UAE Targets ‘Hyperscale’ Cloud Computing to Boost Digital Economy

A new cloud business group in Dubai points to the growth of high-tech industries.

With a plan to launch 100 new business groups by March 2023, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce recently announced groups to represent the FinTech sector, companies developing renewable energy solutions, medical research firms, and a cloud computing business group.

The latter is expected to help drive growth of Dubai and the wider United Arab Emirates (UAE) knowledge-based economy because an effective cloud infrastructure is essential for tech ecosystems to flourish.

In fact, from FinTechs to gaming and beyond, proximity to data centers and access to advanced cloud services are now key considerations for modern technology businesses that require extensive computational resources.

In 2022, the UAE got its own Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud region and new Azure availability zones, while in November, Google Cloud’s chief executive, Thomas Kurian, disclosed to the Emirati newspaper The National that the firm was considering opening a data center in the country.

Of course, with so-called “hyperscaler” cloud infrastructure providers bolstering their support for Emirati businesses, the wider cloud ecosystem is likely to flourish as more localized cloud data storage and multi-cloud deployments become a possibility.

Moreover, initiatives such as the new business group are expected to encourage further adoption of the technology in sectors that have not yet fully embraced cloud computing.

For example, in a press release announcing the launch of the new group, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce said that startups and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the UAE are expected to gain a total of $17.1 billion in economic benefits from hyperscale cloud computing by the year 2030.

Cloud Providers Double Down on Middle East Coverage

With cloud provision an increasingly critical component of the digital economy, the UAE is not the only Middle Eastern country where providers are working to enhance their offerings.

As PYMNTS has reported, against the backdrop of highly competitive and well-served cloud markets in Europe and the U.S., the Middle East and Africa are comparatively untapped opportunities.

Related: Big Tech Eyes Untapped Cloud Opportunities in MEA Markets

But that is changing rapidly. In the Middle East, to date, cloud infrastructure has been concentrated in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. But Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle have all announced their intention to open new regions in Israel, while Microsoft also launched a new Azure region in Qatar last year.

Above the infrastructure layer provided by global hyperscalers, Middle Eastern businesses are also building out their capacity to meet the growing demand for managed cloud services.

In December, the UAE-based technology group e& announced that it had entered into a joint venture with Bespin Global, a Korean company that specializes in providing public cloud managed services.

The new company will focus on helping customers in the Middle East, Turkey, Africa and Pakistan (METAP) region build, deploy and manage cloud solutions. It will combine the two owner companies’ expertise to create “a one-stop cloud solution to help enterprises in [their] digital transformation,” an e& press release stated.

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