{
  "id": 12641954,
  "title": "GBM establishes UAE AI lab with Cisco, NVIDIA",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/07/gbm-establishes-uae-ai-lab-with-cisco-nvidia",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-07T13:30:33.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Arabian Post",
    "slug": "arabian-post",
    "url": "https://thearabianpost.com/gbm-establishes-uae-ai-lab-with-cisco-nvidia/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Gulf Business Machines (GBM) has unveiled the UAE's inaugural AI lab, developed in partnership with Cisco and NVIDIA. Located in Dubai, this facility aims to facilitate the transition of AI projects from trials to production, offering organizations in the Gulf region a controlled environment for deploying artificial intelligence systems.\n\nThe GBM lab integrates pre-validated computing, networking, security, and AI software, enabling both on-premises and hybrid deployments. By streamlining the deployment process, the lab aims to reduce schedules from months to weeks, while ensuring compliance with data residency, regulatory, cybersecurity, and low-latency processing requirements.\n\nAt the heart of the facility is Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA, a modular reference architecture designed to safeguard models, agents, applications, workloads, and infrastructure throughout the AI stack. This architecture is strategically positioned to secure AI systems rather than merely implementing security measures after deployment. The GBM facility also includes NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, providing continuous monitoring of AI workloads and agent activity.\n\nPieter Bil, GBM's CEO, highlighted the challenge faced by enterprises in balancing rapid innovation with strict governance. He explained that GBM's lab combines global technology frameworks with locally managed platforms tailored to Gulf requirements. Bil, who took over as CEO in September, previously served as Kyndryl's senior vice-president and managing director for the Middle East and Africa.\n\nCisco introduced the Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA in 2025, subsequently expanding its scope from central data centers to edge deployments. The architecture currently supports Cisco UCS servers using NVIDIA accelerated computing, high-performance Ethernet networking, integrated security technologies, and monitoring and management capabilities. Cisco recently expanded the platform to support AI inference closer to data sources and added rack-scale computing options for larger AI workloads, providing customers with a unified operational and security framework as deployments scale.\n\nFor organizations considering the lab, GBM offers a test environment that mirrors the architecture intended for production, reducing the need for redesigning security and infrastructure post-piloting. This is particularly beneficial for regulated enterprises weighing cloud flexibility against the need to maintain control over specified workloads and data. Cassie Roach, Cisco's global vice-president for Cloud and AI Infrastructure Partner Sales, emphasized that the collaboration aims to assist Gulf organizations in converting AI plans into commercial deployments while retaining sovereignty and operational resilience. The focus on sovereignty is particularly relevant for sectors handling sensitive or regulated information, as on-premises and hybrid systems help keep data and workloads within required geographic or organizational boundaries.",
  "summary": "Gulf Business Machines has established what it describes as the UAE’s first AI Lab built on the Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA, giving organisations across the Gulf a controlled environment for moving artificial intelligence projects from trials into production. The Dubai-based technology company said on Wednesday that the facility combines pre-validated computing, networking, security and…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}