IDC, Couchbase & AWS Roundtable
Smart Government, Smarter Spend
Hosted By
Driving Vision 2030 with AI Innovation and Consolidation
As Saudi Arabia accelerates its Vision 2030 digital government transformation, public sector leaders face a dual challenge: delivering AI-powered citizen services while strictly managing IT budgets and infrastructure overhead.
IDC projects that AI spending in Saudi Arabia will grow to USD 7.83 billion by 2029, a 30.3% CAGR, yet only half of Saudi organizations consider themselves well-prepared for AI, with data foundations, skills gaps, and governance cited as the top barriers.
Achieving the balance Vision 2030 demands requires shifting away from fragmented legacy databases toward consolidated, modern architectures. IDC’s own regional research names fragmented data estates as the most cited hurdle to production-grade AI in the Middle East.
Join senior public sector leaders for an exclusive executive roundtable exploring how government entities can optimize total cost of ownership and modernize data infrastructure.
The discussion will cover strategic approaches to consolidating database stacks, making the most of cloud infrastructure, and applying modern AI-ready data platforms to drive operational efficiency, reduce data sprawl, and deliver scalable AI initiatives cost-effectively.
Discussion Areas
The Price of AI Ambition
IDC projects Saudi Arabia’s AI spending will nearly triple by 2029, and every additional workload adds another data source that has to be secured, synced, and paid for unless agencies consolidate first.
Rethinking TCO for AI Projects
Fragmented legacy databases inflate licensing, integration, and maintenance costs long before a new AI project ever launches. Learn why government leaders treat total cost of ownership as a starting requirement for any new citizen service.
Fewer Systems, Faster Citizen Services
Every additional database stack run by an agency adds a step between a citizen’s request and the answer. Explore why consolidating onto a smaller number of modern, cloud-ready platforms is critical.
Governance that Scales with the Workload
Saudi data residency and sovereignty requirements do not pause while agencies modernize. The leaders furthest along build for governance and compliance requirements while cutting infrastructure overhead, rather than treating the two as separate projects.
Agenda
IDC, Couchbase & AWS Roundtable
Tue, Nov 10
Registration & Networking
Welcome Address
IDC Keynote: Vision 2030’s Spending Math
IDC presents current research on META public sector AI and digital transformation spending.
Melih Murat
Associate Research Director, Artificial Intelligence (META), IDC
Couchbase Session: Unifying Fragmented Data with the AI Data Plane to Cut TCO and Data Sprawl
As organisations navigate increasingly complex data environments, fragmented data and siloed systems can drive up costs, create inefficiencies, and limit AI readiness. This session will explore how an AI Data Plane can unify disparate data sources, simplify data management, and reduce data sprawl. Discover how Couchbase helps organisations optimise their data architecture, lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and build a scalable foundation for AI-driven innovation.
Ettore Cremonesi
Senior Director, Solutions Engineering EMEA, Couchbase
AWS Session: Building Cost-Efficient Government Cloud Infrastructure for AI at Scale
As governments accelerate AI adoption, building scalable and cost-efficient cloud infrastructure is essential to support growing workloads while maintaining security, compliance, and operational efficiency. This session will explore how AWS enables government organisations to modernise their cloud infrastructure, optimise costs, and scale AI capabilities securely. Discover practical strategies for building a resilient, future-ready cloud foundation that can support AI innovation at scale.
Networking Break
Panel Discussion: From AI Ambition to AI Outcomes
A senior public sector panel on closing Saudi Arabia’s AI readiness gap: the budget, governance, and data decisions standing between Vision 2030’s AI ambition and outcomes leaders can tangibly measure.
Melih Murat
Associate Research Director, Artificial Intelligence (META), IDC
Ettore Cremonesi
Senior Director, Solutions Engineering EMEA, Couchbase
Closing Note
Dinner & Networking
Speakers
Melih Murat
Associate Research Director, Artificial Intelligence (META)
IDC
Read bio
Melih Murat
In his role as associate research director for IT services and software across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META), Melih drives IDC’s regional research and consulting engagements in the areas of IT services, Cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and intelligent automation.
He first joined IDC in 2012 as a senior research analyst located out of IDC’s Istanbul office, with various responsibilities for the firm’s IT services, cloud computing, software, and telecom domains — both in Turkey and across the wider META region. Between 2016 and 2021, Melih headed the international marketing and investor relations practice at P.I. Works, a global automation and AI software vendor that serves telecom operators.
Now back at IDC, Melih is leveraging his vast experience in the IT services, cloud, software, and telecommunications domains to advise clients on go-to-market strategies, technology marketing and promotion activities, and market trends analysis. He is also driving a wide variety of research and consulting projects across the META region.
Melih has also previously served as enterprise channel and marketing manager at Nortel Turkey and as business development and strategy manager at Netaş, one of the leading systems integrators in Turkey and a former Nortel subsidiary. He possesses a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and received his MBA from Esslingen University of Applied Sciences in Germany. He has worked as a business development specialist at HP and wrote his MBA thesis for the company, covering European retail channel trends and winning strategies for channel businesses.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 8:15 pm
Panel Discussion: From AI Ambition to AI Outcomes
A senior public sector panel on closing Saudi Arabia’s AI readiness gap: the budget, governance, and data decisions standing between Vision 2030’s AI ambition and outcomes leaders can tangibly measure.
One Day Event 7:05 pm
IDC Keynote: Vision 2030’s Spending Math
IDC presents current research on META public sector AI and digital transformation spending.
Ettore Cremonesi
Senior Director, Solutions Engineering EMEA
Couchbase
Read bio
Ettore Cremonesi
Event Sessions
One Day Event 8:15 pm
Panel Discussion: From AI Ambition to AI Outcomes
A senior public sector panel on closing Saudi Arabia’s AI readiness gap: the budget, governance, and data decisions standing between Vision 2030’s AI ambition and outcomes leaders can tangibly measure.
One Day Event 7:25 pm
Couchbase Session: Unifying Fragmented Data with the AI Data Plane to Cut TCO and Data Sprawl
As organisations navigate increasingly complex data environments, fragmented data and siloed systems can drive up costs, create inefficiencies, and limit AI readiness. This session will explore how an AI Data Plane can unify disparate data sources, simplify data management, and reduce data sprawl. Discover how Couchbase helps organisations optimise their data architecture, lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and build a scalable foundation for AI-driven innovation.
Partners
Hosted By
Couchbase & AWS
Couchbase, the operational data platform for AI, empowers businesses to succeed by bringing data to life in new ways. Major market-leading companies rely on Couchbase for mission critical operational, analytical, mobile and AI workloads. Built to replace legacy infrastructure and fragmented data services, Couchbase empowers enterprises with a unified platform architected for performance, flexibility and global scale.
With Couchbase, organizations bring their data to life, launching game-changing customer experiences, exploring the limitless potential of AI, and seamlessly extending applications from the cloud to the edge and beyond. Couchbase’s AI-ready technology and enterprise partnership model eliminate complexity and reduce total cost of ownership, enabling teams to stay agile, innovative and secure.
Couchbase believes data should never slow you down, but act as the foundation for your next breakthrough. Discover why Couchbase is trusted to help the world’s biggest players scale, move fast and stay resilient, no matter what’s next on their roadmap.
