Technology giant Oracle said on Tuesday it will launch an underground cloud data center in Jerusalem, partnering with Bynet Data Communications. Oracle is the first global tech giant to open a cloud region in Israel, constituting an unprecedented investment in Jerusalem.
The data center extends over four floors at a depth of 50 meters below ground level. Spread across thousands of meters, it is designed to be one of the most secure in the Middle East, providing advanced cloud services to companies in Israel’s defense industry, government, banks, insurance companies, infrastructure, technology, retail and more.
The announcement comes as the government prepares to choose a winner of its massive Nimbus cloud-based data-center project, which would move much of the government’s IT infrastructure to the cloud.
Oracle is one of a handful of world-leading cloud-service providers that were invited to submit bids for the tender, which will be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Amazon, whose AWS cloud service is the largest player in the field, is also believed to be a leading contender.
Oracle said the establishment of the Israel data region is part of its global plan to establish 38 cloud regions worldwide by the end of 2021, which would make it the public cloud provider with the fastest expansion of any major cloud provider in the world.
“This is an important step toward the upcoming opening of the Oracle Israel East Cloud region,” said Uzi Navon, Oracle’s Israel country leader. “With the new Cloud region in the capital city of Israel, Oracle is once again proving its commitment to the State of Israel and to Israeli customers and ensures a second-generation cloud infrastructure with the strongest performance at the highest level of security.”
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion said: “The establishment of the first public cloud in Israel, specifically in Jerusalem, will contribute to the further development of the city’s technology.”