By Mohammed Amin, Senior Vice President, Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META), Dell Technologies

If 2020 was a year of unprecedented changes and 2021 a year of recovery and resilience, then 2022 proved to be everyone’s favourite child. This was especially true for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa region as we broke new grounds to foster dialogues on climate change, advanced our space exploration capabilities, and captured the pulse of the world at one of the most watched global sporting events.

Emerging technologies underscored these monumental accomplishments, giving wings to human aspirations and bringing in renewed focus and vigour to economies, businesses and day-to-day lives. 2023 promises to be equally remarkable. Here are the top five technology shifts that I believe will shape our economies and drive us as a region to advance our economic, scientific and creative contributions on the global arena.

1. Business will demand cloud without compromise to scale-up

According to a Dell commissioned Forrester Consulting study, eighty-three percent of companies will have implemented multicloud by 2023, with three in four firms needing flexibility in their cloud infrastructure mix today. Cloud will become critical to an organization’s survival this year, and business leaders will piece together an ecosystem of different services to meet their unique needs. Foresighted leaders will also closely evaluate new cloud options for cost efficiencies, distribute IT capabilities across various cloud providers and develop a cloud strategy to maintain data security, good governance, and stakeholder value.

2. Cyber Recovery will become an organization’s lifeblood and define every move

The more agile a business becomes, the more it needs to prioritize cyber recovery. Organisations will establish authoritative identity management, policy management and threat management framework for consistent identity, policy and recovery of an enterprise. We will continue to see an increase in industries requiring zero-trust frameworks. It will become the globally accepted best practice for cybersecurity architecture. Security in the multicloud, more than any other aspect, will be required to be consistent and accessible. Silos will be the enemy of real zero-trust security.

3. Quantum Computing will be the new frontier of digital transformation 

For decades, quantum computing has only been accessible to the world’s largest research institutions and government agencies. But in 2023 quantum computing is getting real and businesses need to identify and devote the team, tools, and tasks and start experimenting or risk missing this technology wave. As the new frontier of digital transformation, businesses will begin to pilot the use of quantum and harness its advanced computing capabilities to speed up innovation. Healthcare and finance are two sectors where the impact of quantum will begin to be felt.  Investing in quantum simulation and enabling data science and AI teams to learn quantum’s new languages and capabilities is critical in 2023.

4. Edge will usher in a new era of business breakthroughs

In today’s data-driven world, transporting large quantities of data from its source to a centralized data center or cloud is not only costly but also inefficient. When computing resources are moved closer to the point where data is generated and consumed, a business can achieve real value. Edge computing's astronomical growth will continue in 2023. It will rapidly become a key differentiator and usher in a new era of business transformation. Edge will enable new use cases and capabilities across many industries, verticals and markets.

5. AI will become the engine of innovation in every organisation  

The journey to intelligent, automated and efficent business outcomes  starts with AI. AI will reach an important turning point next year as it is adopted across every organisation – irrespective of size. Leaders are increasingly looking at ways in which to harness the value of data and are turning to AI to keep pace with changing trends and to remain one step ahead of competitors. AI will become the main engine of innovation in 2023, and the human–machine partnerships impact will reverberate around the world.

For regional businesses, the new year is full of promises. With digital transformation accelerating at pace, emerging technologies will drive the future development of digital economies across our region. From smart cities built around sustainable energy consumption, to seamless engagement between community and government, the digital economies of tomorrow will rely on a digital core.

So come with me on this journey and witness how technology will only continue to speed up innovation and catapult us into the Digital Future – and we all must be ready to adapt.