Dubai Cloud and Datacenter Convention & Awards 2025

ATTENDEES

700

+

Senior IT + DC Professional

50

+

Speakers

60

%

C-Level, Directors, DC Owner

15

+

Cloud DC Exhibitor

Event Venue
11 September 2025
JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai
8:00 AM
-
6:00 PM

Get Attendee Pass

Register Attendees

You qualify for a free enterprise pass if:

1) Your company is an enterprise with data-center needs or energy network TSO/DSO driving smart energy infrastructure

2) You, as an individual, are directly engaged, as a management or technical professional in planning, strategy, systems design, sourcing, purchasing, procurement, adoption, implementation, integration and operations of an IT organization, data center or cloud services. Individuals with business development/marketing/sales titles or job responsibilities representing vendors and industry supplier/service provider firms do not qualify for an enterprise pass, and should apply for a VENDOR pass.

Register Business Pass

Individuals with business development/marketing/sales titles or job responsibilities representing vendors and industry supplier/service provider firms do not qualify for an enterprise pass, and should apply for a VENDOR pass.

Event Brief

Driven by increasing digitalisation, population growth and urbanisation, major digital-based projects such as Smart Cities and the accelerating adoption of cloud and digital services, the data center sector is growing strongly across the Middle East and North Africa. According to Turner & Townsend, the data centre market across the Middle East is expected to double by 2030.  Analysis by Arizton projects the combined MENA markets to grow at a CAGR of 8.8% from 2022 to 2028.

The 2025 Dubai one-day Cloud & Data Centre Convention is inviting expert speakers and panelists to share their insights, opinion and expertise in order to address the key opportunities and challenges that digitalisation is bringing. The programme focuses on  content relevant and current to key stakeholders including end users and Government, service providers, operators, consultants and vendors from across the Middle East data centre & cloud ecosystem.

So, please join us at the Dubai Cloud & Data Centre Convention 2025 for learning, debate, exposition, networking and the chance to engage with key thought leaders from the community in the Middle East, and beyond!

 

 

Advisory Board
Kamel Tawil
Managing Director, MENA, Equinix
Dame Dawn Childs
Chief Executive Officer, Pure Data Centres Group
Syed Mohammed Beary
Founder & Chairman, Bearys Group
Event Agenda
8:00 AM
-
Main Hall
Registration
8:50 AM
-
9:10 AM
Main Hall
Welcome Address
9:00 AM
-
9:35 AM
Main Hall
Introductory Keynote Panel: How is the United Arab Emirates progressing as a digital hub?

The United Arab Emirates and its key city Dubai have played a key role in the regional digital ecosystem as a gateway into the Middle East and also as a major financial, commercial and resources hub in its own right. What is the international view of its current status? And of its future direction given the impact that AI and digital technologies are having and will have on shaping the digital world?

Speaker
Abdulla Al Falasi
Director of Infrastructure and Operations, Digital Dubai Government Establishment
Speaker
Ahmed M Alhammadi
Vice President - Cloud & Digital Infrastructure, e& enterprise
9:35 AM
-
10:05 AM
Main Hall
Power Panel: Are data centers across the United Arab Emirates doing as much as they can to be sustainable?

As with other major data center clusters around the world, the United Arab Emirates needs to balance growing demand for space and services against the resources required to deliver those.  There are increasing pressures, in particular the increasing deployment of AI and digital technologies to increase deliverables while reducing resource consumption.  How will data centers in the United Arab Emirates meet these evolving requirements? What more can they do?

Speaker
Colm Shorten
Senior Director, Data Center , JLL
Speaker
Annemarie van Zadelhoff
Chief Strategy Officer, Qareeb Data Centres
10:05 AM
-
10:25 AM
Main Hall
Presentation by Uptime Institute
Speaker
Christopher El Hage
Sales Director - UAE, Bahrain & Pakistan, Uptime Institute
10:25 AM
-
10:45 AM
Main Hall
Session by George Fisher
10:45 AM
-
11:00 AM
Main Hall
Coffee Break
11:00 AM
-
11:35 AM
Main Hall
Power Panel: A New Era of AI Infrastructure: Embracing Distributed AI for Optimal Performance

Innovation is re-shaping the future of digital infrastructure across the Middle East and it will create further opportunities for the economies and societies in the region to digitalise. It is likely that digital transformation will move   away from historical data centres in terms of design, build and operation. How will hyperscale, hypercomputing evolve and how will this be shaped by the changing requirements and service configurations of cloud? And how will AI factories interact with existing data centres and Edge deployments?

Speaker
Kamel Al Tawil
Managing Director, MENA, Equinix
Speaker
Charles-Antoine Beyney
Chief Executive Officer, DataOne
11:35 AM
-
12:10 PM
Main Hall
Expert Panel: So you have your own data centre - what might the future bring?

What future role will the enterprise data centre play, particularly as AI evolves into a major consideration of how and where to store and process your data? One of the key trends globally in the hosting of data has been the move from organisations running their own data centres to migrating their IT requirements to cloud or collocating their footprint. In established markets around the world, these processes have slowed as enterprise data centres find new roles. In particular, the trends towards hybrid IT and hybrid digital infrastructure have created a place for the enterprise data centres for sensitive and high-value information that the organisation wishes to keep close, as well as for applications and workloads unsuited for cloud.  Colocation initiatives have enables the ‘off-prem’ enterprise data centre.

Speaker
Jayakumar Mohanachandran
Group Chief Information Officer, Buzeki Enterprises Ltd
12:10 PM
-
12:45 PM
Main Hall
Expert Panel: What role will hyperscale play in the region's digital future? What opportunities and challenges will it bring?

How will hyperscale impact the region’s digital future? In particular which digital services will hyperscale enable or improve, and what impact will this have on the economies and societies of different nations across MENA? As the most resource-hungry form of data centre what challenges might the roll out of hyperscale face?  How will other data centres be impacted by hyperscale? And how might it impact how other data centers are designed and operated across MENA?

Speaker
Dr. Shivagami Gugan
Chief Technologist, AWS
12:40 PM
-
1:10 PM
Main Hall
Lunch Break & Networking
1:10 PM
-
1:50 PM
Main Hall
Expert Panel Discussion: Transforming Data Centres: Bridging Traditional and Modern Data Centers
Moderator
Fadi Jreige
Chief Operating Officer, AVAR
Speaker
Wael Abdeldayem
Global Operations Manager, AVAR
Speaker
Tarek Tessawak
Operations & HR Director, Gulf Data Hub
Speaker
Charles Antoine Beyney
Chief Executive Officer, Data One
1:50 PM
-
2:30 PM
Main Hall
Expert Panel Discussion: How much more effective can monitoring data centre operation and performance be?

There are a number of key metrics used to monitor and analyse data center operations and to analyse data center performance.  What are the strengths and weaknesses of different metrics and more broadly of the application of statistics to these tasks? What difference does replacing traditional metrics with algorithms make?  How will the use of AI as a management tool impact these considerations?

Moderator
Mark Acton
Head of Technical Due Diligence, Future-tech SCi Ltd
Speaker
Riccardo Degli Effetti
Chief Operating Officer, Syntys
Speaker
Himmath Mohammad
Chief Information Officer, Gulf Data Hub
Speaker
Furqan Mian
Head of Operations, ENGIE Solutions Middle East
Speaker
Aniket Patange
Head Engineering & Digital Services, HCLTech
2:30 PM
-
3:10 PM
Main Hall
Expert Panel Discussion: Developing Policies and Strategies for Skill Cultivation in the Era of AI

What impacts is the ‘skills shortage’ currently having on data centers and associated industries in the United Arab Emirates?   Our experts share their thoughts on how the United Arab Emirates should plan to develop policies and strategies to face the shortage and what the role of different stakeholder groups should be in doing so. What impacts will the growing role of AI in data centers have?

Speaker
Ras Scollay
Director Datacenter Business, du
Speaker
Lauren Ryder
CEO, Leading Edge Global
Speaker
Hanane El Ghiouane
Senior Commercial Advisor - Energy, Environment & Tech, The Trade Council of Denmark in MENA
Speaker
Fadwa AlBawardi
Founder & CEO, FSAB Consulting
3:10 PM
-
3:25 PM
Main Hall
Coffee Break
3:25 PM
-
4:15 PM
Main Hall
Panel Discussion: How will the data center design and build process in the Middle East face global impact trends?

Increasing demand, shortage of space, greater requirements of compliance, rising costs of labour and materials. What is now the ROI case for building in the Middle East? Which innovations and techniques can be deployed when designing and building data centers to a required level of speed and scale?  How can the Middle East maintain and enhance its strong regional status through design and build?

Speaker
Ramy Boufarhat
Chief Executive Officer, JLW
Speaker
Ramachandra Nimbargi
Head – Datacenter Design – International, Larsen & Toubro Ltd.
Speaker
Jan Neuenfeld
Project Director, Turner & Townsend
Speaker
Steffen Zimmermann
Campus Delivery Director Middle East/Asia, Pure Data Centres Group
4:15 PM
-
5:00 PM
Main Hall
Panel Discussion: What opportunities does a strategy for the Middle East and North Africa [MENA] as a whole create for data centre investors?

The different economic and social profiles of the nations across the ‘Middle East’ and North Africa has usually meant that investment has been made on a nation by nation basis. Trends towards pan-nationalism and a shared cultural identity across some nations, the recognition that ‘bigger is better’ in order to carry economic weight in a world of mega- economies and the examples of national groupings across the world (the EU, ASEAN) means that the case for a view of MENA as a whole may be justified when it comes to data centre investment. How might this work? What opportunities would it create? What barriers might it face?   What role might different states – Abu Dhabi, Saudi, Oman, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates – play in this?

Speaker
Priyanka Nagpal
Data Center Lead - Consulting MEA, JLL
Speaker
Tahir Gok
Senior Real Estate Analyst (MENA LEAD), datacenterHawk
5:00 PM
-
Main Hall
Networking & Drinks
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  • What are criteria for end users delegate pass?

    You qualify for a free enterprise pass if:

    1)Your company is an enterprise with data-center needs or energy network TSO/DSO driving smart energy infrastructure

    2)You, as an individual, are directly engaged, as a management or technical professional in planning, strategy, systems design, sourcing, purchasing, procurement, adoption, implementation, integration and operations of an IT organization, data center or cloud services.

    Individuals with business development/marketing/sales titles or job responsibilities representing vendors and industry supplier/service provider firms do not qualify for an enterprise pass, and should apply for a VENDOR pass.

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