Oracle plans to develop a cloud data centre in Abu Dhabi and hire 250 new salespeople as it taps rising demand for information storage.
The company’s co-chief executive, Mark Hurd, speaking at a press conference in the capital yesterday, declined to comment on when the new data centre would become operational, but said that it would “probably” be up and running before the end of the year.
Hiring would begin immediately and may be drawn from the 68 recent graduates of the company’s joint programme with the Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre, launched a year ago to train Emiratis in IT skills.
Mr Hurd declined to comment on Oracle’s current headcount in the UAE and the Middle East, but said that its employee base had doubled in the past three years, two years ahead of the company’s original predictions.
“As companies turn to cloud computing to modernise their business and drive innovation, we are seeing significant demand for Oracle Cloud – in the Middle East and around the world,” said Loic Le Guisquet, Oracle’s president for Emea and Asia Pacific.
“We are investing in the infrastructure to support this demand by hiring new, top sales talent and by building new data centres.
“The Middle East is an important region for us and we will continue to invest here.”
Officials declined to comment on the level of revenue and customer growth in the Middle East compared with other regions.
In addition to the data centre in Abu Dhabi, the company is also planning to open offices in Dubai Internet City, Amman and Riyadh during the coming year.
jeverington@thenational.ae
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
About Krews
Founder: Ahmed Al Qubaisi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: January 2019
Number of employees: 10
Sector: Technology/Social media
Funding to date: Estimated $300,000 from Hub71 in-kind support
UAE squad
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Retail gloom
Online grocer Ocado revealed retail sales fell 5.7 per cen in its first quarter as customers switched back to pre-pandemic shopping patterns.
It was a tough comparison from a year earlier, when the UK was in lockdown, but on a two-year basis its retail division, a joint venture with Marks&Spencer, rose 31.7 per cent over the quarter.
The group added that a 15 per cent drop in customer basket size offset an 11.6. per cent rise in the number of customer transactions.
