As digital transformation accelerates across the Middle East, enterprises are increasingly prioritizing observability to address the challenges of performance, visibility, and control in hybrid and cloud-dependent environments. The shift to remote work, widespread cloud adoption, and the growing complexity of IT ecosystems have made observability — the ability to monitor, analyze, and optimize digital experiences — a critical focus for CIOs and IT leaders.
Riverbed Technology, a leader in network optimization, is positioning itself at the forefront of this evolution. At GITEX, the company unveiled its latest innovations in observability and performance acceleration, including Riverbed IQ Ops, a platform enhanced with AI and machine learning capabilities. These tools enable predictive analysis, automated remediation, and integration with third-party systems like ServiceNow, empowering IT teams to proactively manage performance and security across distributed environments.
Salman Ali, Riverbed’s Senior Manager for Solution Engineering in the GCC, emphasized the strategic use of AI in their approach. “We’re not just adding AI for the sake of it,” he said. “We’re using causal AI and generative algorithms to deliver actionable insights, break down silos across infrastructure, applications, and networks, and unify observability across the enterprise.”
Riverbed’s methodology focuses on data quality and relevance. Its platform collects, filters, and analyzes data to ensure AI delivers meaningful outcomes, from forecasting IT issues to correlating performance metrics across domains. This unified observability model is particularly valuable in hybrid work scenarios, where consistent access and performance are essential regardless of user location.
The company is also playing a pivotal role in the UAE’s digital transformation journey. As organizations migrate services to the cloud and digitize operations, Riverbed provides visibility into user behavior, service adoption, and performance metrics — both before and after migration. “Digitization has enabled us to give companies the right visibility into how services are used and where enhancements are needed,” Ali explained.
Looking ahead, Riverbed identifies three major trends driving demand for observability: digitization, cloud adoption, and hybrid work. As applications move further from users, the need for deep visibility and control becomes more urgent. “The more digital we become, the more we need to understand our environments,” Ali noted. “Observability is the foundation for that understanding.”