‘Transitioning to cloud offers strong business benefits'

Cloud adoption shows over 77 per cent benefit in IT cost reduction

UAE’s CIOs explore benefits of transitioning to cloud computing at CIOMajlis

Dubai, UAE, September 1, 2016:  Greater cloud adoption has shown clear business benefits of over 77 per cent in terms of IT cost reduction, and significantly better outcomes in terms of revenue growth, time taken in providing services as well as IT budget allocations, a senior IT expert said, while addressing Chief Information Officers, during the recent CIOMajlis session on ‘Cloud Computing’ held at Armani Hotel.

The CIOMajlis is an initiative by Smartworld, an Etisalat and Dubai South joint venture engaged in providing IT services, aimed at taking economic growth to the next level by bringing Chief Information Officers (CIOs) from public and private sector companies in the UAE on a common platform to share international best practices and explore business solutions in line with the UAE’s Innovation Strategy and the government’s goal to make it the world’s most innovative country by 2021. 

Abdulqader Obaid Ali, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Smartworld, said: “The UAE is very progressive when it comes to adopting the world’s latest and advanced technologies. The response from companies to CIOMajlis clearly shows the keen ness to excel and this is the right platform for companies to understand the right way to go about it.”

Allan Gerrish, Consulting Systems Engineer, Cisco Systems, while addressing the session, said businesses in the region are rapidly adopting cloud strategies, thereby achieving significant gains and staying ahead of competition.

“Cloud has been around and taken a lot of different formats. Different studies have shown the business benefits companies have been accruing from transitioning and its opening different avenues of revenues. There could be challenges in transitioning from traditional to cloud native applications but companies driven by competitiveness are already making the changes,” he said.

Quoting an IDC survey, Gerrish said cloud adoption showed 77 per cent reduction in IT costs, four per cent increase in revenue, in addition to other benefits in strategic allocation of IT budget (200 per cent improvement) and time to provision IT services (99 per cent). 

IDC’s CloudView Survey showed that organisations studied are realising $1.6 million in additional revenue and $1.2 million in reduced costs per cloud application.

According to the survey, as companies adopt cloud strategies for sourcing and building IT services, they are both expecting and achieving significant gains in business key performance indicators (KPIs) including revenue growth, strategic IT budget allocation, IT costs, quicker time to provision, and increased ability to meet SLAs. 

Furthermore, with an increased orientation to cloud, the benefits accelerated.

“The UAE’s leadership is highly progressive and is encouraging organisations to lead by adopting the latest technological advancements. Cloud gives secure investment, power of choice and is an innovative engine and companies here are well placed to reap the beenfits,” added Gerrish.

Ahmad Al Mulla, Senior Vice President, Information technology, Emirates Global Aluminium, Chairman of the CIOMajlis, said: “There are clearly very strong benefits of transitioning to Cloud. It is not a question of whether or not companies should go for it. It needs to be planned properly before an organization makes this transition to gain the maximum business benefits.”

Chief Information Officers (CIOs) from over 30 companies from Energy, Logistics, Finance, health, Aviation, Government, Construction, Oil and Gas, Education and other sectors explored ways on tapping into the opportunities of transitioning to ‘Cloud Computing’ during the recent CIOMajlis session.