Oracle’s Second Cloud Region in the UAE Goes Live

By CXO Staff On Jan 20, 2022

Oracle UAE — H.E Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade

Oracle’s second cloud region in the United Arab Emirates is now live. Located in Abu Dhabi, the new cloud region, and the previously launched region in Dubai will offer all Oracle Cloud services, including Oracle Autonomous Database and Oracle Cloud Applications.

The UAE’s Fourth Industrial Revolution Strategy focuses on advancing the national economy by driving innovation with latest emerging technologies. Oracle’s two cloud regions in the UAE will provide a secure, advanced, and agile platform for organisations to leverage the full potential of latest digital technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning, Blockchain etc. to achieve strategic business objectives.

The availability of this second-generation digital infrastructure will act as a major catalyst for further accelerating the implementation of cloud technologies in the UAE. IDC in fact estimates that public cloud services adoption is accelerating at CAGR of 28% year on year between 2020 and 2025 in the UAE, and IDC projects that the growth momentum will continue.

Growing number of organisations in the UAE have migrated some or all their on-premises IT infrastructure deployments to IaaS and PaaS cloud environments and are realising a range of benefits as a result. These include anywhere/anytime access, open-ended scalability, infrastructure flexibility, rapid deployment, and shorter time to market. One of the most sought-after benefits, not surprisingly, is cost reduction.

These significant cost savings are channeled back into the local economy, thus making an important contribution to the national digital economy.

His Excellency Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade said, “Oracle’s decision to open a second cloud region in the UAE is a clear reflection of our nation’s embrace of digital transformation, advanced technologies and the applications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which have become central to our economic and investment strategy for the next 50 years.

“We are committed to developing an innovative- and knowledge-based economy that encourages the development and deployment of the technologies of the future, and attracting human, financial and technological capital to the nation is central to these ambitions. Oracle’s continued investment into the UAE will only accelerate this process, providing critical infrastructure, expertise and insights to further elevate the UAE’s standing as a place where the boldest ideas and biggest projects can come to life.”

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s (OCI) next-generation architecture provides a high-performing, resilient foundation for cloud services, while its physical and virtual network design maximizes performance and security. For example, each Oracle Cloud region contains at least three fault domains, which are groupings of hardware that form logical data centers for high availability and resilience to hardware and network failures.

His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Hamad Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cybersecurity for the UAE Government said, “The UAE Government has rapidly transitioned from being a conventional set up to a ‘smart government’ entity, and now with the increasing pace of digital transformation across the country’s public and private sector, we are progressing towards being an AI enabled government. This progress is in line with the digital economy goals of our country, but we must also ensure that the ‘cyber resilience’ of the UAE is maintained to mitigate cybercrime and increase international collaboration. Oracle’s two cloud regions in the UAE are important investments towards providing cyber resilience and secure digital infrastructure for organizations to enjoy the full benefits of cloud computing.”

Oracle is fully aligned with Abu Dhabi Digital Authority’s (ADDA) mandate of delivering digital services, platforms, channels, and implementation of applied intelligence and cybersecurity solutions for government entities. Oracle’s new cloud region in Abu Dhabi will help accelerate the authority’s efforts.

His Excellency Mohamed Abdelhameed Al Askar, Director General, Abu Dhabi Digital Authority said, “At Abu Dhabi Digital Authority, we are on a mission to enable, support and deliver a digital government that is proactive, personalised, collaborative, and secure. Oracle’s cloud region in Abu Dhabi supports accelerating the Emirate’s digital agenda and leveraging innovative solutions and emerging technologies to capitalise on the digital transformation journey.”

Oracle has been working towards creating a strong local IT talent pool in the UAE. Under the recently completed skills development initiatives with the UAE’s Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) and its commercial arm, the Centre of Excellence for Applied Research & Training (CERT), Oracle has upskilled 1,098 students in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and blockchain.

As part of Oracle’s planned expansion of its cloud region footprint to support strong customer demand for Oracle Cloud services worldwide, over the next year, Oracle will open seven additional cloud regions in Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, France, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.

Oracle Cloud Johannesburg Region went live today. Oracle’s first cloud region in Africa will meet the rapidly growing demand for enterprise cloud services on the continent.

Oracle plans to have at least 44 cloud regions by the end of 2022, continuing one of the fastest expansions of any major cloud provider.

Currently available Oracle Cloud regions:

Asia Pacific: Tokyo (Japan), Osaka (Japan), Seoul (South Korea), Chuncheon (South Korea), Mumbai (India), Hyderabad (India), Sydney (Australia), Melbourne (Australia), Singapore (Singapore)
Americas: San Jose (United States), Phoenix (United States), Ashburn (United States), Toronto (Canada), Montreal (Canada), São Paolo (Brazil), Vinhedo (Brazil), Santiago (Chile)
Europe: Frankfurt (Germany), London (United Kingdom), Newport, Wales (United Kingdom), Zürich (Switzerland), Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Marseille (France), Stockholm (Sweden), Milan (Italy)
Middle East: Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Abu Dhabi and Dubai (U.A.E), Jerusalem (Israel)
Africa: Johannesburg (South Africa)
Government: Two general U.S. Government regions, and U.S. National Security regions, three U.S. Department of Defense specific Government regions, two in the United Kingdom (London and Newport, Wales)