Abu Dhabi: Injazat Data Systems plans to capture a major portion of cloud services market in the Middle East on the back of growing demand from government as well as private sector companies, the chief executive officer of the company said on Wednesday.

Quoting latest data published by Gartner, the company said public cloud service market in the Middle East and North Africa region reached almost $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) in 2016 and it is projected to go up to $1.42 billion by 2019.

In the UAE, cloud spend is estimated to reach $584 million by 2020 with an annual growth of 16 per cent. According to Injazat, the UAE cloud spending has tripled in the past five years from $98 million to $276 million currently.

“We are hoping that we will capture a big portion of that market as we diversify our business and target new clients. We are also focusing on expanding our operations in the GCC including opening new offices in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia,” Khalid Al Melhi told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

The Abu Dhabi-based firm, wholly owned by Mubadala Development Company, is currently active in the UAE with a number of clients in the government as well as private sector. The firm also opened an office in Qatar last year with Dolphin energy as one of its main clients.

Founded in 2005, Injazat serves more than fifty clients and 55,000 end users in both government and private sector supporting the IT security needs of companies in line with the local regulatory framework.

It announced the availability of InCloud, the region’s first fully integrated cloud solution with hybrid, public and private model offerings while unveiling its corporate strategy and identity on Wednesday.

The company has around 800 employees with Emiratis constituting 17 per cent of the total workforce. It is planning to hire more people as it expands its product portfolio and operations, Al Melhi said.