NEWS

SAP also announced plans to establish its first SAP Cloud Datacentre in the UAE in 2017. Through the datacentre, organisations will be able to benefit from SAP cloud solutions, harnessing the realtime capabilities of the powerful in-memory platform, SAP HANA. The SAP datacentre will accelerate innovative business models especially for the UAE’ s government, banking and finance and healthcare sectors. A recent report from Gartner shows that the MENA public cloud services market is set to roughly double, from about $ 1 billion in 2016 to about $ 2 billion in 2020.

SAP, which was recently announced as a Premier Partner for Expo 2020 Dubai, also launched its first Co-Innovation Lab in the UAE, its 15th lab across the globe, facilitating project-based co-innovation with customers and partners. SAP Co-Innovation Labs, located in high-tech clusters around the globe, provide opportunities to foster innovations with local ecosystems.

The lab offers a hands-on development environment and a structured and guided global approach for companies to co-innovate with SAP. In the region, the Lab is focused on innovative services for banks and real estate companies to provide an immersive virtual and augmented reality experience for homebuyers. The lab will also act as an enabler and primary access point for SAP’ s IoT platform- SAP Leonardo, in the region.

The new SAP headquarters will

Steve Tzikakis, Regional President and General Manager, SAP South Europe, Middle East, and Africa

serve as the hub for SAP’ s Training and Development Institute. The Institute has upskilled thousands of students and young graduates, and successfully implemented programs to sponsor and empower entrepreneurs in the UAE and across the region. The Institute is committed to develop local talent, hiring millennials, and supporting women in the workforce.

Peter Sondergaard, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Research at Gartner

Middle East and North Africa IT spending is projected to reach $ 156 billion in 2017 a 2.4 % increase from 2016, according to the latest forecast by Gartner. Analysts said the key vertical segments driving IT spending growth include the communications, media and services, banking and securities, manufacturing and utilities markets.

The devices segment will represent nearly 17 % of total IT spending in 2017. This market is expected to grow 4 % this year, mainly due to a strong increase in mobile phone expenditure. Other devices, which include PCs are forecast for negative growth.

Datacentre systems will see an overall growth of 6 % in 2017, versus flat performance in 2016, due to increase in demand for servers and unified communications. Software spending is forecast to increase 9 %, with enterprise application software projected to grow 13 % and infrastructure software spending to increase 6 %. IT services will post 4 % growth, with business IT services reaching nearly 5 % growth this year. Consumer mobile services

will represent close to 60 % of the total expenditures in communication services.

CIOs will participate in the building of a new digital platform with intelligence at the centre. That platform will enable ecosystems, connecting businesses and collapsing industries. Gartner analysts said it will change society itself, and the way people live. The new digital platform consists of five domains: traditional IT systems, customer experience, The Internet of Things, an ecosystem foundation and the intelligence platform that ties all the domains together.

CIOs in the Gulf Cooperation Council are ideally positioned to become global leaders in digital transformation and innovation, according to Gartner. As enterprises in the GCC nations of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates grow and find their place on the world stage, digital ecosystem participation will be a vital element in their success.

8 Issue 05 INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS