News

Information technology (IT) in the Middle East

• November 23, 2016 23 Nov'16

  IBM, HPE and T-Systems compete for Europe-wide €5.3m hybrid cloud contract

  European research groups confirm details of who made it through to next stage of their hybrid cloud procurement process

• November 22, 2016 22 Nov'16

  Alibaba brings public cloud to the Middle East

  Alibaba has opened a datacentre in Dubai to attract businesses in the Middle East to its public cloud services

• November 22, 2016 22 Nov'16

  Middle East bank to launch AI for customer support

  Middle East bank Emirates NBD is piloting artificial intelligence to automate customer services

• November 21, 2016 21 Nov'16

  Reprinting the Middle East in 3D

  3D printing is being used in the UAE in a number of industries, and is becoming a regional hub for a technology that could help rebuild war-torn parts of the Middle East

• November 15, 2016 15 Nov'16

  GSMA calls for global 5G agenda

  As advanced preparations begin for the next World Radiocommunication Conference in 2019, the GSMA calls on governments to work together on a global spectrum plan for 5G

• November 12, 2016 12 Nov'16

  Gulf Cooperation Council’s local companies eye regional shared services

  Enterprises indigenous to the Gulf region are taking their first step into business and IT shared services through internal developments

• November 09, 2016 09 Nov'16

  Road to safety: Self-driving cars in the Middle East

  The Middle East could improve its poor record on road safety through the use of driverless vehicles

• November 03, 2016 03 Nov'16

  Suppliers fail to impress as companies ramp-up HR tech

  A major survey of European firms shows that few believe HR technology suppliers have had a positive impact on their business, as they ramp up spending on HR technology

• November 02, 2016 02 Nov'16

  Saudi Arabia turns to big data to boost business innovation

  Big data technologies will play a key role in diversifying Saudi Arabia's economy away from a huge dependence on oil revenues.

• November 02, 2016 02 Nov'16

  Three-quarters of banks see startups as best way to access latest technology

  The latest survey of banks by Efma and Infosys reveals a big appetite for working with startups in the traditional banking sector

• October 31, 2016 31 Oct'16

  IT industry development is an obvious choice for Bahrain

  Bahrain is a gateway to the Middle East for multinationals, and to the world for locally grown IT startups

• October 24, 2016 24 Oct'16

  UAE telco launches mobile wallet

  Etisalat signs deal with technology company to offer its customers a mobile wallet service, as fintech expands in the Middle East

• October 20, 2016 20 Oct'16

  Best of VMworld Europe User Awards 2016: The winners

  Find out who won what, including the best of show prize, at the 2016 VMworld Europe User Awards in Barcelona

• October 19, 2016 19 Oct'16

  Emirates NBD pilots blockchain-based money transfers

  UAE bank becomes the latest to test out the potential of blockchain technology for improving financial services processes

• October 18, 2016 18 Oct'16

  Vodafone partners with HiWEB to launch IoT services in Iran

  Telecoms giant has signed a partnership agreement with Iranian counterpart HiWEB to provide IT infrastructure and internet of things services in the country

• October 18, 2016 18 Oct'16

  Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange uses blockchain for e-voting

  Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange offers controlled access to the AGM information of listed companies through a blockchain-based service

• October 16, 2016 16 Oct'16

  Dubai smart city will be the talk of GITEX

  Global experts in urban planning and smart technology will discuss the important role Dubai will play in supporting the development of smart cities in the Middle East

• October 14, 2016 14 Oct'16

  Three-quarters of Brits use mobile banking

  Europeans are rapidly taking up mobile banking which, combined with the adoption of contactless cards, is driving the digital payments sector

• October 11, 2016 11 Oct'16

  Middle East CISO Council CEO warns of global cyber security storm

  Cyber security issues will be a major theme at this month’s GITEX Technology Week 2016 conference in Dubai

• October 07, 2016 07 Oct'16

  UK firms living in fear of obsolescence as competitive threat posed by startups grows

  Dell Technologies survey suggests UK firms are living in fear of disruption from nimbler startups and overseas competitors

• October 07, 2016 07 Oct'16

  Engineering company uses HR technology to cut staff leaving rates

  Aveva has seen its employee attrition rate fall by 5% a year, partly as a result of its investment in HR technology

• September 26, 2016 26 Sep'16

  Emirates Islamic bank and the Muslim finance revolution

  The CIO at Dubai-based bank Emirates Islamic tells Computer Weekly how IT is supporting the company through industry change

• September 19, 2016 19 Sep'16

  Italian bottle maker deploys 88TB of Syneto hyper-converged storage

  Serioplast gets reliable disaster recovery as it replaces NetApp plus remote physical servers with Syneto hyper-converged infrastructure at factories across Europe, Africa and Asia

• September 13, 2016 13 Sep'16

  Dubai Culture modernises its datacentre

  Organisation that brings Dubai’s cultural heritage to life has implemented the latest technologies to support its mission

• September 08, 2016 08 Sep'16

  Bank IT spending to hit $241bn across four major global regions

  IT spending across four major economic regions will increase by around 4% in 2016, but Europe is the least certain

• September 07, 2016 07 Sep'16

  Managed services could be key to connecting up siloed IT in Middle East organisations

  Organisations in the Middle East will increasingly look for managed services to connect up their IT as they embark on digital transformation

• August 30, 2016 30 Aug'16

  UAE firms look to light fidelity technology to enable IoT applications

  LED-based connectivity slated as key component of internet of things-related deployments

• August 30, 2016 30 Aug'16

  UAE infrastructure ministry upgrades IT to support smart government

  The UAE's Ministry of Infrastructure Development has upgraded its datacentre and networking infrastructure to support the government's smart services drive

• August 23, 2016 23 Aug'16

  Zahid Group uses ERP to revolutionise business

  As Saudi Arabia sets out to diversify its economy away from oil, the kingdom’s companies are undergoing rapid transformation

• August 22, 2016 22 Aug'16

  How Middle East CIOs can steer business strategy

  The perception of the role of CIO at organisations in the Middle East is gradually shifting from back-end support to business enabler

• August 09, 2016 09 Aug'16

  Operator Alfa launches Lebanon’s first LTE-A network

  LTE-Advanced network launched by operator Alfa, using technology from Nokia

• August 03, 2016 03 Aug'16

  UAE consumers not confident that their data is safe

  Protecting customer data is a top priority for organisations in the Middle East as threat levels increase

• August 02, 2016 02 Aug'16

  Saudi Telecom Company builds out NFV capabilities

  Operator continues roll-out of network function virtualisation-based services as networking trend sweeps Gulf region

• July 29, 2016 29 Jul'16

  German digital bank Fidor acquired by French banking giant

  Fidor CEO says merger with BPCE will allow challenger to continue its international expansion

• July 28, 2016 28 Jul'16

  Al Murooj Rotana increases guest satisfaction with updated Wi-Fi network

  Dubai-based Rotana Hotels sees guest satisfaction rates rise on back of 802.11ac wireless roll-out at its Al Murooj Rotana property

• July 21, 2016 21 Jul'16

  IT outsourcing falls steeply in second quarter but IT as a service sees strong growth

  Sales of IT as a service growth in Europe helped offset a huge fall in the total value of traditional IT and business process outsourcing contracts

• July 20, 2016 20 Jul'16

  Reinventing Bahrain’s Kanoo Group through digital technology

  Kanoo Group IT director explains the company's IT transformation, including why implementing Office 365 across the business was his biggest career challenge

• July 19, 2016 19 Jul'16

  US government joins legal challenge of EU-US data transfers

  Helen Dixon, Ireland’s data protection commissioner, is asking the European Court of Justice to rule on the legality of EU-US data transfers, post-Safe Harbour, in a landmark legal challenge

• July 19, 2016 19 Jul'16

  Middle East airlines must continue to invest in IT

  Airlines in the Middle East are investing heavily in IT as the industry faces increasing demand for more efficient services

• July 12, 2016 12 Jul'16

  Gulf-based Rotana Hotels centralises IT security

  Hotel group implements centralised security management to proactively protect endpoints and achieve accurate security information

• July 11, 2016 11 Jul'16

  Visa’s Dubai innovation centre to focus on digital payments

  Visa has opened a technology innovation centre in Dubai to focus on cashless payments

• July 07, 2016 07 Jul'16

  Saudi Telecom Company leads nation’s transformation agenda

  Saudi Telecom Company and its technology partners support the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s drive into digital public services

• June 30, 2016 30 Jun'16

  Brexit: Cloud community mulls over implications for data protection regulation reform

  TechUK fears Brexit could see the UK lose its power to influence cloud regulations, while others say it could free the market from having to toe the EU line so closely

• June 29, 2016 29 Jun'16

  Brexit: Datacentre investments set to slow as economic stability concerns hit CIOs

  As the economic uncertainty around Brexit continues, CIOs may put new datacentre investments on hiatus, warns analyst

• June 29, 2016 29 Jun'16

  Middle East and Africa to see fastest IP traffic growth by 2020

  IP traffic in Middle East and Africa to grow 41% a year by 2020, according to Cisco Visual Networking Index

• June 29, 2016 29 Jun'16

  IT services sector faces freeze amid Brexit wrangling

  The IT services sector across the globe will be hit by the uncertainty around the UK's future relationship with the EU, but a spending freeze will eventually thaw

• June 27, 2016 27 Jun'16

  Banking IT community faces uncertain Brexit future

  The financial services IT community faces a period of uncertainty as finance firms reassess plans following the EU referendum result

• June 20, 2016 20 Jun'16

  UAE businesses struggle with security breach declaration

  UAE firms find difficulty in providing facts on security breaches, while consumers demand to be informed of incidents

• June 16, 2016 16 Jun'16

  Why leaving EU would be disastrous for UK digital scene

  Startups and government minister discuss the risks that leaving the EU would bring to the UK IT industry

• June 15, 2016 15 Jun'16

  Gulf Air tinkers with Oracle suite and explores hybrid cloud models

  Bahraini airline Gulf Air is looking to make productivity gains across its enterprise resource planning system

• June 14, 2016 14 Jun'16

  Fintech trailblazer hits United Arab Emirates

  European challenger bank takes its financial technology (fintech) model to the Middle East with the opening of an office in Dubai

• June 13, 2016 13 Jun'16

  Technology key to supporting World Expo 2020 in Dubai

  Businesses in Dubai need to get ready for the expected boost in demand that will come with the World Expo exhibition to be held in the city in 2020

• June 13, 2016 13 Jun'16

  EU firms slow in detecting cyber attacks, study shows

  European firms take an average of 469 days to discover a compromise, compared with an average of 146 days globally, according to Mandiant

• June 10, 2016 10 Jun'16

  Middle East virtualisation strategies mature

  CIOs in the Middle East are formulating their virtualisation strategies as the region warms to the benefits of cloud computing

• June 09, 2016 09 Jun'16

  Bahrain IT hub could increase choice for Middle East organisations

  The Bahrain government is trying to create an IT industry with global ambitions that could increase options for CIOs in the wider Middle East region

• June 08, 2016 08 Jun'16

  Citrix expands in Middle East with first Saudi Arabia office

  Citrix is increasing its presence in the Middle East, opening its first office in Saudi Arabia with plans to expand into Qatar and Egypt

• June 07, 2016 07 Jun'16

  Fintech poised to revolutionise banking in the Middle East

  The Middle East has been slow to join the fintech revolution, but there is an opportunity for CIOs to help banks stride ahead as demand picks up

• June 02, 2016 02 Jun'16

  Big data and open-source cloud technology help Gulf Air pin down customer sentiment

  Big data engine that performs sentiment analysis on both Arabic and English textual data helps airline to understand and react rapidly to customer preferences

• May 30, 2016 30 May'16

  Middle East CIO interview: V. Chandrasekar, Standard Chartered

  The CIO of Standard Chartered bank in the Middle East tells Computer Weekly about the challenge of keeping customers happy through IT

• May 25, 2016 25 May'16

  A new wave of cyber attacks targets the Middle East’s banks

  Hot on the heels of the Qatar National Bank breach comes a campaign employing advanced social engineering techniques

• May 24, 2016 24 May'16

  Datacentre operators look to Africa for new co-location growth opportunities

  Data sovereignty concerns and a growing digital economy are fuelling demand for new datacentres in Africa, say analysts and operators

• May 23, 2016 23 May'16

  Middle East CIOs put ambitious IT projects on hold as cheap oil hurts business

  A lack of business confidence leads some organisations in the Middle East to delay or abandon ambitious IT projects that may not show an immediate return

• May 16, 2016 16 May'16

  Playing it smart: How the UAE and Huawei are creating a city of the future

  The United Arab Emirates (UAE) aims to become one of the most connected and smart countries in the world within five years

• May 10, 2016 10 May'16

  Tel Aviv: A smart city where community engagement is the measure of success

  Israel’s capital is using the latest technologies as a way of placing the needs of local citizens at the heart of regional government

• May 05, 2016 05 May'16

  Gulf Air creates private cloud to support open-source big data engine

  Airline is using a private cloud and open-source software to enable it to analyse social media and understand what consumers think about it

• May 04, 2016 04 May'16

  The changing role of the Middle East CIO

  CIOs in the Middle East have the skills that could make them CEOs – and technology's growing importance in the enterprise makes this increasingly likely

• April 29, 2016 29 Apr'16

  Virtual desktop infrastructure set for Middle East enterprise growth

  More and more IT leaders in the Middle East are considering adopting virtual desktop infrastructures, but user cases are needed to speed things up

• April 29, 2016 29 Apr'16

  Saudi Arabia could warm to cloud computing, so long as regulation and connectivity keep pace

  One of the world’s biggest oil producers has responded to tumbling crude prices by announcing a $2tn war chest to fund an economic diversification strategy, with IT set to be a beneficiary

• April 28, 2016 28 Apr'16

  Vodafone Qatar launches Wi-Fi as a service for businesses

  Vodafone is offering its business customers in Qatar Wi-Fi as a service, which is another sign of the coming together of the IT and telecoms sectors

• April 27, 2016 27 Apr'16

  IT outsourcing starts year with a bang

  The IT outsourcing sector got off to a strong start in 2016, with sales volumes and values up

• April 26, 2016 26 Apr'16

  Mobility tops 2016 priority list for Middle East IT leaders

  Mobility projects will be the most common IT initiative among Middle East organisations this year, according to research from Computer Weekly

• April 25, 2016 25 Apr'16

  Middle East CIOs face numerous data challenges as the regional market matures

  Enterprise IT experts reveal to Computer Weekly the issues local technology leaders face when trying to use, back up and protect their valuable data

• April 19, 2016 19 Apr'16

  European Commission to create €6.7bn continent-wide cloud for scientists

  The European Commission hopes initiative will pave the way for greater collaboration between European research teams

• April 18, 2016 18 Apr'16

  The Middle East’s home-grown app market now really growing, but from a low base

  Despite massive smartphone penetration, native app developers in the region need to listen more closely to what locals want

• April 15, 2016 15 Apr'16

  Israeli volunteers ready their cyber defences as Anonymous affiliates attack

  Every April, Israel braces itself for an onslaught from pro-Palestinian hackers, but the occupants of a small conference room in Tel Aviv stand in their way

• April 12, 2016 12 Apr'16

  Banks see video banking as key to customer satisfaction

  Video banking is set to take off over the next few years to improve the personal connection between banks and customers, according to research

• April 04, 2016 04 Apr'16

  Middle East enterprises warm to wearable technology

  Organisations in the region are increasingly investing in wearable technology, but there are hurdles to overcome before there is broad take-up in the enterprise sector

• March 24, 2016 24 Mar'16

  The dawn of managed services in the Middle East

  Managed services are on the up in the Middle East, with enterprises looking at ways to support critical infrastructures while they invest in new technologies

• March 15, 2016 15 Mar'16

  Growing need for IT training in the Middle East needs careful planning

  IT training is becoming increasingly important in the Middle East – but organisations must look beyond suppliers' accreditation schemes

• March 11, 2016 11 Mar'16

  Falling oil prices and disjointed data protection threaten Middle East datacentres

  A fixation on datacentre ownership and mistrust of third-party services could impede enterprise IT in the Middle East

• February 19, 2016 19 Feb'16

  UAE-based eHosting DataFort to roll out Cisco ACI

  Infrastructure services provider is betting on Cisco’s SDN play in one of its Tier 3 datacentres

• February 17, 2016 17 Feb'16

  Middle East telecoms operators face up to IoT smart city challenges

  As smart city initiatives spring up in the Middle East, telecoms operators contend with the strain of the internet of things (IoT) on networks

• February 11, 2016 11 Feb'16

  CIO interview: Jassim Haji, director of IT, Gulf Air

  IT boss at Bahraini national carrier views mobility as a way to keep costs down and improve customer experience

• February 01, 2016 01 Feb'16

  Oracle to build cloud datacentre in Abu Dhabi

  Move seen as acknowledgement that local presence is required for increased cloud growth

• January 22, 2016 22 Jan'16

  Oil company gives roaming workforce unlimited Wi-Fi

  Oil and gas well management company Expro chooses iPass to meet the mobile data needs of its globally distributed workforce

• January 19, 2016 19 Jan'16

  Offshoring IT services: Beyond the usual suspects

  India is the prime location for offshoring IT – but it may not be the best fit for every business, and there are now many alternatives around the world