The Inaugural Integrator Gala Awards Ceremony successfully held
The inaugural Integrator Gala Awards Night ceremony hosted by VAR Magazine was held at the J.W.Marriott Marquis on the 19th of June 2013. The event witnessed winning Brands walking away with accolades and was well attended by senior level executives from winning Brands. Further, the event also provided a forum for informal Business networking on the sidelines between attending integrators, Value Add Distributors and vendors. Mr. Vivek Sharma, the CEO of VAR Magazine and Publisher of The Integrator in his keynote presentation, highlighted the ongoing extension of the company’s commitment to the value add channel segment, complementing the company’s established leadership as a Media company in the volume channel segment. Earlier in his brief opening note, R. Narayan, the Managing Editor of VAR Magazine, mentioned the Integrator Awards applaud the deserving Brands and companies that excelled over the year in their respective domains. The Awards results are based on a combination of results received from an online poll that was run on www.varonline.com for nearly a 3 week period as well as included consensus of the Editorial think tank. At the Gala event, Microsoft was awarded the Virtualisation Vendor of the Year. Microsoft has played a key role in providing customers and partners in the region to reduce costs and enhance agility through Cloud and virtualization solutions. In the category Enterprise Storage Vendor of the Year, Dell, a company that has been looking at Enterprise storage as a top priority for the company in the past several years was declared the winner. Dell is making strong gains with its
EqualLogic and Compellant storage and is instrumental in reimagining the way enterprises think about storage. In an era of more virtualization, storage systems become the more critical for IT to deliver services to the organization. The winner of the category SMB Storage Vendor of the Year is Netgear, a company whose new storage systems exemplify the kind of affordable yet scalable platforms that SMB customers need in their virtualized environments. To handle big data and Web 2.0, SMB companies now require faster speeds and a combination of wired and wireless options. The vendor must also be able to provide the whole breadth of switches, routers, and gateways and the connections to seamlessly bring all these together.Successfully executing these networking needs of its SMB customers and seeing its reach rise, D-Link emerged the winner of the category SMB Networking vendor of the Year. The total enterprise networking market for 2013 is expected to clock $42.4 billion and IDC predicts the enterprise networking market to exceed $50 billion, with growth across all categories, by 2017.Cisco, the winner of the Enterprise Networking Vendor of the Year category is a company that has seen undiminished dominance and an average 54%market share across the six main segments within the enterprise networking market according to Synergy research Group. TechNavio’s analysts forecast the Global Unified Communications market to grow at a CAGR of 13.5 percent over the period 2011-2015. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the increasing need for information sharing among organizations. Avaya, the winner of the category Unified Communications Vendor of the Year, is a company that offers a full suite of interoperable unified communications (UC) solutions. According to Infonetics Research, while the full year revenue for 2012 remained flat for the video-conferencing market, the segment is expected to turn the corner as a long-term interest by enterprises to deploy video communications is expected to help the market to sustain a 6% CAGR through 2017. LifeSize Communications, a vendor which intends to make it easier for people to use their video conferencing technology at any time and on any device emerged the winner in the category Video Conferencing vendor of the Year. In 2013, Big Data is forecast to drive $34 billion of worldwide IT spending, according to Gartner. Owing to growing interest in Big Data technology and services, all levels of the Big Data technology stack will experience significant growth, according to IDC. EMC, the winner of the category Data Management & Analytics Vendor of the Year is a company whose goal is to support a broad range of cloud and Big Data solutions. It is delivering solutions to meet an ever-broadening range of next-generation cloud-based, Big Data analytics and mobile workflows and applications Today’s business trends are driving a series of evolutionary changes in the way firms back up and recover data. Firms that continue to rely on traditional client/server backup infrastructure can expect to see longer backup windows and recovery times, higher infrastructure and operational costs, as well as the potential for data loss.Symantec, the Winner of Disaster Recovery and Backup Software Vendor of the Year is a vendor that has effectively been able to offera “no-hardware” disaster recovery and backup and designed for both virtual and physical environments The last few years have seen organizations in the Middle East fall victim to a large number of sophisticated malware, data breaches and high-profile hacktivist attacks. So it’s no surprise that security software for client devices has become very crucial for businesses in the region, big and small. Kaspersky Lab that has made strong gains in the consumer security software market is also emulating that success and growth in the Business segment. Deservingly, it is the Client Security Software Vendor of the Year. Social Media and mobile technologies continue to profoundly alter the way we all work, providing real-time information, interactive collaboration, rich media, and much more. With this are emerging security threats that exploit these same tools to steal data. At the same time, increase in Web traffic is taxing the bandwidth requirements for mission-critical applications. Dell SonicWALL, the winner of the category Network Security Vendor of the Year has proved able to delivers a two-fold security approach by offering universal protection against emerging threats across platforms and perimeters in real time while enabling higher efficiencies within the network. While the overall network equipment market will grow 8.7% this year to reach $39.4 billion according to IDC, the WAN application delivery sector will be one of the strongest drivers and is expected to clock$1.3 billion by the end of the year. Riverbed Technology, the winner of the category WAN Optimisation Vendor of the Year has come up with a unique WAN optimization solution able to span mobile workers, branch offices, and data centres, both physical and virtual, allowing the distributed workforce to collaborate in real time. APC by Schneider Electric, the winner of the category Power Solutions Vendor of the Year is a company that offers one of the largest portfolios of products and solutions for small, medium and large data center environments. It is a Company that offers solutions to manage the power and cooling of this business critical infrastructure and is among the top three in datacenter infrastructure management. KVM switches are an integral part of a data center’s infrastructure and the growth of Virtualisation and the rise of mixed environments – physical and virtual is only accentuating the importance of KVM solutions that can managed these mixed environments. The KVM Solutions Vendor of the Year is ATEN, a provider of a comprehensive suite of KVM connectivity solutions. The Value Added Distributor’s role continues to evolve now seen as by vendor partners as true managers, able to manage the sometimes complex partnership programs. APTEC-an Ingram Micro Company, the winner in the category Enterprise VAD of the Year is a true Value Added Distribution pioneer and has continued to lead through very positive and beneficial VAR relationships and is highly regarded by resellers in the region and beyond. To cater for the SMB and their needs requires a delicate balancing act between quality and price. By successfully maintaining a vendor portfolio of strong SMB-focused brands that are able to scale as these businesses grow, MindwareFz LLC, the winner in the category SMB VAD of the Year has demonstrated the ability to leverage the capabilities of large international IT vendors with the needs of the local IT business community. System integrators will require multiple complementing hardware and software. It is a great advantage to them if they can access all these services and products from a single supplier to ensure speedy delivery and unified contact source. WestconGroup comprising of Westcon Middle East and Comstor, has successfully brought key vendors together ensuring a total 360 degreeintegrated solution for clients and is a deserving winner of the category Networking VAD of the Year.
Where compatibility of hardware and software is extremely crucial, the winner in the category Security VAD of the Year has found the right mix of hardware and software for varied segments that can seamlessly integrate. Offering Best of class solutions from top tier vendor that are able to withstand threats in an ever-changing IT security landscape, the winner is Computerlinks. The storage Value Added Distributor must combine tools and solutions able to store large volumes of data, make sure it is secure and can be accessed quickly and efficiently. StorIT Distribution FZCO, a VAD focused on storage has built upa suite of solutions & services that enable enterprises large and small to store, protect & manage business critical data, and harness the value of information. It is the winner of the category Storage VAD of the Year. Organizations are discovering the economic advantages of video conferencing and are looking to deploy solutions that are as close to physical presence as they can get to their employees, customers and partners. For that, Technology providers and integrators must combine a large number of technologies to provide high definition and high quality communication hardware and services that will allow quality collaboration across disparate geographies. By bringing together a broad array of communication products from Brands that are leaders in their niches, FVC has over the years built up a strong credibility as the leading VAD in the UC space. Not surprisingly, FVC was the winner of the category UC Infrastructure VAD of the Year. The Middle East continues to one of the leading markets for state of the art audio-visual (AV) installations. With continued rise of premium residential and commercial developments across the Middle East, there is a significant investment being made in AV deployments. Theatro, the winner of the AV Solutions Distributor of the Year, is a company that is a specialist in AV (Audio Visual) and HA (Home Automation) and broadening its focus in technology Distribution. The Emerging VAD of the Year was conferred on Metra, a company that is fast building a strong value add focus though alliances with leading Technology vendors. The company has a strong broadline division but its value division is a recent venture but started off on a strong footing, focusing on key verticals including virtualisation, networking etc. According to a new report by Insight Research Corporation, the 2013 global managed services market at $152 billion.eHOSTING DATAFORT, the winner in the category Managed Services Provider of the Year is a company that boats of world-class data centres and state-of-the-art infrastructure and with customers across the globe. Alpha Data, the winner of the Networking Integrator of the Year, is one of the largest multi-disciplined systems integrators in the region. This company has accreditation with some of the biggest names in this space ensuring a very high level of confidence for clients. This company’s strength also lies in its ability to serve clients across the whole business spectrum from SMBs to large government bodies. Storage integration includes deploying scalable and resilient solutions that match the growing needs of the customer’s Business. CONDO PROTEGO, the winner of the category Storage Integrator of the Year is a company that brings a consultative approach to the fore and has alliances with the top tier Brands in storage. In the category Emerging System Integrator of the Year, recognition was conferred Intelligent Business Technologies, ayoung company that has swiftly grown its portfolio of services over the past few years and has customers across the region. It today provides turnkey solutions and expertise in domains including infrastructure solutions, cloud computing deployments, telephony, BPO etc. Visionary VAD of the Year is a category that applauds a distributor for its vision in developing an innovative a strategy and is bringing niche technology Brand to market and helping establish them.The winner is Spectrami, a company that has a dedicated focus in areas including Information Security, Data Centre Infrastructure, and Data Communication Networks and is expanding to emerging markets including Morocco.
