CIOs from across the Gulf will build out their infrastructure capacity next year, with around four in ten sites planning to use virtualization to optimize their compute engines. Roughly as many will look to explore the potential of customer data analytics as they develop their high-impact business initiatives for 2011.
The themes were identified as key imperatives among 65 IT leaders from countries across the Gulf who met this week at a three-day CIO Summit Mena, organised by GDS International and held at the Jumeirah Meydan, Dubai.
"The Summit provided for the first time in the region a forum for CIOs to share insights and learn how to provide innovative solutions that enable business advantage," said Ray Davies, Summit Director for GDS International.
One key outcome of the Summit was the identification of those technologies and business service trends that could be assimilated into the CIO strategy to help drive new levels of competitive advantage and business value.
"There appears to be a strong level of interest in data centre transformation," Kevin White, Research and Consulting Director for Ovum Mena concluded. "In a series of discussion groups facilitated by Ovum, we found roughly 40% of CIOs have an active virtualization programme mapped out for 2011. Efforts are mainly centered at the storage and server level, but the potential of desktop virtualization and data centre hosted virtual application streaming is also under consideration for some."
The use of business intelligence software also appears to be high on the Middle East CIO agenda. It's no coincidence that the smartest run businesses today also boast a strong competency in business intelligence. "The technology comes into play in schemes that help CIOs maximise cost savings, identify revenue opportunities, mitigate risk and align business performance."
Despite a level of healthy skeptism about the excessive marketing claims being made for cloud, Middle East CIOs are understandably drawn to the notion of cost transparency which the emerging cloud technologies promise to bring to service delivery. "CIOs do seem to have their own views about cloud, with different levels of understanding among them about its definition. They have different views about the types of service that could be delivery from the cloud, and different views about the business gains," Kevin White said.
"They are not to be swayed by market trends. The common view is that the CIO needs to take a pragmatic line, and adopt only those technologies that drive the best business outcomes, and suit the local ICT services market, the deployed infrastructure, and the investment cycle climate of the region.
The second CIO Summit Mena, organised by GDS in association with Ovum will be held at the Bab Al Sharm hotel in Dubai, May 2 - 4th 2011.
To arrange an interview or for further details regarding this release please contact Aartee Sundheep in the Ovum press office on +971 (0)4 408 2832, or email aartee.sundheep@ovum.com
-Ends-
ABOUT OVUM
Ovum provides clients with independent and objective analysis that enables them to make better business and technology decisions. Our research draws upon over 400,000 interviews a year with business and technology, telecoms and sourcing decision-makers, giving Ovum and our clients unparalleled insight not only into business requirements but also the technology that organisations must support. Ovum is part of the Datamonitor group.
ABOUT GDS
GDS International is one of the most innovative events and media companies worldwide, producing market-leading conferences, summits, events and running the world's biggest online business TV channel. Its headquarters in the centre of Bristol, UK the company has subsidiaries in Cardiff, Wales and others in the heart of Manhattan's financial district in New York's Trump Towers, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney. GDS International has built a business around the corporate B2B marketing needs of our clients, with a strong presence in mature industrial sectors such as Pharmaceutical, Oil and Gas, Financial Services, Power and Energy, Telecom and Utilities, Management, and Information Technology across the globe.
© Press Release 2010
