By: Omar Akar, Regional Vice President for Middle East & Emerging Africa, Pure Storage

Data is the currency of the digital domain, and with every passing day, the world is getting increasingly ‘datafied’. Billions of gigabytes of digital data pertaining to citizens, businesses, governments, and institutions are generated, collected, and processed every day. Understandably, there are concerns about how we can protect personal data, business data, as well as sensitive data that has implications for national security.

Challenges associated with data sovereignty

It is possible that a company based in a certain country uses cloud infrastructure from a provider abroad, and that cloud provider also has customers in other countries and regions. If data collection, data storage, and data processing happen in different countries, it will be subject to the data sovereignty rules of all those countries. Many of the concerns surrounding data sovereignty pertain to ensuring data privacy and preventing data that’s stored abroad from violating the laws of that country. Many countries have therefore introduced new laws, or modified the existing ones, so that data is kept within the boundaries of the country where the individual or entity is based. However, verifying that data indeed exists only at permitted locations can be very difficult.

On the other hand, storing huge amounts of data at only a few locations can increase the risk of data loss and data theft through cyberattacks, which can have huge ramifications on the financial health and reputation of businesses.

Moreover, data sovereignty makes it complex to share data across international borders. This can increase cost and inefficiencies for any business that operates across multiple countries and requires flow of data between its offices. Such businesses must now establish infrastructure in local data centers to comply with data protection regulations in each country. Companies also need to keep in view the data sovereignty requirements of each country and international data sharing agreements while wanting to share data which can impact business operations.

Ways to ensure data sovereignty and elevate data performance

Although establishing data sovereignty is undoubtedly challenging, there are some best practices and approaches that can help in achieving it and elevating data performance. Organizations should conduct a comprehensive audit of their data, including where it is stored, processed, and shared. This is the first step in identifying potential data sovereignty risks and ensuring compliance with the relevant laws and regulations of the concerned countries. It is also necessary to adopt data protection measures — such as encryption, access controls, and monitoring — to prevent unauthorized access and use of data, whether it is in transit or at rest.

The company’s data protection policy should define protocols for handling and storing data as well as measures for protecting it. This policy should be regularly reviewed and updated to keep up with any changes in data protection laws and regulations. If an organization has a footprint spanning multiple regions, it is a good idea to take the strongest data sovereignty laws among them and implement it across all regions. Cloud providers can be of assistance in this regard.

Benefits of working with cloud service providers

Most cloud providers have data centers in multiple countries. Organizations should go for a provider whose data residency provisions are aligned with their own data sovereignty requirements. Today, leading cloud providers also offer other features, including data encryption, that can help in achieving data sovereignty. To take it one step further, companies must introduce strict data governance processes in the cloud. This will ensure regulatory compliance, risk assessment, and risk mitigation at all times.

Data sovereignty laws apply not only to data but also to data backups. It is therefore important to understand how your organization backs up information — whether it is done on-premises or using dedicated cloud services or public cloud services. Adopting cloud-ready solutions and leveraging the benefits of all-flash storage is one of the ways to future-proof your organization’s data storage infrastructure. Uncomplicating storage will help in reimagining data experiences and powering the digital future of the business.

Finally, it is important to view data sovereignty holistically, and not as the exclusive responsibility of any one individual or team. The need to comply with data regulations extends across the board, from businesses to suppliers to the end-users. From a business perspective, ensuring data sovereignty calls for robust governance, holistic risk management, and concerted efforts on the part of the IT security, legal department, procurement, risk managers, and auditors — under the guidance and supervision of the company’s Chief Information Officer. It is a good way to build digital trust in today’s business environment.

By Bjorn Viedge, General Manager at ALEC Data Center Solutions

Across the Middle East, digital agendas have long been seen as the necessary underpinnings of economic growth — a way to detach from historic dependencies on petrochemical trade and move forward as innovators.

Amid a series of economic visions that prioritise skilling, entrepreneurship, and industry disruption, we have seen the rise of the data centre as a fulcrum of progress. According to recent estimates, the Middle East data centre colocation market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.83% from 2022 to 2028. The United Arab Emirates leads its regional peers in this growth and has become one of the largest data centre hubs in the Middle East. Significant investments continue to flow into the country, with expectations of surpassing USD 1 billion by 2028. In April 2022, the UAE Cabinet launched a strategy to bolster the digital economy, aiming for it to contribute 20% to the gross non-oil GDP in the coming years. This initiative included the formation of a council to oversee digital economy progress, serving as a catalyst for accelerated data centre adoption.

Digitisation vs Sustainability

But the UAE is not nurturing technology in isolation. Part of the country’s vision is an embrace of the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), which cover everything from quality of work and social life to preservation of the environment. Research has shown the mounting environmental impact of data centres. Demand for data centre services has driven them to get bigger, hotter, and more expensive and a peer-reviewed study by Swedish researcher Anders Andrae predicts that ICT industry could use 20% of all electricity and emit up to 5.5% of the world’s carbon emissions by 2025. And in a region that already faces a looming water crisis, Middle East data centre planners should be aware that today’s data centres use up an Olympic swimming pool every two days.

Traditional building and cooling technologies are having trouble keeping pace with increasing chip densities, so those that build their own data centres should account for this impact when looking to comply with government regulations. And with the government signalling clear intent, data centre owners must be ready to play their part. In the age of ESG, they must be climate conscious, and they must look to the latest technologies to ensure their facilities are adding net value to society.

Many such technologies exist and have proven themselves, but not all are applicable in all geographies. For example, heat-recovery may be viable in colder countries, but is not suitable for the sun-soaked Middle East. However, other efficient means are on hand to make the region’s data centres greener. If planners aim for great design, then they must consider not just the exterior — elements such as the location, the resources used, the climate, and the temperature — but also the interior of the facility.

Inner Pieces

Rethinking the design of modern data centres means leaving no component overlooked — from the building itself down to the nuts and bolts of the servers. Indeed, server-cooling technologies are improving all the time and some older ones are making a powerful comeback.

Liquid-immersion cooling, for example, has been around since the 1940s, and with the surging demand for denser computing that we are seeing today, the technology may be the answer to many problems. Modern liquid-immersion cooling uses a dielectric (non-electrically conductive) fluid which is far more effective in conducting and therefore enabling the dissipation of heat produced by hardware, compared to traditional air-based cooling systems.

Liquid-immersion could represent the future of data centre cooling. Facilities can operate with less physical space compared with traditional air-based solutions, while gaining energy savings of up to 50%. Meanwhile, lower maintenance costs, cheaper builds, and power-usage effectiveness (PUE) scores lower than 1.03 (where 1.0 is the ideal) mean organisations can reduce the time needed to realise a full return on their investment.

Building Blocks

But cooling is not the only way to sustainability. Facility planners must also consider the building process itself. Emerging today, and rapidly gaining acceptance for data centres of smaller scale is the technique of prefabricated construction, also known as modular data centres. As the construction of the prefabricated modules primarily occurs offsite in dedicated fabrication facilities, standardised production methodologies can be implemented which improve efficiencies, enhance quality, and significantly reduce wastage.

Because prefabricated data centres have been assembled and tested in a controlled factory environment, construction is faster, less error-prone, and less labour-intensive on site. Additionally, modules can be added whenever the demand arises, meaning data centre companies need not build a large facility to accommodate future expansion. Instead, they can build quickly as needed. All of this leads to a cheaper, more efficient, more sustainable project.

Many regional governments, including that of the UAE, are firmly committed to the UN’s SDGs. Middle East authorities, and their counterparts elsewhere in Asia, the Americas and Europe, are placing greater emphasis on LEED certification and other standards in their regulatory frameworks. Nations everywhere, it seems, have recognised the importance of regulating their way to sustainability. But in playing their part, data centre owners can also take advantage of a lucrative new business model of long-term benefits — from quicker GTM to reduced operational costs.

GenAI and cyber security

AI is the hottest topic in the universe. Pairing AI with cybersecurity opens up vast possibilities and challenges. Many security professionals believe that integrating intelligence into cybersecurity can enhance defenses against sophisticated cyberattacks. However, cybercriminals are also leveraging AI to weaponize their assaults. Check Point partnered with market researchers at Vanson Bourne to examine how security professionals are incorporating Generative AI (GenAI) into their practices. Several key findings from their research are outlined below.

Skills gap

Despite over 70 percent of respondents feeling confident about their organization’s defenses, eighty-nine percent countered their optimism by acknowledging that employing qualified people was challenging. The cyber security skills gap puts a serious damper on how effective organizations can assemble the right defenses against AI-infused cybercrime.

“An overwhelming 89% of IT and security professionals report a significant skills gap, underscoring the urgent need for innovative solutions.”

Surveyed professionals said the skills gap significantly hampers an organization’s ability to conduct efficient security operations. A substantial 98 percent of those affected reported an “impact” on their security operations, with 40 percent citing a “strong impact.”

Enter GenAI

No organization, large or small. can ignore the potential impact of a major cyberattack. As a result, surveyed organizations said they have turned to AI-powered tools to boost cyber security, including incident response, malware protection, and data loss protection. Clearly, AI is etching its role in providing better protection of the digital landscape.

“97-99% of organizations utilize AI-powered tools, with a significant shift towards GenAI for a comprehensive security strategy.”

GenAI benefits

Organizations have embraced GenAI for strategic purposes, with many using it for over a year to bolster cybersecurity against sophisticated threats and improve incident response rates. Across all regions, GenAI tools are recognized for better understanding user behavior and anomalies. However, European respondents showed less agreement on AI’s potential for enhancing efficiency compared to APAC professionals, who indicated GenAI’s role in streamlining security operations and resource allocation.

The skills gap paradox and GenAI

Bridging the Gap: GenAI can be an ally in addressing the skills gap. It offers a way to augment existing capabilities and improve efficiency, especially in sectors with a high demand for cyber security proficiency.

“Gen-AI is instrumental in closing the cyber security skills gap, with 98% of affected organizations recognizing its impact on operational efficiency.”

Industry-specific insights

The impact of GenAI varies across sectors, with particular benefits observed in healthcare and finance. These sectors recognize Gen-AI’s potential to significantly reduce manual work and increase the efficiency of incident response.

To this survey question, “Thinking about GenAI / AI/ML Deep-Learning, to what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements,” most respondents agreed that AI tools will improve their efficiency, increase their incident response rates, and help close skills gaps in their organizations.

Here are other results:

• GenAI has/can significantly reduce manual work for our security team: Healthcare (32% lower)
• AI/ML Deep Learning has/can greatly increase our efficiency with incident response: Energy, oil/gas, and utilities (36% higher)
• Gen AI has/can significantly increase our catch rate: Finance/banking/investments (35% higher)
• AL/ML Deep Learning has/can help to substantially bridge the cyber security skills gap in my organization (for those experiencing skills gap in cyber security operations): Finance/banking/investments (28% improvement)

Investment and Implementation

The commitment to integrating GenAI into cyber security is strong, with 90 percent of organizations planning to prioritize AI/ML and GenAI tools. This is accompanied by an anticipated increase in budget allocations for GenAI tools.

“90% of organizations prioritize investments in GenAI tools, reflecting a strategic shift towards innovative cyber security solutions.”

GenAI Transformation

While the outlook is optimistic, concerns and challenges do remain. Organizations highlight the importance of keeping AI models updated while being cognizant of the challenges, such as ensuring compliance with data regulations.

The journey towards a GenAI-integrated security landscape will offer security leaders both rewards and challenges. However, it’s clear, GenAI will help transform organizations as cyber security providers incorporate greater intelligence. Embracing GenAI with strategic foresight will pave the way for a more secure and resilient digital future.