EDITOR’S COMMENT
Transforming datacentres and
safeguarding smart cities
Savitha Bhaskar at Condo Protego reflects on the challenges
of transforming datacentres and securing smart cities.
W
hen many UAE business leaders
think of their datacentres,
the first thing that may come
to mind is a major cost and hurdle to
innovation. But in the rapidly-growing
digital economy, modernised datacentres
can be the key business differentiator.
In the UAE, which has among the
strongest mobile device penetration and
growth rates regionally and globally,
customers and consumers expect all
aspects of their daily lives to be mobile-
enabled - banking, shopping, transport,
and messaging.
This is not an abstract concept, more
than half of global business leaders say
they are experiencing digital disruption, or
a complete industry digital transformation.
All of these mobile devices, mobile
apps, sensors, and social media are
creating a tsunami of data for which
many UAE organisations are unprepared.
Outdated datacentre infrastructure cannot
handle this increase in the amount and
types of data – and organisations are at
risk of losing their competitive edge in the
Digital Economy.
These topics are top of mind at
major technology events, where channel
partners and organisations were buzzing
about how to maintain current business
applications and support next-generation
business applications.
Converged and hyper-converged
datacentre infrastructure, assembled in a
factory, and wrapped, stacked, and packed
in a box that can be easily scaled up, are
key for driving datacentre innovation. All-
flash in particular is seeing strong take-up,
with Middle East and Africa shipments
growing significantly. With modern
datacentres, organisations gain stronger
core business, new digital revenue
sources, and in-depth customer insights.
Savitha Bhaskar is COO at Condo Protego.
Demonstrating the potential, analysts
say the Middle East’s datacentre market
could top $5 billion by 2019. Still, not
every UAE organisations is ready for this
datacentre leap of faith. Channel partners
need to guide customers in their digital
transformation, modern datacentre
needs, and upskilling staff – and be set to
drive success in the digital economy.
Smart cities
When we talk about Smart Cities, we often
focus on the government services – paying
utilities bills using your smartphone,
having smart traffic apps that allow you to
see the nearest parking space and pay for
it via an app, and airport e-gates. The UAE
is already one of the Middle East’s leading
smart city innovators – with smart cities
a key part of UAE Vision 2021, and Dubai
aiming to be one of the world’s smartest
cities this year.
But what often gets lost in the shuffle
are the robust cybersecurity and identity
management solutions that are absolutely
vital to securing these government
services and protecting citizen data. As
cyber-attacks increase in both scale and
complexity, more than ever the UAE
government must prioritise securing
citizen services. Fortunately, the UAE is
well ahead of the curve – already ranking
17th in a recent nationwide cybersecurity
preparedness survey of 105 countries
by the United Nation’s International
Telecommunications Union.
With predictions that the global number
of connected devices will more than double
to 2020, now is the time for UAE public
and private sector organisations to adopt
the game-changing cybersecurity solutions
that protect citizen services.
While we can never completely
eliminate cyber-risk, citizen trust is one of
the most important factors in smart city
services. Both public and private sector
organisations need the real-time solutions
to proactively predict, prevent, and stop
cyberattacks as they happen, and protect
government services and citizen data.
What often gets lost in the shuffle
are cybersecurity and identity
management solutions, absolutely
vital to securing government services
and protecting citizen data.
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