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CIO Middle East . A report released by cybersecurity vendor Check Point has revealed that Emotet , which was once a Banking Trojan and became a full-blown botnet was the most successful and prevalent malware of 2020 by a long way . Data from Check Point ’ s ThreatCloud intelligence network shows that Emotet impacted the networks of 19 % of global organisations over the course of last year . Emotet earned its reputation not just because of its dynamic nature and unique technical features , but also because of the highly-organised criminal business model it developed . In this regard , we continue to cover articles in this edition of the magazine addressing the issues on the increased use of data by organisations , data privacy and the regulatory frameworks that governments in the region are introducing around data .

Gracing the cover of this month ’ s edition is Eng . Fadi Sodah , Director , Information and Communications Technology , Amman Stock Exchange . Sodah tells us how the Amman Stock Exchange has significantly reduced operating expenses due to lower data centre energy consumption and space requirements following the deployment of Nutanix Cloud Platform to ensure high availability of the auxiliary platform .

“ Our infrastructure couldn ’ t scale with business requirements and while our environment remained stable , every month we faced issues such as disk failure ,” says Sodah . Among the many insights , Sodah shares that : “ As years progressed , the team found it increasingly difficult to procure spare parts and upgrades were starting to become increasingly complicated and expensive . Because of the nature of our operations , everything must run in real-time without any downtime , which warrants meticulous planning for any changes and maintenance . Nutanix proved to be the best option from both the technical as well as financial perspectives . We were especially impressed with how Nutanix ensured high availability and enabled us to implement stretch clustering between different geographical locations .” You can read more by turning to page 58 .

Elsewhere in the magazine , we look at data centre infrastructure management as administrators look for tools that can help them provide a holistic view of a data centre ’ s performance so that energy , equipment and floor space are used as efficiently as possible . You will find this feature on page 40 .

As usual , we have all your favourite features , opinion , insight pieces and analysis articles from the Middle East region . You can also read daily news updates on our website at www . intelligentcio . com / me /.

And kindly , don ’ t forget if you would like to get in touch please email me at manda @ lynchpinmedia . co . uk . Once again , I would also like to wish you a great start to the New Year . We hope you like the new design for 2021 . Enjoy the read !

Manda Banda Editor

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