Pioneers in cloud services

Oman

Maqbool Al Wahaibi, CEO of Oman Data Park (ODP), talks to The Energy Year about the company’s game-changing role in Oman’s IT sector, its work in providing cloud solutions to oil and gas players and its delivery of cost optimisation to clients. ODP offers managed IT, hosting, cloud services and security services in Oman.

What is ODP’s position within the country’s IT sector?
Oman Data Park was established in 2012 as the first cloud service provider and throughout the years we have achieved a series of other firsts in the sultanate’s IT sector: the first virtual data centre (Nebula), the first artificial intelligence-ready cloud infrastructure (Nebula AI) and the first cyber-security centre (Cyber Security Park).
We started with one data centre and now we have four: three already operational and one under construction, which should be running by the end of Q1 2024 and will be located in Nizwa. They deliver four types of services: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) and Logistics as a Service (LaaS).
We are the leader in Oman for cloud services provision because we have been pioneering this segment. When we kicked off operations, we faced many challenges: people did not know what we were doing and before getting into the sales component, we had to show them what cloud services are and their attached benefits. However, we managed to generate awareness around them and once we did it, we were already halfway there.
The beauty of a cloud is that it sells itself since if you cloudify your data infrastructure, you reduce your operational costs while delivering better quality of services. As of today, we have a 70% market share in cloud services and data storage across multiple sectors, while in oil and gas specifically, our share stands at around 40-45%.

What key competitive advantages does ODP bring to the table for its clients?
Our aim is to add value to the overall market by positioning and ensuring reliable cloud services, which have been driven by the rationale of maintaining a data residency. In fact, although cloud service providers are available worldwide, many government entities require them to be localised, with our competitive advantage relying on data residency: our ability to store organisations’ and businesses’ data in loco.
Besides this, we have a diversified portfolio, with multiple cloud stacks sitting on several cloud computing and software companies such as VMware, Red Hat, KVM and NVIDIA, leading us to be very flexible in our offer and deliver different “flavours” to our clients. We have a customer-centric approach and we are driven by market demand.
In other words, what differentiates us is that – unlike multinational providers that have and sell only their own product (for example, Microsoft will sell you Azure, Amazon its AWS infrastructure, Oracle its cloud platform) – we have them all under ODP’s roof. Some of our clients operate in multi-cloud environments, which means that their applications sit on Azure, but then their database shifts to Oracle.
What we provide is a diversified framework, which in turn provides our clients with power since it allows them to orchestrate their activities between different set-ups and significantly reduce the operational costs because they don’t lock themselves into one vendor, or one solution.

What are the key sectors driving the demand for your services in Oman?
We started providing our services to the financial sector. Our first client was Bank Nizwa and then Alizz Islamic Bank. It was the first initiative of its kind in the region where a bank could actually outsource its core application components. It was a tough experience but it helped us grow to the extent that today we are working with 12 banks, hosting their data and providing cloud services.
Energy is our second-largest field of operations. We are working with OQ, Oxy (whose main data centre has been hosted by us since 2015) and NAMA Group’s subsidiaries. However, we need to penetrate the oil and gas sector further, as we believe that if we manage to support it with our product portfolio, it can uplift us to the next level. However, we are not there yet.
Then, we are into the telecoms sector, managing the core cloud infrastructure of Vodafone Oman, and besides we also have on board Awasr and Omantel.

Can you walk us through the steps you’ve taken to further penetrate the domestic oil and gas sector and the main challenges attached?
Before being able to work with big oil and gas companies, you need to build solid relationships with them. They need to trust you and your products. They are really keen in their due diligence before being comfortable sharing their baby with you.
There are two sides to the coin: on the one hand, it is a sector that is enjoying good profitability margins, which might slow down its companies’ drive to digitalise. On the other hand, however, it is under pressure from an operative costs perspective, which leads companies to take cloud-based innovations more seriously. Our duty, as technology providers, is to understand oil and gas companies better, doing our homework to be able to speak the same language. This is what we are pursuing in ODP, as we did with the financial sector.
Unless you are not aligned with what they are looking for, it is a critical segment to penetrate, particularly in a country like Oman that is dependent on hydrocarbons revenues. To put it bluntly, oil and gas is a different ballgame, where you cannot afford to shut down activities even for a short while because it would have repercussions on the whole economy.
That is why operators and oilfield services providers are overcautious and why it is important to build trust.
In ODP, we are developing our centre of excellence to speak the oil and gas players’ language and we are in talks with some of them, such as SLB [formerly Schlumberger] and Halliburton, about hosting their related digital components.

Could you give us more details on the services you are delivering to oil and gas players in-country?
As far as SaaS is concerned, we are delivering e-procurement solutions to OQ. Regarding IaaS, instead of building its own data centres for disaster recovery, OQ is utilising ours on a private cloud model.
Moreover, in October 2022, we sealed a deal with SLB to collaborate on digital cloud-based solutions, where SLB will utilise our cloud infrastructure – using Microsoft Azure, which we have localised and we manage, to deploy a Digital Drilling Solution (Delfi) that will boost operational efficiency and improve business performance. Basically, the idea is to automate the oil and gas components from a drilling and seismic data processing perspective since these have reached a consistent maturity and are about to enter a stage of depreciation.
I see great benefits arising from more digitalised procedures: automation is there and will take over, but it will be a gradual process because of the investments that oil and gas players have already put into place and it would be too risky to throw them all out of the window and make a sudden change.
Delfi is just the first case of an oil and gas company’s entry into our system as we are already in talks with PDO, Daleel Petroleum and others to explore collaboration opportunities on this matter.

What is your assessment of the main benefits of automation and digitalisation and ODP’s standpoint on delivering cost optimisation solutions?
Some months back I participated in an SLB symposium in Switzerland. They set up a spot where they were showing automated drilling, using Delfi. They were actually managing a drill in Texas from Switzerland, all via the cloud network. The main benefit is the huge savings on their operational costs, around 45%, be it from Delfi or from other cloud stacks that we can offer. Another pivotal element is cutting greenhouse gas emissions. There is increasing pressure on the oil and gas sector to move to net zero, and automation together with digitisation are two of the keys that can open that door.
From our experience, I can give you an example on optimisation. As mentioned, Oxy’s data centre has been in ODP since 2015, connecting Houston with the oil rigs in the Omani midlands. Back then, Oxy had two options, either building up their own data centre and managing it with all the associated costs, or hosting it with us. Thanks to us, not only did they save money, but they could stay more focused on their area of expertise, channelling their human and capital resources to their core business, leaving the cloud technology aspects to us.

How does ODP contribute to the development of SMEs?
We are deeply committed to supporting SMEs’ growth, providing them with special packages for our services. Usually, they get three-year contracts where during the first year, they don’t pay anything, in the second they pay 50% and from the third they start paying with some discounts applied.
Our approach is to give them a window to understand if and how they will be able to grow, taking the initial investment on our shoulders. However, the ultimate goal we set in ODP is to build channels to serve the market through them, utilising the SME platform to take technologies to multiple sectors. We are currently in talks with some of them that are solid and interested in collaborating on this initiative, one of which is focusing on developing AI for oil and gas.

What is your strategy for future growth?
Our goal is to be one of the top 10 managed service providers in the world by 2030, pursuing excellence in providing services and strongly positioning our products. The strategy is to strengthen our activities beyond Oman, building sales relationships through localised sales teams and establishing partnerships, particularly within the oil and gas sector.
To achieve this, we trust and rely on our diversification capabilities, from not only a products portfolio perspective, but also a sourcing one because we strongly believe that having different mindsets coming from different geographical areas amplifies and will benefit our innovative way of conducting business.

What would be your message to local oil and gas companies?
Oman has been a nation at the forefront of technological innovations and we represent proof of having been ahead of the game. Besides this, we are a robust company with 10-plus years of experience, during which we have served critical infrastructures in oil and gas, in power, in the finance sector. We have well-rooted, certified capabilities and my message to the oil and gas sector, particularly to PDO, is that they should utilise us more, give us the chance to prove what we can do and the benefits we can bring to their business, taking advantage of our versatility, wide offer and innovation-oriented mentality.

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