BAHRAIN’S national carrier Gulf Air has launched cloud computing to boost its business performance and customer services. The adoption of cloud computing, a first for the kingdom, enables Gulf Air to take advantage of the high-speed, high-capacity computing power the technology offers through its virtual ‘cloud’ of servers allowing the airline to achieve a much faster and more efficient business performance resulting in enhanced customer service. Acting director information technology Dr Jassim Haji said: "Cloud computing is the new evolution in the IT world towards delivering faster and more efficient IT and business services while reducing infrastructure and service costs. Internationally, this new technology is being fast embraced by every corporate entity and we are glad to be the pioneers once again to introduce this in Bahrain. "As businesses are becoming increasingly competitive and customers’ needs are changing constantly, it is important that we proactively address their needs more efficiently through appropriate technological empowerment while maximising costs. Cloud computing is the solution to achieve this: from back-end business applications, platform services, virtual servers, storage and processing to front-end support services, it allows us to move with greater agility and respond faster to our customers." "By moving to cloud computing, Gulf Air’s IT is providing crucial customer-end services such as contact centre, internet booking, online-payment, online check-in, extending IT services to new destinations. It is faster with much less cost and manpower which in turn enables Gulf Air to respond to our customers immediately."