The GCC public cloud market is expected to more than double in value by 2024, growing from $956 million this year to $2.35 billion at a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25 percent, according to the latest findings by IDC that was revealed during a recent panel discussion on state of cloud adoption and data centre management in the region hosted by Dubai Outsource City.
The panel discussion was moderated by Harish Dunakhe, Research Director (Middle East, Turkey & Africa for Software and Cloud) of the IDC, with Santiago Freitas, Head of Technology for the Middle East and Africa, Amazon Web Services (AWS); Tanya Koval, Head of Enterprise Architecture, Infrastructure & Workplace, First Arab Bank (FAB); and Aleksander Andrijenko, Head of Infrastructure, DA-Desk forming the panel.
Chief among the findings was that although enterprise spending on information technology has remained subdued in general, several sub-markets within the sector have witnessed strong growth. This trend was particularly highlighted in the Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service segments, in which spending has grown by 32.7 percent, 32 percent and 24.1 percent respectively.
Ammar Al Malik, Managing Director, Dubai Outsource City, said “During these exceptional times – when the vast majority of workers are collaborating across vast spaces, distances and time zones – cloud technologies become an unprecedented necessity. By leveraging these efficiencies, we are able to greatly simplify and smoothen workflows and processes, while also contributing to Dubai’s vision to become one of the smartest, most future-ready cities in the world.”
Cloud adoption in the region is “seeing strong demand, driven by the diversification to non-oil economies, young and dynamic populations that are digital natives, an active startup community, and a drive to digitise across several industries,” Freitas said. He also noted that the shift to cloud is aided by significant cost advantages. By eliminating the need to make upfront investments on physical infrastructure, and the speed of accessing servers, cloud computing enables businesses to go from idea to execution much quicker. For startups and entrepreneurs, cloud “democratises access to technology, so that anyone with an idea and a credit card can gain access to the same technology that another large corporation can,” he added.
