Nat Pisupati, the Regional Sales Director for Identity and Access Management, Middle East and Africa, at HID Global, gives a rundown of things to expect at GITEX from HID
What technology trends have you seen in the Middle East and Africa market over the past few months?
As the security landscape continues to evolve not just in the Middle East but globally in new and complex ways we are seeing that progressive organisations and thought leaders are early adopters of the latest physical and logical access control technologies. As a worldwide leader in secure identity solutions, HID Global envisages that companies proactively making changes today will ensure that their organisation’s access control solutions can adapt to future threats and take advantage of opportunities and applications beyond access control.
How has the regional ICT market grown over the past few years?
In the Middle East we are witnessing several initiatives and investments both from government funded projects for the enterprise sector and by enterprises itself that are looking to provide their employees and end-users with higher levels of security without compromising on the user experience such as the convenience factor. Adoption of mobile technologies in this region is growing in particular in vertical markets such as telecommunication, banking, education and healthcare. CIO’s in the Middle East are increasingly spends on cloud technology for business growth and to minimize general security risks by protecting the identity of their employees and consumers.
Which ICT products are in demand in the MEA region?
The Middle East is experiencing higher demand levels for a single access control solution addressing physical access and logical access control and applications beyond access control. For example, use of a multi-functional card that might range from cashless vending, time and attendance, and secure print management to secure network logon as part of a fully interoperable, multi-layered security solution across company systems and facilities. In addition organisations are also seeking secure identity and access management solutions that provide an improved user experience such as in the banking, education and healthcare vertical markets.
Which technologies do you think are the most-wanted technologies in the MEA region for sectors such as enterprise, SMB and end consumers?
Historically, physical and logical access control functions were mutually exclusive within an organization, and each was managed by different groups. Now, however, the lines between these groups are beginning to blur. Organizations want to provision physical access control system (PACS) and IT identities on a single card (or smartphone) that can be used to open doors and log on to computers, and for other applications.
This will create a seamless user experience when securing doors, data and the cloud, and improve how organizations create, manage and use identities across many different applications on both smart cards and smartphones. Users will also soon be able to carry many types of access control credentials as well as one time password (OTP) tokens on a single microprocessor-based smart card or smartphone. Integrating physical access control with IT security will bring new benefits to organisations as aforementioned whilst changing how organisations operate.
I would also like to address this question from an open standards perspective – Increasingly organisations are keen on adopting solutions that are based on industry standards such as OSDP bidirectional communications that are capable of incorporating dynamic rather than static technologies whereby security becomes independent of hardware and media, and the infrastructure can more easily evolve beyond current abilities with the adaptability to combat continuously changing threats.
What do you plan to achieve through GITEX Technology Week and GITEX Shopper this year? Can you please share your plans?
As the largest platform for the ICT market in the Middle East, HID Global’s main objective is to continue to heighten awareness and demand of our Genuine HID® products, solutions and services by engaging and educating existing customers and prospects at the event. At Gitex we will showcase our innovative solutions for secure access in smart cities, secure access to cloud applications and secure mobile access solutions.
HID Global will highlight its emerging technologies leveraging Bluetooth Smart that simplifies mobile access and makes it more convenient than ever. Other demonstrations at Gitex will include our latest technologically advanced products and solutions focused on the Enterprise, Healthcare, Education and Financial Services (Banking) markets. We will also showcase card and reader migration solutions for moving to higher security and advanced technologies.
Do you plan to launch any new products or technologies at GITEX Technology Week?
Gitex is the perfect opportunity for us to introduce new innovative solutions such as in the secure identity solutions ecosystem where smartphones and other mobile devices are steadily replacing mechanical keys and physical access cards. Organisations can prepare for the benefits of mobile access control today by implementing open and adaptable security infrastructures that will support migration to these new capabilities.
What’s going to be your theme at GITEX Technology Week this year?
At Gitex we will incorporate our global theme of – ‘Your Security Connected’. We will focus on customer-centric innovative identity and access management solutions that securely connect people, devices and applications. These will include smart applications, smart devices and smart technology. We will demonstrate IT security solutions addressing smart applications for the enterprise, banking and government requirements. On the smart devices front we will demonstrate our FARGO printers, physical access control readers and cards and logical access control range.
What channel strategies are you going to follow this year?
With our key channel partners in the Middle East, we have laid strong emphasis on the added value that we offer each other through our collaboration. We have worked together to build long-term relationships in the region.
As a critical link in the Genuine HID value chain, our partners play an important role in delivering our industry-leading secure identity solutions. HID Global’s strategic partners share our commitment to ensuring that customers can purchase Genuine HID products and solutions with absolute confidence in quality, performance and support.
The HID Advantage Partner Program is designed to provide the resources, training and tools that enable partners to solve customers’ critical security challenges while providing exceptional value.
We provide a comprehensive set of benefits to enable our partners to extract significant value from their customer relationships. From industry leading margin on our product resale, deal registration benefits, training, Market Development Funds (MDF) and leads, through to joint marketing activities, HID Global has a deep understanding of how to build mutually beneficial partner relationships.
Do you have any specific engagement for your channel community this year at GITEX?
GITEX is an excellent and robust platform to interact and meet with security and industry professionals. We will use this opportunity to meet channel partners, end users, OEMs, systems integrators, security and IT managers to understand what key secure identity challenges need to be addressed in the their markets and how our future-proofed solutions can assist them.
