Ahmad Al-Muslemani

What does digital transformation mean for MEEZA, and how will the concept evolve after COVID-19?

Digital transformation to us means a combination of technology, governance, and human capital. Technology is probably the easiest to tackle. However, when it comes to governance, this means user-related processes that have to adjust to keep up with the advancement of technology. These are generally intertwined with corporate cultures, and it is usually hard to change corporate culture, especially when trying to keep up with the rapid pace of digital transformation. However, some of the main challenges have been access to the skillset, know-how, and the hefty budget requirements that are part of any digital transformation journey. This is where MEEZA offers an advantage to many of our clients, updating their skills set and making sure their staff can keep up with these new systems, especially now with more specialized technology like AI, blockchain, and robotic process automation. With the advent of COVID-19, digital transformation has suddenly become a must have, must do overnight. MEEZA is able to lead and offer this complex web of digital transformation dependencies in the form of a monthly rendered service to our clients. We not only accelerate our clients’ migration toward that digital future but also the country’s own digital agenda.

What solutions and services will experience the largest demand growth in the medium term in Qatar and for what reasons?

In the short term, jumping onto quick conferencing and collaboration tools is something that every business and entity in Qatar needed. However, in the medium to long term, we expect a maturity in the offerings of collaboration conferencing digital facilities, with a greater focus on the security of these services, namely how to encrypt and store all the communication being shared and collaborated upon. How can businesses mine all the data being exchanged so they can transform data into information and then information into business intelligence or governance intelligence. That is where the mid- to long-term growth will be: in data analytics and the security of all the data being digitally exchanged.

How will MEEZA’s fourth data center in Doha impact Qatar?

In general, Qatar has been experiencing a drastic migration toward digital services in the last four to five years, and this has been accelerated with the arrival of Tier-1 hyperscalers in Qatar. Before, we were talking about front office-type cloud applications and some minimal cloud collaboration tools. Now, with the arrival of hyperscalers, we are talking about complex analytics tools and data platforms that are served right here in Qatar from our public cloud. This is partially one of the reasons why MEEZA is building and continuing to build more leading data centers in the country. The same demand here in Qatar can be witnessed throughout the world, whereby hyperscalers continue to rely on companies such as MEEZA to build and operate their infrastructure so they can deliver more smart cloud computing services faster to their clients. This becomes even-more evident when we discuss the fourth industrial revolution services such as the Internet of Things, AI, 5G, and so on.

How does MEEZA collaborate with key players in every sector to offer industry-specific solutions in Qatar?

MEEZA continues to build a leading ecosystem of market players to help them verticalize their offerings. This means MEEZA has been able to deliver digital and smart solutions into industries such as education and healthcare, tapping into the reach and global know-how of Tier 1 partners. This maps directly to Qatar’s National Vision 2030 whereby education and healthcare continue to play an important part of the agenda. In addition to economic growth, pioneering IT service providers like MEEZA accelerate the government’s objective of digitally industrializing society and the different industries within the country.