ORACLE’S SECOND CLOUD REGION IN THE KINGDOM

Oracle has just established an agreement with NEOM Tech & Digital Holding Company – a subsidiary of NEOM – to open the second Oracle Cloud region in Saudi Arabia.

As announced, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) will be hosted at NEOM’s hyperscale data center in Saudi Arabia, also making Oracle the first tenant on the facility.

“Saudi Arabia is fast emerging as a global technology hub and NEOM Tech & Digital Hold Co.’s partnerships with Oracle and EzdiTek will enable us to build the foundations required to deliver on our full potential,” said Abdullah Alswaha, Minister for Communications and information Technology and Chairman of the NEOM Tech & Digital Hold Co. Board of Directors.

“The data center will not only attract global businesses by creating a powerful platform for knowledge exchange, but it will also empower innovators to pilot their ideas at scale inside the Kingdom. Today’s announcement means the realization of technology that will serve the ambitions of the public and private sector across the region and far beyond, positioning Saudi Arabia at the forefront of the industry.”

This announcement aligns with Oracle’s plan to operate two cloud regions in Saudi Arabia by 2022 which is in line with its dual-region cloud strategy – enabling customers to deploy applications in multiple geographically separated locations within a country to meet resilience and compliance needs such as data residency. This agreement with NEOM follows the launch of the Oracle Cloud Saudi Arabia West Region in Jeddah in February 2020.

“We are fully committed to support Saudi Arabia’s digital economy objectives in line with Saudi Vision 2030. Conceived and architected on security-first principles, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is the preferred cloud in Saudi Arabia. With this collaboration with NEOM, we are now expanding our footprint in the Kingdom to continue supporting the digital transformation initiatives of the country’s public and private sector organizations,” said Richard Smith, Executive Vice President – Technology, EMEA, Oracle.

To develop this hyperscale facility in Saudi Arabia, NEOM Tech & Digital Hold Co. (via its affiliates, NEOM Company) also announced a US$500 million joint venture with EzdiTek (via its affiliate, FAS Energy Trading Co, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Fawaz Alhokair Group) to enable the construction and operation of the data center. EzdiTek will further partner with global engineering and architectural firms RED and Gensler on this project.