CST Publishes Cloud Latency Report for the First Half of 2026

The Communications, Space and Technology Commission published a report comparing latency among top-class cloud providers in Saudi Arabia for H1 2026, with all providers under 30 ms.

What was announced

On 1 October 2026 the Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST) released its report on latency performance for access to cloud computing services in Saudi Arabia for the first half of 2026, as reported by the Saudi Press Agency. The report compares cloud service providers registered with CST in the highest classification (Class C) and is available on the CST website.

Key details

• The report gives an overview of Class C providers, their data centres and latency results across the Kingdom's regions.
• For data centres in Riyadh, SCCC ranked first at 12 milliseconds. Deem, Huawei Cloud, Site and stc shared second place at 13 ms, and Safe Decision followed at 14 ms.
• All providers recorded latency below 30 ms at their data centres across the Kingdom.
• CST states that the report aims to improve access to locally hosted content and services, encourage competition, raise service quality and increase transparency for investors and other stakeholders.

Why it matters for businesses

Latency affects how quickly applications respond to users. It matters for e-commerce, financial services, real-time analytics and AI workloads. Published, comparable figures from the regulator give IT and finance teams an independent reference point when selecting or reviewing a cloud provider, alongside cost, security certifications and data-residency needs. Smaller firms that lack in-house network testing capacity may find the comparison especially useful when negotiating service levels.

The report also supports the case for hosting workloads in-country. Data-residency expectations are increasing, including a proposed requirement in SDAIA's draft amendments to the PDPL Implementing Regulation that controllers store personal data within the Kingdom. Local hosting with low latency may therefore serve both performance and compliance goals.

What to watch next

CST publishes these reports periodically, so later editions will show whether performance holds as demand for local cloud and AI capacity grows. Businesses should also watch for changes to CST's cloud provider classification and registration rules.

What businesses may want to do: confirm that current or prospective cloud providers are registered with CST in an appropriate class, compare their published latency with the needs of key applications, and record data-hosting locations as part of wider data protection and cybersecurity planning.

Sources

• Saudi Press Agency: CST Releases Report on Latency Performance for Access to Cloud Computing Services in Saudi Arabia for H1 of 2026
• Communications, Space and Technology Commission: Cloud latency report 2026

How Sokrab can help

• IT consulting and support
• IT services in Saudi Arabia