Cloud will be the buzz words in 2013 for large enterprises in UAE and region due to the high penetration of smart devices and technologies, say experts.

Cloud will gain relevance as integral information and data move to the new platform. Trillions of dollars in IT spending are moving from data centers and software licenses to cloud services.

Soon large companies will not have dedicated data centers. 2013 should be a time when investments in cutting edge technology will no longer focus on traditional PCs but on a raft of personalized devices and appliances connected to a cloud infrastructure.

According to the CIO tech Poll: Economic Outlook results, majority of IT leaders (70 percent) said they believe that organizations that implement tablets are significantly/somewhat more likely to also adopt edge technologies (cloud, social, mobile) sooner than organizations not adopting tablets. Over the next year, top business priorities include overall revenue growth (81 percent), addressing the rising expectations of customers (78 percent), acquiring and retaining customers (72 percent) and improving the quality of products and services (71 percent).

Mobile and wireless (56 percent), applications (52 percent), IT compensation (48 percent) and outsourced IT services areas (including cloud) (43 percent) are all seeing budget increases. The survey indicated enterprise organizations are seeing even more growth in mobile/wireless (66 percent), applications (65 percent) and outsourced IT services including cloud (49 percent).

Critical and high priority IT initiatives include improving the use of data and analytics for business decisions (64 percent), improving IT project delivery performance (62 percent) and developing new skills to better support emerging technologies and business innovation (49 percent).

This trend will be reflected in both private and public sector. Owing to budget constraints, businesses are now looking to consolidate and centralize their IT infrastructure to focus on core business objectives.

More and more organizations are moving away from investing in upfront Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) to an Operational Expenditure (OPEX) model, allowing them to ‘pay-as-you-go’ and reduce overall risks associated with their business operations.

Systems are now vital to revenue generation, and the ever-increasing demands for online and near-instantaneous access have stretched budgets and staff.

Maintaining a competitive enterprise is becoming more difficult every day. One of the key ways to increase performance is to focus on your organization’s core value activities that produce the most value for an organization. An IT department’s time should be dedicated to the activities that provide the most value and allow resources to be focused only on those key areas.

According to IDC, managed and datacenter services across the Middle East recorded a double digit growth. Combined managed and datacenter services grew 19% in the region, managed services grew 18% and datacenter services grew 21%. According to IDC, there is a preference for managed services over IS outsourcing and cost, efficiency and lack of skills are driving datacenter services.

Source: Content inputs from Khaleej Times and IDC, Managed and Datacenter Services in Middle East webinar, December 2012