Page 80 - SAMENA Trends - December 2023

ARTICLE SAMENA TRENDS

ARTICLE

Connectivity Outlook in 2024: Soaring Bandwidth

Consumption Expected in the Middle East

In the four years prior to June 2023, move to the cloud, SES joined forces
bandwidth consumption in the Middle East with Microsoft Azure in 2020 to provide
grew at a compound average growth rate a managed service, enabling operators
(CAGR) of just over 30%. Three big drivers and enterprises to process data and scale
fuelling this growth are: 5G, cloud migration operations directly in the cloud.
and the increasing demand of customers on
the move. Many of the applications being In the UAE, e& is hosting an O3b mPOWER
used are latency sensitive. Historically, this and Microsoft ground station at Ras Al
sensitivity has limited the ways in which Khaimah to facilitate a one-hop connection
satellite could help. to Microsoft’s Azure cloud from remote
sites, enabling companies in the region to
This is no longer the case. With the launch accelerate digitisation plans.
of O3b and O3b mPOWER satellites oper-
ating in medium earth orbit (MEO) by SES, SES is well-positioned
Luxembourg-headquartered provider of
satellite services for enterprises, broad- to serve the Middle East
casters and governments, satellite is capa- thanks to the ubiquitous
ble to serve even the most latency sensitive
applications. Equally important, given the connectivity delivered by
Imran Malik ever-increasing bandwidth consumption, is its unique multi-orbit fleet
SVP, Enterprise & Cloud, EMEA the high capacity offered by O3b mPOWER, of MEO and Geostationary
& APAC coming into service in 2024. (GEO) constellations.
SES 5G

Led by the Gulf countries (UAE, Saudi Arabia Mobility
and Qatar), 5G rollout has accelerated in the The days when being on a flight or cruise
Middle East. Earlier this year, SES and du meant disconnecting from work and
(Emirates Integrated Telecommunications entertainment are long gone. Passengers
Company) demonstrated 5G backhaul via expect the same connectivity when
SES’s O3b constellation. This proved that traveling as they get in the office or at
O3b can extend du’s 5G coverage to remote home. But it’s not just passengers; always-
and offshore locations. With O3b mPOWER, on connectivity is also a must for aero,
du will be able to serve enterprise customers cruise and maritime operators to bring
like offshore oil and gas platforms. efficiencies in their fleet operations.
Connectivity allows these operators to
Cloud optimise their business operations in real-
As the amount of data handled by time. SES is already a leader in providing
enterprises and governments increases, connectivity to the cruise industry.
many of them are migrating that data to
the Cloud. Gartner predicts that by 2027 SES is well-positioned to serve the Middle
over 70% of enterprises will use industry East thanks to the ubiquitous connectivity
cloud platforms (up from 15% this year) to delivered by its unique multi-orbit
handle and accelerate business initiatives. fleet of MEO and Geostationary (GEO)
The Middle East is no exception to this constellations. Additionally, the strategic
migration. PwC found 85% of Middle local partnerships fostered by SES in the
Eastern companies surveyed have already region and a consistent strong financial
implemented cloud platforms in at least performance mean SES can easily elevate
one area of operation. Anticipating this the level of connectivity services.

80 DECEMBER 2023