May June 2021

Page 40

Technology

Accelerating Digital Transformation Through the Hybrid Cloud An opinion piece by Lancelot Guo, President, Ecosystem and Sales Operations, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence

A

borderless economy refers to a situation whereby a Canadian entrepreneur/ investor runs an e-commerce platform that sells Chinese manufactured products to customers in Africa. The question becomes why the investor is running their business from Canada when they can do business from the UAE, a country that is naturally positioned as an international trade hub situated between Asia and Europe on the east and west respectively as well as the CIS to the north and Africa to the south.

US$45.70 billion market value in 2019. This growing demand for hybrid cloud solutions is driven by a range of factors. As mentioned earlier, rapid digitalization has increased market competition to a point where it’s not enough for a company to simply deploy its resources in the cloud. Now,

In our digital world, it will only become more critical for organizations to keep their momentum going through choosing hybrid cloud solutions to recover and grow. However, a hybrid cloud is a complex entity that requires careful planning, management and optimization.

As the world continues to work relentlessly to ensure business continuity amid the disruption of the pandemic, the rapid pace of digitalization and the contribution of cloud technology in sustaining organizations big and small cannot be underestimated.

What is the Hybrid Cloud?

Retail brands with only a brick-and-mortar presence prior to the pandemic have been going online and offering omnichannel experiences to keep up with the dynamic demands of today’s digital-first consumers for convenience and speed. Likewise, F&B stalls and hawkers are leveraging online channels and solutions to maintain their razor-thin margins. The hybrid cloud is flying high. Mordor Intelligence, a global market research and consulting firm, projected that the market value of the hybrid cloud infrastructure in 2025 would be in the realm of US$128.01 billion. That represents a compound annual growth rate of 18.73 percent from its

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MEABUSINESS

companies need a more effective and efficient cloud-based solution that puts the customer first through providing seamless scalability and adaptability. Cutting-edge tech such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are also pushing demand for cloud-edge solutions and data driven intelligence, helping ambitious organizations meet the needs of today’s increasingly dynamic and digitalized marketplace.

Lancelot Guo, President, Ecosystem and Sales Operations, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence

Business News for the MEA region

A hybrid cloud is a solution that combines a private cloud with one or more public cloud services, with proprietary software enabling communication between each distinct service. Usually an on-premise solution, it addresses the challenges and limitations of both the public and private cloud, and integrates the advantages of both traditional models. While every hybrid cloud deployment is different, each one provides the agility, elasticity, and cost-effectiveness of the public cloud, without compromising on the private cloud’s robust data security offer. Common Challenges


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Articles inside

Can Inta-African trade buffer the continent from future global economic recessions?

6min
pages 48-49

Open Banking without Strong Customer Authentication creates bad customer experience and leaves banks vulnerable. So why adopt one without the other

5min
pages 46-47

The impact of covid-19 on South Africa’s financial sector

6min
pages 44-45

Cashless Dubai Initiative reports major progress

4min
pages 42-43

Accelerating Digital Transformation Through the hybrid cloud

5min
pages 40-41

STORY Hospitality launches a new 4-star lifestyle brand, CUE Hotels

2min
pages 38-39

Gilf Air supports air tranport of urgent medical supplies to India for COVID-19 relief

2min
page 37

Air Arabia reports first quarter 2021 net profit of AED 34 million

2min
page 36

Rise in Sustainability focused Education to Fuel Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan

4min
pages 32-33

The Middle East is set to become a market leader in renewable and clean energy

3min
pages 34-35

Embracing the new dawn in the UAE

5min
pages 30-31

Creating an enabling environment

4min
page 29

An optimistic outlook

9min
pages 26-28

Nurturing business and startups ecosystem

5min
pages 24-25

IATA urges governments in the middle east to work together to develop a roadmap to restart aviation

3min
pages 22-23

New research shows the trend towards ESG and sustainability invertement is growing at pace due to the pandemic

4min
pages 18-21

MENA energy investements to exceed $805bln over the next five years: APICORP

2min
pages 10-11

Invest Africa and DLA piper part ner to support ESG best practice in African renewable energy projects

2min
page 12

How to start online trading (begin ners guide

4min
pages 16-17

UAE economy on tracks towards recovery in 2021

2min
pages 14-15

Acronis, recives more than $250M investment at a $2.5B valuation

2min
page 13

to be the largest in the Middle East Gulf Air Delivers 400,000 Vaccines

2min
pages 8-9

Saudi Arabia wind farm project set

3min
pages 6-7
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