IBM announced as Diamond Sponsor of First Data Center Strategies Middle Eat Forum

The Forum, which takes place in Abu Dhabi 2-3 June 2009, has been designed to bring together Data centre operators, service providers, telcos, network infrastructure providers, managed services specialists, systems integrators, enterprise and government IT directors, property and investment firms, law firms, professional intermediaries, consulting firms, regulatory bodies, and supplier organizations to inform and update, provide critical insight and generate top level networking opportunities.

"Organisations have traditionally looked for ways to reduce costs whilst becoming more productive; essentially becoming what are now greener smarter entities however the need to deliver has now increased as a result of the current economic environment. The role of the CIO has also changed as IT takes a more strategic role in the enterprise and as such these challenges and issues are just as much their responsibility as other C-level execs in the organisation,"

commented Sameh Farid, Regional Manager, Global Technology Services, IBM Middle East. "Our participation at Data Centre Strategies Middle East Forum marks a strategic focus on information management and reflects our thought leadership in areas such as green data centres, cloud computing, virtualization, consolidation and interconnectedness and as such we look forward to addressing the topics that are affecting CIOs on a daily basis as they strive to become smarter organizations."

Highlights of the 2-day meeting includes the first ever data centre Middle East CEO Round table which brings together Ibrahim Lari, CEO, Injazat Data Systems, Osman Sultan, CEO, du, Tariq Husain, Chairman, Gateway Gulf and Yasser Zeineldin, CEO, eHosting Datafort. In addition expert panels will assess investment and growth strategies, Green Efficiency focus, outsourcing for enterprises, the emergence of cloud computing, data centre transformation through virtualization and automation, new standards for data centres and an architecting and designing workshop.

With an academy of international speakers, experts and delegates from enterprise user companies, operators and owners, technical specialists, investors, vendors and consultancies, Data Centre Strategies will ask vital questions about the latest issues and developments in the sector that impact the business, operation and planning for data centre businesses.

Injazat Data Systems is Patron of the event, which is researched and organized by international consulting firm BroadGroup with partner Orient Consulting. Sponsors also include EMC, IBM, HP, Sun Microsystems, Trend Micro, Microsoft, du and Global Insulation. Industry Partner is The Colocation Exchange. Media Partners include Maktoob.com commerce, Telecommunications Insight, Middle East Business Monitor, IX News Search, IT INsight Middle East, Goingtomeet.com and Data Centre News.

The forum is researched and produced by consulting firm BroadGroup in association with Orient Consulting.