Latest news with #Comstor
Tahawul Tech
19 hours ago
- Business
- Tahawul Tech
'This approach ensures that the partner's unique strengths are recognised and rewarded'
Renton D'Souza, Vice President, Comstor MEA and Priya Limaye, Partner Organisation Lead, Cisco Gulf Region discuss the value of the Cisco 360 Partner Program in this exclusive interview. How does Cisco 360 differ from the various programs Cisco has introduced throughout its 30-year history? Priya : The new Cisco 360 Partner Program represents the most significant evolution of our industry-leading partner program in nearly three decades. It is designed to accelerate the value partners bring to customers by better addressing their rapidly evolving and complex needs – modernising infrastructure, powering AI workloads anywhere, and keeping customers' organisations secure, resilient, and high-performing. The new program reflects a strategic shift in how Cisco and its partners create and deliver value for their customers in today's fast-paced, competitive market. What objectives does Cisco seek to accomplish with the rollout of the program? Priya : The program will redefine what it means to be a successful Cisco partner measuring value over transactions: how partners serve the needs and ambitions of their customers while harnessing the collective strength of Cisco's partner ecosystem in ways that drives growth. The program will elevate partners' stature with customers and upgrade the partner experience with simplified processes and new ways to plan and track performance. For the Cisco 360 Partner Program, we invited partners into the process early to help build it. Our focus is clear: helping partners achieve predictable and profitable growth. We are shifting incentives toward areas like technology innovation rooted in campus refresh, AI and security, software adoption, renewals, and deeper customer engagement to drive long-term success. How does Cisco 360 introduce a new way to measure partner value through its Partner Value Index? Priya : The Cisco 360 Partner Program introduces the Partner Value Index, a new framework that measures the partner's contributions across four key dimensions. First, it assesses the foundational aspect, which reflects the maturity of partner's lifecycle or managed services practices. Next, it evaluates capabilities, focusing on partner's investment in technical and other skills. The framework also considers performance, looking at how effectively the partner is able to land, retain, and renew customer value. Finally, it measures engagement, examining how the partner connects with customers throughout their journey. This approach ensures that the partner's unique strengths—whether in Security, Networking, Collaboration, Cloud & AI, Services and Observability, or across multiple portfolios—are recognised and rewarded. Which new designations are included in the program, and how do they enhance a partner's value to customers? Renton: Cisco is introducing two new partner designations—Cisco Partner and Cisco Preferred Partner—to replace the Gold, Premier, and Select levels. This change is designed to showcase partner investments and capabilities, helping customers select the best partner for their needs. As Cisco transitions to the 360 Partner Program, the focus will shift from traditional Architecture Specialisations to Solution-based Specialisations. Cisco is also creating next-generation Specializations for Preferred Partners to highlight their deep technical expertise in specific portfolios or across multiple areas. How is Comstor assisting partners to achieve a seamless transition to the Cisco 360 program? Renton: At Comstor, we are dedicated to helping our partners maximise the benefits of this program. We have been actively raising awareness through training sessions, webinars, and focused discussions during our channel events. Our sales and business development teams are working closely with partners to facilitate a seamless transition to the new program. Additionally, our teams are ensuring full alignment with Cisco to co-innovate and grow together. Image Credit: Comstor & Cisco
Tahawul Tech
08-07-2025
- Business
- Tahawul Tech
Axelerated Solutions, Comstor drive data centre growth with cloud, AI innovation
Saudi Arabia's digital infrastructure is undergoing a remarkable transformation, fuelled by the Kingdom's Vision 2030 agenda. With an increasing focus on becoming a global technology hub, the demand for scalable, secure, and AI-optimised data centres is surging across sectors. Axelerated Solutions, in strategic alliance with Cisco and distribution partner Comstor, is playing a central role in enabling this shift. Through intelligent networking, hybrid cloud capabilities, and advanced automation, they are helping enterprises across the Kingdom build resilient and future-ready digital ecosystems. In this exclusive interview, Mohamed Shehata (Head of Network Services, Axelerated Solutions), Mahmoud Abu Herra (Pre-Sales Manager, Axelerated Solutions), and Siva Kumar (Architecture Lead – Security | Cloud & AI | Managed Services, Comstor) share their insights on data centre trends, technology differentiation, sustainability goals, and the road ahead for digital transformation in Saudi Arabia. Interview Excerpts: How do you perceive the current state of the Data Centre market in your region? What are the key trends you're observing? Mohamed Shehata: The data center market in Saudi Arabia is currently undergoing significant and rapid growth. This expansion is primarily driven by the ambitious Vision 2030 initiative, which aims to transform the Kingdom into a digital economy and a regional technology hub. Here's how the market state and key trends are generally perceived, aligning with areas where a company like Cisco plays a major role: Current State of the Data Center Market in Saudi Arabia: High Growth Trajectory : The market is witnessing substantial investment and expansion, attracting both local players and major international hyperscalers establishing or expanding their cloud regions. Market reports consistently project a strong CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) over the next few years. Driven by Digital Transformation : Government entities and enterprises across various sectors (finance, healthcare, education, energy) are accelerating their digital transformation journeys, transitioning workloads to the cloud (hybrid and multi-cloud models) and requiring robust local data center infrastructure. Increasing Demand : The demand for data center capacity is surpassing supply in some areas, particularly for high-quality, carrier-neutral, and hyper-scale-ready facilities. How do you see Cisco Data Centre offering compared to competitors in the market? Any key differentiators to be highlighted? Mohamed Shehata: Cisco is a major player in the data centre technology market and offers a comprehensive portfolio that spans networking, compute, storage networking, security, and management/automation. When looking at how their offering compares and identifying key differentiators, several areas typically stand out: Integrated Architecture: A core strength is the focus on an integrated architecture, particularly through their Unified Computing System (UCS), which converges compute, networking, and storage access into a single system, and their Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) which integrates networking with security and application policy. Comprehensive Portfolio: Cisco offers a broad suite of data centre technologies from networking and compute (UCS servers optimised for various workloads) to storage networking (MDS Fibre Channel) and security. Unified Cloud Management (Intersight): Their cloud-based management platform, Intersight, provides a unified view and management plane across Cisco's data centre portfolio (UCS, Nexus, etc.) and can extend to manage hybrid and multi-cloud environments. What are the biggest challenges and opportunities you see for your business in the coming years, and how does our Cisco Data Centre partnership support these? Mohamed Shehata: Keeping Pace with Rapid Technological Advancement: The speed at which technologies like AI/ML, high-speed networking, and complex hybrid/multi-cloud environments are evolving is immense. How Cisco Partnership Supports: Cisco is at the forefront of developing these technologies. Our partnership provides access to their latest innovations, roadmaps, and expertise, helping us stay ahead of the curve and integrate cutting-edge capabilities into our offerings or internal infrastructure. How Cisco Partnership Supports: Cisco's focus on automation through platforms like ACI and Intersight is key. These solutions enable policy-based management, unified visibility, and automation of routine tasks across diverse environments, allowing you to scale operations more efficiently without proportionally increasing headcount and reducing the risk of configuration errors. How has Comstor partnership contributed to your business growth and success? Would you like to quantify this in any way? Mahmoud Abu Herra: Our partnership with Comstor plays a truly vital role in the growth and success of our business, particularly as we navigate the dynamic Data Centre market in Saudi Arabia. They are far more than just a logistics provider; they act as a critical extension of both Cisco and our own team. Supply Chain and Logistics Efficiency: Managing inventory, procurement, and timely delivery in a rapidly expanding market like KSA can be complex. Comstor's advanced logistics and supply chain capabilities are crucial. How do you see the role of sustainability and green initiatives impacting the data center industry and our partnership? Mahmoud Abu Herra: stainability and green initiatives are having a profound and increasing impact on the Data Centre industry in Saudi Arabia, deeply influencing both market demand and operational requirements. This is closely tied to the national Vision 2030 and the Saudi Green Initiative, which place significant emphasis on reducing carbon emissions, increasing reliance on renewable energy, and promoting energy efficiency across all sectors. What is your long-term vision for your customers' Data Centre needs, and how shall we align our strategies to support this? Mahmoud Abu Herra: Our long-term vision for our customers' Data Centre needs in Saudi Arabia is centered around enabling them to thrive in a digital-first future driven by Vision 2030. Specifically, this means customers will need: Hyper-Scalability and Agility: The ability to rapidly scale infrastructure resources up or down based on unpredictable demand, especially with the growth of AI and new digital services. Seamless Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Connectivity: Infrastructure that effortlessly connects on-premises data centres, edge locations, and multiple public cloud environments with consistent policy and management. AI-Optimised Infrastructure: Data Centres purpose-built or easily adaptable to support high-performance AI/ML workloads requiring high-density computing and ultra-low latency networking. How does Comstor's value proposition on partner engagement and its key approach towards simplified operations help scale edge infrastructure for greater agility, efficiency, and resiliency with Cisco Cloud-ready computing? Siva Kumar: 79% of IT organisations operate using a hybrid cloud model. Cisco's cloud-driven automation journey rapidly increases business agility. Our hybrid cloud operations platform is simple, scalable, and extensible. At Comstor, we are fully aligned with our cloud- and AI-focused partners to increase automation, offer cloud-ready solutions, and help organisations adopt a cloud-agnostic strategy. Comstor's engagement model is refined, enabling our partners to support organisations in building cloud-ready environments, operating cloud-smart, and optimising everywhere to deliver better outcomes by leveraging their IT infrastructure resources and tools. Cisco's focus on a unified experience and cloud-managed operations platforms empowers diverse users to manage hybrid operations across both cloud and on-premises infrastructure. For example, Cisco Intersight provides intelligent visualisation, optimisation, and orchestration to bring IT teams, tools, infrastructure, and applications together. Cisco Nexus Cloud simplifies the management of your hybrid cloud NetOps, while Cisco CX Cloud allows you to view your entire IT environment and receive guidance for predictive analysis. Comstor's Partner Success Journey is dedicated to enabling our partners with Cisco's hybrid cloud solutions. Our goal is to help partners make clients aware of interoperability, flexibility across diverse environments with personalised consumption models, and the ease of cloud-managed administration.
Tahawul Tech
08-07-2025
- Business
- Tahawul Tech
Comstor empowers partners with white-labelled managed SOC built on Cisco XDR
Comstor's new Managed SOC solution is enabling partners across EMEA—especially in the Middle East—to scale cybersecurity services without heavy upfront investment. Cybersecurity has evolved into a mission-critical pillar for businesses navigating a complex threat landscape. Comstor's newly launched white-labelled Managed SOC (Security Operations Centre) built on Cisco's robust XDR platform provides channel partners with an agile route to market. By offering 24×7 monitoring, centralised management, and seamless integration, the solution empowers partners to deliver advanced threat detection and response under their own brand. In this exclusive dual interview, Steven Heinsius, Comstor EMEA Vice President, Product Management and Marketing, and Siva Kumar, Architecture Lead – Security, Cloud & AI, Managed Services, Comstor Saudi Arabia, share the strategic intent, partner-driven innovation, and regional relevance behind the launch. Interview Excerpts: We hear that Comstor has launched its first managed SOC (Security Operations Centre) offering for channel partners. Tell us more. Steven Heinsius: Comstor is bringing to market a managed SOC offering that enables partners to tap into the fast-growing cybersecurity services market while avoiding the cost and complexity of building their own solution. It's the first managed SOC offering launched by Westcon-Comstor and the first to utilise Cisco XDR (Extended Detection and Response). How does it work in practice? Will partners use Comstor branding when deploying this with their customers? Steven Heinsius: We've purposefully designed this as a white-labelled solution, allowing partners to quickly and easily launch a SOC offering under their own brand. With the Managed XDR SOC from Comstor, partners have access to a single dashboard for efficient and centralised management, plus 24×7 support and monitoring from certified Comstor analysts and engineers, along with access to Cisco expertise. What prompted you to develop this? Steven Heinsius: Honestly, the driver for this has been partner demand. Many of our partners have been asking for this and we're really excited about announcing its availability. The opportunity in this space for partners is huge. The managed XDR market is set to be worth between $8 billion and $10 billion by 2030 in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) alone, as end-user businesses seek more comprehensive threat detection and response solutions to ensure compliance while handling an increasing volume of security alerts and growing attack surfaces. What do you think is at the root of this demand from partners? Steven Heinsius: Establishing a SOC involves significant initial investment and ongoing annualised costs. By deploying the Managed XDR SOC from Comstor, partners can save on these costs while sidestepping the technical and operational challenges associated with SOC development and maintenance, which can typically run to millions of dollars. Do you see the Middle East as an important market for this solution? Siva Kumar: Absolutely. It's available to partners across the EMEA region and we see lots of potential here in the Middle East, with its abundance of mid-sized Cisco partners who are ambitious and hungry for growth but keen to control costs at the same time. What are the key commercial and strategic benefits for partners? Siva Kumar: Our solution enables partners to build new recurring revenue streams through subscription-based models and ongoing service contracts. Partners can expand their service portfolio and provide comprehensive security solutions to end-users, unlocking new growth opportunities and increasing customer retention and loyalty. And for their customers? Siva Kumar: End-users will benefit from proactive protection, increased operational efficiency and enhanced resilience against evolving threats. Continuous, around-the-clock monitoring and superior visibility across security layers provides enhanced threat detection and faster response times. Can you tell us more about Cisco XDR? Siva Kumar: Cisco XDR harnesses multiple security layers (network, endpoint, server, and cloud) and applies advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning to detect, investigate, and respond to cyber threats in real time. Built to be flexible, it integrates seamlessly with existing security architectures, including non-Cisco solutions, and can scale to meet the needs of organisations of all sizes.
Tahawul Tech
14-05-2025
- Business
- Tahawul Tech
'SMB owners want to choose IT solutions that can deliver results and offer resilience'
Sherif Azzam, Business Unit Manager, Comstor, KSA, discusses the place of SMB's in an evolving industry and the key importance of partner enablement. How are the technology needs of SMB's evolving? As SMBs are increasingly moving to the cloud, they are increasingly relying on technology to ensure their business is growing and their applications are accessible, resilient, and secure. A growing number of SMBs want their employees to be able to work from anywhere. This puts added focus on ensuring that their business is secure. Overall, SMB owners want to be smart about running their business efficiently and choose IT solutions that can deliver the best results and offer resilience. Why is partner enablement so crucial for extending reach and driving SMB demand? SMB's are pressed on bandwidth, resources and increasingly rely on partners to solve their business challenges while delivering the experience outcomes they need. Cisco has developed a comprehensive portfolio aligned to the experience outcomes that SMBs want: The Hybrid SMB, Secure SMB, Remote SMB, and Smart SMB. With more than 90% of Cisco's SMB revenue flowing through Cisco partners, it is critical to deliver the right enablement, support, and resources to the partners to engage new and existing SMB customers. Enabling our partners and keeping them up-to-date on the latest offering from Cisco is critical to ensuring that SMB's get the best experience and support. How has Comstor developed expertise in maximising opportunities for Cisco SMB partners? Through our extensive experience working with small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), we have developed a deep understanding of their unique needs. These include managing tight budgets, addressing security concerns, ensuring ease of management, and achieving scalability, all of which present significant IT challenges for SMB owners and managers. We add value to our partners by maintaining a closely monitored stock profile, ensuring that the products they require are always readily available. Additionally, we offer the convenience of ordering and delivering products on their behalf. Our partner programs are designed to accelerate business growth and provide rewards, further enhancing the success of our partners. Image Credit: Comstor
Tahawul Tech
07-05-2025
- Business
- Tahawul Tech
Cisco and Comstor executives discuss support for SMBs
Wael Waheed, SMB territory business Manager, Cisco, KSA and Sherif Azzam, Business Unit Manager, Comstor, KSA, delve into the technological value of small businesses and the support Comstor is providing to help these partners grow faster. What technology solutions do Small Businesses need? Wael: As technology continues to evolve at an extraordinary pace, keeping up can feel overwhelming for small businesses. Just as one feels confident about being up-to-date and competitive, advancements propel the industry into new realms. With the increasing adoption of online and hybrid workforces, the advantages of cloud-based technology solutions have become more apparent than ever. For small businesses to remain competitive, agility and adaptability to technological changes are essential. Recognising the need for change is one thing; knowing how to address it effectively is another challenge altogether. To navigate this landscape, small businesses should aim for a balanced approach to technology that aligns with their goals. This approach can be compared to a 'technology pyramid,' incorporating key elements such as flexible networking, seamless collaboration tools, and robust security measures to ensure productivity and resilience. The foundation of this pyramid lies in effective networking solutions. Businesses must ensure that employees can access systems from any location and device. When selecting a networking platform, simplicity, flexibility, and built-in security should be prioritised. A user-friendly, cloud-based solution with mobile and web applications minimises onboarding time and simplifies issue resolution. Flexibility is critical; whether employees work remotely, in-office, or both, they should have uninterrupted access to the network. Furthermore, integrated security features that automatically update can protect against threats like malware and phishing without requiring additional monitoring or manual labour. Collaboration tools form another vital layer of this pyramid. These tools enable teams to communicate efficiently through chat, video conferencing, shared files, and version control. High-quality video conferencing platforms allow employees to connect instantly across devices or dedicated conference rooms, fostering real-time collaboration on projects. Features such as screen sharing and file transfers ensure that teams remain aligned and productive. Finally, cybersecurity serves as the backbone of this technological framework. Enhanced security measures like Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) offer encrypted connections that safeguard user activity and data across devices. Modern cybersecurity solutions provide secure access anytime, anywhere while offering visibility and control over potential breaches. Automated detection and response capabilities ensure swift protection against malware across all endpoints. How should small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) approach evaluating cloud-based technology options given their diverse perspectives? Wael: Cloud-based technology offers small businesses unprecedented opportunities to streamline operations while maintaining security and flexibility. Contrary to misconceptions about complexity or maintenance requirements, today's cloud solutions are user-friendly, low-maintenance, and equipped with advanced encryption technologies managed by skilled experts. By leveraging these tools effectively, small businesses can position themselves for sustained growth in an increasingly digital world. What support Comstor offer to its SMB partners to grow their business further? Sherif: We understand that partners focusing on SMB segment often need additional support to keep their customers engaged and generate net new demand. To address this need, we provide marketing support to our partners who are challenged on resources and know-how, we offer Comstor's Marketing as a Service (MaaS). Under MaaS, we offer tailor-made marketing services such as digital campaigns, social media marketing, physical and virtual events to help our partners retain existing customers and onboard net new customers. All campaigns executed under MaaS follow a data-led approach and leverage insights from Intelligent Demand. For the unversed, Intelligent Demand (iD) is our analytics-led sales and marketing programme that leverages data insights, market intelligence, and channel expertise to deliver actionable insights for business growth. We work closely with our partners to deliver ROI-driven campaigns that are aligned to their goals and strategy. Image Credit: Cisco & Comstor
