of Intelligent CIO Middle East magazine . As business activity continues to garner momentum in fourth quarter of the calendar year , we are getting worried at the rise of COVID-19 cases across Europe and other parts of the EMEA market .

Given the security concerns that most organisations have been grappling with as employees switch to remote working , most enterprises in the Middle East have rolled out comprehensive programmes to support their employees as they adjust to this hybrid way of working . With most organisations gradually returning to some level of regularity , we have this month ’ s cover featuring Shaikh Hassan , Head of IT , Gulf General Co-operative Insurance Company ( GGCI ), a Saudi Arabia-based insurance firm , which recently successfully completed its journey to the powerful Nutanix Cloud in a move designed to help the company overcome stringent regulatory compliance and security challenges .

Hassan shares with us how GGCI had multiple solutions for servers , storage , backup and Disaster Recovery and faced the challenge of keeping costs down , time and efficiency .

“ We compared the Nutanix Cloud solution we implemented with two other offerings from giant solution providers also present in the Saudi market . After careful evaluation , we opted for the Nutanix-based cloud technology because of the lower cost of ownership and impeccable after-sales support . The Nutanix Cloud offering appealed to senior management because it was considered as an out of box solution considering that GGCI has future expansion plans ,” says Hassan . “ Currently , the retail segment of the Saudi insurance industry is booming . GGCI is a SAR200 million ( US $ 53 million ) company and we have plans in place to grow to SAR400 million ( US $ 106.6 million ) in the near future .”

Among the many insights Hassan shares with us is that prior to the migration to the Nutanix Cloud , GGCI ’ s legacy IT infrastructure – consisting of an eclectic mix of servers , storage and backup solutions – stood in the way of its growth plans because it did not smoothly accommodate the integration of applications that were mandated by Saudi Arabia ’ s regulators . You can hear more of Hassan ’ s views by turning to page 58 .

Elsewhere in the magazine , we look at Machine Learning and how this is influencing Digital Transformation in the region . With enterprises in the Middle East increasingly turning to Machine Learning , arguably today ’ s most practical application of Artificial Intelligence ( AI ), how are businesses ensuring success and ROI from Machine Learning deployments in their IT environments ? The feature starts on page 40 .

Adenike Cosgrove , Director of Cybersecurity Strategy for International at Proofpoint , tells us how organisations can use technology and training in tandem to prevent social engineering attacks , enabling a true peoplecentric security model .

“ Today ’ s threat landscape is fundamentally characterised by social engineering . We ’ ve see an almost 100 % shift to criminals targeting individuals , socially engineering people to do something , whether that ’ s click on a link or downloading an attachment ,” she says . The article starts on page 82 .

As usual , we have all your favourite features , analysis , opinions and a comprehensive news round-up from across the Middle East . You can also read daily news updates on our website at www . intelligentcio . com / me /.

And kindly , don ’ t hesitate if you would like to get in touch please email me at manda @ lynchpinmedia . co . uk .

I would like to wish you all a great month ahead and please enjoy the read !

Manda Banda Editor www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO

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