US-based tech giant Oracle has announced the launch of the first of its two planned second-generation cloud regions in Dubai, media reports said. The new cloud region will offer all Oracle cloud services such as Oracle autonomous database and Oracle cloud applications.
The new cloud region in Dubai is Oracle’s 26th worldwide. The two planned cloud regions in the UAE are also part of Oracle’s plan to have 36 cloud regions across the globe by 2021.
Four of these will be in the Middle East – two each in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s largest economies. The first was launched in Jeddah earlier this year.
In this context, Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban, Oracle’s senior vice president told the media, “The contribution of digital economy to the UAE’s GDP stood at 4.3 percent in 2019. Oracle’s second-generation cloud region in Dubai will help accelerate the digital transformation initiatives of organisations across the UAE government entities, large enterprise and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), thus directly supporting the country’s economic vision.”
The cloud region in Dubai will also accelerate the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the region.
It is reported that the UAE’s biggest telecom operator Etisalat is the telecom partner for Oracle’s cloud region in Dubai.
The group Vice President and Regional Managing Director for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa at IDC, Jyoti Lalchandani, told the media, “On the back of these demand and supply-side drivers, we expect spending on public cloud in the UAE to surpass $430million this year and $1 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 25 percent over the 5-year period from 2019-2024.”