The leading companies and major achievements of the Middle East IT networking industry were recognized on Sunday at the fifth annual Network Middle East Innovation Awards.
The awards ceremony brought together over 150 top CIOs, IT managers, vendors and channel players at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Dubai, to celebrate the skill and capabilities of the industry, especially in challenging economic times.
The event was a roaring success with some notable highlights including the hotly contested Best Security Solutions Range, the timely Implementation with the Best ROI category and the eagerly awaited Networking Professional of the Year award, which went to Mohammed Sabunchi of DIFC.
“The NME Innovation awards are here to shine a light on the achievements of organisations in the industry, be they vendors that are developing new technologies to assist the network manager, or CIOs working hard to create new services and solutions that give their businesses a competitive edge or a vital advantage to drive them forward in more competitive times,” said Karam Awad, managing director, ITP Executive, ITP Digital, ITP TimeOut & ITP Technology.
“I believe the NME Awards saw one of the strongest line ups of competitors that we have had since these awards first began five years ago and I also think that the winners really provide a great example of the innovation here in the Middle East IT industry today.
The 18 awards presented on the night were divided into three main categories. These were project awards, for the best deployments in the region; product awards, for the best vendor offerings available in the Middle East; and achievement awards, which recognise outstanding contributions from particular organisations or individuals.
The full winners list:
Best wireless implementation: Landmark
Best fixed network implementation: DIFC
Best storage deployment: SDC
Best security implementation: PDO
Best data centre deployment: UDC
Implementation with best RoI: Zain Iraq
Most innovative use of new tech: eHosting DataFort
Networking Professional of the year: Mohammed Sabunchi, DIFC
Most influential end-user organisation: RTA
Best fixed networking solutions range: F5 Networks
Best wireless solutions range: Cisco
Best storage solutions range: EMC
Best cabling solutions range: Nexans
Best security solutions range: Juniper Networks
Best network/data management solutions range: 3Com
Best systems integrator: Al-Futtaim Technologies
Best networking vendor of the year: Cisco
Networking distributor of the year: FVC