Sanjiva Weerawarana (left) after the interview in Dubai.

Sajjad Ahmad, Deputy Business Editor

The UAE has one of the most forward-looking digital economies in the world and the country’s digital transformation drive is progressing in the right direction to meet the demands of future, said Sanjiva Weerawarana, Founder and CEO of US-based technology company WSO2.

WSO2 is an open-source technology provider and delivers software and cloud solutions that provide foundational technologies for application development and access management. The company’s open-source, API-first approach to software that runs on-premises and in the cloud helps developers and architects to be more productive and rapidly compose digital products to meet demand while remaining free from vendor lock-in.

Sanjiva said, “As a global technology provider, WSO2 is looking ahead to further expand its reach in the UAE and wider Middle East region to help accelerate the digital transformational journey of the region.”

About his trip to the UAE, he said, “WSO2 is a US-based company but our leadership teams are spread across the world. We meet twice a year to discuss new strategies and plans, and Dubai’s location makes it as a perfect point to assemble.”

Sanjiva said about WSO2’s UAE operation, “Currently we have more than ten large scale customers in the UAE and over 37 customers in the Middle East region. We are working with prominent government entities, financial institutions and healthcare providers. WSO2 is performing very well in the region and has registered over 50 per cent business growth in the Middle East.”

“As a digital transformation enabler, in the UAE, our vision is to support the nation’s digital transformation drive in achieving the goal of its leadership to make it a knowledge-based economy.”

About the WSO2 global customers, he said, “Organisations across the world are using our software. Our solutions are very horizontal, and our operations spread over 90 countries. Our clientele list includes 37 national governments, over 100 banks and 120 institutions across the globe.”

“WSO2 is working behind the scenes in countries through our software. For example, if a person uses the London Tube or sends a package through Switzerland or pays their taxes in India, our software is involved.”

About WSO2’s new start-up programme which was launch last month, Sanjiva explained, “We are empowering this critical segment of businesses to support budding entrepreneurs. We are promoting grants for hosting their applications and providing the technical assistance they needed to develop powerful digital applications. We are thus accelerating their pace of innovation and enabling them to gain marketshare more rapidly.”

He concluded, “As COP28 is set to take place in Dubai at the end of this year, sustainability is hot topic around the world. For a sustainable digital transformation, companies need to produce solutions and products that have a minimal environmental impact. At WSO2, our strategy is to make technology lightweight and easy to run. We are developing our solutions keeping in mind the environmental impacts of it.”