Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 45 | Page 42

FEATURE: DATA CENTRES eHDF was the first managed services provider in the region to: • Offer managed hosting and cloud infrastructure services • Offer credit-based SLAs • Achieve Cloud Security Alliance certification (CSA STAR) • To become PCI compliant • To achieve CREST certification for its Security Operations Centre • Be certified on ISO 9001/20000/ 22301/27001 • Launch hosted private cloud • Launch public cloud ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Can you give us an idea on the importance of Digital Transformation and how it benefits companies? In addition, how are companies in the UAE approaching Digital Transformation? The UAE definitely leads in the GCC region in digital adoption, with Dubai leading the way to becoming the smartest city in the world. Dubai has witnessed smart infrastructure being built based on the latest and cutting- edge technology and the government now aspires to transform the Emirate to not only CLOUD COMPUTING IS ONE OF THE KEY TECHNOLOGIES DRIVING THE TRANSFORMATION OF DATA CENTRES AS IT FACILITATES FASTER BUSINESS OPERATIONS AND OFFERS ORGANISATIONS THE FLEXIBILITY TO SCALE THEIR INFRASTRUCTURE CAPACITY ON DEMAND. What type of services do you offer at your centres? Our data centres are the backbone of our colocation, cloud and managed hosting services and have been successfully driving many enterprise businesses in the region. Our data centres are governed by strict policies and certifications ensuring compliances for our clients’ hosted infrastructure. Our data centres provide a secure, highly available environment for our clients’ IT infrastructure and mission critical data and business applications, which results in minimal downtime, reduced overall operating costs and faster time to market. Our services range from co-location to managed hosting, cloud services including both hosted private cloud and public cloud, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity and security services to name some. 42 INTELLIGENTCIO be the smartest city but also the happiest city in the world over the next few years. Big Data, AI, IoT, analytics, security and cloud technologies are key technology platforms enabling today’s disruption. Only 43% of Fortune 500 companies around in 1995 exist today and the average life of S&P companies has fallen from 60 years to 20 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 organised way. To ensure the same, investing in additional storage and network capacity would be required. The government sector is continuing to move towards digital. From adopting AI, to Big Data, Blockchain, mobility, IoT, BYOD, cloud and analytics, the sector is seeing an increase uptake in transformational technologies. With increased frequency in the number of cyberattacks, the government spending on cybersecurity, which is one of the biggest technology trends in this sector across the globe, has definitely increased. With the increased uptake of IoT, the government sector is also ensuring that the connected devices are secure. Cloud is one of the key drivers of Digital Transformation. As more UAE organisations are accelerating their Digital Transformation efforts, we see a higher uptake of hybrid cloud. Many Middle Eastern countries and especially the GCC have been making strong investments to bring in Digital Transformation for economic and social www.intelligentcio.com