Saudi Arabian operator Mobily has inked a partnership with enterprise cloud software and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider Virtustream to offer cloud services to enterprises and small-to-medium businesses.

Under the terms of the deal, Mobily will use Virtustream’s xStream cloud management software to run its public and hybrid clouds.

According to Virtustream, businesses in Saudi will be able to move mission-critical applications, including legacy software, to the cloud. This would include applications such as those provided by SAP, Microsoft and Oracle, without needing to rewrite the software.

The firm added that the Mobily/Virtustream cloud service offers businesses improved IT efficiency, application level performance SLAs, consumption based pricing and high levels of enterprise security and compliance. Public cloud IaaS savings can be greater than 50 per cent due to the elimination of in-house hardware, maintenance, deployment and staff hours as well as the ease of scalability, Virtustream added.

“We see this as the perfect time for cloud services in the region and the alliance of Mobily and Virtustream in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia presents tremendous opportunities,” said Rodney Rogers, chairman and CEO at Virtustream.