Global technology leaders and innovators assemble to foster digital transformation across the region’s public and private sectors
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Global technology leaders will unleash a futuristic display of disruptive products and services poised to drive the digital transformation of cities, societies, peoples, processes, data and things when the Internet of Things Expo (IoTX) debuts at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) today (Monday 8th June).
Co-located with the inaugural Big Data Show, IoTX has been conceived to increase UAE and regional governments and firms’ capacity to transform their business models and leverage monetisation opportunities from the ever-increasing array of smart devices, machines and products in our globally-connected, tech-led societies.
In addition to hosting 42 pioneering technology firms across more than 6,500 square metres of exhibition space, IoTX will stage a two-day, C-Level conference featuring dedicated sessions on innovation, enterprise, investment, standards and protocols, security and privacy, and educational areas inherent across the Smart Cities, Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data landscapes.
The conference’s welcome address will be delivered by His Excellency Ahmed Bin Humaidan, Director General, Dubai Smart Government, before His Excellency Ahmad Bin Byat, Chairman, Smart Dubai Executive Committee, delivers the keynote address.
“The Internet of Things is the building block for the next wave of the internet – the Internet of Everything,” said Trixie LohMirmand, Senior Vice President, Exhibitions & Events Management, DWTC. “The Internet of Everything will offer intelligent networked connections resulting in new customer and citizen experiences, improved operational efficiencies, breakthrough innovations and entirely new economic models for services and growth. By collecting the industry’s most disruptive global brands and influential thought-leaders, the Internet of Things Expo and conference is a strategic platform for regional firms to identify and adopt futuristic technologies that will make our cities smarter through creativity, collaboration and innovation.”
According to an ‘Internet of Everything Report’ published by Cisco – the global IT leader and a lead sponsor of IoTX – a staggering 2.5 billion new people will be online by 2020, while 37 billion new ‘things’ will be connected by the end of the decade. Contrastingly, multinational software giant, SAP, predicts there will be 75 billion connected devices and 2.5 billion connections by 2020 – unlocking financial opportunities worth US$65 trillion in what the German firm calls the ‘Networked Economy’. SAP figures also reveal the Middle East’s Internet of Things (IoT) revenue will reach nearly USD 2 billion in 2015.
With Deloitte predicting global IoT analytics revenues will grow by 500 percent over the next four years, Cisco estimates there are currently US$19 trillion in worldwide IoT opportunities and US$14.4 trillion of value – in terms of net profits – at stake globally for private sector companies over the next decade. As part of its long-term strategy, US computer tech pioneer, Dell, will unveil its new IoT Gateways product division for the first time in the Middle East at IoTX.
Focusing exclusively on creating leading IoT solutions spanning hardware, software and services, Dell’s IoT Gateways products are small, wireless or connected devices that collect, secure and process sensor data at the edge of a network – conserving valuable network bandwidth by relaying only meaningful data back to the cloud.
With Dubai Smart Government and Dubai Internet City among numerous UAE-based public sector entities at IoTX, the exhibition floor will welcome a who’s who of private sector technology providers championing solutions for effective digital transformation.
“There’s an analogy that data is like the new oil; like oil, data needs refining to be valuable and you need to know where and how to drill. The Internet of Things means we can drill for data everywhere and then glean value from it, both in terms of money and quality of life,” said Rod O’Shea, EMEA Regional Director IOT, Intel, a Diamond sponsor of IoTX. “The Internet of Things enables us to gather data from multiple new sources and use that data to make better decisions. Those decisions might make businesses more profitable and efficient, enable smart cities to manage increasing populations and the resulting pressure on resources, improve medical care by giving doctors more data more quickly, or even protect endangered rhinos via enhanced tracking techniques using sensors and GPS.”
Safder Nazir, Regional Vice President Smart Cities & IoT, Huawei Technologies – the event’s Lead IoT sponsor – is equally buoyant over the socio-economic potential of the global IoT revolution. “IoT opens prospects for leveraging the mass adoption of devices and sensors connected to the internet by using the data generated to enable smarter ways of doing everything from irrigation to emergency response. As a key player in the IoT ecosystem Huawei is developing innovative technologies that enable a better connected world,” he said.
According to Jean Turgeon, Vice President & Chief Technologist, Software Defined Architecture, Worldwide Sales, Avaya, the transition into the IoT will be smoothed via the adoption of simple, scalable, secure and smart Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Smart Grids. One of the world’s foremost technologists, Turgeon will chair a dedicated conference session entitled: ‘From Smart Cities to Smart Enterprises – Deliver IOT Today’.
“The Avaya SDN Fx architecture is the first to deliver ‘connect anything, anywhere’ simplicity, shaving weeks in provisioning time by allowing devices and users at the network edge to be added easily to the network,” said Turgeon. “Built on the Avaya Fabric Networking technology, the Avaya SDN Fx architecture features new products and capabilities for a complete solution that delivers on the promise of SDN, without the hidden complexity that comes with the towering overlays of software and hardware inherent in many other vendor approaches.”
Open from 9am to 6pm on June 8 and 9am to 5pm on June 9, entry to IoTX (Hall 8 at DWTC) and The Big Data Show (Hall 7 at DWTC) is free. For more information on the shows, which are powered by GITEX Technology Week 2015, visit: www.iotx.ae or www.bigdatashow.ae