Riyadh Takes Center Stage as Commvault’s SHIFT Tour Reinforces Cyber Resilience for Saudi Enterprises
Industry leaders gathered to discuss cyber resilience, identity resilience, AI governance, cloud strategies, and enterprise data protection.
Today, Commvault, a leader in unified resilience at enterprise scale, hosted its SHIFT event in Riyadh at the Hilton Riyadh Hotel & Residences. Bringing together 140 customers and 92 partners, alongside global technology leaders and regional stakeholders, the event reinforced the importance of collaboration to strengthen cyber resilience and accelerate secure digital innovation for Saudi enterprises.
The discussions at SHIFT took place against a backdrop of rapid digital transformation in the Kingdom. As Saudi enterprises accelerate multi-cloud and AI adoption in line with the Kingdom’s rapid digital expansion and Vision 2030 ambitions their environments are becoming more distributed, interconnected, and identity-driven, amplifying both opportunity and risk. Saudi Arabia’s cloud services market reached USD 4.5 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow to USD 13.9 billion by 2034, while 88 ransomware incidents were recorded in 2024, underscoring how digital growth is being matched by a more aggressive threat landscape.
Recognizing the rising operational and cyber risks, Commvault is supporting Saudi enterprises through Commvault Cloud, which brings together data security, cyber recovery, and identity resilience in a single, AI-enabled platform designed for cloud-first and hybrid environments. Commvault Cloud delivers centralized visibility, consistent policy control, and automated recovery across multi-cloud estates, helping organizations simplify operations, strengthen protection, and accelerate recovery when incidents occur. Moreover, Commvault’s Identity Resilience capabilities further enhance protection of Active Directory by continuously detecting anomalies, maintaining detailed audit logs, and enabling rapid, precise rollback while also allowing teams to safely test recovery in Cleanroom environments. Together, these capabilities help organizations reduce risk, minimize downtime, and maintain continuous business operations as they scale their digital and AI initiatives.
“The Kingdom’s digital transformation is increasing and evolving at a rapid rate, and this is fuelled by very ambitious protocols and guidelines put in place by initiatives such as Saudi Vision 2030,” said Yahya Kassab, Senior Director and General Manager, Gulf & KSA, Commvault. “With significant investment expected into Saudi data centres and cloud infrastructure planned for the year ahead, we know that the risk posed to organizations’ data will only increase as a result. The need for cyber resilience is vital, and through hosting our SHIFT Roadshow event in Riyadh, we were glad to continue our commitment in supporting and educating our customers in Saudi on the key pillars of cyber resilience that allow customers to achieve resilience operations (ResOps).”
The event featured a series of in-depth sessions focused on how enterprises can adapt to an era defined by AI, cloud transformation, and escalating cyber threats. Discussions addressed key themes including AI governance and security, cyber resilience, and the role of threat intelligence and operations in modern enterprise defense, while also exploring how organizations can drive sustainable growth through stronger communication and resilient digital strategies. The sessions outlined practical approaches to cyber resilience and recovery in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, addressing challenges such as cloud security gaps and evolving regulatory requirements to help organizations balance innovation, security, and business agility in an increasingly complex digital ecosystem.
Furthermore, the event featured insightful sessions by esteemed speakers including Fady Richmany, Corporate Vice President Emerging Markets CEE, CIS & META, Dr. Mazen H Abduljabbar, Country Manager, Saudi Arabia; Richard Gadd, Senior Vice President, EMEA; Ravi Baldev, Senior Director, Sales Engineering – Emerging Markets CEE, CIS & META, Bassam Hemdan, AVP – SaaS, EMEAI & APAC; Darren Thomson, Vice President and Field CTO, EMEA; and Yahya Kassab, Senior Director and General Manager, Gulf & KSA. Guest and partner sessions were delivered by Najm, alongside technology partners including AWS, HPE, Net Zero and Pure Storage.
SHIFT Riyadh highlighted the collective role of industry and technology partners in strengthening the Kingdom’s cyber resilience posture. As Saudi Arabia advances its Vision 2030 agenda, guided by the National Cybersecurity Authority to enhance compliance, governance, and national cyber resilience, initiatives like SHIFT reinforce the importance of secure, resilient digital foundations that enable innovation, continuity, and sustainable growth across the Kingdom.
