Ahmed Madkor

Oracle has announced a major expansion of the Oracle Cloud Abu Dhabi Region with the deployment of the first Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Supercluster powered by NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs in the Middle East. CXO Insight ME reports: https://lnkd.in/eJffKHCs

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I’m delighted to announce that Oracle Database@Azure is now available in the UAE to meet the rapidly growing customer demand for AI data modernisation.   With the services’ debut in the Microsoft Azure UAE Central and UAE North regions, customers gain all the performance, resiliency, security, and scalability advantages of Oracle Database on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), combined with Azure’s enterprise-grade solutions for AI, analytics, security, and applications to unlock innovation and agility.   Oracle Database@Azure is now available in 27 regions worldwide, with six more planned in the next 12 months.   The launch of Oracle Database@Azure in the UAE marks a significant milestone for the Middle East’s digital future, as we get ready to showcase how our #AI is supporting the UAE’s standing as a global hub for innovation at #GITEXGLOBAL in Dubai next week. https://lnkd.in/efRny5YQ   Richard Smith. Assaad El Saadi, Nick Redshaw, Cherian Varghese, Leopoldo Boado Lama

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🌐 Beyond the Monolith: Why Distributed Architecture Is the Backbone of Modern Scalability The systems we’re building today aren’t just bigger — they’re everywhere. From e-commerce platforms in Dubai to fintech apps in Riyadh, modern products need to handle millions of users, thousands of transactions per second, and near-zero downtime. That’s where the Distributed Architecture Pattern becomes more than a technical choice — it becomes a business enabler. Let’s break down what this means ⚙️ What Is Distributed Architecture? In simple terms, it’s an approach where your system isn’t one giant application, but a network of independent services or nodes that share the workload. Each node handles a specific responsibility — whether it’s authentication, payments, inventory, or analytics — and all communicate through APIs, queues, or events. 💡 Think of it as a team where everyone knows their role, rather than one person doing everything. 🚀 Why It Matters 1️⃣ Scalability by Design When demand spikes (like Ramadan sales or ticketing rushes in GCC markets), a distributed system scales individual services — not the entire app. 📊 Example: Noon and Talabat rely on distributed microservices with load balancers and autoscaling to manage millions of real-time transactions. 2️⃣ Resilience and Fault Tolerance In a monolithic system, one failure can crash everything. In distributed systems, if the “order service” fails, the “payment” or “notification” services keep running independently. 🧱 It’s built to fail gracefully — and recover fast. 3️⃣ Faster Iteration and Deployment Different teams can deploy and update their services independently, reducing bottlenecks. 🎯 This means innovation moves at the pace of the business — not the slowest service in the stack. 4️⃣ Global and Local Optimization For GCC businesses expanding regionally, distributed patterns let you deploy nodes closer to users (via regional clusters in AWS, Azure, or local clouds like STC Cloud). 🌍 Result: Lower latency, better compliance, and higher trust. 🧩 Common Distributed Patterns That Work Event-Driven Architecture: Decouples communication between services. CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation): Separates read and write operations for performance. Saga Pattern: Manages distributed transactions across microservices. Service Mesh (e.g., Istio, Linkerd): Simplifies communication and monitoring between services. Each pattern adds a layer of intelligence and control to your system’s complexity. 🧠 The Takeaway Distributed architecture isn’t just about splitting your system — it’s about orchestrating autonomy. When designed right, it gives your product the power to: ✅ Scale with demand ✅ Evolve without chaos ✅ Survive failures gracefully #SoftwareArchitecture #DistributedSystems #Microservices #SystemDesign #CloudComputing #Scalability #TechStrategy #ProductManagement #GCC #DigitalTransformation #EngineeringExcellence

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I was excited to attend Day 1 of the Dubai AI Festival (https://lnkd.in/d49ZVV7h) — a dynamic gathering of innovators, technologists, and thinkers, all focused on the rapidly evolving world of AI. The energy was super high, and the number of AI startups and new ideas in play was truly inspiring. It’s clear we’re living in a time where a new LLM or GenAI tool seems to emerge every day, often claiming to be “X times better” than the one from yesterday. Amidst all this, a few strong messages stood out: 1. Don’t wait — start doing: Capitalize on opportunities, stay incremental, and just do it. You’ll get better over time — but only if you begin. Amazon’s deep learning started with the use of RNNs and GNNs which means a whole lot of learning on applying AI to those business use cases before the Transformer storm. 2.Cut the time on PoCs: The world is full of AI PoCs (that is where the money goes) — the key is speed to value. ROI matters more than tech choices. Use what fits the business use case now and today. The tech stack can evolve later. 3.Don’t retrofit AI — redesign around it: Adding AI to a legacy process is like attaching a jet engine to a bicycle. It won’t fly. To unlock real value, rethink processes and information architecture with an AI-first mindset. Again don't wait for the perfect technology - that will eventually arrive. 4.AI amplifies people — it doesn’t replace them: Yes, AI can reduce manual effort — but it also frees up capacity. Let us change the mindset - more productivity enables more throughput, not fewer people. This is the value enterprises seek, even before re-skilling discussions begin. 5.Governance and ethics start with us: We don’t need to wait for global standards. Enterprises can define what responsible AI looks like today, guided by their own values and local regulations. Exciting times ahead..!!!

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💡 We all talk about data and data for AI, but the real magic happens in the design decisions. Over the past few months, I’ve been deep in the trenches with customers across the UAE, helping untangle real-world Data & AI challenges.  From governance questions to getting value out of lakes, warehouses and analytics, those lessons turned into a contribution to the Azure Architecture Center on how Data & AI come together in practice. If you’re navigating patterns, trade‑offs, or “where do I start?”, I (re)wrote this article with you in mind: https://lnkd.in/d2PRjD5H This practical guide helps architects and data engineers map AWS data and AI services to Microsoft Azure and Fabric, making cloud transitions smoother and architectures more unified. If you’ve ever wondered how to: 🔹 Compare services like Redshift vs. Fabric Warehouse, Glue vs. Data Factory, or S3 vs. OneLake 🔹 Design modern data platforms across multi-cloud environments 🔹 Leverage Microsoft Fabric as a true end-to-end platform for analytics 🔹 Or simply understand where to start! This resource is for you! Would love to hear from others in the field: 💬 What patterns are working for you right now? 💬 And what’s still messy? Let’s compare notes, and keep architecting with purpose (and a little AI magic)! ✨

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