Aligning with national digital priorities

The UAE has made data localisation, cyber resilience and digital trust central pillars of its broader economic strategy, including initiatives such as Dubai Vision 2030. Against this backdrop, local cloud infrastructure has become a strategic requirement rather than a technical preference.

For CIOs, particularly those in the public sector or highly regulated industries, these certifications reduce procurement friction and compliance risk. They also assure that core business applications, identity management, endpoint management and observability tools can be deployed in the cloud without breaching local regulations.

Unlike hyperscale cloud providers that focus primarily on infrastructure, Zoho is positioning its UAE datacentres as a platform foundation for end-to-end digital transformation. The facilities will host everything from customer experience and financial applications to low-code development tools and IT service management platforms.

On the Zoho side, the company’s strongest growth in the UAE has been driven by its customer experience portfolio, including Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk and Zoho CRM Plus, alongside Zoho Books, which is VAT-compliant and approved by the Federal Tax Authority. CIOs are also increasingly adopting Zoho Creator, the company’s low-code application development platform, to modernise legacy workflows and reduce dependence on custom development.

Zoho Workplace and Zoho One have gained traction among organisations looking to consolidate suppliers, lower the total cost of ownership and simplify IT governance. According to the company, this platform-led approach supported a 48% increase in upmarket growth in 2025, as larger enterprises seek faster time to value without the complexity of stitching together multiple point solutions.

ManageEngine’s enterprise momentum

For CIOs responsible for IT operations, security and service management, ManageEngine’s inclusion in the UAE datacentres is equally significant. The brand recorded 20% growth in the UAE in 2025, driven by enterprise demand for unified endpoint management, IT service management and cloud observability. Solutions such as Endpoint Central, ServiceDesk Plus and Site24x7 have seen particularly strong adoption across the banking, financial services and insurance, government and manufacturing sectors. Cloud adoption for ManageEngine’s services is growing at nearly 35% in the region, reflecting a broader shift towards cloud-first IT strategies that prioritise scalability, resilience and faster innovation.

Zoho’s datacentre launch builds on steady expansion in the country. In 2025 alone, the company grew by 38.7% in the UAE, expanded its partner network by 29%, and increased its local workforce by 35% to support a growing customer base. Over the past five years, Zoho has invested AED80m in enabling digital transformation for more than 7,000 businesses through partnerships with organisations such as Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism and Dubai Culture.

For CIOs navigating budget pressures, skills shortages and regulatory complexity, the opening of Zoho’s UAE datacentres signals a maturing local cloud ecosystem. It offers an alternative model to hyperscalers – one that combines local data residency, broad application coverage and a focus on operational simplicity, aligned closely with the UAE’s national digital ambitions.