OmniClouds: Crossing the chasm to remote digital work

The startup helps organisations stay securely connected in the new norm

Life, as we know, has changed since the pandemic but history tells us that it will be a better whole new world for those who embrace, adapt, and change.

Organisations are now looking to migrate to the digital platforms, customer service centres seek a shift to work from home while maintaining secure access to resources and monitoring tools. Companies may want to migrate data centers to the cloud, children seek opportunities to study from home, while having access to the school materials, or banking institutions want to be able to reach their core services remotely.

How can all this take place seamlessly in the most cost-effective manner? OmniClouds has the answer for you.

Led by Amr Eid, CEO and board member of the technology start-up headquartered in Singapore, OmniClouds was initiated just 18 months ago. The innovative communications company already has a turnover of $24 million, with 80 employees, and is all set to nearly double in size in the next three months to 150 people, at their offices located in Dubai Media City, across the MENA region, and further afield.

The key to OmniClouds solutions is flexibility and scalability. As companies switch over to the cloud-based hosting of services, they no longer need to buy huge amounts of computing hardware - the core switches, firewall, and server are being replaced with small, general-purpose devices configured with software to move the application's traffic around the cloud services.

"Need to move from having a hundred workers in a call centre to have them all work from home? No problem, one small and inexpensive 'white box', sold as a monthly service, and the workers can instantly work remotely, with their computer and phone operating exactly as they did in the office," Eid added.

Speaking about new trends and their permanency, Eid explained: "As the crisis happened, there were a lot of logical changes that happened. Changes have created many habits that will remain, while the adaptability to explore new ways will take place. The sharing economy is here to stay. We are no longer willing to spend thousands of dollars on a server.

What is OmniClouds doing to adapt to the new business model? "We give our partners security and firewall as a service that allows connectivity to multiple cloud service providers," Eid says.

Education is a key market for OmniClouds. With both public and private providers in the region quick to join the unique structures that cloud computing and remote education can provide, OmniClouds offers students flexible plans per month for access to all their online course materials from K1 to K12, which is helping governments and schools move their entire offering online.

OmniClouds has created credits with education ministries in the Middle East and partnering to transform education from certificate-oriented to knowledge-based. Students further get access to thousands of libraries and approved curriculum along with accelerated access to top online games at a record low latency.

OmniClouds is currently working on the next generation of AI technologies - from facial recognition technology that lets banks identify customers from a video call, to mesh networking that can route around physical Internet infrastructure in an emergency or the developing world. They also have ideas for temporary buildings that could serve as classrooms by day then transform into libraries by night, filled with digital books and learning materials.

OmniClouds will continue to push the boundaries and expand into more countries this year. A business to watch in 2021.

Produced by KT Engage, the branded content unit of Khaleej Times

• KT Engage