EDITOR’S
29Q&A
WHAT ARE
THE LATEST
DEVELOPMENTS
YOU EXPECT TO
SEE IN THE CLOUD
MARKET?
Cloud computing has been widely
adopted and the global pandemic has
put an even brighter spotlight on the
importance of cloud as many more people
work from home.
Worldwide spending on public cloud
services and infrastructure will more
than double over the 2019–2023 forecast
period, according to the latest update to
the International Data Corporation (IDC)
Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services
Spending Guide. With a five-year compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.3%, public
cloud spending will grow from US$229 billion
in 2019 to nearly US$500 billion in 2023.
Charbel Khneisser, Regional Presales
Director, MENA at Riverbed, said: “Through
2019, we witnessed a turning of the tide for
cloud as the technology rapidly matured
from a buzz word to being widely adopted.
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The region’s appetite for cloud computing
even prompted some of the largest cloud
providers globally to establish locally based
data centres.
“This has had a transformational effect
on the pace of innovation and also the
ability of even smaller organisations to use
technology to gain a competitive edge. This
is of particular importance in the Middle East
where SMBs are a pillar of the economy – for
example in the UAE, SMEs contribute 53% of
the total GDP, whereas in Saudi Arabia, this
segment accounts for 97% of all businesses.
“This year, organisations have had to face
unprecedented challenges. Current events
are hugely impacting all of us on a global
scale and organisations have been under
immense pressure to maintain Business
Continuity while safeguarding the health
and safety of their employees. For many,
this has translated to the rapid roll-out of
work-from-home policies and cloud has been
instrumental in enabling this. Whether it’s
CRM apps, Microsoft Office 365, or Softwareas-a-Service
(SaaS) solutions, with their
ease of deployment and immense scalability,
these all offer IT teams a convenient, secure
and cost-effective way to meet challenging
time-bound objectives.”
And he said there is no doubt that once
the current challenges have been overcome
– the ways in which workforces operate in
the long-term will fundamentally change.
Even prior to the pandemic, there was a
clear indication that remote working models
were becoming increasingly preferred by
employees. In fact, Gartner predicted that
by 2030, the demand for remote work will
increase by 30% owing to the Gen Z fully
entering the workforce. This will further
drive the growth of the cloud market.
Khneisser added: “While the outlook for
cloud adoption is highly positive, it is vital
to recognise that the underlying networks
Charbel Khneisser, Regional Presales Director, MENA at Riverbed
that facilitate the consumption of cloudbased
services are in desperate need of
overhaul. The traditional WANs that are
based on conventional routers are simply
not cloud-ready. With businesses positioning
themselves as cloud and mobile first, SD-
WAN is rapidly emerging as a must-have
technology – evident in IDC’s prediction that
the segment will substantially increase to
over US$8 billion by 2021.
“Interlinked with the growth of the cloud
market therefore, we see the market for
solutions that optimise cloud performance
also growing. In the first quarter of 2020, as
businesses implemented SaaS applications
to facilitate their remote working strategies,
Riverbed saw a 3x increase in web traffic
to our Client Accelerator webpage, with
interest being expressed by businesses
across various industries – including
manufacturing, consulting, finance,
healthcare, energy/oil and gas and large
accounting firms. The Riverbed Client
Accelerator is purpose-built to facilitate fast,
agile, secure delivery of SaaS applications
to any user, anywhere, ensuring even the
most far-flung and mobile employees stay
productive and organisations maintain
Business Continuity.”
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