Saudi organizations are increasingly moving to the cloud for cost savings, with nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of IT decision-makers in the Kingdom saving costs on the cloud, according to new research from YouGov. Many Saudi organizations — especially small- and medium-sized enterprises — use traditional on-premise technology infrastructure, which presents business challenges. Organizations are locked into specific vendors, face rising costs in technology infrastructure, and do not have real-time customer insights. By taking a cloud approach to digital transformation, Saudi organizations, from government and public sector to oil and gas, can primarily optimize costs on hardware and software. The cloud can quickly, easily, and affordably scale up as organizations expand, serving as the foundation for business and economic growth. Among the 306 survey respondents, 30 percent said the cloud saved at least 25 percent in costs, and about one in eight respondents (13 percent) said the cloud saved at least 50 percent in costs. "Double-digit cost savings can help Saudi organizations to gain C-suite buy-in for cloud-based digital transformation, especially for SMEs operating on tighter budgets," Ahmed Al-Faifi, senior vice president and managing director, SAP Middle East North Africa. "Organizations running on the cloud can operate in real-time, easily scale up as they expand, and free up IT staff to focus on business innovation." As cyber-threats and cloud regulations increase, 92 percent of survey respondents agreed that keeping data in the Kingdom, also known as data sovereignty, ranks as important in running on the public cloud. "Our cloud data center in the Kingdom also provides strict levels of data security and privacy that meet government rules and regulations,' said Ahmed Al-Faifi. "Saudi Arabia's organizations can rest assured that all of their data on our cloud data center is stored, secured, analyzed, and backed up within the Kingdom." The survey added that among Saudi IT decision-makers, two-thirds (66 percent) plan for their organizations to be partially or fully on the cloud in 2019, and 59 percent plan to increase cloud spend in 2019. SAP is enabling Saudi Arabia's digital transformation with its live Digital Hub and cloud data center in the Kingdom, and its 4-year SR285 million Saudi Arabia investment plan. — SG
