As more organisations across the Middle East and Africa region, or MEA, prepare to embrace working without traditional infrastructural limitations, Gitex Technology Week 2012 is set to make its biggest impact in cloud computing to date.

Under the theme “Business Innovation through Cloud Computing – From Hype to a Must-Have Service Model”, the event’s Cloud Confex is well-established as the largest and most influential conference and exhibition of its kind in the Middle East, and is on course to grow by 25 per cent this year. The event takes place at Gitex Technology Week, which runs from October 14–18 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

Cloud Confex will consolidate its reputation as the premier route to market via two days of intense conferencing and a five-day exhibition graced by leading international players. Last year, 80 per cent of the top global cloud computing brands were present. The event’s ramp-up in activity comes as high-growth companies and first-generation business-savvy chief information officers converge to drive wide-spread, cloud-driven change across multiple sectors.

According to “The Five Faces of the Cloud” study recently released by global business consulting firm Bain & Company, cloud computing product and service revenue is set to rise from approximately $ 20 billion today to nearly $ 150 billion by 2020, which will constitute around eight per cent of all technology spend. The study also notes that faster growing companies (greater than 10 per cent per year) use 144 per cent more cloud services than slower-growing companies. In addition, CIOs entering their position within the last year will have 141 per cent more of their environment in the cloud than a longer tenured CIO (greater than six years), and that for certain workloads over the next three to five years, cloud pricing will be 30 per cent to 40 per cent lower than legacy technology. Indicative of the field’s burgeoning influence, an IDC report commissioned by Gitex participant Microsoft recently indicated that cloud computing will create nearly 14 million new jobs globally by 2015, including over two million in Europe, Middle East and Africa. IDC’s research also estimated revenues from cloud innovation could reach $ 1.1 trillion per year by 2015, which, combined with cloud efficiencies, will drive significant organisational reinvestment and job growth.

In the MEA region itself, another IDC study notes that 73 per cent of polled decision makers acknowledge that the cloud offers significant, tangible benefits, and anticipation at its sheer potential is mounting ahead of Cloud Confex’s ambitious agenda.