e& UAE, the flagship telecom arm of global technology group e&, has achieved “Running on ODA” status from TM Forum, the world’s leading alliance of telecom and technology companies. The accreditation validates e&’s shift toward modern, cloud-native, component-based digital platforms as it continues to evolve into a global technology leader.
e& is the first organization in the UAE to earn Open Digital Architecture (ODA) accreditation. ODA is the industry’s de facto standard for building agile, interoperable, and innovation-ready digital ecosystems. It provides a common, open foundation that improves speed of delivery, simplifies integration, and enables scalable growth across businesses and partners.
Marwan Bin Shakar, Chief Technology Officer at e& UAE, said the milestone reflects the company’s ability to operationalize open architecture principles across live environments.
“By embedding open standards, modular components, and API-first principles into the way our systems and processes run day to day, we’ve built a cloud-native foundation that scales with our ambitions. This milestone strengthens our ability to move at ecosystem speed, deepen integration with partners, and consistently deliver differentiated digital capabilities that create measurable value for customers and partners,” he said.
George Glass, CTO of TM Forum, described the achievement as both a technical and strategic transformation.
“By aligning with TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture and Open APIs, organizations can simplify complexity, accelerate time to market, and unlock new opportunities for innovation and growth. This recognition reflects a shift toward composable, cloud-native operations that benefit customers and ecosystems alike,” he said.
The journey to “Running on ODA” status followed a structured transformation roadmap focused on dismantling legacy silos and building a future-ready digital foundation. Key milestones included:
- Standardizing APIs using TM Forum Open APIs to ensure interoperability across the digital ecosystem
- Decoupling legacy systems and moving from monolithic platforms to modular microservices
- Scaling cloud-native operations to enhance agility and resilience
- Aligning engineering, product, and IT teams with global architectural benchmarks
The accreditation confirms e&’s ability to translate open digital architecture into day-to-day execution, strengthening business agility, operational efficiency, and the speed at which new digital products and services reach the market.
