Oracle is conducting a two-day exploration of technology-driven transformation with peers from across the Middle East and Africa in a bid to drive cloud adoption in the region.
The year looks better for the cloud industry due to the global economic instability as organisations are moving to the cloud to cut costs and improve operational efficiency by using artificial intelligence and cognitive technologies.
The second edition of ‘OpenWorld Middle East: Dubai 2020’ will open doors on Tuesday at Dubai World Trade Centre and explore how leading companies are unlocking insights with data to re-engineer the core of their business, elevate the value they deliver to customers, pioneer new ways of working and drive completely new opportunities.
The US software giant, with decades of database software and technologies and has a strong penetration in the enterprise space, is gearing up for the next growth phase in cloud services.
Arun Khehar, senior vice-president for business applications at Oracle for Middle East, Africa and India, said that the event will offer the first glimpse of how Oracle is bringing a more human-centred focus to its products and solutions while maintaining the bold and innovative approach to technology which Oracle has long been known for.
“What challenges are you facing in your business? What are you hoping to achieve? What are the roadblocks preventing you from reaching that future state? Breakthrough starts at Oracle OpenWorld. It’s where solutions and successes begin—were experts, customers, and peers come together in one place to discuss what works,” he said.
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Showcasing leading cloud technologies
Top business leaders, thought leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators and shapers from across the Middle East and Africa such as Dr. Daniel Hulme, AI expert and CEO of Satalia; Joy Aljouny, Co-Founder of Fetchr; Peter Van Manen, former Managing Director of McLaren Electronics; Philippe Mathieu, Executive Vice-President for EMEA & JAPAC at Oracle; Steve Miranda, Executive Vice-President for Applications at Oracle and Amanda Jobbins, Chief Marketing Officer for EMEA & JAPAC, are expected to deliver keynote speeches.
Oracle's cloud-related success mostly lies with SaaS [software as a service] applications, so Oracle, a services company rather than a product company, will focus on IaaS [infrastructure as a service] and next-generation autonomous cloud database at the event.
An autonomous database is a cloud database that eliminates complexity, human error and manual management associated with database tuning, security, backups and updates; tasks traditionally performed by the database administrators (DBAs).
Khehar said the event is designed for attendees who want to connect, learn, explore and be inspired, Oracle OpenWorld offers numerous educational sessions led by hundreds of customers and partners sharing their experiences, first hand.
“With interactive demos and hands-on labs, plus exhibitions from partners and customers from around the world, the event has become a showcase for leading cloud technologies, from cloud applications to cloud platform and infrastructure,” he said.
Jyoti Lalchandani, vice-president and regional managing director for research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), said that two-thirds of the organisations will approach the cloud through a hybrid model.
“The overall business environment is a strong driver for the uptake in cloud services. CFOs love it as it is opex-based and organisation line of business loves it because they get agility and speed. IT organisations love it because of the scale it provides while channels love it because of the “lift and shift” approach as companies move from on-premises to the cloud,” he said.
Moreover, he said that the on-premise [non-cloud] spending is declining quite rapidly and a lot of spending is moving to the cloud as a subscription-based model.
“It is not only the speed and agility that are the key drivers for the cloud but also the cost factor when moving to the cloud for organisations,” he said.
