The Nutanix Exclusive CIO Boardroom Roundtable – UAE, themed ‘Beyond the cloud: Leading in the age of intelligence’, powered by Nutanix and Global CIO Forum, and organised by Global Enterprise Connect in collaboration with Brand Voize, brought together senior technology leaders to explore the future of AI-driven, sovereign, and intelligent enterprise infrastructure.
The Nutanix Exclusive CIO Boardroom Roundtable – UAE was successfully conducted as a two-city, highly curated leadership engagement bringing together senior technology and business decision-makers from across the region. Designed as an exclusive, closed-door CIO boardroom discussion, the roundtable focused on how enterprises are moving beyond traditional cloud models to lead in the Age of Intelligence.
The sessions enabled open, peer-to-peer dialogue among CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, AI Heads, and IT Directors, with a strong emphasis on real-world execution – how AI, hybrid cloud, and modern infrastructure architectures are being operationalised to deliver measurable business value while ensuring governance, sovereignty, and resilience.
Discussion focus and strategic context
The roundtable explored how regional organisations are re-architecting their digital foundations to support AI-driven transformation while navigating regulatory, operational, and geopolitical realities. Conversations centred on sovereign cloud models, AI-ready private cloud infrastructure, enterprise governance frameworks, and simplifying increasingly complex hybrid and multicloud environments.
Participants shared candid insights on balancing innovation with control, accelerating time-to-value, and preparing leadership and operating models for an intelligence-led future.
Key discussion highlights
- Operationalising AI for Business Value: Moving beyond experimentation to production-grade AI use cases aligned with business outcomes.
- Hybrid Cloud & Data-Driven Innovation: Strategies to scale innovation across hybrid environments while maintaining performance, security, and cost efficiency.
- Future-Ready Leadership: What leadership, skills, and organisational models are required to thrive in the Age of Intelligence.
- Peer-to-Peer CXO Exchange: Open dialogue on regional transformation priorities, challenges, and lessons learned.
Core technology and architecture themes
Sovereign cloud
Ensuring data residency, regulatory compliance, and national assurance without sacrificing agility or innovation.
AI on private cloud
Running secure, high-performance AI workloads where enterprise data lives—private, cost-efficient, and compliant.
Governance and risk
Establishing enterprise-wide controls, trust frameworks, and accountability as AI and automation scale across organisations.
Infrastructure simplification
Reducing operational complexity across hybrid and multicloud environments to enable speed, resilience, and manageability.
Use cases explored
Kubernetes and containers
Operationalising cloud-native architectures with predictable performance, simplified operations, and reduced overhead.
Cloud-native platforms
Accelerating developer velocity and innovation while preserving IT governance, security, and operational consistency.
Abu Dhabi roundtable highlights
Date and Venue: Tuesday, January 13, 2026 | St. Regis Abu Dhabi
The Abu Dhabi session featured strong participation from government entities, critical infrastructure organisations, financial institutions, and national digital champions. Discussions reflected the emirate’s focus on sovereign cloud adoption, regulated AI deployment, and national-scale digital resilience.
Senior officials and technology leaders from the following organisations participated:
-Ittihad International Investment
– Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)
– Ministry of Trade & Economy
– ADIB – Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
– African-Asian Council for AI and Cybersecurity / Intelligent Digital Transformation Organisation
– Department of Health Abu Dhabi
– Big Ticket
– Unifrutti Group
– Ankabut
– SAAL.AI
– DCT
– IMI
– Etisalat
The dialogue emphasised trusted AI frameworks, public-sector readiness, and scalable private cloud platforms capable of supporting mission-critical workloads.
Dubai roundtable highlights
Date and Venue: Wednesday, January 14, 2026 | The Ritz-Carlton, DIFC
The Dubai edition brought together leaders from enterprise, real estate, healthcare, logistics, aviation, education, and digital government, highlighting the city’s innovation-led and business-driven transformation agenda.
Participating organisations included:
– RAK Ports
– United Arab Bank
– Aster Hospitals UAE
– Government of Dubai Legal Affairs Department
– IMG Worlds of Adventure
– Illiyas & Mustafa Galadari Group
– MOEIUAE
– EEA&CO
– Sharjah Digital Department
– Saif Al Ghurair Real Estate Group
– Deyaar Development
– Ministry of Education
– Saudi German Hospital UAE
– Al Khayyat Investment
– e&
– Emirates Group
– UAB
– The Executive Council
Conversations focused on AI-led operational efficiency, hybrid cloud scalability, developer enablement, and simplifying infrastructure to support rapid growth and innovation.
Speakers and thought leadership
- Rajiv Ramaswami
CEO, Nutanix - Raif Abou Diab
Director – South Gulf & Sub-Saharan Africa, Nutanix - Mohamed Abulhouf
GM, VP Middle East and Africa, Nutanix
- Arun Shankar
Managing Editor, Head of Growth and Integrated Media, Global Enterprise Connect - Jeevan Thankappan
Managing Editor, Global Enterprise Connect
The speakers provided strategic perspectives on the evolving cloud and AI landscape, complemented by real-world insights from Nutanix’s regional and global experience.
Conclusion
The Nutanix Exclusive CIO Boardroom Roundtable in Abu Dhabi and Dubai successfully delivered a high-impact platform for strategic dialogue, peer learning, and executive networking. The discussions reinforced a clear regional narrative: the future of enterprise IT lies in intelligent, sovereign, and simplified cloud architectures that enable AI at scale – securely and responsibly.
The engagement reaffirmed Nutanix’s role as a key enabler of AI-ready private cloud and hybrid infrastructure, while Global Enterprise Connect and Brandvoize once again demonstrated their strength in convening influential CXO communities across the region.
