< Previous(20) CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_APR-JUN 2020 www.channelmiddleeast.com LEADING THE WAY The current pandemic has disrupted business operations globally and every organisation regardless of size and industry has suffered. In a situation that mandates social distancing, the tech industry has ramped up efforts to facilitate remote work through cost-free software and services, enabling flexibility, accessibility and productivity. We look into such initiatives that are allowing connectivity from afar and are available to organisations for free* T he COVID-19 pandemic con- tinues to hamper economic activities around the globe impacting businesses and industries at nearly every level, and IT markets have not been spared. In addi- tion to the human cost of life, the impact of the spread of the virus on global economy is only beginning to be appreciated and has deep implications for the world’s technology supply chain. IDC analysts predict that globally IT spend will slow down to grow at a rate of 1.3% compared to the earlier predic- tion of 5.1%. Due to the extended uncer- tainty period and rising cases of COVID-19, these growth forecasts are predicted to further decline as we approach the next prediction by IDC. As the coronavirus outbreak contin- ues to spread across the world, organ- isations are closing offices and mandat- ing remote work arrangements. This situation has put immense pressure on IT organisations and support desks who need to quickly set-up and support teams of remote workers around the globe. Organisations are also strug- gling to provide secure ways for remote IT administrators, contractors and ven- dors to access critical systems to main- tain business continuity and operations. This is where the tech industry has stepped up to help global organisations survive. As this outbreak forces the world to observe social distancing, technology vendors are not taking advantage of this demand but offering their software and services for free. Initiative: Microsoft has added new features and capabilities across several aspects of its unified communication and collaboration platform – Microsoft Teams. Teams is a part of Office 365. New features include real-time noise suppression, raise hand feature, integration with RealWear head- mounted devices, and offline and low bandwidth support. Any business that isn’t currently licensed for Teams, is covered with a free Office 365 E1 offer for six months. Microsoft Teams Meetings, Microsoft 365 live events, LinkedIn Live, and PowerPoint Live which is yet to go live, are all designed to help you create engaging, effective virtual gatherings. Eligibility: Any business/organisation who is licensed for Office 365, can avail MS Teams. Initiative: Zoho Corporation has launched its Small Business Emergency Subscription Assistance Program (ESAP) to lighten the finan- cial burden on small business custom- ers due to the coronavirus outbreak. With the ESAP, Zoho is helping its small business customers in the UAE and other parts of the world weather this global crisis. For up to 20,000 qualified paying cus- tomers with 25 employees or less, Zoho is waiving the cost of every sin- gle application they currently use, for up to three months. Zoho is commit- ted to helping as many businesses as possible and is encouraging other companies to join it in supporting the small business ecosystem. *For more details check www.ChannelMiddleEast.com MICROSOFTZOHO CORPORATION (20)www.channelmiddleeast.com CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_APR-JUN 2020 (21) Initiative: will provide every impacted university in the world with free access to our course cata- logue through Coursera for Campus. Universities can sign up to provide their enrolled students with access to more than 3,800 courses and 400 Specialisations from Coursera’s top university and indus- try partners. These institutions will have access until July 31, 2020, after which we plan to provide month-to- month extensions depending on prevailing risk assessments. Students who enroll on or before July 31 will continue to have access until Sept. 30, 2020. Eligibility: All universities and learning institutes Initiative: Automation Anywhere to provide free access to bots to help healthcare industry manage increased loads in managing Covid-19. To support the health industry during this period of increased load, we have made certain healthcare bots free for our customers and partners. These bots perform a number of tasks including auditing, claims processing and fraudulent claim detection. These include Automate the Audit Of Healthcare ICD-10, Create Healthcare Claims Processing Dashboard, Analyse customer feedback in the Insurance industry and Fraudulent Claim Detection. Eligibility: All customers and partners Initiative: Kaspersky announces free availability of its core endpoint security products for medical organisations, in order to help them stay protected from cyber threats during the pandemic. The full list of B2B products available for free for six months includes Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud Plus, Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365, Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business Advanced and Kaspersky Hybrid Cloud Security. Initiative: In order to assist our partners and customers who may be experiencing hardships due to the unfortunate outbreak of the Coronavirus, SonicWall will be providing a free 20 -day spike license on SonicWall Secure Remote Access older end-of-life products. SonicWall is also offering a new 30 -day, 60 -day spike license options and discounts upto 50% if purchased with SonicWall Capture Client and Cloud Application Security solutions. Offer valid till 30th April 2020 Eligibility: Existing & new customers COURSERA AUTOMATION ANYWHERE KASPERSKY SONICWALL(22) CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_APR-JUN 2020 www.channelmiddleeast.com Initiative: Free full-feature access to Avaya Spaces to education institutions and eligible non-profit organisa- tions worldwide until August, with no obligation. 90-day complimentary access license to Contact Center clients to convert their existing office-based contact centre agents to remote workers. Launched global COVID-19 technical hotlines to help transition to remote workforce deployment models. We are offering educational institutions and eligible non-profits. Our 90-day complimentary license for remote agents spans all major Avaya contact center platforms. Eligibility: Full-feature access to Avaya Spaces is only for educational institutions and eligible non-profits globally, while Contact Center offer is applicable to existing Avaya customers with any of the above-men- tioned solutions. Initiative: Cisco is committing $225 million in cash, in-kind, and planned-giving to support causes and is also rallying its 77,000 -strong employee network to work alongside community partners on the frontlines during the time of need. Of the total sum, $8 million in cash and $210 million in product is going directly towards global COVID-19 response efforts, with a focus on delivering resources to key sectors, including health, education, government response and critical technology. Part of this number will also go towards the United Nations’ COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, supporting the World Health Organization’s ( WHO) focus on preventing, detecting and managing the spread of COVID-19. Initiative: Mimecast Web Security free for 90 Days. Fully-featured Mimecast Web Security service, which includes the MSA (Mimecast Security Agent) that sits on an end user’s devices along with basic web filtering, and App Visibility for Shadow IT control. This offer is open to both new and existing Mimecast customers. Mimecast has also launched a new website focused on helping organisations better secure and pro- tect their employees while enabling a mobile workforce. Eligibility: 90 days’ web security at no cost. This offer shall expire on 31 July 2020. AVAYA CISCO MIMECAST (22)(23) www.channelmiddleeast.com CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_APR-JUN 2020 Initiative: Riverbed Client Accelerator Trial – In light of recent events, we’re helping our customers improve “Working from Home” employee productivity. Client Accelerator is very easy to deploy on end- user desktops , laptops or mobile devices with minimal system requirements. It can can optimise at-home network connections, helping achieve up to 99% data reduction and boosting network performance. The solution delivers reliable performance of business-critical cloud, SaaS and on- premises applications with up to 10x faster performance. Duration of free offer: 90-days Eligibility: We are offering this free trial to all our existing customers and encourage them to get in touch with their local Riverbed sales representative. Initiative: Facebook announced the creation of the Business Resource Hub to support businesses being affected, whether directly or indirectly, by the recent outbreak of COVID-19.The Hub features recommendations as well as courses to help businesses and brands stay connected to customers and keep their business on track. The Business Resource Hub also includes quick and easy access to credible and accurate informa- tion about COVID-19 and other resources to help businesses and the communities they serve, stay informed. These resources include the Resilience Toolkit that provides best practices, tools and a self-assessment to help protect businesses from interruptions. Eligibility: Businesses all over the world being affected, whether directly or indirectly, by the recent outbreak of COVID-19. Initiative: Zoho is offering Zoho Remotely for businesses to run smoothly. Remotely is a suite of cloud applications that helps you communicate and collaborate with teams, keep track of work, and provide remote assistance to your customers anywhere in the world. It allows users to take their work remote by offering a complete suite of web and mobile apps that will help you communicate, collaborate and be productive. Remotely is a bundle of 11 applications from Zoho. Together the 11 apps deliver a comprehensive suite of collaborative tools for addressing everyone. Zoho Remotely is available free of charge to any- one and everyone who needs remote working tools in light of the epidemic. Zoho Remotely will remain free till July 1, 2020. RIVERBED FACEBOOK ZOHO CORPORATION (24) CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_APR-JUN 2020 www.channelmiddleeast.com Initiative: ServiceNow has announced four new community apps to help customers, including gov- ernment agencies and enterprises, manage complex emergency response workflows. New apps are Emergency Outreach, Emergency Self Report, Emergency Exposure Management and Emergency Response Operations app for government agencies. These apps are now available at servicenow.com/crisisresponse for customers to access free of charge through September 30, 2020. Eligibility: The apps are available to all organisations, regardless of if they are a ServiceNow customer. Initiative: ViewSonic is offering its popular distance learning solution, myViewBoard to K12 colleges and universities for free, during the ongoing period of coronavirus outbreak. With the increasing spread of coronavirus, many schools and universities are preparing themselves for extended school shutdowns. Moreover, educators and institutions are urgently exploring the possibilities of distance learning and mov- ing towards corresponding solutions for their students. ViewSonic’s advanced distance learning solution, myViewBoard enables teachers to conduct distance learning lessons via an open and agnostic platform. This ensures that student education and their learning outcomes are not compromised upon, no matter wherever they are based. myViewBoard is quite easy to set up as well as use. It allows for interactive, classroom-like, real-time collaboration through video audio conferencing, huddles and digital whiteboarding. Initiative: Get Work Done Anywhere - Xi Frame - a Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution. Have employees working remotely on any device in under an hour. Unlimited users, any app, any browser, any cloud provider. Duration of free offer: 30 days free Initiative: 30 day promo code for PassiveTotal. The PassiveTotal platform access would give threat hunters unlimited access to investigate threats. Valid until April, 30th, 2020. RiskIQ submission: PassiveTotal access is through the promotional code COVID19 Eligibility: All customers in the Middle East SERVICENOW VIEWSONIC NUTANIX RISKIQ (24)(25) www.channelmiddleeast.com CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_APR-JUN 2020 Initiative: BeyondTrust is offering free use of its Secure Remote Access solutions for 90 days. Furthermore, for existing BeyondTrust customers, the company is also offering flexible terms to add-on licenses to cover the surge in support. The offer includes: Remote Support and Privileged Remote Access. Eligibility: Any organisation that is looking to securely set up and support remote working teams during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initiative: Vision T ech Solutions are offering a free tech solution consultancy to SMEs to enable such organisations to rapidly shift to remote working arrangements, without compromising the secu- rity of their data and networks. Help connect employees working from home to office servers remote- ly, through a firewall to ensure that data privacy and security of the company are preserved. Offer services to help schools run e-learning programs and assist with deploying reliable remote access to servers, so people can work or learn at home seamlessly even during this crisis. Initiative: Potential.com has launched free future skills course bundle for schools. The potential. com empowerment platform has been optimised for self-directed learning, where the students take control of their learning without the need for supervision. By making use of practical video-based micro-learning modules, the learners stay engaged and are hand-held through their learning paths. Through the use of potential.com’s Real World Education methodology, the users are encouraged to take action and apply the learning immediately. Initiative: “It’s time to Aware NOT Scare” #ReachOut Campaign. Free of Charge Customisable Security Awareness Content ref COVID-19 to aware end users on phishing attacks related to COVID. With the Policy Compliance Manager, an organisation can share COVID-19 / Work From Home Instructions to end users via email and take their consent with all analytics on a dashboard. Valid until April, 30th, 2020. Eligibility: All Customers in the Middle East BEYONDTRUST VISION TECH SOLUTIONS POTENTIAL.COM PHISHROD(26) CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_APR-JUN 2020 www.channelmiddleeast.com Cisco has added additional features to its free Webex accounts, and the company is also offering free 90-day business licenses. Effective immediately, Cisco has expanded the capabilities on its free Webex offer in all countries where it is available. Cisco has enhanced its free Webex accounts with additional features to make working remotely easier. Previously, free Cisco Webex accounts only allowed users to host meetings with up to 50 participants for 40 minutes. Now free accounts will allow users to host meetings with up to 100 participants for an unlimited amount of time. Additionally, Cisco is offering toll dial-in numbers to complement the existing VoIP capabilities of Webex. Initiative: Think before you tweet. Twitter improves efforts to protect public conversation around Covid-19. Launches Twitter feature in the MENA region to guide people to credible sources when searching for information around the virus. People can follow @WHO and their local health ministry — seek out the authoritative health information and ignore the noise. If they see something suspi- cious or abusive, they can report it to Twitter immediately - https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and- policies/twitter-report-violation. Initiative: SentinelOne is making SentinelOne Core available free of charge, enabling enterprises to secure remote work as the world combats COVID-19. SentinelOne will be available for free until, Friday, May 16, 2020, protecting enterprises of all sizes with AI-powered cloud-native technology that autonomously identifies and defeats cyberattacks – deployable in seconds. Initiative: Security Awareness, a division of the SANS Institute, has created the “Securely Working from Home” Deployment Kit. This free kit provides security awareness professionals with a step-by-step guide on how to rapidly deploy a training program for their remote staff. All training materials and resources are included in the kit. Free “Secure Your Kids Online” resource kit to help parents and guardians protect their kids online. A free series of SANS@Mic evening talks, delivered by SANS’ expert instructors, and is hosting a series of Mini Netwars (capture the flag) events to provide continu- ing learning and hands-on training for everyone in the community. Runs until 31 May 2020. Eligibility: All kits and activities are free to those in the community but must not be sold on by any parties. CISCO TWITTER SENTINELONE SANS INSTITUTE (26)ACER’S GAMING LINE BOOSTS REVENUE In an exclusive interview with Channel Middle East, Paul Collins, general manager MEA at Acer explains how Acer’s gaming portfolio is driving a record 94% growth in revenues in the region Acer Middle East recently announced a steep growth in revenues in the Middle East with UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait leading in financial results amounting to double-digit growth in 2019 across the region. In a struggling market, Acer attributes this success to its gaming models (desktops, notebooks and moni- tors) as the company announced a record 94% growth in revenues in this segment. Acer experienced strong growth in spe- cific sub-segments including gaming, thin and light and chromebooks for the corpo- rate and education sectors. “For 2020, we are introducing new products to cater to more growing sub-segments like creators with the launch of the ConceptD line as well as a specific series for working in harsh environments coming soon,” Paul Collins, general manager MEA at Acer told Channel Middle East. “We see a surge in mobile gaming in the region. Also we see a strong growth in laptops. The consoles are still one of the favourite gaming devices in the region; however, we are starting to notice a rapid move to PCs as these are more flexible and have better response and higher graphics,” he added. Acer has experienced a surge in demand for gaming products going to countries such as Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. According to the vendor, its sell-in revenue grew 29% in the UAE and 64% in the Gulf countries including Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. platform to give talent the support and mentorship they need. We are looking for- ward to have that platform open in MEA in Q2 this year.” Collins cites a study by global research company GFK, that states that Acer’s ultra-thin portfolio accounts for 75% of its sales in the UAE, 50% in KSA. Results showed that there was 33.3% growth in acer notebook gaming range, resulting in 24% market share in the UAE and 16% in KSA in that category. Acer’s convertible Spin series that fea- ture powerful innovation and design grew by 10% in the region while the strongest commercial vertical was the education segment with over 50,000 units (mainly Chromebooks) sold to schools and univer- sities across the region. The company also sold four Predator Thronos valued at AED109,999 each to gaming enthusiasts in UAE and KSA, marking the highest number sold in the EMEA region. “The combination of strong execution and product competitiveness continues to be Acer’s strength in the region and glob- ally. We are pleased to see our growth momentum amidst a complex and dynam- ic global environment. Our success is a testament to our commitment to innova- tion and our customers who continue to embrace our innovative technologies. We will continue to invest in our products and core competences to bring steady and sus- tainable returns in the long-term,” con- cluded Collins. Additionally, there has been significant growth in communities, gaming cafes as well as an increase in more specialised events taking place in the Middle East. Even schools have started to implement gaming into their curriculums. Collins explained that the education and gaming sectors are the company’s strongest driv- ers. This is backed by the move to more modern and light devices that are easy to carry and use on the move. “Acer is involved with several schools with gaming programs. We have the Planet 9 platform, our own gaming online university & talent development platform that is coming in Q2 this year to Middle East. Also we are working closely with Electronic Sports League (ESL) as they open their local offices in the Middle East,” he explained. Commenting on the strong perfor- mance of the education segment, Collins said, “Our enhanced portfolio is specifi- cally designed to provide students and teachers in education institutions with a more personalised experience. Our prod- ucts have a proven track-record to increase productivity, efficiency and inno- vation in education. We recognise the importance technology plays in today’s classrooms and are committed to continue to deliver the right technologies to sup- port the leaders of tomorrow.” Collins raised concerns about the talent gap that exists in the industry, remarking how Acer has developed an online gaming university and talent development plat- form to battle this challenge. “The talent gap is a challenge because while there are many influencers, there is not enough for- mal talent exchange. There is a need for the development of formal gaming struc- tures to improve talent. The Middle East is lacking in terms of the infrastructure for gaming – we need local gaming serv- ers and talent development platforms. On a global level, Acer is the first to develop the Planet 9 platform, a worldwide online gaming university and talent development (27) www.channelmiddleeast.com CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_APR-JUN 2020WESTCON, SANDVINE PARTNER TO ACCELERATE REGIONAL GROWTH In an exclusive interview with Channel Middle East, Steve Lockie and Hashem Eid explain how the alliance will enable Sandvine’s business growth through Westcon’s global logistical capabilities, support and technical services, and expansive reach in the region Westcon-Comstor has a robust portfolio of products and solutions that covers a broad spectrum of the various threat vectors that organisations face today - Steve Lockie, managing director, Westcon- Comstor Middle East Westcon Middle East recently signed a distribution agreement with Sandvine to market, distrib- ute, and service Sandvine products and solutions. Commenting on the new part- nership, Steve Lockie, managing director, Westcon-Comstor ME said, “Through our partnership with Sandvine, we will be able to offer advanced business intelligence capabilities, which are crucial in identify- ing and adapting to network behaviour in real-time, thus enabling delivery of superi- or customer experience.” Sandvine has a wealth of real-world ref- erences across the globe for enabling innovative services, continued Lockie. “We are aimed at following a strategic approach in taking their solution to the channel in the Middle East. We are focused to bringing value to Sandvine’s business by helping them deliver a tar- geted approach in reaching new markets and industry segments.” Sandvine started looking for a distri- bution partner as a result of the major growth we have seen in the past couple of years. As a result of that search, we selected Westcon-Comstor as the top distributor for Sandvine in the region. It is our belief that Westcon’s strength, knowledge, and expertise in the region, as well as Sandvine’s unique solution and use case based approach, forms a great combination to serve our custom- ers and partners equally. It was really the strength of Westcon’s team and the relationships that they have in place with our key customer and part- ners’ types that made us select Westcon, said Hashem Eid, Sandvine’s regional vice president, MENAT Sales. “We are focus- ing on a few key market opportunities – analytics, network optimisation, and regu- latory compliance – as our initial go to market strategy with Westcon. We have the ability to expand our partnership to focus on growth in adjacent markets such as enterprise, education, and oil & gas.” Sandvine is a leading provider of net- work intelligence for network operators and large enterprises worldwide that spe- cialises in Active Network Intelligence (ANI). “We not only support multiple solu- tion verticals (Analytics, Network Optimisation, Revenue Generation, (28) CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_APR-JUN 2020 www.channelmiddleeast.comRevenue Assurance, and Regulatory Compliance), but we also have a unique offering that delivers end-to-end solutions across all of those verticals for key appli- cations like video, gaming, and social sharing for consumers. As you can imag- ine, this is of great interest to network operators of any size or large enterprises, and we were indeed very successful in the Middle East in 2019,” said Eid. Hashem Eid explained that the compa- ny’s vision and strategy that includes efforts within the company and with part- ners to ensure that the right strategy is adopted for the current market transition. “Sandvine has the best network intelli- gence that combines depth and an extremely high level of accuracy on what matters to customers and their consum- ers. We are able to deliver network insights to questions such as, which appli- cations are popular with users and how is my network delivering a good quality of experience to those users? With our data, operators can design better and far more cost-effective networks, which results in better services and better quality for con- sumers,” he added. Talking about what differentiates Westcon-Comstor as a security distribu- tor in the region, Lockie added, “Westcon-Comstor has a robust portfolio of products and solutions that covers a broad spectrum of the various threat vec- tors that organisations face today. Another key differentiator is the depth of our relationship with the vendors.” As a leading value-added distributor, we ensure that our objectives are aligned with our vendors’. Our vendors have great respect for our work as we always remain committed to the market development plan and ensure delivery as per our agree- ment. Finally, and most importantly, is our people. We have a highly dedicated team that always goes above and beyond to ensure that we respond to our partners’ and customers’ needs whenever or wher- ever they might be,” explained Lockie. Sandvine is well-placed in the region with teams on the ground in countries of focus such as UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Lebanon, as well as other counties that still have employees from Sandvine but represent fewer functions. Sandvine has been in the region for more than 10 years and has built strategic rela- tionships with most of the key operators in the region. “We provide some key capa- bilities that are highly differentiated and highly valued in the region so it was a nat- ural fit for the network operator solutions that we have provided for almost 20 years to the general market,” explained Eid. Speaking about Sandvine’s growth strategy for the region, Eid said: “While the META headquarter is located in the UAE – Dubai Media City – we are always looking to increase our footprint in the region to align with the opportunity that we see in the Middle East. We have sev- eral countries, aside from those men- tioned, where we plan to potentially increase our presence and footprint according to business growth.” Sandvine’s strategy for 2020 is to estab- lish a new level of analytics with our cus- tomers through our innovative ANI (machine learning) based use case solu- tions and a brand new architecture that enables us to implement our growth plan in adjacent markets; for instance, the security and 5G markets. The company’s main go-to-market strat- egy is growing its business through chan- nel and distribution, so Sandvine expects to expand with more strategic partners in the coming years. “In terms of the indus- try verticals we are looking to tap into, we have had a lot of success starting with either analytics or regulatory compliance in the region due to our competitive differ- entiation in those market verticals,” explained Eid. Sandvine is looking to develop key partners that have specialised capabili- ties as its premiere partners for the region. Those partners will have the abil- ity to deliver end-to-end solutions for spe- cific use cases and solution verticals, stated Eid. These partners will comple- ment our business strategy to develop a few large distribution partners which will be strategic to our business in the region moving forward. “We want to make sure that our channel partners are fully conversant in all parts of our product, from the selling phase, to the installation phase, to the support phase. Our biggest initiative is to give full lifecycle training to those partners that we are investing in to maximise their effec- tiveness for Sandvine,” added Eid. Westcon’s strength, knowledge, and expertise in the region, as well as Sandvine’s unique solution and use case based approach, forms a great combination to serve our customers and partners equally - Hashem Eid, Sandvine’s regional VP, MENAT Sales (29) www.channelmiddleeast.com CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_APR-JUN 2020Next >