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Reseller Malaysia2 www.resellermalaysia.my | DECEMBER 2016

A NEW GATHERING PLACE FOR THE NEW YEAR

W elcome to our inaugural issue of Reseller Malaysia! Why do we need “another IT magazine? Doesn’t the market already have enough of them?” some people

may ask. In the consumer arena, that may be true. But how many magazines are there in Malaysia designed for you, the IT reseller? The answer is zero.

Most vendors and principals target their marketing directly at the end-user. They miss out on the most important customer: you. As a reseller, you have the ability and credibility to influence hundreds, if not thousands, of end-user buying decisions. To understand the true value of a reseller, check out our main feature.

We want to be a gathering place for resellers to network and develop relationships with various vendors; to learn about new products, technologies, trends; and, to pick up business tips – ways to improve productivity, enhance sales, grow their business, and so forth – from experts in their fields.

At this watering hole, you can also sound out your views and issues with regards to products, vendors, service requests and so forth. There is strength in numbers and knowing you are not alone can bolster your case. Vendors will listen and pay attention.

Vendors will find this gathering place useful to feel the pulse of resellers. It is also another avenue for reaching out to resellers with their latest promotions and discounts. Resellers don’t have to wade through tons of mailers: they just come here to find everything in one place.

Our gathering place is actually much bigger: to complement our magazine, we havewww.resellermalaysia.my. It carries much more content than we can cram into a monthly magazine. Just as this magazine is exclusively distributed to resellers, there are also sections in the website that are exclusive to resellers.

Welcome to Reseller Malaysia and Happy New Year!

PUBLISHED BYVerve Infotech Sdn BhdSuite 35, Avenue Business Center,111 Block E, Phileo Damansara 19 Jalan 16/11, off Jalan Damansara46350 Petaling Jaya

PUBLISHERSatish

[email protected]

EDITOR:Stephen Chin

GRAPHICS DESIGNER:Milly Milk Ville - Sharon Sen / [email protected]

ACCOUNT MANAGER: Lim Chia Nean / [email protected]+60 12 320 1171+603 7493 5012

ADVERTISING: [email protected]

CIRCULATION1500 copies

PRINTER: Super Yueta Print, No. 40,Jalan PBS 14/8, Taman PerindustrianBukit Serdang, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor.

Stephen Chin, Editor

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CONTENTS

LocalBerjaya rebrands loyalty program to Infinite-y and B-yondPIKOM honours ‘Best of the Best’ at awards galaINTI, IBM to develop highly employable studentsPIKOM downgrades GDP forecast, optimistic about ICT services

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International APAC-Japan businesses feel threatened by digital start-upsTraditional resellers must adapt to software-driven networkingUS Supreme Court sides with Samsung in Apple disputeNvidia, MS collaborate on AI for enterprisesTech professionals expect their jobs to be automated within 10 years

CA Technologies names Ken Martin as VPNg Tian Beng to head Dell EMC’s APJ operationsGround Labs appoints new regional channel director

HP goes big with world’s smallest inkjet AIO printerSeagate introduces 10TB IronWolf Pro for SMEsMicrosoft enhances features to IoT offeringsEpson RIPS high-cost printing to shreds with new printersESET launches new Internet security products

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News

Who is Who

Product News

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Resellers: Worth their Weight in GoldResellers can influence 65% of end-user purchase decisions in ICT, yet almost all marketing

communication efforts are targeted at end-users rather than resellers.

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CONTENTSP25

Looming shift to Hybrid CloudCloud computing appears to be an inevitability even in ‘passive’ Southeast Asia. Enterprises

will adopt hybrid clouds and this is what you need to know.

Feature

The Rise of M-CommerceInternet users are increasingly using their mobile phones to shop online and in the real world.

Here are the numbers.

P27 SurveyP25

News

Reseller Malaysia8 www.resellermalaysia.my | JANUARY 2017

M alaysian conglomerate Berjaya Group has rebranded its BCard

loyalty program to B Infinite, which includes payment gateway features for its 5 million members to make purchases as well as earn loyalty points.

As a part of the B Infinite network, merchants can collaborate with global payment brands MasterCard and Wirecard without have to build anything themselves, said Yau Su Peng, Berjaya Corporation Bhd’s director of retail and innovation. “They can communicate di-rectly to consumers, as well as upsell and cross-sell products.”

“By securely storing all payment information from Mastercard and other branded cards in one convenient place, MasterPass eliminates the need to enter the information with every purchase. The checkout process is simplified and speeded up with just a click, tap or touch, be it for online or in-app purchases,” said Perry Ong, MasterCard country manager, Malaysia and Brunei.

Presently, B Infinite merchants include Caltex, Chatime, Qualitas Group, Berjaya Hotel Group, Starbucks, 7-Eleven, Lazada, Umobile, Kenny Rogers and 11Street.

From left: Perry Ong, Mastercard country manager, Malaysia and Brunei; Yau Su Peng, Berjaya Corporation director, retail innovation; Safdar Khan, Mastercard division president, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei; Dato’ Sri Robin Tan, Berjaya Corporation chairman and CEO; Markus Eichinger, Wirecard vice president, value added services; Chan Chun Fee, Wirecard Malaysia general manager; Ooi Hooi Cheng, BLoyalty general manager.

Berjaya rebrands loyalty program to Infinite-y and B-yond

P rintcious, a premier gift printing service provider, has upgraded its capability to provide personalised gift printing.

Utilising specialised Dye-Sublimation printers supplied by Epson Malaysia, Printcious – a portmanteau of “print” and “precious” – can let customers imprint special wording and pictures on a range of materials, as gifts for loved ones or corporate gift-giving occasions.

“How many times have we all received photo frames or mugs as gifts that are nice in themselves, but don’t move us?” asked Printcious founder and managing director Vincent Tong. Not only can these gifts be expensive, but shoppers also waste a lot of time looking for personalised gifts because it is not easy to find the right ones, he added.

The personalised do-it-yourself premium gift printing market is still very nascent and has untapped potential, said Epson in a state-ment. To make the business successful, the printing must not just be of extremely high-quality but also able to directly print on garments and ceramic surfaces, and all in a fast, fuss-free manner.

The Epson SureColor F6070 Dye-Sublimation printer and SureColor F2000 Direct-to-Garment printer installed by Printcious can print on T-shirts, puzzles, phone cases, cushions, mousepads, ceramic tiles, mugs and keychains.

Dye-Sublimation printers are specialised devices used to produce high photo quality colour artwork that can be transferred to polyester and polymer-coated substrates, as well as onto textiles and gift items such as mugs, wooden plaques, plastics and so forth.

Epson’s printers use its proprietary Micro Piezo printhead technology which ejects ink drop-lets using mechanical pressure. By precisely controlling the volume of ink in each droplet, the printers virtually waste no ink and can produce sharp, rich and grain-free images.

Unlike thermal inkjet systems, Micro Piezo systems do not use heat, making it compatible with a wider variety of inks and media. They are also highly durable and offer fast printing speeds, Epson said. This means Printcious can take on large orders from corporate clients who often require them at short notice.

“I chose the SureColor F6070 Dye-Sublimation printer to print on materials such as polyester, ceramics and coated surfaces. The SureColor F2000 DTG printer can print on non-white cotton materials. Both these printers allowed me to do exactly what Printcious needs to do,” explained Tong.

“We are also very happy with the technical support Epson gives us. We are not technical people so after-sales support is crucial for us. We cannot afford any downtime. I’m glad to report that Epson has exceeded our expectations,” Tong said.

Printcious’ website (www.printcious.com) lets individual customers choose a gift, upload personal photos and text, and personalise their gifts with its online design tool, for a small fee. Bulk orders will be handled by contacting the company directly.

Being a web-based business, Printcious plans to replicate its business model in other countries such as Singapore and Philippines in the coming years.

Printcious offers fast personalised gift printing with Epson printers

News

JANUARY 2017 | www.resellermalaysia.my Reseller Malaysia 9

T he National ICT Association of Malaysia (PIKOM) held its OCT Awards

Night 2016 on 3 November and handed out awards and merit awards to local companies, individuals and students who stood out with industry-leading innovations and ideas.

The gala event saw accolades given for both the PIKOM Industry Leadership Awards (PILA) and MSC Malaysia’s Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) 2016 awards.

PIKOM also recognised Green Data Center LLP, who took home the coveted Chairman’s Award at the recent World IT and Service Alliance Excellence Awards in Brazil. Previously, GDC won both the local and international APICTA awards in 2015 for Best Sustainability and Environment Technology category as well as the United Nations ICT award. PIKOM said in a statement that GDC’s recognition is testimony to APICTA’s success as a Launchpad for local ICT companies to gain international exposure, and hoped this year’s winners will perform well in Taipei in December.

“As the host of these awards, PIKOM is honoured to witness the rise of new

M alaysian travel startup Touristly announced that it secured a strategic

investment from Tune Labs. Aiming to become the pre eminent travel itinerary planning platform, Touristly is working on incorporating its platform into several companies in Tune Group.

“AirAsia travellers, BIG Loyalty members and Tune Hotels guests can access a one-stop platform to plan, book and purchase holiday activities at a compelling price point consis-tent with Tune Group’s unique selling point – and share their travel experiences through-out Asia,” said Gareth Lim, co-managing partner of Tune Labs, in a statement.

“We look forward to establishing Touristly as the Asia Pacific traveller’s first port of call when planning and booking travel activities,” said Arun Verma, co-managing partner of Tune Labs.

Tune Labs is a Kuala Lumpur-based startup incubator and accelerator headed by Tony

innovations and talents who are examples of Malaysian quality, entrepreneurship, courage and boldness of action. The quality of the entries has been outstanding. We are pleased to see this channel provide a means for local technopreneurs to flourish and establish a presence,” said PIKOM chairman, CS Chin.

Chin said despite many industries feeling the effects of economic headwinds facing Malaysia, the ICT industry continues to grow, thanks to a healthy pipeline of talent and ideas. “These ideas and others will

Fernandes, Kamarudin Meranun and Lim Kian Onn.

Touristly was first integrated with AirAsia BIG loyalty in March, allowing members to earn AirAsia BIG points when they use the travel platform to create and book their holiday itineraries. It then worked with Tune Hotels

provide the fuel and catalyst to power Malaysia’s transformation from largely being a consumer of ICT into an ICT producer that offers products, services and solutions for both domestic and international use,” he said.

PIKOM presented the PILA Awards to selected industry luminaries for their out-standing contributions to the industry. Also, in conjunction with its 30th anniversary, PIKOM presented commemorative awards to its pioneering members who supported the association since its founding days.

to provide on-ground activity concierge services.

“We are very excited to be part of the Tune Group family as it complements our services for travellers and tourists. After a traveller books his flights and accommodation, the natural next step is to plan the holiday itinerary and this is where we come in,” said Aaron Sarma, founder and CEO of Touristly.

“We currently offer 7,000 deals in over 70 destinations and we will grow our base to shadow AirAsia and AirAsia X’s 120 destina-tions. It will complete the travel experience for anyone who flies with the airline,” he added.

Touristly was one of two winners in the inaugural Pitch@Palace Malaysia and will be heading to the UK in December for Pitch@Palace Global. Pitch@Palace was esta blished by the Duke of York as a platform for showcasing technology startups to a global audience of influencers.

PIKOM honours ‘Best of the Best’ at awards gala

Touristly integrates with Tune Group companies

Secretary General of the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia, Dato’ Seri Dr. Sharifah Zarah Syed Ahmad won the PILA Award for ICT Personality of the Year. Beside her is PIKOM chairman Chin Chee Seong

News


sufficient resources to cyber risk. As such, these guidelines require the entity to outline the board’s roles and responsibilities, identify the person and key personnel responsible for managing cyber risk, said the SC.

Regulated entities are required to report cyber incidents to the SC. By sharing information of breaches and potential threats, the SC can enhance the industry’s awareness and preparedness towards cyber risks. The SC can also collaborate with market entities and stakeholders to enhance cyber resilience on an ongoing basis.

The SC said the guidelines will be implemented in phases. The entities involved in each phase will be selected based on factors such as size, nature of activities and market share.

The guidelines took effect on October 31. A copy may be obtained at https://sc.com.my/wp-content/uploads/eng/html/cyber/31102016_Guidelines_Cyber_Security.pdf.

A s smartphone use becomes ubiquitous, businesses should rethink their

stra tegies to embrace mobile commerce. Facebook Malaysia’s country director Nicole Tan said one in two Malaysian Internet users is shopping on mobile and m-commerce grew 300% faster than e-commerce this year.

Tan said over 62% of users check their phones more than 30 times a day, of which 14 times or more are their Facebook feeds. There are more than 19 million people in Malaysia on Facebook, which translates to 95% of all people in the country on the Internet and over 13 million people access Facebook daily on mobile.

In a TNS Global survey commissioned by Facebook, 94% of Malaysians on Facebook discover products and brands on the plat form, and three in five of them make a purchase after discovery, said Tan.

She added that a VISA survey last year found that 49% of store purchases are influenced by digital interactions, of which 57% are on mobile and 42% search for information on their smartphones while in-store. It concluded that 69% of shopping decisions contain an element of mobile.

S ecurities Commission Malaysia (SC) has issued new guidelines to enhance

cyber resilience of the capital market. Capital market entities are required to establish and implement effective gover-nance measures to counter cyber risk and protect investors.

Among other requirements, the Guidelines on Management of Cyber Risk clearly stipulate the roles and responsibilities of the board and senior management in building cyber resilience. Each entity must also identify a responsible person to be accountable for the effective management of cyber risk. These measures are intended to ensure that cyber risk is managed optimally in the changing market landscape.

These guidelines require regulated entities to institute a risk management framework to minimise cyber threats, implement adequate measures to identify potential vulnerabilities in their operating environment and ensure timely response and recovery in the event of a cyber-breach. These entities are required

“There are huge untapped opportunities in this space. Businesses have to be faster in adopting mobile strategies that reach people at every step of the fragmented commerce journey. We are committed to helping businesses grow and reach the 19 million people on Facebook in Malaysia, whether for brand building, demand genera-tion, or driving leads and sales,” she added.

Facebook Malaysia recently hosted “Mobile Moves Commerce” to give some insights on how mobile can drive commerce. At the event, McDonald’s Malaysia senior market-ing manager Eugene Lee shared how the restaurant chain is using mobile.

to have sufficient physical and systems security arrangements, said the SC in a statement.

“Against a backdrop of increased adoption of technology in capital market activities, operations of market intermediaries, market infrastructure and market-based financing platforms, it is imperative to ensure vigilant management of cyber risk,” said Foo Lee Mei, SC’s executive director and general counsel. “This will minimise disruption to the capital market, protect investors’ confiden-tial data and preserve market confidence.”

The involvement of the board and senior management is important to ensure that the capital market entity gives adequate attention to cyber risk issues; determines risk tolerance and priorities; and, allocates

McDonald’s Malaysia launched its Big Mac Chant Challenge campaign in October as a fully mobile campaign. “For the first time ever, we are not investing any budget in television or print because we believe that digital and mobile platforms such as Facebook have become so mass [market] that it allows us to achieve high reach with maximum efficiency,” he said.

The fast-food chain promoted its campaign on Facebook using Canvas and Video Ads with Facebook Creative Shop.

“The first time we ran a large campaign on Facebook with our Rio Burger, we saw a huge 11-point lift in customer recommendation and exceeded sales of the burger by 40%,” he added.

Another panel member, Fong Wai Hong, CEO and co-founder of StoreHub, was also enthusiastic about the analytics provided by Facebook. With the platform, businesses can target specific market segments and obtain measurable results on the efficacy of their campaigns. “We can tell exactly what works and what doesn’t, and adjust accordingly. We cannot get this through traditional methods,” he said.

Mobile commerce the way to go, says Facebook Malaysia

Ng Yau Chuan, client partner at Facebook and session moderator; Fong Wai Hong, CEO and co-Founder of StoreHub; Eugene Lee, senior marketing manager, Mc-Donald’s Malaysia; and Nicole Tan, country director of Malaysia, Facebook.

SC issues guidelines to capital market against cyber risk

News

JANUARY 2017 | www.resellermalaysia.my Reseller Malaysia 11

News

I NTI International University & Colleges is partnering with IBM

Malaysia to introduce the IBM Innovation Centre for Education (ICE) program into its computing, IT and business curricula.

This move is expected to produce IT-skilled and employable graduates who can address the skills and manpower shortage in the country.

A selection of IBM ICE courses will replace current subjects taught in several diploma and degree courses at INTI.

Tim Bulow, CEO of INTI International University & Colleges said an October survey commissioned by INTI found differences in expectation between employers and new graduates on com petencies deemed essential to excel at a job.

The most pressing dichotomy concerned digital literacy: 30% of employers rated it as most essential while only 4% of graduates thought the same.

IBM Malaysia’s managing director, Chong Chye Neo, said IT knowledge is not enough. “The key skill needed today is agility. We are now in the cognitive era.”

To accommodate rapid changes in technology development, the subject matter and content will be updated frequently, on a quarterly basis, Chong revealed. The overall syllabus for each year will be updated accordingly to reflect these changes.

The ICE program comprises courseware developed by IBM Labs, its Learning Services Team and several partners. It also features guest lectures and webinars by Subject Matter Experts, as well as Teach the Teacher (T3) workshops to keep the teaching faculty industry-relevant.

INTI, IBM to develop highly employ able students

T he National ICT Association of Malaysia (PIKOM) recently revised downwards its forecast of Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for 2016 and 2017 to

4.2% and 4% respectively, from 4.5% for both years. It named the Ringgit’s depreciation against the US dollar, the unexpected results of the Brexit referendum and US presidential election, and the uncertain future of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) as significant factors contributing to the forecast.

PIKOM chairman Chin Chee Seong said the association is taking a conservative ap-proach in its GDP forecast revision due to the potential long-term impact of these factors on the economy. Chin was speaking at a media briefing of PIKOM ICT Strategic Review 2016/2017, an industry report published for the eighth year running.

However, the ICT industry is still expected to grow, fuelled by strong growth in the ICT services (ICTS) sector which recorded an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 11% at RM70.2bn in 2015 and projected to reach RM77.5bn in 2016. This is a significant portion of the RM155.2bn total ICT value in Malaysia for 2015, based on the AAGR of 8% for the period 2010-2015.

The overall ICT industry represented 17.6% of the national economy, up from 16.5% in 2010. PIKOM research committee chair, Woon Tai Hai said, “It is on track to reach 20% in 2020. The ICTS sector alone contributed up to 6.6% of GDP in 2015 and is projected to reach 7% by the end of 2016.”

Chin said the emergence of disruptive technologies – the focus of this year’s report – will be catalytic game-changers that will continue to boost the ICT sector and economy. “It is important for business and government leaders to keep themselves abreast of all these disruptive technologies, including new ones that are coming in the near future,” he added. “You may not necessarily rush in to adopt them but it is important to be aware of the impact and implication of adopting or not adopting them.

The 11-chapter report covers a broad range of topics relevant to disruptive technology, such as Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT) and Digital Governance. For the first time, the ICT Strategic Review is covering the growth journey of young and established start-ups that are making a mark in the industry.

Chin revealed that several chapters were written by government bodies, which gives ICT players an insight into the government’s policies and strategies for the industry.

PIKOM downgrades GDP forecast, remains optimistic about ICT services

INTI CEO, Tim Bulow; Gopi Ganesalingam, vice presi-dent, enterprise development consulting, MDEC; IBM Malaysia managing director, Chong Chye Neo.

It isimportant for business and government

leaders to keep themselves

abreast of all these disruptive

technologies, including

new ones that are coming in

the nearfuture PIKOM chairman Chin Chee Seong (left) with PIKOM research committee

chair, Woon Tai Hai

News


B roadcom Ltd and Brocade Com munications Systems recently

announced that Broadcom will acquire Brocade for US$12.75 per share in an all-cash transaction valued approximately $5.5bn plus $0.4bn net debt. Broadcom plans to fund the transaction with new debt financing and cash available on its balance sheet.

Broadcom said in a statement that it intends to divest Brocade’s IP networking business, comprising wireless and campus networking, data centre switching and routing, and software networking products. This includes Ruckus Wireless which Brocade purchased in May 2016.

“This strategic acquisition enhances Broadcom’s position as one of the leading providers of enterprise storage connectivity solutions to OEM customers,” said Hock Tan, president and CEO, Broadcom. “Brocade’s deep expertise in mission-critical storage net working increases our ability to address the evolving needs of our OEM customers.

“In addition, we are confident of finding a great home for Brocade’s valuable IP networking business that will best position that business for its next phase of growth,” he said.

Brocade CEO Lloyd Carney said the transaction will give its shareholders a 47% premium over its closing share price on October 28, 2016, and create new opportunities for customers and partners. “Our best-in-class fibre channel storage area network (FC SAN) products will help Broadcom create one of the industry’s broadest portfolios for enterprise storage,” he said, while pledging to work with Broadcom to find a buyer for the soon-to-be-divested IP networking business.

Broadcom anticipated Brocade’s FC SAN business will contribute approximately $900m of pro forma non-GAAP EBITDA in its fiscal year 2018. The deal is expected to close in the second half of Broadcom’s FY2017, subject to regulatory and stock-holder approvals.

Broadcom to buy Brocade for US$5.9bn, divest IP networking

W ith the completion of their acquisition of Dell Software Group, private equity firm Francisco Partners and Elliott Management announced the spin out of SonicWall as

an independent company. SonicWall has 25 years of experience in the cyber security industry, protecting over a million customer networks worldwide.

The newly independent company named Bill Conner as president and CEO. Conner was previously CEO of Silent Circle, and Entrust, as well as president at data networks and then enterprise networks at Nortel Networks.

“We are in the midst of a cyber security arms race,” said Conner. “As a standalone SonicWall brand, we can act even more deftly and quickly to serve channel partners and customers by offering products and services second to none.

“SonicWall customers are protected by one of the most advanced tools in the market, the cloud-based Capture Advanced Threat Protection Service,” added Conner. “It has

SonicWall spins out from Dell Software Group

SonicWall customers are protected by one of the most advanced

tools in the market, the cloud-based Capture

Advanced Threat Protection Service

revolutionised advanced threat detection and sandboxing with a multi-engine approach to stopping unknown and zero-day attacks, and with automated remediation. We are continuing our commitment to product innovation to serve our customers and invest in our partners who operate as an extension of the SonicWall team.”

SonicWall said in a statement that its Capture Advanced Threat Prevention Service analysed more than four million suspicious files since its launch in August.

Francisco Partners’ co-founder and CEO, Dipanjan Deb, said SonicWall is a trusted partner to its customers and channel partners in 40 countries and is focused on innovating next-generation network security. “This acquisition will better enable SonicWall to continue its journey in delivering world-class solutions and help defend against the explosive growth of new cybersecurity threats.”

“SonicWall has long had an excellent reputation in the security industry,” said Robert Ayoub, research director in IDC’s security products program. “Security remains the number one concern for many of our clients, so there is definitely an interest in the marketplace for what SonicWall sells.”

SonicWall also announced its SonicWall SecureFirst Partner Program, which introduces improved partner rewards, deal protection and expanded technical enablement on the SonicWall portfolio. Dell EMC will continue to resell SonicWall’s entire product portfolio as it has been doing since before its acquisition by Dell.

News

Reseller Malaysia 13JANUARY 2017 | www.resellermalaysia.my

C onventional network resellers have “no choice” but to transition to a

software-based world, reiterated Cisco Systems, Inc. at its recent Cisco Partner Summit in San Francisco.

“We’ve moved to a software-driven architecture, DNA so the whole industry has to go through this reskilling process,” said Ken Boal, vice president of Cisco Australia and New Zealand. He said efforts to get the partner com munity onboard are being “fast tracked” and “one of the biggest areas we focused on is the modernisation of networking.”

Boal said previously that partners had many personnel-related issues to address, such as upskilling their existing engineer workforce; attracting new talent with more software skills; and finding the right mix of skills to lead this market transition.Boal admitted that drastic change can be unsettling and “everyone’s at their own stage in the evolution of the life cycle. However, there is a clear and present danger for partners who don’t adapt quickly enough,” he said. “Although customers are better informed than ever before and some may be capable of doing most of the work themselves, many are still looking for a guiding hand to lead them on this journey.”

Partners who operate or provide networking services on a customer’s behalf will also benefit from the soft-ware-defined networking model because it makes their offering more competitive and responsive to customers’ needs, Boal said.

He cited an example of a recent rollout in Australia involving about 1,600 schools. “In the old world, this deployment would have taken months to complete but under the latest paradigm, the work took only a small number of days after the physical racking and stacking was completed,” he said.

A Dell Technologies-commissioned survey found 85% of businesses in the Asia Pacific-Japan (APJ) region see digital start-ups as a threat to their organisation, either now

or in the future. 52% of APJ businesses surveyed fear they may become obsolete in the next three to five years due to competition from digital-born start-ups.

Six in 10 APJ business leaders experienced significant disruption in their industries in the last three years due to digital technologies and the Internet of Things, and 58% of businesses in the region do not know what their industry will look like in three years.

The survey, conducted independently by Vanson Bourne, covered 4,000 business leaders across 16 countries and 12 industries.

“The digital revolution has led to a significant decline in the barriers to entry across industries. We have witnessed the rise of numerous digital start-ups,” said Amit Midha, president APJ commercial, Dell EMC.

“APJ is at the epicentre of the fourth industrial revolution,” said David Webster, president, APJ enterprise business, Dell EMC. “With customers expecting intuitive and personalised experiences, it is imperative for businesses to transform digitally to remain competitive. Although businesses across the region are making progress, it is now time to accelerate their digital transformation beginning with IT transformation.

According to the Digital Transformation Index, only 5% of businesses across 16 countries catapulted themselves into the Digital Leaders group.

D igital transformation (DX) sits atop the strategic agenda for enterprises, says a report by Forbes Insights. In the study based on a worldwide survey of 573 senior

executives and one-on-one conversations, half the respondents believed the next two years will be critical for their organisations to make this transition and prepare for future opportunities.

“How to Win at Digital Transformation: Insights from a Global Survey of Top Executives” was conducted in association with Hitachi Data Systems (HDS). It said competitive pressure is prompting companies to embrace DX as the key to turning marginal growth into exponential growth. DX is considered the accelerator for bending the curve on productivity, time to market, deployment of new business models and revenue generation.

The study defines DX as an evaluation of business processes. “DX is now essential for corporate survival,” said Bruce Rogers, chief insights officer at Forbes Media. “It’s also more about people and culture and change management, along with technology investment.”

HDS chief marketing officer Asim Zaheer said data is at the centre of transformation. “It is both the creator and accelerator that proved to be the currency of IT organisations. Organisations that fail to unlock the potential of data are falling short of their own trans-formation,” he said.

APAC-Japan businesses feel threatened by digital start-ups

Digital Transformation top strategic priority for enterprise, says report

Traditional resellers must adapt to software -driven networking

We’ve moved to a software - driven architecture, DNA so the whole industry has to go through

this reskilling process

• Digital Leaders, digital transformation is ingrained in the business DNA: 5%

• Digital Adopters, have a mature digital plan, investments and innovations in place: 14%

• Digital Evaluators, cautiously and gradually embracing digital transformation, planning and investing for the fu-ture: 34%

• Digital Followers, very few digital investments, tentatively starting to plan for the future: 32%

• Digital Laggards, have no digital plan, limited initiatives and investments in place: 15%

News


M icrosoft Corporation announced a raft of products and partnerships to boost its Azure cloud platform for building intelligent, cross-platform apps and services.

The company is taking steps to boost the ecosystem by giving developers greater choice in the tools they use. It joined the Linux foundation as a platinum member, allowed Google into the .NET foundation and is working with Samsung Electronics to enable .NET developers to build apps for more than 500 million Samsung devices worldwide, said Microsoft executive vice president, cloud and enterprise, Scott Guthrie, in a statement.

At the Connect(); 2016 event held recently, Guthrie also demonstrated a preview of Visual Studio for Mac, which enables developers to write cloud, mobile and MacOS apps; a preview of SQL Server data base with support for Linux, Linux-based Docker containers and Windows-based environments; and a preview of Azure App Service on Linux with support for containers.

“We want to help developers achieve more and capitalise on the industry’s shift toward cloud-and-mobile-first experiences using the tools and platforms of their choice,” Guthrie said.

“By becoming a Linux Foundation platinum member, Microsoft is better able to collaborate with the open source community to deliver transformative mobile and cloud experiences to more people,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. “Microsoft has been a key contributor to many projects, and we see the company intensifying its involve-ment and commitment to open development.”

Microsoft became active in the open source community partly through the popularity of its open source and cross-platform application framework .NET Core. The recent addition of Google to the .NET Foundation’s technical steering group further boosts .NET as a standardised open platform, said Microsoft.

It added that other industry leaders are also backing .NET Core. Samsung released a preview of Visual Studio Tools for Tizen, which runs on millions of Samsung TVs, wearables, mobile devices and IoT devices.

IDC’s research director for software development, Al Hilwa, said, “Microsoft is transforming the nature of its appeal to developers by broadening its supported platforms. The new partner-ships and commitments let Microsoft meet developers where they are and multiply its reach and impact with mobile and cloud developers, and become established in emerging areas such as IoT, data science and cognitive computing.”

MS pushes tools for any developer on any platform

Microsoft cloud and enterprise executive vice president Scott Guthrie

We want to help developers achieve more and capitalise

on the industry’s shift toward cloud-and mobile-first experiences using the tools

and platforms of their choice

T he US Supreme Court ruled in Samsung’s favour in its smartphone

patent fight with Apple. It dismissed an appeals court ruling that Samsung has to pay US$399m to Apple for copying iPhone designs.

The 8-0 ruling held that a patent violator does not have to surrender the entire profits from sales of infringing products if the stolen designs covered only certain components and not the entire product.

The case has been sent back to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington to determine how much Samsung must pay. However, the justices did not provide any guidance on how juries and lower courts can handle similar cases in future.

According to Apple in a statement, the company is “optimistic that the lower courts will again send a powerful signal that stealing isn’t right.”

Meanwhile, Samsung said the ruling was a “victory for Samsung and for all those who promote creativity, innovation and fair competition in the marketplace.”

In 2012, a jury awarded Apple with nearly $930m in penalties from Samsung for infringing Apple’s iPhone patents and copying its distinctive appearance. The penalty was later reduced by $382m.

Samsung paid Apple $548 by December 2015 but took the case to the Supreme Court, saying it should not have had to make $399m of that payout.

The latest dispute centred on whether the term “article of manufacture” should mean a finished product or a component in a complex product. US patent law uses article of manufacture to determine design patent damages.

The court unanimously ruled that the term is broad enough to encompass both a product sold to a consumer and a component of that product, but did not devise a test for juries and lower courts to use to determine what a relevant article of manufacture should be in a particular case.

US Supreme Court sides with Samsung in Apple dispute

News

JANUARY 2017 | www.resellermalaysia.my Reseller Malaysia 15Reseller Malaysia 15

F orty-five percent of technology profes-sionals believe a significant part of

their job will be automated within 10 years, making their current skills redundant. Furthermore, 94% believe their career would be severely limited if they do not teach themselves new technical skills.

This finding came from the Harvey Nash Technology Survey 2017 which surveyed more than 3,200 technology professionals from 84 countries.

Testers and IT operations professionals expect their job role to be significantly affected (67% and 63% respectively), while CIO/VP of IT and program management believe they are least affected (31% and 30% respectively).

“Through automation, it is possible that 10 years from now, the Technology team will be unrecognisable in today’s terms,” said David Savage, associate director, Harvey Nash UK. “Even for roles relatively unaffected directly by automation, there is a major indirect effect – up to half their work colleagues may be machines by 2027.”

Key highlights from the Harvey Nash Technology Survey 2017:

AI growth. The biggest technology growth area is expected to be Artificial Intelligence, 89% of respondents expect it to be

N vidia will collaborate with Microsoft to accelerate AI in the enterprise. It will

optimise the AI framework of its Tesla GPUs to run in Microsoft Azure or on-premises. Enterprises will get to have an AI platform that spans from their data centre to Microsoft’s cloud.

“Our close collaboration with Microsoft means companies have the fastest AI plat-form, the most scalable solution with Nvidia DGX-1 and Tesla GPUs, and the best tools to transform any product or service,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia’s CEO and founder.

The jointly optimised platform runs the new Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit ( formerly CNTK) on Nvidia GPUs, including the DGX-1 supercomputer that uses Pascal

GPUs with NVLink and on Azure N-Series virtual machines. This combination delivers

performance and ease of use when using data for deep learning.

The Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit trains and evaluates deep learning algorithms and can scale from a CPU to GPUs and multiple machines. The collaboration aims to accelerate the toolkit on GPU-based systems and in the Azure cloud.

Over the past two years, Nvidia collaborated with over 19,000 compani es on deep learning, covering industries such as healthcare, life sciences, energy, financial services, automotive, and manufacturing. Companies can harness AI to make better decisions, offer new products and services faster and provide better customer experiences.

important to their company in five years’ time, almost four times the current figure of 24%.

Big Data is big but still unproven. 57% of organisations are implementing Big Data at least to some extent. For many it is moving from being an “experiment” into something much more core to their business; 21% say they are using it in a “strategic way”. Only three in 10 organisations with a Big Data strategy are reporting success to date.

Tech people don’t trust the cloud. Four in 10 have little or no trust in how cloud companies are using their personal data, and a further five in 10 at least worry about it. Trust in cloud is affected by age (the

older you are, the less you trust), location and job title. Male Architects, who are 30 years old or more from North America working in government are least trusting.

The end of the CIO Role? Just 3% of those under 30 aspire to be a CIO. Instead, they would prefer to be a CTO (14% chose this), entrepreneur (19%) or CEO (11%). It suggests that the traditional role of the CIO is relatively unattractive to Gen Y.

Headhunters radar. Software Engineers and Developers get headhunted the most, followed closely by Analytics/Big Data roles. At the same time, 75% believe recruiters are too focused on assessing technical skills and overlook good people as a result.

Tech professionals expect their jobs to be automated within 10 years

Nvidia, MS collaborate on AI for enterprises

Source: Harvey Nash

Nvidia CEO, president and founder, Jen-Hsun Huang

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RESELLERS ?

Feature


A smart IT staff will not want to challenge expert recommendation because they do not want to get blamed for any mistakes. However, they get the credit if the decisions turn out to be good. Hence, the influence of an SI, VAR or SP is far stronger than the already considerable influence of a retail store’s sales representative. Indeed, they are worth their weight in gold.

Yet, marketing and promotion campaigns tend to target mostly end-users. Advertising is obsessed with readership, views, hits or clicks. These types of advertising influence one person at a time and they are leads at best: they do not necessarily convert into sales. They are like stray gold nuggets, compared to resellers who are like rich veins of gold.

Resellers give a better return on invest-ment. They deal with customers who are ready to buy something. Hence, it is far more effective for vendors and principals to target their branding and promotion campaigns at resellers and win their mindshare.

“Resellers are a great leverage for vendors and distributors,” says David, owner of a software distribution company. “Persuading one of them to partner with us is equivalent to persuading hundreds or thousands of end-users to purchase our products. There is a multiplier effect for our business when we put our focus on the channel instead of only end-users.”

Resellers are also “customers” and they undergo the same five steps to a buying decision.

Resellers can influence 65% of end-user purchase decisions in ICT, yet almost all marketing communication efforts are targeted at end-users rather than resellers.

A consumer’s buying decision follows five steps1 : problem or need recognition;

information search; evaluation of alterna-tives; purchase decision; and post-purchase behaviour.

After perceiving a need, the customer will collect information on various alternatives before deciding what to buy. His satisfaction with the purchase will depend on the product’s performance, his experience when buying, and the after-sales service. It determines whether he will purchase the same brand in future from the same source, and also what he recommends to his friends.

IT vendors typically focus their marketing efforts on the first step – need recognition – at the end user. To individual consumers, it may be faster performance, lifestyle or prestige. To corporations, it could be cost-savings, security, efficiency and more sales.

However, vendors often overlook another, more important, group of customers – the distribution channels, especially resellers. System integrators (SIs), value-added resellers (VARs), service providers (SPs) and dealers are the most influential part of the equation in determining what their clients purchase. To a majority of end-users who “do not know much about IT,” the advice and recommendations of an IT dealer is valued like gold.

“Almost 100% of the time, our customers will listen to us because what is important to them is our solution. For IT hardware and infrastructure, they normally have no preference,” says Yap Yun Fatt, managing director of Advelsoft (M) Sdn Bhd.

Even those with a modest knowledge of IT, who do their research on the Internet, or ask

by Stephen Chin

Resellers: Wor th their Weight in Gold

their friends for recommendations, can be swayed.

“I’m thinking of buying Brand ABC,” says a customer to the sales representative. “I saw a lot of advertisements on this and the reviews seem positive. My friends also tell me it’s a good buy.”

“Oh, ABC is certainly famous now because the company spent a lot of money on advertisements and social media to promote it, but you want my honest opinion, Brand DEF is better. They don’t advertise as much but they are more established. For the same price, it also packs more features.

“Many of our customers prefer this to ABC. So far, they are very happy with it,” says the persuasive sales representative. And just like that, the customer buys DEF.

A survey by Computer Reseller News found that 67% of customers who go into a PC retail store ask the sales representative for a recommendation and 97% follow it. That means 65% of products sold are influenced by the sales representative.

Even at corporations where IT department staff may have a clear idea of what they want, the SI, VAR or SP can put in a convincing pitch to change their mind.

“The technology you’re considering may be sufficient now but in the long run will cost you more,” the consultant may say. “This other technology is newer and more cost effective. You won’t have to upgrade as often; you can save (they give a compelling figure) in cost; you can scale the performance upwards to grow with the company; this technology can support the features you are looking for and more at no extra cost,” and so on.

The need is straightforward: to provide what their clients want or need. SIs and VARs

Step One: Problem or need recognition

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listed in their database. What about those who are not in their database? It is costly to miss out on a big sale just because the reseller is off the vendor’s radar.

These off-radar resellers have to go through the tedious task of scouring the Internet, and comparing between different brands, models and prices. They can comb through the vendors’ websites for technical information and even a distributor’s contact information, but it is almost a certainty that they won’t find channel-specific information such as promotions, discounts or incentive programs and training.

In an African plain, the best place to find wildlife is a watering hole. Likewise, a good place for vendors and distributors to find resellers is a platform targeted exclusively at resellers. If only there was such a platform, where resellers gather to learn about current and upcoming products and technologies; read insightful expert- authored articles that can help them grow their business, such as sales lead management, better business practices, ways to increase efficiency and grow their business.

This members-only platform is ideal for resellers because some information is unsuitable for public consumption. End-users should not know about reseller-only discounts, promotions and bonuses, lest they demand a share of those incentives.

If major principals and new start-ups were to pitch their products and promotions at this watering hole, they stand a better chance to be noticed. Resellers get to learn what is available in the market and from whom to buy.

Some distributors run channel promotions lasting several months. They can use this watering hole to maintain visibility and sustain interest.

Distributor MNO has a big sales goal for November. He is prepared to sacrifice some margins (but not too much!) in hopes of generating large volumes. “Should I advertise heavily in the local media and blogs? It’s going to be very expensive and there is no guarantee of sales. Should I incentivise my channel partners instead?” he asks himself.

Vendors and principals issue white papers and articles on their websites but their reach is limited to resellers registered in their databases. They miss out on scores of other resellers in the market who may be searching for them. Some vendors or distributors also organise seminars and roadshows to strengthen ties with their existing channel partners but have limited success in attracting new resellers.

Step Two: Information search

After making a decision on what to provide their customer, the reseller will then order it from a supplier. His top priority is reliable performance, followed by the ability to expand in future and good value for money. The reseller has to make sure everything works together, is competitively priced and very importantly, gives him a healthy profit margin.

Advelsoft’s Yap says his company’s Property Management System is designed to run on his customer’s existing hardware. “A single-user system requires only a PC, printer and uninterruptible power supply,” he says. “We only make recommendations if the IT and hardware infrastructure is inadequate. The customer may also want to have multiple users or access the data on the cloud, in which case they need a server, networking products and additional hard-ware,” he says.

The company recommends HP products, “not out of any sense of loyalty but we have been using this brand for so long and it has never given us any problems,” Yap explains.

However, says IshanTech’s Rames, “It is good for SIs to know what else is available in the market.”

Ruben adds, “We do not just go for a particular brand because of profit. We need to evaluate the product’s features and reliability and then look at the monetary aspect.”

Vendors and distributors send out regular mailers and updates to SIs, VARs and SPs

Step Three: Evaluation of alternatives

have to deliver on their customers’ wish list of features and functions; retailers want to stock up on products that are sellable.

Resellers also have a need to grow their business. Therefore, they need to stay up-to- date on new technologies and products that can enhance their offerings to clients. Some of the buzzwords today are cloud computing and the Internet of Things. Security is a major concern as is the infrastructure required. New products are also appearing at a rapid pace.

“I used to subscribe to magazines for information but many of them are out of business today,” laments Advelsoft’s Yap. “There isn’t any well-known industry publication to keep us informed of market trends, and new products and services offered by various companies.”

Ruben Theva, a director of system integrator IshanTech (M) Sdn Bhd, says, “It is good for us to know what is out there. We currently have to search the Internet for news.”

His partner and fellow director, Rames A. Bala adds that they also acquire market intelligence by being on the ground, learning from their customers and getting their feedback.

“Vendors and principals do send us updates,” said M. Mohamed Zaheer Husain, an IT consultant with Asia ONE IT, “but their engagement depends on the size of business the SI brings. Most times, we have to hunt for info on our own, like making calls and queries.”

New products and technology change at such a rapid pace that resellers and retailers may not be aware of it. A customer may walk into a store and ask to buy Product GHI which the sales representative, JKL, may not have heard of before. The savvy JKL may say, “It’s very new in Malaysia and not many dealers have stocks. Please give me your contact details and I will special-order it for you.”

He then searches the Internet to learn what it is and where to buy it.

“We usually search for the product we want on the Internet. We find the manufacturer’s website and look for their distributors,” says Rames.

Distributor information is not always available in a vendor’s website, and there may be no local distributorship for the product in question. For example, sales representative JKL finds Product GHI on the Net but learns there is no Malaysian supplier. He tries contacting the distributor in a nearby country but finds the terms un-favourable. So, he calls the customer and recommends a comparable competing product.

Some distributors may find it hard to get noticed. Search engine results are skewed by advertising dollars. Unless the distributors play this game, they may wait in vain to be found. The Internet is a very big place to get lost in.

Most times, we have to hunt for info on

our own, like making calls and queries.

Feature


If they are satisfied with the purchase, they will likely become loyal customers. On the other hand client complaints, slow turn-around for service requests or poor service from authorised service centres, will deter them from ordering or recommending the same brand again.

“Sometimes, I wonder if I’m the only one having a problem with supplier STU or Brand VW,” says reseller XYZ. “When I complain, I get the standard polite, ‘we’ll look into it’ response. I don’t know if I’m getting anywhere.”

Even brand loyalists are open to change. Advelsoft’s Yap says, “We are still open to other brands, but for the time being, we are staying with HP.” That means a competing vendor needs to convince resellers that it offers similar or superior service levels, but how will it even get its foot in the doorway?

suppliers! I’m going to get a handful of quotes and choose the best one.”

Which vendor or distributor would not want to be in that shortlist? A successful sale may lead to future sales and revenue for the company. Hence it is imperative to be regularly seen at the watering hole.

The watering hole can be expanded into dedicated roadshows. Resellers can congregate in a place for a day to network and develop relationships. Vendors can take this opportunity to deliver presentations, updates and announcements to a wider audience. Unlike vendor- or distributor- specific roadshows, a broad platform road-show offers the best use of a reseller’s time. Resellers can zoom in on special topics that are relevant or interesting to them. They can use the opportunity to negotiate deals, too.

“It would be good to have a ‘members only’ place where we can give feedback, have dialogues and explore opportunities,” said Mohamed Zaheer. “I like the idea of having a platform or portal to get the latest updates and deals.”

Such events may eventually evolve into an awards ceremony. Competition is always a good stimulus for improvement – everyone wins just by making the effort to perform better than his rival. Awards ceremonies are a (mostly) harmless fun way to engage in competitive rivalry.

Resellers base their buying decision on several factors. The products must have the specified features, be easy to install and implement, meet minimum quality standards, and have strong after-sales support. Failure in any of these areas will not only cost them their clients but also damage their reputation. After-sales service, return policies, and terms and conditions will i nfluence what they eventually buy.

The first priority is reliability, reiterates Advelsoft’s Yap. “In my industry, after-sales support is extremely important. We do not care if there is a price war between vendors: even if they sell at half-price, we would not be interested if the product has to be returned to the manufacturer every few months for repairs. This will affect our operations, reputation and incur support costs.”

“We also have very close ties with the distributor, ECS. The hardware rarely gave us problems and warranty claims are easy,” he adds.

However, profit margin also plays a big role. “Let’s face it. I’m in business. I want to get the best deal out there,” thinks reseller PQR. All things being equal, a timely special offer or promotion may be a tie-breaker. “But I cannot waste too much time getting quotes or searching for offers from different

Step Four: Purchase decision

After the purchase, resellers will evaluate if the product meets their need and is the right choice.

The reseller watering hole is a good place for resellers to sound off and vendors to blow their trumpets. Resellers can compare notes, participate in surveys and give ratings on products, services, pricing, programs and so forth. Vendors can join in the feed-back loop and get a finger on the industry’s pulse. They can find out what motivates the reseller community and address issues before they damage the company’s reputation.

For this same reason, vendors and distributors should also keep the resellers informed of who is who in their companies. “I want to know who to call if I am not satisfied with the level of service I’m getting,” says IshanTech’s Ruben.

An experienced executive taking over a key position can bring a lot of confidence to the reseller community. For example, when Dell announced its acquisition of EMC, doubts swirled in the community regarding continuity and the fate of VMware. Regular updates and assurances by Dell and EMC helped to keep shareholder and reseller sentiments positive.

Brand loyalty from resellers has a high financial value because of the multiplier effect – they influence the buying decisions of hundreds of customers, if not thousands or more. The success and prosperity of resellers translate into success and prosperity for the vendor or distributor. Resellers are worth cultivating as high-value customers. Indeed resellers are worth their weight in gold.

Step Five: Post-purchase behaviour

Sound off

1. http://theconsumerfactor.com/en/5-stages-consumer-buying- decision-process/

Advelsoft (M) Sdn Bhd has more than 20 years’ experience in property management solutions. Its comprehensive property mana gement system helps property managers, joint management bodies, manage ment corporations, and residents associations to track and handle various tasks, such as billing, access card, car park and sticker management. It also has a tenancy management system for companies managing condominiums, shopping complexes, office blocks, markets and so forth.

IshanTech (M) Sdn Bhd is a system integrator for Windows, Linux and Unix platforms. It provides infrastructure services covering software development, hardware supply, network services and maintenance. The company also provides IT security services to protect systems from cyber attacks. IshanTech is also a strong proponent of Green IT to help reduce electricity costs and carbon footprint.

“What if I reach out to more resellers? They may even stop selling my competitors’ products. That will be a double- bonus!” he thinks gleefully, as he launches his promotion campaign at the watering hole.

MARKETING STRATEGY

Who is who


C A Technologies appointed Ken Martin as its vice president, solution sales

for its Agile Central business in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ).

Martin has over 20 years of experience in IT and joined CA from Intelligent Pathways in Australia. He also held regional leadership positions in solution sales for HP and Compaq and previously worked with Oracle and Toshiba as well.

“We are confident that Ken’s experience with agile, coupled with his expertise in consulting sales, will provide the focus required to better help our customers achieve success in their adoption of agile methodology,” said Martin Mackay, president and general manager, APJ, CA Technologies.

“I am very excited to be joining CA with our technology leadership and market leading solutions,” Ken Martin said. “I look forward to working with the talented CA team in APJ to help our customers drive innovation, leveraging our CA Agile Central solutions, to win in the application economy.”

Martin holds a Master of Management degree from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney, Australia.

CA Agile Central is an enterprise-class platform that is purpose-built for scaling agile development practices.

Ken Martin

“I look forward... to help our customers drive innovation to win in the application economy.”

CA Technologies names Ken Martin as VP

Ground Labs appoints new regional channel director

Yen Nee Si

“Many businesses... close the gap be-

tween technological advancement and

security”

G round Labs, a sensitive data discovery software company,

appointed Yen Nee Si as its new regional channel director. Based in Singapore, Si will be responsible for leading growth in the APAC region.

Si joined Ground Labs with over 15 years of experience in sales and channel management, specifically in the IT security domain.

Ground Labs’ director of corporate de-velopment, Stephen Cavey said the APAC region is widely considered one of the weakest in terms of IT security. “We intend to help companies across Asia meet the levels of IT security required to protect their customers’ sensitive data,” he added.

Si said, “While Singapore and other countries in Asia are some of the most Internet-savvy countries in the world, recent surveys have shown that very few organisations have matched up with inter-national levels of data security.

“With the increasing number of global data security standards being implemented, many businesses are wondering how to close the gap between technological advancement and security. I strongly believe that the Ground Labs data security software tools are exactly what modern businesses need to ensure that their security matches up with the sophistication of their businesses,” she said.

D ell EMC appointed Ng Tiang Beng as senior vice president and general

manager for its channel business in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), covering all countries except Greater China.

Based in Singapore, Ng will be responsible for Dell EMC’s sales across all of its commercial channel partners, including distributors, resellers and system integrators, in the region. He will oversee the unification of Dell and EMC’s legacy partner programmes, following Dell’s acquisition of EMC Corporation.

“Our channel partners will play an increasingly important role in our go-to- market strategy and growth of the business as we seek to become the industry’s most trusted advisor,” said Ng. “I am excited to lead the regional channel business once again in one of the most dynamic and fastest growing regions in the world, as we bring together Dell’s and EMC’s channel strategies.”

Ng has been with Dell for almost two decades and held senior management roles, including vice president and managing director of South Asia and Korea, where he led Dell’s overall business for both commercial and consumer customers. He also led Dell’s channel business in the region, developing Dell’s partner and reseller network.

Ng will report to Dell EMC’s global channels president, John Byrne.

Ng Tian Beng

Ng Tian Beng to head Dell EMC’s APJ operations

“Our channel partners will play an increasingly

important role.”

Products


nterprise application software company SAP released the SAP HANA 2 platform with new features and enhancements, including database management, data management, analytical

intelligence and application development.

New SAP HANA services in the cloud include text analysis entity extraction, fact extraction and linguistic analysis; and earth observation analysis service which accesses satellite data to perform spatial processing in the cloud.

SAP said in a statement that new SAP HANA micro-services are available by subscription through SAP Hybris as a Service (or “Yass”) marketplace. This is intended to spur developer innovation by embedding richer insight into modern applications.

“SAP pioneered in-memory computing with the launch of SAP HANA in 2010 and throughout our journey, we have driven breakthrough inno-vation on a highly stable core data platform for our customers,” said Bernd Leukert, exec-utive board member, products and innovation, SAP. “The release of SAP HANA 2 represents the next generation that will propel customers toward a successful and prosperous digital future.”

SAP HANA 2 will deliver technology enhance-ments twice a year to support Agile IT.

SAP executive board member, products and innovation, Bernd Leukert.

eagate recently announced the ClusterStor 300N, a new addition to its family of scale-out storage systems for high- performance computing. Powered by the software- based

Nytro Intelligent I/O Manager, the ClusterStor 300N seamlessly runs multiple mixed workloads simultaneously on the same storage platform, eliminating performance bottlenecks.

The ClusterStor 300N is suitable for the kinds of mixed and unpredictable workloads found in data-intensive high-performance computing (HPC) applications such as seismic processing, financial transition modelling, machine learning, geospatial intelligence and fluid dynamics.

The ClusterStore 300N is a convergence of Seagate’s enterprise-cla ss hard drives, innovative solid state designs and sophisticated system software on a plat-form purpose-built for managing and moving massive amounts of critical data efficiently at a low cost per terabyte.

Nytro Intelligent I/O Manager delivers up to 1,000 percent input/output workload acceleration over traditional HPC storage systems and can scale to accommodate any workload at any time.

Ken Claffey, vice president and general manager, Seagate HPS systems business, said Cluster-Stor 300N expands on Seagate’s proven engineered systems approach for delivering performance efficiency and value for HPC environments of any size, using a hybrid technology architecture to handle tough workloads at a fraction of the cost of all-flash approaches.

The 300N will be widely available in January 2017.

SAP releases next-gen SAP HANA 2HP goes big with world’s smallest inkjet AIO printer

P PPS Sales Sdn Bhd launched its next generation of HP DeskJet

Ink Advantage All-in-One (AiO) printers targeted at the style-savvy, always- connected consumer. The 3700 series is half the size of other inkjet all-in-one printers in its class and yet features robust print, scan and copy capabilities.

“Consumers crave tiny, wireless devices that fit into their lifestyle and enable them to stay connected socially and be productive wherever they may be,” said Kym Lim, managing director of HP PPS Sales. “The new DeskJet turns the traditional consumer printing experience on its head with its innovative fun design and intuitive mobile connectivity from virtually any device or social network.”

HP offers a free All-in-One Remote mobile app (for Apple, Android, and Windows devices) through which users can set up the printer, print, copy, and scan wire-lessly. With WiFi Direct, users can also immediately print from their mobile devices and access the printer without a network.

The printer also features HP Printbot that can print Facebook Messenger conversations. In addition to printing photos and documents, the bot also lets users add printers, print from the printer’s history and order replacement supplies.

The HP DeskJet Ink Advantage 3700 series has a recommended retail price of RM379 and ink cartridges (black, and tri-colour) are sold at RM25 each. According to HP, the high-yield ink cartridges can print up to 2.5 times more than its standard cartridges.

H

Yuen Lai, business director for print category, HP PPS Sales Sdn Bhd; Diane Fong, market development manager, inkjet printing systems; Kym Lim, managing director, with the DeskJet 3700’s three colour- variants

Current Clusterstor Lustre solutions line-up

E

Seagate launches new ClusterStor system with flash accelerationS

Contact HP PPS Sales at (03) 2332 3333.

Products


A MD will introduce a new suite of hardware and open-source software to increase performance, efficiency, and ease of implementation of deep learning workloads.

The new Radeon Instinct accelerators will offer powerful GPU-based solutions for deep learning inference and training. AMD also announced MIOpen, a free, open-source library for GPU accelerators to enable high-performance machine intelligence implementations, and introduced new optimised deep learning frameworks for its ROCm software.

Radeon Instinct is a blueprint for an open software ecosystem for machine intelligence, helping to speed inference insights and algorithm training, said AMD.

“Radeon Instinct is set to dramatically advance the pace of machine intelligence through an approach built on high-performance GPU accelerators, and free, open-source software in MIOpen and ROCm,” said AMD president and CEO, Dr Lisa Su. “With the combination of our high-performance compute and graphics capabilities and the strength of our multi-generational roadmap, we are the only company with the GPU and x86 silicon expertise to address the broad needs of the data centre and help advance the proliferation of machine intelligence.”

Radeon Instinct accelerators feature passive cooling, AMD MultiGPU (MxGPU) hardware virtualisation technology conforming with the SR-IOV (Single Root I/O Virtualization) industry standard, and 64-bit PCIe addressing with Large Base Address Register (BAR) support for multi-GPU peer-to-peer support.

MIOpen GPU-accelerated library is a free, open-source library that provides GPU-tuned implementations for standard routines such as convolution, pooling, activation functions, normalisation and tensor format.

ROCm deep learning frameworks are optimised for accelerating popular deep learning frameworks, including Caffe, Torch 7, and Tensorflow. Programmers can focus on training neural networks instead of low-level performance tuning. It will serve as the foundation for the next evolution of machine intelligence problem sets, with domain-specific compilers for linear algebra and tensors and an open compiler and language runtime. Radeon Instinct products are expected to ship in 1H17.

icrosoft has added new features to simplify how customers can monitor and

manage their Internet of Things in both Azure IoT Suite and Windows 10 IoT.

Azure IoT Hub now comes with new device management capabilities to organise, query, configure, and update software, firmware, and configurations between millions of geo-graphically dispersed and cross-platform IoT devices. It can also route device messages to specific endpoints in the IoT system like email rules to redirect messages to different folders instead of cluttering up an inbox.

Microsoft’s Azure IoT Gateway SDK has also been enhanced to let developers build and deploy customised gateway intelligence. The Azure IoT Starter Kit will combine both the Gateway SDK with Intel’s Grove IoT Commercial Gateway Kit to enable rapid prototyping in commercial gateways scenarios – such as connecting new and legacy devices, performing edge analytics, translating protocols and filtering data on the gateway before relaying it to the Azure IoT Hub.

Microsoft introduced a new security programme for Azure IoT which provides customers end-to-end security audits by independent experts to ensure that their specific security measures are sufficient and correctly applied.

Microsoft also launched an Azure IoT Certified device catalogue featuring over 175 devices from 100 partners, tested and verified to work with Azure IoT.

Along with the recent Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft added cap abilities to Windows 10 IoT Core to provide enterprise-grade security, management, and connectivity to the OS.

The enhancements include support for Win-dows Update; using Windows Store to seam-lessly update applications; managing IoT de-vices like other computing assets; and, using Trusted Platform Module 2.0 to enhance se-curity between Windows 10 IoT Core devices and Azure IoT Suite.

Microsoft is making Windows 10 IoT Core available royalty-free both online and through distribution partners.

AMD to accelerate deep learning with Radeon Instinct

S eagate Technology unveiled the IronWolf Pro drive, an extension of its 10TB Guardian series and targeted at

small-to-mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) with large, multi-user network-attached storage (NAS) environments.

IronWolf Pro is optimised for NAS with AgileArray that performs drive balancing by using dual-plane balance and rotational vibration sensors, RAID optimisation for increased performance and advanced power management.

The drive features rotational vibration sensors to reduce vibration; the ability to deliver a user workload rate of 300TB per years, over five times the rate of standard desktop drives; and a Rescue Data Recovery service that covers accidental damage as well as fires or floods.

The entire Pro series, including the BarraCuda Pro drives will come standard with this data recovery service.

Seagate’s new 10TB IronWolf Pro

Microsoft enhances features to IoT offerings

Seagate introduces 10TB IronWolf Pro for SMEs

M

Products


C anon launched two new series for its third generation Image Runner

Advance multi functional devices (MFDs). The iR-ADV C7500i and C5500i series MFDs boast of rapid print speeds in colour and monochrome, easy customisation features and high operational reliability to meet diverse environments of mid-to-large enterprises.

Andrew Koh, Canon Marketing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd’s new president and CEO said the third-generation of iR-ADV MFDs was developed to answer real-world requirements, namely high volume, high-quality colour documents.

The iR-ADV C5500i is targeted at medium-sized enterprises. It has a 1200dpi print resolution and can print up to 60 pages per minute (ppm) on letter-sized paper. The iR-ADV C7500i is aimed at bigger offices requiring larger scale printing. It can produce up to 2400dpi resolution with R-VCSEL red laser technology and a cooling system for the developer which helps maintain stable image quality over time.

Both series come standard with wireless LAN support, for printing and scanning from smart devices.

They also have a Force Hold Printing feature which lets users preview and edit print settings before printing: unintended output options such as incorrect quantities and finishing can be rectified prior to printing.

At the launch, Canon Marketing’s business imaging solution marketing manager Rodney Fong said the MFDs are also ideal for the education and legal sectors. The printouts are indelible and waterproof which is ideal for long-term storage of legal documents.

itachi Data System (HDS) announced the addition of content intelligence to

its Hitachi Content Platform (HCP), making it the industry’s only object storage portfolio with search and analytics capabilities. The new intelligence feature rounds out the HCP portfolio.

“Connecting the right people to the right data in a timely and meaningful way is critical to staying relevant and competitive,” said Scott Baker, senior director of emerging technolo-gies at HDS.

Hitachi Content Intelligence (HCI) aggre-gates multi-structured data and organises them into factual information. Data searches and queries in ad hoc natural language can be made across the entire IT environment. It can automate data extraction, classification, enrichment, and categorisation. Infrequently accessed data can also be automatically identified and relocated to a lower-cost object storage tier.

“For today’s enterprises, data is the most strategic asset. Connecting the right people to the right data in a timely and meaningful way is critical to staying relevant and competitive in their market segment,” said Scott Baker, senior director of emerging technologies at HDS.

With HCI, organisations can connect to and aggregate data silos, transform, and enrich the data as they are processed, and provide analytics across all the data stored on the platform, making it the industry’s only object storage portfolio with seamlessly integrated cloud gateway, file sync and share, and data search and analytics capabilities, said HDS.

A ccording to a recent Dell Technologies study, 48% of global

business leaders from mid-sized to large enterprises admitted they do not know what their industry will look like in three years. They agreed that moving toward a cloud model, expanding software development capabilities and enabling faster innovation and deeper insights from data, are key strategies to digital transformation.

However, companies are struggling to evolve their data centres. They are challenged with reducing sprawl and spending while bringing their systems up to date.

At the Dell EMC World in October, the company announced new products to help organisations accelerate their transformation and manage costs. They include an expansion of Dell EMC’s converge infrastructure portfolio by i ntegrating PowerEdge servers in VxRail Appliances and VxRack System 1000 hyper- converged infrastructure (HCI); new analytic insights module for big data analytics and cloud-native application development;

Endpoint data security and management portfolio; a new addition to the Isilon All-Flash network-attached storage platform; improved capabilities to the SC Series (formerly Compellent) storage arrays; and OpenScale Payment Solutions from Dell Financial Services.

Canon launches new 3rd gen Image Runners

An exhibit at the Dell EMC World

iR-ADV C5500i for mid-sized enterprises

Dell EMC offers innovations for digital trans-formation

Hitachi introduces first object storage port folio with content intelligenceH

Contact Canon Marketing at (03) 7844 6000.

Products


pson launched a new high-capacity printer targeted at large enterprises and refreshed

five models of its existing inkjet printer range, broadening its offerings to cover every major market segment.

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-R8591 printer is targeted at enterprises with 100 -500 employees. It uses high-capacity Replaceable Ink Pack Systems (RIPS) that provides up to 75,000 pages of uninterrupted printing in both black and colour. The RIPS system combines the ease-of-use of a cartridge-based system with the capacity of an ink-tank system.

The inks are waterproof, smudgeproof and high-lighter-resistant with less bleed-through. They are also tamper-proof and suited for printing and safekeeping important documents.

The L380, L385 and L485 ink-tank printers have improved printing speeds of 10ipm for black and 5ipm for colour. They can print 7,500 pages in colour or 4,500 pages in black with a set of inks. Additionally, the L385 and L485 have wire-less connectivity for remote printing, and the L485 also supports Wi-Fi Direct, which allows

Epson RIPS high-cost printing to shreds with new printersE connection with up to four devices without a

router.

The L605 can yield up 6,000 pages for black and 6,500 for colour, print up to 13.7ipm, with a maximum print resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi for high-resolution prints.

The flagship L1455 duplex printer boasts of the lowest running costs among A3-sized multifunction printers in the market. It prints up to 18ipm for A4 and 10ipm for A3. Each set of inks yields 6,000 pages for black and 6,500 pages for colour.

Epson Malaysia’s general manager of sales and marketing, Danny Lee said, ““We are just offeringcustomers more options, not replacing lasers. There are some environments where laser printers cannot be deployed, such as clean rooms. Lasers produce toner dust whereas ink-jet systems do not.”

Lee argued that lower cost of ownership will be a driving factor for the new offerings’ success. “For the same amount of printing that the WF-R8591 delivers in one set of ink packs, a

laser printer would require 52 standard toner cartridges,” he said.

The printer also consumes less energy as heat is not used in the printing process. “It uses 70% less power,” Lee said. “The printer also incorporates business-centric features such as fax, Wi-Fi and duplex printing that are not found in an equivalent-priced laser printer.”

Epson WF-R8591 runs cheaper than comparable laser printers

ESET launches new Internet security productsC yber security company ESET launched

four new products, namely version 10 of its ESET Smart Security Premium, ESET Internet Security, ESET Multi Device Pack and NOD32 Antivirus.

The new version of ESET Smart Security Premium is built upon its award-winning NOD32 technology for an optimal mix of detection, speed, and usability.

“As Internet threats get increasingly diverse, users need more complex Internet security suites with features based on individual

preferences. Our new product portfolio reflects this trend,” said ESET CEO for Asia Pacific, Lukas Raska. “Smart Security Premium 10 provides fast, lightweight and proactive protection for webcams, files, passwords, and home networks within a single integrated product.”

The new products emphasise the need for privacy when operating PCs and laptops. The Webcam Protection feature found in both Smart Security Premium and Internet Security regulates access to the camera. Users can monitor and control applications

and processes that access the webcam, and switch off the webcam as needed.

Both Smart Security Premium and Internet Security products for home users also include features such as Banking and Payment Protection, Anti-Spyware, Anti-Phishing, Exploit Blocker, advanced Personal Firewall, and ESET LiveGrid Reputation System.

Other new features include protection against script-based attacks trying to exploit Windows PowerShell and malicious JavaScript; home network protection, which tests home router vulnerabilities such as weak passwords or outdated firmware; Password Manager which uses AES- 256 encryption to store and pre-fill user passwords and generate extra-strong new passwords when needed; and Secure Data encryption which protects against data theft if a laptop or USB key is lost, and allows for secure collaboration and data sharing.

The Multi Device Security Pack allows customers to mix and match from a variety of ESET security products for different devices and platforms such as Windows, macOS, Linux and Android.

Contact Epson Malaysia at: (03) 5628 8288.

Contact ESET Malaysia at (03) 7493 5191.

Feature


Looming shift toHy brid CloudCloud computing appears to be an inevitability, even in ‘passive’ Southeast Asia.

The transition will not be easy though. There will be challenges in calculating the return on investment and getting management to buy in. With the exception of Singapore, enterprises in Southeast Asia are more passive in adopting new technologies and take a “wait-and-see” approach. “Knowing the passive mindset of decision makers, it has to be a combination of problem state-ments and the strategic value of cloud services.

“Cloud deployment is still driven from a cost-saving perspective, especially in the current economic uncertainty. Enterprises are not fully aware of the business value derived from hybrid cloud,” he said.

“It is crucial then for IT enterprises to clearly define their business objectives, and also understand how the adoption of hybrid cloud strategy can help them achieve those objectives. SPs are strengthening their consulting services to help customers identify which cloud model best fits their requirements and which workloads should be moved to the cloud,” he explained.

C loud computing is growing increasingly popular. Big IT corporations the likes of

Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and Google are recording increasing revenue from their cloud services and infrastructure.

However, Southeast Asia is still lagging behind in embracing this technology. In its research called “The State of Cloud in Southeast Asia” International Data Corporation (IDC) found that enterprises in Southeast Asia still prefer to manage their infrastructure and applications in-house rather than outsourcing these services.

However, IDC expects 70% of enterpris-es in the region will commit to a hybrid cloud strategy. “Organisations in Southeast Asia are moving aggressively towards Digital Transformation (DX). To enable this transformation, the underlying technology architecture will be hybrid cloud. They can deploy mobile, social, big data, machine-to- machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) to meet their DX objectives,” IDC Asia/Pacific IT Services research manager, Sreenath Kandarpah told Reseller Malaysia.

Over the past couple of years, hybrid cloud has become a predominant choice of deployment in enterprises, due to its capabilities, such as reduced total cost of ownership, high availability, elastic scalability, agility, speed of implementation and lower complexity, compared to traditional IT systems.

Enterprises will commit to hybrid cloud: they can use private cloud to retain control of their IT environment and security while moving non-critical workloads to the public cloud to take advantage of scalability. “Despite the fact that enterprises currently prefer traditional in-house deployment of services due to security and privacy concerns, the growing complexities of ‘digital solutions’ and a lack of in - house skills will drive the adoption of cloud services,” Kandarpah predicted.

“We see local service providers (SPs) partnering with global vendors to strengthen their security offerings. They are increasingly addressing and providing a layer of security in the cloud environment,” he said.

Feature


with global and pure-play cloud SPs. They can ramp up their cloud offerings and compete in the regional and global market.

“With such partnerships and programs, local Independent Software Vendors and System Integrators can build their knowledge and expertise to strengthen their cloud offerings, and speed up the adoption of cloud amongst local enterprises,” she said. Enterprises in Southeast Asia are more passive in adopting new technologies and take a “wait-and-see” approach. “Knowing the passive mindset of decision makers, it has to be a combination of problem state-ments and the strategic value of cloud services.

It is commonly understood that cloud will be the base technology architecture for DX. SPs are also pushing cloud offerings, playing a bigger role in building awareness around cloud’s business value, Kandarpah said.

SPs in the region are partnering with analyst firms to organise events such as CIO summits, roundtables, speaker engagements and conferences for line of business (LOBs) to drive awareness on the benefits of hybrid cloud, said IDC Asia/Pacific senior market analyst Sherrel Roche.

“These events engage end-users through local user case studies on how organisations implemented cloud services and the business value they are achieving from it,” Roche said.

Traditional outsourcers will have to reinvent themselves. “We believe the outsourcing services market has already reached its tipping point. ‘As-a-service’ has become a common parlance in a majority of deals in Southeast Asia,” she said.

She noted that traditional outsourcers are continuing to struggle to reinvent themselves and redefine their value proposition because

their revenues come from “legacy” product-centric services. “Vendors with no legacy lineage are free to forge alliances across the ecosystem and can provide services tailored to their customers’ needs. Increasing competition from pure-play cloud service providers and pressure on traditional revenues will push traditional outsourcers towards greater automation, standardisation and strengthening their cloud capabilities, Roche said.

The outsourcing services market in the region is rife with competition, Roche observed. Global vendors and pure-play cloud providers compete with local vendors who have a strong foothold in their home countries and are now expanding their regional presence. “Some of the key players are NCS in Singapore, VADS in Malaysia, IPC in Philippines and Biznet Datacenter in Indonesia, to name a few,” Roche said.

She said large enterprises in the region are more willing to work with SPs who have a strong local presence and can provide a personal touch to the business relationship in addition to technical expertise. “This trend benefits local SPs who in turn are partnering

“Enterprises prefer working with SPs who have a strong local presence,” – Sherrel Roche

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