BWI: Government Emerges as a Strong Player in the GCC Managed Services Market, Finds Frost & Sullivan

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Frost & Sullivan
Wednesday, April 24, 2013 01:56 PM IST (08:26 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Economy, People; Business: Business services, Information technology, Telecommunications; Technology
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Government Emerges as a Strong Player in the GCC Managed Services Market, Finds Frost & Sullivan
To maximise growth, managed service providers need to overcome concerns related to data security

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, April 24, 2013 -- (Business Wire India) -- Governments of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - have been placing significant emphasis on developing their information and communications technology (ICT) industry. Infrastructure development programmes have focused on transforming these countries into knowledge-based societies.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.ITservices.frost.com), Managed Services Market in the GCC, estimates the market to expand from $1,073.7 million in 2012 to $3,112.7 million by the end of 2018.

The share of the Saudi Arabian and Qatari managed services markets in the GCC region are projected to increase due to the higher pace of growth of managed services in these countries. In terms of verticals, the government and business, financial services and insurance (BFSI) verticals are the key markets for managed service providers (MSPs). However, the highest growth is expected from the IT and oil and gas verticals.

"The GCC states are undertaking national development strategies and chalking out plans that are largely focused on diversifying carbon-based economies and developing knowledge-based societies," noted Frost & Sullivan Information & Communication Technologies Analyst. "Government backed ICT infrastructure development is well underway as a number of e-initiatives are launched."

Governmental entities already generate the highest share of the regional revenue for MSPs. Frost & Sullivan expects the government vertical to remain the leading client of MSPs in the GCC mainly due to the digitisation associated with e-policies and the growth in data centres.

At the same time, the increasing need to focus on core business processes is driving private enterprises to seek outsourced services. Although critical, business data services are not considered to be core to companies' operations. Therefore, third parties are increasingly being allowed to manage business data services.

However, data security concerns remain a major hurdle to market growth.

"The outsourcing culture in GCC countries is very new and enterprises, especially from sensitive verticals such as the BFSI or the government, are still concerned about the security of their data," explained the Analyst. "Therefore, they are reluctant to contract to third parties."

MSPs need to educate clients that they can adopt on-premise models in order to have greater visibility and control over their IT infrastructure. A first step to reassuring clients would be to build up trust, while pitching and delivering quality service on non-core operations such as router or network management.

"To successfully overcome security concerns, MSPs should extensively focus on integrating more robust security enforcement tools such as data encryption," concluded the Analyst. "Once MSPs start offering cloud services, they should consider providing the private cloud solution, rather than the public cloud option, since the former offers better security and latency. The private cloud will definitely have the higher uptake due to security concerns prevalent in the GCC countries."

If you are interested in more information on this research, please send an e-mail to Tanu Chopra, Corporate Communications, at tanu.chopra@frost.com, with your full name, company name, job title, telephone number, company e-mail address, company website, city, state and country.

Managed Services Market in the GCC is part of the IT Services Growth Partnership Services programme, which also includes research on the ERP markets in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. All research included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

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Managed Services Market in the GCC
P695-72



CONTACT DETAILS
Tanu Chopra, Corporate Communications - Middle East and North Africa, Frost & Sullivan, +91 9820480089, tanu.chopra@frost.com
Nimisha Iyer, Corporate Communications - Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, Frost & Sullivan, +91 9820050519, niyer@frost.com

KEYWORDS
ECONOMY, PEOPLE, BUSINESS SERVICES, IT, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, TECHNOLOGY

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