Dubai, January 9, 2012 - In 2012, the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey IT markets will be characterized by the leveraging of disruptive technologies and operating models such as cloud, virtualization, mobility, and analytics, according to IDC, the premier global market intelligence and advisory firm for the information technology and telecommunications markets. Releasing its annual Top 10 Predictions report for the year ahead, IDC says the focus of the region's organizations will be on optimizing their IT investments and supporting business growth in what will continue to be a relatively volatile political and economic environment.

As the year of the Arab Spring, 2011 saw much political turbulence in several countries across the Middle East and Africa, which led to lower-than-expected IT market growth. The stability of the post-Arab Spring political environment, specifically in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and the global economic uncertainty stemming from the eurozone crisis will shape IT spending in 2012. IDC predicts IT spending in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey to surpass $65 billion in 2012, growing at nearly 12% year on year. However, if the political and economic situation worsens, spending could be lower and growth could drop to less than 10%.

Of the region's big country markets, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and South Africa will all experience year-on-year IT spending growth of between 7% and 12% in 2012. Qatar, which has a very promising market outlook for the next several years, will see an increase of around 14%. Egypt, which has been the country in the eye of the storm, faces uncertain times. The Egyptian IT market contracted in 2011 as a result of the political turmoil, and much depends on elections scheduled for December and January. It is difficult to predict whether political unrest will subside even after the elections. However, if a stable political environment does emerge, the IT market can be expected to recover in the second quarter of 2012.

In terms of technology focus, IDC expects virtualization to attain must-have status in the region during 2012. "Adoption is still slow in the Gulf countries, where system and application availability is a big concern and often overrides the cost benefits offered by virtualization," says Jyoti Lalchandani, vice president and managing director of IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. "Having said that, greenfield IT projects now invariably have virtualization as a cornerstone and foundation for future expansion and possible cloud deployment; we expect Saudi Arabia and the UAE to continue to be at the forefront of adoption."

"South Africa and Turkey, where cost is a major driver, are seeing a rapid increase in virtualization adoption," adds Lalchandani. "Several medium-sized and large organizations, having proof tested virtualization in 2011 during datacenter consolidation efforts, will move to more extensive adoption with greater confidence in 2012. Desktop, storage, and application virtualization initiatives will gain momentum, particularly within large organizations. The emerging African countries of Kenya and Nigeria will also see higher levels of adoption in 2012 as awareness spreads and users begin to realize the benefits."

The concept of cloud computing will also receive more serious attention throughout the year, although the shortage of requisite technical skills may mean that complicated and often expensive private cloud projects are likely to face significant delays in 2012, and potentially be dropped altogether, as the economics of building these out become difficult to justify in the current volatile economic climate. Despite this, a slew of new cloud providers and cloud services will enter the region's markets. IDC also expects traditional ISVs to offer cloud-ready versions of their established software packages in 2012, while telcos across the region are expected to roll out cloud portfolios aggressively as extensions of their existing hosting services.

IDC also expects to see a transformation in employee productivity in 2012 as media tablets are embraced more enthusiastically across the region. Entities in the education and, to a lesser extent, healthcare sectors, particularly in the Gulf States, are now considering provisioning media tablets to users across the organization, with those in other sectors expected to follow suit. However, the customization required for compatibility with existing IT environments will ensure the pace of such rollouts remains slow. We can also expect to see the region's more progressive organizations begin to deploy less sophisticated and more easily managed applications on mobile platforms. Fieldforce automation, service management, time and attendance management, and business intelligence applications are all examples of apps that could see early demand in 2012.

The full list of IDC's Top 10 Predictions for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey IT markets in 2012 is as follows:

1. IT markets will recover from the Arab Spring but face global economic headwinds.
2. "Populist" governments will seek to accelerate eservice delivery to citizens.
3. Virtualization will move from "test" to "production" and will attain must-have status.
4. Cloud will receive more serious attention, but widespread adoption will be inhibited by insufficient infrastructure and skills.
5. NFC and LTE will drive the next level of mobile technology adoption.
6. Media tablets and enterprise mobile apps will transform employee productivity.
7. Unified communications and collaboration technologies such as videoconferencing and telepresence will take off.
8. Line-of-business demand will make analytics more pervasive.
9. "Big brother" initiatives will intensify in the Middle East as information security gains in importance.
10. Telcos will continue to extend their ICT portfolios, focusing on the "I" in ICT, with cloud as a major strategic direction.

IDC's Middle East, Africa, and Turkey Top 10 Predictions, 2012 (IDC #CEMA16650) provides a detailed overview of the top 10 themes that IDC believes will affect the region's IT markets this year. IDC's predictions draw upon its latest research and analysis by IDC analysts from across the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey and weigh in key industry events, user trends, vendor strategies, and economic measures. To learn more about this IDC document or to request a copy, please contact Ranjit Rajan at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey on Tel: +971 4 391 2741or at rrajan@idc.com.

-Ends-

About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For more than 47 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.

© Press Release 2012