MENA FORECAST Cloudy with a chance for SaaS

If data is the new oil and if the cloud holds all the data, what do you make of the countries that could potentially be leaders in both cloud tech and oil reserves?

- Harsha Vardhan

One word comes to mind Superpower.

The countries in the MENA region are at a geographical advantage. They share several cultural, economic, and environmental similarities and half the world's oil and gas reserves - the perfect recipe for the economic dominance powered by the nexus of oil wealth and cloud technology. To the uninitiated wondering, what is MENA? It refers to a group of 21 countries (as per the World Bank) situated in the Middle East and North Africa region. Out of the 21 countries, 13 are net oil exporters and together account for 58% of the world's oil reserves while having only 3% of the world's population.

However, as the entire world is slowly moving towards renewable energy, the countries in the MENA region are looking to diversify their economy, which is entirely dependent on earnings from crude oil. MENA countries have identified that one of the ways forward to maintain their economic stronghold in the post-oil era is to invest in emerging technologies that operate on the cloud.

A report from technological research and consulting firm Gartner says that the end-user spending on public cloud services in the MENA region will total $5.7 billion in 2022, an increase of 19.2% from the previous year.

WHAT WILL POWER MENA TO ECONOMIC DOMINANCE IN THE NEXT DECADE - OIL RESERVES OR CLOUD TECHNOLOGY? SMART MONEY IS ON THE CLOUD.

SAAS FOCUS

Gartner's findings indicate that MENA's shift from an oil economy to a data-led economy will boost public cloud growth in the region. Gartner says that MENA CIOs are also increasingly adopting the cloud to secure the quickest time to value for their IT investments made over the last two years.