Talk of the town? More like talk of the region.
Over the past few days, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been one of the key topics of discussion in the region as it launched its second Cloud Region in the Middle East.
The new AWS Middle East (UAE) Region will provide developers, start-ups, businesses, and organisations in the public, private, and non-profit sectors with more options for hosting their applications in the country. The data centres will also enable end-users to take advantage of AWS technologies to spur innovation by delivering cloud-driven solutions and services. AWS postulates that its investments on the construction and operation of the new Region will create a big impact on the UAE’s local economy.
“We are looking at about $5.4 billion investment over a 15-year period, which is a huge commitment. The economic impacts we’re looking at demonstrate an impact on GDP of over $11 billion over a 15-year period, along with the growth of 6000 jobs locally. These are also high-end and high-net-worth jobs which aid in building the future digital economy of the UAE. The combination of inward investment (job growth) and the effect on GDP are force multipliers for the digital economy of UAE,” said Liam Maxwell, Director, Government Transformation, Amazon Web Services.
The AWS investment of approximately AED 20 billion will be made up of capital expenditures for building the data centres, operational costs for ongoing utilities and facility costs, and purchases of goods and services from local vendors. As the investment brings in a massive number of jobs, it creates positive short and long-term employment effects in the economy. This employment will also be a part of the UAE’s wider economy as well as the construction, facility maintenance, engineering, and telecommunications sectors of the AWS supply chain.
This new data centre service will also aid the UAE economy indirectly by aiding organisations based locally. UAE organisations are among the millions of active customers using AWS every month in more than 190 countries around the world. These customers leverage AWS to accelerate innovation, increase agility, drive cost savings and better serve customers/citizens of the region.
“There are two main benefits of having a full set of AWS services available locally. The first is data localisation, which is seen as a positive sign for regulated industries and is now achievable with our new local data centre. Secondly, a local data centre ensures decreased latency, which offers organisations with faster computing capabilities allowing them to effectively build services seamlessly,” said Maxwell.
With the pay-as-you-go service, organisations can concentrate on innovation and the development of business. “Companies like Careem and Souq had to build services that are responsive to customer needs and let the undifferentiated heavy lifting be done by the cloud provider. It is a powerful competitive advantage as they can focus on the product and leverage someone to run secure, scalable infrastructure,” explained Maxwell.
Furthermore, Maxwell highlighted that the investment in UAE is seen as a significant one by the company due to the backing of an “innovative government” and the number of “great companies” present in the region. With the UAE’s ambitious government and its particular view on smart city initiatives and space programmes, organisations of all shapes and sizes including start-ups, established firms and government entities can benefit from the AWS Middle East (UAE) Region.
“The UAE has identified the cloud as a solution that can be best leveraged to drive growth and foster innovation. With the new Region, they can access real speed, and agility and develop services and systems that can reshape the future.
“Our returns come from usage and we could see that UAE offered a good business case for us, which is why we invested heavily over a long-term period. Having a government, public service and financial sector, which is so innovative means we will understand and learn from our customers more. Our fundamental leadership principle is customer obsession which in turn aids us to lean in to understand more from the customer about their needs. This makes this investment a two-way street,” said Maxwell.
The company is also in sync with the region on its support of sustainability. Over the recent past, sustainability has become a hot topic for discussion in the UAE. The country is actively working to transition to a more sustainable future, starting with Dubai’s announcement of several sustainable initiatives. The nation is also in line to lower its carbon footprint and become a leader in the region for sustainable tech. In the same manner, Amazon is on a path to power its operations with 100 percent renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of the original 2030 target. The company is also committed to becoming a more sustainable business and reaching net-zero carbon across its operations by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement, as part of The Climate Pledge.
