Cloud adoption challenges: data sovereignty and expertise gaps

Cloud adoption and AI were topics of discussion in a conversation with Talal Al Kaissi, CEO of G42 Cloud, a provider of AI-optimized cloud infrastructure. To read the complete interview with a technology and AI expert, scroll down.

TECHx:  Hi Talal, thanks for taking the time to sit with us today. Let’s dive right in – you’ve joined G42 Cloud about 6 months ago, but you’re certainly not new to the world of AI and Technology. What excites you the most about the Cloud industry?

Talal: Thanks for inviting me! Yes, you’re right – my background is tied very strongly to Tech and AI. 

I originally joined G42 as the Vice President of Special Projects & the Space Program in the Group CEO’s office, later assuming the role of the Group Chief of Staff, where I led a range of products and offerings that leverage G42’s robust AI and cloud computing platform.

Prior to that, I spent many years working in the UAE Space Agency and US Embassy in Washington, DC, advising on US/UAE Commercial and Space Affairs. 

So, when I joined G42 Cloud, I knew that the cloud is a foundational enabler to digital transformation and AI which can contribute to solving the modern world’s challenges. Trends such as digitisation of governments and organizations, proliferation of data and a subsequent requirement for its safe storage and sharing, are all driving the world’s dependence on cloud. And this is exactly what excites me being in the G42 Cloud business – it is truly a transformative platform for driving universal progress.

TECHx: Sounds like a lot of potential complexities to be solved along the way – what are the main challenges your team is facing when talking to clients? 

Talal: Indeed! 

Digital Transformation is complex for any organisation, big or small, and recent Metaverse and Blockchain movements have further accelerated cloud adoption across the board.

Usually, we see concerns around data sovereignty and residency (is my data secure? Do I own my data when it is on cloud? Who has access to my data?), expertise gaps (can one company really offer everything I need?) and the overall economics of moving into the Cloud.

Data Sovereignty as a subject is getting more and more attention from the market and media, and G42 Cloud has unique expertise in setting up and managing a sovereign cloud and ensuring secure data residency and complete data sovereignty for the clients. 

To address the expertise gap, we’ve setup up 2 initiatives.

The first is the ‘G42 Cloud Academy’, an online-based certification-level training program to ensure a solid pipeline of cloud talent.

The second is ‘Ecosystem Management’, a team within G42 Cloud, focused on identifying partners from all over the world, be it innovative startups in Web3.0, Blockchain or Metaverse areas, or enterprise-level firms like IBM or Microsoft along with a long list of SaaS and PaaS providers who we are onboarding to our cloud to make available to our customers.

This initiative, which now has about 170 partners, ensures we always have the latest, robust and the most holistic offering when it comes to serving our current and prospective clients. 

TECHx: Where do you think the cloud technology is headed next?

Talal: A lot of use cases within already established verticals are yet to be cracked, simply because there are so many of them. So, I think the market will continue expanding cloud adoption horizontally, and growing the portfolio of verticals. 

At G42 Cloud, we’ll focus on building dedicated industry cloud offerings, be it Energy, Healthcare, Financial Services, and the Public sector. The common denominator of all is that they presently, or in the future will need some sort of Blockchain technology and thus we are investing heavily in products around that area to offer as a cloud service and also working on onboarding several ecosystem partners that operate blockchain solutions. 

Lastly, but probably the most important challenge that we (and the entire cloud industry) are working on, is to improve the increasing need to provide business outcomes and value to our customers, and that’s where concepts like the intelligent data lake product and data management platform and solutions we build are becoming increasingly sought after by partners and customers looking to unlock value of their data and monetize what they have. This is an area we at G42 Cloud and with our partners across the G42 family from our Analytics business, to our Healthcare business are doubling down on , and we’ll have a number of very exciting announcements on this subject in the near future – stay tuned!