Silicon Graphics eyes GCC's booming IT market for aggressive growth plans

The company's buoyant forecast is based on recent findings of the Dubai-based Madar Research Group, which point to an increased IT expenditure across the Arab world. The company, which recently launched a new Linux-based system that works on the Intel Itanium 2 and Altix 3000 family of servers and super-clusters, in the Middle East, is particularly upbeat due to the demand for its products in the oil and gas sector.

According to the Madar study, the IT market is expected to grow at a compound average of nearly 10 per cent over the next three years, surpassing the economic growth rate of GCC countries. By the year 2005, the GCC region's total annual IT market will be worth about US$ 8 billion. Of key importance to SGI is the finding that storage, one of the core strengths of the company would be one of the high-growth areas within IT.

SGI expects a surge in demand for its industry leading products that address the next class of challenges for scientific, engineering and creative solutions. According to Gilbert Soufan, Territory Manager, Middle East, SGI, "The Middle East offers excellent prospects for our leading-edge products for two reasons. Firstly, the markets in other parts of the world have either decelerated or stagnated. Secondly, the growth in Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the Middle East region has accelerated the momentum towards IT deployment across businesses. Additionally, the end of the Iraq conflict, signals that IT will emerge as a dominant force in the country's business sector."

"The Middle East is an exciting market for IT because the governments in the region are leading the march into the future either by promoting world IT class projects or by launching e-Government projects that will increasingly make the community IT-savvy," said Soufan. "For SGI, these are compelling developments because they will stimulate businesses in the region to deploy more sophisticated systems without compromising on quality. Our next-generation solutions will be in high demand among the top performers, for whom quality and performance come first, especially in the oil and gas sectors."

SGI has also recently announced a worldwide decision to focus its research and development activities on computers used in technical environments, that make use of Linux and Intel Corp's Itanium 2 processors.