Saudi Arabia’s IT decision makers see cloud cost savings

Muscat: Saudi organisations are increasingly moving to the cloud for cost savings, with nearly two-thirds (62 per cent) of IT decision-makers in the Kingdom saving costs on the cloud, according to new research from YouGov.
Many Saudi organisations — especially small and medium-sized enterprises — use traditional on-premise technology infrastructure, which presents business challenges. Organisations are locked into specific vendors, face rising costs in technology infrastructure, and do not have real-time customer insights.
By taking a cloud approach to digital transformation, Saudi organisations, from government and public sector to oil and gas, can primarily optimize costs on hardware and software. The cloud can quickly, easily, and affordably scale up as organizations expand, serving as the foundation for business and economic growth.
Among the 306 survey respondents, 30 per cent said the cloud saved at least 25 per cent in costs, and about one in eight respondents (13 per cent) said the cloud saved at least 50 per cent in costs.
“Double-digit cost savings can help Saudi organisations to gain C-suite buy-in for cloud-based digital transformation, especially for SMEs operating on tighter budgets,” Ahmed Al-Faifi, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, SAP Middle East North.
“Organisations running on the cloud can operate in real-time, easily scale up as they expand, and free up IT staff to focus on business innovation,” he added.
As cyber-threats and cloud regulations increase, 92 per cent of survey respondents agreed that keeping data in the Kingdom, also known as data sovereignty, ranks as important in running on the public cloud.
“Our cloud data centre in the Kingdom also provides strict levels of data security and privacy that meet government rules and regulations,’ said Ahmed Al-Faifi. “Saudi Arabia’s organisations can rest assured that all of their data on our cloud data center is stored, secured, analyzed, and backed up within the Kingdom,” he added.
The survey added that among Saudi IT decision-makers, two-thirds (66 per cent) plan for their organisations to be partially or fully on the cloud in 2019, and 59 per cent plan to increase cloud spend in 2019.