Oracle opens second-generation cloud facility in UAE

It will help customers to accelerate their digital transformation while ensuring their sensitive data remains secure

Oracle headquarters campus stands in California. The company earned $27.4 billion in revenue from its cloud and license support services in its last fiscal year. Courtesy Oracle

Oracle opened its first second-generation cloud facility in the UAE as it looks to expand its data storage offering to public and private enterprises across the region.

Second in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia, the new cloud facility will help customers to accelerate their digital transformation while ensuring their sensitive data remains secure.

Located in Dubai, the new facility – known as cloud region - will have at least two data centres and also offers disaster recovery capabilities. It's the 26th US technology giant’s second-generation facility globally.

“This will help accelerate the digital transformation initiatives of organisations across the UAE’s government entities, large enterprise and SMEs,” said Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban, senior vice president, technology, for Middle East Africa and Central Eastern Europe at Oracle.

The new facility will help the Emirates enhance its digital prowess and improve its digital readiness, he added.

The digital economy was equivalent to 4.3 per cent of the UAE’s gross domestic product in 2019, and the government has set a target to double that.

Last September, Larry Ellison, Oracle's founder, said he planned to set up 36 second-generation cloud regions globally by July 2021. Four of these will be in Middle East – two each in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s largest economies.

The region’s first was launched in Jeddah in February this year. The company did not provide further details on the opening of other facilities in the region.

Oracle, whose local clients include DP World, Abu Dhabi Customs, Damac Properties, Landmark Group and Apparel Group, reported more than $27.4 billion in global revenue from its cloud services and license support in the financial year ended on May 31.

"Our adoption of the second-generation cloud is in line with the digital transformation strategy of Abu Dhabi … [and] our vision of creating government services based on innovation and advanced technologies such as AI and IoT," Fahd Ghareeb Al Shamsi, executive director of the administrative affairs sector at Abu Dhabi Customs, told The National.

These technologies will enable Abu Dhabi Customs to automate customs procedures to enhance security, facilitate trade and provide excellent services, he added.

Etisalat, the UAE’s biggest operator, is the telecom partner for Oracle's cloud region in Dubai.

“During this unprecedented period, global markets are looking at enhancing digital services availability and adding new capacities for businesses and the entire community,” said Salvador Anglada, Etisalat’s group chief business officer.

“The partnership with Oracle further complements the existing capabilities of Etisalat,” he added.

UAE businesses are prioritising cloud investment and digital transformation in the wake of the pandemic and to compete during the recovery phase.

Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban, senior vice president, technology, for Middle East Africa and Central Eastern Europe at Oracle. Courtesy Oracle

About 57 per cent of the UAE’s chief information officers from mid and large organisations said they were accelerating the digital transformation of their businesses in response to new customer needs, according to an International Data Corporation survey conducted in the second quarter of the year.

“The investment by global cloud providers in in-country data centres will continue to alleviate concerns of data residency and security among organisations in sectors such as the public sector, banking and others,” said Jyoti Lalchandani, regional managing director for Middle East, Turkey and Africa at IDC.

On the back of these demand and supply-side drivers, IDC expects spending on public cloud — a computing service in which a service provider like Oracle, Microsoft, or Alibaba makes resources available to the public or companies through the internet — to surpass $430 million in the UAE this year and $1bn by 2024, growing at 25 per cent annually.