communicate, collaborate
and conduct business has led to
digitization of the workplace.
Wearewitnessinganincreasingadoptionof
trendssuchas“BYODintheworkplace”and
“Appsforeverything”,byorganizationsofallsizes.
Thesetrendsareprimarilydrivenbyahighlymo-
bileworkforceworkinginanextremelydemand-
ingdigitalworld,usingmobileconvergencetech-
nologies,thatenablesthemtocommunicateand
collaborateseamlesslythroughvariousplatforms,
devices,channels,andfromdifferentlocations.
Someoftheleadingvendorsforpremise-based
convergencesolutionshavebeentryingtodiffer-
entiatethemselvesthroughenhancedofferings,in
termsoftypesofdevices,features,andapplica-
tions.However,theyarebeingchallengedbya
newbreedof“born-in-the-cloud”convergence
vendors,whoareofferingcloud-basedcommuni-
cationsandcollaborationsolutions.Thesevendors
coverthefullrangeofUniﬁedCommunications
asaService(UCaaS)portfoliothatsupportsaudio,
videoandwebconferencing;VoIPTelephony
includingmobilitysupport;presenceandinstant
messaging(IM);emailwithvoicemailanduni-
ﬁedmessaging;andsomehavecomeoutwith
completecommunications-enabledapplications
suchasintegratedcollaborationandcustomer
experiencemanagementapplications.
Asadistributorforsomeoftheleadingconver-
gencevendors,thechallengeinfrontofustodayis
togetashareoftheUCaaSbusinessandcarryour
existingrelationshipsintothisnewdigitalfrontier,
transitioningfromon-premisetothecloud.Inthe
monthsahead,wewillbeinvestinginsettingup
cloudsolutioncentersacrosstheregion,toshow-
caseahybridmodelofthecloudinfrastructure,
“SOMEOFTHELEADINGVENDORSFORPREMISE-
BASEDCONVERGENCESOLUTIONSHAVEBEEN
TRYINGTODIFFERENTIATETHEMSELVESTHROUGH
ENHANCEDOFFERINGS,INTERMSOFTYPESOF
DEVICES,FEATURES,ANDAPPLICATIONS.”
A
nother challenge facing the
organizations today due to the
digitization happening across
the globe is the need to cope
with an increasing demand
for compute and storage capabilities. Organi-
zations have to simplify their IT management
and meet business commitments, while reduc-
ing costs, improving operations and increasing
focus on innovative apps and services.
Oracle’s engineered systems combine best-
of-breed hardware and software components
with game-changing technical innovations.
Designed, engineered, and tested to work
together, Oracle’s engineered systems cut IT
complexity, reduce costly maintenance, inte-
gration and testing tasks—and power real-time
decision making with extreme performance.
Trends such as the “Internet of Things”,
“Big Data” etc. are about collecting and
managing the massive amounts of data from
a rapidly growing network of devices and
sensors, processing that data, and then sharing
it with other connected things. Oracle’s com-
prehensive portfolio of products and services
provides the platform needed for businesses at
every part of the Internet of Things lifecycle:
from acquiring and managing data, to securing
and integrating data, to analyzing data and
acting on it.
Through our portfolio of brands and
technologies we look forward to taking you to
this new era where the digital world blurs the
physical boundaries.
“ASADISTRIBUTORFOR
SOMEOFTHELEADING
CONVERGENCEVEN-
DORS,THECHALLENGE
INFRONTOFUSTODAYIS
TOGETASHAREOFTHE
UCAASBUSINESSAND
CARRYOUREXISTINGAL-
LIANCESINTOTHISNEW
DIGITALFRONTIER.”
includingPrivateandPublicCloudofferings.

ORACLE
ORACLE
W
ith the pace of
change in today’s
business environ-
ment accelerating
so rapidly, datacen-
tre agility and flex-
ibility have become
business critical. To succeed, modern busi-
nesses must be able to deploy innovative new
applications and react to changes in market
conditions at a moment’s notice.
Technology giant, Oracle talks about its latest offering, Oracle
Private Cloud Appliance and the shifting trends in the converged
IT infrastructure market.
THE ORACLE
SILVER LINING
a general-purpose design means they must
support a wide range of workloads with dif-
ferent performance profiles.
Gartner’s definition refers to integrated
systems and integrated infrastructure sys-
tems as a class of data centre systems that
deliver a combination of servers, storage, and
network devices in a pre-integrated and pre-
optimised stack.
Oracle Engineered Systems are a super
set of both Gartner and IDC’s definitions of
converged infrastructure. They consist of
pre-engineered and pre-assembled hardware
and software bundles to simplify data centre
operations, drive down costs, and accelerate
business innovation. Oracle has been at the
forefront of the converged infrastructure
market with engineered systems since 2008.
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance, formerly
Virtual Compute Appliance, is expanding the
role of engineered systems to virtually any
customer workload. “With the Private Cloud
Appliance, Oracle is competitive in both the
rapidly evolving integrated systems market-
place by extending its red stack of hardware
Because of this, an increasing number of
companies are realising the value of shifting to a
converged IT infrastructure, which can deliver
high levels of performance, increase automa-
tion, and simplify support in a fully optimised
system that is engineered to reduce costs.
IDC describes converged infrastructures as
converged systems and integrated infrastruc-
ture systems that consist of multiple pre-inte-
grated subsystems such as server, networking,
and storage sold as a single product. However,

ORACLE
and software assets to enterprise and service
provider customers via a packaged solution that
is consistent from a deployment, management,
and provisioning perspective. This initiative is
furthering the industry’s focus on designing/
evaluating systems based on an integrated sys-
tems model,” says Matthew Eastwood, senior
vice president of IDC’s Enterprise Infrastruc-
ture and Data centre Group.
GAINING FASTER DEPLOYMENTS AND
GREATER FLEXIBILITY WITH ORACLE
PRIVATE CLOUD APPLIANCE
The Oracle Private Cloud Appliance, formerly
Virtual Compute Appliance, is an integrated
system designed for rapid application and cloud
deployment. In addition to providing a single
point of contact for support of the complete full
stack, integrated solution, Oracle Private Cloud
Appliance offers the flexibility of a general-pur-
pose machine, the elasticity of cloud comput-
ing, and the ease of deployment and use of an
integrated system.
The Oracle Private Cloud Appliance also ac-
celerates application stack deployment through
support for Oracle VM Templates pre-config-
ured applications, middleware, and databases
packaged as ready-to-run VMs.
The result is an unparalleledabilitytogofrom
a“baremetal”infrastructuretologging-into
anewly-deployed,runningapplicationwithin
hours,insteadofweeksormonths.Oracle
Private Compute Appliancedeliversacomplete
stacksolutionintegratingOracleorthird-party
operatingsystems,convergedinfrastructurecon-
trol for rapidconfiguration,management,and
provisioningofallserver,network,andstorage
resources, a unified, software-defined network
fabric allowing new networkstobedynamically
addedandexistingnetworkstobemodified
without the needto manuallymodifycabling.
It also delivers support for a wide variety of
guest operating systems including Microsoft
Windows, Linux, and Oracle Solaris, support
for customer provided storage from Oracle or
existing storage from other vendors, and uni-
fied, secure management with browser-based,
at-a-glance visibility of all hardware compo-
nents and secure, encrypted remote access.
SIMPLIFYING THE JOURNEY TO CLOUD
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is engineered
to provide the ideal platform for building,
managing, and deploying clouds, with Oracle
Enterprise Manager 12c to make cloud de-
ployments faster and simpler to manage.
Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c provides
complete control of the entire cloud lifecycle
from planning, building, and deployment, to
management, monitoring, and optimisation.
When paired with the advanced virtualisa-
tion capabilities of Oracle VM, this delivers a
holistic cloud deployment and management
solution across the entire enterprise.
Self-service provisioning and manage-
ment of VMs, storage, and network resources
makes Oracle Private Cloud Appliance per-
fect for delivering Infrastructure as a Service
(IaaS). With policy-driven scaling, metering
and chargeback, guided cloud setup, and
advanced monitoring and management tools,
you and your users have the highest level of
control over IaaS deployments.
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is fully
equipped for IaaS straight out of the box,
delivering performance and availability
monitoring, fault detection and management,
configuration and change management, gold-
image based provisioning, and policies for
regulatory compliance and monitoring.
SOLUTION BUILT ON PROVEN
TECHNOLOGIES AND BEST PRACTICES
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is built
from innovative Oracle products that are
proven and tested for enterprise deploy-
ments through multiple product genera-
tions, making it easy to use and implement
in any environment. These proven solu-
tions come together to form the building
blocks of Oracle Private Cloud Appliance.
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Control-
ler software enables rapid infrastructure
provisioning. The Controller software
allows users to manage and monitor the
systems hardware, perform software up-
grades, create and manage virtual resourc-
“ORACLEPRIVATECLOUDAPPLIANCEOFFERS
THEFLEXIBILITYOFAGENERAL-PURPOSE
MACHINE,THEELASTICITYOFCLOUD
COMPUTING,ANDTHEEASEOFDEPLOYMENT
ANDUSEOFANINTEGRATEDSYSTEM.”
es and monitor utilisation of all system
resources in real-time.
Oracle Virtual Networking including
Oracle Fabric Interconnect hardware and
Oracle SDN software simplifies complex
data centre deployments with a wire-once
solution and simple software-defined net-
work configurations, resulting in reduced
infrastructure complexity by up to 70%,
extremely low latency and high bandwidth
and provisioning new services and recon-
figuring resources in minutes.
Oracle VM is the virtualisation tech-
nology that powers more than 100,000
VMs for Oracle internal development and
serves thousands of customers across a
wide range of Oracle Cloud services.
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance fea-
tures a fully integrated, enterprise-grade
Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance for centrally
storing the management environment as
well as providing data storage for VMs.
Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance is designed
to be fully redundant for maximum fault
tolerance and serviceability in produc-
tion. This storage subsystem is also loaded
with high-performance DIMM and flash
memory for optimal read/write perfor-
mance under the most demanding file
storage workloads.
Managing and maintaining a data centre
that meets the ever-changing business re-
quirements can be extremely challenging.
These solutions must be co-engineered
and fully integrated to deliver the highest
possible levels of performance, efficiency,
speed, and reliability. Oracle Private Cloud
Appliance is specifically designed with this
in mind. It delivers a complete converged
infrastructure solution from a single ven-
dor, comprised of proven hardware and
software technologies that can help your
organisation move applications into the
cloud, and your business into the future.

97% of IT professionals expect software-defined networking
(SDN) to solve their most persistent problems, from application
performance to network management.* And those are two key
components that make it possible to deploy a rich mobile
application with Networking OnAvaya™.
Claim of single-day app deployment from Dynamic Markets, Fabric
Connect Customer Experience Survey 2015
*Source: SDN Expectations, 2015
For more information or to place an order on Avaya,

LIFESIZE
Cloud video conferencing solutions provider, Lifesize discusses the growing importance of cloud
based video collaboration tools as organisations increasingly hire remote staff. How can they make
the most of out of it?
VIDEO CONFERENCING
REINVENTED
H
ow we communicate in the
business world today is rap-
idly changing as businesses
increasingly employ remote
workers. Whether working
remote full-time, part -time
or just traveling for business,
these workers rely heavily on their own mobile
devices to stay connected to their teams, as
well as to participate in meetings. Now more
than ever, remote workers want and expect
face-to-face interaction, and they want a seat
at the meeting. There’s a strong demand for
video conferencing solutions that can provide a
simple and instant connected experience from
the office to the home and on the go.
For companies that prefer not to invest in
infrastructure, cloud-based video conferenc-
ing solutions make cost-effective and scalable
meetings possible. There are tremendous
benefits to companies when deploying video
conferencing in conjunction with a cloud-
based service. Starting or moving your com-
pany’s video conferencing solution to the cloud
is quick and easy, with minimal investments of
time and money.
Typically, a cloud-based video conferencing
implementation is more affordable as there is
no expensive infrastructure to deploy. Cloud-
based video conferencing is faster to deploy,
manage and use. It has very little impact on the
IT team because anyone can set it up.
The primary reason companies adopt cloud
applications is to reduce cost and complexity.
Cloud-based video conferencing services re-
move the expense of purchasing or upgrading
video conferencing infrastructure, maintain-
ing expensive support contracts, plus increas-
ing and training IT staff.
Any video conferencing service must sup-
port flexible subscriptions, which lets a com-
pany grow video conferencing at a predictable
pace by adding users as needed. There are two
features organisations should look for that help
nurture and grow video conferencing in any

LIFESIZE
setup. First, does the cloud-based video confer-
encing service offer a free trial? This is impor-
tant to help your organisation test features and
gain acceptance before purchasing. Second,
does the provider permit temporary over usage
without penalty? Again, this is helpful in grow-
ing new users within an organisation without
having to invest up front. This provides flex-
ibility to bring new users into any account to
meet the organisation’s needs without having
to project its growth and prebuy licences.
In order to make the meeting room seam-
less as well, there is need to consider whether
the cloud-based video conferencing service
provides pairing of the cloud-based video
conferencing system with the service. Video
systems that support the cloud-based video
conferencing service and automatically prompt
users to pair themselves with it should be pre-
ferred. These video systems can be deployed
as an independent meeting room, or in some
instances, they can be added to the list of sup-
ported devices of an individual user. Therefore,
when called, the video system would behave
just like their mobile devices and ring.
A very important feature of any cloud-
based video conferencing service provider is
automatic software updates. This is expected
with any mobile device, from laptops to smart-
phones, but it must also apply to room-based
video systems. A provider who integrates video
systems and provides automatic software up-
dates can have a huge impact on the efficiency
of any team by eliminating the maintenance
burden of these devices. This will lead to
greater service reliability as video systems,
like software apps on Macs or PCs and mobile
devices, will always have the latest software
version needed for optimal performance.
The cloud-based video conferencing service
must connect multiple types of devices into
a cohesive solution. This removes a tremen-
dous burden from customers who are trying
to standardise devices across their organisa-
tions. Furthermore, it allows greater flexibility
for users choosing their preferred devices.
Therefore, it is critical that the service provider
support the latest laptop and mobile devices,
Mac- and Windows-based laptops as well as
tablets and smartphones, including android-
based, such as Samsung, HTC, Google, Dell,
Motorola, Acer and Amazon; and iOS-based,
such as iPad and iPhone.
Many companies have questions about using
cloud-based services for their business applica-
tions. The cloud-based video conferencing ser-
vice provider must provide a secure, encrypted
cloud experience for customers, even those
using other vendors’ devices, letting customers
conduct their meetings with confidence.
When investigating a service, an organisa-
tion has to make certain it supports devices
deployed behind firewalls. Traversal through
firewalls must lead to an authenticated server
managed in a cloud-based solution only.
Another helpful security feature is the ability
to have an optional passcode, or security PIN,
on each meeting. This provides an added
level of security for gaining entrance to a
meeting. Last, the service provider must sup-
port state-of-the-art encryption using a 128-
bit AES algorithm, enabling peace of mind for
secure communications.
The measure of quality is different depend-
ing on which device is connected to the cloud
based video conferencing service. Most impor-
tant is that the service provider should provide
the highest quality to any device. This should
be maintained in point-to-point calls as well as
multi-party calls.
Meeting room video systems should support
720p60. Ideally, a video conferencing solution
should support up to 60 frames per second (fps)
forthebestpossiblemotionhandling.Ifusers
aresharingdata,whichincludes presentations,
spreadsheets,videosorwebpages,theseshould
“THECLOUD-BASEDVIDEOCONFERENCING
SERVICEPROVIDERMUSTPROVIDEA
SECURE,ENCRYPTEDCLOUDEXPERIENCE
FORCUSTOMERS,EVENTHOSEUSINGOTHER
VENDORS’DEVICES,LETTINGCUSTOMERS
CONDUCTTHEIRMEETINGSWITHCONFIDENCE.”
be transmitted with the highest possible qual-
ity. The frame rates can range from 5 to 30,
depending on whether full motion is detected
in the stream for instance YouTube video. For
mobile apps the resolutions may range from
360p (640x360) to 720p (1280x720).
Lifesize Cloud video conferencing is well
fully equipped to provide all features that suit
organisations of any size by letting everyone
simply and instantly have real-life meetings.
Only Lifesize provides an award-winning
video system with best-in-class mobile apps
combined with a cloud-based video confer-
encing service so that everyone gets a con-
nected experience from the meeting room to
the office and on the go.
LifesizeCloudisdesignedtoworktheway
youwork;fromgroupvideocallstodocument
sharingandevenaudiocalls.Ausercancall
anyoneinstantlyforanimpromptucall,orjump
intoascheduledmeetingbyselectingavirtual
meeting room. Bysimply scrolling through the
sharedsearch-basedcompanydirectoryand
withonequickclick,theyareinavideocall.
Theycankeepaddingpeopletohaveagroup
videocallandcanalsopickupthecallonany
device.Lifesize Cloudhelpsuserstoworksmart
by working the way theyalwayswork.
Connecting a Lifesize Icon and Lifesize
Cloud provides an unparalleled meeting room
experience:. Lifesize Icon comes with the
Lifesize, Cloud software preloaded so it works
right out of the box by plugging it into any
IP outlet and go. A user’s directory is auto-
populated and immediately every user is in the
network has instant access to every user and
custom-named meeting room. Lifesize Cloud
pushes software updates automatically so one
can never have to update their device.
Lifesize Cloud also offers the highest quality
video, audio and presentation in a room video
system and mobile apps designed for the most
robust business applications. Lifesize Cloud
works the way one works; from group video
calls to document sharing and even audio calls.
Simply have real-life meetings, no matter
where people happen to be by connectin over
the highest quality video on any chosen device
and meet with teams and outside guests.
Lifesize Cloud links Lifesize Icon room video
systems to laptops, tablets and smartphones so
one can enjoy a connected experience no mat-
ter where you are.

The average person works
90,000 hours over their career
and is scheduled for nearly 60
meetings every month. For all of
the things you can’t control, it’s
nice to have something you can.
Easy-to-use video conferencing
solutions from Lifesize give you
total control of your meetings,
including choice of location,
device and how you share
content. Count on Lifesize to
provide meetings you’ll love.
Own your meetings.
Connect from anywhere.
Share your content.
Use any device.
Contact us to learn more about
upgrading your meetings to an
experience you’ll love with a live
demonstration and FREE 14-day
trial of Lifesize Cloud.
© 2015 Lifesize, a division of Logitech. All rights reserved. Information contained in this document is subject to
change without notice. Lifesize is the registered trademark or trademark of Logitech. All other trademarks are the
property of their respective owners.
Partner Logo
Partner URL
Partner Phone Number
For more information or to place an order on Lifesize,

TRIPP LITE
Alexander Khalaev,Vice President for Sales at UPS and power
management solutions vendor Tripp Lite shares his expertise on
how to develop an IT infrastructure that can stand the test of time.
SOLUTIONS
FOR FUTURE
DATA CENTRE
CHALLENGES
T
he construction of data
centres in the Middle East is
booming, but the demand for
100% availability, combined
with trends like virtualisa-
tion, cloud computing, and
converged infrastructure are
changing the face of the industry. Storage
needs are growing at exponential rates,
meaning higher density data centres with
higher energy demands. More than ever
before, it is essential for data centres to be
equipped with reliable, efﬁcient, and intelli-
gent infrastructure. Tripp Lite can provide a
complete infrastructure solution that meets
today’s challenges and prepares data centres
for future growth.
A major trend driving innovation in the
IT infrastructure market is the increased
demand for availability. IT managers want

TRIPP LITE
“BECAUSEOFEXPONENTIALLYINCREASING
STORAGEANDCOMPUTINGNEEDS,ITMANAGERS
WANTTOENSURETHATTHEIRINFRASTRUCTURE
ISFLEXIBLEANDABLETOACCOMMODATE
FUTUREGROWTH.”
to eliminate downtime and ensure that their
critical systems are constantly running.
“Uptime is essential for the continuity of any
business,” said Alexander Khalaev, Tripp
Lite’s vice president for sales – MENA, CIS
and Baltics. “Tripp Lite is uniquely posi-
tioned to meet the highest availability de-
mands, thanks to the hot-swap capabilities
of our enterprise-grade UPS systems,” he
continued. Tripp Lite’s hot-swappable UPS
systems have built-in PDU bypass switches
that allow for service or battery replacement
without interrupting the power supply to
connected equipment, therefore eliminating
maintenance downtime.”
The increasing density of data centres also
presents new trials for today’s IT managers.
As the amount of equipment in a single rack
increases, it becomes more challenging to
power each device. “The PDU is a funda-
mental building block of any data centre. It
transforms high-capacity raw power feeds
to lower-capacity outlets and ensures that
every server, switch, and other rack-mount-
ed device receives clean, reliable power,”
Khalaev added.
PDUs can also improve the manageability
of a data centre. Khalaev pointed out that
networked PDUs enhance monitoring ca-
pabilities, which helps to prevent potential
overloads. They also shed unnecessary loads
in order to save battery power and allow IT
managers to reboot blocked systems remote-
ly, which prevents costly service calls. “The
increased monitoring and administration
capabilities that smart power solutions pro-
vide mean a more powerful, secure power
protection system. Tripp Lite leads the in-
dustry with its PDU offering, which includes
metered, monitored, switched, three-phase,
and automatic transfer switch models that
provide anywhere from four to 48 outlets for
rackmount power distribution,” he said.
The high density trend is also driving an
increased demand for energy efficiency.
Even though energy costs in the GCC are
low compared with the rest of the world,
IT managers still feel pressure from their
organisations to lower operating costs, and
data centre power consumption accounts for
about 25 percent of those costs.
Efficiency is becoming a top priority in
the region with regards to cooling, for two
main reasons. First of all, as the density of a
data centre increases, the equipment inside
produces more heat, and there is less room
for ventilation. “Data centre cooling has
become more challenging and more expen-
sive, and standalone systems are no longer
sufficient. Over the past few years, we have
seen a critical need for supplemental cooling
units like our SRXCOOL12K to remove hot
spots,” said Khalaev. Secondly, cooling costs
are usually elevated in the Middle East due
to high temperatures, so efficient and precise
cooling solutions are even more important
here than in other parts of the world. The
SRXCOOL33K, Tripp Lite in-row cooling
unit, can reduce energy consumption by up
to 33 percent, thanks to its variable-speed
compressor and microprocessor-controlled
electronic expansion valve, which allows for
precision cooling adjustments.
Scalability is another buzzword in today’s
IT infrastructure market. Because of expo-
nentially increasing storage and computing
needs, IT managers want to insure that their
infrastructure is flexible and able to accom-
modate future growth. “In response to these
demands, Tripp Lite offers modular UPS
systems that can grow with a data centre. As
more equipment is added, the UPS capacity
can be expanded by adding additional power
modules or connecting units in parallel,” said
Khalaev.
“We understand the urgency of a rapidly
growing IT installation. Our customers often
come to us with a need to implement solu-
tions as soon as possible. For this reason,
Tripp Lite maintains ready-to-ship inventory
of its full line of products in the region via a
fully stocked warehouse in Dubai,” he added.
Tripp Lite recognises every customer’s
unique set of needs and challenges, and its
teams of experts work with customers to
develop a personalised infrastructure solu-
tion that ensures that a data centre operates
efficiently, intelligently and reliably, and
is able to accommodate future growth and
expansion needs.
Tripp Lite full line of solutions, including
UPS systems, PDUs, racks, cooling solutions,
KVMs, connectivity products and more,
is available through its partner Redington
Value Distribution.

Complete Solutions for IT
Infrastructure from Tripp Lite
Maximize the availability, manageability and efficiency
of your IT equipment with reliable and cost-effective
infrastructure solutions from a dependable partner.
UPS Systems
• 500VA to 120kVA capacities
Power Distribution Units (PDUs)
• Switched, Monitored, Metered & Basic models in horizontal & vertical configurations
Rack Enclosures
• Open frame, wall-mount & colocation models
Cooling Solutions
• 12,000 & 33,000 BTU models, plus new 7,000 BTU rack-mount model for efficient
close-coupled cooling
KVM Switches
• Console, Cat5 & IP options for flexible system management
Cables and Connectivity
• High-quality cables, switches, splitters & extenders
For more information, follow this
QR code or contact us now!
P O W E R | P R O T E C T | M A N A G E | H O U S E | C O O L | C O N N E C T
To schedule your FREE
assessment today, contact:
Venkatapathi Boyalla
Director, Sales & Technical Operations
+971.56.635.8098
venkatapathi_boyalla@tripplite.com
IT Infrastructure Assessment
Our experienced team of Application Specialists will:
• Evaluate your network
• Find opportunities for improved efficiency
• Identify problem areas
• Offer solutions that fit your budget
www.tripplite.com
For more information or to place an order on Tripp Lite,

Wireless
LAN
Data
Networking
UC &
Collaboration
For more information or to place an order on Alcatel Lucent Enterprise,

Value plus october 2015

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