Eng. Ahmed El-Zaher, CEO of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), affirmed that the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence technologies — particularly Agentic AI — is reshaping how software is developed and operated worldwide. AI systems are transitioning from passive assistive tools to autonomous entities increasingly capable of planning and executing complex workflows. This shift necessitates updating software engineering methodologies, strengthening governance and security frameworks, and making continuous investments in specialized human capabilities.
El-Zaher's remarks were delivered during his opening address at the ninth edition of
DevOpsDays Cairo 2026. The conference was officially inaugurated today by Eng. Raafat Hendy,
Minister of Communications and Information Technology, bringing together a distinguished gathering of local and international experts in software engineering, cloud infrastructure, AI, and cybersecurity.
Organized by ITIDA through the
Software Engineering Competence Center (SECC) under the theme
"Sustainable DevOps in the Agentic AI Era," the event took place at the Creativa Innovation Hub in Giza in the presence of Dr. Haitham Hamza, Chairman of SECC.
ITIDA's Vision: Building Engineering Capacity and Strengthening Egypt's Competitive Advantage
El-Zaher highlighted ITIDA's pivotal role via SECC in fostering technical talent across Egypt through specialized training, consultancy, and internationally recognized certification programs. These initiatives enhance the global readiness and competitiveness of Egyptian engineers and technology firms, fostering secure, resilient, and sustainable software environments.
He stressed that Egyptian software engineers represent one of the country's strongest value propositions in attracting global tech investment.
Young talent, paired with an ability to continuously adapt to technological shifts, remains the decisive factor behind multinational tech companies expanding their operational presence in Egypt.
"Global partners consistently confirm that Egyptian engineering talent is the primary driver behind choosing Egypt for their regional and global delivery centers," El-Zaher stated. He cited a recent high-level meeting with
NVIDIA in Egypt, during which executives praised the advanced capabilities of Egyptian developers and startup founders.
NVIDIA's global ecosystem currently includes
over 200 Egyptian startups and approximately
46,000 local developers, underscoring international confidence in Egypt's human capital.
Cairo as a Global Platform for Knowledge Transfer and Localization in DevOps
As the technology landscape rapidly shifts, DevOpsDays Cairo serves as a critical platform for knowledge exchange and the localization of global best practices. The ninth edition focused primarily on analyzing the impact of Agentic AI on the
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and IT operations, preparing local talent to navigate modern industry demands.
Egypt's hosting of DevOpsDays continues a journey that
began in 2018 when ITIDA introduced the conference to the region. Cairo remains the only Arab city to regularly host this global series, which spans more than 60 cities worldwide.
Across its prior eight editions, DevOpsDays Cairo has built a thriving community, engaging over
140 speakers,
65 sponsors, and nearly
3,800 participants. The 2026 edition featured
66 speakers—including
13 international experts from
nine countries—who shared insights on DevOps, cloud-native architecture, AI integration, and software supply chain security.
Navigating the Agentic AI Shift: The Four Core Agenda Tracks
Designed to equip engineering teams for the reality of autonomous pipelines, the conference structured its sessions around four strategic pillars. From balancing cloud expenditures to securing self-governing systems, these core tracks provided a practical blueprint for embedding long-term sustainability into modern software engineering.
•
Sustaining Cost and Environment — Centered on resource allocation efficiency and sustainable tech operations. Highlights included sessions on converting MTTR to CO2e metrics, optimizing AIOps for GreenOps, and managing MLOps carbon footprints.
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Sustaining People and Governance — Focused on organizational agility, team governance, and continuous skill development. Key discussions addressed the CHRO as a systems architect, shift-left software acceptance, and anti-burnout frameworks for AI-augmented teams.
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Sustaining Security and Reliability— Dedicated to system protection, threat mitigation, and operational integrity. Featured topics spanned WAF limitations against prompt injection, sandboxing production AI agents, and rules for safe production autonomy.
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Sustaining Tools and Infrastructure — Targeted platform readiness, modern DevOps toolchains, and scalable infrastructure. Core presentations covered golden paths for internal developer platforms, RAG-powered CI/CD pipelines, and transforming legacy systems to lean DevOps environments.
Panel Discussion Highlights: Engineering the Future DevOps Workforce
A key centerpiece of the event was the executive panel discussion titled
"Engineering the Future DevOps Workforce: Skills and People Sustainability," moderated by Dr. Haitham Hamza, Chairman of SECC. The panel featured executive leaders from global enterprises, including Vodafone UK, Coca-Cola HBC, Capgemini, Deloitte, and Everpure.
|
Panelist |
Role / Organization |
Primary Focus |
|
Dr. Haitham Hamza |
Chairman, SECC / ITIDA | Moderator |
|
Ana Pasparan |
Senior Manager Platform & Innovation Engineering, Vodafone UK | Reliability & SRE |
|
Piotr Koscierzynski |
DevOps Factory Manager, Coca-Cola HBC, Switzerland | Enterprise DevOps |
|
Ron DeMena |
CIS Chief Engineer, Capgemini USA | Cloud & Delivery |
|
Tom Noble |
Director of Engineering Technology & Transformation, Deloitte UK | AI & Architecture |
|
Yvo van Doorn |
Director, Cloud Native Architects, EMEA Strategics at Everpure | Cloud-Native / SRE |
During the panel, experts debated the fundamental shifts occurring within engineering teams as AI transitions from interactive assistants to autonomous agents capable of modifying production systems.
Key Panel Insight — AI as an Systemic Amplifier:
Addressing the operational realities of AI adoption, panelists emphasized that AI acts primarily as an amplifier. While it dramatically accelerates throughput, it simultaneously amplifies underlying organizational dysfunctions, unoptimized processes, or undocumented legacy code.
Industry leaders noted that while AI can generate code at unprecedented speeds, it risks introducing "AI slop" or delivery instability if rigorous testing and human oversight are neglected. "Accountability still remains with a human," noted Tom Noble of Deloitte. "Every system and product need an owner in the exact same way it did years ago. We need to shift our focus from teaching people merely how to write lines of code to instilling strong systems design thinking, engineering fundamentals, and critical evaluation."
Panelists also addressed the financial risks of unmonitored AI integration, sharing instances where unmonitored token consumption and automated workloads inflated monthly cloud bills by tenfold within hours. The panel concluded that future DevOps engineers must adopt a cost-conscious engineering mindset, mastering policy-as-code and context harness frameworks to maintain governance over autonomous agents.
The panel reaffirmed Egypt's standing as an international engineering hub. Multinational executives noted that their decision to scale delivery centers in Cairo is driven not merely by cost efficiencies, but by the technical curiosity, adaptability, and problem-solving capability inherent in Egyptian engineering talent.
Fostering Innovation and Industry Collaboration
On the sidelines of the conference,
ITIDA hosted the
"Automate, Accelerate, and Innovate with DevOps & AI" hackathon, drawing
142 participating teams. Twenty finalist teams—divided equally between university students and professional developers—presented their solutions to a joint Egyptian-international panel of
12 industry judges.
The conference received support from
industry and academic sponsors. Key technology sponsors included
Capgemini, Coca-Cola HBC, Deloitte, and VOIS, alongside
e-finance sponsoring the DevOps domain. Strategic community support was provided by the
DevOps Institute, Nile University, Noventiq, ProLink, and Pulse by Solutions, with
Cairo University serving as the academic
