Page 53 - SAMENA Trends - September-October 2020

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Saudi Arabia Signs MoUs with IBM, Alibaba and Huawei on AI

The Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial and Huawei, according to SDAIA's Twitter of health, energy and other sectors, as well
Intelligence has signed memorandums account. SDAIA is seeking IBM's help in as training through a strategic relationship,
of understanding with IBM, Alibaba and developing "real use cases" of AI in areas it said.
Huawei in areas of artificial intelligence
(AI) at a summit in the Kingdom, the Saudi
Press Agency reported. SDAIA and Alibaba
Cloud announced at the Global AI Summit
in Riyadh a MoU to partner in supporting
Saudi Arabia’s path to develop smart
cities through AI, SPA said. "Saudi Arabia’s
Vision 2030 has clear goals to transform
KSA cities into smart ones by unlocking
the value of city data as a national asset
to realize Vision 2030 aspirations," said
Abdullah Bin Sharaf Alghandi, President
of SDAIA. SDAIA and Huawei signed an
MOU to recognize Arabic language and
character using AI technology and with
the help of researchers from the Kingdom

GCC Cloud Market Expected To Hit US$2.3 Billion By 2024

GCC countries are witnessing accelerated remained subdued in general, several sub- physical infrastructure, and the speed
cloud adoption, aided by the ongoing markets within the sector have witnessed of accessing servers, cloud computing
investment by cloud providers and the strong growth. This trend was particularly enables businesses to go from idea to
continued need for remote working highlighted in the Infrastructure as execution much quicker. For startups
arrangements, the International Data a Service, Platform as a Service, and and entrepreneurs, cloud "democratizes
Corporation (IDC) revealed during a Dubai Software as a Service segment, in which access to technology, so that anyone with
Outsource City event. The GCC public cloud spending has grown by 32.7 percent, 32 an idea and a credit card can gain access
market is expected to more than double in percent and 24.1 percent respectively. to the same technology that another
value by 2024, growing from $956 million Ammar Al Malik, Managing Director, large corporation can," he added. From an
this year to $2.35 billion at a cumulative Dubai Outsource City, said: "During these employer’s point of view, "cloud is a major
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25 percent. exceptional times — when the vast majority disruptor in terms of how organizations
The findings were revealed at a recent panel of workers are collaborating across vast are structured, blurring the lines between
discussion hosted by Dubai Outsource City, spaces, distances and time zones – cloud different operational departments in an
a business community supporting local technologies become an unprecedented organization," said Koval. "It allows more
and international outsourcing companies, necessity. By leveraging these efficiencies, room for career growth and flexibility,
which discussed the state of cloud we are able to greatly simplify and with employees being offered a wider field
adoption and data center management in smoothen workflows and processes, of opportunity to build different skills at
the region. The session was moderated by while also contributing to Dubai’s vision different stages of their careers. It’s also
Harish Dunakhe, Research Director (the to become one of the smartest, most enabling more cohesive and collaborative
Middle East, Turkey & Africa for Software future-ready cities in the world." Cloud conversations between business leaders
and Cloud) of the IDC, with Santiago adoption in the region is "seeing strong and IT teams." For Andrijenko, the power
Freitas, Head of Technology for the Middle demand, driven by the diversification to of the cloud can be seen in its ability to
East and Africa, Amazon Web Services non-oil economies, young and dynamic "turn big data into informed business
(AWS); Tanya Koval, Head of Enterprise populations that are digital natives, an decisions". By leveraging the wealth of
Architecture, Infrastructure & Workplace, active startup community, and a drive digital insights generated by greater data
First Arab Bank (FAB); and Aleksander to digitize across several industries," processing systems, companies can create
Andrijenko, Head of Infrastructure, DA- Santiago Freitas said. He also noted that strategies to drive themselves forward,
Desk forming the panel. Chief among the the shift to the cloud is aided by significant increase commercial gains, and expand
findings was that although enterprise cost advantages. By eliminating the their bottom line. The IDC also found that
spending on information technology has need to make upfront investments on 53 percent of Chief Information Officers in

53 SEP-OCT 2020