ManageEngine Targets 2026 Growth on Cloud-First Adoption, Observability and Cyber Resilience in the UAE

Sujoy Banerjee, Regional Business Director at ManageEngine, says 2026 will open significant opportunities as the UAE accelerates cloud-first strategies, smart city programmes, and digital governance initiatives.

What opportunities do you foresee for 2026, and how do you plan to leverage them?
In 2026, ManageEngine sees significant opportunities driven by the United Arab Emirates’ strong momentum toward cloud-first adoption, smart city initiatives, and digital governance programmes. These national priorities are accelerating digital transformation and increasing the demand for modern, scalable technology platforms.

ManageEngine plans to capitalise on this by addressing the rising need for unified IT operations, observability, and integrated security solutions that help organisations operate more efficiently and securely. Our primary focus will be on key sectors, including the government, BFSI, healthcare, large enterprises, and the middle market, where modernisation and resilience are top priorities.

To extend our reach and impact, ManageEngine will continue to expand through local channel partners and MSP-led deployments, enabling faster adoption and stronger customer support. In parallel, we will align closely with national digital resilience and modernisation initiatives, positioning our solutions as trusted enablers of long-term growth, compliance, and innovation.

What major challenges did you encounter this year, and how did you address them?
This year, we faced longer sales cycles as customers operated under tighter budgets and more stringent compliance requirements. Additionally, customer expectations increased, with greater emphasis on a clear ROI and strong value justification for every investment.

We addressed these challenges by strengthening our local presales and technical support teams’ presence in the UAE, enabling closer engagement and faster response times. We also shifted to a more outcome-driven approach, focusing conversations on measurable improvements in uptime, security, and operational efficiency to help customers clearly see the business value of our solutions.

Can you elaborate on your strategic partnerships this year and plans for next year?
This year, we significantly strengthened our relationships with regional system integrators, MSPs, and telecom providers, recognising their critical role in delivering localised, scalable solutions. These partnerships helped us engage with customers more effectively through joint solution design, deployment, and support.

We placed strong emphasis on co-selling and co-marketing initiatives, working closely with partners to create shared pipelines, joint campaigns, and aligned go-to-market strategies. This collaborative approach helped us reach new customer segments and accelerate deal execution.

Looking ahead to next year, we plan to deepen these partnerships by expanding our partner enablement and certification programmes. By investing further in technical training, solution specialisation, and joint business planning, we aim to empower our partners to deliver greater value, drive consistent customer outcomes, and support our growth across the region.

What will be your primary focus areas and strategic priorities for 2026?
In 2026, our primary focus will be on helping customers simplify and gain visibility across their increasingly complex hybrid environments through unified IT management and observability solutions. As digital infrastructures scale up, ensuring seamless performance and control will remain a top priority.

We will also place strong emphasis on cybersecurity resilience, moving beyond reactive measures to proactive threat detection and risk management. Additionally, enhancing customer experience will be central to our strategy; we aim to deliver faster deployments backed by strong local support to ensure consistent outcomes.

From a go-to-market perspective, we will continue to refine MSP- and channel-friendly subscription models to make it easier for partners to adopt, scale, and deliver our solutions. Underpinning all of this will be continued investment in talent and customer success, ensuring we have the expertise and focus needed to support long-term growth and customer trust.

Are there plans to explore new markets or introduce new products/applications in 2026?
Yes, 2026 will be a year of both market expansion and innovation for us. From a market perspective, we plan to drive growth through stronger regional partner ecosystems, enabling us to extend our reach efficiently while maintaining a local, customer-centric approach.

On the product side, we will introduce AI-driven capabilities across our IT operations and security solutions to help customers move from reactive management to predictive and automated decision-making. Our focus will remain on delivering integrated platforms rather than stand-alone tools, reducing complexity and improving operational efficiency.

In addition, we will enhance our cloud management and analytics solutions, giving customers deeper visibility, better cost control, and more actionable insights across their hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

How is your company approaching sustainability, digital transformation, or AI adoption in preparation for 2026?
As we prepare for 2026, sustainability, digital transformation, and AI adoption are closely intertwined in our strategy. We are optimising IT resource usage to reduce infrastructure overhead, helping customers operate more efficiently while lowering their environmental and operational footprint.

AI plays a central role in this approach. We are embedding AI-powered anomaly detection, predictive analytics, and automation across our platforms, enabling a clear shift from reactive to proactive IT operations. This not only improves reliability and performance but also reduces unnecessary resource consumption.

Additionally, we continue to support broader digital transformation initiatives with security and compliance built in from the outset. Our approach to AI is responsible by design and aligned with the UAE’s digital economy goals.