IDC, AWS and NTT DATA Roundtable
Cloud Migration and Modernization
The Way Forward for Saudi Arabia
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Saudi Arabia’s cloud evolution has been reshaping how organizations operate and innovate. According to IDC, public cloud spending in the Kingdom is projected to grow at a 31% CAGR between 2025 and 2029, nearly tripling in annual market size. This growth, fueled by Vision 2030 programs, cloud-first strategies, and large-scale public- and private-sector initiatives, has been transformative.
Across the Middle East, there has been a clear shift from infrastructure-led adoption to platform-led innovation, with cloud powering modern applications, AI capabilities, and intelligent automation at scale.
However, the modernization opportunity remains under-tapped.
IDC research shows that 51% of organizations across META continue to rely on legacy applications due to concerns about business disruption. In Saudi Arabia, monolithic systems often increase migration costs and extend timelines, leading enterprises to prioritize lift-and-shift strategies that limit long-term cloud ROI.
At the same time, there’s a rising demand for advanced cloud platforms, AI-enabled services, and modern data architectures. The next stage of cloud maturity in the Kingdom therefore will depend on accelerating application modernization, strengthening governance, and aligning migration strategies with long-term digital transformation goals.
Discussion Areas
Accelerating application modernization to deliver greater cloud value
Moving beyond lift-and-shift toward platform-led innovation
Managing migration complexity while minimizing operational risk
Building a scalable foundation for AI-enabled and data-driven workloads
Agenda
IDC, AWS and NTT DATA Roundtable
One Day Event
Registration & Networking
Beyond Lift-and-Shift: Redefining Cloud ROI in the Kingdom
As Saudi Arabia’s cloud market accelerates, many organizations remain stuck in lift-and-shift approaches that limit long-term value. This keynote explores why platform-led innovation is the real driver of cloud ROI and ongoing digital transformation.
Jebin George
Senior Research Manager, Cloud and Datacenter Services, IDC
Building the AI-Ready Data Foundation: Modern Data Architecture for the Cloud Era
As enterprises push toward AI-enabled and data-driven workloads, having a scalable, well-governed data foundation becomes critical to success. This session explores how to design modern data architectures that support advanced analytics, automation, and AI at scale.
Ali El Kontar
Cloud Practice Leader, NTT DATA
The Modernization Roadmap: A Phased Approach to Reducing Cost and Timeline Risk
Monolithic systems often drive up migration costs and stretch timelines, pushing enterprises toward risk-averse, short-term fixes. This session outlines a phased modernization approach that helps organizations manage complexity, control costs, and stay aligned with long-term transformation goals.
Open Discussion- Building for AI: Are Your Data Architecture and Governance Ready?
As demand grows for AI-enabled services, many organizations are still working with data architectures and governance models not built for this scale. This open discussion invites participants to assess readiness gaps and share perspectives on what it truly takes to build a foundation fit for AI-driven workloads.
Summary & Close
Dinner & Networking
Speakers
Jebin George
Senior Research Manager, Cloud and Datacenter Services
IDC
Read bio
Jebin George
Jebin George is part of IDC’s Enterprise Infrastructure global research domain. He focuses on cloud, datacenter, and infrastructure adoption trends across the Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa, with particular emphasis on how cloud strategies are evolving in the era of AI and increasing digital sovereignty requirements. His research provides strategic guidance to hyperscalers, telecom operators, system integrators, and enterprise CIOs as they navigate hybrid multicloud adoption, AI-driven infrastructure modernization, and sovereign cloud frameworks.
Jebin brings 20 years of technology market research experience, including 16 years with IDC Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa. Throughout his tenure, he has led syndicated research, custom consulting engagements, and executive advisory initiatives focused on the evolution of the cloud market, hyperscaler ecosystems, and enterprise digital transformation strategies. Prior to IDC, he worked with SunTec Business Solutions, where he supported global market research and consulting initiatives for international ICT markets.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 7:00 pm
Beyond Lift-and-Shift: Redefining Cloud ROI in the Kingdom
As Saudi Arabia’s cloud market accelerates, many organizations remain stuck in lift-and-shift approaches that limit long-term value. This keynote explores why platform-led innovation is the real driver of cloud ROI and ongoing digital transformation.
Ali El Kontar
Cloud Practice Leader
NTT DATA
Read bio
Ali El Kontar
Ali El Kontar, Cloud Practice Leader of NTT DATA, has over two decades of IT and Telecom expertise. His dedication to technology, knowledge sharing, and fostering talent underscores a people-centric approach.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 7:20 pm
Building the AI-Ready Data Foundation: Modern Data Architecture for the Cloud Era
As enterprises push toward AI-enabled and data-driven workloads, having a scalable, well-governed data foundation becomes critical to success. This session explores how to design modern data architectures that support advanced analytics, automation, and AI at scale.
Partner
NTT DATA | AWS
NTT DATA is a $30+ billion business and technology services leader in AI and digital infrastructure. We accelerate client success and positively impact society through responsible innovation. As a Global Top Employer, we have experts in more than 70 countries. NTT DATA is part of NTT Group.
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Since 2006, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud. AWS has been continually expanding its services to support virtually any workload, and it now has more than 240 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, media, and application development, deployment, and management from 123 Availability Zones within 39 geographic regions, with announced plans for 7 more Availability Zones and 2 more AWS Regions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Chile. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit aws.amazon.com.
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