VIEWPOINT
WHY YOU NEED GREEN IT PATRICK SMITH, EMEA FIELD CTO, PURE STORAGE, ON A SUSTAINABLE STRATEGY BLUEPRINT FOR MIDDLE EAST INNOVATORS
G
reen initiatives are nothing new in the Middle East, where carbon emissions are a constant concern for governments undergoing economic-growth. In 2017, Abu Dhabi Ports introduced a sustainable paper-usage initiative as part of a wider eco-friendly strategy. In the same year, the UAE’s Ministry of Justice launched a sustainability project as part of Vision 2021. Saudi Arabia is also setting its sights on green issues as part of its own national economic programmes, with paperless courts being front and centre of its justice ministry’s eco-efforts. 34
CXO INSIGHT ME
AUGUST 2020
All Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) economies, and many throughout the Middle East, have seen the potential of technology and Industry 4.0 to propel their economies to greater heights. Innovation and competitiveness are buzz words now across the region — shorthand for a renewed sense of destiny. Each nation sees itself as a potential world leader, whether economically, technologically or environmentally. In the GCC region, which produces a fifth of the world’s oil, leaders are faced with green-minded consumers around the world leaning away from petrochemical reliance, while new technologies continue to intensify competition. As a result, much
of the economic activity in the region over the past decade has been inspired by governments’ efforts to diversify their economies. Energy consumption in a data centre world This eco-friendly mindset now pervades all policy, down to the private sector that relies on cloud computing to reduce the cost of ownership of its technology suite. As more and more data centres are established to serve the digital transformation ambitions of countless industries, energy consumption balloons. These facilities require a great deal of electricity, not only for running
