With digital transformation driving industries across the globe, the growth and challenges faced in the datacentre and cloud technologies industry was discussed at length at the recently concluded Future Datacentres and Cloud Infrastructure Summit, organized by Expotrade Middle East.

In its inaugural edition, the Future Datacentres and Cloud Infrastructure Summit witnessed over 300 participants come together to interact, learn and connect with other industry peers. The summit featured over 15 sessions, including keynote presentations, and four panel discussions.

The summit was inaugurated by Dr. Esam Al Falasi, IT Director, Ministry of Economy who also delivered the welcome address at the summit. The program agenda for the first day saw interesting presentations delivered by Dr. Sabri Al-Azazi, Executive Director, Federal Authority of Identity and Citizenship, Malik Al Madani, Chief Innovation Officer, Director of Strategy and the Future Department, Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA), Armand Verstappen, Manager Site Operations, eBay Classifieds Group and premium sponsors NVIDIA, Panduit, Intel, Fortinet, and Mistubishi Electric Hydronics, speaking on topics ranging from how to accelerate your datacentre for every workload; high performance IT infrastructure at the edge IT, over the fog and in hyperscales to how to better manage your cloud infrastructure; choosing the right partner to secure the cloud and hyperscale datacentres.

Day 2 began with a session by Meshal bin Hussain, Director of Information Technology, Ministry of Finance on reimagining government cloud services, followed by Rami Al-Haddad, Group Chief Information Officer, National Aviation Services (NAS) speaking on the topic from cost center to a profit center – a digital transformation. The panel discussion on will AI and Cloud kill jobs or create new jobs had experts from Dubai Health Authority, Sharjah Economic Development Department, Gargash, Sharjah National Oil Corporation, National Bank of Fujairah and Saudi Aramco engage in a discussion. Mahmoud Farhan, Head of ITG – Infrastructure Service, Arab National Bank’s presentation on the future of AI in the datacentre received great feedback.

The event received praise with both sponsors and delegates unanimous that the event provided a platform like no other in the region to engage with multiple stakeholders on discussions on the benefits, challenges of traditional datacentre vs cloud solutions.

The event had the support of NVIDIA, Intel, Fortinet, Panduit, Mistubishi Electric Hydronics, Forcepoint, Gigamon, and many others. More information on the Future Datacentres and Cloud Infrastructure Summit is available at https://www.futuredatacentre.com/ .