Opportunities rife for UAE start-ups using right technologies: Microsoft

Emirates Business
Microsoft Gulf highlighted the opportunities open to the region’s small and medium enterprises in adopting enabling technologies, as it remarked on the success of the SME World Summit 2016, held in Dubai earlier this month.
Speaking after company’s participation as exclusive technology partner at the summit, Haider Salloum, SMB Director, Microsoft Gulf, said, “Microsoft is committed to becoming the solutions provider of choice for small and medium businesses in the UAE. With SMEs already contributing over 60 percent of the country’s non-oil GDP — and likely to contribute as much as 70 percent by 2021 – it is clear that this segment has a pivotal role in securing future prosperity, and we fervently believe the next generation of Microsoft technologies is an ideal fit for those businesses in the journey ahead.”
Salloum participated in a panel discussion at the event, where he enumerated the competitive advantages available to start-ups that leverage technology shrewdly.
The SME World Summit also featured a keynote address from Microsoft’s Tareq Hijazi, Director, Small and Mid-Market Solutions and Partners Group.
Microsoft also used the summit to hold a devices session aimed specifically at SMBs, in which the company demonstrated Windows 10 in action, on machines built by OEM partners such as Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer and Asus. At the company’s stand, delegates watched as Microsoft representatives showed the flexibility of the new OS, running on a rich variety of form factors, from 2-in-1s and tablets, to Ultrabooks and powerhouse workstations.
“Windows 10 was designed with SMEs in mind, incorporating features normally associated with larger corporate entities, such as enterprise-grade security capabilities that simplify the protection of infrastructures of all sizes,” said Salloum.
Microsoft also mentioned that even large companies are now beginning to see the benefits of cloud computing as a way to more easily manage and secure infrastructure while reaping the benefits of migrating to a systems architecture.