United Arab Emirates Data Center Storage Market Size and Share
United Arab Emirates Data Center Storage Market Analysis by Mordor Intelligence
The UAE data center storage market size is expected to be valued at USD 505.91 million in 2025 and is forecast to advance to USD 923.88 million by 2030, registering a 12.8% CAGR. This growth trajectory confirms the country’s status as a regional digital hub that connects Asia, Europe, and Africa, while reinforcing the strategic goal of national data sovereignty set out in UAE Vision 2071 u.ae. Government-led diversification away from hydrocarbons, combined with rising enterprise investments in cloud, analytics, and artificial intelligence workloads, amplifies demand for dependable, high-performance storage capacity. Cooling-efficient facilities, strong subsea cable connectivity, and well-defined free-zone incentives continue to attract global hyperscalers that need local residency for regulated data categories. At the same time, emerging edge sites in industrial zones help oil and gas operators process sensor data closer to the point of generation, reducing latency and backhaul costs. The net effect is a layered storage demand curve that ranges from metro-scale colocation halls to compact, ruggedized edge appliances—each adding momentum to the UAE data center storage market.
Key Report Takeaways
- By storage technology, Storage Area Network held 36.1% of UAE data center storage market share in 2024, whereas Network Attached Storage is projected to grow at a 12.9% CAGR through 2030.
- By storage type, traditional HDD arrays accounted for 42.3% of the UAE data center storage market size in 2024, while all-flash arrays are on track for a 14.2% CAGR to 2030.
- By data center type, colocation facilities led with 45.6% revenue share of the UAE data center storage market in 2024; hyperscalers and cloud service providers are forecast to grow the fastest at 14.5% CAGR.
- By end user, the IT and telecommunications segment captured 24.5% share of the UAE data center storage market size in 2024, and BFSI is expected to expand at a 13.1% CAGR through 2030.
- By form factor, rack-mounted systems dominated with 58.3% share in 2024, while composable storage shows an 11.7% CAGR outlook.
- By interface, NVMe is the fastest-rising protocol with a 14.8% CAGR to 2030, although SAS/SATA connections still hold 56.2% share.
United Arab Emirates Data Center Storage Market Trends and Insights
Drivers Impact Analysis
Driver | (~) % Impact on CAGR Forecast | Geographic Relevance | Impact Timeline |
---|---|---|---|
Growing digitalization & data-centric applications | +3.2% | UAE national, with concentration in Dubai and Abu Dhabi | Medium term (2-4 years) |
Evolution of hybrid flash arrays | +2.8% | UAE national, particularly enterprise corridors | Short term (≤ 2 years) |
Nationwide smart city / 5G roll-outs boosting data volume | +2.1% | UAE national, with early deployment in major emirates | Long term (≥ 4 years) |
Enterprise cloud & hybrid-cloud adoption surge | +2.4% | UAE national, with spillover to GCC region | Medium term (2-4 years) |
Stringent UAE data-localization compliance | +1.8% | UAE national, with regulatory precedent for GCC | Long term (≥ 4 years) |
Edge data-center build-outs in oil & gas corridors | +1.3% | UAE national, concentrated in industrial zones | Medium term (2-4 years) |
Source: Mordor Intelligence
Growing Digitalization & Data-Centric Applications
Federal cloud-first directives spark continuous growth in structured and unstructured data volumes, especially within government and financial services. The Mohammed bin Rashid Innovation Fund’s USD 2 billion pool earmarked for digital infrastructure encourages private-sector alignment with national technology priorities.[1]Mohammed bin Rashid Innovation Fund, “Fund Overview,” mbrif.aeIslamic banking workflows, which require immutable audit trails to meet Sharia compliance, add unique object-storage demand. As artificial intelligence pilots move into production, enterprises increasingly pair AI inference clusters with high-throughput storage platforms, straining legacy architectures and accelerating refresh cycles across the UAE data center storage market.
Evolution of Hybrid Flash Arrays
Hybrid flash arrays resonate with UAE enterprises that weigh performance against power and cooling overheads. Automated tiering moves hot data to flash and colder data to disk without human intervention, cutting service tickets by almost 60%, according to regional systems integrators. The approach reduces downtime risk in a country where 24/7 online services have become the norm, sustaining momentum in the UAE data center storage market.
Nationwide Smart City/5G Roll-outs Boosting Data Volume
Smart lampposts, connected traffic controls, and environment sensors in Dubai and Abu Dhabi generate terabytes of real-time data that must be ingested locally while archived centrally for trend analytics. Autonomous vehicle field tests further stretch capacity planning. These use-cases prompt operators to deploy multi-tier storage architectures spanning edge nodes and core facilities, reinforcing demand across the UAE data center storage market.
Enterprise Cloud & Hybrid-Cloud Adoption Surge
Seventy-three percent of large UAE enterprises now run multi-cloud strategies, blending global hyperscale capacity with on-premises stacks. Storage platforms therefore need seamless data mobility, consistent policy enforcement, and unified management panes. Vendors that excel at software-defined storage orchestration gain an edge as organizations modernize without breaching UAE data-localization statutes enforced by the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority.[2]Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority, “Data Localization Guidelines 2024,” tdra.gov.ae
Restraint Impact Analysis
Restraint | (~) % Impact on CAGR Forecast | Geographic Relevance | Impact Timeline |
---|---|---|---|
Compatibility & optimum-performance issues | -1.4% | UAE national, particularly affecting legacy enterprise environments | Short term (≤ 2 years) |
High upfront CAPEX & TCO for flash arrays | -2.1% | UAE national, with particular impact on SME adoption | Medium term (2-4 years) |
Shortage of advanced storage-virtualization talent | -1.8% | UAE national, with spillover effects across GCC | Long term (≥ 4 years) |
Cooling-water scarcity inflating OPEX in desert climate | -1.6% | UAE national, concentrated in inland data center locations | Long term (≥ 4 years) |
Source: Mordor Intelligence
High Upfront CAPEX & TCO for Flash Arrays
All-flash platforms can cost 3-4 times more than disk-based systems at purchase, a challenge for SMEs that operate on tight budgets. Financing options remain narrow compared with conventional assets, prompting procurement teams to extend disk refresh cycles. Although flash drives lower long-term power expense, initial sticker shock constrains some buyers, moderating adoption across portions of the UAE data center storage market.
Cooling-Water Scarcity Inflating OPEX in Desert Climate
Cooling can account for 40% of total data-center operating expenses, and open-loop systems can consume 1.5 liters of water per kWh of IT load. Government conservation targets add scrutiny, amplifying pressure on operators to deploy closed-loop or liquid-immersion technologies that carry higher capital costs.[3]Emirates Water and Energy Company, “Water Use in Critical Infrastructure 2024,” ewec.ae The resulting financial burden can deter smaller entrants from expanding footprints within the UAE data center storage market.
Segment Analysis
By Storage Technology: NAS Ascends While SAN Retains Core Stronghold
SAN systems commanded 36.1% UAE data center storage market share in 2024, owing to entrenched installations in banking and federal agencies that demand ultra-low latency and redundant pathways. NAS, however, posts the highest growth curve at 12.9% CAGR through 2030. Many UAE enterprises prefer Ethernet-based NAS because it sidesteps the scarcity of Fibre Channel expertise. NVMe-over-TCP upgrades now allow NAS to emulate SAN-like responsiveness, encouraging IT teams to migrate mission-critical volumes without overhauling entire fabrics. Distributed file protocols also support cloud bursting, aligning with hybrid goals prevalent across the UAE data center storage industry. Direct-attached storage remains indispensable at remote oil-field and utilities sites where WAN links can be intermittent, ensuring real-time processing despite sporadic connectivity. Tape and object systems complete the tier for archival compliance, especially among Islamic finance institutions that mandate immutable storage.
SAN’s resilience originates from historical capex already sunk into Fibre Channel switches and host bus adapters. Nonetheless, suppliers now bundle SAN controllers capable of presenting block and file services simultaneously, giving customers phased migration routes toward flexible NAS estates. Vendors that articulate smooth roadmaps without forklift upgrades are well-positioned to grow wallet share inside the UAE data center storage market.
Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase
By Storage Type: Flash Momentum Gains Against HDD Persistence
Traditional hard-disk arrays held 42.3% of UAE data center storage market size in 2024, a testament to their cost-per-terabyte advantage for seldom-accessed datasets. All-flash arrays lead the growth ranking at 14.2% CAGR to 2030, driven by AI inference, real-time analytics, and high-frequency trading tasks. Flash’s power draw is lower than disk, trimming cooling bills by roughly 30%, a welcome relief in desert conditions. Although purchase prices remain higher, falling NAND costs narrow the gap yearly. Hybrid arrays that integrate SSD tiers with bulk SATA drives offer a transitional platform, automating cold-data demotion and keeping capex in check. Such balance resonates with procurement teams mandated to minimize total cost of ownership while chasing performance SLAs, cementing hybrid arrays as a bridge technology across the UAE data center storage market.
By Data Center Type: Colocation Stability Meets Hyperscaler Velocity
Colocation halls delivered 45.6% UAE data center storage market share in 2024, favored by enterprises that want physical control but outsource facility management. Hyperscaler and cloud-service-provider footprints, although smaller, are growing at a 14.5% CAGR, accelerated by regional expansion plans from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Alibaba Cloud. These hyperscalers cater to multi-national clients that must satisfy residence rules yet interface with global workloads. Government departments, BFSI, and healthcare agencies continue to mix strategies, blending on-premises equipment in regulated domains with leased capacity for burstable analytics. Edge and micro-data centers emerge in petrochemical corridors, where ruggedized racks withstand heat and vibration. Each model feeds incremental demand into the UAE data center storage market.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase
By End User: BFSI Surges Ahead of Telecommunications Anchor
IT and telecommunications players held 24.5% share in 2024, underpinned by network modernization and 5G backhaul requirements. Banking, financial services, and insurance sectors will grow the quickest at 13.1% CAGR. Digital-only banks, Sharia-compliant products, and cross-border payments engines all require persistent, low-latency storage that supports encryption and tamper-proof logging. Government smart-city dashboards, public-sector e-services, and national ID databases generate mixed workloads that straddle transactional and analytical demands. Medical tourism initiatives boost imaging and electronic health records, widening the technology footprint in hospitals. Manufacturing adds steady though smaller increments as factories integrate Industry 4.0 sensors. Collectively, these diverse verticals fortify the UAE data center storage market.
By Form Factor: Composable Rises Beside Rack-Mounted Mainstay
Rack-mounted platforms represented 58.3% UAE data center storage market share in 2024 because they fit existing cabinets and airflow patterns. Disaggregated or composable architectures, where storage pools can be dynamically carved and reassembled, are tracking 11.7% CAGR. They appeal to cloud-native developers who want API-driven infrastructure that scales granularly. Blade and modular enclosures occupy high-density colocation suites where square-meter pricing in central Dubai is premium. Meanwhile, hyperconverged appliances blur form-factor boundaries by embedding storage and compute in the same chassis, simplifying operations for mid-tier enterprises eager to consolidate vendors. These overlapping trends create a diversified equipment mix within the UAE data center storage market.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase
By Interface: NVMe Fast-Tracks Modern Workloads
SAS/SATA held 56.2% share in 2024 thanks to existing disk arrays and moderate-performance SSDs that employ legacy connectors. NVMe protocol adoption is accelerating at a 14.8% CAGR because it harnesses PCIe lanes directly, bypassing SCSI overhead. Financial institutions running real-time fraud detection and AI developers training language models welcome the latency reductions afforded by NVMe. NVMe-over-Fabrics extends these benefits across Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks, letting administrators link flash shelves over distances without sacrificing throughput. Fibre Channel and iSCSI remain relevant for specific backup and archival layers yet face gradual displacement as organizations modernize. Interface upgrades therefore represent a potent catalyst within the UAE data center storage market.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase
Geography Analysis
Dubai anchors the UAE data center storage market through its status as a global finance and logistics hub. Colocation campuses in Dubai Internet City and Jebel Ali Free Zone host multinational corporates that require sub-millisecond access to Middle East consumer traffic. Abu Dhabi contributes strategic depth by housing federal ministries, defense research, and sovereign-wealth investment entities that mandate sensitive data residency. Both emirates intertwine submarine cable landing sites with terrestrial fiber loops, ensuring high-availability routes toward Europe, India, and East Asia. Secondary emirates—Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, and Fujairah—are witnessing new industrial parks where oil, gas, and manufacturing operators deploy localized edge clusters. These remote deployments enlarge the physical scope of the UAE data center storage market and facilitate compliance with provincial environmental regulations.
National data-sovereignty laws dictate that critical health, financial, and personal data stay inside the country, so hyperscalers have invested in in-country availability zones. This requirement crates hybrid topologies in which replicated volumes remain in Emirates-based vaults even when applications burst into overseas instances for compute elasticity. The UAE data center storage market therefore benefits from both inward and outward traffic flows: regional users rely on UAE sites for low-latency services, while international firms leverage Emirates nodes to reach wider Gulf Cooperation Council audiences.
Competitive Landscape
The UAE data center storage market exhibits moderate consolidation. Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and NetApp hold entrenched positions through multi-year enterprise agreements and certified local service centers. Pure Storage and Nutanix disrupt by promoting software-defined architectures that lower lock-in risk and enable granular upgrades. Huawei, Lenovo, and Cisco use joint ventures with domestic system integrators to navigate procurement preferences that favor technology transfer and Emirati talent development. Vendors differentiate through pre-validated reference designs tailored to desert climates, including dust-filtering bezels and elevated thermal thresholds.
Strategic priorities cluster around hybrid models that blend on-premises hardware with cloud tiering. Suppliers bundle toolsets for automatic data classification, encryption, and replication across hyperscale endpoints. Edge-to-core convergence is another battleground; ruggedized flash arrays certified for 55 °C ambient operations cater to oil rigs and solar farms. Meanwhile, white-box entrants pursue niche projects where commodity hardware hosts open-source storage stacks, offering cost-effective choices for SMEs. While price sensitivity influences initial selection, long-term service quality and regulatory compliance seal repeat contracts within the UAE data center storage market.
United Arab Emirates Data Center Storage Industry Leaders
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Dell Technologies
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
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NetApp
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NetApp
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NetApp
- *Disclaimer: Major Players sorted in no particular order

Recent Industry Developments
- March 2025: Dell Technologies announced a USD 150 million expansion of its regional manufacturing facility in Dubai, focusing on PowerStore and Unity systems optimized for desert operations.
- February 2025: Pure Storage set up a joint venture in Abu Dhabi with Advanced Technology Investment Company to localize FlashArray assembly and skills development.
- January 2025: HPE secured a USD 200 million contract with Dubai Municipality to supply edge and core storage for the city’s smart-city program.
- December 2024: NetApp opened a regional cloud operations center in Dubai Internet City to support hybrid deployments and offer in-country data residency.
United Arab Emirates Data Center Storage Market Report Scope
Data center storage encompasses devices, hardware, networking equipment, and software technologies facilitating the storage of data and applications within data center facilities, which are used for storing, managing, retrieving, distributing, and backing up digital information within such facilities.
The UAE data center storage market is segmented by storage technology (network attached storage (NAS), storage area network (SAN), and direct attached storage (DAS)), storage type (traditional storage, all-flash storage, and hybrid storage), and end user (IT & telecommunication, BFSI, government, media & entertainment, and other end users). The market sizes and forecasts are provided in terms of value (USD) for all the above segments.
By Storage Technology | Network Attached Storage (NAS) |
Storage Area Network (SAN) | |
Direct Attached Storage (DAS) | |
Object and Tape Storage | |
By Storage Type | Traditional HDD Arrays |
All-Flash Arrays (AFA) | |
Hybrid Storage | |
By Data Center Type | Colocation Facilities |
Hyperscalers/Cloud Service Providers | |
Enterprise and Edge | |
By End User | IT and Telecommunication |
BFSI | |
Government and Public Sector | |
Media and Entertainment | |
Healthcare and Life Sciences | |
Manufacturing | |
By Form Factor | Rack-mounted |
Blade and Modular | |
Disaggregated / Composable | |
By Interface | SAS / SATA |
NVMe | |
Fibre Channel and iSCSI |
Network Attached Storage (NAS) |
Storage Area Network (SAN) |
Direct Attached Storage (DAS) |
Object and Tape Storage |
Traditional HDD Arrays |
All-Flash Arrays (AFA) |
Hybrid Storage |
Colocation Facilities |
Hyperscalers/Cloud Service Providers |
Enterprise and Edge |
IT and Telecommunication |
BFSI |
Government and Public Sector |
Media and Entertainment |
Healthcare and Life Sciences |
Manufacturing |
Rack-mounted |
Blade and Modular |
Disaggregated / Composable |
SAS / SATA |
NVMe |
Fibre Channel and iSCSI |
Key Questions Answered in the Report
What is the current value of the UAE data center storage market?
The UAE data center storage market size is USD 505.91 million in 2025.
How fast is the market expected to grow?
It is projected to register a 12.8% CAGR, taking value to USD 923.88 million by 2030.
Which storage technology is growing the quickest?
Network Attached Storage is the fastest-growing technology segment, advancing at a 12.9% CAGR through 2030.
How do UAE data-localization rules influence storage investment?
Regulations that mandate in-country residency of sensitive data push both local enterprises and global hyperscalers to expand UAE-based storage capacity and adopt hybrid architectures for compliance.
Page last updated on: June 17, 2025