JBS is first Cisco Gold Partner in Jordan & Palestine with Cisco Customer Experience Specialization
Jordan Business Systems (JBS) has been awarded certification in the new Cisco Customer Experience Specialization program, the first Cisco Gold Partner in Jordan and Palestine to do so. The program allows the company to further develop its customer focus strategy by qualifying certified professionals, utilizing Cisco resources and applying the customer experience lifecycle model. This will guarantee a successful journey with customers in solving their business challenges and achieving their business objectives.
“We at JBS strongly believe that customer satisfaction is a key success factor for our business growth. Customer satisfaction for SI companies like ours will not happen without having a distinguished team equipped with skills, knowledge and agility, so many thanks to the great JBS team,” said Nazim Alasasfeh, JBS Deputy General Manager.
“This achievement will help the company to scale up its customer focus strategy with a more structured process, following world standards, and act as a key brand differentiator to boost our positioning in the market.”
A Cisco Partner for more than 15 years, JBS has achieved highly valued certifications, participated in several specialized programs and won several awards. The company has been a leader for introducing Cisco new technologies to the Levant region, starting with the first IP telephony implementation in Jordan, followed by the first Cisco contact Centre in the Middle East, and lately JBS was the first Partner to successfully deploy Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and Software Defined Access (SDA) projects in Jordan.
With a distinguished track record in delivering challenging projects, JBS has proved its customer focus strategy over the past years. As a system integrator, the company provides unmatchable value to its customers. This starts with anticipating their needs, utilizing the solutions’ different components integrally, and getting the best value from the provided solution to achieve optimum customer business values, through 24×7 technical support services.
Midis Group and affiliates rise to the challenge of COVID-19
February and March 2020 saw worldwide measures by Governments to manage the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic. Immediately, all Midis Group affiliates and the rest of the IT sector closed down offices, cancelled events and employees everywhere went into lockdown and worked from home where possible.
Midis Group and our affiliates are the kind of adaptable and positive people who don’t sit back and wait for business to come to us. From the moment of lockdown, creative, hard-working people across the Group began to think about how to weave threads of community, commerce and business development through the dispersed teams wherever they were.
Some very innovative and imaginative activities came to fruition as a result of this emergency, and it’s no surprise that Midis Group and our affiliate companies were able to shine like this; our people are the reason the Midis Group is a growing success across all our lines of business and regions of activity.
The tone of the Midis response was set early on via a message on LinkedIn by Midis Group Chairman and CEO, Mr Nabil Bustros, and this leadership messaging has continued throughout the crisis so far.
Taking the lead on COVID-19 for Midis Group – the message from Mr Nabil Bustros. Photo credit: Midis Group
A leading example of excellence in response to COVID came from the Midis System Integration team in the UAE, with a project to collect photo and video responses from all over the SI group in an inspiring and positive video. “The way we work together at Midis SI shows the quality of our values and approach to business and this video shows why the Group is so successful,” said Sami Abi Esber, President, Midis System Integration Group.
“Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our employees who work in 13 countries and 20 different cities to support our customers, and to all our loyal customers and partners for supporting us, we will do it again and we will emerge from this crisis stronger than ever,” added Sami.
Sachin Bhardwaj, Director of Marketing, Midis System Integration Group and his colleagues in the Midis SI marketing team, were amazed to receive 700+ images of Group and affiliate employees working safely from home due to the emergency.
“It was indeed amazing to have received 700+ pictures across the various geographies we operate in,” said Sachin. “I am very happy to share this video which celebrates the efforts of all our affiliates and their employees; showcasing how everyone has taken a proactive approach in remaining connected with our customers, partners and colleagues during this phase of the emergency.”
Quite quickly after the lockdown began, affiliates started developing new web-based live events working closely with their major industry partners. Across the MENA region these events were very popular, and also into Eastern Europe, where Hewlett Packard operated by Selectium ran a successful ‘10 Steps 2 Level Up’ webinar series for customers and partners across Croatia and Serbia. These 10 webinars had two key components, sales and technical, and virtual attendees won prizes for the number of events they attended. Feedback from participants was excellent.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise operated by Selectium: attendee feedback from ’10 Steps 2 Level Up’ webinars
Apcom in Bulgaria switched to working from home on March 13, and many of their partners closed dozens of retail spaces across the country. Like many teams across the EEU region and also the Gulf, the Apcom team rose to the occasion, says Viara Yolova, Marketing Manager for Apcom. “We created an Apcom chat, where we would work and celebrate together any festive occasions for these two months and a half of home office. We celebrated birthdays, saluted our medics, organized some contests for who would paint the most beautiful eggs for Easter.”
It wasn’t just chat at Apcom, of course, as Viara explains: “Our collaboration with our partners continued, as they shifted to a focus on online communication and sales. For a tentative time (that turned out to be as much as two months), only a few of their retail stores worked – with limited opening hours, and very strict quarantine measures. Business shifted heavily to online.”
Planning for COVID-19 – Apcom worked in advance to make campaigns suited to homeworkers. Photo credit: Apcom.
Elige Farah and her marketing team at ABM in Dubai and the region around also got into bringing the company together online, but this time via an informal e-bulletin called Hello ABM!!! The project was a fun activity that collected together ideas for lockdown living to keep ABM people happy and fit for home-working. Hello ABM!!! has now become a regular feature and is a credit to Elige and her team.
Elige Farah and the marketing team at ABM created this great e-bulletin
Retail activity was curtailed everywhere, of course, and there have been few launches of new point of sale sites. Some retail sites have opened, however, and where this has taken place, it’s been a real achievement by all concerned to fit out the site, stock the shop and train staff to the new safety procedures required by Governments. In May, a new iSTYLE Flagship store opened at Nakheel Mall in Dubai, and in June, a compact iSTYLE AAR PoS in Debrecen, Hungary.
The new face of retail – wearing a mask at iSTYLE Nakheel. Photo Credit: iSTYLE
As measures to control the virus have begun to succeed in some places, real meetings mixed with streamed events have been taking place. In Ghana, Johny Rahme and his HDF SAS colleagues ran ‘Back to Live,’ a very successful hybrid event with partner, IPMC Ghana. The Dell Technologies team were virtually present with members from Morocco, Dubai, Egypt and Nigeria presenting online and customers were given lunch at the Hotel Kempinski in Accra, Ghana.
A mix of real and virtual in Ghana. Photo credit: HDF SAS
One really good outcome of the lockdown has been the very large number of Midis and affiliate employees who have taken the time to boost their learning and skills. Everywhere, across all regions, people have been achieving new qualifications via online learning. One example of this comes from Jihad Alhafi from MDS-CS in KSA who was proud of two key executives who gained new qualifications.
Learning in lockdown: Eng. Alaa Nassar and Eng. Albaraa Safi. Photo credit: MDS-CS
“We are delighted to inform you that two members of the MDS-CS family, Eng. Alaa Nassar and Eng. Albaraa Safi, have successfully passed the PMP exam and have become Certified Project Managers during this difficult time of the COVID-19 pandemic,” writes Jihad, who is Project Management Office Manager at MDS for CS in Riyadh.
Eng Ahmad Taamneh from the JBS team giving teachers and management team customized training on the new Cisco tools remotely in Amman. Photo credit: JBS
In another excellent effort to help their community manage the dangers of COVID-19, Jordan Business Systems used CISCO Webex to reach out to students all over their country who were isolated by the lockdown. They worked in partnership with Cisco to implement an integrated plan for distance education for The Islamic Center Charity Society and its 41 different schools spread across Jordan.
New BlueTech Holding website goes live with high-end SEO optimisation
A smart new BlueTech Holding website has now gone live. The website, at bluetechholding.com, features a comprehensive overview of all BlueTech value-added distribution business in the Levant, Gulf and the African markets. It has a modern design, is responsive to most devices, and consolidates High Search Volume keywords to increase website traffic on Search engines like Google.
This is the first website in the Midis Group that integrates content syndication from one of our major vendors – IBM. Syndication allows the content to be automatically and constantly updated with the latest solutions and products that IBM offers.
BlueTech SAL was first registered in Lebanon in 1998 to cover the distribution of Lenovo PCG and DCG, IBM Software and IBM Systems in Lebanon and Iraq. As a strategic and focused distributor for IBM and Lenovo for more than 20 years, BlueTech Holding Ltd. serves its partners in more than 30 countries through its five subsidiaries in Lebanon, UAE, Qatar, Jordan as well as in North, West and Central Africa.
Rich with many years of experience in the IBM and Lenovo portfolios, the BlueTech team provides, on top of end-to-end technology advisory solutions, the best market intelligence and know-how paired with outstanding support for its business partners.
BlueTech Holding have spent more than two decades developing and fine-tuning their services, giving you more time to innovate and push your business forward.
eHDF cited in latest Gartner Hype Cycle for IT as key provider of Public Cloud Computing in GCC
eHosting Datafort, an affiliate of the Midis Group, has been named as one of the key providers of Public Cloud Computing in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region in the most recent Gartner Hype Cycle for IT, published at the end of July 2020.
The Hype Cycle report for the Middle East opens the door on a selection of technologies and services CIOs should consider. These would be important technologies and services that have a direct impact on revenue generation, cost optimization, efficiency and/or quality improvement opportunities.
Under the current COVID-19 conditions across the Middle East, it’s increasingly important that CIOs make the best and most informed decisions about services and technologies. Cloud computing has become one of the key infrastructure phenomena of the moment, allowing businesses to run effectively, and encompassing new levels of Service Delivery and improved efficiencies.
Importantly, the report identifies some of the businesses driving uptake in the region. ‘Early adopters of the public cloud include mid-size enterprises, e-commerce start-ups that are typically “born in the cloud,” and large enterprises that are beginning to deploy remote work solutions and business-critical applications on the public cloud to leverage the agility and elasticity that the hyperscalers offer.’
The emphasis above on increased and frictionless use of remote work solutions reinforces the importance of such systems in the current pandemic environment for business development across the region.
The Hype Cycle also identifies the enhanced capabilities Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can bring when combined with the agility and pay-per-use nature of public cloud computing.
Mohammed Mansour Al-Rumaih (MMR KSA) launches new website
Mohammed Mansour Al-Rumaih (MMR KSA) have launched a new website showing the full range of the company’s services and business offers. The site at mmr.com.sa is optimised to work on both desktop and mobile devices, and has a colorful, contemporary feel.
Founded in 1983 by Sheikh Mohammed Mansour Al-Rumaih, MMR is a subsidiary of Midis Energy Group and part of the Midis Group. MMR began business by hiring highly qualified staff with thorough experience in the relevant and specialist fields of Power Solutions, Electro-Mechanical Installations and Support Systems, Computers and Data Communications.
The company today has served over 1000 major customers and completed more than 100 substantial turnkey projects. MMR is based in Riyadh and has branches in Jeddah and Al-Khobar. The company is proud of it’s major partnerships with Vertiv and Kohler-SDMO.
Solutions offered to today’s customer include Data Center and Site Preparation as well as Power Solutions. Key services on offer include Installation work, Consultancy, Design and Project Management.
Aruba Networks brings fast Internet access to historic St. Michael’s Fortress in Croatia
Future visitors to St. Michael’s Fortress in Šibenik, Croatia, can be sure of faster and easier connections helping share their visitor experience, thanks to new Wi-Fi equipment that allows visitors free and fast Internet access.
The connectivity was installed thanks to funds provided by the European Commission’s WiFi4EU initiative, which helps provide high-quality free internet access for citizens and visitors via Wi-Fi access points in public spaces such as parks, squares, administrations, libraries and the like throughout the European Union.
“By applying to the public call of the WiFi4EU initiative, the City of Šibenik won the major funding that financed the purchase and installation of equipment. Integra Group d.o.o. was chosen for this job, which implemented the equipment of Aruba Networks at the fortress” said Deputy Mayor Danijel Mileta.
The implemented network solution enables the simultaneous use of the network for up to 500 users, and it is possible to expand the capacity as needed. The network solution consists of 14 Aruba Networks access points plus switches, whose total cumulative speed is at least 30 Mbit/s. Complete control is performed via a single central console, i.e. using Aruba Central software based in the cloud.
The advantage of centralized control is that it brings the possibility of analytics based on learning through artificial intelligence, as well as security for all devices connected via IoT (Internet of Things). It is the latter, i.e. the safety of devices and visitors to the Fortress, that is indescribably important in today’s conditions.
Ever larger visitor numbers meant that connectivity within the fortress walls was erratic, hence the need for better access points. Photo credit: Fortress of Culture Šibenik
Aruba Networks, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, has been a leader in network solutions for 14 years, bringing rich implementation experience with hundreds of global clients, a wide portfolio of solutions and technologies, and excellent support. In this particular case, the warranty is for life, which means that from the moment the sale of the implemented solution ceases, replacement parts will be available for at least another five years.
St. Michael’s Fortress was selected as the location for the new infrastructure because during daily visits and during evening events attracting large audiences, users experienced a decrease in the speed of Internet access via mobile devices.
Initial Funding for the project was made by the European Commission through the Executive Agency for Innovation and Networks (INEA), with additional funds from the City of Šibenik.
The City of Šibenik is the first in Croatia to set up a free public infrastructure for wireless LoRaWAN network that provides a number of opportunities for the transfer of simple information between electronic devices and whose coverage extends from Vodice to Primošten.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise operated by Selectium is part of the Midis Group. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is in partnership with Selectium to help customers and partners accelerate business outcomes. Integra Group d.o.o. is Hewlett Packard Enterprise operated by Selectium’s Solution Partner, offering services and solutions for IT infrastructure. Integra Group d.o.o. implement business solutions and automate processes in order to increase the efficiency of individual processes.
Sami Abi Esber: exclusive interview on success & future direction of MDS SI Group in Tahawultech.com
Sami Abi Esber was recently interviewed by Adelle Geronimo for Tahawultech.com about the increasing success of the MDS SI Group and the prospects in general for the sector. Sami is President, MDS System Integration Group and Board Member, Midis Group.
In the interview, Sami sees a strong future for combined, integrated platforms and solutions to help companies of all kinds boost their business offer, the efficiency of their systems and the quality of services to customers.
The market for System Integrators is looking positive, even during the COVID-19 emergency. According to a study by Data Bridge Market Research, the global system integrator market is expected to reach $90.82 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 5.6 percent in the forecast period of 2019-2026.
“Driven by ever-growing advancements around cloud, mobile applications, big data, analytics, security and virtual technologies, we have seen a huge demand for the system integration market,” says Sami Abi Esber.
System integrators can pave the way for better adoption of AI technologies, says Sami in the Tahawultech.com interview. Once smaller repetitive business tasks are automated, there’s more room for employees to be creative and innovative, he suggests.
System Integrators are in the driving seat in the new AI economy. “Trusted advisors such as SIs are being called upon by enterprises to integrate best of breed technologies to accelerate AI projects, driven by their need to ramp up their capabilities and competitiveness,” said Sami.
In the interview, Sami also talked about the 50 year heritage of the MDS SI Group, the range of services offered, and the particular approach the Group has taken during the COVID-19 emergency, ensuring customers achieve business continuity and resilience.
MDS Dubai strengthens relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS)
MDS Dubai has strengthened its relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) by becoming a member of AWS Marketplace CPPO program. Consulting Partner Private Offers (CPPO) status enables MDS Dubai to sell products on the AWS Marketplace on behalf of third-party vendors like Splunk, A10 and Palo Alto.
This spells good news for customers, as they will have an easier procurement cycle while keeping the leverage of negotiating discounts and better payment terms. Once the offer is accepted by the customer, the price of the specific license will be added automatically to the AWS bill based on the agreed payment terms.
AWS Marketplace includes thousands of software listings from popular categories such as security, networking, storage, machine learning, business intelligence, database, and DevOps.
Watch a video about the AWS offer to partners and customers, below:
Husni Hammoud interviewed by Channel Post MEA about business impact of COVID-19 at ESET Middle East
Channel Post MEA interviewed Husni Hammoud, Managing Director at ESET Middle East, about how the company is managing the impact of COVID-19 on its business and the prospects for Channel overall.
According to Mr Hammoud, the business landscape is still quite varied in spite of the generally improving picture in terms of controlling the spread of COVID-19 across the region. All in the sector face cashflow concerns and that means developing new business is a challenge, he suggested in the interview.
“But we are confident with recent relaxation in lockdowns across the region, the business will slowly start crawling back on its feet and will help us recover from the crisis situation” said Husni Hammoud.
Asked how ESET Middle East, part of the Midis Group, have adapted their strategy to mitigate COVID-19, Husni talked about new business approaches that centre on digital marketing and online tools to address the requirements of partners and customers.
According to Husni in the interview, new threats are emerging from cyber criminals who are developing COVID-19 themed attacks – read more in the interview online
MDS SI customers win big at the Transformational Leadership 2020 Awards held in the UAE
CPI Media Group and TahawulTech.com hosted the Transformational Leadership Awards, a first-of-its-kind ‘virtual awards’ ceremony on Monday, July 20 and MDS SI customers were prominent award winners.
The Awards were a way to recognise the often ingenious and innovative ways that organisations across multiple industries have had to re-think the way they operate to ensure business continuity during the COVID-19 emergency.
The Transformational Leadership Awards honored 15 IT vendors and 35 end-users, during an event which was virtually attended by over 200 industry players. There was also a panel discussion led by prominent figures from the IT ecosystem in the Middle East.
“At MDS SI, we are extremely conscious of how businesses are approaching their digital transformation vision to match their long term business objectives. Keeping this in view, we have always strived to keep innovating our products/ services portfolio in accordance with market trends,” said Sachin Bhardwaj, Director of Marketing, Midis SI Group.
“In the last few months, we have implemented key projects across various verticals, and we are very proud that some of them were recognized at the recently held virtual awards ceremony hosted by CPI Media Group and TahawulTech.com,” added Sachin.
MDS SI Customers who won Transformational Leadership Awards:
Hadi Anwar, CIO, G42
Mohamed Al Maeeni, Information Technology and Security Director, Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management
Wissam Messarra, Group Head of IT, Mazrui International
Don Surrao, Group CIO, Aujan Group Holdings
Samir Abi Frem, Corporate VP of Technology, Rotana Group of Hotels & Resorts
Andre Wyss, Heads of Digital Workplace, Emirates Group IT
Khalid Nasser Abdulrazaq Alrazooqi, General Director of Artificial Intelligence Department, Dubai Police
Ahmed Salman, Head of Cloud Operation, FEDNET, Telecommunication Regulatory Authority
Warren Price, Director of IT, Dubai Petroleum
Ghanem Khalfan Ghanem Al Mehairbi, IT Infrastructure Manager, Statistics Center Abu Dhabi
Watch the Transformational Leadership Awards online below
Jordan Data Systems delivers first HPE Primera implementation in new Data Center for gig-Jordan
gig-Jordan is the first group in Jordan to deploy HPE Primera as part of a technology data center refresh project that includes server and storage consolidation. gig-Jordan is a member of Gulf Insurance Group, one of the largest insurance groups in the MENA region. Jordan Data Systems (JDS), part of the Midis Group, carried out implementation of the solution.
HPE Primera is an intelligent storage solution for mission-critical applications with the flexibility and speed of cloud applications. In the data center JDS has installed the HPE Primera A630 All-Flash SAN storage that provides 100% availability of services.
Commenting on this, Dr Ali Al Wazani, Chief Executive Officer, gig-Jordan, said “We are constantly innovating and building technology capability to build the most efficient, agile and cost-effective system to manage our country local operations. We have implemented and we will continue to partner with HPE to upgrade our enterprise systems along the lines of automation, intelligent operations, machine learning, artificial intelligence, software defined and Flash – based storage systems. We trust HPE to recommend us the effective solutions for our business operations.”
Jordan Data Systems is a platinum HPE partner which specializes in providing turnkey IT solutions for various market sectors, with a unique solution mix that includes ICT, Hospitality and Site & Power lines of businesses.
“We are proud to be the first partner in Jordan to implement HPE Primera for Gulf Insurance Group, one of our most strategic customers. JDS has always strived to enhance the IT infrastructure in Jordan by providing the best mix of technology solutions and expertise required to continuously transform the market. Our partnership with HPE is critical in our pursuit to drive Jordan’s Digital Transformation,” said Loai Madanat, General Manager at Jordan Data Systems.
HPE Primera leverages the AI capability of HPE Info Sight to deliver simplicity, availability, and performance for mission-critical applications. It delivers a simple, consumer-grade user experience for mission-critical Storage, raising the expectations with 100% availability and predictable performance for application workloads.
Expected benefits:
100% guaranteed availability of services and data
Non disruptive expansion and upgrades
Higher up-time
Better performance
Faster response to new business requirements
“With the adoption of digital transformation, regional enterprises in the Middle East are re-looking at their data centers for agility and performance. The speed of digital business means data center operations need to be automated and cannot rely on human intervention,” said Savio Ibrahim, Regional Territory Manager, HPE.
“HPE’s latest suite of products including HPE Primera, Infosight, and OneView, now rolled out at gig-Jordan, will deliver automation, intelligent operations, and software defined management capabilities at the end customer’s data center. HPE is committed to delivering such state of the art, transformative solutions to its installed base in the region.”
Jordan Business Systems help bridge distance between students during the pandemic
Jordan Business Systems (JBS) in partnership with Cisco implemented an integrated plan for distance education through Cisco Webex as an e-learning platform for The Islamic Center Charity Society and its 41 different schools spread across Jordan.
The educational sector of the association has adopted the e-learning platform in co-operation with JBS, which partners with Cisco International. The online platform allows teachers to collaborate with students interactively covering all topics for all levels of study.
The JBS team did the implementation from scratch as part of their social responsibility, to help Jordanian schools and children access their right to a good education no matter what the situation with the pandemic across the country.
JBS engineers helped in the training process for school teachers as well as management teams, and they attended many lectures with the children to watch how they adopt the technology – and to provide useful support.
The General Director of the Education Sector at the Association, Dr. Fathi, pointed out the platform achieved positive results in a questionnaire authored by the co-operating technical company, with 83.8% of parents of students expressing satisfaction.
A big success – using the CISCO platform, many young people have been reached in schools across Jordan. Photo credit: JBS
He also pointed out that the platform has sustained more than 50 thousand participants through nearly 4700 educational meetings across the platform. More than 7000 students in the educational sector of the association, from colleges and schools, have benefited using the platform so far.
Eng. Ahmad Taamneh (JBS Networking Collaboration Team Lead) said that JBS and Cisco insisted on creating this initiative in line with their social responsibilities. It was also about a shared belief in the right to education for all, in basic human rights, and to support official government procedures aimed at serving Jordan’s students and children under difficult and exceptional circumstances.
MDS for Computer Systems becomes first Cisco Partner to achieve Cisco Customer Experience Specialization in Saudi Arabia
MDS CS is the first Cisco Partner to achieve Customer Experience Specialization, with certification just announced in July 2020. MDS CS is adapting Customer Success as its business methodology, ensuring customers achieve their desired outcomes while using CISCO products or services. Customer Experience/Success is becoming one of the most important factors across all types of business—the difference between a company going broke, or achieving mega-growth.
Customer Success is relationship-focused client management that aligns client and MDS CS goals for mutually beneficial outcomes. For MDS CS, the utmost Customer Success strategy is to help customers integrate, use or adopt their investments to the best effect.
MDS CS teams have been certified on Customer Success, which extends the CISCO CX portfolio through additional services, insights and digital integration along with comprehensive resources that CISCO is making available to CX partners. This new success portfolio, with it’s related service delivery options, provide opportunities to engage with customers at multiple touch points throughout the customer lifecycle in using their CISCO investments.
While innovative technologies power innovation and transformation, it also takes the right expertise to successfully maximize the value of customer technology investments. CISCO launched CX portfolio to deliver the insights and expertise that customers need to remove roadblocks at every stage of their technology journey – which means that they can realize the best business outcomes, faster.
These CISCO success tracks provide MDS CS customers with more personalized expert guidance (ask the experts); increased levels of support, which is proactive and predictive through insights/analytics; and contextual learning for increased workforce effectiveness.
eHosting Datafort recognized as key DRaaS provider for Middle East by Gartner
Gartner in their new Global report on ‘Disaster Recovery As A Service’ (DRaaS) have listed eHosting DataFort (eHDF) as one of the leading providers in the Middle East offering a comprehensive and robust DR solution.
Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is a cloud computing service model that allows an organization to back up its data and IT infrastructure in a third party cloud computing environment. This makes it possible to regain access and functionality to IT infrastructure after a disaster.
eHDF’s DRaaS offering includes distributing critical workloads across multiple data centers located 40 km apart, customized DR solutions to meet specific client RTO & RPO requirements, along with cost effective Cloud based Disaster Recovery services.
The Report states that ‘DRaaS is a great option for infrastructure and operations leaders who want to cost-effectively improve IT resilience, meet compliance or regulatory requirements, and address resource deficiencies.’
Across the IT landscape, there’s an increasing need for DRaaS as a result of COVID disruption and the growing amount of cybercrime, with companies more and more relying on cloud services rather than relying on in-house expertise.
According to the findings of the report, Disaster Recovery budgets were expected to increase in 2020, with around 50% of organizations expected to spend more than 7% of their IT budgets on IT DR.
The report also points out that a true DRaaS service is not the same as some of the offerings available in the market, which can be a patchwork of existing platform and automation services rather than a unified product, and that can make the choices available for customers confusing.
In addition, ‘better providers have industrialized their offerings and invested in value-added service components that ensure application recovery.’
In the background there are several factors behind the development of the DRaaS market, according to Gartner. There are do-it-yourself opportunities as well as SaaS DR alternatives, and competing options from cloud-managed service providers.
The report suggests that dedicated DRaaS providers, however, are able to address the value chain opportunities ‘from support for more workload types, to application assurance add-ons, to proactive services related to security and change management.’
Ambitious new MDSCS KSA website goes live
After months of hard work and development, a new MDSCS KSA website has gone live at www.mdscs.sa
According to Sachin Bhardwaj, leading the Midis SI marketing team which developed the site, the website was their most ambitious project to date as it represents the value of MDSCS KSA providing world-class technology brands and solutions through their partnership with the leading technology vendors such as HPE, HP Inc, Cisco, Oracle, NetApp and many more.
Sachin Bhardwaj is Director of Marketing, Midis System Integration Group. Sachin paid tribute to the KSA management team for their support during the development of the website, and also thanked Umair Khan from the Midis SI marketing team for his sustained hard work bringing the new MDSCS KSA site to launch status.
The website also has a very modern design and is responsive on most devices and is extremely rich in content, imagery, aesthetics. The new website incorporates high Search Volume keywords in order to boost website traffic on Search engines like Google, Edge, Firefox etc.
Even the ‘Contact Us’ form is coded in a way by which customers will be directed to a specific company based on their solution/region selection.
MDS CS Gold sponsors of IDC Security Roadshow and Panel in KSA
MDS for Computer Systems (MDS CS) were recently Gold sponsors of the IDC Security roadshow in Saudi Arabia on June 22, 2020.
According to the IDC web page for the event, the cyber security industry has recently reached an important new phase. Security and operational excellence is now a prerequisite for every organization to function securely, efficiently, and effectively.
Risk management goes hand-in-hand with that, quantifying security measures in the context of the business to demonstrate the business value of security. During the event, a number of panels and breakout sessions were spread between the keynote speakers.
Ehsan Snober, Head of Cyber security and Advanced Service (Eastern & Western Regions, Saudi Arabia) at MDS for Computer Systems participated in a panel discussion representing Cisco, alongside an IDC analyst and program manager as well as another vendor, Exabeam.
The panel theme was ‘Bridging the Security Skills Gap – Human and AI Threat Intel working Together.’ During the panel, Ehsan Snober discussed MDS for Computer Systems (MDS CS) and Cisco’s commitment to bridging the security gap in the market using AI and intel.
Hear the full panel discussion on the Midis SI YouTube channel, below.
iSTYLE Hungary opens its third Monobrand Apple Authorised Reseller store in Eastern Europe
iSTYLE Hungary, part of the Midis Group, opened its third Apple Authorised Reseller (AAR) store in Europe in Debrecen, Hungary on June 26, 2020. iSTYLE is a pioneer of the Monobrand AAR store format, especially in Central Eastern Europe. The Group had already opened the first two Apple Authorised Reseller stores of this innovative format in Cluj, Romania and Plovdiv, Bulgaria on February 29 this year.
Compact but effective, the Monobrand AAR is perfectly suited to expanding iSTYLE business across Eastern Europe. Photo credit: iSTYLE Hungary
The Monobrand AAR store format is a smaller-footprint Apple concept that perfectly fits the iSTYLE strategy to generate growth in so-called ‘tier three’ cities in the CEE region. Overall, iSTYLE Debrecen is the sixth Point of Sale for iSTYLE Hungary, and the first POS outside of the capital city.
The store fit-out was executed with great quality as the core philosophy, with a sleek 40 m2 showroom size and all essential MacBook, iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch lines displayed to their best advantage.
Giving the best service – iSTYLE stands for excellence in all aspects of it’s stores. Photo credit: iSTYLE Hungary
The opening event was preceded with a targeted communication campaign across the Debrecen area, and as the store opened on June 26, all the important COVID-19 precautions were taken to avoid a rush, and the team were able to the manage the queue of Apple fans diligently.
The opening day saw 450 visitors and above average sales results. Many local customers already knew iSTYLE from Budapest, and also from its online store, and were expecting quality services linked to sales of Apple products and accessories.
Monobrand AAR Point of Sales sites are ideal for spreading the iSTYLE message outside the capital cities of Eastern Europe. Photo credit: iSTYLE Hungary
“We strive to deliver an incredible shopping experience for our customers in Debrecen; increase their levels of satisfaction and our overall market share for the Apple business, in the East Hungary region,” said Csaba Gyarmati, Regional Manager, CEE, for iSTYLE.
“I would like to give thanks to the project team for doing great work in difficult circumstances to launch this new site. All of them did a great job: Péter Siklósi, Pál Matits, Dániel Polyák, Nóra Juhos, Szilvia Vidák, Árpád Szilágyi, Zoltán Dobos, Adrián Seres, Yetunde Teyinka, Alexandra Petró.”
To see the latest Apple products at iSTYLE Debrecen, visit the store at:
Forum Mall, 4024 Debrecen, Csapó utca 30
Opening hours:
Monday – Saturday: 09.00 to 20.00
Sunday: 10.00 – 18.00
Channel News Middle East features Ivanti partnership with University of Sharjah to transform IT support desk services
In a feature article in the June 2020 edition of Channel News Middle East, editor Mark Forker explores how deployment of Ivanti’s Service Manager solution has transformed the University of Sharjah’s IT landscape.
In the feature, Dr Hussein Elmehdi, Dean of Academic Support Services, talks about the need to have a unified communication and support channel for all student, faculty and administration requests.
Omar Harara, Support Desk Manager, at Ivanti ME explained of the need for an IT Service Management framework, or ITIL, as well as a need for IT performance monitoring, and user request tracking.
“We were providing a lot of services to the end users, but ultimately we had no classification of our services or the incidents that were flagged, so we couldn’t categorise them or evaluate the performance of our services in terms of incidents and service requests,” said Omar in the CNME feature.
Omar’s colleague, Anissa Bettayeb, talked about the success of the Ivanti deployment. “It allowed us to better diagnose, categorise, prioritise and flag incident, service and change requests. Now, we have a dashboard and system in place that can monitor and record all of this automatically,” said Anissa, who is Head of the Academic Computing Service Section.
Read much more about the success of the Ivanti Service Manager solution at the University of Sharjah in the June edition of Channel News Middle East, on the website and in the print pages on Issuu, here.
