The Middle East is navigating a period of significant geopolitical and economic change. For technology leaders in Saudi Arabia, the priority is not only to manage risk, but also to sustain innovation, resilience, and long-term transformation in a complex environment.
The current crisis is introducing new variables into the global technology economy. IDC’s latest outlook indicates that IT spending in the Middle East and Africa is expected to grow by around 5% in 2026, with a downside scenario of 3–4% growth should geopolitical pressures persist.
At the same time, the regional picture is unlikely to be uniform.
Gulf markets such as Saudi Arabia are expected to show greater near-term resilience than more import-dependent economies, giving CIOs in the Kingdom a different challenge: how to maintain momentum on strategic priorities while preparing for a more uncertain external environment.
The IDC Middle East Virtual Roadshow – KSA Edition to explore how these forces are reshaping CIO priorities in the Kingdom and what they mean for technology investment, AI adoption, digital sovereignty, and enterprise resilience in the months ahead.
Ensuring enterprise operations remain uninterrupted through stronger infrastructure, disaster recovery, and business continuity strategies.
Strengthening control over data, infrastructure, and digital ecosystems to support strategic autonomy in the Middle East.
Sustaining AI innovation and scaling intelligent capabilities even as organizations navigate crisis.
Designing resilient cloud architectures that support multi-region availability, operational stability, and sovereign requirements.
Safeguarding digital infrastructure, data, and enterprise operations against evolving cyber threats and disruptions.
Balancing cost pressures while prioritizing strategic technology investments that drive long-term innovation and resilience.
Attendees will gain insights into new priorities around resilience, data sovereignty, multi-cloud strategies, and talent transformation as CIOs navigate an increasingly AI-first, regulation-driven, and fast-growing digital economy.
Harish Dunakhe
Senior Research Director, Software & Cloud (META), IDC
The rules of the digital economy are being rewritten. As Gulf economies navigate an era of unprecedented change, the ability to harness AI while maintaining control over data and digital infrastructure has never been more critical. AI is the new currency of power — and for organizations across the region, harnessing the value whilst maintaining sovereignty and resilience is no longer optional; they are strategic imperatives.
Join ServiceNow as we examine the strategies, technologies and practices needed to build intelligent, sovereign and resilient foundations — ones that withstand disruption and drive sustainable long-term growth.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Tolga Tutel
Field CTO, Middle East & Africa, ServiceNow
Shakeel Baig
Specialized Solutions Sales Leader, Saudi Arabia, ServiceNow
As enterprises become increasingly AI-native, digital sovereignty is emerging as a critical strategic imperative rather than a compliance checkbox. This session examines how organizations can maintain control over data, models, and infrastructure while leveraging the scale and innovation of global AI ecosystems. It will explore key considerations such as data governance, model transparency, cloud sovereignty, and supply chain resilience, and how these factors influence architecture and vendor choices. Attendees will gain practical insights into building AI-driven enterprises that balance sovereignty, trust, and competitive advantage in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Mohammed A Alreedi
CTO, IBM
Control your enterprise information to drive trusted, scalable results with AI.
In an AI-first world, success depends on secure, connected, high-quality, and well-governed data. OpenText helps organizations unlock AI’s full potential by unifying data sets across systems such as ERPs, CRMs, supply chains, content management and more, ensuring accuracy with zero hallucination and making sure AI is used in context, all of this in a compliant and secure ways. From ingestion and curation to search, summarization, and protection, we deliver secure information management that fuels smarter automation and scales to make your enterprise ready for the evolving demands of AI.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Marc Merheb
Director Solutions Consulting, Middle East Region, OpenText
As enterprises race to adopt AI, CIOs are caught between the demand for rapid innovation and the need to maintain sovereignty and security. The current state of AI has introduced unprecedented risks, from sensitive code leaks and prompt injection attacks to sophisticated AI-driven phishing.
In this session, we will explore how the AI + Connectivity approach allows the next generation of enterprise to embrace AI safely.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Samer Hasan
Senior Solutions Engineer, Strategic, Cloudflare
As Saudi Arabia rapidly advances toward the ambitious goals of Vision 2030, organizations face the dual challenge of accelerating digital transformation while safeguarding against disruptions. This presentation explores how enterprises in the Kingdom can leverage Google Cloud to build highly resilient, compliant, and secure cloud infrastructures. By utilizing Google Cloud’s local infrastructure and advanced cloud-native tools, businesses can ensure operational continuity, protect sensitive data, and scale confidently in a dynamic economic landscape.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Quentin Gaumer
Cybersecurity and Compliance specialist, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Google Cloud
Sultan Altukhaim
Head of Security and Compliance Cloud CISO, KSA, Google Cloud
This session highlights the challenges of managing a rapidly expanding global datasphere, expected to reach 175 zettabytes by 2025. With most data unstructured and recently created, organizations face growing complexity, data sprawl, and security risks, even as AI unlocks valuable insights.
He introduces two frameworks. The 5-Step Value Pyramid helps organizations move from data storage to value creation: identifying useful data, migrating from legacy systems, optimizing storage, automating workflows, and leveraging AI for insights. The 3-2-1-0 Resiliency Standard strengthens data protection by ensuring multiple copies across different media, including one air-gapped, with zero recovery errors.
The presentation concludes by emphasizing Iron Mountain’s integrated approach to physical and digital data management, combining sustainable data centers and advanced restoration capabilities to support AI readiness while ensuring strong governance and long-term data protection.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Cliff Madru
Vice President, Digital Solutions, Iron Mountain
The role of the CISO is expanding faster than ever. AI adoption is accelerating, regulatory pressure is intensifying, and boards expect clearer answers on risk, resilience, and return on security investment. At the same time, CISOs face growing personal accountability while still being expected to enable innovation rather than slow it down.
In this executive level session let us unpack the key findings from The CISO Report 2026: From Risk to Resilience in the AI Era and explore what they mean for security leaders.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Tom Gamali
Field CTO & Strategic Advisor, MEA-TRC, Splunk
Join the tracks to participate in the session kickoff raffle.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
1:05 pm – 1:15 pm
1:15 pm – 1:25 pm
1:05 pm – 1:15 pm
1:15 pm – 1:25 pm
Specialized Solutions Sales Leader, Saudi Arabia
ServiceNow
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Field CTO, Middle East & Africa
ServiceNow
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CTO
IBM
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Director Solutions Consulting, Middle East Region
OpenText
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Senior Solutions Engineer, Strategic
Cloudflare
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Chief Data Evangelist and Data Management Director
Denodo
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Field CTO & Strategic Advisor, MEA-TRC
Splunk
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Head of Systems Engineering, Middle East
Infoblox
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Vice President, Digital Solutions
Iron Mountain
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Field Chief Data Officer (EMEA)
Dataiku
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Cybersecurity and Compliance specialist, Middle East, Turkey and Africa
Google Cloud
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Principal Sales Engineer
Ping Identity
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Head of Security and Compliance Cloud CISO, KSA
Google Cloud
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The rules of the digital economy are being rewritten. As Gulf economies navigate an era of unprecedented change, the ability to harness AI while maintaining control over data and digital infrastructure has never been more critical. AI is the new currency of power — and for organizations across the region, harnessing the value whilst maintaining sovereignty and resilience is no longer optional; they are strategic imperatives.
Join ServiceNow as we examine the strategies, technologies and practices needed to build intelligent, sovereign and resilient foundations — ones that withstand disruption and drive sustainable long-term growth.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
The rules of the digital economy are being rewritten. As Gulf economies navigate an era of unprecedented change, the ability to harness AI while maintaining control over data and digital infrastructure has never been more critical. AI is the new currency of power — and for organizations across the region, harnessing the value whilst maintaining sovereignty and resilience is no longer optional; they are strategic imperatives.
Join ServiceNow as we examine the strategies, technologies and practices needed to build intelligent, sovereign and resilient foundations — ones that withstand disruption and drive sustainable long-term growth.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
As enterprises become increasingly AI-native, digital sovereignty is emerging as a critical strategic imperative rather than a compliance checkbox. This session examines how organizations can maintain control over data, models, and infrastructure while leveraging the scale and innovation of global AI ecosystems. It will explore key considerations such as data governance, model transparency, cloud sovereignty, and supply chain resilience, and how these factors influence architecture and vendor choices. Attendees will gain practical insights into building AI-driven enterprises that balance sovereignty, trust, and competitive advantage in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Control your enterprise information to drive trusted, scalable results with AI.
In an AI-first world, success depends on secure, connected, high-quality, and well-governed data. OpenText helps organizations unlock AI’s full potential by unifying data sets across systems such as ERPs, CRMs, supply chains, content management and more, ensuring accuracy with zero hallucination and making sure AI is used in context, all of this in a compliant and secure ways. From ingestion and curation to search, summarization, and protection, we deliver secure information management that fuels smarter automation and scales to make your enterprise ready for the evolving demands of AI.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
As enterprises race to adopt AI, CIOs are caught between the demand for rapid innovation and the need to maintain sovereignty and security. The current state of AI has introduced unprecedented risks, from sensitive code leaks and prompt injection attacks to sophisticated AI-driven phishing.
In this session, we will explore how the AI + Connectivity approach allows the next generation of enterprise to embrace AI safely.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Dr. Alexey Sidorov was born with the “Passion for Data” programmed in his DNA.
Alexey started his carrier 30-years ago building volumetric model of radioactive pollution of Chernobyl nuclear disaster Zone with Russian Academy of Science and since then earned his reputation as the strategic adviser in all aspects of Data Management.
Prior joining Denodo as Chief Evangelist, Alexey built and managed enterprise-wide Data Integration platforms for industry giants like Nokia and Deutsche Bank. In the last 15 years Dr Alexey has been helping many companies across 3 continents to Digitally Transform their business with the edge-cutting Data technologies from Teradata and Informatica.
Tom Gamali is a seasoned Technology Executive and cybersecurity leader with over 20 years of experience driving strategic security and technology initiatives across Europe and the Middle East. He has served as Group CISO for several leading banks and major conglomerates, and has been a member of board risk committees for financial institutions, advising on cyber risk and digital resilience.
Tom is currently Field CTO and Strategic Advisor at Splunk and has also served on the EMEA Advisory Council for (ISC)², contributing to the advancement of cybersecurity leadership and professional standards across the region.
The role of the CISO is expanding faster than ever. AI adoption is accelerating, regulatory pressure is intensifying, and boards expect clearer answers on risk, resilience, and return on security investment. At the same time, CISOs face growing personal accountability while still being expected to enable innovation rather than slow it down.
In this executive level session let us unpack the key findings from The CISO Report 2026: From Risk to Resilience in the AI Era and explore what they mean for security leaders.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Tareq Momani, Head of Systems Engineering for the Middle East at Infoblox, is a cybersecurity and business strategy leader with nearly 20 years’ experience guiding organizations through complex transformation and building digital resilience.
| With a unique passion for technology, data and information management, Cliff Madru has built a successful career as a high performing digital solutions and services leader.
In his current role as the VP of Iron Cloud and Data Services, he runs cloud services and a team of Digital experts that help businesses develop and execute strategic initiatives which enable digital transformation and business evolution. This includes complex solutions involving digitization, information governance, content management, and data protection for digital assets. This solution design expertise requires a depth of knowledge around traditional and advanced technologies, from physical infrastructure to cloud, data indexing to advanced ML & AI, tape backup to advanced cyber protection and most everything in between. Cliff has been working with technology and information systems his entire career and has held roles as the Director of Technology for multiple start-ups. With this history and his constant engagement with customers, he understands the needs and challenges today’s businesses face around digital information management. Cliff holds degrees in Computer Systems Engineering and Information Systems Management, graduating first in his class and with highest honor.
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This session highlights the challenges of managing a rapidly expanding global datasphere, expected to reach 175 zettabytes by 2025. With most data unstructured and recently created, organizations face growing complexity, data sprawl, and security risks, even as AI unlocks valuable insights.
He introduces two frameworks. The 5-Step Value Pyramid helps organizations move from data storage to value creation: identifying useful data, migrating from legacy systems, optimizing storage, automating workflows, and leveraging AI for insights. The 3-2-1-0 Resiliency Standard strengthens data protection by ensuring multiple copies across different media, including one air-gapped, with zero recovery errors.
The presentation concludes by emphasizing Iron Mountain’s integrated approach to physical and digital data management, combining sustainable data centers and advanced restoration capabilities to support AI readiness while ensuring strong governance and long-term data protection.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Faye Murray is Field Chief Data Officer (EMEA) at Dataiku and a strategic leader in data and AI, with over 15 years of experience driving transformation across organisations from start-ups to $1B+ enterprises.
She specialises in helping organisations move from AI ambition to execution, delivering measurable outcomes including seven-figure cost savings and significant ROI on AI investments. Faye is known for bridging the gap between business and technology, advising C-suite leaders on AI strategy, governance, and scaling data-driven innovation in complex, regulated environments.
A regular keynote speaker, she shares insights on AI governance, digital transformation, and ethical innovation.
Faye holds degrees in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and an Executive MBA with Distinction from Warwick Business School.
Quentin is a cybersecurity and compliance advisor with over 15 years of experience helping organizations across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe securely adopt cloud technologies.
At Google Cloud, he advises regulated entities—including financial institutions, telecoms, and government agencies—on designing and implementing secure, compliant, and scalable cloud environments. His focus spans data sovereignty, AI governance, and regulatory alignment with frameworks such as SAMA, NCA, GDPR, ISO 27001, and the UAE Federal frameworks.
His background blends technical depth (cloud security architecture, threat modeling, IAM, data loss prevention) with regulatory advisory, enabling me to act as a bridge between CISOs, legal teams, and cloud architects.
He has contributed to regional initiatives like the World Bank Cloud Sovereignty Group, presented at global events like GITEX, and regularly publish thought leadership on AI risk, digital sovereignty, and cloud trust.
As Saudi Arabia rapidly advances toward the ambitious goals of Vision 2030, organizations face the dual challenge of accelerating digital transformation while safeguarding against disruptions. This presentation explores how enterprises in the Kingdom can leverage Google Cloud to build highly resilient, compliant, and secure cloud infrastructures. By utilizing Google Cloud’s local infrastructure and advanced cloud-native tools, businesses can ensure operational continuity, protect sensitive data, and scale confidently in a dynamic economic landscape.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Rob Greenman is Principal Sales Engineer at Ping Identity, where he helps enterprises design and deliver secure, seamless digital identity experiences. Drawing on extensive professional services consulting and leadership experience across EMEA, he brings a delivery-focused, consultative approach to pre-sales, partnering with customers to translate complex identity, access management and Zero Trust requirements into practical, scalable architectures that accelerate value. Rob has extensive experience guiding organisations through modernisation initiatives, from legacy access environments to cloud-first, standards-based identity solutions. He is known for aligning technology decisions with measurable business outcomes, enabling improvements in security, customer experience and sustainable growth.
Mr. Sultan Altukhaim has over 20 years of experience in the data governance and cybersecurity. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering Management from Florida Tech, as well as both a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems from King Saud University. He has also earned distinguished management and leadership certifications from Harvard Business School, London Business School, Esade and INSEAD. He is a graduate of the MISK 2030 Leaders Program.
Mr. Sultan serves on several corporate committees, including the Board Risk and Credit Committee at American Express Saudi Arabia, the Board Risk Committee at Arab National Bank (ANB), and the Board Risk and Credit Committee at Tasheel Finance Company.
He is currently the Cloud CISO at Google Cloud KSA. Previously, he served as General Manager of Cybersecurity and Data Governance at the Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST) in Saudi Arabia. His previous prominent roles include Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at the Saudi Investment Bank, Information Security Manager at the Capital Market Authority (CMA), IT Business Analyst at Boeing (USA), IT Officer at the Florida Institute of Technology, Information Security Planner at Saudi Telecom Company (STC), and Information Systems Analyst at the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA).
As Saudi Arabia rapidly advances toward the ambitious goals of Vision 2030, organizations face the dual challenge of accelerating digital transformation while safeguarding against disruptions. This presentation explores how enterprises in the Kingdom can leverage Google Cloud to build highly resilient, compliant, and secure cloud infrastructures. By utilizing Google Cloud’s local infrastructure and advanced cloud-native tools, businesses can ensure operational continuity, protect sensitive data, and scale confidently in a dynamic economic landscape.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
For years, digital transformation was measured by speed, scale, and efficiency. Today, resilience is emerging as a defining metric. As digital infrastructure becomes part of a nation’s critical fabric, disruptions no longer remain confined to IT — they impact economies, public services, and trust itself.
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.
Visit www.ibm.com for more information.
OpenText can help you tackle the most complex digital transformation programs with confidence. With the world’s most complete and integrated Information Management platform, we empower our customers to organize, integrate and protect data and content as it flows through business processes inside and outside their organization.
OpenText | Information Management Solutions
https://www.linkedin.com/company/opentext/posts/?feedView=all
Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) is the leading connectivity cloud company. It empowers organizations to make their employees, applications, and networks faster and more secure everywhere, while reducing complexity and cost. Powered by one of the world’s largest and most interconnected networks, Cloudflare blocks billions of threats online for its customers every day.
Denodo is a leader in data management. The award-winning Denodo Platform — the leading data integration, management, and delivery platform — uses a logical approach to enable self-service business intelligence, data science, hybrid/multi-cloud data integration, and enterprise data services. Denodo’s customers across large enterprises and mid-market companies in 30+ industries have received payback in less than six months.
Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.
Founded in 1951, Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM) is the global leader in innovative storage, asset lifecycle management, and information management services. Originally known for its secure underground vaults, the company has evolved into a strategic partner for the digital age, helping over 240,000 customers—including 95% of the Fortune 1000—protect and activate their most precious assets.
Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK) turns data into doing with the Data-to-Everything Platform. Splunk technology is designed to investigate, monitor, analyze and act on data at any scale. Our powerful platform and unique approach to data have empowered companies to improve service levels, reduce operations costs, mitigate risk, enhance DevOps collaboration and create new product and service offerings.
Infoblox unites networking, security and cloud with a protective DDI platform that delivers enterprise resilience and agility. Trusted by over 6,000 customers, including the majority of Fortune 100 companies as well as emerging innovators, we seamlessly integrate, secure and automate critical network services so businesses can move fast without compromise.
Dataiku is the Platform for AI Success, the enterprise orchestration layer for building, deploying, and governing AI. In a single environment, teams design and operate analytics, machine learning, and AI agents with the transparency, collaboration, and control enterprises require.
For more than a decade, Dataiku has helped organizations turn data, analytics, and AI into measurable business value. As the market has evolved from analytics to machine learning to generative AI and agents, Dataiku has enabled customers to stay ahead—operationalizing new technologies while maintaining stability, governance, and trust.
At Ping, we make it possible to trust every digital moment—moments with customers, employees, partners, and non-human identities. Whether you’re securing millions of users, fighting sophisticated fraud, simplifying third-party access, or embracing passwordless experiences and verifiable credentials, establishing trust shouldn’t slow you down. Our enterprise-grade identity platform is built for scale, speed, and flexibility—and works seamlessly with your existing tech stack across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem. We help innovators like you accelerate growth and confidently leverage AI—making life easier for your developers, users, IT teams, and partners. With Ping, all your digital experiences start with trust. Learn more at pingidentity.com.