Abu Dhabi: IT infrastructure spending, comprising storage, server, and enterprise networking equipment in the Middle East and Africa is expected to reach $3.47 billion in 2014, a 4.1 per cent increase from the 2013 figure, according to research firm, Gartner Inc.
“CIOs in the Gulf are beginning to prepare their enterprises to stay relevant in the digital business era, and they will continue to invest in technologies such as mobility, cloud, social, and analytics,” said Mary Mesaglio, research vice presidents at Gartner.
Digital business
“In 2014, we expect a lot of digital business and innovation to be driven by the convergence of these forces in the Gulf,” she added.
IT infrastructure spend in the region will be driven by data centre modernisation efforts, coupled with new data centre build out by local and international companies. Server is the biggest component of this infrastructure market, accounting for $1.3 billion in 2014, and is expected to reach $1.54 billion in 2017.
“Security continues to be a key barrier for enterprises while many consider mainstream cloud adoption. Desktop virtualisation, managing storage growth, and integrated systems are other key priorities that will influence infrastructure spending in this region during 2014,” said Naveen Mishra, research director at Gartner.
