More than four-fifths, 83 percent, of UAE IT decision-makers agree that it is important for organizations that run their operations in the public cloud to keep their data in-country, according to new research from market research firm YouGov.
YouGov’s survey of 502 UAE IT decision-makers shows that 88 percent are increasing their cloud spend in 2019, with 83 percent will run partially or fully on the cloud. The same survey shows that 83 percent of the respondents agree that data sovereignty, or keeping data in-country, is “somewhat” or “very” important.
Data sovereignty and data privacy is key topic among UAE organizations, especially because of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR). GDPR gives individuals more control over their data, more rules for organizations to follow about processing customer data, and powerful enforcement. GDPR applies to both European Union citizens and organizations that interact with European Union organizations, making GDPR especially important to international trade hubs such as Dubai and the UAE.
“With 83 percent of UAE IT decision-makers valuing data sovereignty, UAE organizations need to ensure their data is safe from cyber-threats, and can meet the European Union’s world-leading General Data Protection Regulation,” said Zakaria Haltout, Managing Director, UAE, SAP. “Only in-country data centers can provide the full range of services and solutions for organizations to meet the data sovereignty needs of their customers.”
SAP continues to support the UAE’s cloud-based digital transformation, being the first multi-national business applications provider to go live on and onboard customers to its public cloud data center in the UAE, the 5-year USD 200 million UAE investment plan. Supporting data privacy, SAP is among the first companies to receive global certification from the British Standards Institution for data protection.