Saudi Cloud Computing Company ("SCCC"), a new joint venture company formed by Alibaba Cloud, Saudi Telecom Company (stc) Group, eWTP Arabia Capital, the Saudi Company for Artificial Intelligence (SCAI), and the Saudi Information Technology Company (SITE), has announced yesterday that it has launched its services in Saudi Arabia. It was announced at a ceremony held in Riyadh in the presence of a number of officials in the government and private sectors, in order to keep pace with the growing demand for cloud services in the Kingdom. The company announced the opening of two data centres in Saudi Arabia. Located in Riyadh, the two data centers launch were unveiled during a launch ceremony in the Saudi Arabia capital in the presence of management team from stc Group,eWTP Arabia Capital and Alibaba Cloud. With the data stored within Saudi Arabia, the two data centres will offer customers in Saudi a local option to utilize global leading cloud capabilities with high availability, elasticity, security, sustainability. The new data centres provide a wide range of proven and secure public cloud computing solutions ranging from elastic compute, storage, network to database to cater for the surging business demand from industries such as retail, fintech, internet, and so on along their digitalization journey in the region. Commenting on the launch, STC Group CEO, Olayan Mohammed Alwetaid, said: "Saudi Arabia is making great strides towards delivering a scalable and secure IT infrastructure to keep up with the demand for a robust and secure cloud service offering in the digital era. We are extremely pleased to collaborate with Alibaba Cloud who will leverage their technology expertise and industry know-how for our customers in the Kingdom looking to embrace digital innovation." Mr. Faisal Al-Khamisi, Chairman of the Saudi Cloud Computing Company ("SCCC"), stressed that the launch of SCCC is a unique achievement and an important step in supporting the digital transformation process that the Kingdom is witnessing in line of its relentless and serious objective to become a data center that connects the continents of the world. "Today, under the guidance and follow-up of His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, leader of the Kingdom's Vision 2030, the launch of SCCC's services, a few days after the company's establishment, has become clear evidence that we are working within the vision of a leader who works to facilitate all difficulties. To ease legislation and laws in the Kingdom, support attracting investments, and enhance the Kingdom's digital position in the world," Al-Khamisi added. He also mentioned that the partners in this project are working to increase the scope of services to include every public sector and private entity. "Saudi Arabia is a very strategic and important market for Alibaba Cloud. This launch of the new joint venture is a significant milestone towards our commitment to forging collaborations with local partners to boost the digital transformation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. By collaborating closely with stc Group and other local partners, we are pleased and confident that Alibaba Cloud will support more local enterprises benefiting from the leading cloud computing technologies" said Selina Yuan, Alibaba Group VP & Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International President. "As a key participant in the joint venture, we have invested in and supported over 16 Chinese digital technology companies among different sectors, to enter the MENA market. Most of them will be SCCC's first customers. eWTPA are committed to bring and encourage more advanced tech companies from China on boarding this cloud, host data locally. Participate in the transformation process of digital transformation in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia towards Vision2030." Founder and Managing Partner of eWTP Arabia Capital, Jerry Li said. In line with the efforts made by the Kingdom to enhance economic diversification and stimulate investment opportunities in the cloud computing sector, the new company will contribute to providing quality jobs, transferring knowledge and experiences to the Kingdom, and ensuring a safe work environment for entrepreneurs in the region, and the company will contribute to developing the Kingdom's digital infrastructure. And configure it to provide the latest digital storage services and solutions for data and ensure its protection and security, which will enhance the Kingdom's ability to provide cloud computing services to global companies.
