Enterprises should transform themselves before technology disrupts their business

We are only at the dawn of the digital era, says Walid Yehia, General Manager – UAE and Senior Director – Presales for Middle East, Russia, Africa and Turkey (MERAT), Dell Technologies

Image Courtesy: Dell Technologies

Walid Yehia is a man on a mission. A mission that involves helping local businesses lay the foundations for scalable, agile, and secure digital infrastructure - that will help them surf the next wave (or cloud) in a data-driven era.

“One of the many things that the pandemic taught us is that technology is key to driving business continuity, so we believe that technology will play a key role in paving the way to economic recovery. Businesses across every sector, embraced digital transformation at a faster pace than ever before,” says Mr Yehia who recently took on the reins as General Manager - UAE while also holding the role of Sr Director of Pre-Sales - MERAT at Dell Technologies.

His belief is substantiated by the findings of the Dell Technologies’ Digital Transformation Index 2020 which revealed that 90 per cent of organisations in the UAE have fast-tracked, at least some of their digital transformation programmes – accomplishing in a few months what would normally have taken years. This is compared to the global benchmark of 80 per cent suggesting that organisations here have shifted their digital transformation programs into high gear. Eighty-five per cent of organisations also admitted to re-inventing their business model as a result of disruption – which is 6 per cent ahead of organisations globally (79 per cent).

The pace of evolution as necessitated by the events of 2020 provided a glimpse of what is possible - we now stand at a critical juncture, with the available tools to truly revitalise and reimagine vital industries. The building blocks laid today must supplement and support the ability to ‘work from anywhere’, empower data innovation, and realise the mass potential of multi-cloud flexibility.

Moreover, with Gartner predicting that 75 per cent of enterprise data will be created and processed outside the data centre or cloud by 2025, finding a means of simplifying data management is a palpable business need. The better a business knows its data, the more powerful insights can be gleaned from it and ultimately the bolder and more confident the innovation. Data management provides a vital key to unlocking opportunities, evolving to meet new and urgent customer demands while leading the way in the zettabyte era.

There’s just one problem. As the term zettabyte era might suggest, the data deluge within which these opportunities can be found also risks overwhelming businesses that are not prepared for its exponential growth. As the data sphere becomes increasingly complex and dispersed, valuable time could be lost on the day-to-day management of this data. This means that investing in simplified, robust data management not only provides a balm for today’s challenges – but prepares businesses for tomorrow’s accelerated, data-driven world. Also, data collected at edge locations will become an increasingly valuable resource – businesses will need a consistent approach to infrastructure, data, applications and security as millions of systems are built at the at the edge. The need for high performance, low latency and network connectivity has never been greater and will only increase.

It’s also why as-a-service technology solutions are innovation gold. “As-a-service offerings, promise the ultimate simplification and agility that will set businesses up to master the oncoming data deluge,” according to Mr Yehia.

It provides the flexibility to choose technology services that work best for them and only pay for what they need when they need it as it reduces the time and complexity of acquiring, maintaining and servicing physical IT infrastructure. Customers can scale IT as needed to launch new applications, kickstart new projects, and address the changing needs of their organisations – all managed by their technology provider.

Dell Technologies expects more organizations to take up as-a-service models, spanning Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), PC-as-a-service (PCaaS), Platform-as-a-service (Paas), Software-as-a-service (SaaS) and more, as they look to align and scale the cost of their IT infrastructure.

As the world looks to turn a corner from the pandemic, the real building blocks are behind the scenes and they start with trusted conversations with customers based on deep sector knowledge and technological expertise. And Dell Technologies is setting the foundations for businesses to evolve and reinforce digital capabilities. “There is no doubt that digital businesses have the agility and flexibility to pivot, come what may. But the truth is we are only at the dawn of the digital era,” says Mr. Yehia. “In this region specifically, the digital future is already here. With AI/ML, IoT and other new interfaces rapidly changing how organizations operate, it is imperative that they understand how to respond and keep pace with disruptive technologies,” he adds.

As the UAE embarks on an ambitious diversification plan, digital transformation accelerators will be a game-changer in building a thriving economy. Looking beyond 2021, he believes that data-led innovation will be fundamental to achieving the strategic roadmap laid out by the UAE to becoming one of the strongest global economies and position itself as a thriving hub for talent and innovation over the next 50 years.

Bringing a glimpse of the future, Dell Technologies and Intel, together with partners, will showcase the company’s end-to-end suite of infrastructure solutions at GITEX Global 2021. From device to cloud to edge, the offerings are part of Dell Technologies’ strategy to deliver fully integrated technologies that allow businesses and workloads to be managed seamlessly. Dell Technologies will also conduct workshops and breakout sessions on AI, multi-cloud, 5G, Edge and IoT.

“Our primary focus in the coming months is to help organisations accelerate their IT transformation initiatives with speed and purpose as we work together to power the innovation agenda of the UAE. Enterprises should disrupt themselves before technology disrupts their business. Given the pace of change today and the constant risk of falling behind, we at Dell Technologies are enabling our customers to be more competitive, optimise costs and drive innovation,” Mr Yehia added.