Schneider Electric anticipates major regional growth in cloud computing

A particularly strong momentum was registered by the infrastructure, buildings, power, and IT business units.

The company stated the worldwide datacentre market has witnessed a growth of 22% in 2012, to $105bn from $86bn in 2011. The Middle East is the fastest growing sector in this category.

The company also reported robust global growth in sales for the first three quarters of 2012, recording a rise of 14.9% for infrastructure and 18% for IT business.

Schneider Electric, which has a presence in all the countries of the Middle East, is represented by 5,000 employees, two distribution centers and eight manufacturing plants in the region.

The announcements were made at a press briefing held on the opening day of Schneider Electric's Middle East Datacenter Solutions Conference titled 'Power to the Cloud'. The session was headlined by senior management executives from Schneider Electric including Mike Hughes, Senior VP, EMEA, IT Business, Goktug Gur, Country President, UAE and Oman, Paul-Francois Cattier, Global Vice-President - Datacenters, IT Business, and Christian Bertrand, Vice-President, MEA - IT Business.

Addressing the press conference, Goktug Gur said: "Schneider Electric offers a comprehensive portfolio of products and solutions. Our strong reach within the region and resilient relations with our partners and customers have helped us capture a fair share of the market in this critical geography across our business units. The Middle East and the Gulf is extremely crucial to the overall growth of the company. As part of our expansion plans across the region, we are looking to grow our team of professionals and the number of offices in the region. We also aim to forge new partnerships with distributors."

Schneider Electric executives pointed out that the evolving trend of datacenter-focused IT strategies necessitate the synchronization of IT and facilities management to produce optimal results. The experts also indicated that virtualization and cloud computing promise a transformation in services automation and provisioning through driving greater efficiencies within the datacenter.

Paul-Francois Cattier said: "As one of the top three players in datacenter infrastructure management, Schneider Electric is in a unique position to bring customers innovative solutions that meet the most specific of requirements. Our emphasis on quality ensures that our solutions are designed, developed and delivered by leading technologists."

Schneider Electric's focus on cloud virtualization comes at a time when IT spending in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) is set to rise 1.4% in 2012 and reach $1.154 trillion by 2013, according to Gartner. Leveraging this forecast, Schneider Electric aims to capitalize on the growing demand for cloud and virtualized environments.

Christian Bertrand said: "Datacenters are a cornerstone for businesses, and as demand for storage and operation continues to expand, we are providing the right solutions to manage the power and cooling of this business critical infrastructure. We are seeing enterprise IT trend towards virtualization, which will result in booming demand for cost-effective solutions, speed and simplicity, efficiency of scale, and overall energy consciousness. We are confident that our expertise will open up significant opportunities in these areas."

The media briefing additionally earmarked datacenter infrastructure management (DCIM) software as another area for robust growth over the next five years, with estimates of 60% market penetration by 2014 - a significant jump from one percent in 2012. The adoption of DCIM continues to prove effective in contributing to energy savings and streamlined operations.

The two-day Middle East Datacenter Solutions Conference that began today will run until 20 November at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai, drawing the participation of key stakeholders including end users, partners, distributors, system integrators, energy management specialists, datacenter infrastructure management experts, consultants and contractors.

In addition to focusing on Schneider Electric's IT products and datacenter solutions, the conference also hosts an exhibition area displaying the company's complete portfolio in security, building management systems, intelligent power distribution, and software solutions. As a key part of the agenda, the event is drawing out testimonials and successful case studies on finance, infrastructure, IT and other sectors from region-wide end-users.

Schneider Electric is additionally highlighting its on-going efforts in addressing the energy challenge, pointing out that its solutions can deliver up to 30% in energy efficiency savings - important for a region that is among the highest polluters per capita. The company's win at the Zayed Future Energy Prize in early 2012 is also being showcased.