Bios Middle East, a Dubai-based cloud and managed IT services provider has setup two new cloud data centres in Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, according to the company.
The cloud data centres uses VMware cloud stack which has been the core of Bios’ UAE offerings in Dubai and Abu Dhabi since 2013. BIOS claims to have onboarded its first set of customers, providing it with ready reference accounts in financial services and healthcare sectors.
Saudi companies can now store data within the kingdom in the two new cloud zones, which fulfils data residency requirements for regulated sectors.
Commenting on the development, Dominic Docherty, managing director, Bios Middle East said, “Cloud services are essential to unlocking the benefits of digital transformation, which has been identified as a major strategic plank for Saudi Arabian organisations in line with Saudi Vision 2030.
“We started getting so many requests for cloud services in KSA, both from our UAE customers wanting to expand and from inbound leads that it became an obvious step for us to take. So far the response has been beyond our expectations and we are excited to invest and grow more in the Kingdom,” he added.
Saudi Arabia’s cloud services market is estimated at $10bn, according to Aramco. The Kingdom launched its ‘cloud-first’ policy to encourage public sector migration from traditional IT platforms to cloud-based models in 2019. The policy aims to help Saudi organisations improve efficiency, enhance agility and reliability, strengthen cybersecurity and promote innovation to achieve the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030 programme.
Bios Middle East, a Gartner recognised vendor, will offer infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) to customers in the Middle East.
