Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 14 | Page 7

ISSUE 14 EDITOR’S COMMENT www.intelligenttechchannels.com PUBLICATION Intelligent briefings for Middle East and Africa channel partners BLENDING TECHNOLOGY, BUSINESS ACUMEN, EMPOWERMENT Abed Shaheen, CEO InfoFort GDPR regime will impact region Transformation ahead for service providers Arrival of the Chief AI Officer TALAL WAZANI ALI AMER PRANAY DAVE HELP AG CISCO TERADATA EDITOR’S NOTE Managing Partner Richard Judd [email protected] W ill 2018 be the breakthrough year? In this issue of Intelligent Tech Channels, we focus on the outlook for the channel in 2018 and large-scale industry predictions. Never before have a few upcoming years become so critical for the global converged technology industry. In the next few years, the bimodal model espoused by Gartner and others, will cease to be dual and will melt down to a dominantly single, on- demand, utility based, fast moving, agile, nimble, breath-taking transaction model. The asset will cease to exist and it will be replaced by a fast-moving world of insights, rich personalised user recommendations, variations of options, value added intelligence, all intended to drive a better consumer and business lifestyle. Rich and profound user experiences, real-time data management, number crunching, edge networks, sensors and connectivity, application integration, cloud connectivity, data platforms, hyper converged architectures, intermediate global and regional data management businesses, will soon become mainstream. The transformation of telecoms will be a critical enabler of this new experience driven world. How they transform their monetisation models to support the migration to 5G technologies will decide their fate as well as the fate of an entire ecosystem of suppliers and value-added partners. Clearly in 2017, the service provider community struggled to make headway and were not there yet – and in 2018 may only be a step closer. Where is the trigger event for this industry? The regional channel industry continues to work its way forward through the changing opportunities presented by software defined everything, digital transformation, analytics, cloud, mobility, and others. It is also adjusting to the demands from its end user community to move into a bimodal, pay-as-you-go, utility consumption approach, to access the latest vendor products and solutions. And as vendors readjust and rebuild their partner programmes to the changing realities of the global and regional markets, it is channel partners who again reposition themselves to be part of a successful sell- out process. Key executives from Aruba, Epicor, Mimecast, NetApp, Pure Storage, Riverbed, and Veeam, roll out their impressions of the channel outlook for 2018. Smooth reading out there! Managing Partner Stuart Lynch [email protected] Editor, ITC Arun Shankar [email protected] Editor, ICIO Middle East Mark Bowen [email protected] Editor, ICIO Africa Emily Freer [email protected] Editor, ICIO Europe Alix Pressley [email protected] Business Development Manager Susan Paul [email protected] [phone] Head of Design and Production Pippa Sanderson [email protected] Marketing & Content Development Manager Nick Onyett [email protected] Lynchpin Media © 2018 Intelligent Tech Channels is a Lynchpin Media publication for IT professionals with an interest in the Middle East. If you wish to apply for regular free copies then please email [email protected] Lynchpin Media is a boutique publisher registered in the United Kingdom. Company number 8096230 5 Burnside Court Leominster Enterprise Park Herefordshire, HR6 0LX Arun Shankar 7