The largest impact of enterprise mobility is the way it transforms business processes including the challenge of accounting for increased internal and external threats such as data leakage and network infringement. As the adoption of enterprise mobility by a growing number of businesses creates a new avenue for sophisticated cyber criminals to launch their attacks, the devastating impact that such attacks will have on a brand’s reputation and stock prices makes it necessary for companies in the region to invest heavily enough to mitigate this risk.
At the first ever Gulf Enterprise Mobility Exhibition & Conference (GEMEC) 2015 set to take place from April 26-28, 2015, the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) is bringing together leading experts who will address the challenges and explore solutions, as well as opportunities, associated with enterprise mobility.
Strategically co-located with the 3rd Gulf Information Security Expo & Conference (GISEC), the annual IT security knowledge platform, C-level executives will get an opportunity to identify key IT security concerns and challenges together with employing cutting-edge business tools on how to secure enterprise mobility.
At GEMEC, over 2,000 senior executives from 51 countries will be identifying, evaluating and sourcing technology and mobility solutions aimed at highlighting the business benefits through new and creative ways that will extend their competitive advantage.
Among those who will share key insights at the conference are Annosh Thakkar, Vice President, Business & I.T. Transformation, Philips Netherlands; Sameer S Poonja, Head of Digital Technologies, Emirates Group I.T.; Jean-Pierre Mondalek, General Manager UAE, UBER; Arun Tewary, Vice President (IT) & CIO, Emirates Flight Catering and Bill Douglas, Head of Mobility, Royal Bank of Scotland, UK.
Based on data from various ICT industry analysts, ICT spending in the MEA region, adoption of smart devices, as well as the enterprise mobility and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) market, will experience dramatic increases in the coming years.
“Mobile and analytics are changing dramatically the way business gets done, and how employees work and interact in our region. To leverage these opportunities organisations needs to have a mobility agenda that addresses the broad challenges of implementation. This is from development to management, from integration to security, from embedded sensors to analytics,” said John Banks, Vice President, Software Group, GBM.
According to International Data Corporation’s (IDC) report, ICT spending in the MEA region will exceed $270 billion in 2015, making it the second-fastest growing market worldwide. This represents an expansion rate of 29% year-on-year. Meanwhile, Cisco’s 2014 Annual Security Report indicates that the adoption of smart devices in the Middle East and Africa is set to grow from 133 million in 2014 to 598 million devices in 2018. As far as the enterprise mobility and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) market is concerned, MarketsandMarkets predicts that it will surpass the $284 billion mark by 2019 worldwide.
The accelerated growth in enterprise mobility is driven by the increase in the use of cloud-based frameworks, mobile workforce and personal gadgets in the workplace. While these devices may have empowered businesses and organisations with the many benefits that come with increased mobility, BYOD, has become a focus for cybercriminals to launch attacks. The increase in mobile penetration and the massive growth of an unregulated app market in Android-based devices have enabled cybercriminals to introduce infected applications.
Johnny Karam, Regional Vice President, MEA, Citrix said: “The transformation of enterprise I.T. can seem like one of the biggest challenges for security professionals as there is a whole new skill set required today to protect data. It’s no longer about providing employees an all access pass to the network, it’s about cohesively managing networking, virtualization and containerization technologies to give employees the flexibility to work from anywhere and feel confident their work and personal data are secure and separate.
“GEMEC, a leading enterprise mobility conference programme of its kind in the Middle East, forms the right platform for the region’s enterprise and government decision makers to tackle mobile security issues which are foreseeing new and creative ways to face potential cyber security threats,” added Karam.
Further aggravating this scenario is employees’ failure to know or comprehend the complete extent of the risks involved, and the strong tendency of people to downplay the dangers that accompany mobile apps. As a result, both individuals and organisations are more at risk of cyberattacks such as security breaches, stolen passwords and the loss of valuable data through unregulated mobile apps, phishing and malwares.
Trixie LohMirmand, Senior Vice President, Dubai World Trade Centre, said “For all of its benefits, enterprise mobility comes with some significant security risks. The dramatic growth in the number and diversity of devices increases the risk of data theft. IT leaders are struggling to solve the security problems stemming from supporting BYOD (bring-your-own-device) and enterprise mobility amid an explosion of personal devices and applications accessing the network.
“With this in mind, DWTC will host the inaugural Gulf Enterprise Mobility Exhibition & Conference (GEMEC) to help identify solutions and innovations that meet users’ current and future mobile requirements,” LohMirmand added.
GEMEC will also highlight key themes including:
– BYOD to mobile first strategy
– mobile device management (MDM) vs mobile application management (MAM)
– security and corporate compliance, rise of machine to machine (M2) connectivity
– Enterprise Apps Development.
Sharing insights on how to empower enterprises through mobility innovation will be a number of high-level delegates from different sectors including government, banking & finance, oil & gas, telecom, retail, healthcare, transport & logistics, education, hospitality and FMCG.
Powered by GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK, the region’s technology event, GEMEC and GISEC are strictly trade-only events and are open to business and trade visitors from within the industry only. GISEC and GEMEC are open 10am-6pm from 26-28 April 2015 at Sheikh Rashid Hall at Dubai World Trade Centre. Visitor attendance is free of charge.
