Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 54 | Page 7

EDITOR’S NOTE Welcome to the latest edition of Intelligent CIO Middle East magazine. With the world still struggling to cope with the Coronavirus pandemic we take a look at some of the more positive developments that have been catching the eye in the world of technology. One of these is featured on this month’s cover where we showcase how Noor Takaful has accelerated its Digital Transformation journey with BIOS Middle East. The company is benefitting from its migration from on-premise to the cloud which has resulted in the successful transition of its critical applications and data. It now has a future proofed IT environment that is not only compliant to industry standards but also boasts lower running operational costs, additional agility and scalability. Frederick Bisbjerg, Chief Digital Acceleration Officer, Noor Takaful – Ethical Insurance, told us: “As part of our Digital Transformation drive, we have successfully migrated from an on-premise setup and have implemented a fully managed cloud environment to run the business. “This modern, agile, scalable and secure cloud environment eliminates future CAPEX requirements in the process. We now have a future proofed IT environment that is compliant to the industry standards and lower running operational costs.” You can find out more about this exciting project by turning to page 55. In this month’s Trending we take a look at a report from Nutanix which reveals how hybrid cloud adoption by companies in the UAE is set to increase from the current 7% to 51% in three to five years. The 2019 Enterprise Cloud Index Report reveals how UAE respondents plan to catch up with the rest of the world within three to five years, with a projected hybrid cloud penetration of 51%. This is well in line with what companies in other countries expect to be running at that time. Turn to page 27 to discover what else the report reveals. Starting on page 36, we take a look at how CIOs can lead by example to embrace the ‘new normal’. With the ongoing global Coronavirus health crisis forcing a new way of working for most organisations, many offices are closed with employees working from home. Intelligent CIO speaks to Mohammed Arafat, Presales Director, Micro Focus Emerging Markets, about the crucial role CIOs must play in leading this change and ensuring their businesses have the digital infrastructure and tools to survive during these unprecedented times. As usual, we have all your favourite features and a comprehensive news roundup from across the region. You can also read daily news updates on our website at www.intelligentcio.com/me/. And don’t forget, if you would like to get in touch, please email me at mark@lynchpinmedia.co.uk. I’d like to wish you a good month ahead and please enjoy the read! Mark Bowen Editor www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 7