True digital sovereignty requires more than data residency, says WSO2 top official

The Middle East’s digital economy is scaling at a pace few regions can match. The UAE’s cloud computing market is projected to exceed US$39 billion by 2031, at a 34% CAGR, while Saudi Arabia’s data centre capacity is expected to expand at a 29% CAGR through 2030. Across the GCC, the broader data centre market is forecast to grow at over 18% annually, fuelled by hyperscale cloud expansion and the rapid acceleration of AI workloads.