Oracle will maintain its hiring spree across the Middle East to keep pace with rising competition and demand for cloud computing now that Dubai is embarking on plans to develop a smart city.
Over the past 12 months the American multinational computer technology corporation has hired an extra 200 staff as more than 100 of its customers across the region have moved their business applications onto Oracle’s cloud computing platform.
“We see demand for our customers and we don’t see any slowdown in rate of hiring. We will continue to search for good people in the market,” said Alfonso di Ianni, Oracle’s senior vice-president for the region.“We have hired a considerable number of telesales people in the region for service-as-software [cloud computing applications] in addition to the 200 we hired. We will continue to hire at that rate.”
Better economic activity and a high level of economic growth are pushing Oracle’s decision.
“There is strong prospect of growth through Dubai Expo 2020 which will demand more and more technology. [Our growth] will follow the growth of our customers,” said Mr di Ianni.
As Dubai gears up to become a smart city in time for the Expo, competition among service providers is heating up. Oracle, Cisco and Sap are all hoping to contribute to the initiative that will see the city become a more efficient and connected place to live. Applications including smart parking, waste management and city-wide Wi-Fi will require more robust cloud computing solutions and infrastructure.
“Businesses in the UAE today are no longer asking the question ‘should we put our applications in the cloud’? But rather ‘which aspect of our business can be run more effectively in the cloud?” said Mr di Ianni.
According to Oracle, demand for cloud computing in trade, transportation and tourism will increase significantly in Dubai over the next few years.
thamid@thenational.ae
Read more on smart cities in tomorrow’s Business section
