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From the factory floor to the customer: The people behind the technology
Recognition, relationships and the businesses helping drive the UAE's digital ambitions
- PUBLISHED: Tue 16 Jun 2026, 9:00 AM
The UAE's AI market is forecast to reach $46 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research. Data centres are expanding, investment is flowing in, and the region is attracting global technology players at a pace that few markets can match. But ask anyone who has spent time in the Gulf's technology sector, and they will tell you the same thing — the deals are signed in boardrooms, but the growth happens on the ground.
Behind every technology brand gaining market share in the UAE is a network of distributors, resellers, and channel partners who quietly keeping things moving. They manage inventory, absorb market volatility, maintain customer relationships, and bridge the gap between a global product and a local customer. In a region growing as fast as this one, that function is not peripheral. It is central.
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It is a dynamic that Seagate's UAE team decided to address directly this year. The company launched the “I Love UAE” campaign with a straightforward goal — to recognise the businesses and people who carry technology from the factory floor to the customer. The campaign ran in two phases: first, bringing together 84 channel partners to acknowledge their role in enabling regional growth, and then visiting the teams at key distribution partners ASBIS, Keystone, and Redington in person.
The invisible infrastructure
There is an analogy that sits at the heart of this conversation. In the technology world, a storage drive is rarely the component that commands attention — but it is the one that holds everything together. Every application, every AI system, every piece of innovation ultimately depends on it. Without it, nothing functions. Channel partners occupy a similar position. They are the foundation on which technology brands build market presence, customer trust, and commercial resilience. Visible or not, everything runs through them.
For Seagate, growth in this region is also the story of partners who have invested in the relationship over years by navigating shifting demand and complex market conditions to keep supply moving and customers served.
“The UAE’s technology market moves fast and demands the best from everyone in the ecosystem. Our channel partners have matched that pace every step of the way by showing remarkable resilience, adaptability, and a strong commitment to our customers. The I Love UAE campaign was our way of recognising that — because this kind of dedication deserves to be acknowledged, not taken for granted," said Sameer Bhatia, Senior Regional Director, India, Middle East, Turkiye and Africa at Seagate.
Mohit Pandey, Head of Sales for Middle East, Turkiye and Africa at Seagate, echoed the sentiment. “This campaign was born from a simple belief that the people who move products from the factory floor to the customer every single day are the real engine of our growth. I want to thank them for their dedication, courage, and commitment. The I Love UAE campaign is our way of saying we see you, and we are grateful.”
The long game
The UAE declared 2026 the Year of Family and it applies as readily to business as it does to community. In a region where relationships are built over time and in person, a distributor or reseller who understands a product, a customer, and a market is an asset that takes years to develop. Partner retention is not a relationship management metric — it is a commercial one. A stable channel ecosystem means faster market response, lower risk, and stronger continuity when conditions shift.
The technology companies that sustain growth in the Gulf tend to be the ones that treat their channel relationships with the same seriousness they bring to product strategy. In the UAE, the long game and the right game are usually the same thing.