At the first every OpenWorld event in the Middle East, Oracle executives highlighted the changing nature of today’s technologies, and what businesses need to do to stay competitive.
SAN FRANCISCO, LONDON, New Delhi, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, and now Dubai. The list of cities that host Oracle’s flagship OpenWorld conference grew by one earlier this year as the US-based tech giant added the emirate to its roster for the first time.
Its inclusion says a lot about the global reputation of the UAE and its technological ambitions, with innovation, diversification and growth high on its agenda – as they are for Oracle, too.
As such, the inaugural Dubai OpenWorld event focussed on a number of key tech topics including the cloud, AI, automation, machine learning, chatbots, blockchain, innovation, smart cities, data management, and more.
In his keynote speech on the first day of the event, Oracle’s senior vice president for the Middle East and Africa, Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban, emphasised the importance of these conversations, given the current stage of development in the tech world.
“Things have been changing completely,” he said, stating that more data will be collected this year in the Middle East than in the previous 5,000 years, and that spending on digital transformation in MEA will cross the $25bn mark this year as companies up their spending on robotics, AI and IoT.
“We are in an era of major transformation. We have faced challenges in every life cycle of the IT industry, and are doing so in the Fourth Industrial Revolution that we are witnessing now,” he added.
And while smaller, more technically niche sessions took place on the floor of the conference, it was the big ticket topics that dominated the event’s main stage. All geared towards one central notion: change is happening fast - what are you doing to ensure your business is prepared for tomorrow?
This story is from the March 2019 edition of Gulf Business.
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This story is from the March 2019 edition of Gulf Business.
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