The world’s increasing consumption of data, combined with the trend of businesses and service providers outsourcing their data center facilities rather than owning and managing them, has resulted in significant growth in multi-tenant data centers (MTDCs). In fact, one analyst firm has predicted that total operational square footage of global MTDCs can reach approximately 177 million by the end of 2018.

Read more: CommScope forms multi-tenant data center alliance

How much is big data really worth? That's the question analysts have been tackling. Some suggest big data is becoming more dominant in determining the valuation of a company. There's been a shift in the way organizations are valued, from those that own tangible assets to those that were built on big data, like Facebook and Uber. Those in the business of valuing corporate investments will increasingly be forced to "consider a company's wealth of information in properly valuing the company itself," says industry analyst Douglas Laney.

Read more: How big data’s disrupting traditional business valuation

British Airways was forced to cancel all its flights from London's two biggest airports on Saturday, May 27, after the company experienced a global IT system failure causing mass confusion and chaos. Thousands of passengers around the world were left queuing for hours trying to get information at airports, and planes were stranded on runways.

Read more: British Airways IT failure causes global chaos

Witnessed by His Majesty King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, during her trade mission to the Kingdom, SAP announced a plan to launch the SAP Cloud Hub, in collaboration with the Saudi Ministry of Communication and Information Technology represented by the National Digitization Office, to support the acceleration of Saudi Vision 2030 and meet the Kingdom's digital transformation goals.

Read more: His Majesty King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud & German Chancellor witness MoU by Saudi Government...

The field of strategic planning and future building is transforming Dubai due to Dubai Future Accelerators, which has been launched by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai. It's definitely shaping the country's future. 

Read more: Dubai Future Accelerators shaping the future

The internet of things - a network that is long on promise - now has to confront the stark realities of operation. The challenges surrounding security, standardisation, interoperability and profitability serve to remind market stakeholders that they must recognize their own strengths and weaknesses. Similarly, for consumers and businesses to adopt this network, a relationship of trust needs to be established.

Read more: Can operators overcome the obstacles facing the IOT market?

Investment in technology and innovation in the online financial services sector is now essential in the Middle East, according to research on digital use and e-commerce in the region conducted by Hootsuite and We Are Social. The findings show that in the UAE, 62 percent of people bought something online in the last month, a 25 percent year on year rise, and 47 percent of people made a purchase using their mobile in that period.

Read more: Middle East e-commerce set to triple in value by 2020, research shows

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