Bashar Bashaireh, VP Middle East, Türkiye and North Africa at Cloudflare, discusses new challenges amid a changing cybersecurity landscape. he digital landscape is undergoing

Together, these elements are shaping the future of the Internet, creating a complex, interconnected ecosystem where each trend influences and amplifies the others. As a result, we must rethink our approaches to infrastructure, security and the role of technology in our lives.

The AI Revolution: The future is now( but unevenly distributed)

AI, once merely a buzzword, is now at the core of many technological advancements. A recent McKinsey survey on AI reveals that 65 % of organisations use Generative AI regularly, and 72 % have integrated AI into at least one business function. AI’ s impact is becoming as transformative as the advent of electricity in the early 20th century, which reshaped entire industries and economies. Similarly, AI is now embedded in various workflows, enhancing productivity and fostering new forms of creativity.

AI-powered coding assistants are streamlining software development, Generative AI tools are enhancing content creation, and advanced AI models are assisting healthcare providers with early disease detection. These real-time breakthroughs are revolutionising industries, making AI an invisible but indispensable part of our daily lives.

However, with such advancements come significant responsibilities. Concerns around algorithmic bias, data privacy and intellectual property have moved from hypothetical to urgent. As AI systems become increasingly integrated into everyday life, society faces the challenge of balancing innovation with accountability. This balance is crucial for both engineers and policymakers and is vital for all who rely on digital services.

Infrastructure Evolution: The Edge gets sharper

While AI might dominate the headlines, profound changes are also taking place in the foundational layers of our digital world. Edge Computing, once a nascent concept, is now rapidly evolving into a more sophisticated model that fundamentally alters how we conceive of infrastructure.

To understand this, imagine the Internet as a sprawling city. In the past, most computing tasks were handled in large, centralised data centres. Now, Edge Computing is like setting up satellite offices across the city’ s suburbs, bringing processing power closer to the areas that need it. This localised model reduces latency, enabling real-time analytics, autonomous vehicles capable of split-second decision-making, and gaming without lag. Beyond speed, when AI is integrated into this distributed framework, it opens up entirely new classes of applications.

However, these advantages come with their own challenges. The demand for GPU capacity to support AI workloads has skyrocketed, often outstripping supply. As a result, infrastructure providers must rethink chip designs, explore new architectures and invest in sustainable energy solutions. The future data centre will likely be a global network of micro-facilities, carefully co-

Bashar Bashaireh, VP Middle East, Türkiye and North Africa at Cloudflare

The growth of Edge Computing highlights the need for neutrality, flexibility, and a distributed approach to computing and storage.

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