FEATURE: MANAGED SERVICES
trend is the shift in infrastructure toward
hybrid cloud architectures to reduce cycle
times, increase resiliency and reduce
costs.
Hybrid designs might include an on
premise private cloud for performance
and risk-sensitive workloads, vendorhosted virtual private clouds for heavy
workloads and public clouds for generic,
low-risk workloads.
In essence, digital transformation is
the key to success. In order to stay
competitive, financial companies need
to have the right strategy and become
digital, adopt cost effective platforms
such as cloud, deploy strong IT security
solutions to protect all areas of their
business and draft strong company
security policies for employees.
ABOUT
A veteran of the ICT industry, Yasser
Zeineldin brings to eHosting Datafort
over 25 years of experience gained
from working with global majors such
as NCR, AT&T and Microsoft.
Prior to joining TECOM Investments,
Zeineldin was a Regional Director
of Microsoft Gulf, responsible for
managing diverse teams across sales,
marketing, partner management,
operations, technology specialists and
industry management.
Earlier, he headed the Public Sector
team at Microsoft Middle East
and Africa. He was also a member
of the Worldwide Government
Industry Core Strategy Team and the
Worldwide Partner Executive Council.
Before joining Microsoft, Zeineldin
led the communication giant AT&T’s
operations in the eastern region of
Saudi Arabia. He took up the role
after moving back from a special
assignment with NCR/Teradata, a
global technology company in the
US, where his primary focus was on
developing the market for Business
Intelligence and Parallel Processing
Systems in Latin America and the
MEA region.
www.intelligentcio.com
In the Middle East, things are no
different, but there are still challenges
that financial institutions face.
Apart from customer demands and
regulatory and compliance pressures,
financial institutions in the Middle
East are also facing several IT-related
challenges especially when it comes
to keeping up with the rapid digital
transformation and change of the
industry landscape.
Financial services firms must
accommodate consumer, regulatory, and
competitive demands. Unfortunately,
many firms don’t have flexible and
scalable data centre capacity in-house.
Working with a data centre services
provider is an efficient alternative to
expanding their own data centre facility.
This can enable financial companies
to meet their customers’ demands
both cost effectively and efficiently.
The service also guarantees near zerodowntime, which is a very critical factor
for the financial sector.
Over the past few years, there has also
been an increased uptake in disaster
recovery and business continuity services
in the financial sector. Another important
IT professionals, CIOs and company
officials must be proactive in their
approach to safeguarding their IT
assets, by conducting comprehensive
risk assessments. Based on the type
of data and applications used by an
organisation, companies can identify
the most common threats and install
preventative measures accordingly. They
can also consult with their managed
services provider to implement strong
security services and protocols.
The most common benefits of using a
Managed Services provider to tackle the
IT security include:
1. Cost reduction: The costs to hire,
train, and retain highly skilled IT security
staff becomes a service provider’s
responsibility
2. Access to skilled resources: With a
service provider, the security resources
are highly competent as they are trained
on the latest technologies and observe
and resolve security impacts across
multiple clients, and work on security
solutions with a broader applicability
3. Round-the-clock surveillance: 24/7
monitoring and management by the
Security Operations Centre (SOC) allows
customers to focus on what they do
best—their core business
INTELLIGENTCIO
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