Dubai, United Arab Emirates (PRWEB) - ThingLogix, Inc., a provider of cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and services, announced today that it has established its regional headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The new offices are located in Dubai Internet City, a dynamic business community offering advanced infrastructure and hosting more than 1,600 companies, including more than 150 multinational companies that are leaders in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) field. The company is also a member of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN) and is helping to drive innovation and market adoption of smart, connected solutions tailored to the requirements of this region.
The decision to establish a formal presence in Dubai underscores ThingLogix’s commitment to advancing cloud-based IoT solutions in the UAE and across the broader Middle East and Africa region. Since its inception in 2014, ThingLogix has helped companies in multiple industries harness the power of smart, connected solutions to improve cost efficiencies, create new sources of revenue growth, and enhance business agility.
Foundry, a cloud-based solution development and management platform (PaaS), offers critical core functionality for managing the entire lifecycle of IoT solutions. Foundry Packages, sets of composite IoT functionality packaged to enable specific use cases, help companies create and manage specialized and differentiated market-facing solutions. ThingLogix also offers a full range of IoT solution development services, as well as a suite of business and technical advisory services. Together, these solutions and services enable smart connectivity, high technical performance, and viable business models that drive tangible value.
Within the Middle East and Africa, ThingLogix has been observing increased government commitment to driving business adoption of ICT over the past several years. While adoption of cloud technologies in the region has sharply lagged adoption in many other global regions, more widespread awareness of cloud and its benefits, the emergence of high-profile and region-specific use cases, and recent commitments to the region from leading global cloud providers such as AWS, suggest that an adoption tipping point may be at hand. After monitoring these developments closely over the past 18 months and validating the trend with business partners and prospective customers, the company decided that the right conditions were present to support the creation of a local office.
A recent study by global consultancy McKinsey highlights both the challenge and opportunity in the region for advanced technologies. While business adoption of digital technologies in the Middle East and Africa lags adoption in North America, Europe, and Asia, consumer adoption is high. Strong consumer utilization of digital technologies and government-led technology initiatives are helping accelerate business adoption. The McKinsey study includes analysis quantifying a strong, positive correlation between digitization and non-oil GDP per capita. As many countries in the region seek to differentiate their economies due to historical reliance on hydrocarbons and peak demand scenarios that may prove founded, incubating new sources of revenue growth has emerged as a high priority. Digitization creates opportunity not only by stimulating creation of a robust, local ICT industry, but also by transforming business models, market offerings, and business processes in traditionally non-technical industries.
“When I look at the countries across this region, I see large installed bases of critical infrastructure that are offline, but that could create massive new benefits for societies through smart connectivity,” says Carl Krupitzer, CEO of ThingLogix. “I also see a large gap between a very tech-savvy population that eagerly embraces consumer technologies and companies offering consumer and B2B devices that reflect yesterday’s technology,” he said. “Middle Eastern and African businesses that infuse IoT into their products and services can meet their customers’ needs in new ways, solve age-old challenges, and define solutions that reflect the unique characteristics of the rich cultural heritage of these countries.”
ThingLogix is also a member of the APN. AWS operates the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform and offers over 90 fully-featured services for compute, storage, networking, database, analytics, application services, deployment, management, development, mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), security, hybrid, and enterprise applications, from 44 Availability Zones (AZs) globally. The fastest growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies trust AWS services to power their infrastructure, make them more agile, and lower costs. AWS and ThingLogix have a longstanding collaborative relationship in North America, and a global customer base that includes the Middle East and Africa, where accelerating technology adoption is rapidly transforming business dynamics and end user experiences across a wide variety of industries. ThingLogix has already begun work in the region and expects to begin engaging business customers later this year, enabling smart, connected solutions utilizing ThingLogix Foundry and Foundry Packages, which are optimized for the serverless IT environment of AWS.
In May of this year, ThingLogix hired regional technology industry veteran Faisal Aljundi to spearhead the company’s efforts across the region. As the General Manager of Middle East and Africa for ThingLogix, Aljundi is responsible for business development, solution development, solution delivery, and customer success for ThingLogix customers throughout the region. He joined ThingLogix from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE, formerly Hewlett Packard Company), where he was the regional sales manager for the Africa region. In that role, he led multinational teams throughout the African, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean markets. Prior to HPE, he held technical roles at du – a telecommunications service provider serving the UAE, Etisalat – a multinational telecommunications service provider based in the UAE, and Iridium – a global satellite communications service provider, as well as Dubai Internet City. His extensive technology background includes cloud, Internet of Things, data analytics, security, and sustainable IT initiatives, allowing him to take an integrated perspective when engaging with businesses seeking to embrace digitization and smart, connected technologies.
“People tend to think that the Middle East is only about oil and gas. Hydrocarbons are indeed a key strategic industry for many countries in the region, but the IoT opportunity is much bigger than just oil and gas, especially when we consider the entire Middle East plus Africa,” said Aljundi. “One of the reasons I joined ThingLogix was to be able to play a pivotal role in bringing smart, connected technologies to multiple other industry sectors, many of which are only now beginning to explore digital technologies,” he said. “I am particularly excited about opportunities in water management – such as increasing the reliability and safety of water reclamation, purification, and transportation infrastructure – and smart buildings – such as measuring, monitoring, and managing all commercial in-building systems as an integrated whole to optimize costs, reduce system downtime, improve productivity, and enhance security. We are seeing huge potential growth in these and many other areas, and we think that cloud-based technologies like ThingLogix Foundry and AWS can help companies create that growth.”
Industry analysts corroborate this positive assessment of the strong growth prospects in the region. In February of 2017, technology research firm IDC released its semiannual IoT spending guide, which projected 19.6% annual growth in Middle East and Africa IoT spend in 2017, up from actual growth of 18.1% in 2016. Key sectors driving this growth are manufacturing, transportation, and utilities.
“The MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region is on the cusp of a great awakening in digitalization, and we believe that cloud-based technologies such as those from ThingLogix will play a major role in accelerating the region’s emergence as a collection of technology-led societies,” said Ammar Al Malik, Executive Director of Dubai Internet City. “Under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Dubai has become a catalyst for digital innovation, and is on a mission to become one of the smartest cities in the world. Dubai Internet City plays a pivotal role in achieving this vision, by fostering a diverse ecosystem conducive to ideation, exchange of knowledge, and best practices.”