Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 33 | Page 95

/////////////////////////////////////////////////// t cht lk DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TO BE DEFINED BY ‘SOFTENING NETWORKS’ SD-WAN is creating new possibilities for businesses in the Middle East. With adoption currently following global trends, Luc Serviant, Vice President Middle East and Africa, Orange Business Services, believes this can only increase as understanding of SD WAN grows in the region. T he global economy is picking up according to the IMF, with some 120 economies, (or three quarters of the world’s GDP) growing in 2017; it’s the strongest performance since 2010 and looks set to continue for the next two years. With the positive signals around the world economy, companies are looking for fast expansion and growth into new regional markets, including the Middle East, where the UAE is rising up the global economic www.intelligentcio.com competitiveness ranking (now seventh in the world in 2018, according to the IMD World Competitiveness Center). Oil and gas firms, retailers and logistics companies have a regular need to set up new and sometimes temporary operations, from exploration sites to retail pop-up stores to test consumer response. SD-WAN provides these organisations with the speed, agility, flexibility and bandwidth they “ AS UNDERSTANDING AND APPRECIATION OF SD WAN GROWS IN THE REGION, SO WILL ITS ADOPTION. INTELLIGENTCIO 95