'The Data Advantage'

Pure Storage’s Evolution: The Data Economy 2017 report shows that two thirds of UAE CIOs now consider data to be a more valuable asset than their employees. James Dartnell spoke to the firm’s CIO Yousuf Khan to understand whether the country's IT leaders are all well-advised to set store in cloud, and what they can realistically expect from their IT roadmaps in the next two years.

CIOs in the Middle East can be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed at the pressures they face in 2017. The same old challenges endure – doing more with less, marrying business and IT objectives and ‘keeping the lights on’. What’s more, the sweeping hype around cloud and digital transformation now pose additional headaches, with business stakeholders and customers demanding technology that can offer all-new experiences. But is this anxiety justified, and is technology adoption in the UAE moving as fast as it seems?

As an aside from his day-to-day work as Pure Storage’s CIO, Yousuf Khan has spearheaded a research team that has investigated some of the most important perceptions, spending habits and anxieties around enterprise technology in the UAE. The Evolution: The Data Economy report surveyed 9,000 IT leaders across the North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, with 300 of those respondents coming from the UAE.

Khan says that his research work is partly driven by a desire to expand his own capabilities as a CIO. “It’s an incredibly exciting time to be a CIO, with unprecedented levels of innovation and all-new value propositions making the role an increasingly important partner to the business,” he says. “I think it’s important to be open to building out innovation and change ways of thinking through the use of research. One of my key objectives is to network with my peers, and I know that it’s important to be thoughtful of each marketplace. It also helps me to be a better CIO.”