The UAE is ripe for further development of the Internet of Things and IT security but will not quickly become a key market for cloud computing, according to Dell Technologies.
Dermott O’Connell, the vice president and general manager of OEM and IoT solutions for Emea at Dell EMC, a unit of Dell Technologies, says there are two primary drivers at work in the tech sector in the UAE. “There’s two big things; IoT is huge and security and surveillance is huge and we’re very active in both those areas. The others I think are at that incubation stage, such as cloud,” he says.
"We actually opened up there [in late 2015] with an original equipment manufacturer [OEM] team and a couple of things stood out for us – IoT specifically because of the ambition to be the best and to be an early mover – there's a 'yes we can and yes we will and if it's wrong we'll fix it' attitude. In other countries there's an 'ah well, we'll wait until somebody else had figured it all out'," Mr O'Connell told The National at the recent Dell EMC World conference in Austin, Texas.
After Dell closed the biggest deal in IT history in September with its $60 billion acquisition of the storage and security major EMC to form Dell Technologies, a privately owned business with $74bn in revenue, one Emirates-based firm has been quick to reap the benefit.
This month, the Abu Dhabi-based physical security and ICT [information and communication technologies] solutions company SecureTech announced a major collaboration with Dell. The company is now an OEM channel partner for the US-based tech conglomerate. “As a result of the recent Dell and EMC integration, customers are able to … take advantage of the wider portfolio and expertise provided by EMC,” says Abdulla Al Neaimi, the founder and chief executive of SecureTech.
The India-based firm company MarketsandMarkets said in a recent report that the global security industry will be worth some about US$116 billion by 2019 with security services including consulting, hardware and software support and outsourcing adding a further $73bn. This country has become a hotbed for cutting-edge technology development with companies such as DarkMatter, the international cyber-security firm headquartered here, and numerous cyber software and internet-orientated firms now operating at Dubai Internet City.
Mr Al Neaimi adds: “The Dell EMC OEM and IoT solutions team provide powerful additions to our capabilities to address the changing technology landscape.”
The agreement with SecureTech will allow the company to further its IoT development, says Mr Al Neaimi. “Similar to the perception of cloud offerings when we entered the industry, IoT is an area that requires a high level of education and engagement in order for organisations to take advantage of the benefits.”
Dell regards the UAE and wider region as a critical plank in the company’s global business.
"The GCC has been a phenomenal market now for at least a decade, if not longer," Adrian McDonald, the London-based president for Dell EMC Enterprise Emea, told The National at the Austin, Texas event.
“There’s been a good deal of growth in IT spend. It’s been a great source of development for us. The ambitions of the leadership has been phenomenal, for example, smart cities – Dubai springs to mind, Masdar. Places such as Abu Dhabi, Qatar, are probably world-leading, so it’s been a very fertile market for us. Our hub is Dubai, so we work out of there, we have a very large business in Abu Dhabi. All of our infrastructure, all of our intelligentsia and educational services, are run from Dubai.”
Mr O’Connell concurs: “There’s a huge amount of interest in the whole smart city area – how can we make these the most attractive places, and making them attractive is partially aesthetics – you don’t want to be blocked up in traffic for three hours, for instance. We see a huge amount of activity going on in that space. The ambition is amazing.”
However, Mr McDonald acknowledges that the fall in oil prices has affected the tech sector here. “In the GCC, IT growth for the past 12 to 18 months has been a pause for breath, shall we say – on government spending on big IT projects,” he says.
Still, he says the Emirates, and Dubai in particular has evolved into a major force in the tech sector in its own right, rather than acting simply a conduit for companies from East and West.
“It used to be like a Hong Kong of the Middle East, but now it’s actually a centre in its own right – it’s a place where people meet, to discuss and do business,” says the London-based Mr McDonald.
“I’m in conferences in Dubai the whole time: it’s a place where intellectual capital is higher than most other areas.” Dell has long had a presence in this country and is involved in a wide range of sectors.
“Traditionally we’ve been very strong on finance, we’ve been very strong in telcos, we are very strong in Dubai in government – be it defence, be it police, be it health care,” says Mr McDonald. “We are a big investor.”
However, he says, the company’s approach towards state authorities has been tempered to reflect local sensitivities, particularly in relation to cloud technology.
“Yes, there are different sensitivities, especially around security issues,” Mr McDonald says.
“The approach from the market then is different. For the most part I don’t see businesses in the UAE using public cloud. There is a need and it will develop. We work with the likes of Etisalat, du, who are providing those types of services into the market and they build it on their own equipment.
“So the use of public cloud for the near term will be less aggressive in the UAE than it would be in certainly America, the UK.
“However, we’ll work through local partners, which is one level of trust. For the most part people want to use cloud content so they can do it themselves. Lots of people are doing it that way, they’re enjoying the benefits of the technology and they’re not taking the risks of putting it into the public realm. Ten years from now that may be different.
UAE state entities the company works with include police forces such as Sharjah Police.
“We also work with Dubai Police, Abu Dhabi Police, they’re long-term customers,” says Mr McDonald. “We do all of their information infrastructure. The applications are important to them and like any other police force in the world they’re now moving to things like body-worn cameras, CCTV. Surveillance is a big subject in the Middle East in general and no less in the GCC.
“We have local experts in Dubai who just do video surveillance, for example. We help build out those information architectures and specific applications.”
Mr O’Connell points out that the company is also involved in major industrial applications, such as factory robot systems.
“There is a lot of intelligence in there and we provide the technology that makes them run efficiently, so they don’t crash into other robots or damage the product, for instance. We supply a huge amount of that IT that handles all those robots and runs all those systems.
“Right now it’s the IoT projects [that is a driving force for development]. We take, say, an internet gateway – that is a $1,000 kind of product – but somebody says ‘that has to go on the side of a sludge pump in a mine’, for instance. And you probably couldn’t find anywhere worse to put this poor computer than in a sludge pump in a mine.”
Something like that may take a year or so to build, he says, adding that the end product might end up “looking like something from Terminator”.
With the creation of Dell Technologies, the founder of the original firm and the chief executive of the new entity, Michael Dell, has pinned his hopes on the continued acceleration of IoT.
“We are at the dawn of the next industrial revolution,” he says.
“Our world is becoming more intelligent and more connected by the minute, and ultimately will become intertwined with a vast Internet of Things, paving the way for our customers to do incredible things.”
And it seems increasingly possible that the UAE is where many of those things will be developed.
chnelson@thenational.ae
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