Dr. Ahmed Rubaie, the Chief Executive Officer at Anomali, says organisations in the Middle East are rapidly advancing their digital transformation, aligning with national visions and initiatives

What opportunities do you foresee for 2025, and how do you plan to leverage them?
AI will strengthen organizations’ cybersecurity posture by identifying potential threats more efficiently and expanding data processing capacity. By automating routine tasks, AI enables security teams to focus on more strategic, operational, and tactical initiatives. Anomali’s solutions allow analysts to conduct complex data analyses using natural language processing, simplifying cybersecurity operations, and making them more efficient and accessible – this can mean the difference between a safe and productive organization and an exposed one.

What major challenges did you encounter in 2024, and how did you address them?
Organizations in the Middle East are rapidly advancing their digital transformation, aligning with national visions and initiatives. This swift digitization, while propelling economic growth, also expands the attack surface for cyber threats. The region faces unique adversaries who are employing specialized tools and techniques, thus requiring robust cybersecurity measures.

Anomali addresses these challenges by automating threat detection and guaranteeing fast response – reducing reliance on human intervention, and enabling faster mitigation of cyber threats. This allows organizations to stay ahead of any potential attacks, ensuring the security of their digital assets.

Can you elaborate on Anomali’s strategic partnerships in 2025?
In April of 2024, Anomali announced an increased investment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), including setting up a local subsidiary in the region. Anomali provides critical cybersecurity solutions to many public and private enterprise businesses in KSA. Anomali’s ongoing investment throughout these regions is a proactive step towards fortifying critical infrastructure, businesses, and individuals against escalating cybersecurity risks – as digitization continues to advance quickly in lockstep.

Anomali’s Channel Vision focuses on collaborating with partners who possess deep expertise, ensuring they can deliver the right solutions to meet the security needs of its customers. Anomali has a rigorous process for qualifying strategic partners, ensuring they are fully equipped to support customers while also conducting marketing events that boost the brands of Anomali and its partners.

Partners have the flexibility to choose how they engage with Anomali, whether it’s driving pipeline growth, scaling sales teams, or helping customers maximize the value of the Anomali Security and IT Operations Platform. As a Channel-First company, Anomali leverages its relationships with resellers, distributors, MSSPs, cloud service providers, and technical alliances to shape its strategy. This collaboration ensures that Anomali and its partners work closely together to manage the entire customer lifecycle.

What will be your primary focus areas and strategic priorities for 2025?
Anomali is committed to deepening its footprint in the Middle East, focusing on both the UAE and KSA as strategic hubs. In Saudi Arabia, we established a wholly-owned subsidiary, signalling a long-term commitment to supporting the Kingdom’s cybersecurity needs. This expansion ensures localized support and tailored solutions for organizations that are navigating the region’s unique threat landscape.

In the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain, Anomali continues to strengthen its presence through strategic partnerships and the introduction of multi-lingual AI-powered solutions. By emphasizing automation, advanced threat intelligence, and cloud-native security analytics, Anomali equips organizations with the tools they need to defend against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.

Organizations today need to have the intelligence, speed, and resilience to stay ahead of cyber adversaries. In a world driven by digital transformation, security isn’t just an option, it’s the foundation of progress.

Are there plans to explore new markets or introduce any new products/applications to your portfolio in 2025?
Anomali’s AI-powered security and IT Operations Platform is designed to elevate security analytics and streamline threat intelligence. It includes Anomali’s own AI Copilot and Data Lake, integrates critical security functions—including ETL, Next-gen SIEM, XDR, UEBA, and SOAR, and its TIP—into a unified, cloud-native architecture that can cut security operations costs in half.

The Anomali technology approach delivers unmatched speed, scalability, and cost-efficiency for modern security operations. This solution empowers organizations to detect, investigate, and respond to inside and external threats with unprecedented efficiency, ensuring robust protection in today’s complex cyber landscape.