Tài liệu Network World 02 2009 pdf

FILING FOR CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION IN THE UNITED STATES WILL ALLOW THE COMPANY TO REORGANIZE AND UNDERTAKE A COMPREHENSIVE BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL RESTRUCTURING, SAYS ZAFIROVSKI

NetworkWorld THE MAGAZINE FOR NETWORK COMPUTING MIDDLE EAST

STORAGE MANAGEMENT | 802.11N | BACKUP | DATA CENTRE | DISASTER RECOVERY

Applications are slow !

NetworkWorld MIDDLE EAST

THE MAGAZINE FOR NETWORK COMPUTING ISSUE 119 | FEBRUARY 2009

NAC: NOW OR NEVER?

06 Norte'’s bankruptcy: A long time coming

08 HP readies for Cisco's data centra assault

10 Cisco targets SMBs

12 Citrix invests in desktop virtualisation

IN ACTION

16 The Mouwasat Group of hospitals in Saudi

have made significant investments in IT

44 Doc Noc answers some questions vexing our readers

driving horror stori

Wi-Fi offerings- this new flavour of wireles dynamic radio-frequency control; QoS; and such security functions a

but barely delivered 5Mbps, and 802.11g technology that promised 50Mbps but barely delivered 20Mbp:

Protected Access 2, and stateful firewalls

technology offers what most enterprises would look for:

sues, The products available on the mi

been a worry Bandwidth limitations, security and a host of other reasons have made enterprise

IT managers think twice about taking the plunge Without delving too deeply into the past, we all remember the war-

: buggy Wired Equivalent Privacy implementations, 802.1 1b technology that promised 10Mbps

intrusion prevention and detection, Wi-Fi

rket are based on the Draft 2 of the

802.1 1n, as the standard is yet to be ratified Now, the question is, will the final version of the standard be siginificantly different from the Draft vers m, Which might warrant new hardware? Jendors are trying to as ige that fear, Many people in

the industry like the chip manufacturers, vendors, the Wi-Fi Alliance, the TEEE are working to ensure that any of the changes

do not threaten interoperability and thirdly, all of the major enterprise vendors are committed to maintaining interoperability between draft 2.0 and the final standard Another issue is that of powe1

more power than what the existing Power over Ethernet infrastructure ca have to update any wireless intrusion-detection s

Newer 802.1 1n access points are likely to require

in offer, A recent Burton Group paper says you will ystems, because older systems won't be able to recognize 802.1 1n access points So, should you deploy 11 in 2009 or wait for all the kinks to be ironed out? The answer is, depends Though there seems to be enough compelling

Cisco, Trend Micro, Citrix, Riverbed,

NetworkWorld MIDDLE EAST

CEO and Publisher

Dominic Be Sousa Editor Jeevan Thankappan Chief Designer Denis Fuentes

Managing Director and Contributing Editors

Associate Publisher Fi Narayan Design

Amit Patera Kotak’ Banga ‘Mande Banda Matk Cantalelo ‘Avalon Balbero

Managing Editor and

Associate Publisher

Kavitha Rajasekhar Vivek Sales Director Sreajth Namblar

1T Manager Production Published by:

Marketing Manager Subscription " "

David Johrshals subsenbe@epidubaicom 1013 Cente Road,

New Castle County

‘Wilmington, Delaware, USA

Head Office Regional partner of

PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tak, 4871 Fax: 4971 4 3598586 4 3615816 Web: waw.cpiive.net

The following is our upcoming Public Training Schedule for Dubai:

Code Days Course Name Jan’ Feb’ Mar Apr May Jun ' Jul

SYE1 2 pra Your Email with lronPort C-Series 08-09 05-06 28-29

Part 2

SYW 2 Securing Your Web with lronPort S-Series 11-12 08-09 01-02

SYE PW 3 Securing Your Email with lronPort C-Series 08-10 05-07 28-30

THENEWS @ THE MONTH'S BIG STORY

NORTELS BANKRUPTCY:

A LONG TIME COMING NORTEL’S DEMISE — PUNCTUATED BY BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION FILINGS — STARTED LONG

BEFORE THE ACCOUNTING SCANDAL OF 2004 AND THE MULTIMILLION DOLLAR QUARTERLY

LOSSES THAT THE COMPANY HAS PILED UP SINCE

Nortel began unraveling after failing to capitalize | Networks and Alteon WebSystems — in an effort for Alteon alone, which at that time had annual

on the huge acquisitions it made in the late to transform itself from a century-old voice revenue just shy of $200 million — came amidst

1990s and early 2000s It paid $15 billion for telephony stalwart into an IP voice and data the dot-com bubble

two companies back then — switch makers Bay powerhouse But the acquisitions — $7 billion Navigating that while trying to establish itself

6 Network World Middle East February 2007 www.networkworldme.com

in new markets like IP routing, and LAN and

Web switching did not allow the company to grow

or take substantial share in those markets This

inability, coupled with declining revenue in its

the most of its multibillion dollar acquisitions

‘A deep-rooted complacency at Nortel didn’t help

matters either,

s an incumbent telco equipment maker,

Nortel was way too slow to embrace the reality of

the change in the market that they served,” says

Thomas Nolle, president of consultancy CIMI

Corp “They should have been the No 1 provider

of routers to telcos Tubris prevented them

from strategically absorbing Bay even though

they financially absorbed them.” (‘Dell'Oro lumps

Nortel into the “other” category in the telco

router market, which has a 4% share of the $2.2

billion pie in the third quarter, well behind leaders

such as Cisco and Juniper)

Nortel plodded along for years with stagnant or

declining growth in IP routing and Layers 2, 3 and

4-7 switching, compiling just a 3.8% share of the

$18 billion market in 2007 Meanwhile, the fraud

forced the company to restate years of financial

results, a situation inherited by CEO Mike

Zafirovski when he took the Nortel reins in 2005

But Zafirovski's efforts to restructure Nortel

protection filings Two days before the filing,

Nortel unveiled a new line of stackable Gigabit

Ethernet switches

Some watchers believe Nortel assets in

its Carrier, Ethernet Solutions and Metro

Ethernet operations, which went on the block in

September, will be sold off and its share in key

markets dispersed among competitors Others

say Nortel may emerge focused solely on the

enterprise and services, leveraging its strength

in VoIP and alliance with Microsoft for unified

communications

The entire unified communications market

for the third quarter of 2008 was $3.1 billion,

according ta Dell'Oro Avaya led the pack with

Mike Zaflrovskl, CEO of Nortel

22% of that market followed by Cisco with 18%, then Nortel with 11%

Nortel is also third behind Avaya and Siemens

in share of the $4.8 billion market for hybrid TP/

TDM PBXs in 2007, according to Dell'Oro The company is also gaining share in enterprise voice applications, according to the firm

A year ago, Nortel had a net profit of $27 million in the third quarter, but the company

posted a net loss of $3.4 million in the most recent third quarter, which ended Sept 30, 2008

Between the same periods, revenues dropped 14%

The company’s market value, peaking at $250 billion in 2000,

$275 million, week on the New York Stock Exchange, with its

this economic environment than the $400 million

Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

in the United States will allow the company to

re business

reorganize and undertake a comprehen

and finaneial restructuring, Zafirovski

distributors about how to conduct business with the

company Already, competitors such as Enterasys,

Extreme Networks and Juniper are swooping in to woo customers and channel partners

Ent

competitors’ customers a 100% credit on their ays it is offering Nortel and other

equipment, ITP ProCurve has no Nortel-specific

enticement; rather, customers and resellers are

coming to them, says Vice President and General

Manager Karl Soderlund

Some customers are remaining steadfast in support of Nortel, at least for the short term The

International Nortel Networks Users Association (INNUA) issued a statement saying it backed Nortel's decision and believes it will result in a

stronger enterprise focus

FILING FOR CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION IN THE UNITED STATES WILL ALLOW THE COMPANY TO REORGANIZE AND UNDERTAKE A COMPREHENSIVE BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL RESTRUCTURING, SAYS ZAFIROVSKI

February 2007 Network World Middle East_7

ulf The Cisco

of only handful SiIv

in the UAE and tỉ

installing and supporting Cisco

In addition Silver Certified Partnet

xisting and potential customers and help

the Group to deliver further value and

Senet

Osama Qadan, Principal Partner at

Certificated lationship with

FOIE gi reditation, the Gold rking very hard cout to deliver

better solutions and services to our

clients everyday’

FVC appoints new

GM in Saudi

FVC, one of the leading Value Added

Distributors (VAD) in the Middle Ea

North Africa (MENA) region, has revamped

Tees MCR oan ea seo with the appointment of a new General

XecutiVe briefing ces Salsh D, Al-

Mutairi, the new

in KSA takes over the offic

'Youssef who has now mị

versee the Egypt o}

"Our Saudi Arabian operations have

doubled its business year on year and

8_Network World Middle East February 2009

There

of Mobil

4a AIShiny, 8eneral Manager

HP ProCurve Middle East

centre server racks, is broadening the role of its ProCurve networking arm in those compute- intensive environments just.as Cisco is about

to step into the data center server fray Cisco's

‘California’ blade servers, which will reportedly integrate switching, application processing and

virtualization in a single platform, are expected late

in the second quarter:

The release of California also is expected

to strain relations between Cisco and ITP (and

also IBM), which previously have collaborated

on complementary data center opportunities for networking and servers

IIP’s weapons for this battle include a new

IRU switch line optimized for top-of-rack data center switching applications The 6600 line includes five 1 Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches, available in a variety of configurations

The 6600 24-G sports 24 1Gbps RJ-45 ports and four 1Gbps SFP ports It has a 48Gbps switch fabric and a throughput of 36 million

packets/sec The 6600 24-G-4XG has 24 1Gbps RJ-45 ports, four 1Gbps SFP ports and four 10Gbps SFP+ interfaces It has a switching capacity of 101Gbps and a throughput of 74

million packets/sec

The 6600-48G features 48 1Gbps RJ-45 four 1Gbps SFP ports, a 96Gbps switch and throughput of 72 million packets/sec The 6600-48G-4XG has four 10Gbps SFP+

ports instead of the four 1Gbps SFP interfaces

It has a switching capacity of 152Gbps and a throughput of 131 million packets/sec, The

6600 24-NG has 24 10Gbps SFP+ ports,

ps and a

a switching capacity of 336(

throughput of 214 million packets/sec, The vendor has also announced it HP ProCurve Open Network Ecosystem (IIP ProCurve ONE), a multi-vendor alliance program that optimises the performance of enterprise-class applications with TIP ProCurve infrastructure Participating in the programme

“To help customers address the increased

TIP ProCurve is combining its own technology with

pace of change within their businesses, some of the most innovative, respected and visionary companies in the world,” said Alaa AlShimy, General Manager of HP ProCurve Middle East

Establishing partnerships with major technology companies to deliver open-standards choices delivers business value by increasing the efficiency of network applications.”

\wwew.networkwarldme.com

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UPDATE |

m cisco

we needed to double our resources tơ

support our partners ín the Kingdom,*

1°

a firm commitment to our partners and

their custom sure that

the level of service to be of

Mg 0 "sẽ

WiMax Forum looks

toward roaming

The WiMax Forum kicked off :

initiative that soreday may be crỉ

for making WiMax a true rival to cellular

ÔNG 000 2

its Global R Tes)

at helping mobile WiMax operators

set IIp roaming be c

online when they †ravel to areas served

by other carriers The program offers

technical specifications, a manual, a

template and a test plan, on the TÊN

on further growil TaN

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10_Network World Middle East February 200

storage and unified communications platforms

designed to be inexpensive and e:

— The Cisco NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network

Storage S) stems — desktop network-attached storage deyices to secure and protect data and let employees

desktop TP phone with Bluetooth capabilities

"The products come [rom Cisco's newly Íormed Small Business Technology Group (SBTG), which is focused on developing technologies within six small/

midsize business priori security, connectivity;

e-mail and Web traffic monitoring network Tt also

includes a four-step installation wizard that installs the appliance within minutes for most networks, Cisco says The Cis 2000 and NSS3000 storage devices let businesses automatically back up

oD

every version of every file from every PC and server,

so that data can be easily restored They store and archive digital files such as video from an TP video surveillance camera, and encrypt files to comply with growing regulatory and security requirements

the Tlealth Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Users can store up to 2B of da NSS2000 2-Bay Gigabit Storage §

up to 4B of data using the NSS3000 4-Bay Gigabit

‘The Cisco SBCS release 1.4

Storage System chassi

enables smal] business

mobile workers and employees in disparate locations

to enhance their ability to communicate and collaborate with customers and colleagues, Cisco says, Release 1.4 includes the Cisco SPAS2

TP Phone, which allows businesses to add phones in

THE PRODUCTS COME FROM CISCO’S NEWLY FORMED SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY GROUP (SBTG), WHICH IS FOCUSED

ON DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGIES WITHIN SIX SMALL/MIDSIZE BUSINESS PRIORITY AREAS

ExwavePRO | Light Funnel | 1.3 Megapixel | Intelligent Motion Detection

5//-UPDATE

MEITRIX

Riverbed to buy Mazu

for analysis tools

c1 86

Roe eet earnest

analysis to its offerings, allowin

Cu lefits of WAN optimization

Riverbed's Steelhead WAN (wide

etwork) optimizatìon applìan

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appliances as products on their own but

uld also integrate the Mazu †echnolog

into its own products, said Eric Wolford,

D17 010 Ti

diagnose the need for River

and then quantify its benefits, plus

version of is Witeless managernerIt

Cm s that let retailers

and others monitor compliance with the

DI 0 0O

rd Industry Data Security ).The suite can Tae the wireless network is in sync with the

„ and where t

To support for Ci features;

12_Network Warld Middle East February 200

open source Xen software, exited stealth mode in

senior director of strategic development “ coalescing around Xen-based technologies.”

When asked if this might be the first step toward acquiring Virtual Computer, Cohen said,

Because of the shared vision

We own a small percentage of them now

Citrix has not yet addressed, Cohen s:

Virtual Computer's NxTop software is a bare metal, or “Type 1” hypervisor, whereas most desktop virtualisation products are “Type 2”

and thus run on top of an operating system,

ys Virtual Computer CEO and co-founder

Call, Type 2 hypervisors are sometimes

vulnerable to various security, management and

out to clients, Cohen says

However, Citrix recently began collaborating with Intel to create a Xen-based Type 1 desktop

INTELLIGENT COMMUNICATIONS

_— UPDAITE

SYMANTEC

Dimension Data gets

Telepresence cred

PETS EMIS cece)

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Technology Provider (ATP) status

ete)

See creme asco eo

I Solutions at Dimension Data

Paramount seminar

in Dubai

Paramount Computer Systems is

organizing a seminar on optimlzi

Ene Re col aoe ea atc

16th February in Dubai at the Atlantis

hotel Paramount has been doing

ars and ít

6

our vendors and customers The

Pan ae] Omen (eds

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decision makers of the various

reputed organizations of this

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help our attendess get an in di

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presented at the event

this event for the pas

14 Network Warld Middle East February 200

Doing more with less

DATA CENTRES FACE RISING EXPECTATIONS IN TIME

OF RECESSION, SYMANTEC REPORT FINDS

ttl || 4

centre managers pursue today has a common goal: getting more work done with fewer resources, according to Symantec's second

virtualization and consolidation to automation

of routine tasks and cross-training of IT staffs stretched increasingly thin,

IT budgets are still rising at some companies, but may not be keeping pace with the increasing amount of work data centres must perform, Symantec says in a report

“Expectations are rising faster than the

budgets,” says Marty Ward, director of product marketing for Symantec's data protection group

“The budgets are still rising — which we found

of the budget increases are being taken up by

ial ¢

ructure and facilit

but is also underutilized And disaster-recovery

are still not

plans — more important that ev fully complete.”

Symantec also examined the state of disaster-

recovery planning, and found good and bad

news Nearly two-thirds of companies report having average, pretty good or excellent disaster- recovery plans for their data centres The remaining 36% say their disaster-recovery plans either need work or are undocumented, which Ward believes is a high proportion considering that the survey targeting only companies with

at least 5,000 employees “These aren't small

companies,” Ward says

DATA CENTRE MANAGERS ARE BEING ASKED TO ACCOMPLISH MORE AND REDUCE COSTS, AND ARE RESPONDING WITH VARIOUS INITIATIVES, FROM SERVER VIRTUALIZATION AND CONSOLIDATION

TO AUTOMATION OF ROUTINE TASKS AND CROSS-TRAINING OF IT STAFFS STRETCHED INCREASINGLY THIN

Reflections and Innovations Ahead’

ead Lê 6 ebruary 8 - 9 at Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai S

Registration for this exclusive event is strictly by invitation only

IDC MENA CIO Summit 2009 oO

Regional Representation - ClOs

OVERVIEW:

IDC's exclusive ClO Summit 2009 is about the CIO and for the ClO Individual Lebanon Pablstant

conferences will examine the evolving role of the ClO within the organization, the S85 hen

relationship with line-of-business and financial decision makers, and, ultimately, 7%

detail how IT underpins business-critical processes to impact the bottom line Qatar

Aiming to build upon the success of its inaugural CIO Summit in 2008, IDC’s latest 9%

installment — running under the theme of 'Reflections and Innovations Ahead! — will

bring together the top 100 IT end users from across the Middle East, Levant, Kuwait

Pakistan, and North Africa to interact with the world's leading ICT players and their 9%

senior global representatives The event will provide a priceless opportunity for

industry insiders to discuss and share their unique solutions for overcoming

day-to-day professional challenges It will present a view into the world of the ClO

in 2009, analyzing the key challenges they face today, their expenditure and

budgets, and the technologies and solutions they are looking to deploy over the

next 12-24 months

CRITICAL THEMES ADDRESSED AT THE SUMMIT: 4%

The Global Economic Crisis and What It Means for ICT F

Compute More / Consume Less Industry Representation - ClOs

Tales from the Compliance Edge eal Estate

Weathering The Crisis: From Operational Excellence to Management Excellence i 2%

Data Center Trends that are Redefining the way IT will be Deployed in Businesses RgiÍirädIng

Managing the Physical Layer -High density's Imperative for Integrated 2%

The way forward - Technologies and delivery solutions essential to surviving in the i 1%

current economy

Readying your business for Cloud Services

Creating the GREEN strategic plan for today’s ICT while saving money ee eee Se

Aligning IT to the CXO's Agenda (Panel Discussion)

SOA imperatives of Today and a Vision for the Future € ‘onstruction :

Strategies for Lower Carbon Economies 5%

The Skills Gap in the New Age of Technology Advancement (Panel Discussion)

Predictions for the ICT Industry

Oil & Gas

ly Sehnelder tieric Alcatel-Lucent

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etisalat where information lives" `

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IDC MEA, Dubai Internet City, Bldg 8, Suite 203, Dubai, UAE Phone: +971 4 3912741

IN ACTION: MOUWASAT

HEALTHY DOSE O

Having recently added the Mouwasat Hospital

in Riyadh to its existing chain of hospitals in

Dammam, Jubail, Madinah and Qatif, the Mouwasat

Healthcare Group in the Kingdom of Saudi

(KSA) is on a mi The Group's mission is a

simple one ~ to esta

sh itself as a dominant force

to be reckoned with in healthcare provision in the

Middle East region

In addition, Mouwasat is also shaping

itself into a healthcare chain that delivers comprehensive healthcare and medical services

to patients throughout the KSA and the entire Middle East region by adopting the latest state-

of the art technologies

Clearly, technology standardisation of hardware and software platforms, as well as process within

the group's IT infrastructure is priority as the hospital group adopts the latest healthcare solutions

THE MOUWASAT GROUP OF HOSPITALS IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA [KSA] KNOWS THAT TO IT

CONTINUE PROVIDING QUALITY HEALTHCARE AND MEDICAL SERVICES, IT NEEDS TO HAVE STATE-OF-

THE ART TECHNOLOGY THE GROUP HAS OVER THE YEARS MADE SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENTS AND

INNOVATIONS IN IT HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS AIMED AT ELIMINATING INEFFICIENCIES IN THE DELIVERY

OF HEALTH SERVICES, WRITES NWME’S CONTRIBUTING EDITOR MANDA BANDA

that meet the ever changing landscape of medical

services in the region By standardising its processes, the Mouwasat group is hoping to eliminate the duplication of process through out its hospitals,

a move that will assist all its hospitals to have a

single view of a patient’s history To achieve this,

the healthcare group is aware that it can not be

content with just implementing the latest and advanced technology The company says it needs to

16 Network World Middle East February 2009 wawwinetworkworldme.com

utilise technology to better serve and provide quality

healthcare and efficient medical services to patients

Although the group has used IT healthcare solutions

in its network of hospitals, pharmacies, medical

centres and education centre,

's coming up with an integrated ITT infrastructure which meets regulatory

and corporate governance issues on the one hand and

providing patients with excellent medical care on the

other that Mouwasat needs to get right

‘This means, overcoming day-to-day challenges

that hinder the provision of medical services that

any healthcare provider faces in this sector, For the

Mouwasat Group, ensuring that the group's billing

systems, accounting and financial systems, patient

history and medical records archiving systems and

electronic insurance filing systems are in order is

of utmost importance In addition, the Mouwasat

needs to link its chain of hospitals with an efficient

and reliable network platform that meets today’s

data, voice and video

converged network that carri

all on the same network

IT Infrastructure

With more than 4000 employees in the group

comprising doctors, nurses, paramedics, administration

and other supporting staff, the company has had to

implement an integrated ERP system to effectively

manage its day-to-day functions management of the

hospitals and other administrative related functions

‘Ali H Ghunaim, IT manager at Mouwasat Group,

says as the group’s network of hospital continues to

grow, it has become imperative for the company to

continue investing in innovative technologies that

help it to manage not only the growth but also propel

it forward in healthcare provision Ghunaim says the

group already boasts a wireless IP Telephony network

infrastructure, video conferencing solutions and is also

exploring possibilities in the TelePresence space

On the administration side of the business,

Ghunaim says the Mouwasat Group has implemented

the Oracle ERP solution on its back-end and has

centralised its entire administration operation across

the all the hospitals, pharmacies, medical centres and

the education centre However, despite all these IT

investments, Ghunaim says it is meaningless to have

the best IT healthcare solutions when your patients

have to wait for long hours before receiving any

medical attention “As we implement new technologies,

we take cognisance of the fact that any technology

we implement should improve the overall patient

experience,” he says Ghunaim says that the technology implementations have had to come with some

challenges “Eventually through our ERP systems the group is moving towards an integrated billing, medical hi

for medical insurance as required by the KSA lav,” he jory archiving and electronic filing system

says He says all these governance issues and regulatory requirements have meant that Mouwasat implements

technology that is resilient and reliable

‘The Mouwasat Group has Cisco as it main platform for the group’s entire network infrastructure and will continue to innovate and implement technologies that assist its network of hospitals in KSA

to provide the highest of standard of medical care,

Brief history

‘The origin of the Mouwasat Group dates back to

1975, when the Mouwasat Dispensary in Dammam

was launched — the first private medical clinic in

that region, Four years later in 1979, Mouwasat

undertook the operation and the administration of the clinics in the residential area of Jubail industrial

city, through a 9-year operation contract amounting

to more than SAR 400 million

In 1984, Mouwasat established its first owned

comprehensive medical facility which was named

Al-Mouwasat Hospital in Dammam with the actual operation starting in 1988 This start is considered

to be the real start of the healthcare Group and the cornerstone which led to establishing other Mouwasat medical facilities through the KSA In the years

that followed in 2000, the Group started operating Mouwasat Medical Dispensary in Al-Ahsa, and

Mouwasat Hospital in Madinah through a rental contract with a duration of 20 years

Looking ahead

With a two to three year IT budget of approximately

US$4million, Mouwasat would like to continue

investing in technology that has a positive impact

on the provison of healthcare services in the Middle

East To this end, Mouwasat plans to enhance the its chain of hospitals and medical centres with

cated IP Telephony infrastructure that makes it easy for inter-hospital and hospital

Ghunaim adds that today, the medical network

of Mouwasat hospital and medical fa ‘ilities cover

the main cities in the KSA including Dammam, Riyadh, Al-Qatif, Al-Khobar, Jubail, Madina, and AL-Ahsa *

rapid pace,” he notes It is important for us to focus

We have grown and continue to do so at a

on ways which will help us to manage this growth prudently without compromising services to patients.”

He says by implementing technologies that simplifies healthcare delivery to patients, the company is keeping its promise of being a trusted medical services provider

in the region

Ghunaim emphasises that new technology adoption and rollouts throughout its chain of hospitals is not, just about having the latest technology, but how the

company can leverage off its

ting IT healthcare solutions’ infrastructure and build better business solutions that delivers the bottom line “At the end of the day, it’s is the bottom line that counts With most vendors such as Sony Professional and Cisco Systems pushing for TelePresence solutions for the healthcare industry, Mouwasat will definitely be following developments in this space closely

“TelePresence solutions in the healthcare sector are becoming mainstream, with public and private sector hospitals in the Middle East jumping onto the bandwagon Going by the group's innovative approach to using technology in its core business of

offering healthcare services, it will be sooner rather

THE BANDWAGON

VENDOR WATCH >>

SMART MOVES

WITH THE ACQUISITION OF FOUNDRY HAVING CLOSED, BROCADE |S AIMING TO BECOME CISCO'S

CHIEF COMPETITOR FOR CUSTOMERS THROUGHOUT THE DATA CENTRE

Brocade is already the top player by market

share in the modular SAN switch market, ahead

Following its McData acquisition, Brocade

has garnered around 80 percent market

share in the SAN switch market “Foundry

acquisition will catapult us into the big league

We are talking about $20 billion addressable TP

N

market as opposed to around $2 billion S/

connectivity market Though the IP space is new for Brocade, our goal is to provide robust, cost- effective alternatives to Cisco in the

switching and routing market for enterprises and service

Khalid Khalil, Brocade’s Sales

bring Brocade an Ethernet portfolio for LANs,

complementing its Fibre Channel SAN technology

But the purchase wasn't made to help Brocade

tackle the emergence of Ethernet in storage

es Ethernet the deterministic quality required

developed its own silicon for this emerging

< Backbone multiprotocol storage switch, which will support the future Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) standard, according to Khalil

technology and put it in the DC

The company has not yet detailed how it will integrate Foundry’s ‘Iron’ switches and routers

It did say, however, that the buy would not result

18_Network World Middle East Februar

wwwinetworkworldme.com

in downsizing at either Brocade or Foundry

“Though Foundry will cease to exist, we are not

planning to change the product brand names after

assimilation into our fold,” says Khalil

smart move for Brocade who typi

Cisco, who has dominated Ethernet forever,

may face increasing press

ure from storage

networking buyers who are considering FCoE

and the converged network Hesitant to switch

to Cisco, these buyers will now be able to rely

on Brocade to supply their Fibre Channel/

Ethernet needs

Brocade, who dominates the Fibre Channel

market, will now have an additional entry into

FCoE with Foundry’ and

routers combined with its own Fibre Channel Ethernet switche

and storage-savvy products

Khalil also discussed the future of Fibre

Channel over Ethernet, an emerging technology

that lets the Fibre Channel storage protocol take

advantage of 10Gigabit Ethernet networks

Brocade is ready to release FCoE products

but doesn’t believe there is enough demand,

he says The primary benefit of FCoE is the

consolidation of cables and adapters, but that

can also be achieved simply by using blade

servers, Khalil says

“There is a lot of hype around FCoE What

Lis

work on Ethernet as we know it today What it

people don’t r is that the technology doesn't

requires is converged enhanced Ethernet, which

“T don't think [FCoE]

going to be big in 2009 I think we could see

some adoption in the back half of 2010,” he

adds Brocade has publicly discussed its FCoE

“The more intriguing implications of the union

will be to the rest of the Ethernet switching

market Cisco's 70%-plus market share dwarfs that

of other players — Nortel, HP ProCurve, Force10

Networks, Extreme Networks, Enterasys Networks

and new entrant Juniper, among them This deal

leaves them further behind, observers note

And though Foundry was one of the

Ethernet switching companies fighting an

uphill battle against Cisco for market share,

Brocade picked the best of the lot, according to

BROCADE IS BETTER ABLE THAN CISCO TO COOPERATE WITH KEY SYSTEM VENDORS SUCH AS IBM, HP AND EMC BECAUSE OF ITS DEEP, LONGTIME RELATIONSHIPS WITH THOSE COMPANIES

industry analysts A bonus for Brocade, they

say, is the technology depth for future product

innovation and Foundry’s presence, albeit tiny,

in service provider routing

Also, Brocade is better able than Cisco

to cooperate with key system vendors such

as IBM, HP and EMC because of its deep,

longtime relationships with those companies

moves by Cisco, including its rumoured fray

into the blade server market, make it look

more like a competitor of the system vendors,

he said Cisco has been pushing to put more of

the intelligence of data centers in the network infrastructure “We say it's all about day while Cisco reckons its all about the network.”

Cees Manager or MEA,

February 2009 Network World Middle East_19

II T4

NAC: NOW:

RAISED THE SECURITY STAKES FOR CORPORATE NETWORKS

NETWORK ACCESS CONTROL TO THE RESCUE? PERHAPS, BUT

EXPERTS DEBATE THE VALUE AND USERS FACE A CONFUSING

MORASS OF OPTIONS

Today's highly mobile workforce, along with

a plethora of new tech gadget :

has raised the Laptops, PDAs and cell phones were just the beginning The number of

Internet from anywher

users with fully patched and virus-protected

hardware can access corporate resources, is more

important than ever—not just for outside guests

gaining accesses to internal networks, but for

employees who have no business in the company’s

more data-sensitive systems

A full NAC cycle solution includes pre-admission

inspection and post-admission monitoring, a policy decision and enforcement point, and a method

of quarantine and remediation for noncompliant

the m

machines, When a user requests access,

is checked and, if found to be compliant, it is allowed to access the network, Post-admission monitoring will ensure that the user stays compliant

by entering the assessment/decision/enforcement process again periodically: If the user is found to be noncompliant, NAC solutions should offer a means

of quarantine and remediation to bring the user into compliance The user should then be allowed to

according to market analysis firm Infoneti

THIS YEAR THE QUESTIONS FOR CUSTOMERS WILL BE WHERE

DO WE DEPLOY NAC, AND HOW MANY NAC FEATURES DO WE TURN ON? MOST CUSTOMERS TODAY ARE USING NAC JUST

TO CONTROL GUEST ACCESS THAT'S IMPORTANT, BUT THE TECHNOLOGY CAN DO MORE

20_Network World Middle East Februar

prediction was for $670 million in worldwide

revenues for the appliances by 2010 But based

on new results, the number has been changed to

$534 million by 2011

“The NAC market is struggling with adoption when defined in terms of the pure access control Customers

es

are generally unprepared to rip

out network infrastructure and

take on huge disruption and cost

to advance their authentication

on connection This combined with budgetary constraints is limiting the adoption of this market

in the mainstream,” says Michelle Rae McLean, Director, Product Marketing, ConSentry Networ!

Mohammed Arif, Product Manager, Server

& Tools, Microsoft Gulf, offeres a different perspective: “NAC technology has gone through

many iterations over the past few years, becoming

more mature and

on a select number of NAC architectures, and you'll see more standardization and interoperability efforts moving ahead We also see a shift from traditional infrastructure and appliance based solutions to software based solutions Regulation, compliance and security concerns remain the primary drivers for adoption

Gartner Research Director Lawrence Orans

says there are three issues causing network managers to delay deployment of network access control solutions,

“People tell us they think the technology is too immature,” Orans says, but that’s not entirely true “There are some very strong proven solutions from small companies, and you have some of the big players out there making the biggest noise.”

For starters, Microsoft in February began shipping its Network Access Protection (NAP) solution with Windows Server 2008

product and a framework,”

they couldn't fully commit until now, he says

Cisco's Network Admission Control solution

has also been released but hasn't lived up to some

analysts’ and users’ expectations, “That combination

of events has caused people to view the technology

as not mature,” Orans adds, but it has also created a window of opportunity for the little guys

Last year was a turning point for NAC, however

Customers apparently decided to wait for Microsoft

to deliver its NAC products arty vendors out in the cold A lot of

has become a no-brainer for many customers

NAP represents a clear choice, rather than a

technology that requires extensive research, RFPs,

product tests and evaluations, and so forth

Another important development has been

the collaboration between Microsoft and Cisco,

Microsoft and Cisco understand customers

needs for interoperability and have collaborated

to enable rich interoperability between the

Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC)

and Microsoft Network Access Protection

(NAP) solutions This interoperability will

ize the benefits of both

NAC and NAP while using and preserving

allow customers to re:

their investments in their NAC network and

Microsoft NAP desktop and server infrastructure

NAC CONTINU

Customers now have a choice between Cisco NAC, Microsoft NAP, or the interoperable solution from both companies,”

‘ion

The joint architecture allows communic:

and policy enforcement across Cisco NAC and Microsoft NAP, enabling an end-to-end solution

to be built around the Cisco and Microsoft interoperability Technology partners of the Microsoft NAP and Cisco NAC eco also refer to the joint architecture for building stems can

Network Access (SNA) Whither NAC?

‘This year the questions for customers will be where do we deploy NAC, and how many NAC

features do we turn on? Most customers today are using NAC just to control guest access That's important, but the technology can do more

NAC for guest access control is of course

useful, but the more expensive and difficult

problem to solve, A greater value in most organizations can be attributed to the post admission assessment and measurement of risk

Most businesses start of wanting to solve guest access control but end up focusing further on the managed estate to secure additional value As technology in the infrastructure matures we will

see more aggressive use of pre-admission and integration of the endpoint agent

“NAC continuously a:

ses computers, on

or off the network, to ensure compliance with

an organisation's security policy If a contractor

or employee’s computer, for instance, does not comply with the company’s IT policy, access

of the leading vendors |n each graup

NAC |nfrastructure Provider:

InfiExpress D2 S2 Spphos

Tụ

On the post-admission side, it can make sure that a clean machine remains that way, and that users access only those parts of the network to

which they have authorization

Though potential NAC use may have become confused by the marketing din generated by

many vendors, what is for sure is that NAC

is slowly emerging as a ‘must-have’ security solution for companies looking to ensure compliance

ith external industry and regulatory

or with their own internal

Communications for Enterprise

connect TEE

Strategic Telecoms Summit CEO Forum

Reserve your space TODAY!

For more information and exhibiting, contact the MECOM team

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II ĐT

LAN ZONE

The building that houses Seven Seas

headquarters Without delving too deeply into

ng buggy Wired Equivalent Privacy

implementations, 802.11b technology that

promised 10Mbps but barely delivered 5Mbps,

802.11g technology that promised 50Mbps

but barely delivered 20Mbps, and prolonged

standards battles over 802.11n

Yes, Wi-Fi technology has been a tad

disappointing On the other hand, we have come

to expect and appreciate wireless networks in our

homes, coffee shops,

point In addition, it delivered solid performance

numbers on latency and jitter, which means it

can support such real-time applications as yoice and video The systems we tested had a variety

802.11N WIRELESS NETWORKS ENHANCE THE CORPORATE

NETWORK BY COMBINING THE MOBILITY AND FLEXIBILITY OF

WIRELESS WITH THE THROUGHPUT AND PERFORMANCE OF

WIRED NETWORKS

ees, particularly younger ones, impatiently

FOR NOW IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING, BUT 802.11N IS

FINALLY HERE AND THAT MEANS WIRELESS LANS NOW ARE A VIABLE REPLACEMENT FOR WIRED LANS

of enterprise-level features, such as Power over

radi

Ethernet; dynami frequency control;

QoS; and such security functions as intrusion

prevention and detection, Wi-Fi Protected Access

ems Engineer Director

ns why the WLAN market share leader believes 802.1 1n is ready for

prime time now, “802.11n wireless networks

enhance the corporate network by combining

the mobility and flexibility of wireless with the

throughput and performance of wired networks

The corporate environment is going through a technology transformation and wireless access plays a crucial role in this transformation

With the emerging collaboration and interaction tools and applications such as

High-Definition video conferencing, the need

26 Network World Middle East Februar

wwwinetworkworldme.com