Dubai
Reduction or optimisation of costs, agility and decreased risks are fuelling the adoption of cloud computing in the UAE. It has already moved from hype to the mainstream as businesses and governments are moving farther and faster.
According to study conducted by Dun & Bradstreet and commissioned by IT solutions and services provider EMC, 95 per cent of enterprises surveyed have already implemented or plan to implement a cloud computing model.
“IT organisations are striving to transform to deliver services that support the changing needs of their customers. Today, IT must leverage private cloud because it is trusted, controlled and reliable because public cloud is simple, low cost and flexible,” said Mohammad Ameen, senior vice-president and regional manager for Turkey, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Middle East at EMC Corporation.
Cloud computing is when companies and individuals use shared, remote computing resources instead of local servers.
The UAE government has planned and launched multiple ambitious mega projects that are expected to have a significant positive impact on the country’s IT services market.
The study showed that 49 per cent of enterprises stated to have currently implemented a private cloud model while 35 per cent consider their environment to be a public cloud.
Public cloud services are run over the internet and are accessible to the general public like Gmail, Office365 and Dropbox while private cloud is payable and is run from within a corporate firewall, driven by concerns around security and compliance.
Ameen said that private cloud adopters cited a clear focus on security and control when making a decision about a cloud computing model.
46 per cent of organisations cited the maximised control and security as being a primary factor for selecting private cloud while 31 per cent said that they selected the private cloud for the universal network access with seamless connectivity to public cloud resources and 12 per cent cited the ability to meet local hosting regulations as a primary reason.
Ameen said the study highlights the growing interest in adopting advanced hybrid cloud models to create a perfect blend of the two worlds.
The hybrid cloud is the combination of public and private cloud.
The study stated that 23 per cent of respondents have plans to implement an advanced hybrid cloud model.
Megha Kumar, software research manager at International Data Corporation (IDC), said that public cloud services such as infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) will begin to cannibalise and disrupt traditional software and service base as competition intensifies from Tier 2 players.
IaaS is a model in which an organisation outsources the equipment needed to support operations while paying on a per-use basis. SaaS is a model that allows organisations to gain access to software and it is hosted remotely while paying on a per-use basis.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia are set to spearhead IaaS adoption in the Middle East and the spending will reach $280 million (Dh1.03 billion) with a year-on-year growth of 33 per cent.
She said that the uptake of SaaS will rise on non-critical business operations such as sales, marketing, customer relationship management, and talent management and the spending will reach $324 million with a year-on-year growth of 29 per cent.
