Future Workspace Summit & Awards 2022 sees a full house attendance

Future Workspace Summit & Awards 2022 sees a full house attendance

The second annual edition of the Future Workspace Summit & Awards concluded on a very successful note yesterday at the Address Skyview Hotel in Downtown Dubai. The event organized by CXO DX, the leading media platform for CXOs in the region and Leap Media Solutions, brought to the fore various aspects of Technology’s impact on the future of work.

Various keynotes by speakers from leading vendors and 4 panel discussion involving several leading CIOs shared their insights with a very interested full house of attendees.

“This was the second edition of The Future Workspace Summit in the UAE and continued the ongoing discussions on how work is being transformed by the availability and adoption of several collaborative, security, and cloud services. We are happy to have seen a great turnout of attendees at the event and believe they did benefit from listening to some great talks and discussions pertaining to the topic at the event,” said R. Narayan, co-founder, and editor in chief of Leap Media Solutions.

The pandemic has continued to reshape the world of work across the globe. In the past couple of years, remote working became our new normal followed by the hybrid work model. During the summit, there was recognition for UAE born companies and organizations who have been taking the lead in digital enabling better services for customers and better experiences for employees

“We had an ensemble of many leading Technology vendors focusing on different domains whose presence at the event showed their appreciation of the relevance of the theme. It a was a day of great conversations around technologies enabling remote and hybrid work as well as a celebration of some outstanding achievements at the awards ceremonies,” said Saumyadeep Halder, co-founder and MD at Leap Media Solutions.

The sponsors of the day included Platinum Sponsors, Dell Technologies and Mindware. The Gold Partners were Zoho, Veeam, Mindfire Technologies, D-Link, Logitech, Ingram Micro, Valto, Accops, Freshworks, Redington, Pure Storage, VAD Technologies, NetApp, Logicom, Fanvil and Ben Infotech. The e-mail and collaboration partner was Icewarp. Silver partners included Cloud Box Technologies, Finesse, Linksys, Acronis, Virsec, Eset, Yellow.AI, Raqmiyat and Mitsumi Distribution and the supporting partners were Exclusive Networks and Asbis.

Mr. Charbel Zreiby, Director of the Data Center Channel at Dell Technologies Middle East was the first keynote speaker of the day and he spoke about ‘Living On the Edge’. Mr. Ali Shabdar, Regional Director of MEA at Zoho spoke on ‘Hybrid Conversational Workspaces – from Idea to Implementation’.

Mr. Elie Kamel, Regional Channel Manager for the UAE, Gulf, North Africa at NetApp, the third speaker of the day spoke about ‘Unleash the power of Data to successfully transform your IT and meet business demand’.

Mr. Islam Afifi, Advisory Systems Engineer Gulf at Veeam Software delivered his keynote on ‘Are you ready to  recover from Ransomware attack’. Following him, speaker Mr. Samer Semaan, Channel Manager Middle East, Pure Storage who gave a presentation on ‘Reinventing a Smart Data Experience’. The next speaker Mr. Aamir Mushtaq Shaikh, Lead – Channel Partnership and Alliance (Middle East), Freshworks spoke on Measuring returns on employee experience.’

Next, Mr. Rajeesh Kumar, Director Technology and Services at Mindfire Technologies presented his perspectives on ‘Managed Security, a Key Part of Security Strategy’. This was followed by a remote video address on Securing Digital workspace for future of Work’ by Mr. Vijender Yadav, CEO, CTO & Co-Founder, at Accops Systems Pvt. Ltd. In the final keynote address of the day, Mr. Pramod Sharda, CEO, IceWarp India and Middle East spoke on ‘Unlocking Email & Collaboration for the Hybrid Future of Work.’

There were four engaging panel discussions during the summit.

The first panel discussed “Learnings from the Past Year – Advantages and Challenges of a Hybrid Workplace”. Mubarik Hussain, Director of IT, Bloom Holding moderated the session and the other panelists included

• Mario Foster, Group CIO, Saeed & Mohammed Al Naboodah Group
• Sunil Nair, Head of IT at AL Falah University
• Loubna IMENCHAL, VP / Head of Enterprise Business at Logitech Africa Middle East
• Sunil Paul, co-founder and CEO at Finesse

The second panel discussed discuss ‘Redefining Cybersecurity to secure workloads and data ’. Mr. Anoop Kumar, Information Security Manager, Gulfnews moderated the session and the panelists included the following:

• Jeevan Badigari,Director‑IT Governance and Security, DAMAC Group
• Bader Zyouud, Senior Information Security Risk Management Specialist, Sharjah Govt
• Rahil Ghaffar, Regional Director for MEA,Virsec
• Islam Afifi, Advisory Systems Engineer Gulf, Veeam Software

The 3^rd panel discussion was on the topic ‘Components of a Digital Workplace’ which was was moderated by R. Narayan, the editor in chief of CXO DX.

1. The panelists were Mr. Piyush Chowhan, Group CIO,Lulu Group International
2. Mr. Padam Sundar Kafle, Head IT and Automation, Healthcare IT, Aster Hospitals UAE
3. Mr. Mohamed Gamal Abdelmksoud, Group IT Director,United Eastern Medical Services
4. Mr. Sheridan Moodley, Chief Information & Technology Officer, Masafi
5. Mr. Ali Shabdar, Regional Director MEA, Zoho
6. Mr. Aamir Mushtaq Shaikh, Lead – Channel Partnership and Alliance (Middle East) at Freshworks

The final panel discussion was on ‘Stepping up the Digital Workplace Evolution: The CIO’s Priorities’ that was moderated by Mr. George Akhras, CIO of AMSI. The panelists for this session included:

• Soheyl Kadjani,SVP IT Strategy, Transformation and Digital, FAB
• Yassar Haneef, Cloud Delivery Director, Fine Hygienic Holding
• Damir Jaksic, CIO, KEO International Consultants
• Charbel Zreiby, Director of the Data Center Channel at Dell Technologies Middle East
• Sameer Semaan, Channel Manager Middle East,Pure Storage

The summit had an awards segment celebrating innovative UAE born companies at the Smart Innovation Awards held between the’s sessions. Later in the evening, there was an Awards gala where Awards were presented to some of the leading CIOs, CISOs as well as companies who have done some outstanding deployments around enabling remote work using several collaboration technologies, AI solutions, cloud services and cybersecurity solutions. Awards were also presented to leading vendors, distributors and SIs in different niches as well as to some outstanding individuals from Sales & Marketing roles at leading vendors and distributors.

“The Awards for CIOs, CISOs as well as Sales and Marketing professionals, recognized their excellence of individuals in their key functionary roles within their organization leading to transformation and growth for their companies. Smart Innovation Awards and the Workspace Transformation Awards recognized the vision and execution of innovation and transformation at different companies,” said Mallika Rego, co-founder and Director client solutions at Leap Media Solutions LLC.

Winners of the CIO Awards 

• Ali Hakam Ghunaim, CIO, Canadian Specialist Hospital
• Padam Sundar Kafle, Head IT and Automation, Aster Hospitals UAE
• Aliasgar Bohari, Senior Director – IT, Zulekha Hospital
• Mohamed Gamal Abdelmksoud, Director of IT at UEMedical
• Mudassar Ali, Head of IT at International Modern Hospital.
• Nithin Geo Thomas, Head of Information Technology at Amity University Dubai
• George Akhras, CIO, AMSI
• Shah E Room Khan, IT Head & CIO of Education, Emirates College of Technology
• Fahem Alnuaimi, CEO, Ankabut
• Sunil Nair, Head of IT, AL Falah University.
• Yah Yah Pandor, CIDO, Fine Hygienic Holding
• Umesh Moolchandani, CIO, Bin Dasmal Group
• Samit Jha, Director of IT, Laticrete International, Inc.
• Mustansir Aziz, Head of IT, Automech Group
• Eyad Kashkash, EVP, Group Head of Information Technology, Al Ramz Corporation PJSC
• Soheyl Kadjani, SVP IT Strategy, Transformation and Digital, First Abu Dhabi bank (FAB)
• Piyush Kumar Chowhan, CIO of Lulu
• Mohammad Rahman, Head- IT infrastructure, Apparel Group
• Arun Kumar Mohta, Group IT Head, FJ Group
• Manish Bindra, CIO, Galadari brothers
• Vinay Sharma, Group Director Information Technology, Gulftainer.
• Santhosh John Thomas, Group IS Manager, african+eastern.
• Damir Jaksic, CIO KEO International Consultants.
• Sheridan Moodley CIO of Masafi
• Muhamed Noufel, Cluster IT Manager, Royal Continental Hotels & Suites
• Anish Thyparambil Varughese, Director of IT Skelmore Group.
• Gigi Mathew Thomas, Group Head – IT & Digital Transformation, Ittihad International Investment
• Manoj Ramachandran, CIO of the Year, Group CIO Al babtain group of companies
• Mario Foster, Group CIO, Al Naboodah Group Enterprises
• Mubarik Hussain, Director of IT at Bloom Holding.
• Shinoj Sebastian, Head of Group IT at Royal Technology Solutions (Royal Group).
• Tabish Asifi, Group IT Governance Lead at MAF Holding.
• Jacob Mathew, IT Consultant, Government of Abu Dhabi
• Abdalla Al Ali, IT Director, DMCC
• Nagesh Aswartha, Head – Information technology, Public Service Department govt of RAK

Winners of the CISO Awards

• Mohannad Hennawi, Group IT Manager at NAFFCO
• Hussein Bahgat Shafik, CISRO, Standard Chartered Bank
• Aswin Sidharthan, CISO, Ahalia Hospital
• Anoop Kumar, Information Security Manager, Gulnews, Al Nisr Publishing
• Shahab ud din, Group – IT Infrastructure & Security Manager, Ittihad International Investment
• Abbas Sabuwala, IT Security and Operations Manager at DMCC Authority
• Hafiz Sheikh Adnan Ahmed, CIO at Azaan GRC & Consulting Services
• Amit Bhatia, Head of Information Security at Maximus Gulf
• Mohamad Mahjoub, CISO, Veolia Middle East
• Jeevan Badigari, Director – Information Security at DAMAC Properties
• Saqar Al Ali, Director Of Information Security Office at Sharjah Finance Department
• Bader Husni Zyoud, Senior Information Security , Risk Management Specialist & Security Incidents Manager, Government of Sharjah
• Ramachandra Raju, Head of Information Security, Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone

Winners of Workspace Transformation Awards

• Fine Hygienic Holding
• Al Naboodah Group
• Royal M Hotel Fujairah
• ABC International Limited
• DHL Worldwide Express
• Modern Freight Company
• Public Service Department, Government of Ras Al Khaimah
• Sharjah Customs
• Metito
• Emrill Group
• Oaiss Clinics

Winners of the Vendor Awards

• Digital Transformation Vendor of the Year – Dell Technologies.
• Cloud Data Protection Vendor of the Year – Veeam Software
• Applications Security Workload Vendor of the Year – Virsec
• Remote Work Security Vendor of the Year – Accops
• Multi-Cloud Data Management Vendor of the Year – NetApp
• Business Software Solutions Vendor of the Year -Zoho
• Digital Workspace Software Vendor of the Year – Freshworks
• Cybersecurity Vendor of the Year – Acronis
• Endpoint Security Vendor of the Year – ESET Middle East
• Cloud Networking Vendor of the Year – D-Link
• Collaboration Hardware Vendor of the Year – Logitech
• Email & Collaboration Software Vendor of the Year – IceWarp
• Enterprise Storage Vendor of the Year – Pure Storage
• SMB Networking Vendor of the Year – Linksys
• CX Platform Vendor of the Year – ai
• Emerging IP Phones Vendor of the year – Fanvil

Winners of the Distributor Awards

• IoT Solutions VAD of the Year – Ingram Micro
• Enterprise VAD of the Year – Mindware
• Digital Transformation VAD of the Year – Logicom
• Storage Distributor of the Year – VAD Technologies
• Applications Security Distributor of the Year – Bulwark Technologies
• Cloud Marketplace of the Year – CloudQuarks by Redington Value
• Network Security Distributor of the Year – Exclusive Networks
• Datacenter Solutions Distributor of the Year – ASBIS Middle East
• Volume Distributor of the Year – Mitsumi Distribution
• Collaboration Solutions VAD of the Year – DVCOM Technology
• Document Solutions Management VAD of the Year – Valto Technologies

Winners of the SI Awards

• Enterprise Solutions Integrator of the Year – Raqmiyat
• Digital Transformation Integrator of the Year – Finesse
• MSSP of the Year – Mindfire Technologies
• Infrastructure Solutions Integrator of the Year – Cloud Box Technologies

Winners of the Sales & Marketing Awards

• Excellence in Distributor Management – Kamlesh Lal from Dell Technologies
• Excellence in Brand Marketing – Vaishnavi Soundarrajan from Zoho
• Excellence in Field Marketing – Nagham Halabi from Veeam
• Excellence in Brand Marketing – Mareva Koulamallah from Acronis
• Excellence in Channel Management – Nichola Banerjee from ESET
• Excellence in Enterprise Marketing – Mohammed Iqbal
• Excellence in Digital Marketing – Gautam Sampath from Freshworks!
• Excellence in Marketing Operations – Bindhya Ramadasa from Forescout Technologies
• Excellence in Marketing Innovations – Widad Abdalhadi from Cisco
• Excellence in Channel Activation – Tarannum Mohammed Saqib from Ingram Micro
• Excellence in Marketing Campaigns – Shaed Khader from Logicom
• Excellence in Campaign Management – Akshat Gaur from Exclusive Networks
• Excellence in Channel Campaigns – Swathi Ravindra
• Excellence in Channel Sales – Samer Semaan from Pure Storage
• Excellence in Channel Management – Aamir Mushtaq Shaikh from Freshworks
• Excellence in Cloud Sales – Alam Shaikh from Redington

Winners of the Sales, Marketing and Business Leaders Categories

• Woman Executive of the Year – Maya Zakhour from NetApp
• Channel Leader of the Year – Sakkeer Hussain from D-Link
• Enterprise Sales Leader of the Year – Loubna Imenchal from Logitech
• Marketing Leader of the Year – Ben McDonald from Dell Technologies
• Vendor Executive of the Year – Amanulla Khan from Linksys
• Business Strategist of the Year – Santosh Varghese from Toshiba
• Brand Leader of the Year – Hassan Hamadani from Pure Storage
• Partner Enabler of the Year – Charbel Zreiby from Dell Technologies
• Distributor Executive of the Year – Mario M. Veljovic from VAD Technologies
• Business Leader of the Year – Sunil Paul from Finesse
• Entrepreneur of the Year – Jishanth Karunakaran from Mindfire Technologies