Pakistan’s first hyper-scaler financial cloud launched

ISLAMABAD: Huawei Technologies Ltd. and Khazana Enterprise have reached a memorandum of understanding to build Pakistan’s first hyper-scaler financial cloud, aiming to bolster data security and increase financial inclusion in the country.

Khazana, dedicated to providing innovative products and services, will invest $10 million in the first phase of cloud launching, according to details.

The launch event was attended by key leaders from the financial industry, government, and business sectors of Pakistan, who emphasised that cyber security would have to be in place to maximise the benefits of storage capacity of data computing in Pakistan.

The first ever in-country cloud will help in increasing financial inclusion as Pakistan has been denied millions of dollars for access to cloud services. The initiative would also pave the way for entities to opt for a solution in Pakistan that benefits local businesses and the exchequer.

Speaking on the occasion, Nadeem Hussain, executive chairman of Planet N Group, said, “Pakistan required financial inclusion for moving towards a growth trajectory which could be increased from 11.5 million to 30-40 million for using banking services.”

He was of the view that the in-country cloud service would address a fear of getting hacked and also data storage issues.

“There are 60 to 70 percent cost attached to establishing physical data centers. If you want digital Pakistan, you have tons of data and this data needs to be stored somewhere either physical storage or on a cloud and the world has demonstrated the benefits of cloud over physical data storage i.e. flexibility, agility, cost cyber security etc.”

The State Bank of Pakistan is giving an enabling environment for the in-country cloud that can be used both for the material or non-material data, according to Hussain.

Bob Din, chairman of Khazana, said the company will to invest $10 million in phase one of cloud launching, which would be expanded in the second phase for moving at faster pace. “Otherwise, Pakistan would lag behind in first class data digital services.”

Shahzad Rasheed, CEO of Huawei Cloud Pakistan, said, “We are living in the era of disruption, either disrupt or get disrupted. The upcoming time will completely change the way banks have been operating.”

Digital transformation of organisations is not possible without using digital divers like artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, machine learning, and these digital drivers need to be hosted somewhere on a cloud, according to Rasheed.

“Huawei cloud differentiates itself by 2 ways; firstly being one of the three hyper scaler federated cloud available in Pakistan; secondly for the digital banks, it provides software services and out of book solutions just by a single click,” he said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan chairman Akif Saeed apprised that SECP was focusing on end to end digitalisation of companies operating in the country.