Sharjah Maritime Academy’s Muhammad Affan on redefining the CIO role through strategy, governance, and intelligent transformation
26 BUILDING INTELLIGENT DEFENCES
Securonix’s Ajay Biyani on redefining SIEM with agentic AI and unified threat operations
32 BEYOND DEVICES
HP’s Ertug Ayik on why the future of work is centred on experience, not hardware
24 THE SNOWBALL EFFECT
JAGGAER on how AI-driven procurement prevents cost overruns from derailing ambition
54 MASTERING ENTERPRISE AI MATURITY
ServiceNow outlines the attributes that separate AI Pacesetters from the rest
58 The latest gears and gadgets to keep you ahead of the curve
THE FABRIC OF RESILIENCE
Allied Telesis’ Dr Sachie Oshima on the future of enterprise networking as the company deepens its Middle East footprint
Published by
THE GREAT REWIRING
This month’s issue arrives at a time when technology infrastructure is quietly taking centre stage. What was once regarded as background machinery has become a strategic differentiator — shaping national competitiveness, enterprise resilience, and the pace at which innovation can responsibly scale. Across the Middle East, governments and organisations are rearchitecting their digital foundations with a clarity of purpose that reflects this shift.
Our cover feature with Allied Telesis’ Dr Sachie Oshima captures this transition with precision. She outlines how networks have evolved into the fabric that determines governability, continuity, and long-term adaptability. Her perspective echoes what many CIOs now recognise: infrastructure is no longer a technical layer; it is a core pillar of strategy.
Elsewhere in this issue, experts from Vertiv, HP, Securonix, and others share valuable perspectives on navigating the next chapter of enterprise transformation — from strengthening cybersecurity and modernising digital infrastructure to elevating employee experience and reimagining partner ecosystems. Their insights reflect an industry responding to rapid change with pragmatism and purpose.
In our Spotlight section, Sharjah Maritime Academy’s Muhammad Affan reflects on his career journey and the principles that have shaped his success — demonstrating how leadership, governance, and resilience now sit at the heart of the modern CIO’s role.
This edition also features the winners of the ICT Leadership Awards 2025 — a celebration of the region’s most impactful technology leaders and organisations. Turn to page 34 to meet this year’s honourees.
As you explore this issue, strong digital foundations emerge as the elements that shape how organisations move forward. They create clarity, stability, and direction for everything that follows. When infrastructure is treated as a core part of strategy, organisations gain the ability to scale confidently, govern effectively, and make technology decisions with intent.
While the publisher has made all efforts to ensure the accuracy of information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors
AI’s appetite is unsustainable: NTT DATA
A new NTT DATA white paper cautioned that AI’s soaring demand for energy, water, and rare-earth materials is environmentally unsustainable, with data centres projected to consume over 50 percent of global power by 2028. The report called for urgent adoption of green AI practices and circular technology frameworks.
Emirates rolled out a biometric travel system at Dubai International Airport, featuring over 200 facial recognition cameras in Terminal 3. The AED 85 million project enables passengers to move through check-in, immigration, lounges, and boarding using facial recognition, offering a faster, contactless journey in collaboration with GDRFAD Dubai.
Vertiv has announced a leadership transition with Paul Ryan appointed as President for EMEA, effective January 1, 2026, succeeding Karsten Winther, who will retire at the end of 2025. CEO Giordano Albertazzi praised Winther’s leadership and expressed confidence in Ryan’s ability to drive the company’s next phase of regional growth.
Set for 18–23 December 2025 at ADNEC, Games of the Future 2025 will blend physical and digital sports, featuring phygital football, basketball, and drone racing. The event celebrates community, creativity, and youth empowerment, positioning the UAE as a global hub for next-generation, tech-driven sports.
Snap Inc. has opened a new office in Msheireb Downtown Doha, reinforcing its commitment to the Middle East’s digital economy. The launch, attended by Evan Spiegel and Sheikh Jassim bin Mansour Al Thani, aims to boost Qatar’s creator ecosystem and strengthen regional engagement across AR and digital advertising.
Axis Communications has appointed Loubna Imenchal as Regional Director for the Middle East and Africa. With over 20 years of leadership experience at global tech firms, she will spearhead growth, strengthen partnerships, and advance diversity and innovation across the region’s security and surveillance technology market.
Snap Inc. lands in Doha to power creator economy
Vertiv names Paul Ryan as new EMEA president
Axis Communications appoints Loubna Imenchal drive MEA growth
Abu Dhabi to unite sports and tech at Games of the Future 2025
Emirates rolls out biometric travel at DXB
UAE AI Office, Google launch “AI for All” to boost tech skills
The UAE Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications Office, in collaboration with Google, launched the ‘AI for All’
initiative as part of the UAE Codes 2025 event to enhance digital and AI literacy nationwide.
His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, said the partnership “reflects the UAE Government’s forward-looking vision, centred on empowering society to leverage the potential of artificial intelligence.” He described it as “an outstanding model of collaboration between the government and private sectors.”
Anthony Nakache, Managing Director, Google MENA, said, “Our collaboration with the UAE’s Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications Office on the ‘AI for All Initiative’ is built on a shared belief – AI’s benefits must be accessible to all. This initiative is part of our ongoing commitment to helping more people to leverage AI and make the most of the technology.”
Our collaboration... is built on a shared belief – AI’s benefits must be accessible to all
The programme included training on responsible AI use, prompt engineering, and creative applications, while SMEs received guidance on adopting AI for growth. Google also offered university students a year’s free access to Gemini 2.5, its most advanced AI model, reinforcing the UAE’s ambition to become a global hub for innovation and digital talent.
Oman steps up semiconductor strategy with $20 million investment
company Movandi, marking a key step in the Sultanate’s efforts to strengthen its semiconductor ecosystem.
The investment aligned with Oman Vision 2040, aiming to build capabilities in advanced technologies such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and next-generation wireless infrastructure. As part of the agreement, Movandi planned to establish a regional hub in Muscat to support research and development, collaboration, and talent development.
ITHCA said the partnership would “accelerate Oman’s position as a hub for high-tech industries” and facilitate technology transfer in the region. Movandi, known for its innovations in RF chipsets, beamforming systems, and satellite communications, stated that the new hub would enable it to “expand global reach while contributing to local innovation.”
The move positioned Oman as an emerging player in the global semiconductor landscape.
(LtoR) HE Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence; and Anthony Nakache, Managing Director, Google MENA
ANTHONY NAKACHE Google MENA
Saudi Aramco to acquire minority stake in PIF-backed AI firm HUMAIN
Saudi Aramco signed a non-binding term sheet with the Public Investment Fund (PIF) to acquire a significant minority stake in HUMAIN, Saudi Arabia’s national artificial intelligence company. PIF retained majority ownership in the company, which was launched in May 2025 to advance the Kingdom’s AI ambitions.
Under the agreement, PIF and Aramco aimed to combine their AI assets, capabilities, and talent under HUMAIN to
accelerate innovation and position Saudi Arabia as a leading global hub for artificial intelligence. The partnership was designed to strengthen the country’s full-stack AI ecosystem, encompassing advanced data centres, cloud infrastructure, large-scale language models, and industry-specific AI applications.
Yazeed A. Al-Humied, Deputy Governor and Head of MENA Investments, PIF, said, “By combining PIF and Aramco’s AI assets under HUMAIN, we are fuelling AI talent, innovation and intellectual property, while aligning and accelerating future investment opportunities.”
Amin H. Nasser, President and CEO, Aramco, said, “Aramco’s planned investment in HUMAIN is expected to further strengthen our leadership in industrial AI applications and digital solutions, while accelerating the development of Saudi Arabia’s AI infrastructure and driving national transformation.”
The deal underscored the growing role of AI in the Kingdom’s economic transformation and its broader strategy to localise emerging technologies through major national partnerships.
NVIDIA becomes first chipmaker to reach $5 trillion valuation
NVIDIA became the first semiconductor company to reach a $5 trillion market valuation, marking a new milestone in the global technology sector. The company’s shares surged to record highs, driven by unrelenting demand for its advanced chips that power artificial intelligence systems, data centres, and next-generation computing infrastructure.
The achievement positioned NVIDIA as one of the world’s most valuable companies, alongside tech giants such as Apple and Microsoft. The company’s stock performance reflected investor confidence in its dominance of the AI hardware market, particularly in the production of GPUs used for training and deploying large language models and generative AI applications.
Analysts said NVIDIA’s valuation underscored the growing influence of AI across industries, from cloud computing
and autonomous vehicles to scientific research. The milestone also highlighted how the company had become central to the global AI supply chain, with its technology shaping digital transformation strategies worldwide. Despite concerns about market
concentration and geopolitical tensions affecting semiconductor supply chains, NVIDIA’s rise reaffirmed investor optimism that the AI boom would continue to fuel long-term growth and redefine the competitive landscape of the global technology industry.
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Sheikh Hamdan unveils new AI initiatives to boost Dubai’s digital transformation
initiatives included
Executive
approved a new package of artificial intelligence initiatives to accelerate Dubai’s digital transformation and solidify its position as a global technology hub.
AI Infrastructure Empowerment Platform, designed to provide a secure, integrated digital environment for government entities to adopt AI, and the establishment of the Dubai AI Acceleration Taskforce to strengthen collaboration and expedite
Dubai Crown Prince also approved the Unicorn 30 Programme to fast-track 30 startups to unicorn status with 80 global partners
the implementation of AI strategies.
Sheikh Hamdan also approved the Unicorn 30 Programme, developed by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, which aimed to accelerate 30 emerging companies to unicorn status in partnership with 80 local and international firms.
Sheikh Hamdan said the move reflected Dubai’s commitment to becoming “the world’s fastest, smartest and most prepared city to adopt future technologies,” guided by the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
The meeting also reviewed progress on several digital economy projects, including the Dubai PropTech Hub, and discussed preparations for GITEX Global 2026, which will be held at Expo City Dubai, reinforcing the emirate’s leadership in shaping the global digital future.
Cisco, G42 deepen UAE-US tech ties to build a secure AI framework
Cisco and G42 announced an expanded collaboration to develop secure, high-performance AI infrastructure in the UAE. Cisco
agreed to power and secure a largescale AI cluster featuring AMD’s MI350X GPUs and will serve as technology integrator within G42’s
Regulated Technology Environment.
“This collaboration with Cisco represents the next phase of deepening trust and technological alignment between the US and UAE,” said Peng Xiao, Group CEO, G42.
Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO, Cisco, added, “Together, we are building the foundation for a future driven by responsible and impactful innovation.”
The initiative aligned with the US–UAE AI Acceleration Partnership, including the 1GW Stargate UAE cluster and a planned 5GW AI campus. Dr. Lisa Su, AMD Chair and CEO, said AMD’s accelerators would “advance secure, sovereign AI innovation.”
Cisco research indicated that 92 percent of UAE organisations planned to deploy AI agents, but only 25 percent had sufficient GPU capacity — a gap the partnership aimed to close.
His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The
Council,
(LtoR) Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO, Cisco; and Peng Xiao, Group CEO, G42
The
the launch of the
“WE ARE IN A CONSTANT RACE TO ENHANCE THE READINESS OF OUR GOVERNMENT ENTITIES NOT ONLY TO KEEP PACE WITH FUTURE TRANSFORMATIONS BUT ALSO TO MAKE THE MOST OF AI TOOLS IN DELIVERING SERVICES THAT ARE MORE EFFICIENT, SECURE, AND INNOVATIVE, IN LINE WITH THE DUBAI ECONOMIC AGENDA (D33)”
HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the UAE, and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai
“OUR COLLABORATION WITH THE UAE AI OFFICE ON THE ‘AI FOR ALL INITIATIVE’ IS BUILT ON A SHARED BELIEF – AI’S BENEFITS MUST BE ACCESSIBLE TO ALL. THIS INITIATIVE IS PART OF OUR ONGOING COMMITMENT TO HELPING MORE PEOPLE TO LEVERAGE AI AND MAKE THE MOST OF THE TECHNOLOGY”
Anthony Nakache, Managing Director, Google MENA
RETAIL’S CYBER BLIND SPOT
Unseen vulnerabilities have emerged as the retail sector’s biggest cybersecurity weakness, fuelling nearly half of all ransomware attacks, according to Sophos’ State of Ransomware in Retail 2025 report.
The study, based on responses from IT and cybersecurity leaders in 16 countries, highlights how blind spots and operational constraints continue to undermine retailers’ digital resilience, even as their defensive capabilities improve in other areas.
According to the report, 46 percent of ransomware attacks began with an unknown security gap, reflecting ongoing challenges in visibility and asset management. Of those affected, 58 percent of retailers whose data was encrypted chose to pay the ransom – the second-highest rate recorded in five years. The median ransom demand has risen sharply to US$2 million, twice that of the previous year, while the average payment now stands at US$1 million, up five percent from 2024.
Technical weaknesses continue to play a critical role. Thirty per cent of incidents exploited known vulnerabilities, marking the third consecutive year that unpatched systems have been the leading technical cause of compromise. Limited in-house expertise (45 percent) and protection coverage gaps (44 percent) were identified as the main operational shortcomings, leaving organisations unable to detect or contain attacks swiftly.
Chester Wisniewski, global field CISO at Sophos, notes that retailers are facing a more complex threat environment in which attackers increasingly target remote access systems and internet-facing infrastructure. “With ransom demands reaching new highs, the need to implement comprehensive security strategies is even more apparent,” he says. “Without this, retailers risk ongoing operational disruption and lasting reputational damage.”
Over the past year, Sophos X-Ops observed close to 90 ransomware or extortion groups targeting retail organisations, with Akira, Cl0p, Qilin, PLAY and Lynx among the most active. Ransomware remains the leading threat, followed by account compromise and business email compromise attempts designed to divert payments.
There are some encouraging signs. The proportion of attacks resulting in encryption has dropped to 48 percent, the lowest in five years, while the average cost of recovery – excluding ransom payments – has fallen by 40 percent to US$1.65 million. Many retailers are also pushing back on inflated demands; 59 percent paid less than the initial ransom ask.
However, attackers are changing tactics. Extortion-only attacks, which focus on data theft and blackmail rather than encryption, have tripled since 2023 to six percent of all incidents. Fewer organisations are restoring data from backups, with the recovery rate down to 62 percent, its lowest in four years.
Wisniewski emphasises that risk management, visibility, and continuous monitoring must form the backbone of any effective security strategy. Retailers that combine strong asset management, rigorous patching, and managed detection and response services, he says, “prevent more and recover faster.”
The proportion of retail ransomware attacks that originated from unknown security gaps
million
The median ransom demand faced by retail organisations in 2025
The rate of affected retailers that paid the ransom after data encryption
THE FABRIC OF RESILIENCE
Dr Sachie Oshima, Chair and CEO, Allied Telesis, shares insights into the future of enterprise networking as the company expands its footprint in the Middle East, delivering the infrastructure that connects industries and drives digital transformation
In the hierarchy of modern enterprise infrastructure, networking has become the decisive layer of competitiveness. Once treated as background plumbing, it now determines whether an organisation can operate across jurisdictions, defend its data estate, satisfy sovereign regulations, and deliver services without fragility. Transformation no longer depends on how fast a business can deploy applications but on whether its infrastructure can remain governable as it grows. The CIO’s remit has shifted from performance to resilience—and that evolution has changed the way technology companies define value.
Allied Telesis has matured within this shift. Founded in Japan in 1987, the company today operates in more than 100 countries, supported by 2,000 employees and an equal number of channel partners serving over 5,000 enterprise customers. Its 66 percent growth over the past five years reflects a conviction that networks are not scaffolding technologies but institutional dependencies.
Dr Sachie Oshima, CEO and Chair at Allied Telesis, interprets this transition as something far deeper than a technology cycle. The responsibilities of CIOs have expanded from maintaining uptime to guaranteeing resilience, compliance, and long-term adaptability. That weight, she says, defines how Allied Telesis approaches engineering and strategy. “As digital transformation accelerates, CIOs face the challenge of building networks that are secure and reliable, but also adaptable to tomorrow’s demands. At Allied Telesis, our mission is clear: to deliver infrastructures that empower organisations to innovate with confidence,” she says.
Visibility amid complexity
Enterprise infrastructure planning has become inseparable from risk management. A report by IDC revealed that in 2025, 60 percent of infrastructure, security, data and
network offerings require cloudbased control platforms with extensive automation, showing that the market’s priority has shifted from speed to governability. Meanwhile, Gartner found that 63 percent of boards globally now rank data sovereignty among their top five digital risks, confirming that infrastructure has entered the boardroom as a strategic concern rather than a budget line.
Allied Telesis answers this new reality through architectural coherence. The company’s design philosophy treats the network not as a collection of components but as a unified fabric that must remain stable even as its surroundings
evolve. Oshima summarises that vision succinctly: “What sets us apart is our vision of unified enterprise and industrial networks that bring clarity and control to complex IT environments,” she explains.
That vision rests on three operational imperatives—flexibility, security, and reliability—each approached as a structural constant rather than a differentiator.
“Networks that adapt seamlessly to today’s requirements while evolving with tomorrow’s technologies... end-to-end protection that extends across the supply chain and into deployment, ensuring networks remain safe... continuous availability that keeps organisations running
As digital transformation accelerates, CIOs face the challenge of building networks that are secure and reliable, but also adaptable to tomorrow’s demands
without disruption,” Oshima says, describing the qualities CIOs now equate with continuity itself.
The company’s One View platform embodies these ideas. Instead of multiplying monitoring tools, it consolidates governance across both enterprise and industrial networks, giving IT leaders a single control plane for oversight and automation.
“For CIOs, network complexity often translates into risk. Managing fragmented tools across enterprise and industrial environments not only drains resources but also limits agility,” Oshima says. Through simplification, Allied Telesis reframes efficiency as resilience.
Openness as strategic discipline
Interoperability has become the measure of longevity for modern infrastructure. As cloud, operational technology, and national regulations converge, the ability to integrate across ecosystems determines whether systems remain relevant.
Allied Telesis has long regarded openness as a design discipline that
preserves customer sovereignty.
“Equally important, our solutions are open by design, ensuring seamless integration with thirdparty platforms and emerging technologies,” Oshima explains.
That principle has informed the company’s global expansion, especially in the Gulf, where digitisation programmes are reshaping economies and governments alike. As transformation accelerates, regional leaders are demanding technology partners that build capacity on the ground instead of providing remote support. Allied Telesis’ planned new office in Saudi Arabia reflects this expectation.
“As part of our global growth strategy, we have strengthened our footprint in the Middle East and will be launching a new office in Saudi Arabia,” Oshima says.
The facility will anchor technical expertise and support infrastructure close to major customers, improving service continuity and response times. “This expansion reflects our commitment to delivering localised
As part of our global growth strategy, we have strengthened our footprint in the Middle East and will be launching a new office in Saudi Arabia
support and faster response times for customers and partners across the Gulf,” she adds.
The office will double as a collaboration hub for distributors, integrators, and service providers, ensuring regional projects benefit from shared capability rather than isolated deployments. “The
new office will act as a regional hub for partner programmes and collaboration, enabling closer engagement with distributors and system integrators in key industries,” Oshima notes.
The Allied Telesis Partner Network (APN) amplifies this localised strategy by giving partners access to training, certification, and lifecycle support. The initiative is designed to align with regional frameworks such as Saudi Vision 2030 and UAE Digital Government Strategy, which both prioritise national infrastructure resilience. “Through initiatives such as the Allied Telesis Partner Network, CIOs gain access to partners equipped with the training, tools, and resources to deliver consistent technical standards and reliable aftersales support,” Oshima says.
Infrastructure as the foundation of digital ambition
The company’s long-term edge lies in its upstream sovereignty. While many networking vendors outsource production, Allied Telesis maintains
ownership of its manufacturing chain. For customers in regulated or criticalinfrastructure sectors, that traceability provides the assurance that each component can be verified from origin to deployment.
“Ongoing investments in research, development, and manufacturing— anchored by global collaborations and owned production facilities— strengthen a promise that defines the company: The network always fits. The network is always safe. The network is always on,” Oshima emphasises.
This stance positions Allied Telesis as a natural ally for nations pursuing sovereign digital transformation. By controlling its entire supply chain, the company aligns itself with customers that design infrastructure not for market cycles but for generational stability. The approach resonates particularly in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, where data-sovereign infrastructure is central to economic diversification and smart-city development. “Allied Telesis delivers more than technology—it delivers
partnership. In a world where IT networks must do more than connect, Allied Telesis builds the infrastructures that drive business forward,” Oshima concludes.
Across emerging digital economies, infrastructure is being recast from an operational layer to a strategic one. The organisations that view networks as instruments of stability rather than cost centres are building advantages that outlast product cycles. For Allied Telesis, this philosophy shapes every design decision and regional investment—building for governance before scale, for continuity before acceleration, and for trust before transformation. In an age where innovation can outpace control, the company stands as an anchor— engineering the resilience that digital ambition demands. As the Middle East accelerates its transformation journey, Allied Telesis’ growing presence reflects a clear purpose: to build infrastructures that connect industries, sustain innovation, and strengthen the region’s digital foundations.
THE SNOWBALL EFFECT
By Hany Mosbeh (Don), Senior Vice President – MEAPAC, JAGGAER
US$4.5 billion – that staggering figure is what the META region invested in artificial intelligence last year alone. And AI is just one area where ambition soars. In construction, the world’s most grandiose projects are underway, from record-breaking towers to entire cities built from scratch. In hospitality, the GCC alone is projected to add more than 400,000 new hotel rooms by 2030. In aviation, orders for next-generation fleets run into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The list
goes on and all of it points to one clear reality: ambition is now the defining characteristic of the region.
Yet if ambition is boundless, budgets are not. And therein lies the tension. For every futuristic skyline, every groundbreaking digital service, every leap forward in science and technology, there lurks a quieter but more persistent challenge: cost overruns.
The silent killer of ambition
When cost overruns hit the headlines, they usually appear as a single, staggering number. But behind those numbers are stories of bold visions slowed, altered, or abandoned. Consider Berlin Brandenburg Airport, a project intended to symbolise Germany’s modern efficiency. Years of mismanagement and spiralling costs eventually saw it delayed by nearly a decade and overrun by more than US$4.7 billion. Or take Boston’s “Big Dig,” once hailed as the most ambitious infrastructure project in the United States. Its budget swelled from US$2.8 billion to nearly US$15 billion, leading to scaled-back plans and decades of financial strain.
Examples such as these can be found across the globe, illustrating a universal truth: ambition
Too often viewed as a back-office function, procurement is in fact the discipline that stops small leaks from becoming floods
Far from being a brake on progress, procurement can be the accelerator. When handled strategically, it ensures that budgets stretch further, projects remain viable, and resources are deployed to fuel innovation rather than to cover waste. And today, with artificial intelligence transforming the procurement function, organisations in the Middle East have the means to control costs with unprecedented precision.
So how can procurement teams act as the first line of defence against runaway costs? The answer lies in harnessing AIdriven approaches that transform procurement from reactive to proactive, offering foresight and control where it matters most.
See clearly, spend wisely
alone is never enough. Projects falter not because the vision is flawed, but because costs snowball quietly until they reach an unstoppable momentum. By the time the headlines appear, the damage has already been done.
This snowball effect is the silent killer of ambition. It rarely begins with dramatic failures, but with small inefficiencies that accumulate unnoticed, gathering weight until they bury even the grandest designs.
Procurement: Ambition’s shield
If the snowball effect is ambition’s hidden enemy, procurement is its hidden shield. Too often viewed as a back-office function, procurement is in fact the discipline that stops small leaks from becoming floods. It is where ambition’s bold ideas are grounded in financial reality, not to constrain them, but to ensure they survive and thrive.
One of the most fundamental challenges in procurement has always been visibility. Without consistent, accurate classification of spend, organisations are left in the dark about where money is going. Historically, this work has been time-consuming and errorprone, relying on manual data entry and subjective judgement.
AI changes this by automating the classification of spend across suppliers, departments, and purchase types. The benefits are immediate: greater accuracy, time saved, and the ability to generate reliable insights. For example, a leading telecommunications company in the region has used AI to categorise its spend in real time, giving procurement leaders a clear view of inefficiencies and enabling them to redirect funds more strategically. What once felt like a bookkeeping chore becomes a strategic advantage.
Pick out the patterns
The true power of AI lies in its ability to detect patterns that human eyes might miss. By analysing historical spending data, AI can highlight inefficiencies such as fragmented buying,
maverick spending, or recurring overpayments. It can also flag suppliers whose costs are escalating or who pose a reliability risk.
This pattern recognition turns procurement into a proactive force. Instead of reacting after costs have spiralled, organisations can intervene early, consolidating purchases, renegotiating contracts, or shifting to more reliable suppliers. The result is not just reduced waste, but stronger supplier relationships built on data-driven trust.
Plan tomorrow’s spend, today
The third way AI empowers procurement is through predictive analytics. Rather than relying on guesswork or past behaviour alone, AI models draw on historical data, market trends, and external variables to forecast future demand and spending. For procurement teams, this means being able to anticipate changes before they occur. Whether it is identifying seasonal demand spikes, preparing for market shifts, or spotting opportunities for bulk purchasing, predictive analytics turns procurement into a forwardlooking strategy. By planning with foresight, organisations can avoid overcommitting resources, sidestep shortages, and seize cost-saving opportunities in advance.
Ambition without limits
The Middle East’s ambitions are too great to be derailed by something as avoidable as the snowball effect of cost overruns. The snowball effect may be ambition’s hidden enemy, but it is also a challenge that can be overcome. With the right tools and mindset, procurement becomes the shield that protects innovation and the engine that drives it forward. Ambition in the Middle East knows no bounds. And with smarter procurement, neither should achievement.
BUILDING INTELLIGENT DEFENCES
Ajay Biyani, Vice President – APJ, India, Middle East & Africa, Securonix, discusses how the company is strengthening its regional partnerships and advancing its long-term vision to redefine cybersecurity with AI-driven innovation
How is Securonix redefining SIEM to meet the needs of modern security operations?
Today, organisations face the twin challenges of defending against an ever-expanding attack surface and addressing the growing cybersecurity talent gap. To meet these demands, Securonix has introduced the Unified Defense SIEM — the first platform powered by agentic AI that redefines how modern security operations are run.
The platform handles large-scale data requirements through an adaptable storage model powered by Data Pipeline Manager, which optimises how data is ingested, stored, and accessed across the platform. Securonix has consistently led the evolution of SIEM — first with User and Entity Behaviour Analytics (UEBA), then through a cloud-native architecture, and now with agentic AI. Each innovation follows the same principle: helping security teams achieve more with less cost and complexity.
That spirit of innovation continues with the ThreatQuotient acquisition, embedding advanced threat intelligence capabilities directly into the Securonix platform to enrich detections, automate investigations, and provide analysts with deeper context for faster, more effective response.
Purpose-built to decide and act across the threat lifecycle, the Securonix human-in-the-loop approach combines precision, speed, and scale to keep teams breach-ready and empower SOC analysts. The cloud-native platform unifies advanced behavioural analytics, curated threat intelligence, and autonomous response to accelerate detection, reduce risk, and eliminate alert fatigue.
With 365 days of searchable data, executive-ready reporting, and ROI-linked metrics, Securonix also makes organisations board-ready. The platform acts as a modern SOC operating system — AI-powered, outcome-driven, and designed to deliver measurable security impact while reducing mean time to respond (MTTR).
AI plays a central role in your platform — could you explain the concept of “human-in-the-loop” and how your AI approach stands apart from others in the industry?
Securonix Unified Defense SIEM is powered by agentic AI, purpose-built to decide and act across the threat lifecycle using a human-in-the-loop philosophy. This collaborative model combines the speed and scalability of AI with the critical thinking of human analysts.
Agentic AI works alongside security teams rather than replacing them. Analysts maintain full visibility and control, with AI providing explainable decisions, guided responses, and tunable workflows at every step. The system automates much of the workload but always allows human intervention — AI flags actions, provides context, and awaits analyst approval or adjustment before executing key responses.
At Securonix, AI is designed to empower human expertise. Analysts remain at the centre of operations, with AI acting as an intelligent assistant that enhances judgment and efficiency. Modular agents automate repetitive tasks, surface enriched insights, and accelerate decisionmaking, freeing analysts to focus on more complex issues.
This approach ensures transparency, trust, and adaptability. Agents learn from analyst input, improving over time.
What is the “Agentic Mesh,” and how does it enhance detection and response capabilities?
The Agentic Mesh is a coordination layer within the Securonix platform that allows modular AI agents to share memory, context, and decision points in real time. This open architecture enables agent-to-agent communication, not only within Securonix but across third-party tools and ecosystems.
Using standards-based protocols and APIs, the mesh allows agents to exchange data, trigger actions, and collaborate seamlessly with any compatible system. This interoperability extends the reach of Securonix’s intelligence beyond its
own platform — integrating with the broader security environment.
The Agentic Mesh represents a fundamental shift in how SOCs operate, moving from reactive monitoring to autonomous, adaptive intelligence with human oversight. It allows agents to operate independently, gather and contextualise information, and await human validation before executing impactful actions.
Within this ecosystem, agents register themselves, collaborate on tasks, and coordinate with other agents or human analysts to complete objectives. The mesh will enable context-passing between agents, orchestration logic that adapts in realtime based on outcomes, and policygoverned autonomy, where agents operate within defined human-led guardrails.
How are your regional partnerships strengthening Securonix’s presence in the Middle East and Africa, and how do they align with your long-term vision for driving innovation in cybersecurity?
Securonix continues to expand its global ecosystem through strategic partnerships that extend our reach and enhance our value across regions. Some of the recent ones across the Middle East and Africa, include our partnership with DigiGlass by Redington, which now delivers Managed SOC Services, powered by the Securonix Unified Defense SIEM
platform, for rapid threat detection, investigation, and smart response. This alliance empowers organisations and enhances security operations across the Middle East and Africa.
We also have a regional partnership with AmiViz to advance AI-powered security operations across the Middle East. AmiViz serves as a value-added distributor for the Securonix Unified Defense SIEM, expanding access to advanced threat detection, investigation, and response capabilities across its reseller and enterprise network.
Furthermore, we continue to collaborate with our long-standing partners, including Help AG (the cybersecurity arm of e& enterprise), RNS Technology, and Cyberdome.
Securonix is building the future of security operations, not by layering on more tools, but by simplifying and unifying the ones that matter, and is architected for continuous innovation and customer outcomes.
We don’t just collect and correlate data, but we deliver agentic, autonomous defence powered by AI, built to scale with the world’s most demanding enterprises. Our approach shifts the centre of gravity from tools to results, from dashboards to decisive actions.
Our vision is to transform Securonix from a product-first brand into a catalyst for customer success, delivering measurable outcomes, unmatched threat defence, and clear paths to operational modernisation.
2 - 4 DECEMBER 2025 MALHAM, SAUDI ARABIA
STEERING THE FUTURE
With two decades shaping some of the UAE’s most complex education-technology environments, Muhammad Affan, Director of IT at Sharjah Maritime Academy, has become one of the region’s most respected CIOs. From large-scale infrastructure builds to AI-driven transformation, his career reflects the steady, strategic leadership redefining the role today
The modern CIO sits at the intersection of infrastructure, risk, learning, and strategy. In the education sector, the stakes are higher, with technology woven into every part of how institutions teach, assess, and operate. Today’s learning environments rely on digital infrastructure as tightly as ports or banks do: assessment platforms, smart classrooms, virtual labs, cybersecurity controls, admissions workflows, accreditation systems, and student records that must never be lost or compromised. Every minute of downtime matters. Every breach can derail trust. Every technology decision touches thousands of students and faculty members whose work depends on certainty.
In this context, the CIO has become one of the most influential leadership roles in modern academia. And in the UAE — where higher education is expanding quickly, student mobility is global, and digital expectations run high — the job carries even more weight.
Few understand this reality better than Muhammad Affan, Director of IT at Sharjah Maritime Academy (SMA). With nearly two decades embedded in the UAE’s education sector, he has led some of the country’s largest and most complex technology operations, spanning 250 schools, 16 university campuses, and petabytes of sensitive academic data.
From blueprint to backbone
Long before “digital transformation” became a staple of higher education, Affan was helping build one of the UAE’s first large-scale school
networks. He joined the thennascent Abu Dhabi Education Council in 2006, when the organisation — and its infrastructure — were still taking shape.
“When I joined in 2006, my employee number was 12,” he recalls. “I was the first IT person in ADEC.”
ADEC soon became one of the region’s largest school systems. Affan ran the network operations centre overseeing 250 schools — a mission-critical environment, especially during exam periods when “hundreds of thousands of students waited for results.”
Those years established him as a builder of capability as much as systems. He implemented ITIL-based service management, achieved multiple ISO standards with Deloitte, PwC and KPMG, and became one of the few ITIL Experts across Abu Dhabi Government at the time.
In 2018, he moved to Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), the UAE’s largest higher education institution, to lead IT infrastructure and operations across 16 campuses. He was later tasked with overseeing the cybersecurity function, including the Security Operations Centre.
This period would bring the defining technical challenge of his career.
“For me, the defining project was the data centre transformation at HCT,” he says. The migration involved one of the largest higher education data centres in the UAE, housing petabytes of data representing two decades of history and more than 120 servers — and it had to be executed during COVID-19.
“The actual physical move took just 48 hours,” he explains. “We had to have all services up and running again within that 48-hour window.”
Already complex under normal conditions, the project became a logistical feat during a pandemic. It required night operations, police escorts, split teams, and frequent PCR testing. Eight or nine major vendors were involved alongside government and industry partners.
“It involved far more than technology,” he says. “Because it was during COVID, every decision had to account for people’s safety as much as system uptime. We had to ensure the migration went seamlessly without putting our teams, partners, or anyone involved at risk.”
The move was planned to the minute. Affan barely slept during the two-day window, but the migration completed smoothly — a result of precision, teamwork, and clear leadership.
“The CEO of HCT and other federal leaders recognised the magnitude of what we’d achieved,” he says. “They said it set a new standard for how large-scale technology projects should be delivered — carefully planned, flawlessly executed, and peoplefirst.”
It remains one of the most complex — and human — projects of his career.
Charting a new course
In 2024, Affan took on a different kind of challenge: architecting the digital backbone of Sharjah Maritime Academy, a young institution with a specialised academic mission and a mandate to evolve into a regional centre of excellence.
Established in 2023, the Academy is the UAE’s premier institution for maritime studies, training, and research, and the nation’s only academy offering CAA-accredited baccalaureate degrees in maritime education. Regulated by national education and infrastructure authorities, SMA carries a core responsibility for developing maritime talent for the region.
“It’s a new challenge to build the whole infrastructure, IT operations, and all services, including ERP and student information systems,” he says. “The strategy and target are to be one of the top institutions in the region.”
Because SMA is in its foundational stage, Affan has been able to introduce systems with a level of agility difficult to achieve in long-established universities. His work reflects the sector’s next phase: smart campuses, microcredential ecosystems, and AIintegrated learning workflows.
One flagship initiative is the UAE’s first blockchain-enabled micro-credential framework, delivered with Educhain.
“We became the first to offer micro-credentials to students –and even external learners – with
I strongly believe in delegation,” he says. “My goal is to build leaders within my team. I want people to step up, take ownership, and lead
academic delivery, and embeds AI safely and purposefully into the maritime learning experience.
Leadership that scales
Across institutions, Affan’s leadership philosophy has remained consistent: build people, empower teams, and avoid overcontrol.
“I strongly believe in delegation,” he says. “My goal is to build leaders within my team. I want people to step up, take ownership, and lead.”
That philosophy shows in outcomes: former interns now lead government application portfolios, and former engineers manage major support functions. For Affan, this is intentional. A CIO, he believes, leads best when others are equipped to lead alongside him.
course-based blockchain-enabled credentials,” he says.
Another is SMA’s Smart Campus programme, covering intelligent access, classroom modernisation, student journey digitalisation, and advanced AV environments developed with partners such as Ventura, Ellucian and Oracle.
“We introduced and built these concepts at SMA, and now most higher education institutions and universities visit us to learn from it,” he says.
Perhaps the most telling project, however, is one that didn’t involve procurement at all. Affan’s team built a full strategy and risk management platform — complete with KPIs, project tracking, and reporting — entirely in-house using Microsoft Power Platform. “It was designed and built fully in-house,” he explains. “The platform is a comprehensive strategy and risk management system.” The solution has since drawn interest from multiple universities.
Looking ahead, Affan is steering SMA toward an intelligence-driven future. “We’re focused on AIenabled learning systems for faculty, including developing our own LLM — our own ‘ChatGPT’ — specifically for teaching and learning,” he says. The goal: create a domain-specific model that supports faculty, elevates
His influence extends beyond campus. In January 2025, he launched the UAE AI Symposium for Higher Education, bringing together senior leaders from Abu Dhabi University, Zayed University, Ajman University, American University of Sharjah, and the Abu Dhabi Government.
“It was a major success, covered widely in local media across the Gulf,” he says. “The next edition will include regional and international institutions.”
He also serves on the Ellucian Banner Education Advisory Council and HPE Aruba’s regional advisory board, shaping vendor strategy from an institutional lens.
Affan’s perspective on the CIO role mirrors this expanded mandate. “CIOs are still enablers, but that’s no longer enough,” he says. “CIOs must be fully aligned with business strategy, and business decisions should be aligned with the CIO as well.”
His career shows how the CIO role has evolved into one of the most strategic seats in any institution. In an age defined by automation and intelligencedriven systems, his work is a reminder that leadership still sets the direction. Technology may accelerate progress, but it is judgement, integrity, and steadiness at the helm that determine whether organisations grow or drift.
BEYOND DEVICES
HP is reorienting its workplace strategy around people, not devices. Ertug Ayik, Managing Director - MEA at HP, reveals how AI can play a quiet, supportive role in giving employees time, clarity and purpose back
The modern workplace is no longer defined by walls or screens. It’s a living ecosystem shaped by how people connect, create, and find purpose in what they do. As technology continues to evolve faster than most organisations can adapt, the question is no longer where we work — but how we work better. And in that
redefinition, technology companies are being challenged to think beyond devices and productivity metrics, to the human experience itself.
Ertug Ayik, Managing Director
- MEA at HP, to discuss how the company is rethinking the workplace — not just through devices, but through a deeper philosophy about technology, productivity, and people.
The conversation around the “future of work” has become one of the most overused phrases in the industry, but HP has attached a different weight to the term. It sees work not as a location or a device, but a dynamic interaction of technology, human wellbeing, collaboration, and experience. And according to Ayık, this shift is now accelerating faster than organisations are structurally ready for.
“For us as HP, our biggest strategy as a company is to be the leading company to help our customers in the future of work,” he says. But he is quick to clarify that the future of work is not simply hybrid meetings and faster laptops. “It’s not only about being able to work remotely, but what we do in the office space is also changing dramatically.”
HP’s approach starts from a simple premise: devices alone don’t move productivity — ecosystems do. A PC, a printer, a conferencing device or a management suite, individually, no longer define user value. “It’s not only products because we have great products, but it’s also about how those products are working together so that they can create a very efficient environment for our customers,” Ayık explains.
This is a strategic subtlety many tech vendors still miss — that productivity isn’t about deploying more infrastructure, but about removing friction. “This is why it’s all about the different experiences in the office,” he adds, referring to HP’s demonstration zones at GITEX GLOBAL that showcased collaboration spaces, computing, printing and amore — not as separate pillars of IT, but as a unified experience.
That integrated design philosophy is rooted in what HP now sees as the most critical issue shaping modern work — not automation or device performance, but employee exhaustion. HP’s global Employee Relationship Index — a survey of more than 15,000 respondents across multiple markets — revealed a startling deterioration in sentiment: just 20 percent of employees today feel satisfied or fulfilled at work, down from 28 percent last year.
“Unfortunately, the results are very bad... it’s the worst in the last five years,” Ayık reveals. “Employees are overworking. They are working more than they were. I thought all these technologies would help us to do it, but it seems to be in the opposite direction.”
It is a paradox of digitisation: organisations have invested heavily in modernising systems, yet the human experience of work has often become more fragmented, more administrative, and less meaningful. That is where HP believes AI can have the greatest impact — not as a headline feature, but as a silent force that removes friction.
“AI is a big hype,” Ayık admits, “but today, a lot of companies are looking: ‘How can I make use of it in my own company?’” HP is focusing on what he describes as “real-world solutions” — AI that improves call quality and context, strengthens endpoint security, or anticipates settings and rights during collaboration — outcomes that cumulatively restore time and mental energy to people. The company’s research shows that wherever AI is used to remove low-value work, “employee satisfaction is five times more.”
Ayık uses a simple but powerful analogy to illustrate the gap between expectation and reality — teachers moving marks from one spreadsheet to another instead of spending that time actually teaching. “This is not why they chose this profession,” he says. “Technology today can make those mundane tasks done by something else so the employees will have more time to spend with the things that really matter.”
powering different types of workloads — has only made collaborative innovation more essential.
We believe that actually technology and AI is the solution for employees to be happier — and when they’re happy, the companies are more successful
Looking ahead, he believes the next defining change in the workplace isn’t a new form factor or a radical hardware leap, but intelligent orchestration between devices. “Today, we all do Zoom calls or Teams calls and it takes 10 minutes to set up the call,” he says. HP wants to collapse that inefficiency through seamless negotiation between machines — PCs that recognise a meeting host when they enter the room, collaboration devices that select the optimal camera or microphone, and settings that adapt automatically based on context. “This is devices working together, and AI is enabling that,” Ayık explains.
This belief is shaping HP’s product development roadmap. Rather than designing devices and then layering experience on top, the company is developing solutions around engagement, fulfilment and cognitive load — an inversion of the traditional enterprise hardware model. And it’s not doing it alone. “There’s no one company who can do everything,” Ayık says, pointing to HP’s deep partnerships with Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Microsoft and Google. The rise of CPUs, GPUs and now NPUs — each
In other words, the breakthrough won’t come from what a device can do, but from what it can take care of on behalf of the user. HP is not chasing a “future of devices,” but a future of experience — one where AI is not a feature but a quiet equaliser, giving people time back instead of draining them of it.
“We believe that actually technology and AI is the solution for employees to be happier — and when they’re happy, the companies are more successful.”
DEFINING THE NEXT
ICT Leadership Awards 2025 celebrates a night of vision, innovation, and impact
The ICT Leadership Awards 2025, hosted by CXO Insight Middle East , brought together more than 100 of the region’s foremost technology and business leaders for an evening of celebration and recognition at Raffles Dubai.
Held on the evening of the second day of GITEX Global , the event was a fitting moment amid the city’s busiest technology week — a chance to pause, reflect, and honour those driving meaningful transformation across the Middle East’s digital landscape.
This year’s awards recognised leaders and organisations that have gone beyond adopting technology — the visionaries using it to create measurable impact and build sustainable digital ecosystems. From transformative CIOs to forward-thinking
enterprises, every winner reflected a commitment to progress, resilience, and responsible innovation.
The evening opened with a keynote by Lars Kølendorf, Vice President for AI – Worldwide, HPE Networking, who shared his perspective on “Self-driving networks: The AI revolution in connectivity.” His address set the tone for a night that showcased how intelligence, automation, and leadership are reshaping enterprise technology.
With inspiring conversations, well-deserved recognition, and a shared sense of purpose, the ICT Leadership Awards 2025 once again reinforced the power of collaboration and vision in shaping the region’s digital future.
VENDOR AND INTEGRATOR AWARDS
Allied Telesis
Best Industrial Networking Solutions Vendor
Check Point
Best Adaptive Cyber Defence Platform
Azentio
Best AI-Powered Enterprise Platform ASUS
Best AI-Powered Business Device Fortinet
Best Converged Security & Networking Vendor
Logitech
Best Hybrid Collaboration
Experience Vendor
HPE Networking
Best AI-Native Networking Vendor
Nutanix
Best Hybrid Multicloud Infrastructure Vendor
Recorded Future
Best Proactive Cyber
Threat Visibility Vendor
Omnix International
Best AI-Driven Enterprise
Transformation Partner
Sophos Best AI-Driven Threat Protection Vendor
Tenable Best Exposure Management Solutions Vendor
Software Best Enterprise Data Resilience Platform
iConnect Editor’s Choice: Digital Enterprise Champion
Ned Baltagi, SANS Institute Editor’s Choice: ICT Champion of the Year
Sharjah Government - Directorate of Town Planning and Survey Innovative ICT Deployment
Nadia Alqabanji, Zayed University Woman CIO of the Year
END-USER AWARDS ICT
INNOVATION EXCELLENCE
Eng. Mohamed Aljneibi Abu Dhabi Police
Shashi Punjabi Al Faris Group
Imtiaz Ahmed Alrajhi Bank
Sajin Salim Abu Dhabi University
Mohammed Majid Hussain Ali & Sons Holding
Nawaf Abdulrahman Arabian Gulf University
Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority
Ajai Mathai Atlantis Resorts
Biju Hameed Dubai Airports
Khalifa Al Zaabi
Dubai Holding Asset Management
Saravana Kumar BITS Pilani - Dubai Campus
Malachy McGrogan Dubai English Speaking College
Dr. Fayid Kadambodan
Amrut Sugandh Emirates NBD
Joseph Nettikadan ESOL
Jinson Pappachan Emirates Policy Center
Jacob Sam Thattasseril Fakeeh University Hospital
Rustom Pereira Emirates Insurance Company
Yehia Elgohary eFinance
Mohammed H. Alabbadi Fertiglobe
Himmath Mohammed Gulf Data Hub
Aime Musonerwa Kempinski Hotels
Debajyoti Paul GMG
Ritesh Divecha International Resource Holding
Mohammed Wajeed Azhar Mashreq
Ibrahim Ouda MOI
Ahmed Shawky Millennium Hotels & Resorts
Mussa Al Saadi National Academy for Childhood Authority & Early Childhood Authority
Ayman Bitar
Majid Al Futtaim Properties
Shiju Shanmughan Lulu Retail Holdings
Saleh Al Menhali Nawah
Riasat Ali RAK Ports
Abid Hussain Shah
Saudi German Hospitals
Group UAE
Ismail Alawieh Nord Anglia International School Dubai
Dr. Abrar Abdulnabi saal.ai
Mohamed Ali Saed Seven Tides
Rabie Hamdeh Tiger Group
Ahmed Ali United hospitality
Vishnu Chinnaraj UAE Government Entity
Muhammad Affan Habib Sharjah Maritime Academy
Mohamed Abdulwahed Alajmani Sharjah Customs
MARKETING VISIONARIES
Joumana Karam Acer
Mallika Sharma HPE Networking
Manal Abi Rafeh Fortinet
Mohammed Iqbal Logitech
INFRASTRUCTURE FOR INTELLIGENCE
Tassos
Peppas, Regional Director – MEETCA, Vertiv, discusses how the company is reimagining digital infrastructure for the AI era
How is Vertiv addressing the rising power and cooling demands driven by AI workloads, particularly across hyperscale and colocation data centres in the region?
Vertiv is reimagining data centres to handle the extreme compute and density requirements of AI workloads at scale. Solutions like Vertiv OneCore are designed for very high-density (5+ MW) and mixed loads, enabling configurable,
modular deployments that reduce on-site work and accelerate the commissioning of AI “factories.”
To address rising power and cooling demands, Vertiv integrates advanced liquid cooling for highdensity racks, modular power and cooling architectures, and operational intelligence platforms such as Vertiv Unify. These capabilities enable real-time optimisation, predictive maintenance, and efficient load
management — ensuring hyperscale and colocation operators can scale AI workloads while maintaining predictable, resilient, and energyefficient infrastructure.
How is the region evolving in terms of digital infrastructure investment, and where do you see the greatest opportunities for Vertiv’s solutions in the coming year?
The Middle East is rapidly emerging as a global hub for AI, cloud, edge, and hyperscale data centres.
Ambitious projects such as Stargate in the UAE and HUMAIN in Saudi Arabia reflect the region’s strategic investment in multi-gigawatt AI campuses. Governments and private investors are actively driving the development of next-generation digital infrastructure, creating a market that demands both speed and scalability.
For Vertiv, the greatest opportunities lie in delivering fast, repeatable modular deployments that meet aggressive timelines for AI and hyperscale build programmes. Our solutions are tailored to the region’s unique requirements — including local climate, energy conditions, and regulatory frameworks — to ensure efficient, compliant, and resilient infrastructure. Vertiv’s local manufacturing facility in the UAE further enhances delivery speed, assembly, and support for large-scale deployments.
Sustainability and operational efficiency are also key drivers. We design energy-efficient systems across power distribution, cooling, airflow, and liquid integration,
ensuring faster deployments don’t compromise PUE or long-term OPEX. Our solutions incorporate low-GWP refrigerants, energy storage systems, modular architectures, and intelligent management platforms that provide real-time visibility and predictive maintenance. By pairing liquid cooling for high-density racks with appropriately rated UPS and power systems, we maintain continuity without excessive energy penalties. The combination of
speed, standardisation, and energyconscious design positions Vertiv to meet the growing demands of AI infrastructure across the Middle East.
Vertiv recently strengthened partnerships with local system integrators and technology providers. How do these collaborations help accelerate digital transformation and localisation efforts across the region?
This ensures that infrastructure deployments are not only fast and reliable but also aligned with national digital and efficiency initiatives. Ultimately, these collaborations bridge global innovation with trusted local execution, empowering customers to scale digital transformation confidently. By combining local expertise with Vertiv’s AI-ready infrastructure, we can deliver mission-critical solutions efficiently while supporting the region’s broader technological and economic growth.
What are Vertiv’s key strategic priorities for 2026 and beyond?
Vertiv’s strategy is focused on scaling AI-ready modular infrastructure, especially high-density solutions such as Vertiv OneCore, which combine prefabrication and standardisation to accelerate speedto-market. The goal is to offer repeatable, resilient designs that meet hyperscale and AI deployment timelines without compromising operational performance.
The combination of speed, standardisation, and energy-conscious design positions
Vertiv to meet the growing demands of AI infrastructure across the Middle East
Our partnerships — particularly with MDS SI Group — combine Vertiv’s global technology leadership with deep regional expertise. This collaboration enables customers to benefit from rapid, end-to-end deployment covering design, commissioning, operations, and lifecycle support. These partnerships also accelerate AI infrastructure adoption by offering validated reference designs and pre-engineered solutions, reducing integration risk for hyperscale and high-performance computing environments.
Beyond speed and risk reduction, partnerships are central to regional localisation. Vertiv works closely with system integrators and technology providers to tailor solutions to environmental conditions, regulatory requirements, and energy availability.
Sustainability remains central to our roadmap. We continue to invest in energy-efficient architectures, advanced liquid cooling, low-GWP refrigerants, and modular designs to reduce environmental impact while optimising operational costs. Vertiv is also prioritising operational intelligence — using predictive maintenance and real-time analytics to maximise uptime, efficiency, and lifecycle performance across distributed facilities.
Regional partnerships and localisation will remain strategic enablers. We aim to strengthen collaborations with system integrators, technology providers, and local authorities to ensure compliant, rapid, and scalable deployments. Additionally, Vertiv is developing solutions that support sovereign and hybrid cloud models, balancing local data control with global interoperability.
By combining high-performance modular designs, digital intelligence, and local expertise, Vertiv is positioning itself to lead AI infrastructure innovation across the emerging markets of the Middle East.
THE TALENT ALGORITHM
In an exclusive conversation on the sidelines of GITEX GLOBAL, Akram Assaf, Co-Founder and CTO, Bayt.com, discusses the platform’s next evolution — including a forthcoming GPT-powered career assistant
Bayt.com has been a defining force in the Middle East’s online recruitment landscape since the year 2000 — launching when hiring was still dominated by newspaper ads, walk-ins and personal referrals. As the Gulf’s economies modernised and digital adoption accelerated, Bayt. com became the first large-scale online bridge between employers and jobseekers across borders, industries and languages — a homegrown technology success story built in the UAE for the region.
Its longevity has been fuelled by reinvention. “You cannot sustain 25 years in the internet business
unless you have to reinvent yourself almost every couple of years,” reflects Co-Founder and CTO Akram Assaf. “We’ve been successful in focusing on continuous renovation through the Bayt.com main platform, but also through reincarnation of many of the products and offerings and launching a lot of services that support our user base, whether employers or job seekers.”
Over time, Bayt.com has evolved from a job portal into a suite of HR technologies — including Talentera, Evalufy and AfterHire — serving employers from sourcing to onboarding. That transition mirrors the region’s shift to skills-driven
economies and rapidly diversifying job markets, where sectors from logistics to clean energy to digital government increasingly demand specialised talent and agile recruitment models.
Innovation as part of DNA Technology has always been central to Bayt.com’s operating DNA. As the platform scaled across multiple countries, data volumes surged, and new products emerged, the organisation recognised the need for a cloud foundation capable of supporting low-latency digital services, AI experimentation and security at regional scale.
This is where Oracle’s role
expanded. What began as software collaboration matured into a strategic cloud relationship. “We have worked with Oracle through various engagements... but now we are hosted in OCI for most of our product line,” Assaf explains. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure now underpins Bayt’s performance, security, resiliency and future-proofing for high-intensity AI workloads across key markets.
The partnership goes beyond migration. In late 2024, Bayt.com and Oracle announced a deeper integration that connects Bayt’s candidate network directly into Oracle Fusion Cloud Recruiting, enabling enterprises using Oracle’s HR suite to source talent from Bayt’s large regional database through a seamless flow. The partnership is designed to enhance recruitment efficiency in the Middle East — a region where global cloud players increasingly recognise the scale and maturity of digital transformation.
For enterprises, the integration unlocks two critical levers: access to Bayt’s candidate ecosystem and a recruitment workflow anchored in robust cloud security and compliance frameworks. For Bayt.com, it means becoming embedded in the enterprise HR technology stack — particularly in government and large-scale industries where Oracle has long-established penetration.
The collaboration aligns with the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s vision for sovereign digital capability and region-first data strategies. OCI’s presence in regional datacentres gives Bayt the ability to operate with data residency assurances — vital in
markets where talent data protection is regulated and sensitive.
Assaf sees further potential in this convergence. “There is a good chance that we can optimise possibly for cost reduction... instead of spending too much money on massive models, you can have more purpose-built micro models that run on effective architecture in the Oracle suite,” he says.
In other words, it is not only about cloud compute capacity, it is about co-engineering a next-generation talent-AI stack anchored in regional architecture.
The era of hiring intelligence
Hiring today is increasingly complex. Employers want precision and predictive insight, not volume alone. Candidates want tailored guidance, not algorithmic guesswork. “AI is almost on every front of the communication process between the parties we are delivering solutions for,” Assaf notes. Natural-language experiences, intent capture and personalised matching have already become core to Bayt.com’s platform.
Assaf sees the next leap as moving beyond search and matching into continuous, conversational career guidance — a GPT-like layer tailored to the region’s talent landscape. Bayt. com is currently developing this capability, internally referred to as BaytGPT.
“Our Bayt GPT solution is almost a career consultant for every user,” Assaf explains. “Everyone would feel that they have a consultant working with them, bridging the gaps, helping them build the best possible profile, finding
the best possible jobs, making sure my communication with employers is timely and effective.”
This isn’t a chatbot layered on top. It is integrated into the hiring journey: from profile optimisation to application positioning to communication timing and tone. It will launch with jobseekers first, then expand to employers with candidate insights and pipeline intelligence. According to Assaf, the rollout is expected to begin in the coming weeks. However, the company has not yet confirmed which markets will be included in the initial phase as launch sequencing is still being finalised. “We’re expecting to launch it within the next few weeks,” Assaf confirms. And, aligned with Bayt’s architecture strategy, “This is also running on Oracle Cloud... on the OCI cluster.”
In a region marked by workforce diversity and demographic fluidity, fairness and transparency matter. “AI does not really come to a conclusion or guide your decisions without clearly explaining how it came to that conclusion,” says Assaf. Bayt’s models break down variables, weightings and recommendations to ensure visibility — a direct response to global concerns around opaque hiring algorithms.
“We make sure that any of the AI technologies have been well-aligned to avoid any kind of bias that could take anything such as gender, race, age into consideration,” he adds. In doing so, Bayt aims to build trust across a talent ecosystem where fairness is not just ethical — it’s commercially and socially essential.
Looking ahead
Assaf sees a future where hiring becomes conversational, not transactional. “We all converse and we communicate, and with the capabilities of generative AI, these are bridging the gap between the machine and human,” he says. Rather than tapping through dashboards, users will speak, ask, refine and receive guidance in real time. Bayt’s vision looks like a voice-enabled recruitment concierge — or as Assaf puts it, a “recruitment butler”. “We’ll see the initial ‘Hey Bayt’ very soon,” he hints.
REINVENTION AND RESILIENCE
VS Hariharan, Managing Director and Group CEO, Redington, discusses how purposeful strategy, financial discipline, and a people-centred culture have shaped the company’s evolution
The technology distribution industry is in the midst of a profound shift. What was once a supply-chain business defined by the movement of hardware has evolved into a multi-layered ecosystem of software, services, and cloud solutions. As digital transformation accelerates, distributors are rethinking their role — evolving from logistics partners to enablers of innovation.
Few companies have navigated this transition as effectively as Redington. At 32, it is one of the world’s largest technology distribution companies — an $11.8-billion business that has stayed relevant through every shift in the industry’s evolution. Redington now spans 40 countries, working with more than 400 brands and 70,000 channel partners, ranking eighth globally despite not operating in the United States, Europe, or China.
Since going public in 2007, Redington has achieved uninterrupted growth for 18 years, delivering over 15 percent CAGR in both topand bottom-line performance. Its expansion has mirrored the industry’s transformation — from hardware and peripherals to software, cloud, and services. What stands out is the deliberate way it has managed that evolution, guided by a leadership philosophy rooted in financial discipline, operational focus, and longterm view of innovation.
“We’ve grown 15 percent top line and more than 15 percent bottom line every year,” says VS Hariharan, Managing Director and Group CEO of Redington. “That’s been possible because we’ve stayed financially prudent, operationally focused, and alert to the next curve of innovation.”
A foundation of discipline
Redington’s success is rooted in purposeful strategy — one that combines financial discipline, operational focus, and long-term value creation. “Our approach has always been rooted in financial prudence,” says Hariharan. “We focus on profitability and on how those profits are deployed. If any business or geography doesn’t make sense financially, we won’t hesitate to exit.”
This discipline extends to people and culture. “We hire employees for the long term,” he explains. “We have a very good management team, both mid and senior management, who are with us for more than 20 years.” Compensation metrics are tied to company performance, reinforcing alignment and accountability across teams. By linking financial discipline with talent development and operational resilience, Redington has fostered a culture built on consistency, trust, and long-term thinking.
Global scale, local strength
Redington’s ability to stay ahead of disruption lies in how it operates
— global in scale yet deeply local in execution. While many of its multinational counterparts tend to apply a one-size-fits-all model, Redington’s strength comes from blending global compliance with local insight. “We behave like a local company, yet remain compliant like a global company,” says Hariharan.
Each subsidiary builds local teams, collaborates with governments and partners, and operates with full financial and regulatory accountability — a balance that has made Redington an indispensable conduit for international technology brands expanding into emerging markets. Together with India, regions such as the Middle East and Africa now account for more than 70 percent of the company’s revenues. “The UAE and Saudi markets are investing heavily in data centres, cloud, and AI,” Hariharan notes. “In Africa, we’re seeing countries leapfrogging older technologies entirely. Global brands rely on us because we can take technology to partners and customers across 40 to 50 countries, even in challenging environments.”
That local grounding has done more than secure Redington’s position in fast-growing markets — it has given the company a clear view of where global technology consumption is heading. The same insight guiding its regional strategy is now driving a shift in its business model.
The $480-billion distribution industry is undergoing a quiet revolution: a quarter of that value now comes from software, cloud, and services, up from 12 percent just two years ago. For Redington, these nonphysical segments already represent 15 percent of its business and are expanding rapidly.
This evolution marks Redington’s transition from a traditional distributor to what Hariharan calls an “orchestrator of ecosystems” — connecting technology providers, partners, and customers across diverse markets. “The old one-tomany model is evolving into what we call many-to-many aggregation,” he explains. It’s a model built on the same principles that underpin Redington’s global-local balance:
The next ten to thirty years are going to be overwhelmingly technology-enabled. It’s an exciting time, and we want to be a key player in that ecosystem
has an AI strategy — from PCs to smartphones to enterprise software,” he says. “Our first job is to understand that strategy and help partners and customers use it effectively. But that’s just the beginning.”
To structure Redington’s engagement with AI, Hariharan has introduced what he calls the “five Cs”: Capability, Channel, Catalogue, Community, and Centre of Excellence — with a sixth, Capacity, under development.
The Capability Centre in Chennai develops and tests AI use cases — from back-office automation to pricing and forecasting — with 75 use cases, 25 POCs, and three already commercial. The company is also building an AI catalog, a community of independent software vendors, and demonstration centres to showcase real-world applications.
The sixth C, Capacity, reflects Redington’s social responsibility.
“In India, we’re building training centres with hyperscalers to upskill underprivileged youth in AI technologies,” Hariharan explains. “We’re using our CSR budget to create AI-trained professionals who can contribute to the ecosystem.”
Playing the long game
adaptability, partnership, and a clear understanding that growth happens by staying close to where technology is being created — and where it’s being adopted next.
Leading through transformation Transformation at this scale is rarely a product of strategy alone — it’s shaped by leadership that can translate vision into discipline. Hariharan has done so by steering Redington through constant reinvention while keeping its fundamentals intact. His association with the company spans nearly 25 years — first as a vendor during his tenure at Hewlett Packard, then as a board member, and now as managing director and Group CEO — giving him a rare perspective that bridges the worlds of partner, operator, and leader.
That mindset is shaping Redington’s AI journey. “Every brand we work with
As Redington scales to new heights, Hariharan keeps a long-term view. He references Simon Sinek’s The Infinite Game to describe his philosophy.
“We’re building a company that’s built to last,” he says. “Life is an infinite game; business is an infinite game. It’s not about the next quarter or the next year — it’s about building the fundamentals that allow us to keep growing.”
That long-term outlook is guiding the company’s exploration of emerging domains — from 3D printing and solar technology to drones and data-centre infrastructure. He sees opportunity in the enabling layers behind AI — power systems, cooling, and capacity management. “The technology industry hasn’t seen anything yet,” Hariharan says. “The next ten to thirty years are going to be overwhelmingly technology-enabled. It’s an exciting time, and we want to be a key player in that ecosystem.”
5 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR ENTERPRISE AI MATURITY
EBy William O’Neill, Area VP & General Manager – GCC, ServiceNow
ven before the rise of generative and agentic AI, organisations on the leading edge of the AI revolution were favouring a platform approach to AI maturity. ServiceNow’s Enterprise AI Maturity Index 2025 captures the trends adopted by many of these AI Pacesetters — businesses that have discovered how best to orchestrate AI at scale. In taking advantage of large language models (LLMs), these Pacesetters have made it easier for employees to find relevant information in real-time contacts with customers. And they have deployed AI to resolve more routine service requests, freeing human agents to perform more challenging, more fulfilling tasks. Meanwhile, agentic AI has flourished in Pacesetters’ environments, autonomously executing complex processes and enhancing accuracy, security, and compliance.
What is it about Pacesetters that allows them to be so successful in their AI endeavours? What best practices and strategies put them so far in front of their peers? ServiceNow’s second annual Enterprise AI Maturity Index answers these questions. Among
our findings — the results of an in-depth survey of 4,500 executives around the world — we uncovered the five key attributes that define the AI Pacesetter.
1
An ‘innovation’ mindset
Pacesetters recognise that AI can help humans to achieve that which they otherwise could not, but also that humans can help AI to deliver outcomes it could not achieve in isolation. With an AI-first mindset, Pacesetters move away from the digitisation goals of solving yesterday’s problems, choosing instead to reimagine capabilities, outcomes, business models, products, services, and experiences. Nearly 60 percent of Pacesetters use AI to generate leadership insights, compared with just 23 percent of others.
More than half of all Pacesetters strongly agree they are operating with a clear, shared AI vision compared with just 30 percent of everyone else. And results speak volumes. Some 83 percent of Pacesetters say their gross margin has increased because of AI compared with 64 percent of others.
With a strong AI vision anchored in clear metrics, and in partnership
with the right AI stakeholders, Pacesetters can build “innovation centres” that allow them to quickly and securely pilot ideas based on new technologies and rapidly bring new experiences to market.
2
A unifying platform
66 percent of Pacesetters have adopted a platform approach, bringing built-in AI capabilities to employees across the enterprise. Only 46 percent of others have taken this approach. Platforms allow the deployment of new AI tools, such as agentic AI, at scale, because platforms already possess the foundational infrastructure for the rollout of such tools. In choosing the platform route, Pacesetters eliminate silos, thereby allowing data to flow between business units. A shared
repository of information can power cross-discipline digital workflows that connect people, data, and processes. More than half (56 percent) of Pacesetters have made significant progress in connecting data and operational silos. Just 41 percent of others have achieved the same.
Pacesetters’ trust in platforms has given them advantages in AI insights that translate into measurable business outcomes
Pacesetters’ trust in platforms has given them advantages in AI insights that translate into measurable business outcomes. While AI platforms take longer to imbed, they make holistic strategies easier to implement in the longer term.
3
A focus on talent
Pacesetters know the value of their people. Some 80 percent of them provide their workforce with support for upskilling, where just over half (56 percent) of others do the same. And 71 percent of Pacesetters host AI learning events compared with 50 percent of other enterprises. Pacesetters acknowledge that having the right talent in place is crucial for their AI future. They know when to go on a recruitment drive, and when to reskill or upskill existing employees. Half of all Pacesetters (50 percent) report having the right mix of talent to deliver on their AI goals, compared with 29 percent of others.
But talent-focused Pacesetters go further. They change their corporate culture to one that encourages collaboration when needed, and autonomy where possible. 70 percent of Pacesetters promote cross-functional alignment across the enterprise and 71 percent grant their teams the authority to make their own decisions about how AI can improve their work, versus 55 percent of others.
4
A respect for governance
Without guardrails, AI successes will be fragile and likely unsustainable. Governance among Pacesetters is built around balancing the mitigation of risk with the need to experiment with new technologies. 72 percent of AI Pacesetters have made significant progress on assessing the benefits of AI applications and understanding their data requirements, as opposed to 48 percent of others. And 63 percent of Pacesetters have taken strides to address evolving data governance and security requirements through
the creation of AI-specific policies, compared with 42 percent of everyone else.
Proper governance controls may slow down adoption and implementation in some areas, but given the potential business impacts of non-compliance, the Pacesetter recognises the need for monitoring AI models for risk and responding quickly. An important part of this monitoring process will be to understand the data journey — where it is coming from, all the places where it may come to rest, and who should have access to it.
5
An embrace of agentic AI Pacesetters’ appetite for emerging technologies was obvious in our findings. In 2025, agentic AI is trending, and compared to others, AI Pacesetters are seeing greater ROI from their deployed AI agents. More than half of them report having achieved measurable target outcomes through the adoption of agentic AI. 56 percent per cent have improved experiences versus 27 percent among other organisations. For increased efficiency the numbers are 55 percent and 24 percent, and for improvement in gross margins, 55 percent and 22 percent.
As expected, early adopters of agentic AI are achieving target returns at a higher rate. The benefits enjoyed by Pacesetters include enhanced customer service, richer experiences, boosted efficiency, and higher revenues.
Setting the pace
Whatever the AI mix may be, our findings show a platform approach allows organisations to take charge of change management, promote strong governance, and retain control of data. It is simple math: AI + Data + Workflow automation enables Pacesetters to gain deeper insights, innovate faster, reduce risk and operate more efficiently. They are seizing the moment — rewriting the rules of corporate workflows and decision-making. That is how they are setting the pace of change today, and for years to come.
AI’S OPERATIONAL BLIND SPOT
OSunil Paul, Co-Founder and MD at Finesse, explores how structured AI and ML operations can close the widening operational gaps holding enterprise AI back
ver the recent past, organisations across every sector have rushed to embed AI into decision-making, customer engagement and internal workflows.
Yet behind the headlines and proofof-concepts, a quieter reality is emerging: enterprises are struggling not with model creation, but with the operational consequences of deploying AI at scale.
The challenge begins with proliferation. As different teams experiment independently, organisations find themselves managing multiple models with inconsistent standards, uneven data quality, unclear ownership
and limited visibility. Coupled with rising scrutiny around data privacy, regulatory compliance and responsible use, AI becomes not just a technical initiative but an operational and governance burden. Security teams feel this shift immediately, as models introduce new behaviours, new data flows and risk surfaces that traditional monitoring tools were never designed to observe.
This is why AI and ML operations are becoming essential. MLOps brings structure to the full lifecycle — from the readiness of data pipelines to automating model deployment and updates. Observability adds another
layer, allowing organisations to understand how models perform, how they drift, what they consume and whether they behave in unexpected ways. These capabilities establish the conditions for integrating guardrails, enforcing access control and ensuring that AI systems meet privacy and compliance requirements.
Security operations are already seeing the impact. As models become embedded into critical processes, SOC teams need visibility into their interactions, dependencies and failure modes. Monitoring infrastructure or applications alone is no longer sufficient; the behaviour of the models themselves has become a core component of operational risk. The industry is moving toward a unified operational view that combines infrastructure telemetry, application logs, data lineage and model-level intelligence.
This transition has shaped our work at Finesse. Many clients reached a stage where they needed a structured environment to manage AI across privacy, governance, performance and security. That requirement influenced the design of our AI/ML Ops and Observability capability, built as an extension of the Cyberhub SOC. The aim is to integrate AI into the same operational fabric that monitors networks, applications and identities, giving organisations a unified intelligence and security layer with end-to-end visibility.
The offering spans strategy and advisory, DataOps, privacy and security controls, lifecycle automation, MLOps, observability and continuous optimisation, supported by an evolving partner ecosystem which currently includes Elastic, Protectt.ai and AI Shield. Enterprises everywhere are discovering that AI’s long-term value depends on how well it is operated. As AI becomes part of core operations, these capabilities will determine which organisations build systems they can rely on — and which remain stuck in pilot mode.
NVIDIA: DGX Spark
NVIDIA has introduced the DGX Spark, a compact AI supercomputer designed to bring petascale computing power to the desktop. Aimed at developers and researchers, the system delivers up to one petaflop of AI performance and features 128GB of unified memory, enabling local inference on models with up to 200 billion parameters and fine-tuning of models up to 70 billion parameters. Powered by the NVIDIA GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, DGX Spark integrates ConnectX-7 200 Gb/s networking and NVLink-C2C interconnect technology, offering five times
HONOR: X9D
the bandwidth of PCIe Gen5. The system comes pre-installed with the NVIDIA AI software stack, including CUDA libraries, NVIDIA NIM microservices, and access to models and frameworks such as FLUX.1, Cosmos Reason, and Qwen3. Early adopters include research institutions and companies such as Meta, Microsoft, Google, Hugging Face, and NYU’s Global AI Frontier Lab. NVIDIA says DGX Spark provides a practical platform for developing and testing AI agents, advanced software stacks, and privacysensitive applications locally.
NOTHING: Ear (3)
Nothing has launched the Ear (3), its latest flagship true wireless earbuds. The earbuds mark the company’s first use of metal within its transparent aesthetic, incorporating polished aluminium accents and a recycled aluminium charging case built through 27 precision processes.
A key innovation is the Super Mic system built into the case, featuring dual microphones with ambient-filtering technology capable of suppressing noise up to 95 dB. Activated via a dedicated TALK button, it enhances call clarity and allows quick voice recordings synced to Nothing’s Essential Space app. Each earbud also houses three directional microphones and a bone-conduction voice pick-up unit, supported by AI noise cancellation trained on 20 million hours of real-world audio.
The Ear (3) features 12mm dynamic drivers with a patterned diaphragm for improved bass and treble, and adaptive active noise cancellation up to 45 dB that adjusts to ambient changes every 600 milliseconds. Connectivity includes Bluetooth 5.4 with LDAC and low-latency support. The earbuds offer up to 10 hours of playback, extendable to 38 hours with the case, and support both USB-C fast charging and wireless charging, alongside IP54 dust and water resistance.
HONOR has expanded its X Series with the launch of the HONOR X9d, a mid-range smartphone that combines durability, endurance, and advanced imaging features. The device is built to withstand drops, dust, and high-pressure water jets, carrying IP69K certification and SGS Triple Resistant Premium Performance recognition. Reinforced with HONOR’s Ultra-Bounce Anti-Drop Technology and tempered glass, the phone can survive drops of up to 2.5 metres.
The X9d features a 6.79-inch OLED display with a 1.5K resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate, and peak brightness of 6,000 nits. It includes eye-comfort modes such as 3,840 Hz PWM dimming
and Dynamic Dimming for reduced strain during long viewing sessions.
Powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 processor, the X9d offers improved GPU and CPU performance alongside up to 24 GB of effective RAM (12 GB physical + 12 GB virtual) and 256 GB of storage. Its 8,300 mAh silicon-carbon battery supports 66 W fast charging and delivers up to three days of mixed use.
For photography, the phone sports a 108 MP main camera with optical and electronic stabilisation, supported by AI-powered tools including Eraser, Cutout, and Outpainting for intelligent editing. The HONOR X9d is available in four colours: Forest Green, Sunrise Gold, Midnight Black, and Reddish Brown.
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