IDC Middle East CIO Summit 2012 begins in Fujairah

The first session of the Summit focused on the theme, "Capturing Competitive Advantage with Big Data and Cloud" wherein IDC outlined challenges and opportunities related to effectively harnessing Big Data and optimizing delivery of IT and business services by leveraging cloud models.

IDC, the premier global market intelligence and advisory firm for the information technology and telecommunications markets, is gathering more than 150 of the region's most influential ICT users for the exclusive, two-day Summit to discuss emerging challenges and opportunities for CIOs in the Middle East.

High-level panel discussions and presentations spearheaded by IDC and senior executives from leading multinational organisations marked the opening day of the IDC Middle East CIO Summit.

Special presentations were also conducted by representatives from EMC, HP, IBM, Al Hilal Bank, Dell, Riverbed, Blue Coat, Cognizant, Wipro, Sonicwall, Citrix Systems, Kaspersky Lab, Fujitsu, McAfee and Aluminium Bahrain (ALBA) during the opening day. The second day of the Summit will feature presentations by Jeddah Municipality, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Huawei Technologies, HCT, Schneider Electric, Mubadala, SAP, MBC, Royal Guard and Saudi Airlines.

The first day of the Summit was divided into three sessions each with a separate theme: "Capturing Competitive Advantage with Big Data and Cloud"; "Evolving Role of the CIO: Benchmarking with Global Enterprises", and "Technology Consumerization: Overhauling the Role of IT". A series of roundtable discussions were also organised to tackle specific issues affecting the state of ICT adoption in the region.

Jyoti Lalchandani, vice president and managing director of IDC Middle East, Africa and Turkey, said: "It has been an auspicious start for the IDC Middle East CIO Summit 2012, which remains the region's premier networking platform for CIOs and key personalities in the regional ICT landscape. The energetic participation of multinationals and leading business organisations at the Summit clearly demonstrates the growing importance of IT in driving their respective businesses towards a new era of growth and innovation. Big data technologies and cloud computing are particularly gaining widespread attention as invaluable tools to achieve long-term business goals. It was therefore a great opportunity for the participants to explore the latest trends in big data and cloud, and discuss their impact on the region's business landscape during the opening day of the Summit."

The Middle East CIO Summit 2012 explores the ways CIOs in the region are using technology and emerging service delivery models to build efficiencies into their IT organizations and the business as a whole.