Oracle goes live with its cloud computing centre in Dubai, first of two for UAE

Dubai: Oracle has become the latest tech giant to place a ‘cloud’ in Dubai, as more organisations place all of their valuable data and processes into that space. Amazon and Microsoft have made significant investments in cloud-based data centres in the UAE.

The Oracle one is first of two planned ‘cloud regions’ – the Dubai addition makes it the company’s 26th worldwide. By July next, it will have 36 such cloud regions. Clients can use these services for disaster recovery and data compliance requirements, with some countries having legislation that does not allow data of its citizens to be hosted in a different country.

“Oracle’s second-generation cloud region in Dubai will help accelerate the digital transformation initiatives of organizations across the UAE’ government entities, large enterprise and SMEs,” said Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban, Senior Vice-President – Technology, MEA & CEE, Oracle, which recently picked up TikTok's ownership in a bold gamble away from its expertise in enterprise solutions.

Blue-chip clients

DP World, the port operator, and Damac, the developer, are among those to have migrated onto the Oracle cloud in Dubai. “We are focused on developing highly efficient, agile and cost-effective, secure logistics operations,” said Mike Bhaskaran, Chief Operating Officer - Logistics and Technology of DP World in a statement. “Our goal is to facilitate the movement of goods around the world at the click of a button.”

Based on forecasts from International Data Corp (IDC), spending on publicly hosted cloud computing could touch $340 million by year-end and soar to $1 billion by 2024.

“In a survey of UAE CIOs (chief investment officers) n the second quarter, 57 per cent of respondents said they were accelerating digital transformation in response to new customer and operational needs,” said Jyoti Lalchandani, group vice president and regional managing director, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, IDC. “Cloud is increasingly being viewed as the technology platform that can provide the agility, capacity and innovation capability that is required to accelerate digital transformation.”