IDC said its second annual CIO Summit, the 2009 series titled 'Reflections and Innovations Ahead' will focus on business-critical issues such as datacentres and how to take advantage of scale in the purchase and use of IT assets.

The premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events to the IT, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets revealed the plan while setting up a preliminary agenda for its CIO Summit 2009 series.

IDC said its Middle East and North Africa (Mena) Summit will be held at Atlantis, The Palm, in Dubai from February 8 to 10, 2009. The summit will have 100 CIOs in attendance from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, as well as the GCC countries, Pakistan, and Egypt.

Its Africa Summit will be held at the Sun City Resort in South Africa on February 24-25, 2009 and will feature 80 CIOs from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon, Senegal, Cote d'lvoire, Kenya, Mauritius, and Angola.

According to IDC, the Middle East and Africa IT market is forecast to reach a staggering value of $80 billion by 2012, up from $51 billion in 2008.

Now in its second year and growing, IDC's CIO Summit has become a must-attend event for IT decision makers interested in leveraging technology to enable and transform business models and processes.

Unlike other industry events, the IDC CIO Summit is content-driven, with leading organisations presenting end-user case studies that provide real-world solutions to the key issues faced by IT and business executives. The event will offer practical advice on leveraging technology to streamline management and reduce costs, as well as an opportunity to network with industry leaders and CIOs.

'IDC is pleased to announce the preliminary agenda and speakers for its second annual CIO Summit. The sharing of best practices among IT leaders, business executives, and our analysts is the most effective way to move the industry forward,” said Jyoti Lalchandani, vice-president and regional managing director of IDC Middle East and Africa.

'The case studies presented at this event will effectively highlight the successful alignment of IT and business value.'

One area that is expected to undergo considerable development, according to Lalchandani, is the datacentre.

'A growing number of enterprise CIOs are approaching the physical and operational limits when it comes to managing the server and storage systems proliferation within their existing datacenter environments,' he said.

'Existing approaches that view the datacenter as a building with walls, power, and wires have led to highly fragmented, uncoordinated, and inefficient deployments of storage and server elements. This makes it difficult for companies to take advantage of scale in the purchase and use of IT assets and to build truly workable enterprise-wide business continuity/disaster recovery plans.'

Such business-critical issues will be high on the agenda at IDC's prestigious CIO Summit. The exclusive, invitation-only event will present the first-hand visions and experiences of recognised thought leaders from the world's premier ICT organisations as they analyse today's major trends and provide informed insights into the developments that can be expected over the next three to five years.

Plenary sessions, workshops, and roundtable discussions will all maximize value and balance interaction between delegates and partners, creating the optimum-networking environment.

'IDC's inaugural Middle East CIO Summit in 2008 proved to be a tremendous success for all concerned. With one hundred and fourteen CIOs in attendance, it provided Dell with the ideal platform to interact directly with the region's key IT decision makers, spurring long-term professional relationships and business partnerships