Channel Post spoke to Ihab Moawad, the Vice President for Mediterranean, Middle East, Africa, and CIS at Trend Micro, about the company’s plans for the region’s largest IT extravaganza.
Tell us about the technology trends have you seen in the Middle East and Africa market.
IT security is the number one concern for all CIOs across the region, it is a major trend in 2014, and we’re seeing it grow exponentially in 2015 and beyond.
This is especially true after major data breaches, such as Heartbleed, along with other breaches across major retailers, financial institutions, and cloud computing companies. Security is no longer a luxury or afterthought, it is increasingly crucial going forward.
Cloud solutions have seen a major expansion. Organizations are spending wildly on security, but cannot do it on their own – that is why they need cloud resources. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is increasing, with organizations becoming more mature in their initiatives, and seeing a higher adoption rate. For organizations that have BYOD without proper security solutions, BYOD stands for ‘Bring Your Own Disaster’.
We want to empower companies to be secure from data breaches. Eighty percent of employees bring their own devices to work, and that figure is growing. Organizations need to focus on how to secure the mobile devices that employees are bringing in.
Smart device security is essential in the region, with an increasing number of restrictions on smart devices. For example, one central bank recently banned all transactions on smart devices to local banks.
Traditionally, organizations have invested a lot to protect themselves from the known computer viruses that have anti-virus solutions. But now organizations need to monitor continuously their network to secure unknown malware attacks.
APTs are growing in 2014 and beyond, with “zero day” attacks being malware that target certain organizations and has not been seen before so there’s no Anti-malware for it. “Zero day” attacks enter a network environment through employees, and can reside for weeks to months before attacking.
How has the regional ICT market grown over the past few years?
There has been significant growth in the region’s ICT market, especially with security in businesses supported by huge government spending, such as with e-government, smart government, and the oil and gas industry.
In addition, telecommunications companies are increasing their penetration rate, which leads to more sophisticated data centers, while financial institutions are increasingly sorting their compliancy.
Overall, more sophisticated data centers are leading to more sophisticated security solutions, which is where Trend Labs offers its support.
What do you plan to achieve through GITEX Technology Week? Can you please share your plans?
At GITEX Technology Week, we will show our customers and channel partners what’s new and coming up for Trend Micro over the next few years. We’ll showcase our latest products and solutions in the security industry that enable organizations to plan their security infrastructure ahead of time.
Do you plan to launch any new products or technologies at GITEX Technology Week and GITEX Shopper this year?
At GITEX Technology Week, we’ll showcase four new products. Smart Protection Suite is a solution with platform management, which enterprises can deploy either in a hybrid environment or in the cloud. It also provides 24×7 support for customers, which is especially a plus in the region.
We will also show Deep Security 9.5 with VMware NSX integration, enabling it to integrate with the latest virtualized products on the market today. In addition, Deep Discovery Email Inspector will also be on display, whose advanced technology detects targeted threats in email messages, including spear-phishing attacks.
Complete User Protection Solution will also be highlighted since it helps organizations focus defenses on user activity to reduce risk, protecting the reputation, and ensuring compliance.
What’s going to be your theme at GITEX Technology Week this year?
Trend Micro’s GITEX Technology Week theme will be “See Today What Others Cannot,” and will revolve around Trend Micro’s 2020 Vision. We will provide our customers with our predictions of the IT landscape in 2020, and help customers prepare for evolving security threats in the technological future, and how hackers are changing their techniques to become more sophisticated.
Our 2020 Vision takes on an extra level of importance with the increasing levels of technology that will be deployed for Dubai, hosting World Expo 2020.
Do you have plans to conduct raffle draws, give away gifts and so on for end consumers this year?
Yes, at GITEX Technology Week we will have raffles, including vouchers for the iPhone 6, along with our regular stand gifts that include anti-virus consumer licenses, which we will give out during demonstrations.
What channel strategies are you going to follow this year?
The channel is the major way for us to grow, especially with the Small-to-Medium-sized Business (SMB) Channel, which increasingly provides the breadth and depth of the IT security landscape. Our partner program has grown significantly over the last several years, thanks to a wide range of incentives and our SMB partners.
We are continuing to recruit quality SMB channel partners, while also increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of our existing channel partners, especially in the SMB sector. This enables us to generate sustainable growth and revenue flow, and in Q4 we will pursue an aggressive growth strategy for our SMB community through our Worry Free Solutions campaign.
Our Enterprise Partners are a major focus, as they are a strategic market for Deep Discovery and Deep Security, which is why we have developed our Partner Program to help Enterprise Partners to focus on specializations.
As a result, we are seeing strong growth for solutions such as Advanced Persistent Threats and virtualization, with an increase on the end-user protection. We have also designed sophisticated sales and technology workshops to take Enterprise Partners to the next level in their expertise.
Soon Trend Micro will launch our Security Master Program, which is well-recognized across the security industry, which will provide sophisticated training for participants to be security threat experts – not only for Enterprise Partners, but also for the entire IT security industry.
Trend Micro will also significantly expand our support for the GCC, especially by providing our Bronze, Silver, and Gold customers with enhanced local support. Our biggest plus is that most of our competitors do not have this in-depth local support. We are continuing to significantly enhance our technical support for the region, in order to satisfy the growing demands from our customers.
Do you have any specific engagement for your channel community this year at GITEX?
We will have several levels of channel engagement at GITEX Technology Week. Our primary focus will be giving demonstrations and hosting interactive workshops to the channel and our customers, explaining our industry-leading security solutions and similar activity on our Distributors stands.
