22 Apr 2026
Saudi Arabia
22 Apr 2026
Saudi Arabia
The Middle East is navigating an extraordinary phase of geopolitical and economic change. As always, technology leaders must respond proactively – not only to mitigate risk, but also to sustain innovation and business continuity in a complex environment. The current crisis is introducing new variables into the global technology economy. Energy price volatility, supply chain pressures, and capital constraints may moderate certain areas of technology spending in the near term. 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.
IDC Middle East Virtual Roadshow will help understand how forces are reshaping CIO priorities across the Middle East and what they mean for technology investment, AI adoption, and enterprise resilience in the months ahead.
Strengthening infrastructure, disaster recovery, and business continuity to ensure uninterrupted operations.
Expanding nationally controlled digital infrastructure and secure data ecosystems to support strategic autonomy.
Continuing to invest in AI-driven capabilities that enhance productivity, automation, and competitive advantage.
Protecting digital infrastructure and enterprise operations amid heightened cyber risk.
Thomas Meyer joined IDC in January 1999 and is currently responsible for managing IDC’s IT Research in Europe. This includes coverage of software, services and hardware markets focused on topics such as datacenter transformation, cloud computing, virtualization, business continuity, sustainability and print services. Additionally Meyer also manages IDC Europe’s cross-domain Practices which provide insight and advisory on 3rd Platform industry transformation such Internet of Things, Cloud, Mobility, Big Data and Customer Experience IT to ICT vendors and end users.
Meyer frequently speaks at IDC, industry, customer and CIO events such as CeBIT, IDC’s EMEA CIO Summit Series, IDC’s Virtualization and Cloud Conferences and the Mobile Commerce Conference. He often contributes to articles in publications across Europe, including the Wall Street Journal, Die Zeit, Focus, Le Monde Informatique, and IT Week, and has also appeared on the BBC World Business Report and Breakfast Business Update.
Before joining IDC, Thomas Meyer worked as an IT media analyst. He holds degrees from the University of London in economics and German and an MA with a focus on European management concepts.
Rajan spearheads IDC’s software research, advisory, and consulting practice in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey region. He has led several bespoke research and consulting projects for leading global ICT firms and regularly advises senior industry executives on market, product, and competitive strategies. He leads a team of regional research analysts and manages the delivery of syndicated research and trackers that analyze trends in technology areas such as enterprise applications, collaboration, security, storage, databases, and deployment tools, among others.In addition, Rajan has held engagement management and senior consultant roles in management consulting projects for government authorities and bodies in the region, developing strategies and programs for national IT sector development and ICT skills augmentation.Rajan engages closely with chief information officers (CIOs) in the region through workshops, roundtable discussions, and interviews, providing guidance on enterprise IT strategies.Rajan frequently speaks at industry forums and conferences, and is often quoted in the media, providing opinion and analysis on technology trends and strategies in global and emerging markets.Prior to joining IDC, Rajan spent over ten years in the IT industry in roles spanning product management, marketing, channel and business development, and resource management at prominent global IT companies such as Epicor, 3i Infotech and NIIT Technologies.Rajan has a management degree from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Calcutta and a bachelor of technology degree from Cochin University of Science and Technology.