News

Cisco Boosts Investment & Digitization In Saudi Arabia

The tech giant unveiled plans for a new regional headquarters in Riyadh and announced the third phase of its Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) Program.

Published

2 years ago

March 5, 2024

Nour Nasir

cisco boosts investment and digitization in saudi arabia

At LEAP 2024, digital communications technology giant Cisco revealed new strategic initiatives in Saudi Arabia that will grow the company’s long standing presence in the region and reaffirm its commitment to local customers. Based on a Regional Headquarters license issued by the Ministry of Investment in 2023, Cisco unveiled plans for a new regional head office in Riyadh and the beginning of the third phase of its Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) Program.

HE Vice Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Eng. Haitham bin Abdul Rahman Al-Ohali commented: “Technology is a key enabler in achieving the Saudi Vision 2030. Investments of global tech players like Cisco play a crucial role in strengthening our technology landscape, [bringing] the Kingdom forward on its path to a diversified, knowledge-based economy”.

As well as a brand new headquarters, Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) Program will align with the goals of the Saudi Research and Development National Strategy, focusing on Health and Wellness, Sustainable Environment & Affordable Supply of Essential Needs, Energy & Industrial Leadership, and Economies of the Future.

First launched in Saudi Arabia in 2016, the CDA program has supported digitization and helped to develop innovation in sectors including healthcare, education, smart cities, and government digitization. Cisco has now trained over 335,000 people in the Kingdom on cybersecurity, programming, and networking while also collaborating with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SDAIA), and Vision 2030 Giga Projects.

Also Read: Fintech In The UAE Is Set To Add $900 Per Capita By 2030

“Today’s announcements reinforce Cisco’s commitment to support the digital ecosystem in Saudi Arabia,” explained Salman Faqeeh, Managing Director, Cisco Saudi Arabia. “I am proud of what we have achieved through our longstanding presence in the Kingdom and via our active programs like CDA and Cisco Networking Academy, and I am looking forward to more milestones. With our technologies spanning every IT and business objective, from networking to security, collaboration, monitoring, application development, and more, Cisco continues to be at the heart of driving digitization together with our customers and partners”.

News

Instagram Redraws Its Wordmark And The Internet Reads “Instagzam”

Instagram’s first wordmark refresh in a decade arrives with new fonts, a restrained gradient — and a Reddit verdict of sidegrade.

Published

4 days ago

August 14, 2026

Nour Nasir

Instagram

Although Instagram’s famous camera icon hasn’t changed, the company has refreshed the handwritten wordmark at the top of its app. This is the first redesign we’ve seen in ten years, and one the internet promptly set about renaming.

“The wordmark at the top of the app hasn’t changed in 10 years, so it was time for a refresh,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote in a post on August 13, describing the new version as “cleaner and more modern” while keeping references to the original design.

Instagram says its team explored hundreds of options — all-caps lettering, camera-inspired concepts, even literal handwriting — before returning to script. “Script reflects individuality, so referencing that felt right,” Instagram director of product design Jasmine Probst said in Meta’s announcement. “The new wordmark is bolder and simpler, with touches of unexpectedness. It cues individual expression, a personal voice, both of which have always been core to Instagram”.

The wordmark is part of a broader brand overhaul: an updated Instagram Sans typeface, two new fonts — the hand-drawn Instagram Pen and Instagram Mono — plus refreshed motion and layouts, and more restrained use of the signature gradient. The wordmark is rolling out globally now, with the rest arriving throughout 2026 and beyond.

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The design mixes cursive and print lettering, some characters connected and others floating free. That hybrid approach, combined with unusually shaped “s” and “r” characters, led some users to conclude the logo actually reads “Instagzam”. On the r/logodesign subreddit, one user said the wordmark looked “fan-made,” like something built in Canva; another called it “an unsettling mix of manuscript and cursive”; a third summarized it as a “sidegrade” — or, inevitably, a “zidegrade”.

Not everyone was hostile to the new look. Some found the half-cursive design stylish and surprisingly readable, while others called it an improvement on its predecessor, and one commenter argued Instagram was simply adopting minimalist branding later than everyone else. Either way, the platform now has a refreshed identity, three updated fonts, and an unofficial new pronunciation.