Arun ShankarMoro Hub is a tier one platform created to serve the digital transformation of DEWA and to enable the digital transformation of government and enterprises in the country. Moro Hub is not only for DEWA, not only for the government, but we also speak to clients from the private sector, the banking sector and other conglomerates.
The focus in not only on utility, not just government, but across all sectors. The vision of Moro Hub is to be the digital transformation hub of choice. This is what Moro Hub is aiming to achieve through the enhancements it has put for both private and public sectors.
“The vision of Moro Hub is to be the digital transformation hub of choice.”
For consulting, we do use specialists, but we also have in-house resources. We have people who have joined us from different companies like Alibaba, GE and others. Whatever skillset is not available in the country, we leverage on partnerships with leading technology companies.
Market disruptions
Covid-19 has affected different sectors of the market, not only in the UAE, but across the world. Post Covid-19, the area will be different. We are lucky in the UAE and Dubai that the government has created initiatives and mandates, a long time back, to digitise the operations for businesses here in the country.
“Smart city solutions driven by IoT are the most exciting behind IoT.”
So, when the lockdown started here in the country and globally, UAE and Dubai specifically, we were one of the readiest cities in the world. This journey is going to continue and will be accelerated. All entities, whether in the private or the government sector will focus on being 100% digital ready.
“All entities, whether in the private or government, will focus on being 100% digital ready”
Smart city solutions driven by IoT, are the most exciting behind IoT. After capturing the data from the sensors that you install everywhere, based on the data you analyse behaviour and give the right consultation and advise to the decision makers.
DEWA has been launching initiatives and encouraging people to adopt the renewable energy. When we talk about storage of energy, it is new and evolving, so it is expensive. In October 2020, Moro Hub integrated the first data center in the region that is powered by solar energy. The understanding is there, it just requires that people adopt these renewable initiatives and technologies.
We have initiatives today, in water and electricity, to reduce the loss of power and water. DEWA has started for a number of years, in the implementation of their digital grid. All the water meters that are installed in Dubai are smart and by the end of this year all the electric meters will also be smart.
“It is still too early to talk about autonomous driving on the main roads in the country.”
So, meters are a good start to give some intelligence to the users and also to the service providers to reduce the consumption of electricity. This also gives the intelligence and information to DEWA to build its smart network.
It is still too early to talk about autonomous driving on the main roads in the country, because it is still under trial in many other countries. However, with 5G in the country this is going to enable and accelerate autonomous driving and of course legislations need to be put in place, as this is something new and the system and processes should also be relooked. Once the legislation is relooked this will be fast track and going to be implemented soon.
Datacentres and cloud
Moro Hub started with infrastructure so we do have the market in cloud. Besides that, we are also adopting the hybrid cloud strategy. This means if there are some services that cannot be made available on the local cloud, because of cost mainly, we do offer it to our clients through the hyperscale model with partners like Alibaba, Microsoft, Amazon and Google.
“We have partnerships with top tier technology companies to offer Internet solutions to clients.”
In terms of infrastructure cloud, we are ready. In terms of processes and all these areas, we do have partnerships with top tier technology companies to offer Internet solutions to our clients.
For the launch of the green data center, we have moved ours and our client’s infrastructure to the green data center. We can claim that a number of our clients are now using green energy and achieving their sustainability objectives. We are focusing on next year and this year we have established an infrastructure with multiple cloud offering for our clients
“We are offering VMware Cloud, Huawei Enterprise Cloud, IBM Power Series, Google Anthos Cloud.”
In 2021, we aim to offer a second layer, which is basically solutions on top of cloud. These would be all types of solutions, including smart city and cyber security solutions. Cyber threats are increasing and it is very important that we protect customers, and offer the capability and technology that we have to accelerate their performance.
“As a cloud service provider, we have been certified by Dubai Electronic Security Center.”
We are offering VMware Cloud, Huawei Enterprise Cloud, IBM Power Series, Google Anthos Cloud, running out of Moro Hub data center. There are definitely some solutions that run on one cloud and cannot run over other cloud. It is an enterprise multi-tenant cloud and it is not a public cloud.
“We are also a certified cloud service provider for Microsoft, Alibaba, Amazon.”
As a cloud service provider, we have also been certified by Dubai Electronic Security Center, which looks after the cyber security here in Dubai. We are certified by them as a cloud service provider. At Moro Hub we have several partners to be a single-stop-shop for our clients, and for all kinds of digital transformation solutions
There are certain modules or certain applications where the customer has no concerns to run it over public cloud, and certain applications that are available only to run on public cloud like cognitive services. We are also a certified cloud service provider for Microsoft, Alibaba and Amazon. We do have some entities in the government sector that are using certain applications from the public and we are running it and managing it on Alibaba.
With competency in energy and utilities, DEWA’s Moro Hub is engaging with government, public, private sector enterprise offering DX solutions. A conversation with CEO Mohammad bin Sulaiman.
