US technology company Oracle has announced plans to open a new cloud data centre in Abu Dhabi and hire 250 cloud sales professionals.

The firm said the expansion was needed to keep pace with customer demand for cloud services in the UAE, where it has more than doubled its workforce in the last three years.

“As companies turn to cloud computing to modernise their business and drive innovation, we are seeing significant demand for Oracle Cloud – in the Middle East and around the world,” said Oracle’s EMEA and APAC president Loic Le Guisquet.

“We are investing in the infrastructure to support this demand by hiring new, top sales talent and by building new data centres. The Middle East is an important region for us and we will continue to invest here."

Oracle said the data centre would help it meet service level and data governance needs of customers in the Middle East.

The firm also plans to open new offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai Internet City, Amman and Riyadh this year to support its operations.