IT decision-makers in the UAE are doubling down on their digital transformation efforts, according to new research by market insight specialists YouGov.
The findings highlight encouraging progress and awareness for emerging technologies set to underpin the nations’ future transformation plans.
“Businesses in the UAE are clearly ramping up their abilities to provide fast, seamless digital experiences,” said Fadia Abi-Ayad, Regional Director for the UAE & Gulf at F5.
“We’re now seeing that organizations are starting to anticipate greater automation as IT and operational technology converge. In addition, they are also embracing the promise of AI to adapt to conditions that change faster than ever. At the heart of all this are applications, and their safe deployment across multiple clouds.”
Driven by consumer demand and expanding app portfolios, most decision-makers ranked 5G top of their trends chart (62%), followed by multi-cloud networking (42%). The integration of IT systems with operational technology (OT) claimed third place (38%). Thirty-six percent also flagged the importance of Web Application and API protection (WAAP) services, which encompass WAF, DDoS protection, bot management, and API protection, and 34% are keeping an eye on AIOps platforms (combining big data and machine learning functionality to support all primary IT operations functions).
The focus of all respondents’ digital transformation missions centered on customer-centricity and operational efficiencies.
YouGov noted both growth and increased distribution of app portfolios; 31% of respondents work for organizations with between 100 and 500 applications in play. Nineteen percent juggled portfolios of between 500 and 1000 apps.
Notably, half of all UAE decision-makers are now deploying modern apps (mobile, cloud-native, and microservices).
Seventy-one percent of UAE respondents indicated that cloud services spending was up in the past year. In related projections, 36% expect more than 50% of their app portfolio to be hosted in the cloud within the next three years.
Moreover, security remains a perennial challenge, with 84% reporting that they would benefit from additional cybersecurity expertise in their organization. Skill gaps were flagged for network security (24%), multi-cloud (21%), and public cloud (20%).
