Public cloud gains pace in the MENA region

Public cloud gains pace in the MENA region

Cloud computing is proliferating in the Middle East as many organisations are moving their processes and data to the cloud. The region is undergoing economic transformations; more countries are implementing smart city initiatives and updating their national visions while improving their digital economies. Gartner estimates that end-user expenditure on public cloud services in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region will reach $5.7bn in 2022. Meanwhile, major cloud players, like Oracle, have also demonstrated their commitment to the region with massive investments to enable organisations of all sizes to achieve strategic objectives through digital transformation. The cloud provider has launched its cloud regions in Jeddah and Dubai in 2020, Abu Dhabi in 2021, besides also announcing NEOM as the location of its second cloud region in Saudi Arabia taking the total count of its cloud regions to four in the Middle East. Oracle aims to launch 44 cloud regions globally by the end of 2022. Based in Johannesburg, Oracle also recently launched its first cloud region in Africa in January 2022. Oracle’s cloud regions in Saudi Arabia and the UAE are built on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), allowing customers to easily migrate current workloads and data platforms or develop