Executives from Sun Microsystems Middle East & North Africa have revealed that the company has recorded overall regional growth of more than 38 percent in the last financial year. The market has been growing at approximately 25% year on year in the Middle East region, according to analysts such as IDC, so Sun Microsystems is proud to assert faster than average growth during FY06, taking market share from vendors such as IBM and HP. Sales of new products, driven largely by Sun’s software and AMD-based servers for the mid-tier market, were up by more than 40 percent, while support services for regional customers grew at 20 percent over the previous year.

“Our major areas of growth across the Middle East in 2006 were market share increases in key countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where customers are investing in total solutions that encompass Sun servers and storage managed by Sun software and backed up by our support services,” said Chris Cornelius, managing director of Sun Microsystems MENA. “An increasing number of regional companies are deploying our Java-based software solutions based on the open-source Solaris operating system, with an especially strong interest in areas like identity management. We’re also seeing robust demand for our range of AMD-based servers, which require less energy and space in the region’s costly real estate environment, and generate less heat for lower utility bills,” he added.

Sun is showcasing its integrated solutions for the region’s banking, financial services and telecoms companies this week at GITEX, as well as the offerings of a number of partners from around the GCC and Egypt.

“Growth numbers of more than 38 percent indicate that there is still room for expansion in the Middle East’s IT market for companies that offer solutions which address real business needs in the region,” Cornelius concluded.