Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 25 | Page 6

NEWS UAE Equinix executive stresses the importance of digital infrastructure Digital infrastructure needs to be considered a basic business requirement for UAE companies, according to an Equinix executive. Brian Lillie, Chief Product Officer, Equinix, said during a visit to Dubai for a knowledge sharing session with telco du, that the rapid development of smart technology in the UAE has redefined the way companies do business. He said: “Data is increasingly becoming the currency of the global digital economy. For enterprises to monetise their data and extract the most value from it, they must re-think their data architectures - this is extremely crucial to drive global economic growth. “With Dubai recently launching the emirate’s flagship Internet of Things Strategy and Data Wealth initiative, my visit to the emirate couldn’t have happened at a more opportune time. It’s very exciting to see Dubai’s push to build the future today and establish a digital infrastructure.” Farid Faraidooni, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, EITC (which trades under the name of du), said: “Through our alliance with Equinix, we are offering a true interconnection platform for the regional enterprises, banks, insurers and electronic payments firms to co-locate critical IT systems inside our data centre and interconnect to facilitate the operation of countless IT workloads.” Brian Lillie, Chief Product Officer, Equinix Microsoft demonstrates power of digital transformation at ADIPEC hosted an oil and gas solution demo theatre, where visitors got first-hand experience of the company’s industry-specific solutions, as well as those of its partners. “Digital brings the oil and gas industry exceptional capabilities to tackle problems, and address new potentials, in a cost effective and efficient manner”, said Omar Saleh, Director Manufacturing and Resources, Microsoft Middle East and Africa. “Building systems of intelligence that integrate to enable end-to-end networks of value co-creation is what digital transformation is all about and that is what we and our partners are here to demonstrate. Microsoft has showed the Middle East’s oil and gas organisations the power of digital transformation at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) 2017. Microsoft participated as the ‘Strategic Digital Transformation Partner’ to showcase real life industry principles across every stage of the oil and gas value chain. The company also 6 INTELLIGENTCIO “Engage customers, empower employees, optimise operations and reinvent business models – the possibilities are all but limitless, once you begin to explore the potential of the intelligent cloud and the intelligent edge. “Organisations can capture and analyse data from connected devices and with the help of Azure IoT Suite, workers can receive real-time alerts from devices - including places that were previously difficult to monitor.” www.intelligentcio.com