As the Middle East accelerates its digital transformation and Smart Cities growth, regional data center spend will reach a record-high of USD 5 billion by 2020, industry experts announced today ahead of GITEX Technology Week.
Middle East and North Africa data center spend to reach a record high of USD 5.1 billion by 2020, increasing by 8.5 percent from 2017, according to a recent report by market research firm Statista. Much of this spend will go towards enabling Smart Cities, aligned with the GITEX Technology Week theme of "Experience Future Urbanism".
Data center modernization ranks as one of the top digital business priorities for regional CEOs in the next two years, with technology infrastructure modernization enabling new digital business models, argues Condo Protego, the UAE-based IT infrastructure and information management consultancy and solutions provider.
"Record-high Middle East data center spend shows that regional CEOs understand that modernizing IT infrastructure can deliver a competitive advantage and enable Smart Cities," said Savitha Bhaskar, COO, Condo Protego. "GITEX is an ideal platform to showcase how modernized IT can lead to real-time insights for better customer and citizen engagement, new revenue streams, and greater efficiency and data protection."
Showing the strong opportunity for data center modernization, 81 percent of IT decision-makers agree that without IT transformation, their organizations will no longer be competitive, according to a recent Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) global survey commissioned by Dell EMC and Intel.
Data center modernization can integrate servers, storage, information management, and data protection, and is an ongoing process rather than a one-off. In the Middle East, Condo Protego is seeing strong demand for the Dell EMC PowerMax solution, the world's fastest storage array built for mission-critical applications.
"Data center modernization is also the foundation for the Middle East's organizations and Smart Cities to adopt emerging innovations such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, and the Internet of Things," added Savitha Bhaskar.
At GITEX Technology Week, Condo Protego will demonstrate and provide insights with the leading vendors on the latest data center modernization trends and solutions.