Business & Money | Sunday 10 April, 2016 6:01 pm |

Equinix, the global interconnection and data center company, today announced its participation in the 6th Cloud MENA, the most comprehensive cloud computing event in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA).

During the two-day event slated to take place at The Conrad Dubai on 11th and 12th of April, Equinix will demonstrate how cloud computing can truly drive the digital economies and enterprises in the MENA region to achieve innovation and competitiveness. On day 1 of the event, Michael Winterson, MD Equinix Services, EMEA will deliver a keynote on “Rainmakers – Using the Cloud to Create Business Value” 12 p.m. onwards. The keynote will be followed by an exclusive roundtable organized by Equinix titled “Cloud MENA Vision 20:20 The discussion will see senior executives from the ‘buy’ side of cloud, i.e., the regional enterprises meet the ‘sell’ side of cloud, i.e., the cloud and network service providers under one roof to understand the cloud requirements in the region and devise innovative strategies to ensure growth. 

The forecast for overall cloud services in the region shows sustained momentum with a projected growth rate of 20.6 percent in 2017, according to a study by Gartner. In addition, in 2019, total public cloud services spending in the MENA region will rise to $1.42 billion, with the largest growth coming from cloud management and security at 21 percent. According to another IDC study, in MEA, 73% of decision-makers have noted that the cloud offers tangible and preferred benefits.

"Organizations, both globally and in the MENA region are looking to multiple cloud providers because not all clouds are created equal and certain workloads may run better on one cloud than another. IT organizations have to integrate these multiple external cloud services, however, many IT organizations don’t have the processes and/or resources in place internally to manage hybrid cloud computing. This is where Equinix comes in - Equinix's International Business Exchange (IBX®) data center in Dubai is the hub of the interconnected cloud and home to more than 30 Cloud Service Providers. Hybrid cloud is the future of cloud computing in the region and Equinix, with its most networked data centers and dense concentrations of media companies, cloud & IT services providers, financial services and enterprises, is proud to be a key player in materializing this trend,” said Jeroen Schlosser, Managing Director, Equinix MENA.  

“The MENA region is cited to be one of the  fastest growth rate for cloud around the globe, with many enterprises already realizing the benefits of the cloud, and having the option to adopt multi-cloud strategies, selecting partners from a growing number of cloud service providers, both local and global. Despite this, the question remains, are MENA organizations choosing the ‘right’ cloud to truly innovate, understand their future Cloud requirements and change their business models? At the Cloud MENA, we will aim to answer these questions and support the region with some valuable insights,” said Michael Winterson, MD Equinix Services, EMEA.

Equinix experts will be present on 11th and 12th April at the Cloud MENA at The Conrad Hotel Dubai, examining Hybrid Cloud strategies and providing options to book VIP Data Center Tours to Equinix IBX in Dubai.