Saudi STC to Invest up to $500 Mln in Cloud Services with Partners

Business

December 28th, 6:36pm

Asharq Al-Awsat

STC will invest up to $500 million over five years in cloud services in partnership with eWTP Arabia Capital fund and Alibaba Cloud company. (Reuters)

Saudi Telecom Company (STC), the largest telecom operator in the Kingdom, and eWTP Arabia Capital, one of the largest venture capital funds in the region, jointly announced on Monday that they will partner with Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group to provide the high-performance public cloud service in Saudi Arabia. The company views the Kingdom as the strategic epicenter of its operations in the region and is keen to make its contribution to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. Under this partnership, STC will be able to leverage the proven cloud-based technologies and services of Alibaba Cloud to accelerate the growth of local technology ecosystem, reported the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). Alibaba Cloud is planning to invest in the Kingdom, up to USD 500 million over the next five years. The investment will including provide world-class comprehensive resources to help build sustainability and ensure localization. In addition, a new office will be set up in Riyadh, to provide better services to local customers, also be the regional training and management center for next chapter. As one of the world’s top cloud providers, Alibaba Cloud’s public cloud offerings will cover the latest advancements on the public cloud platform which have been used to support the business of Alibaba Group, taking the digitalization of local enterprises and SMEs to the next level. “Saudi Arabia is a strategic market for us. Alibaba Cloud is committed to delivering our best-in-class services, solutions as well as our business practices in digital transformation to the partners and customers we work with in the Kingdom. We will invest and provide a wide range of resources to support our partners locally,” said Jeff Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, Partner of Alibaba Group. Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Amer Al-Swaha commented that MCIT would like to support companies with wise foresight such as Alibaba Cloud, and they look forward to Alibaba Cloud’s future performance and contribution to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. “This collaboration is a significant milestone for STC in our efforts to contribute to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 by introducing a trusted cloud service partner,” he added. “It is pivotal for companies to deploy and maintain an elastic, scalable and secure IT infrastructure to keep competitive and innovative in the digital era.” Nasser Bin Sulaiman Al Nasser, CEO of STC Group, said: “We are excited to partner with Alibaba Cloud to bring their expertise to our customers.” Jerry Li, Managing Partner of eWTP Arabia Fund, said: “eWTP Arabia Capital is committed to ensure that this partnership makes a strong effort towards realization of Vision 2030 goals.”

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2708686/saudi-stc-invest-500-mln-cloud-services-partners