Abu Dhabi's e& to use Oracle cloud services for long-term transformation programme

UAE telecoms and technology company e&, formerly known as the Etisalat Group, has teamed up with industry major Oracle to boost its cloud footprint to support its expansion plans and modernise business applications within the organisation.

The partnership will give Abu Dhabi-based e& access to Oracle's 100-plus cloud services to scale its operations, reduce costs and support its growing portfolio in which artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and 5G are key components, e& said on Thursday.

The company will retail full control of its data, adhering to the UAE's security, regulatory and data residency requirements.

The collaboration, announced at Oracle's CloudWorld conference in Abu Dhabi, is part of a multi-year transformation programme by e& to consolidate its infrastructure into a shared and open-standard platform.

It falls under e&'s strategy of "transforming its business to support our customers in a new world defined by digitalisation and hyper-connectivity", said Khalid Murshed, chief technology and information officer of Etisalat by e&.

"As we continue to grow, we need to consolidate and simplify our technology infrastructure to make us more agile and adaptable."

Meanwhile, e& has emphasised it will retain "full control of our data governance, giving us the operational agility and scalability we require to support the rapid growth and diversification of our business".

The UAE is boosting the adoption of technology as it seeks to develop the future economy.

This has given global cloud and cyber security providers an incentive to tap into the potential being offered by the country.

The Emirates has also invested heavily in building its IT infrastructure to boost the integrity of its public and private sector systems.

As part of the implementation of Oracle's services within e&'s structure, the dedicated cloud platform will help e& simplify HR processes, improve employee experience and deliver enhanced workforce insights.

“The implementation will help e& align business strategy with the human resource function, reduce compliance risk and deploy the workforce with greater control through a fully integrated solution that links time, labour, and leave management with payroll, financial and personnel data," said Leopoldo Lama, a senior vice president for business applications at Oracle.

Also at CloudWorld, Oracle signed a framework agreement with Injazat, a technology business that is part of Abu Dhabi's artificial intelligence company G42, to build a dedicated cloud region specifically for entities in the UAE federal government and the emirate's public companies.

The cloud region will give these organisations access to Oracle's cloud applications and infrastructure that comply with top regulatory standards and local laws, the companies said.