Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 46 | Page 24

TRENDING Maturity of digital initiatives • Only 24% of enterprises in the Middle East describe their digital initiatives as mature Claude Schuck, Regional Manager, Middle East at Veeam Ratmir Timashev, Co-founder and Executive Vice President (EVP) of Sales and Marketing at Veeam, said: “We are living in a data- driven age and organisations need to wake up and take action to protect their data. Businesses must manage their data in a way that always delivers availability and leverage its value to drive performance. “This is no longer a luxury, but a business necessity. There is a significant opportunity and competitive advantage for those who effectively manage their data. Ask yourself, are you confident that your business data will always be available? If you are unsure, it’s time to act, and our study shows that many are not acting fast enough.” success and drive more value from their data. The 2019 Veeam Cloud Data Management Report surveyed more than 1,500 senior business and IT leaders from 13 countries and found that respondents are aware of the importance of data management to their business’ success, pointing to greater productivity currently and the potential to drive business transformation in the future. Middle East survey findings Addressing Data Management Challenges • 93% of organisations will have cloud data management initiatives in place by the end of 2019 to drive success • The average enterprise is investing US$41 million in transformational technologies Companies are on a journey to become a more intelligent business and have four defining attributes • Cloud data management: 76% have SaaS deployments, citing security and flexibility as key • Capabilities: 89% see increasing employee skills as critical to the success of Intelligent Data Management initiatives 24 INTELLIGENTCIO “ BUSINESSES MUST MANAGE THEIR DATA IN A WAY THAT ALWAYS DELIVERS AVAILABILITY. • Culture: 66% believe company culture must be more open to digital • Confidence: 97% have confidence in Intelligent Data Management initiatives The big benefits of Digital Transformation to Middle Eastern businesses • 44% view the deployment of digital technology as critical to success in the next two years • US$124 million can be added in additional revenue annually through the use of digital initiatives • 80% see productivity benefits of Intelligent Data Management Organisations are looking to embrace the power of technologies such as the cloud, or hybrid cloud, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to drive business success and will each invest on average US$41 million in 2019 on such transformational technologies. Almost half of respondents admit that data protection is imperative to leverage these investments. Alarmingly, only 37% of businesses are very confident in their current backup solutions, with the majority (73%) admitting that they cannot meet user demands. This inhibits the adoption of tools and processes that can drive business advantage, but leaders recognise work needs to be done; more than half of those surveyed are looking to deploy Intelligent Data Management and multi-cloud solutions across the business to address this failing. There are big benefits to be had from the deployment of digital initiatives as organisations on average attribute US$124 million additional revenue [per company] to these annually. However, these findings shine a light on the global disparity in digital adoption. Some of the world’s largest economies are at risk of having to play catch-up when it comes to their investment in digital innovation. Timashev added: “We’re seeing a global digital arms race develop today, with some of the world’s most advanced economies www.intelligentcio.com