Oracle has announced a new public cloud region in Riyadh as part of its multi-billion dollar investment in Saudi Arabia. The public cloud region will boost the country’s cloud capacity, committing to a stronger action plan to achieve the Saudi Vision 2030 objectives. The expansion highlights Oracle’s growing acceptance as a reliable cloud service provider in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s AI and Cloud Boom
New Oracle’s Public Cloud Region to Boost AI Services
Saudi Arabia has emerged as a leading destination for AI and cloud services. Riyadh is the AI technology hub. The region has witnessed rampant growth in the Machine learning, AI, and IT Cloud services sectors. According to the Ministry of Commerce, Saudi Arabia, AI registrations rose by 53% in Q2 2024. During the same period, cloud computing services grew by 43%. Half of all registrations come from Riyadh’s AI economy hub. Soon, Saudi Arabia will become the global center of excellence for digital transformation for leading IT and cloud services companies.
Where is Oracle Heading with its AI investments in Saudi Arabia?
Oracle has adopted a distributed cloud strategy. Last year, Oracle Riyadh’s public cloud region was announced as an addition to the existing Jeddah region and another upcoming Oracle Cloud Region in NEOM. The strategic $1.5 billion investment to expand cloud capabilities with AI in Saudi Arabia bolsters the region’s growing prominence as an AI-driven economy.
Saudi Arabia’s economy is booming with GenAI and AI LLMs. Local cloud infrastructure service providers seek stronger foundations to meet the growing demands of organizations. Oracle’s entry has given a strong message to the world that GenAI success depends on quick innovations, faster data processing, enhanced security, and compliance management. To harness AI’s competitive advantage, a strong Cloud infrastructure company such as Oracle plays a significant role.
At the time of this announcement, Richard Smith, EVP and GM of EMEA Cloud Infrastructure at Oracle said, “As part of our wider investment in cloud capabilities in Saudi Arabia, the Oracle Cloud Riyadh Region will help accelerate (the) adoption of cloud and AI technologies to boost innovation across all sectors of the Saudi economy while helping organizations addressing local data hosting requirements.”
The new region will deliver Oracle’s full suite of cloud services in the AI and hyperscaler domains. Prominent solutions include Oracle Autonomous Database, HeatWave MySQL Database Service, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, Oracle Cloud VMware Solution, OCI Generative AI service, OCI AI Infrastructure, and OCI Supercluster.
Top CyberTech News: Ethical AI Training for the Workforce Among Top C-level Priorities, Says Deloitte
Benefits to the Customers and Partners
Customers and partners in Saudi Arabia will derive massive benefits from Oracle’s investment in the public cloud region. For instance, digital transformation journeys will accelerate using Oracle’s scalable and resilient cloud infrastructure, powered by AI and automation solutions. From unlocking new data opportunities to deriving business growth from AI investments, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure will empower customers to adapt faster within the region’s digital compliance and regulations.
Partners and Analysts Welcome the New Public Cloud Region
“We are thrilled to collaborate with Oracle as they expand their cloud infrastructure in Saudi Arabia with the new Riyadh cloud region,” said Fahad Alhajeri, chief executive officer, center3. “This strategic initiative delivers on our shared vision of fostering technological innovation and advancing the digital economy of the Kingdom. Oracle’s cloud regions in Saudi Arabia will play an important role in enhancing data sovereignty, driving digital transformation, and empowering businesses across the country to achieve greater agility and growth.”
What is Oracle Distributed Cloud?
Oracle’s distributed cloud delivers the benefits of cloud with greater control and flexibility. Oracle’s distributed cloud lineup includes:
- Public cloud: Hyperscale public cloud regions serve any size of the organization, including those requiring strict EU sovereignty controls.
- Dedicated cloud: Customers can run all OCI cloud services in their data centers with OCI Dedicated Region, while partners can resell OCI cloud services and customize the experience using Oracle Alloy. Oracle also operates separate U.S., UK, and Australian Government Clouds, and Isolated Cloud Regions for U.S. national security purposes. Each of these products provides a full cloud and AI stack that customers can deploy as a Sovereign Cloud.
- Hybrid cloud: OCI delivers key cloud services on-premises via Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer and Compute Cloud@Customer and is already managing deployments in over 60 countries.
- Multicloud: Options including Oracle Database@Azure, HeatWave MySQL on AWS and Microsoft Azure, Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Interconnect for Google Cloud allow customers to combine key capabilities from across clouds.
