Software is "disrupting nearly every industry, fundamentally reshaping business models, changing the competitive landscape, and forever altering customer expectations," claims a recent Analysys Mason study in collaboration with Huawei. It illustrates how digitalization is reshaping the way businesses are being operated, and how in order to remain competitive, new operational models are required.
Cisco announced the appointment of Hani Raad as General Manager for its West Region in the Middle East. In his new role, Hani Raad will focus on leading Cisco’s digital transformation initiatives in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the Levant and Iraq, and will work closely with its partner ecosystem to support government and private sector customers on their digitization journeys, while helping them drive desired business outcomes.
Once again, the issue of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services is causing a stir in the UAE. Etisalat and EITC (du), the UAE's two telecommunications providers, announced in early January this year that access to the VoIP service Skype had been blocked. If VoIP services wish to operate in the UAE they should coordinate with the TRA and local providers instead of operating without compliance.
Blockchain venture studio ConsenSys focused on Ethereum, has announced the opening of its office in the Dubai Design District (d3) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The office will be the company's second largest operation globally. In March 2017, Smart Dubai announced the selection of ConsenSys, as well as IBM, to implement blockchain technology.
Huawei's Rotating CEO, Eric Xu, declared that cloud adoption was a necessary step on the path towards 'digitalization'. Xu made the declaration during a compelling keynote address he delivered at Huawei's Ultra-Broadband Forum in Hangzhou, China.
The UAE's Ministry of state for Higher Education, the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, the ICT Fund, Dubai Investments, and the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry have partnered with Huawei to launch Seeds for the Future 2018 Program, an educational challenge that offers university students a platform to present their ideas and turn them into viable projects.
The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced the launch of the UAE Hackathon, the country's biggest data analysis challenge, which will be held in all emirates next February, in conjunction with the innovation month.
The Middle East region has embraced the digital revolution and witnessed an increased comfort in ‘going digital’, which comes naturally to the region’s dominant young demographics and good quality infrastructure. At a consumer level, there is a high level of technology adoption in countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE that are considered the most penetrated countries in the world with a mobile subscriber rate of over 90%. Nevertheless, Middle Eastern companies are still in the process of adoption in comparison to the West when it comes to digitisation.
A recently released Analysys Mason study in collaboration with Huawei entitled, 'Digitalization reshaping operations: a new digital operational model for the future' has illustrated how digitalization is fundamentally reshaping the way businesses are being operated, and how in order to remain competitive a new operational model for the future operational environment is necessary.
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has successfully completed the tests of the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) on the Federal Network (FedNet), as well as conducting all internal assessments and practical tests to ensure the readiness of FedNet in terms of hardware and software requirements. The tests were conducted in cooperation with the UAE accredited service providers Etisalat and du.
