New cloud environment to support the company’s business growth and need for enterprise-grade security

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, September 28, 2020:  Saudi Bugshan Company (SBC), in collaboration with its technology arm Brmaja Commercial Company (Brmaja), has selected IBM Cloud to host its IT infrastructure. This transition aims to support SBC’s business growth plans and meet its critical need for infrastructure performance and enterprise-grade security, while accelerating the company’s digital transformation. 

SBC is the holding company of one of the largest conglomerates in the Middle East and North Africa region and has its headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It comprises 47 companies in various sectors, including food and beverage, distribution and trading, healthcare, real estate, hospitality, education and automotive. 

With its diversified portfolio of operations, SBC needed a secure and flexible cloud environment to be able to meet the requirements of each industry it serves and address their unique set of challenges. As a result, it selected IBM Cloud for its interoperability 
and now has the flexibility to deploy and run different industry-specific solutions from IBM (NYSE: IBM) and other technology vendors, as and when the need arises.

As part of the agreement, Brmaja and IBM Services worked closely to consolidate and migrate SBC’s mission-critical workloads and overall IT infrastructure, which were running across multiple physical and cloud environments, to a single IBM cloud. Today, SBC does not only benefit from enhanced business continuity and uninterrupted operations but is also able to rapidly meet its computing resources demands, without having to invest in additional hardware or physical infrastructure.

“Security, flexibility and performance are crucial requirements which must be taken into account when adopting new technologies, and IBM’s leadership and track record have played a key role in our selection of IBM Cloud,” said Khalid Bugshan, Chairman of SBC. “As we enter a new and exciting phase of our digital transformation, we are confident that our collaboration with IBM and Brmaja will further solidify our competitive position within the region and global market.” 

'The dynamic nature of a diversified business requires a regular review of its technology architecture,” said Dr. Hatem Bakheet, Group CEO of Brmaja. “To address the ever changing needs of the industries in which SBC operates, Brmaja and IBM joined forces to transform the company’s IT landscape and enable it to benefit from a secure and flexible cloud environment.”

Increased regulatory and compliance requirements are driving the need for improved security and resiliency. Through its cloud adoption as well as IBM and Brmaja’s support, SBC now benefits from market leading data and app protection and open source innovations to some of the world’s largest and most enterprises as they protect sensitive data. IBM Cloud also offers access to higher value technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Thing (IoT), allowing SBC to build and develop new innovative cloud-native applications and solutions to support its business.

“Cloud is a key enabler of transformation and lays the foundation for an enterprise’s digital evolution,” says Tarek Zarg Al Aioun, Country General Manager, IBM Saudi Arabia. “SBC’s adoption of IBM Cloud to harness its true potential is a testament to the company’s commitment to innovation and to lead the market by example.”