THE CLOUD AT YOUR DOOR

As Oracle opens its new cloud region in Dubai, expanding its presence in the region, the company’s regional head explains why the cloud plays a key role in the current crisis with the move towards digital transformation accelerating at an unprecedented pace

- AARTI NAGRAJ AND DAVID NDICHU

Digital transformation has been a buzzword in the GCC for some years now. And while most regional governments have been walking the talk, the pandemic this year has hastened the need for technological deployment across the board – for public and private sector entities.

With data emerging as the most valuable commodity in this new digitally driven economy, the need for secure cloud infrastructure has escalated.

There has been an explosion in public cloud spending across the GCC with the cloud now one of the fastest-growing segments within IT, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 25 per cent, according to data from tech consultancy IDC. The research firm predicts that by 2025, cloud spending by public and private organisations is going to reach $2.5bn. Behind this momentum is the fact that the cloud is even more relevant today than it ever was.

“This increased adoption is driven by an urgency in many organisations in both the public and private sectors to rationalise their spending. There’s a widespread need to shift from CAPEX (capital expenditure) spending to OPEX (operating expenditure), as well as a need to drive even more digital initiatives within the organisation. And this has become even more pronounced during the current pandemic,” explains Jyoti Lalchandani, group vice president and regional MD, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, at IDC. “Through the current disruption, there’s a greater focus for organisations to move some of their initiatives to digital, and this is happening across industries, from the public sector to banks and financial services, retail, e-commerce and digital commerce, and others.”