Dubai: Saving, green and clouds. It may sound like an environmental show, but Gitex Technology Week is back with a clear drive towards efficiencies in the technology sector worldwide.
While carbon footprint reduction has been on the corporate agenda for the past few years in the industry, many manufacturers are recycling much physical IT trash.
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The economic recovery has created an opportunity for companies to push ahead with its green products and to even let them take the lead in product line-up.
Top agenda
Cloud computing, the internet-based, shared-resources computing, will be on everyone's mind as a top agenda item.
Almost two full days will be dedicated to speeches on the topic during Cloud Confex that will feature representatives from the likes of Google, HP, IBM, Oracle and telecom operator etisalat.
"In cloud products there is a lot of new stuff coming. With hotmail, and new Skydrive with 25GB, and how you can manage your internet connections and software in a secure manner — this is big for us with the Internet Explorer," said Charbel Fakhoury, regional general manager of Microsoft Gulf, as the company prepares to launch Internet Explorer 9.
Within the cloud, he said, the company is working to serve enterprises within the consumer space that require secure and reliable cloud services.
"The take-up [of cloud] will be fast. In the past six months we have seen major interest. Last year was a learning period.
"Now everyone is planning on what the benefits are and when to adopt it," Fakhoury said.
While the show will probably lack any groundbreaking announcements, some industry top guns will visit Dubai, realising the importance of the region and the emerging markets it connects to such as those in Africa and the Indian sub-continent.
A last-minute announcement said Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive of Research in Motion, will be here to share insights on the mobile industry in the Middle East and to provide an update on the latest BlackBerry product developments.
But unofficially, everyone is hoping he will touch on the resolution of the UAE's concerns about access to BlackBerry data, as well as the same concern by Saudi Arabia and India.
Facebook's director of market development Randi Zuckerberg will speak on how social networks and social media are being used in government and business. Steve Guggenheimer, Microsoft's corporate vice-president, will talk on innovations and their resulting opportunities that the company offers.
On the local front, government entities will be making some moves of their own in technology, as they adopt the next "best thing" from international leaders.
The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Auth-ority (TRA) will be moving to a new phase of its dotEmarat project, encouraging companies and individuals to register with the regulator, according to TRA deputy director-general Majid Sultan Ahmad Al Mesmar.
As competition increases on registered names, he said an auction phase would be held, generating revenues for the authority.
Gitex is considered the premier exhibition in the region, and IT companies are looking forward to as much exposure as possible for new technology, and new customers and new ways to keep the industry on the growth path.
"As we pursue increased creativity and development to keep pace with the unwavering progression of information technology, we will continue to intensify our efforts to serve as a transformational catalyst in this fast moving sector," said Helal Saeed Al Merri, chief executive officer of the Dubai World Trade Centre, organiser of the event.
Will you be visiting GITEX? Are you interested in purchasing the latest models of your favourite products? Do you think technology is moving too fast?
