Intelligent Data Centres Issue 01 | Page 23

PROJECT FOCUS MIDDLE EAST Oracle announced the immediate availability of its new data centre in Abu Dhabi, which will offer public cloud applications services to customers in the UAE and wider Middle East. The Abu Dhabi data centre will support the rapid adoption of Oracle Cloud in the UAE and act as a key catalyst for the implementation of UAE’s strategy for the fourth Industrial Revolution aimed at building the country’s leadership in education and advanced technology, including Artificial Intelligence, robotics and genomic medicine. Arun Khehar, Senior Vice President – Business Applications, Middle East and Africa, Oracle, said: “By locating a data centre in the UAE, we will be able to better manage service levels and respond to local customers, who, for data governance requirements and other reasons, need to keep their data local.” AFRICA Huawei announced that it was preparing for a March launch its cloud data services in Africa. The company is working with South African partners for the construction of the data centres in Johannesburg initially and later Cape Town. Huawei will deploy localised public cloud services based on local industry policies, customer requirements and partner conditions. Speaking at a Cloud Summit in Johannesburg, Huawei outlined its plans for a fully connected Africa driven by data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. Huawei’s anticipated cloud services launch in March, will make it the world’s first cloud service provider with an operational data centre in Africa. The cloud service will be available to organisations in South Africa and neighbouring countries, providing lower-latency, reliable and secure cloud services. www.intelligentdatacentres.com Issue 01 23