AI Sovereignty and Resiliency
Overview
The Middle East is navigating a period of significant geopolitical and economic change. For technology leaders in the UAE, the priority is not only to manage risk, but also to sustain innovation, resilience, and long-term digital progress in an increasingly 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, IDC expects the near-term impact to be more toward timing and spending mix shifts than by a broad pullback in demand.
The regional picture is unlikely to be uniform. Gulf markets such as the UAE are expected to show greater near-term resilience than more import-dependent economies, giving CIOs in the Emirates a different challenge: how to maintain momentum on strategic priorities while adapting to shifting risk, regulatory, and investment conditions.
Join Us
The IDC Middle East Virtual Roadshow – UAE Edition will explore how these forces are reshaping CIO priorities in the Emirates and what they mean for technology investment, AI adoption, digital sovereignty, cybersecurity, and enterprise resilience in the months ahead.

Agenda
AI Sovereignty and Resiliency
One Day Event
Welcome Address
IDC Keynote: The CIO Agenda Reset: What’s Changing for Technology Leaders in the GCC
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.
Ranjit Rajan
Vice President, Research (META), IDC
Anchored in Intelligence: AI, Data Sovereignty & Resilience in Shifting Economies
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
Architecting for Resilience and AI Independence in a Volatile World
In an era where geopolitical shifts and economic volatility are the new constants, CIOs are being asked to do the impossible: innovate at lightning speed while guaranteeing absolute operational resilience. This session explores how a “Sovereign-First” approach—powered by open hybrid cloud and automated AI—allows Middle Eastern enterprises to reclaim control over their data, their costs, and their future. Join Red Hat as we share real-world blueprints from regional leaders like Emirates NBD on how to build a technology foundation that doesn’t just survive disruption but thrives on it.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Anirban Mukherjee
Director of Solutions Architecture, Middle East & North Africa (MENA), Red Hat
Digital Sovereignty: From Policy Imperative to Technology Strategy
As geopolitical tensions, regulatory pressures, and data security concerns intensify, digital sovereignty has moved beyond policy debates into the heart of technology strategy. This session explores how organizations are translating sovereignty requirements into concrete architectural and operational decisions—from cloud and data residency to vendor selection and cyber resilience. Attendees will gain insight into balancing control with innovation, and how to design future-ready digital ecosystems that meet both regulatory demands and business objectives in an increasingly fragmented global landscape.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Ahmed I Farrag
Chief Technology Officer, IBM
Secure information Management for AI, by OpenText
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
Securing AI at the Edge: Innovate with AI While Keeping Your Data Safe and online
Unlock AI innovation without compromising data privacy or system uptime. Cloudflare’s Connectivity Cloud solves the modern CIO’s challenge by bringing computing and security directly to the edge.
Here is how Cloudflare empowers your secure AI transformation:
- Fast AI: Run AI models directly on Cloudflare’s nearest servers for lightning-fast answers.
- Advanced AI Security: Protect applications from hidden risks like prompt injections and shadow AI. Cloudflare acts as a protective firewall for your LLMs and applies Zero Trust protocols to secure AI agents.
- Unified Control & Resilience: Manage AI APIs, control costs, and oversee data localization from a single dashboard. You can rely on a massive global network built to absorb cyberattacks and ensure continuous uptime.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Bader Shaath
Senior Solutions Engineer, Cloudflare
Building Resilient Workloads on the Cloud
Google Cloud’s approach to resilience is founded on its global, architecturally robust network, spanning 43 regions and 130 zones, and its deep Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) expertise, focusing on minimizing failure impact and duration. Utilizing this platform (“Resilience ON the Cloud”) involves a shared responsibility model, requiring customers to deploy critical applications using multi-zone and multi-region architectures to ensure rapid, automated failovers and high availability. The deck reviews enterprise Disaster Recovery (DR) strategies categorized by risk protection and RTO/RPO, including Backup & Restore, Pilot Light, Warm Standby, and Multi-Site Active/Active. Finally, the presentation emphasizes Google Cloud’s built-in Security, Privacy, and Compliance, detailing global certifications, a zero-trust model (BeyondProd/BeyondCorp), and specific customer controls over data through features like default encryption, Data Residency, and Access Transparency.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Akshay Dalal
Head of Regional Risk and Compliance, UAE, Google Cloud
Ahmed Afrose
Head of Customer Engineering UAE, Levant and North Africa Dubai, UAE, Google Cloud
Governance, Protection and Resiliency in the era of AI
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
From Risk to Resilience in the AI Era
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
Beyond Digital Ghosts: Defending the New AI Attack Surface
As organizations embrace Agentic AI enterprise applications, the attack surface is shifting from traditional system access to complex identity replication and new vulnerabilities are introduced. In this session, we will explore the evolving AI security landscape and how proactive AI innovations, like Trend Cybertron, are transforming defense. Attendees will discover a comprehensive blueprint for securing the entire AI lifecycle. We will discuss safely managing the secure end-user AI journey, and enforcing real-time guardrails for AI applications Finally, we will unpack how to fortify underlying AI factory infrastructure using TrendAI AI security stack.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift voucher worth AED 500 sponsored by TrendAI.
Bilal Issa
Technical Manager, Gulf, TrendAI
Open Gold Tracks (Parallel Sessions)
Join the tracks to participate in the session kickoff raffle.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Track A: Future-Ready Security for a Resilient Digital Enterprise
1:35 pm – 1:45 pm
Cyber Resiliency Journey Maps
Senior Systems Engineer & Cyber SME – UAE, Commvault
1:45 pm – 1:55 pm
Preemptive Security in an AI World
Head of Systems Engineering, Middle East, Infoblox
1:55 pm – 2:05 pm
When Supply Chains Shift: Navigating Infrastructure and Technology Disruptions
Principal Sales Engineer, Ping Identity
Track B: Data, Trust, and Sovereignty in the Age of AI
1:35 pm – 1:45 pm
The Sovereign Intelligence: Fueling Regional Innovation via Logical Data Management
Chief Data Evangelist and Data Management Director, Denodo
1:45 pm – 1:55 pm
Trusted & Sovereign AI in Action — From Insight to Responsible Execution
Field Chief Data Officer (EMEA), Dataiku
Summary & Takeaways, IDC
Close of Event
Shakeel Baig
Event Sessions
One Day Event 11:20 am
Anchored in Intelligence: AI, Data Sovereignty & Resilience in Shifting Economies
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
Event Sessions
One Day Event 11:20 am
Anchored in Intelligence: AI, Data Sovereignty & Resilience in Shifting Economies
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.
Ahmed I Farrag
Event Sessions
One Day Event 11:50 am
Digital Sovereignty: From Policy Imperative to Technology Strategy
As geopolitical tensions, regulatory pressures, and data security concerns intensify, digital sovereignty has moved beyond policy debates into the heart of technology strategy. This session explores how organizations are translating sovereignty requirements into concrete architectural and operational decisions—from cloud and data residency to vendor selection and cyber resilience. Attendees will gain insight into balancing control with innovation, and how to design future-ready digital ecosystems that meet both regulatory demands and business objectives in an increasingly fragmented global landscape.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Bader Shaath
Event Sessions
One Day Event 12:20 pm
Securing AI at the Edge: Innovate with AI While Keeping Your Data Safe and online
Unlock AI innovation without compromising data privacy or system uptime. Cloudflare’s Connectivity Cloud solves the modern CIO’s challenge by bringing computing and security directly to the edge.
Here is how Cloudflare empowers your secure AI transformation:
- Fast AI: Run AI models directly on Cloudflare’s nearest servers for lightning-fast answers.
- Advanced AI Security: Protect applications from hidden risks like prompt injections and shadow AI. Cloudflare acts as a protective firewall for your LLMs and applies Zero Trust protocols to secure AI agents.
- Unified Control & Resilience: Manage AI APIs, control costs, and oversee data localization from a single dashboard. You can rely on a massive global network built to absorb cyberattacks and ensure continuous uptime.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Anirban Mukherjee
Event Sessions
One Day Event 11:35 am
Architecting for Resilience and AI Independence in a Volatile World
In an era where geopolitical shifts and economic volatility are the new constants, CIOs are being asked to do the impossible: innovate at lightning speed while guaranteeing absolute operational resilience. This session explores how a “Sovereign-First” approach—powered by open hybrid cloud and automated AI—allows Middle Eastern enterprises to reclaim control over their data, their costs, and their future. Join Red Hat as we share real-world blueprints from regional leaders like Emirates NBD on how to build a technology foundation that doesn’t just survive disruption but thrives on it.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Marc Merheb
Event Sessions
One Day Event 12:05 pm
Secure information Management for AI, by OpenText
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.
Hazem AbuShaban
Dr. Alexey Sidorov
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.
Tareq Momani
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.
Cliff Madru
| 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.
|
Event Sessions
One Day Event 12:50 pm
Governance, Protection and Resiliency in the era of AI
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
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.
Tom Gamali
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.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 1:05 pm
From Risk to Resilience in the AI Era
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.
Rob Greenman
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.
Ahmed Afrose
A highly accomplished individual with 24 years of impactful technology, integration, leadership and professional services delivery in the UAE. Ahmed brings a wealth of experience from leading organizations such as Siemens, Fujitsu-Siemens and Cisco Systems. At Google Cloud, he is focused on leading a team of experienced customer engineers delivering tangible business outcomes through cloud transformations for customers across UAE, Levant and North Africa.
During his tenure at Cisco, he held roles including Enterprise Architect and Solutions Architect, leading end-to-end transformations. Notably, he co-authored two editions of a Data Centre Design certification guide and received the Cisco-Press Author Badge. Ahmed has a strong track record of leading cross-functional teams, providing technology architectural guidance, and delivering pre-sales and professional services.
His leadership also extends to training and mentoring high-performing teams. With a Bachelors from Manchester Metropolitan University, MBA from Imperial College Business School and a PG Diploma in Digital Business from MIT Sloan and Columbia Business School, Ahmed combines strong technical acumen with strategic business insight. He is a strategic and influential technology leader capable of driving significant organizational advancement.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 12:35 pm
Building Resilient Workloads on the Cloud
Google Cloud’s approach to resilience is founded on its global, architecturally robust network, spanning 43 regions and 130 zones, and its deep Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) expertise, focusing on minimizing failure impact and duration. Utilizing this platform (“Resilience ON the Cloud”) involves a shared responsibility model, requiring customers to deploy critical applications using multi-zone and multi-region architectures to ensure rapid, automated failovers and high availability. The deck reviews enterprise Disaster Recovery (DR) strategies categorized by risk protection and RTO/RPO, including Backup & Restore, Pilot Light, Warm Standby, and Multi-Site Active/Active. Finally, the presentation emphasizes Google Cloud’s built-in Security, Privacy, and Compliance, detailing global certifications, a zero-trust model (BeyondProd/BeyondCorp), and specific customer controls over data through features like default encryption, Data Residency, and Access Transparency.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Bilal Issa
Bilal Issa is currently technical manager for TrendAI in Gulf , with more than 15 years, Bilal has accumulated technical in-depth experience in cyber security, cloud, infrastructure and applications.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 1:20 pm
Beyond Digital Ghosts: Defending the New AI Attack Surface
As organizations embrace Agentic AI enterprise applications, the attack surface is shifting from traditional system access to complex identity replication and new vulnerabilities are introduced. In this session, we will explore the evolving AI security landscape and how proactive AI innovations, like Trend Cybertron, are transforming defense. Attendees will discover a comprehensive blueprint for securing the entire AI lifecycle. We will discuss safely managing the secure end-user AI journey, and enforcing real-time guardrails for AI applications Finally, we will unpack how to fortify underlying AI factory infrastructure using TrendAI AI security stack.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift voucher worth AED 500 sponsored by TrendAI.
Akshay Dalal
Akshay Dalal is a risk and compliance leader with a proven track record of enabling global
organizations to scale securely across diverse and dynamic markets. With extensive experience
spanning multiple industries and geographies, he specializes in building and operationalizing
solutions that navigate complex regulatory environments. His work is instrumental in protecting
revenue and enabling strategic growth for a multi-billion dollar book of business.
As the Head of Risk and Compliance for Google across the region, Akshay operates at the
intersection of regulation, strategy, and innovation. In this role, he is responsible for ensuring safe
operations, fostering responsible growth, and building trusted engagement in some of the
world’s most rapidly evolving markets.
Akshay holds an MBA from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor of Engineering from the
University of Delhi. He has also pursued his CFA up to Level II. A passionate community leader,
Akshay was the first MBA student to be elected President of St. Catherine’s College MCR at
Oxford. He currently also serves as the Head of the UK and EMEA chapter of the Old Sanawarian
Society.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 12:35 pm
Building Resilient Workloads on the Cloud
Google Cloud’s approach to resilience is founded on its global, architecturally robust network, spanning 43 regions and 130 zones, and its deep Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) expertise, focusing on minimizing failure impact and duration. Utilizing this platform (“Resilience ON the Cloud”) involves a shared responsibility model, requiring customers to deploy critical applications using multi-zone and multi-region architectures to ensure rapid, automated failovers and high availability. The deck reviews enterprise Disaster Recovery (DR) strategies categorized by risk protection and RTO/RPO, including Backup & Restore, Pilot Light, Warm Standby, and Multi-Site Active/Active. Finally, the presentation emphasizes Google Cloud’s built-in Security, Privacy, and Compliance, detailing global certifications, a zero-trust model (BeyondProd/BeyondCorp), and specific customer controls over data through features like default encryption, Data Residency, and Access Transparency.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Knowledge Hub
Rethinking Digital Sovereignty in a Disrupted World
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.
Hande Akdede Erbay
| IBM MEA
Head of Data & AI
Learn More
Building Operational Resilience With Open Source
The conversation around digital transformation in the UAE is shifting. Organizations want to adopt artificial intelligence while retaining control over their data and infrastructure.
Anirban Mukherjee
| Red Hat
Director of Solutions Architecture (MENA)
Learn More
Mapping Cyber Resilience in an Era of Disruption
Disruption has become harder to contain. Hybrid cloud has expanded the enterprise footprint. AI is embedded into core operations. Identity now sits at the centre of access.