Description

In this first episode of the FSO Spotlight Roundtable Series, we focus on the Middle East and Africa (MEA)—a region where enterprise IT maturity is shaped as much by government-led digital agendas as by organizational priorities.

This discussion features regional IT solution experts from across MEA, who share ground-level perspectives on how enterprises are navigating observability, infrastructure design, vendor choices, and operational maturity amid uneven infrastructure readiness and evolving regulatory practices.

Speakers:

Paras Ajwani, Business Head – Application Services, Elitser Technologies

Philip Slimowitz, CEO, ITR Technology

Murad Fayed, Business Development Manager, Alnafitha IT

Aziz Sukhsorwala, Technical Manager – Pre-Sales & Consulting, BurhanTec

Host: Vishnu Prasadh, Senior Marketing Analyst, ManageEngine

What we discussed:

• Government-led digital transformation in MEA and how it shapes enterprise IT maturity
• Why digital maturity varies sharply across MEA regions
• Reliability, uptime, and resilience as core priorities
• Broadband, power stability, and connectivity challenges and designing IT around them
• The rise of regional cloud data centers and their impact on latency and trust
• Hybrid and cloud adoption patterns driven by regulation, security, and cost structures
• Why enterprises increasingly prefer integrated ITOps platforms over point tools
• How observability, service management, and workflows work better when tightly connected
• Vendor stability as a deciding factor: pricing predictability, product continuity, and trust

Time stamps:

(00:15) Introducing the MEA roundtable guests and their regional roles

(02:00) How initiatives like Vision 2030, Smart Dubai, and Digital Egypt shape modernization

(03:20) Differences between large enterprises, mid-market, and SMB adoption

(04:45) Why digital maturity varies widely across MEA

(07:20) Infrastructure realities: broadband, power, and connectivity challenges

(09:10) Why local cloud presence changes adoption and trust

(12:00) How cloud changes cost models and operational structures

(13:50) Vendor responsibilities in advanced digital environments

(15:00) Platform vs point tools in ITOps

(18:40) Vendor stability, pricing shocks, and acquisitions

(21:20) Local presence & partner continuity as trust factors

(23:20) Security, compliance, and observability in MEA

(26:00) SaaS adoption: what slows it down for observability

(27:20) Closing thoughts & key takeaways

FSO Spotlight is the podcast by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ManageEngine FSO, where you listen to industry experts and thought leaders on observability and IT trends, strategies, and best practices.