Dubai telecoms operator du will start offering its sovereign cloud and artificial intelligence services in the UAE in July, tapping into the growing demand for the technologies locally.
“We are targeting to on-board clients with the time of the announcement,” Jasim Al Awadi, du's chief ICT officer, told The National at the Oracle CloudWorld event on Wednesday.
The telecoms operator had announced in June last year that it would use Oracle Alloy to offer hyperscale cloud and sovereign AI services for government and public sector entities, focusing on Dubai and the Northern Emirates.
“We are targeting the UAE market. Our infrastructure is there to fulfil the market of UAE,” Mr Al Awadi said.
Du is using Oracle Alloy, a cloud infrastructure platform, becoming “the first local hyperscale cloud provider to offer a comprehensive set of cloud services branded under its portfolio”, according to the company. A hyper-scaler is a cloud provider that operates a large-scale data centre network to offer computing, storage and other technology services.
It will also be competing with companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google in the UAE market.
“The market is open. We are competing with everyone fairly. We are building our value proposition with other features that we have, and the client is there to choose. Having an open market and competition is good for everyone,” Mr Al Awadi said.
Last year, du executives said that the company’s services would be more affordable for the local market.
“We understand the client requirements because on our level, as a service provider, we are with the clients on a day-to-day basis. So … you put forward the right value proposition with the right price, it's a combination of everything. We are not targeting only price, we are targeting quality, price, evolution of technology and backing you up with the right operational skill set,” Mr Al Awadi said.
There is growing demand for sovereign cloud providers amid the shift towards national security and data privacy. The $37 billion sovereign cloud infrastructure as a service market is forecast to grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 36 per cent to reach $169 billion in 2028, Gartner said in a report last year.
Market growth will be led by rising regulatory demand for data sovereignty, as well as stronger requirements for operational independence and technological autonomy, it said.
“Each and every client here regulates his own needs,” Mr Al Awadi said. He added that companies assess whether the needs of the workloads are critical and if so, they need sovereign services. If non-critical, the workloads can go to the public cloud.
Nick Redshaw, Oracle’s senior vice president for technology cloud and UAE country leader, also said it's not necessarily individual clients.
“There are regulations in the UAE with respect to different types of data. So some data can be put on the public cloud. Some data has incremental regulations applied to incremental security that, by definition, require a level of sovereignty,” he said.
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now
The bio
His favourite book - 1984 by George Orwell
His favourite quote - 'If you think education is expensive, try ignorance' by Derek Bok, Former President of Harvard
Favourite place to travel to - Peloponnese, Southern Greece
Favourite movie - The Last Emperor
Favourite personality from history - Alexander the Great
Role Model - My father, Yiannis Davos
THE BIO
Favourite car: Koenigsegg Agera RS or Renault Trezor concept car.
Favourite book: I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes or Red Notice by Bill Browder.
Biggest inspiration: My husband Nik. He really got me through a lot with his positivity.
Favourite holiday destination: Being at home in Australia, as I travel all over the world for work. It’s great to just hang out with my husband and family.
Tributes from the UAE's personal finance community
• Sebastien Aguilar, who heads SimplyFI.org, a non-profit community where people learn to invest Bogleheads’ style
“It is thanks to Jack Bogle’s work that this community exists and thanks to his work that many investors now get the full benefits of long term, buy and hold stock market investing.
Compared to the industry, investing using the common sense approach of a Boglehead saves a lot in costs and guarantees higher returns than the average actively managed fund over the long term.
From a personal perspective, learning how to invest using Bogle’s approach was a turning point in my life. I quickly realised there was no point chasing returns and paying expensive advisers or platforms. Once money is taken care off, you can work on what truly matters, such as family, relationships or other projects. I owe Jack Bogle for that.”
• Sam Instone, director of financial advisory firm AES International
"Thought to have saved investors over a trillion dollars, Jack Bogle’s ideas truly changed the way the world invests. Shaped by his own personal experiences, his philosophy and basic rules for investors challenged the status quo of a self-interested global industry and eventually prevailed. Loathed by many big companies and commission-driven salespeople, he has transformed the way well-informed investors and professional advisers make decisions."
• Demos Kyprianou, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"Jack Bogle for me was a rebel, a revolutionary who changed the industry and gave the little guy like me, a chance. He was also a mentor who inspired me to take the leap and take control of my own finances."
• Steve Cronin, founder of DeadSimpleSaving.com
"Obsessed with reducing fees, Jack Bogle structured Vanguard to be owned by its clients – that way the priority would be fee minimisation for clients rather than profit maximisation for the company.
His real gift to us has been the ability to invest in the stock market (buy and hold for the long term) rather than be forced to speculate (try to make profits in the shorter term) or even worse have others speculate on our behalf.
Bogle has given countless investors the ability to get on with their life while growing their wealth in the background as fast as possible. The Financial Independence movement would barely exist without this."
• Zach Holz, who blogs about financial independence at The Happiest Teacher
"Jack Bogle was one of the greatest forces for wealth democratisation the world has ever seen. He allowed people a way to be free from the parasitical "financial advisers" whose only real concern are the fat fees they get from selling you over-complicated "products" that have caused millions of people all around the world real harm.”
• Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"In an industry that’s synonymous with greed, Jack Bogle was a lone wolf, swimming against the tide. When others were incentivised to enrich themselves, he stood by the ‘fiduciary’ standard – something that is badly needed in the financial industry of the UAE."
The biog
Born: Kuwait in 1986
Family: She is the youngest of seven siblings
Time in the UAE: 10 years
Hobbies: audiobooks and fitness: she works out every day, enjoying kickboxing and basketball
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
|
1.
|
United States
|
|
2.
|
China
|
|
3.
|
UAE
|
|
4.
|
Japan
|
|
5
|
Norway
|
|
6.
|
Canada
|
|
7.
|
Singapore
|
|
8.
|
Australia
|
|
9.
|
Saudi Arabia
|
|
10.
|
South Korea
|
