Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 05 | Page 45

COUNTRY FOCUS: KUWAIT I nternational Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, has announced that it will focus its efforts and dedicate resources to growing its market share in Kuwait, where the Enterprise Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry is expected to increase at a rapid pace on account of the need to diversify the economy away from the oil sector. As per a report entitled ‘The Report: Kuwait 2015’ by the Oxford Business Group, access to the Internet, especially via mobile devices, has accelerated rapidly in Kuwait since the government liberalised the telecoms and IT sector in the early 2000s. The nation now has one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the region, at 69% of the population in 2014 after seeing 40% growth on the previous year. As one of the first GCC nations to embrace competition by allowing private sector participation in the provision of telecoms services, Kuwait has lately moved to extend oversight of private operations, approving a bill in April 2014 to create an independent telecoms regulator, a move expected to yield fresh momentum for the ICT industry going forward. Sabahat Nassim, Channel Sales Manager, Middle East at Aruba says, “Kuwait is experiencing the effects of ‘Bring Your Own Device’ trend where business users are increasingly requesting use of their own mobile devices for work. This creates the need for the ‘all-wireless workplace’ that supports BYOD securely and reliably, enabling communication and delivering business apps wherever people work.” “To support this trend, Aruba is ideally positioned to solve customers’ toughest challenges in mobility and network security. We will be making concerted efforts to expose our brand, enable our partners and engage closely with customers in Kuwait in order to capitalise on the tremendous business potential in the country,” continues Sabahat. Aruba will focus its efforts on key verticals including government, hospitality, healthcare, education, retail and finance. Channel is key to the company’s success and it will continue to conduct training and certification programmes in Kuwait through its training partners. Aruba is eager to raise its corporate profile in the www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 45