The planned investment with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology will result in Oracle expanding its existing cloud region in Jeddah and opening a new one in Riyadh. Credit: Getty Oracle on Monday said it is planning to invest $1.5 billion in Saudi Arabia to bolster its cloud computing capacity in the Middle East. The planned investment, which is part of Oracle’s memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, will see the public cloud services provider expand its existing cloud region in Jeddah, and open a new one in Riyadh. In addition to the Riyadh region, Oracle will work with the ministry to set up a commercial and operational model for another cloud region in Saudi Arabia that complies with Saudi government requirements and local data residency regulations. The company also plans to set up a separate cloud region in the futuristic city of Neom. Neom is being built as part of Saudi Vision 2030 program that has been planned to reduce Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil and diversify its economy. Oracle had first announced its intent to open 14 new cloud regions including those in Saudi Arabia in October 2021. Other Middle East regions announced during that time included a new region in Jerusalem and a second region in Abu Dhabi. With the addition of the Riyadh region, the company will have six cloud regions in the Middle East, Oracle said. Cloud players bullish on the Middle East Oracle rivals such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google Cloud have also been bullish on the Middle East, with each of them rapidly expanding their cloud footprint across the region. In August last year, AWS had opened its new cloud region in the UAE. The UAE region, which consists of three availability zones, joined the company’s existing cloud region in Bahrain, which was made available in 2019. The Bahrain cloud region is composed of three availability zones and one local region. AWS also has plans to add a new region in Israel. Microsoft too made its Qatar cloud region operational in August last year after opening regions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in 2019. Microsoft is also planning to launch a new cloud region in Israel soon. Similarly, Google Cloud, has announced plans to launch two regions each with three zones in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, and Doha, Qatar. It already operates one region with three zones in Tel Aviv. Related content how-to Compressing files using the zip command on Linux The zip command lets you compress files to preserve them or back them up, and you can require a password to extract the contents of a zip file. By Sandra Henry-Stocker May 13, 2024 4 mins Linux news High-bandwidth memory nearly sold out until 2026 While it might be tempting to blame Nvidia for the shortage of HBM, it’s not alone in driving high-performance computing and demand for the memory HPC requires. By Andy Patrizio May 13, 2024 3 mins CPUs and Processors High-Performance Computing Data Center opinion NSA, FBI warn of email spoofing threat Email spoofing is acknowledged by experts as a very credible threat. By Sandra Henry-Stocker May 13, 2024 3 mins Linux how-to Download our SASE and SSE enterprise buyer’s guide From the editors of Network World, this enterprise buyer’s guide helps network and security IT staff understand what Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Secure Service Edge) SSE can do for their organizations and how to choose the right solut By Neal Weinberg May 13, 2024 1 min SASE Remote Access Security Network Security PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS NEWSLETTERS Newsletter Promo Module Test Description for newsletter promo module. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe