Microsoft and Amazon See Growth in Middle Eastern Cloud Services

Dubai Airports Co. uses Microsoft’s Azure cloud service for the Wi-Fi it offers travelers. But for most other applications, it spends a lot of money and uses precious square footage to run its own servers. The airport company is partly owned by the United Arab Emirates government, and local law requires data related to government entities to be stored in the country.

“We’d rather use that space and energy for airplanes and passengers and bags than for data centers,” says Michael Ibbitson, the company’s executive vice president for technology and infrastructure. His wish will soon be a reality. Next year, Microsoft Corp. is expected to cut the ribbon on a data center in Dubai, a move that will potentially bring in a lot more business from existing clients, including the airport operator. Ibbitson says that as soon as the Azure center is open, the airport will consider transferring files there, including financial data.