Decolonising cloud technology

When most corporate data and applications were sitting on-premises, enterprises had little to worry about regarding the vulnerabilities inherent in using the public internet.

However, in this age of shared resources with different digital borders, with cloud networking, online applications and off-premises data centres, organisations have had to migrate the majority of their operations and information online. Furthermore, increased connections between branches freely traversing the public internet, exposes an enterprise to a myriad of security risks. With the second digital revolution upon us and all the access it brings to service providers across the globe, any degradation in the quality of service adds more pressure on business leaders seeking to transform their operations.

OmniClouds technologies and digital services were designed to overcome these same shortcomings that include a visionary approach to problem-solving. “Our edge computing devices connect to and work in tandem with our dedicated overlay network. We then leverage the networks of the service providers in the countries we operate from to offer encrypted secure mesh connectivity. Additionally, the simultaneous use of multiple streams of communication significantly improves the quality of service,” explains Amr Eid, CEO and board member of OmniClouds.

The company’s global overlay dedicated network sits on top of the normal public internet provided by ISPs to offer customers a more efficient and secure way to reach the cloud, virtualise their applications and interconnect their various branches or even work from home.

Cloud revolution
Although cloud adoption has greatly accelerated in recent years, many businesses today still find themselves on the wrong end of the cloud revolution.

Eid attributes this reluctance to several factors. The first being personal perception, he says. “In a disruptive market environment, your background works against you, while your mindset works for you. Market dynamics are very different and doing things the same way you used to will lead to failure,” warns Eid.

The second hurdle businesses face is inadequate infrastructure. Luckily, the UAE and most of the GCC countries offer high- speed fibre connectivity for virtually everyone. Other countries are not so lucky. “In some of the countries we operate in, the average speed can be as low as 3Mbps compared to 100Mbps available in the GCC,” Eid notes.

But even in such situations, OmniClouds has a solution. “We can deliver to businesses up to 100Mbps of bandwidth at a very small incremental price, saving companies and governments millions of dollars spent on passive infrastructure. At the same time, we offer firewall-as-a-service, switch-as-a-service and router-as-a-service, all paid through a monthly subscription fee making it very convenient for our customers to customise our services based on their specific needs,” says Eid.

OmniClouds can help bridge the cloud transition through its Cloud Companion service, a consultation service that helps assess performance and assurance requirements that assist businesses to identify the right cloud provider, cost estimates, and helps in devising required organisational reforms.

Technology colonisation
While the technology market may appear as a vast and open bazaar to the casual observer, power structures are firmly rooted within the technical infrastructure space. “Today, if you want to buy a router or a switch, there are only specific vendors you can approach. This is called the colonisation of technology. Our strategy involves decolonisation of technology as well as the CAPEX investment associated with it and offer a truly as-a-service offering,” says Eid.

The Covid-19 pandemic sent many OmniClouds customers into a spin, including a global
contact centre operator, whose agents were locked out of office by stay-at-home orders. An OmniClouds device called OmniRemote saved this company from potential collapse. The OmniRemote connects through an ADSL line and a SIM card, which enabled employees to connect to their contact centre and continue making calls. “Eventually, this business eliminated its office space by moving call centre operations to its home-based workforce, while expanding their agent number by 50 per cent,” says Eid.

Another customer in the banking sector is in beta testing for an encrypted virtual desktop, where the bank officer will be able to work from home at the same level of cybersecurity as if he were sitting in the office.

With technologies built for the new way of working, OmniClouds is expanding fast. The company has subsidiaries and offices all over the world including Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the GCC, OmniClouds operates in the UAE and Kuwait and will soon be opening offices in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. OmniClouds looks forward to bringing the future in as-a-services technology to support businesses during an era that is plagued by a pandemic.