American multinational computer technology corporation, Oracle, which specializes in cloud applications and platform services, is committed to creating a digital transformation strategy that is aligned with customer business objectives, according to senior vice president - Technology, Middle East and Africa, Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban. Oracle is shifting the balance from IT-driven projects to business-driven initiatives where technology is geared towards serving the business, he said.
How does Oracle help operators improve their performance?
Oracle has been working with some of the world's leading telecom providers supporting their digital transformation journeys across all aspects of the business, from strategy to IT and different lines of businesses (LOBs).
We are focused on creating a digital transformation strategy that is aligned with the customers' business objectives. Oracle is bringing added value at IT level through consolidation projects, security, automating business processes, as well as integration and we are also working closely with the telecom operators on innovation projects that explore new revenue streams as well as digital ideas.
Oracle is setting a new industry standard for autonomous cloud capabilities. What are the main cloud services that you provide to your customers?
Oracle provides complete solutions that integrate all digital technologies: cloud, mobile, social, big data, internet of things with our applications, middleware, database, analytics and engineered systems - and we bring these capabilities to the cloud. Therefore, Oracle offers a comprehensive and fully integrated stack of cloud applications and platform services that none of our competitors can match.
On March 27, 2018, Oracle Executive Chairman and CTO, Larry Ellison, announced the availability of the first service based on the revolutionary new Oracle Autonomous Database. The world's first self-managing, self-securing, self-repairing database cloud service, Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse Cloud, uses machine learning to deliver industry-leading performance, security capabilities and availability with no human intervention at half the cost of Amazon web services.
Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse Cloud delivers all of the analytical capabilities, security features and high availability of the Oracle database without any of the complexities of configuration, tuning and administration-even as warehousing workloads and data volumes change. The autonomous database is an entirely new class of offering which requires zero operational administration on the customer's part, enabling cloud data warehousing that is:
- Easy: The industry's first one-step warehouse provisioning spins up a secure data warehouse with automatic backup, encryption and a high availability architecture in mere seconds. Migration to cloud is simple due to full compatibility with existing on-premises databases.
- Fast: Industry-leading query performance with no tuning required. Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse Cloud is so fast that Oracle guarantees the same workload at half the cost of Amazon web services.
- Elastic: Independent, online scaling of compute and storage. The ability to dynamically grow or shrink resources enables true pay-per-use, dramatically lowering costs.
Can you highlight the main benefits of the Oracle Cloud Platform?
At Oracle, we have built a completely integrated cloud platform that spans all layers of the cloud and is based on our foundational infrastructure products. It's our focus on integration between these layers that genuinely sets us apart.
Unlike any other cloud vendor, Oracle offers a complete range of services in all three primary layers of the cloud: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
That depth of product knowledge at every layer allows us to build the kind of seamless integration our competitors simply can't match, with the ability to deliver real, powerful value by freeing up resources and driving innovation.
We provide a hybrid model that allows customers to deploy in the cloud, on premises or in their own datacenters. We believe an integrated solution must span both on-premise and cloud because applications and information live in both and will potentially co-exist for years. Customers must address these together, and only Oracle delivers on that promise.
Only Oracle allows customers to consume public cloud services while keeping their data behind their own firewall. This is done with the Oracle Cloud Machine that is part of Oracle's cloud at customer offering.
How is Oracle transforming organizations on their journey to cloud?
Oracle is shifting the balance from IT-driven projects to business-driven initiatives where technology is geared towards serving the business.
The journey to cloud isn't a one-way path, and each company's journey is unique. We address the distinct business and IT requirements of each customer by giving them unparalleled choice. We give every customer the ability to design their own map to cloud success; not just one map, not just our map, but almost limitless paths and roadways they can draw, then shape, then redraw again in new, powerful ways as their businesses grow. We built a cloud future that's less about restrictions and more about re-imagining people, processes and progress.
In your opinion, how is Oracle contributing to the digital transformation in the Middle East?
At Oracle, we are on a mission to connect people and business to information. Over the past 25 years, our customers in the Middle East have believed in our approach and ability to deliver innovative solutions that have helped them shape their respective industries and change the way the world works and plays.
Our consistent growth over the past two decades in the Middle East is driven by the success of our customers and this growth has now been further enhanced by the rapid adoption of our cloud solutions. We have built something our competitors can't, so our customers are able to do things they've never been able to do before.
What are your plans for the coming year?
We are focused on driving cloud-led digital transformation across the Middle East's public and private sector organizations. Cloud adoption is on the rise in the Middle East and telecom providers across the region have initiated major transformation projects to deliver unique products and an exceptional customer experience.
We are a true market leader and our commitment to the Middle East region is resolute. We have been in the region for a long time and have gained deep experience across major sectors such as government, telecom, finance, banking, healthcare, construction, energy, retail and many more.
Our investments in the region have only grown and the impact of these investments can be seen in our size, revenue, customer base, products and partners. With the rapid rate of cloud adoption in the Middle East and our unique ability to offer a completely integrated solution across all layers of the cloud (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS), Oracle will only continue to get bigger and better.
