The global cloud computing market size is expected to grow from $445.3 billion in 2021 to $947.3 billion by 2026, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.3 per cent. By 2025, almost 80 per cent of businesses in the Middle East/ North Africa (Mena) region will move into the cloud space as governments are driving small and medium businesses (SMBs) to transform digitally. Hence, the cloud market size in Mena is expected to reach $31.4 billion by 2026, said Dr Christopher Richard, MD & Chief Cloud Architect at G7 CR Technologies MEA.

He added,”diversification of economies, a digitally inclined young population, a budding startup community and rapid digital transformation of industries are the distinguished factors responsible for the high demand for cloud-based business solutions in Mena countries. Moreover, the need for digitalisation has exponentially grown, especially after the pandemic, a catalyst for the rapid digital transformation. Above all, with the vision of leadership in the Middle East, driving digitisation at a far rapid speed than the rest of the world is certainly a possibility.”

Richard said that today, most SMBs are aware that in the current environment, they need to move from being people-driven to digital-driven. SMBs across industries realise that the best way of adapting technology and digitising today would definitely be to use the cloud to catapult their digitisation process. Consequently, AWS technologies such as machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics (DA) are rapidly penetrating across all the major sectors, including Finance, Education, Healthcare, Hospitality, Media, and Retail, and making businesses more lucrative than ever.

He said the Mena region is working aggressively in the cybersecurity space. Governments of these countries are investing in cloud technologies to make cybersecurity, efficacious and easily manageable. Irrespective of size and industry, businesses in the Mena are now proactively embracing cloud technology for enhanced security.

“With more software and product companies focusing on big enterprise customers for revenues, we notice a lot of these companies and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) are basically now focusing on SMBs to build their products. This is another important reason why the cloud will catapult SMBs. Most of these ISVs have products that work for the SMBs but are hosted on the cloud.”

He explained,“a lot of SMBs across the region are already moving to cloud. From the days when there were email servers in office premises to basically now using cloud-based email systems, to hosting all the application servers on cloud to building apps quickly that will improve efficiency, customer experiences and also reduce the cost of operations and thereby increasing profitability and helping in expanding businesses, gone through and experienced digitisation at such a rapid pace.”

Though most cloud providers have entered late in the Mena region, massive investments are made so that SMBs may adapt to cloud in every possible manner. As per the forecasts by Gartner, the global spending on public cloud services going to reach a whopping $482 billion in 2022. Also, as per Markets and Markets forecast, the cloud services market in Mena is growing at a CAGR of 27 per cent and is to reach $8.79 billion by 2022.

He concluded, “Today, most SMBs understand that they need to digitise and the best way to do it is by getting in touch with the cloud MSPs and then knowing how the SMBs can get these MSPs to invest at least partially in their digitisation. And since this is happening across the Mena region, we can most definitely oversee in the next couple of years, that almost every SMB and startup in the region will be on the cloud and will completely be automated and digitised.”

cybersecurity strategies discussed: The fourth session of ‘Digital Next Leadership Series’ concluded on Wednesday  with extensive discussions on the latest trends in cybersecurity in light of fast-evolving cyber risks and threats worldwide.

The high-level online leadership forum was hosted by the Department of Government Support (DGS), represented by the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority (ADDA), and organised by Messe Frankfurt Middle East (MFME).  

During the session themed ‘Cyber Next,’ global cyber experts, technology leaders, representatives of government and private entities, and VIPs shared their insights and analyses on new cyber security threats, as well as proven strategies to bolster cybersecurity landscape worldwide.   

A panel discussion titled ‘Combating Intensifying Cybersecurity Risks and Improving Cybersecurity Landscape’ saw the panelists re-emphasizing the importance of international collaborations to unite efforts and ramp up the fight against digital threats.   

The panel speakers comprised Dr Mohammad Hamad Al-Kuwaiti, Head of Cyber Security for the UAE Government, Alrebdi Fahad Alrebdi, Deputy Governor for Policies and Regulations, National Cyber Security Authority, KSA, H.E. Askar Zhambakin, Vice Minister for Digital Development, Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations & Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Mr. Haider Pasha, Sr. Director and Chief Security Officer for EMEA, Palo Alto Networks, UAE; and Ahmed Etman, Managing Director, Security Lead, Accenture moderated the panel discussions.