The International Data Corporation (IDC) hosted the fourth Egypt CIO Summit at the Nile Ritz-Carlton in Cairo. The annual summit, titled Developing a Blueprint for Thriving in the Digital Economy, brought together more than 100 of the country's most influential ICT leaders and chief information officers (CIOs). The distinguished guests engaged in full-day discussion sessions about emerging local, regional, and global ICT trends, such as digital business, disruptive automation, cloud innovation, digital security, the Internet of Things, and more. In her keynote speech delivered on behalf of Egypt's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Yasser El-Kady, Maha Rasha, acting CEO of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), declared that the ICT sector is a top priority on the state's agenda. She also underlined that the ICT sector has been witnessing unprecedented development and is currently one of the largest contributors to the country's GDP growth and a major exporting sector with more than $3.25bn in export revenues. "In today's digital world and the fast-paced IT industry, we are always keen to pursue any opportunity for collaboration and be part of all occasions that are instrumental for success. The ITIDA has joined forces with the IDC to deliver a profound understanding of Egypt's ICT exports," Rasha said. "Scaling Egypt's IT/ITeS offerings, spreading science and tech parks throughout the country, electronics design and manufacturing, and building a digital-ready workforce for embracing the new digital context are among the pillars leading to our growth targets," she added. The IDC's Egypt CIO Summit has served as a platform for ICT thought leadership in the country since 2015, and this year the summit's agenda has been designed to help CIOs rethink the way they leverage information, implement emerging ICT solutions, and facilitate organisation-wide innovation, with the ultimate aim of making their enterprises more agile, efficient, and productive than ever before. The rise of disruptive automation featured prominently, while expert guidance was provided on issues such as driving digital business at scale, building a resilient cybersecurity strategy, and empowering innovation with cloud. Jyoti Lachandani, IDC group vice president and regional managing director for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa, started the summit's proceedings with a session highlighting how third platform technologies are reshaping the Egyptian ICT industry. "As the digital revolution continues, the ICT industry is entering the second chapter of the third platform era, built on technologies and business models that will dramatically accelerate—and scale—digital innovation," said Lalchandani. "The emergence and widespread adoption of technologies like cloud and big data analytics, as well as highly disruptive innovation accelerators such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence/cognitive systems, robotics, augmented/virtual reality, 3D printing, and blockchain, will transform the ICT landscape as we know it." Exclusively aimed at C-level executives and above, the summit included a rich line-up of presentations and panel discussions, delivered by technology leaders focusing on two tracks: the first was Driving Innovation with the Cloud, where discussions centred on enabling organisations to embrace rapid cloud adoption through the use of hybrid cloud solutions, easier procurement cycles, and the development, deployment, and integration of custom applications. The second track was titled Security Metrics for the Digital Era and addressed the complexity of the region's security landscape, examining the uptake of digital transformation, and contextualising the rising security risks. It also outlined the security metrics that organisations need to consider as part of a comprehensive security strategy. The summit also connected the providers of cutting-edge technology solutions with the influential decision-makers responsible for driving their implementation, with a series of one-on-one meetings taking place between both parties. Commenting on the event, Nagia El Emary, IDC Egypt country manager and senior consultant for the Middle East and Africa (MEA), said: "Egypt is now the third largest MEA market in terms of ICT growth and this year's summit succeeded in being the country's main ICT summit to date, delivering a clear focus on enabling business transformation and economic growth through technology third platform solutions, innovation accelerators, and export opportunities. We are delighted to have reinforced the IDC's position as the premier ICT market intelligence, advisory services, consultancy, and events provider in Egypt and a key partner in facilitating the country's growth ambitions." The IDC's partners for the Egypt CIO Summit 2018 included the ITIDA and WE as strategic partners; IBM and Oracle as summit partners; Fortinet, HP Enterprise, MobileIron, ManageEngine, Global Knowledge, and VMWare as gold partners; and Juniper Networks, Citrix, Commvault, and Veeam as silver partners.
