Deployment models and the cloud in Saudi Arabia
| Public | Provider resources shared by many customers (isolated from each other). The most common and cheapest. |
| Private | A cloud for one organisation only, in its own data centre or hosted. More control, higher cost. |
| Hybrid | A mix: sensitive systems in-house, the rest in the public cloud, connected. |
| Multi-cloud | More than one public provider, e.g. Azure for email and AWS for apps, to avoid depending on one. |
Data residency: some organisations, especially government and finance, must keep data inside the Kingdom depending on data classification and regulation. In Saudi Arabia the National Cybersecurity Authority has issued Cloud Cybersecurity Controls, and the Personal Data Protection Law governs transfers of personal data abroad.
That's why the big providers are building regions in the Kingdom. Google Cloud and Oracle already run regions, Microsoft set its Saudi Arabia East region in the Eastern Province to open in November 2026, and AWS plans to launch its region in December 2026. This changes quickly, so check each provider's site.
A region is a geographic location with data centres. Each region has several availability zones: separate data centres with independent power and networking, so if one fails another carries on.