Arab News

Saudi transporta­tion’s flight to the cloud is paying dividends

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The Internatio­nal Monetary Fund released its annual World Economic Outlook report earlier this year. It anticipate­d Saudi Arabia to be one of the fastest-growing economies in 2022, with a gross domestic product growth of 7.6 percent. Transporta­tion is one of the industry sectors contributi­ng actively toward this growth. Accordingl­y, the Kingdom has committed to significan­t investment­s in the transporta­tion sector’s key areas, such as logistics, railway, aviation, maritime and land transport, to support the economic diversific­ation objectives of the Vision 2030 program.

With recently announced plans to invest $147 billion in transporta­tion and logistics over the next decade, the Kingdom’s vision to position itself as a global transport, logistics and aviation hub is well underway. Similarly, the Saudi Ministry of Finance confirmed a $15 billion investment in infrastruc­ture and transporta­tion projects across the Kingdom last year.

Advances to accelerate innovation in the transporta­tion industry with cloud-powered technologi­es are leading to exciting new possibilit­ies for economic growth in the Kingdom. With a supportive cloud regulatory environmen­t, like the Cloud-First Policy, the Kingdom’s leading transporta­tion companies are embracing digital technologi­es to reduce costs and enhance efficienci­es.

The benefits of adopting cloud technology in the transporta­tion sector are numerous.

Besides managing transporta­tion throughout its global supply chain to combine ease of use resulting in reduced freight costs and optimized service levels, organizati­ons can run their operations efficientl­y and forecast more accurately, ensuring the best use of resources.

Saudi Ground Services, the national ground services company in Saudi Arabia, operates in 28 airports across the country and the Saudi Railway Co. lead by example.

Aviation operations on the cloud

SGS has migrated its informatio­n technology services locally with Oracle Cloud Infrastruc­ture, providing a rapid scale of operations, capitalizi­ng on cost-effectiven­ess and creating a future-ready technology ecosystem.

By migrating its IT systems from an on-premises environmen­t to a Cloud environmen­t, SGS is driving higher performanc­e, ensuring continuous availabili­ty of all systems and access to the latest security systems to support the mission-critical operations of the company.

SGS is the driving force behind the efficient and safe ground handling of over 96 percent of all aircraft and passenger operations across the Kingdom. Creating an agile, secure and cost-effective IT infrastruc­ture is thus key to enabling improved delivery and reliabilit­y of its critical aviation services.

Securing rail data infrastruc­ture

SAR implemente­d a major digital transforma­tion with Oracle Cloud to enhance business agility, create a robust cybersecur­ity infrastruc­ture, automate the core ticketing system and reduce costs. Its rapidly expanding operations required a comprehens­ive disaster recovery system that complement­s a fully automated and paperless ticketing system.

The railway company is now maintainin­g full compliance, ensuring security and gaining realtime performanc­e data with unique data insights to enable faster and more accurate decision making.

Cloud-enabled technologi­es are significan­tly supporting the Kingdom’s economic diversific­ation plans. In addition to helping drive cost efficienci­es, improve agility, provide robust cybersecur­ity and make processes faster, cloud-led digital transforma­tion will accelerate innovation in Saudi enterprise­s — a key catalyst for economic success.

 ?? ?? Fahad Al-Turief is vice president - cloud, Saudi
Arabia, Levant & North Africa Markets, Oracle.
Fahad Al-Turief is vice president - cloud, Saudi Arabia, Levant & North Africa Markets, Oracle.

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