Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 49 | Page 51

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// FEATURE: INTERNET OF THINGS IoT and 5G to transform key sectors such as oil and gas Huawei has enjoyed incredible growth in the infrastructure and smart devices markets in the last year. Intelligent CIO spoke to Alaa Elshimy, Managing Director, Enterprise Business Group, Middle East, about the company’s performance in the region and the potential of Industrial IoT in combination with AI and 5G. H uawei, a leading global provider of ICT infrastructure and smart devices, has seen its enterprise business division continue to grow rapidly in the Middle East. During the first three quarters of this year, Huawei’s global revenues increased by 24.4% year-on-year. By the end of Q3 2019, more than 700 cities, 228 Fortune Global 500 companies and 58 Fortune Global 100 companies had selected Huawei as their partner for Digital Transformation. More specifically, Huawei’s Enterprise Networking division provides organisations with solutions tailored specifically to scenarios such as campus, data centre, WAN, branch interconnection and network security, helping them stride towards a fully connected, intelligent world. In an exclusive interview, Intelligent CIO spoke to Alaa Elshimy, Managing Director, Enterprise Business Group, Middle East, about the company’s performance and its approach to the region, and more specifically the potential of IoT in industries such as oil and gas. Could you give us some more examples about how AI and IoT will benefit the oil and gas industries? AI can do things that we cannot do as humans. For instance, if you need to monitor a flare at an oil refinery, sending someone to do this in tough weather conditions, or even in normal conditions, is very risky, very expensive and time consuming. Instead, if you use a drone with an intensive camera that is trained to monitor the colour and smell of the flare then this is saving a lot of money and giving a lot of benefits to the organisation. www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 51