Governments in the GCC countries could be going for their own cloud computing environments over the next 12 months, said a senior official of Microsoft.
Charbel Fakhoury, Regional General Manager, Microsoft Gulf, told Emirates Business that the relevant government departments are currently evaluating the technology platform to provide public utilities to be enabled on cloud networks.
He said the region's governments that already run their own data centres can cut costs and operational expenses by incorporating cloud computing.
Cloud computing faced challenges in the past mainly due to security issues since data stored on them resides outside the geographical boundaries of the countries. "Governments typically don't want to host data outside their premises. But this is changing as governments are now considering private cloud environments. This is a transformation of a business model, and not just a software application. Technology is also driving this change towards a global knowledge economy," said Fakhoury.
Private cloud - also called internal cloud or corporate cloud - is a term for a proprietary computing architecture that provides hosted services to a limited number of people behind a firewall. Private cloud networks do not face security issues, he said.
Fakhoury has seen this change in attitude in private and government sectors.
"Consumers are becoming fast adapters of technology especially the users of hotmail or messenger which were on the cloud 10 years ago. They are not bothered about security and confidentiality. Business users are now evaluating what they must put on the cloud as technology becomes mature."
Customers in the GCC are moving from on-premise solutions to the cloud. John Hoonhout, managing director at HP Middle East has also seen the transition towards private cloud computing in the region. "In the Middle East, the main barriers for cloud computing are data privacy and security which don't exist in a private cloud computing environment. The methodology of pooling in IT resources and scaling up operations are the focus areas for organisations in the region," he said.
HP has already worked with government entities outside the GCC and in the region on private cloud computing platforms. It is already working in the UAE on private cloud computing projects.
Fakhoury said: "Currently, there are discussions on private clouds with governments but at the same time they are also evaluating public cloud environments. In such a case, we are also suggesting the option of switching between a private and public cloud platforms. This is helpful in times of peak business hours."
Microsoft will also launch its own cloud computing platform Azure at the end of 2010. "The whole cloud services will be connected to our core technologies. Microsoft Exchange, Sharepoint, Office, Communicator, Server are all going to be made available on the cloud. This will bring down operational costs for the consumer and businesses," said Fakhoury.
By Nancy Sudheer
© Emirates Business 24/7 2010
