ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
shortcomings and weaknesses. In order to
help customers address DR planning and
testing, channel partners should review
and document every recovery step. Another
important step is to ensure that people in
the organisation understand their roles
during the recovery process.”
Jason Roos, Channel and Alliances Director
at Mimecast,
The reality
is that most
organisations
need a great
deal of advice
and support to
adopt the new
platforms.
Jason Roos, Channel and
Alliances Director at
Mimecast
18
Jason Roos at Mimecast, comments:
“Many resellers were traditionally
concerned about the impact the cloud
would have on their businesses but the
reality is that most organisations need a
great deal of advice and support to adopt
the new platforms. Selling complementary
hybrid cloud products, training or building
additional managed services, particularly
around security, are the common ways to
build revenue around these deals.”
Ossama Eldeeb at VMware advises:
“As the technology field moves from the
client server era into the mobile cloud era,
Middle East partners and customers can
find a new level of reliability, business
continuity, mobility, and freedom like
never before. In this mobile cloud era,
Middle East channel partners need
to transform and become trusted
advisers. Channel partners should help
customers take advantage of their digital
transformation, and develop digital
strategies for backup and disaster recovery
that include data risk assessment, and
which data management solutions best
meet their business needs.”
What backup and disaster
recovery opportunities can be
maximised by the channel?
Savitha Bhaskar, COO, Condo Protego,
cautions: “The way IT works for and
with the rest of the business is constantly
changing, alongside the type and quantity of
data, applications, services and processes.
Therefore, the method and tools used to
protect this data must be able to keep up
with this accelerating pace of change.
“While most Middle East organisations
have some backup strategy in place,
these can often be complex, untested, or
ineffective. Middle East organisations
without proper backup and recovery
solutions risk their bottom line, brand
reputation and customer trust.
“With the rise in the digital economy,
Middle East organisations also need
to modernise their disaster recovery
strategy. Although physical disruption
may seem unlikely in the Arabian Gulf, the
possibility of fires and even floods from
torrential rains (as happened in 2016), or
faulty cooling systems, is very real. Most
enterprises recognise this physical risk and
have developed multi-site disaster recovery
strategies over the years. Traditionally,
these strategies have been focused on
keeping a second copy of data off-site
and, often, a lot more needs to be done.
A modern strategy will look to go further
than simply copying corporate data, to
automated disaster recovery orchestration,
drills, and protection from logical data
corruption and application availability to
achieve true business continuity.
“Channel partners should play a key role
in helping Middle East organisations assess
their disaster recovery readiness, and help
them to achieve organisational Service Level
Agreements (SLAs) to improve efficiency
and minimise the cost of downtime.”
Jeroen Schlosser at Equinix MENA
reveals: “Increasing cloud adoption
in MENA and globally means more
businesses have an opportunity to
reconsider their existing DR strategy
and opt for a more scalable, outsourced
solution known as DRaaS, a new offering
being introduced in the enterprise world.
Put simply, it is about using a service
provider at a central location to replicate
your critical data and/or application into
their environment. This allows small
and medium-sized businesses to access
capabilities that might not be available in-
house, and it enables larger enterprises to
build a solution that can scale up or down
with the needs of the business.”
Johnny Karam at Veritas concludes:
“Channel partners should look towards
providing integrated offerings that build
on backup capabilities that will help an
organisation manage its data insights,
data availability and data protection.
There is also a significant chance for
them to deliver specific advice in areas
like eDiscovery and Compliance, so
they can provide consultancy services
for an organisation’s implementation of
eDiscovery and digital forensics solutions.
Ultimately, it’s all about helping customers
with their digital transformation and the
secret to successful digital transformation
isn’t just about using cloud infrastructure
or repurposing applications.”
Issue 09
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS