FEATURE: BYOD
“The digital
workplace is a
concept and it is
part of the digital
transformation
strategy that
corporates and
organisations are
adopting today.”
unprotected as switches sat behind
locked doors. Conference rooms and
printer areas are a classic example
where hit or miss security exists.
Legacy switching environments were
designed before mobility and IoT were
prevalent. Switches today need to ensure
that connectivity, security and smart
network management complement
each other so that all of these devices
can connect, but are segmented based
on their access and traffic needs. As
companies invest in technology and
network security, it is almost impossible
to keep ahead of the hackers by doing it
alone. Partnerships are critical for success
and IT needs solutions that work across
multi-vendor architectures.
The Aruba approach
(Left to right) Hichem Maya, Head of Industries, SAP
MENA; Rasheed Al Omari, Principal Business Solutions
Strategist MENA, VMware; Osama AlHaj-Issa, Regional
Channel Sales Director for Middle East and Turkey at
Aruba HPE
The digital workplace is not anymore
limited to one place,” he explains.
The digital workplace is a concept and
it is part of the digital transformation
strategy that corporates and
organisations are adopting today. The
digital workplace consists of an open
space with advanced capabilities for
users to move freely. In comparison to a
physical workspace, the digital workplace
is optimised in terms of the required area.
The digital workplace is more open,
relaxed, more productive. It offers
advanced facilities like location based
services for meeting a colleague, digital
conference rooms, automatic login into
video calls, ease of printing by identifying
the nearest available printer, other
features and benefits that create flexibility
and cost savings for the employer.
According to Osama AlHaj-Issa, Regional
Channel Sales Director for Middle East
and Turkey at Aruba HPE, the mobility
management vendor has gone a step
ahead of the concept of BYOD or Bring
Your Own Device and created a digital
workplace, which is more comprehensive
and business sensible. By reducing the physical workspace and
the IT investments required through
end-user overlap and sharing of assets,
the digital workplace saves cost and
future investment, thereby making a
business case for justifying its growth
and existence.
He points out that the concept of a
digital workplace is intricately linked to
the journey of enterprise into digital
transformation. “One of our go to
markets with digital transformation is
the concept of the digital workplace.
The way of work depends on mobility
and BYOD and the office is the not the
only place for people to do work. We can
work from home and multiple offices. A key requirement of the digital
workplace is to keep it secure and
manage its assets, while allowing
flexibility and freedom for end-users.
Aruba ClearPass is the solution that
protects the endpoints and enrolls a
device into the digital workplace and
applies policies. For the enrollment of a
device into the digital workplace, it must
be fully compliant with the requirements
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of the organisation, including operating
systems, antivirus, and applications.
After assessing the compliance of an
end point, ClearPass then applies the
policies of an organisation upon the end
point device.
“The beauty of ClearPass is that it
automates all of this and you do not
need an army of people to manage
these processes, apply the policies,
enforce the policies, and look at
exceptions,” says AlHaj-Issa.
Other services from ClearPass include
enrolment and temporary access for
guests, and feedback to users via SMS.
The SAP approach
Middle East organisations need to
optimise users’ mobile experiences
with enterprise mobility solutions, by
empowering and engaging with their
employees, customers, and stakeholders
in new and innovative ways. Mobility has
the potential to be the largest disruptor
of Middle East business models over
the next five years, and could transform
hiring and retaining the top talent,
driving business agility, and meeting the
changing needs of today’s employees at
work and in their personal lives.
Amongst global IT leaders, 70% say
mobility is a success in driving new
business by offering a competitive
advantage of customers accessing
real-time data and dashboards.
Employees can also find they can
work in environments that are more
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