Cloudera Expands Middle East Presence with New Entity in Saudi Arabia

Cloudera , the only company bringing AI to data anywhere, has announced plans to establish an office in Saudi Arabia, reaffirming its steadfast dedication to the region.

This builds on years of collaboration with local organizations and supports Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 for accelerated digital transformation. Cloudera will launch its office in early 2026, giving staff a local base and customers direct access to the company.

A long-term commitment to the Kingdom

Cloudera has supported customers in KSA for more than six years, including customers in all major industries including Telco, Banking & Financial Services, Oil & Gas, and Government. Establishing a local legal entity provides the company with a more substantial presence on the ground and enables it to support national priorities in data rules, innovation, and skills training.

“Customers want trusted partners on the ground who understand how the rules work in practice. This announcement solidifies our relationships, helps build stronger partnerships, and creates opportunities to train and hire local talent so Cloudera Arabia can grow alongside the Kingdom’s transformation.”

– Ahmad Issa, Regional Vice President, Cloudera 

Why it matters for Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is the Gulf’s biggest economy and one of the most active in adopting new technology. Large scale projects have created significant opportunities, but they also require vendors to have a legal presence in the country.

By operating locally, Cloudera in Arabia will support the country’s strategic priorities around data sovereignty, regulatory compliance, and digital acceleration, while enabling scalable, enterprise-grade AI initiatives across diverse operating environments.

Cloudera provides a unified, open-source foundation that gives 100% access to 100% of the data, regardless of where it resides. For Saudi Arabia’s highly regulated sectors, such as oil and gas, finance, health, and government, Cloudera’s platform supports strict governance, traceability, and compliance in GovCloud, Sovereign Cloud, and air-gapped data centers. This ensures real-time reasoning and predictive insights without compromising control or security.

By leaning on a robust open-source ecosystem and decades of innovation, Cloudera enables Saudi organizations to assert control over data, workloads, deployments and spend. This reduces vendor lock-in, accelerates innovation cycles, and aligns with national digitization goals.

“Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in building one of the most ambitious digital economies anywhere. By creating a local entity, we are making clear our commitment to the Kingdom’s long-term goals. Customers can rely on our hybrid platform to keep their data where it belongs, meet compliance requirements, and still unlock the full benefits of AI at scale.”

– Ahmad Issa, Regional Vice President, Cloudera 

Cloudera Arabia’s main selling point is flexibility. Where some providers limit customers to one environment, its platform is built to run wherever the data is kept. They have developed a system that gives organizations more control over their workloads and spending.

This is particularly relevant in Saudi Arabia, where companies are racing to utilize AI but must also adhere to strict compliance regulations. With Cloudera, workloads can be placed in the cloud, in a data center, or spread across both.

Having a local legal presence enhances Cloudera Arabia’s credibility with Saudi customers, particularly government and enterprise clients, who prefer engaging with locally registered entities. In light of Saudi cloud and data regulations, establishing a local legal entity also supports compliance obligations and signals its commitment to doing business in the region.