In this review of 2022, Dragos’ Regional Director for Middle East, Al Barghouthi, spoke about how the company focussed in the region supporting the mandates of different countries.
“In 2022, we opened our office in Dubai to support UAE government initiatives such as Operation 300bn.”
Al Barghouthi, Regional Director, Middle East, Dragos
Can you briefly touch on how 2022 was for your company in the region:
It was evident that the region has recovered post-pandemic, which has led to quite a few large face-to-face events that brought the industry’s brightest minds under the same roof. From a Dragos perspective, we are busier than ever with client engagements across the critical infrastructure domain. The Middle East has seen growing adoption of the Dragos Platform, and Dragos has made investments in the region through local offices, training facilities, and key partnerships. We have established our local presence through Duabi and Riyadh and assembled a team of world class experts who have been helping safeguard civilization in the Middle East.
What were some of the big milestones for the company in 2022
This has been an important year for Dragos in the Middle East, with accelerated growth in the region. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we continued our expansion to support Saudi Vision 2030’s call for digital transformation and increased connectivity in critical systems—including oil and gas, chemical, mining, industrial, logistics, and water. In March, we opened our office in Dubai to support UAE government initiatives such as Operation 300bn, calling for the industrial sector’s GDP contribution to increase from US$ 36 billion to US$ 82 billion (AED 300 billion) by 2031. I was honored to join as Regional Director for the Middle East this year to drive this growth and strengthen our partner network to support the region’s rapidly growing industrial sector. Globally, Dragos has received recognitions including being named for the 2nd year to the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, based on Dragos’s revenue growth of more than 500 percent between 2018 and 2021.
Which industries have you seen the most traction in 2022 and why?
Within our domain we have seen traction across Oil & Gas, Energy and Utility, and Manufacturing. In some countries the traction was mainly driven by compliance mandates where OT cybersecurity has become top-of-mind for decision makers. In other countries it was driven by the rising awareness of potential cyber threats to OT, and how OT systems and threats are different from IT.
What is your regional strategy as we head into 2023?
At Dragos we fully understand what it takes to help secure the OT domain differently than the IT domain. We are a company built by practitioners for practitioners to safeguard industrial infrastructure. Hence, we are focused on building a community by raising awareness across industry. We will continue growing our Ecosystem of partners and invest in technical skillset locally in each region.
