Cover Story

Altering the Course of Technology Culture in the Region!

Published

12 months ago

January 22, 2025

In today’s data-driven world, enterprises face mounting challenges to scale their storage capacities while minimizing costs per terabyte and reducing resource impacts. Seagate, as a global leader in data storage solutions, is uniquely positioned to address these demands with a broad spectrum of offerings tailored to meet diverse business needs. Whether through modular products that allow customers to build their own storage systems, optimized off-the-shelf solutions, or cloud-based services for outsourced data management, Seagate ensures flexibility, scalability, and efficiency at every level.

Seagate’s commitment to innovation is evident in its comprehensive approach to storage. From terabytes delivered through devices and shuttles to petabytes with resilient and dense systems, and exabytes through the scalability of Lyve Cloud, the company empowers enterprises to choose the solution that fits them best: build and manage their data independently, collaborate with Seagate, or fully entrust their data storage needs. This tri-fold strategy provides unparalleled mobility, density, and speed to value, enabling businesses to focus on their core objectives while seamlessly managing their data.

In the META region, Seagate’s vision is brought to life through the leadership of Didem Eker, Channel Marketing Manager, who has played a pivotal role in fostering strong partnerships across key territories. While her contributions have amplified Seagate’s presence and strengthened collaborations with channel partners, the real story lies in the cutting-edge solutions Seagate brings to the table.

This interview dives into how Seagate’s storage solutions are helping enterprises tackle the challenges of rapid data growth, the company’s strategic alignment with evolving market needs, and its steadfast commitment to empowering customers with the tools to store, protect, and activate their data efficiently.

What is your personal belief about marketing?

In today’s highly competitive and interconnected digital age, businesses must transcend traditional marketing tactics to forge deeper, more authentic, and meaningful relationships with both customers and channel partners. Sustainable growth hinges on cultivating trust and collaboration to create lasting value.

To thrive in this fast-paced, digitally driven world, brands must focus on meaningful, transparent, and positive communication. This approach ensures they can establish and sustain reliable, long-term relationships with their customers. The equation is straightforward: acquiring new customers is far costlier than keeping existing ones satisfied. By delivering personalized experiences, engaging customer loyalty programs, consistent communication, and exceptional customer support, brands can elevate themselves beyond conventional marketing.

Satisfied customers are not just repeat buyers; they evolve into brand advocates, sharing their positive experiences and driving organic growth through referrals. Moreover, one of the most significant contributors to a vendor’s marketing success lies in empowering channel partnerships. Strong partnerships lead to consistent brand presence in the market, allowing businesses to remain competitive and visible.

How can businesses leverage AI and machine learning to personalize user experiences while ensuring data security and ethics?

Businesses can leverage AI and machine learning to deliver personalized user experiences by analyzing vast amounts of data to understand customer behavior, preferences, and trends. This enables tailored recommendations, predictive insights, and dynamic content delivery. To ensure data security and ethics, companies must adopt robust cybersecurity measures, comply with data protection regulations, and prioritize transparent practices. Balancing innovation with responsible data usage fosters trust and drives sustainable growth.

What is your vision for marketing in the UAE?

The UAE, with its rapidly growing economy and strategic vision, is investing heavily across various industries. This dynamic environment creates a significant appetite for corporations to innovate and adapt their marketing strategies. From technology and innovation to real estate, construction, tourism, retail, and e-commerce, the opportunities are immense.

For instance, the UAE’s smart city initiatives have unlocked vast opportunities across industries, particularly in tech solutions, data storage, and surveillance. As these investments mature, they pave the way for more innovative and integrated marketing strategies. Businesses will increasingly look beyond traditional approaches, developing comprehensive solutions to serve both enterprises and government entities.

We foresee exciting advancements, such as hyper-personalized shopping experiences and enhanced e-commerce platforms. The rapid digital transformation of the region amplifies the need for digital marketing services that can keep pace with evolving customer expectations. In this thriving ecosystem, marketing in the UAE must focus on leveraging technology and innovation to connect meaningfully with diverse audiences.

What is your belief in Seagate and its technologies?

I am deeply passionate about Seagate’s innovative leadership in mass-capacity storage, which continually pushes the boundaries of engineering. Seagate enables its customers to store and protect data in the most efficient and advanced ways possible, addressing the growing demand for high-capacity storage solutions driven by cloud expansion, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

At Seagate, everything starts with innovation. By employing cutting-edge nanoscale engineering and advanced materials science, the company delivers groundbreaking solutions. Last year, Seagate launched the Mozaic 3+ platform, designed to help businesses scale with unprecedented data growth. This platform powers the world’s most efficient hard drive storage solutions, allowing customers to reduce their total cost of ownership while enhancing operational efficiency.

With areal density at its core, Mozaic technology allows organizations to store more data without requiring additional space, energy, or natural resources. Beyond efficiency, Seagate also champions sustainability through its Circularity Program, a pioneering effort to minimize electronic waste and promote sustainable consumption. This program extends the lifecycle of hard drives and significantly reduces carbon emissions, aligning with Seagate’s commitment to environmental responsibility. Seagate’s approach demonstrates a remarkable balance between innovation, efficiency, and sustainability, reflecting its dedication to creating a better future for data management and the planet.

Could you tell us about SkyHawk technology, how it drives surveillance and AI systems?

SkyHawk drives enhance surveillance and AI systems by offering high capacity, optimized firmware, and a workload rating suitable for 24×7 operations. They support up to 64 HD cameras and 32 AI streams, ensuring reliable video streaming and advanced AI analysis. With features like SkyHawk Health Management, they monitor drive health, prevent data loss, and reduce maintenance costs, providing integrators with better total cost of ownership and increased customer satisfaction.

Tell us about Mozaic 3+ platform and how that revolutionizes storage?

The Mozaic 3+ platform, powering Seagate’s Exos product family, revolutionizes hyperscale cloud storage with industry-leading capacity, including Exos 30TB+ products. It doubles storage capacity compared to conventional 16TB drives, optimizing data storage within the same footprint. Prioritizing sustainability, it improves power consumption per terabyte by 40% and reduces embodied carbon by 55%, addressing efficiency and environmental challenges simultaneously.

What are your predictions for Seagate in the UAE market?

The UAE’s dynamic economy and strategic geographic position offer exceptional opportunities for growth. With rapid digital transformation and increasing demand for data storage, Seagate is uniquely positioned to leverage its strengths in the surveillance industry and beyond.

Seagate’s advanced integrated security solutions cater to the region’s expanding need for scalable and reliable data storage, particularly for businesses and government entities managing explosive data growth. Surveillance remains a key area of strength, and we see significant potential to expand our enterprise portfolio by strengthening relationships with key accounts and demonstrating the value of our solutions.

To capture this opportunity, Seagate will maintain a focused marketing strategy, emphasizing VIA (Video, Imaging, and Analytics) solutions while penetrating enterprise markets with high-capacity messaging. By addressing the specific needs of the UAE market, Seagate aims to remain a trusted partner, empowering organizations with cutting-edge storage solutions that drive growth and innovation.

Automotive

Goodyear continues support for Team De Rooy in the 2025 Dakar Rally

Published

7 days ago

January 2, 2026

Integrator Web-Editor

Goodyear continues its partnership with Team De Rooy for the upcoming Dakar Rally 2025. As the official tire supplier, Goodyear will equip the Dutch team with its high-performance Goodyear OFFROAD tires and advanced Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), helping to ensure reliable performance throughout the rally’s demanding stages. This collaboration highlights Goodyear’s dedication to truck motorsport, combining innovation with proven durability on some of the world’s toughest terrains.

Dakar 2025: new challenges await

The 2025 Dakar Rally, running from January 3 to January 17, will cover nearly 8,000 kilometers, including over 5,000 kilometers of competitive stages, starting in Bisha and finishing in Shubaytah. This edition ramps up the difficulty, featuring an early 48-hour chrono stage that flows into the marathon stage, setting a challenging pace from the outset. In the second week, competitors will tackle the demanding dunes of the Empty Quarter, with over 45% of the course on separate tracks for different vehicle classes, enhancing safety while complicating navigation.

Goodyear OFFROAD tires and TPMS: performance in challenging conditions

Team De Rooy relies on Goodyear OFFROAD tires for their durability and reliable traction across different conditions. Designed to handle heat and challenging surfaces, these tires help reduce heat buildup at high speeds and provide consistent performance on sand, rocks, and steep slopes.

Goodyear’s TPMS offers real-time monitoring of tire pressure and temperature, helping the team make quick adjustments and avoid potential issues. This advanced system helps to minimize downtime and supports better strategic decisions—crucial for maintaining momentum during the rally.

A Legacy of motorsport excellence

Goodyear’s continued support of Team De Rooy highlights its long-standing commitment to truck motorsport. As the title sponsor of the Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship (ETRC), Goodyear uses motorsport as a proving ground for tire technology advancements. The partnership with Team De Rooy reflects this commitment, driving innovation and performance in demanding environments.

Maciej Szymański, Marketing Director Commercial EMEA at Goodyear, commented:

“Our continued collaboration with Team De Rooy for Dakar 2025 underscores our commitment to supporting motorsport teams in extreme conditions. With Goodyear OFFROAD tires and TPMS, we aim to provide the reliability needed to tackle the rally’s challenges. We wish Team De Rooy all the best and look forward to another exciting competition at this iconic rally”.

Cover Story

PLAUD Note Pro: This Tiny AI Recorder Might Be the Smartest Life Upgrade You Make!

Published

1 week ago

December 31, 2025

Integrator Web-Editor

By Srijith KN

I’ve been using the Plaud Note Pro for over three months now, and this is a device that has quietly earned a permanent place in my daily life now. Let me walk you through what it does—and why I say that so?

Well at first I thought this wasn’t going to do much with my life, and by the looks of it Plaud Note Pro looks like a tiny, card-sized gadget—minimal, unobtrusive to carry it around.

With a single press of the top button, it starts recording meetings, classes, interviews, or discussions. Once you end your session, the audio is seamlessly transferred to the Plaud app on your phone, where it’s transformed into structured outputs—summaries, action lists, mind maps, and more.

In essence, it’s a capture device that takes care of one part of your work so you can concentrate on the bigger game.

Design-wise, the device feels premium, it features a small display that shows battery level, recording status, and transfer progress—just enough information without distraction. The ripple-textured finish looks elegant and feels solid, paired with a clean, responsive button. It also comes with a magnetic case that snaps securely onto the back of your phone, sitting flush and tight, making it easy to carry around without thinking twice.

Battery life is another standout. On a full charge, the Plaud Note Pro can last up to 60 days, even with frequent, long recording sessions. Charging anxiety simply doesn’t exist here.

Well, my impressions about the device changed once I had an audio captured. I tested this in a busy press conference setting—eight to ten journalists around me, multiple voices, ambient noise—and the recording came out sharp and clear. Thanks to its four-microphone array, it captures voices clearly from up to four to five meters away, isolating speech with precision and keeping voices naturally forward. This directly translates into cleaner transcripts. It supports 120 languages, and yes, I even tested transcription into Malayalam—it worked remarkably well, condensed the entire convo-interview that I had during an automotive racing show that I was into.

Real meetings or interviews are rarely happens in a neat environment, and that’s where I found the Plaud Note Pro working for me. It captures nuances and details I often miss in the moment. As a journalist, that’s invaluable. The app also allows you to add photos during recordings, enriching your notes with context and visuals.

I tested transferring files over 20 minutes long, and the process was smooth and quick. Accessing the recordings on my PC via the browser was equally intuitive—everything is easy to navigate and well laid out.

Now to what is inside this tiny recorder. Well, the core of the experience is Plaud Intelligence, the AI engine powering all Plaud note-takers. It dynamically routes tasks across OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google’s latest LLMs to deliver professional-grade results. With over 3,000 templates, AI Suggestions, and features like Ask Plaud, the system turns raw conversations into organized, searchable, and actionable insights. These capabilities are available across the Plaud App (iOS and Android) and Plaud Web.

Privacy is what I happen to see them look at seriously. All data is protected under strict compliance standards, including SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and EN18031, ensuring enterprise-grade security.

What makes the AI experience truly effective is the quality of input. Unlike a phone recorder—where notifications, distractions, and inconsistent mic pickup interfere—the Plaud Note Pro does one job and does it exceptionally well. It records cleanly, consistently, and without interruption, delivering what is easily one of the smoothest recording and transcription experiences I’ve used so far.

I’m genuinely curious to see how Plaud evolves this product further. If this is where they are today, the next version should be very interesting indeed.

“The Plaud Note Pro isn’t just a recorder; it’s a pocket-sized thinking partner that captures the details so you can think bigger, clearer, and faster.”

Plaud Note Pro is now available for pre-order at https://uae.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-note-pro
Plaud Note and NotePin are available at https://uae.plaud.ai

Cover Story

ICT CHAMPION AWARDS – 18TH EDITION

Published

1 week ago

December 30, 2025

Integrator Web-Editor

The ICT Champion Awards return with their 18th edition, continuing a long-standing tradition of recognising excellence across the Middle East’s ICT landscape. The awards bring together industry leaders, technology innovators, and decision-makers for an evening dedicated to celebrating impact, leadership, and progress across the region’s digital ecosystem.

ABOUT ICT CHAMPIONS AWARDS

This programme is designed to highlight and honour exceptional achievements across the Middle East’s ICT ecosystem, celebrating organisations that continue to demonstrate excellence in innovation, growth, resilience, and leadership. The ICT Champion Awards aim to inspire progress while recognising sustained contributions that have shaped the region’s technology landscape over time.

Integrator Media proudly presents the ICT Champion Awards – 18th Edition, recognising distinguished technology organisations across enterprise solutions, critical and public infrastructure, cybersecurity, and digital transformation. More than an awards platform, the ICT Champion Awards represent a long-standing commitment to acknowledging industry leadership and real-world impact. The programme serves as a trusted stage to honour innovation, reliability, and the organisations addressing the evolving demands of today’s interconnected and security-driven digital environment.

AIM OF ICT CHAMPIONS AWARD

HONOR INNOVATION: Mark major milestones in the Middle East in the technology domain.

BENCHMARK SUCCESS: Highlight significant technology innovations and achievements in the Middle East landscape.

ACKNOWLEDGE KEY CONTRIBUTIONS: Honor and value key contributions made by leading technology organizations in the Middle East.

AWARD EXCELLENCE: Acknowledge and award accomplishments made by organizations to address the increasing demand in the technology domain.

PROMOTE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Establish a platform for the technology community to unite, celebrate successes, and inspire future accomplishments.

WHY SHOULD YOU PARTICIPATE?

STATEGIC NETWORKING: Connect with top experts and decision-makers in the ICT industry. This is your chance to build valuable relationships and expand your professional network.

MAXIMUM EXPOSURE: Aligned with INTERSEC 2026, the event ensure unparalleled exposure as the entire ICT community gathers in one place. Your brand will be in the spotlight, drawing high impact from the audience that are aligned with security, technology, and enterprise transformation industry.

CHANNEL & PARTNER ENGAGEMENT: Promote your brand directly to prospective partners and clients. This platform provides a unique opportunity to discuss your offerings and build new connections.

BRAND AMPLIFICATION: Participate and leverage multi-level branding opportunities through our extensive print, digital, and social media coverage.

HIGH-PROFILE BRANDING: Gain high-profile branding before, during, and after the event across multiple mediums, including print and online platforms.

EVENT DETAILS:

Date: 28^th January 2026
Venue: Shangri – La Dubai Hotel, Al Nojoom Ballroom, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai. (nearest landmark: Near Financial Metro Station)
Time: 6:00 PM – 10:30 PM
Map Location: HERE
Event Registration Link: HERE
Event Agenda: HERE