DOHA: The EMC Forum survey, released yesterday, revealed that Information Technology (IT) in Qatar is now viewed as a strategic enabler to grow business and better connect with customers.
The survey was released by EMC Corporation on the sidelines of EMC Forum held in Doha on Tuesday. The participants discussed about innovations, trends and challenges in the field of information technology. EMC Corporation, an American multinational corporation headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, United States, is a major player in the field of data storage, cloud computing, information security and related services. The forum, which is organsied every year by EMC Corporation, witnessed huge attendance of representatives from IT industry.
“Around 82 percent of respondents in Qatar agree that their organisation sees the increasing role of automation — such as software defined storage — as critical to business growth,” said Samer Diya, Country Manager, Qatar, EMC Corporation in press conference while giving details of the survey.
“Around 87 percent of respondents in Qatar expect next-generation technologies such as mobile, social, cloud and Big Data to give their organisation a competitive advantage. Qatar respondents say these new technologies will impact key aspects of the business, including: improving customer experience (61 percent), managing mission-critical business operations (35 percent) and building new products and services (34 percent),” he added.
This survey was based on the responses of 178 business and IT management and executives, technical architects, data scientists and storage/infrastructure managers from a range of businesses in Qatar. The survey results were collected through a non-mandatory questionnaire after completion of registration for the EMC Forum.
According to the survey 69 percent of respondents identified a need for joint public and private cloud services - hybrid cloud - as a means for greater agility and security. In fact, 23 percent of the respondents reported to have already deployed a hybrid cloud solution.
Survey added that about 71 percent of respondents in Qatar believe their organisation has the right level of skills and knowledge to complete business priorities successfully. About 55 percent believe it will be a challenge for these skills to keep pace with IT innovation over the next one-two years. Around 75 percent of companies see IT as a business enabler, yet 63 percent of companies believe that spending for technology was outside of IT’s control — indicating there is still work for IT to do in gaining trust from decision makers.
“The EMC Forum survey clearly highlights the heightened focus on the third platform of IT. Enterprises across the region and in Qatar continue to turn to technologies like cloud, social, mobile and big data to drive agility and engage the connected consumers,” said Mohammed Amin, Senior Vice-President and Regional Manager, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Middle East, EMC Corporation. “As this transition to third platform becomes a reality, IT departments find themselves open to new opportunities to innovate and truly fuel business transformation driving it from a mere support function to a strategic enabler,” he said.
The Peninsula
