Acronis, a global cyber security company, has announced the opening of its Cyber Cloud Data Center in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This is Acronis’ first such facility in the Middle East, and is a strategic investment given the growing Cloud and Data Center market in the region.
Acronis is a technology company founded in Singapore. It provides natively integrated cybersecurity, data protection, and endpoint management for managed service providers (MSPs), small and medium businesses (SMBs), and enterprise IT departments.
Ziad Nasr, General Manager, Middle East, Acronis, was quoted saying, “With businesses in the region constantly battling sophisticated cyberattacks, emphasising the region’s urgent need for advanced cyber protection, Acronis’ integrated solutions, combining cybersecurity and data protection powered by AI and Machine Learning, are uniquely poised to meet these emerging challenges.”
According to media reports, the new Acronis Cyber Cloud Data Center is ISO 27001 and IEC 22237 compliant. Acronist has nearly 50 such Cyber Cloud Data Centers across the world in places like the United States, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom etc.
MEA’s burgeoning Cloud Market
According to IDC Research’s UAE Public Cloud Market Forecast 2022-2027, “The UAE is one of the top adopters of cloud computing services within the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. Requirements around data residency and sovereignty, as well as continuous investments in in-country cloud datacenters by global hyperscalers, have accelerated the adoption of public cloud services across industries and business segments.”
Nitesh Rathi, senior research analyst for software and cloud, IDC MEA, said, “We also expect to see the hybrid multi-cloud trend gain considerable traction, with customers having multiple options to choose from across different cloud service providers while maintaining a sharp focus on the issue of sovereignty.”
In February this year, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and du, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), announced a new partnership aimed at driving cloud adoption for enterprises and government agencies in the UAE.
Perhaps the biggest contributor to the growth in demand for Cloud services in the region is the rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT) and other emerging technologies. du, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), recently announced a collaboration with Microsoft to adopt Generative AI technology across its operations to enhance employee productivity and transform the customer experience. Microsoft has also invested a whopping USD 1.5 Billion into G42, an AI technology holding company from Abu Dhabi to accelerate AI adoption.
Several global players have made billion-dollar investments and set up Cloud Regions in not only the UAE, but also in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which has emerged as the fastest growing market in the Gulf region.
Earlier this month, Informatica, an enterprise Cloud data management services provider in the Middle East, launched its Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered Intelligent Data Management Cloud™ (IDMC) in Saudi Arabia. Informatica IDMC is a comprehensive cloud-native data management platform and is powered by CLAIRE® AI, the company’s AI platform.
Last year, Google launched a Cloud Region in the KSA, while Oracle already has a Cloud Region in Jeddah and is planning one in KSA’s capital city of Riyadh, and yet another in the under-construction futuristic city of NEOM. Earlier in 2023, it had committed to investing US$ 1.5 Billion to meet the rapidly growing demand for its Cloud services in KSA.