EDITOR ’ S QUESTION

A disruptive technology is one that displaces an established technology and shakes up the industry or a ground-breaking product that creates a completely new industry . Industry experts look at the disruptive technology space and share insights on how CIOs can develop competencies to master and embrace the digital disruption currently happening .

With an entire generation born-on-the-web , it is not surprising that 79 % of Saudi Arabia ’ s total population uses a smartphone and in UAE the corresponding figure was a whopping 91 %, an uptick of nearly 20 percentage points in a single year . In Kuwait , smartphone penetration rose from 49 % to 86 % in a period of two years , according to eMarketer .

For CIOs who realise this ahead of time and recalibrate their strategies , they will be able to carve a niche for themselves versus those who are still catching up with primitive digitalisation requirements .

Azz-Eddine Mansouri , General Manager , Sales , Ciena Middle East , said the Middle East , UAE in particular , has been ahead of the curve in accepting disruptive technology . Dubai ’ s recent announcement of its Metaverse strategy by Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan has positioned the city as a leader in offering an advanced platform for the metaverse ecosystem to thrive .

Currently , the metaverse contributes US $ 500 million to the UAE ’ s economy and is expected to nurture 40,000 virtual jobs by 2030 . Mansouri said given the scale and the rapid pace of the upcoming changes , the IT sector needs to evaluate its current network infrastructure and question its capability to deal with the new demands ; for everything to be “ dynamic ” and “ faster ”.

“ Ciena ’ s metaverse report , which was released at the end of September , dives deeper into how the metaverse impacts the region .

“ For CIOs to successfully aid their businesses , they need to look at disruptive technology in relation to its counterparts . For instance , cloud computing and storage enable collaboration , but can also aid in generating better insights about consumers and processes through the utilisation of artificial intelligence . “ Usually , technology is closely linked to one another , and CIOs can stay ahead of the curve if they think of the eco-system as a whole rather than individual technological elements ,” he said .

The Middle East and Africa has seen governments at the forefront of embracing disruptive and emerging technologies and this has created advantages for technology players in the market when governments in the region are taking the lead in becoming early adopters of technology .

26 INTELLIGENTCIO AFRICA www . intelligentcio . com