Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) today announced that the HPE Digital Life Garage, the first in a series of its worldwide innovation hubs focused on transforming technology’s impact on society, has started operations in Dubai. The innovation centre is now geared to roll out initiatives from its new state-of-the-art Dubai facility in the coming months.

“The start of the first HPE Digital Life Garage in Dubai demonstrates our efforts to bring together global innovation leaders to develop new initiatives that contribute to realising Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s vision to foster an innovation-driven economy. Both the UAE and Dubai have a clear focus on being at the forefront of shaping the future of the global economy by accelerating the adoption of innovation and pathbreaking technology through meaningful government - private sector cooperation,” said His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai. “The HPE Digital Life Garage supports this objective by providing the technology tools and knowledge to increase productivity and business innovation, which are critical to economic sustainability and future readiness,” His Highness added.

Located in the Innovation Hub of Dubai, the new multi-million-dollar HPE Digital Life Garage consists of four pillars: The Digital Innovation Showcase, the Digital Life Lab, the Digital Knowledge Center, and the HPE Global Network.

• The Digital Innovation Showcase provides the opportunity to see demos and introduces participants to various new technologies;
• The Digital Life Lab is where interactive workshops will take place to create innovation concepts and transform them to pre-production demonstrations;
• The Digital Knowledge Center is the place where ideas are transformed to reality to advance the way people live and work;
• The HPE Global Network provides access to international programmes and communities and brings together a broad ecosystem of institutions, researchers, inventors, entrepreneurs, corporations, government entities, universities, service providers, and system integrators.

The HPE Digital Life Garage will benefit various UAE stakeholders. For UAE governmental bodies, it will serve as a hotbed for scientific research and homegrown high-tech solutions that can result in ground-breaking technology innovations for citizens. Local businesses will also be able to benefit from this initiative as it will provide them with solutions that will give them competitive differentiation and a fast route to production. Finally, innovators from small start-ups to large scale corporations, focused on creating new technologies and solutions will be able to get access to real data to achieve success and reward.

“The Digital Life Garage in Dubai is an example of how HPE is delivering on our purpose to advance the way people live and work.  We chose Dubai to be the location for our initiative as it aligns closely to the UAE Centennial Plan 2071 which centers on the betterment of the communities and society at large by leveraging technology. Our initiative aims to provide organizations of all shapes and sizes with access to cutting-edge technology, digital innovation expertise and useful tools to accelerate their digital agendas,” said Antonio Neri, President and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

The HPE Digital Life Garage will be used by the entire HPE Middle East and South Africa (MESA) team and its sponsoring partners as a place to collaborate and identify ways to advance the way people live and work.

While the world is starting to recover from COVID-19, the HPE Digital Life Garage is launching “return to work” initiatives together with its partners. One example is the development of COVID-19 symptom detection kits that will help organisations track and trace potentially infected individuals, supporting their efforts to return employees to their offices safely.  

“Our partners played a vital role in achieving the goals set out by this initiative and in the success of the Digital Life Garage’s co-innovation model. Since the launch, we have been working closely with over a dozen partners, including start-ups, universities and service providers, to bring different customer aspirations to life,” added Ahmad Alkhallafi, Managing Director for UAE, HPE.