FEATURE: MANAGED SERVICES
C
ompanies have started to take
cognizance of the flexibility
Managed Services provide while
being able to maximise productivity and
ROI with higher levels of effectiveness,
availability of the latest technologies as
well as to allow employees to tackle the
strategic goals of the company.
Over the years the service has grown
into specialised areas which include
Cloud Hosting, Remote Monitoring,
Co-location, Disaster Recovery and
several services which look into both
the IT infrastructure as well as the IT
operational services. In the Middle East
several industry verticals are contributing
to the growth of Managed services, two
of the main areas are the public and
financial sectors.
With over 25 million visitors expected
to visit Dubai for the World Expo
2020, the event promises to be a
major opportunity for business and IT
development. In fact, it has opened up a
number of avenues, which will shape the
technology trends in the region for the
next few years.
The government is working towards
making Dubai a Smart City with the
use of cutting edge technology within
the next three years. With the huge
number of tourists and investors
coming to the UAE, there will be a large
influx of data, which will need greater
infrastructure planning. Businesses will
have to manage this large amount
of information in the most organized
way. To ensure the same, investing in
additional storage and network capacity
would be required.
The Qatar World Cup 2022 will open
up similar avenues, as governments
and companies continue to invest in IT
solutions for smart city infrastructure
development, effective data storage and
backup systems.
There is also a push towards greater
mobile enablement of government
services across the GCC, which will
further increase self-service utilisation.
Smartphones and tablets are becoming
the key contact point between citizens
30
INTELLIGENTCIO
MORE ORGANISATIONS
NOW HAVE INCREASED
BUDGETS FOR
COMPREHENSIVE AND
STRONG DISASTER
RECOVERY SOLUTIONS,
WHICH CONSIST OF
BOTH HARDWARE
AND SOFTWARE
BASED SOLUTIONS
AND ARE WORKING
WITH SPECIALIST
PROVIDERS WHO
HAVE THE KNOW-HOW
AND THE EXPERIENCE
TO PROVIDE APT
SOLUTIONS
and government institutions. With the
increased focus on mobility, there will
be a positive impact on ICT spending
especially in the areas of mobile security,
CRM, geo-localisation software, mobile
enterprise management (covering
solutions for device management,
application development, and
application management), and mobile
content management, among others.
All of this requires a strong backbone
for IT infrastructure, which is secure
and scalable. And, we will see increased
investment in data centre hosting
services and cloud infrastructure
as a service, which offers scalable
infrastructure on demand at low
operational costs enabling faster
adoption of e-services and m-services.
On the other hand, the finance industry
has a reputation of being ahead of the
curve when it comes to IT. Whether its
new algorithms designed to take trading to
new speeds, or the latest security solution
designed to provide the utmost protection
from hackers, finance organisations are
well aware of the benefits that IT can bring
to the bottom line.
The managed services market
in the MEA region is projected
to grow from
$20.9
billion
in 2014
to
$47.3
billion
by 2019
at a CAGR of 18.0 %
between 2014 and 2019
(MarketsandMarkets)
$570.6
million
Outsourcing, managed services,
and data centre services market
in Saudi Arabia is expected total
in 2015 (IDC)
w