CAIRO: The International Data Corporation (IDC), an information technology and telecommunications market intelligence and advisory firm, opened Monday a Cairo conference on storage, virtualization and datacenters titled “Building a Smarter Infrastructure.” In a press statement, IDC said that the while the economic crisis may have had a negative impact on IT investment in the region, “it has not reduced the need for data, nor has it removed the stringent requirements for data retention and protection that go hand-in-hand with stricter corporate governance and ever-tightening international regulations.” “The unstable environment has, however, ramped up the pressure on CIOs to boost efficiency and drive direct business results from their investments, something that can be achieved through the improved utilization of existing infrastructure and the wise implementation of new technologies.” Margaret Adam, research director for IT services at IDC Middle East, Africa and Turkey, spoke at the opening of the conference about the virtues of virtualization, saying that they “addresses the new realities faced by today's IT managers and can help organizations become more agile and responsive as they embrace the cloud computing phenomenon in increasing numbers.” Adam's cited studies that show the main areas in which the business community are facing challenges including staffing, maintaining system performance, managing internal budgets, managing outsourced IT services and maintaining a secure infrastructure. According to Adam, new virtualization tools enable businesses to “improve applications sets to better fit their business processes, to improve the availability and/or performance of IT systems with greater focus on security measures and regulatory compliance.” “In addition to cost savings and operational efficiency virtualization brings with it footprint optimization, skills retention, structural change to generate growth and leveraging IT to take advantage of the new market landscape,” she said. “After a period of IT investment focused mostly on infrastructure building, customers in the region are now moving to rationalize their investments through consolidation and virtualization,” she added. The IDC roadshow is a regional platform for the exchange of experiences, ideas and best practices between storage solution users, independent experts and representatives of the industry, according to its website. . HP Middle East's StorageWorks Business Unit Manager Walid Gomaa was present to provide an assessment of HP's converged infrastructure architecture and how it is able to simplify IT and accelerate business results.
