Cities represent 54 per cent of the world’s population today, a figure which will grow to 70 per cent by 2050
By 2025, the population of the GCC is predicted to reach 57 million, with an additional 14 million people expected to call the region home by 2050. Traditional urban environments are typically not designed to accommodate a growing population, particularly in terms of infrastructure and sustainability. That is why the region’s move towards smart city environments is more important than ever before, and why the service industry must step up to play its role in the transition.
Read more: GCC: How sustainable urban development can lead to smart city environments
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) data centre market is expected to reach revenues of over $2 billion by 2025 with a cumulative revenue opportunity for data centre power infrastructure providers of $1 billion during 2019-2025, as previously highlighted by The Fintech Times. One country looking to boost its data centres is Saudi Arabia.
Managed services such as data storage, data maintenance, and remote access to applications have seen significant growth in Saudi Arabia in recent years. This is in line with Saudi Telecoms Company’s (STC) plans to build 12 new data storage facilities by 2022 to replace their legacy systems, while the country’s private sector businesses look to take advantage of the opportunity to outsource operations to reduce in-house operational costs related to managing data.
Read more: GCC: One Country In The Middle East is Increasing Their Data Centres
A new generation of connected smart services redefine the way organisations in the Middle East approach customer experience management
There is a clear recognition among public and private sector leaders that giving customers a better, more relevant experience through technology differentiates them from their competitors.
Read more: GCC: Three essentials for digital customer experience success
A cybersecurity platform for analysing malware was launched during the sixth GCC eGovernment Ministerial Committee meeting, held via video conference by the general secretariat in Riyadh. In attendance were ministers, chief executives and director-generals of GCC eGovernment programmes.
Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa deputised Information and eGovernment Authority chief executive Mohammed Ali Al Qaed to participate in the conference. The platform provides dynamic analysis to detect malware stored on servers, helping to unify and coordinate GCC countries’ efforts to ensure security and information protection.
A global ranking have them lagging far behind their Asian and European competition
Quite disappointingly, the Gulf states have not achieved outstanding results in the 2018 report concerning internet speeds. The best performance among Arab nations was Bahrain’s, but it could place only 90th worldwide, far behind South Asia and Europe, according to rankings compiled by cable.co.uk.
Read more: GCC: Gulf states need to work on their web speeds