Manda Banda is Lynchpin Media ’ s Deputy Managing Editor and Editor of Intelligent CIO Middle East and Intelligent CIO Africa .

organisations has resulted in the rise in the

demand for data storage . With increasing

business needs , organisations are looking

for expanding on data storage capacity .

Moreover , many large organisations such as

Facebook , Google , Apple , Microsoft , Amazon ,

Oracle and certain government agencies in

MEA , are consolidating the traditional data

centres into gigantic mega data centres .

In order to minimise the cost associated

with data centre operations and to

maximise profits , various organisations

are coming up with more scalable and

efficient solutions which can serve the

enormously increasing demand for data

storage . This surging demand for data

storage is nurturing the market for data

centres in MEA . This also , presents potential

opportunities for numerous vendors and

As the era of “ datafication ” in which information management and data analytics is upon us , driving business competitiveness is the biggest driver for data centre transformation and infrastructure growth .

their channel partners serving the data centre market .

In the Middle East , transformed IT organisations are placing strategic bets on a broad array of modern technologies , from high-performance , easy-to-scale storage systems , through pre-packaged , easy-tointegrate converged and hyperconverged infrastructure ( HCI ), to flexible , softwaredefined architectures .

For solution providers , supplying data centre infrastructure solutions requires them to have expertise and understanding on how businesses can realise long-term cost savings on operations and maintenance of data centre infrastructure .

As the era of “ datafication ” in which information management and data analytics is upon us , driving business competitiveness is the biggest driver for data centre transformation and infrastructure growth . From government agencies to theme parks , organisations need to store , secure and analyse more data than ever before .

Analysts have been forecasting the data centre infrastructure market in the region to be growing significantly despite the disruption caused by the pandemic with a trajectory for growth in investments , data centre infrastructure estimated to move from US $ 4.7 billion in 2017 to US $ 6.1 billion in 2021 in the Middle East and North Africa ( MENA ).

From flash storage arrays to scaleout architecture and converged or HCI , organisations are investing heavily to modernise and automate their infrastructure and in the capabilities of a data centre to drive business growth and accelerate innovation .

This development has led to infrastructure renewal with data centre modernisation ranking as the top IT investment by more than half of Middle East organisations , nearly double the rate of organisations across Europe , Middle

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